palomnik

Can anybody recommend a reputable contractor here in Chiang Mai to install insulation in my roof? Not a gigantic job - probably best just to install bats over the ceiling.

6 minutes ago, BritTim said:

No bright ideas I am afraid. Try to console yourself that, at least, it allows you to move in a more relaxed manner than would usually be the case. Getting everything accomplished in a day or two is always quite stressful.

What he did was against the law, wasn't it? There should be some recourse for that.

11 hours ago, BritTim said:

No, it is strictly a single 30-day extension per tourist entry. I am not sure of your nationality, or whether you have visa exempt entries by land this year. If qualified for a visa exempt entry (and you do not already have two by land this year) the simplest solution might be a border bounce to get a 30-day stay with a visa exempt entry.

Tim, as it looks as if I am over a barrel, I've signed a lease to move into something more permanent, and legal...so now I am paying for two places in November. I would like to take some action against my first "landlord", who claims that he was never required to report my rental to Immigration, but I'm not sure what options there are out there. Any ideas?

On 10/23/2017 at 9:39 PM, BritTim said:

The law talks about the "house master" where this is rather ambiguous. Offices vary on who they will accept as the "house master". Indeed, quite often if you have a lease agreement, you can be regarded as the "house master" in place of the owner for purposes of filing the TM30. This means you can report yourself as living in the dwelling. Below, I indicate the situation if your landlord must do it.

 

Although it is strictly the landlord's responsibility to file the TM30, as long as all the appropriate documentation is included, someone else can take the TM30 to immigration on the landlord's behalf. (A few offices may not allow this, especially if the TM30 is late, and a fine must be levied.) Sometimes, the landlord may not even live in Thailand, and it would be somewhat difficult for him to make a special trip just to file a TM30! It is not especially rare for the foreigner to act as postman. It is a reasonable area for you to negotiate with the landlord. Unless it is a serious chore for you to do it, maybe it is not worth arguing about.

 

Overall, the whole TM30 situation is an almighty mess, and you need first of all to figure out what the local immigration expects, and then decide the least painful solution to get it done.

Tim, one more question if you don't mind... it appears that the best (and cheapest) solution to my predicament is to stay here in Thailand until my short-term rental is up and then move into a 6/12 month lease and get the official documentation I need for immigration to switch my visa. Here's my question: I have already extended my visa for 30 days. I will need to extend it for another 30 days in order to complete my short-term rental and move into other digs. Can I extend it one more time for another 30 days? I've tried searching for an answer to this and I can't find it anywhere. The less desirable (and more expensive) alternative would be to take out a lease now and move out of my short-term now - which I would prefer to avoid.

On 10/21/2017 at 3:12 AM, BritTim said:

If you move into a hotel, they will routinely submit a TM30 for each of their guests (usually using an online system).

 

To apply for a long term (one year) extension of stay when living in a hotel, you are typically asked to show a several month rental agreement. You cannot just check in for a couple of days to do the extension. Many hotels will give you a great deal on a six month lease (carefully check the conditions though, such as electric and water charges, and whether any housekeeping is included). Bargain ruthlessly!

Thanks, Tim and I appreciate the information. I have one more question: the TM30 is supposed to be filled out by the hotel/landlord, and then the LANDLORD/HOTEL submits it to immigration, then Immigration fills out the bottom half of the form and returns it to landlord/hotel. Correct? My current "landlord" filled out the TM30, gave it to me and expects me to take it to Immigration. I don't know if he's being disingenuous, stupid or what, but I find it hard to believe that he's right.

BritTim, thanks for your advice and comments. The question in my mind at this point is where to move, and for how long? Will any hotel provide me with the TM30 if I move there? I will lose money on the place I am staying now, but I don't want to throw too much good money after bad.

I have recently arrived in Chiang Mai intending to switch from a tourist visa to an O visa prior to applying for a one year retirement visa. I did the same thing several years ago, and I had no difficulties at that time. I currently have an appointment with Immigration to switch my visa type.

However, now I have learned that several documents have to be provided by my landlord - which was not a requirement in the past (I left Thailand the last time in 2012). I am currently living in a short-term rental apartment, and today the owner dropped the rather unpleasant notice on me that he cannot provide the required documents for me, for some reason that I don't quite understand but I suspect has something to do with his status as a landlord, or lack of it.

I am in a quandary about what I can do about this. How big a problem is this? And what can I do to remedy it? Does anyone have any suggestions?

32 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

Requirements are here: https://www.immigration.go.th/content/service_80  It says 15 days remaining on the entry but in Chiang Mai it is 21 days.

You can do it with a 30 day visa exempt entry but it would allow you much time to do it without applying for a 30 day extension of the entry for a fee of 1900 baht.

Thanks very much! You've made my day.

Just now, perthperson said:

Buy a cheap onward ticket from a low cost airline to one of the nearby countries. You do not have to use it! 

Right now that's the plan...

2 minutes ago, perthperson said:

Not true an outward ticket is not required and is not asked for by most Thai Embassies/Consulates when issuing a  single entry  

tourist visa.

Unfortunately, they ask for it in India! I'm living in Chennai at the moment.

17 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

I am sure you had to first do a change of visa status from a tourist visa to a non immigrant visa (category O) before you applied for the extension of stay.

You can still do the same change you did then at Chiang Mai immigration. You can do it at any time during the 60 day entry from a tourist visa up to the last 21 days of the 60 days.

ubonjoe, perthperson: so I can still enter on a tourist visa and change it to a non-immigrant visa in Chiang Mai, and then apply for the extension? Good news!

Do you have any idea where I can find the requirements for for applying when in Thailand vs. what the consulates ask for? (back in 2009 the requirements were somewhat different than if you applied from overseas - don't know if that's true now).

Also - and I think I know the answer to this - would you know if I can just arrive on the 30 exempt period and apply? The reason I ask is that apparently I can't get a tourist visa without a confirmed ongoing ticket - something else that was not a problem in 2009. In my case, that would be a waste of money, since I won't be leaving.

I am getting confused on a sticking point and I hope that one of you savvy people can help me. This topic seems to be the right place.

I lived in Thailand for over three years (2009-2012) on non-resident "O" visas, and then decided for a variety of reasons to relocate elsewhere in Asia.

When I first entered Thailand in 2009, I arrived with a 3 month tourist visa and I applied for a 1 year extension based on retirement, which I got without any hassles. I renewed it again in 2010, 2011 and 2012.

Now I want to return to Thailand and It looks as if it is no longer possible to do this - I will have to obtain an O visa before arriving in Thailand. Or am I reading everything wrong?

And if I am wrong and this is still possible, do I have to arrive on a tourist visa or can I just arrive on the 30 day exemption (I'm a US citizen) and apply at Immigration on arrival? I plan to settle down in Chiang Mai.

Are you just looking for a sim card you can use in thailand to make international calls? Just about any sim will do. Personally I use AIS one 2 call. You can get one from 7/11.

Thanks, Jayman. What I need is a SIM card that I can use to makes calls from any country.

Can anybody tell me where I can get an international SIM card in Chiangmai?

Many thanks.

Normally allowed to apply for an extension of stay a bit earlier, if you have proof of a need to do so. (showing tickets would be useful).

Hmmm...I just went down to Chiangmai Immigration. They told me that the visa can't be renewed more than 30 days in advance.

Does anybody have any idea what the policy is in Chiangmai? We plan on being out of country when our visa expires, and we may be leaving more than 30 days in advance.

Burning the rice fields kills the insects; its either that or use a massive amount of insecticides every year.

In Bali they don't burn the fields. They let loose an army of ducks instead - they eat all the insects and the rice stubble, plus they fertilize the fields. And then the farmers eat the ducks. Great solution!

Once a friend of mine guested in a Russian village. He couldn't manage to stay there a planned week and left after 4 days. The reason was alcohol abuse by the locals. For 4 days he did not see a single sober face. They drink really hard guys. As he said, they do not actually eat well. Whichever house he visited, In the center of the table is always a huge bottle of home-made alcohol and a sausage, or a bread loaf for a "snack" . The whole family including children and old people are drinking. As he said they drink continuously, go to vomit, come back and drink again. And it is offensive for a host if the guests are rejecting a drink. He happened to be there in winter, temperature was minus 30 and along the street you can see drunk people sleeping everywhere on the snow. (or maybe dead already, who knows?). He says that even local police were drunk.

Another thing. In one of Dubai hotels, me personally observed such a scene: a Russian family: husband, wife, grand mother and two kids around 11 - 12 years old came down to the hotel bar. Security had to stop children, as it is illegal to visit bar if you not reached 21 in Dubai. Parents were extremely frustrated and what they finally did, they bought a bottle of Smirnoff and handed it to the kids, saying " go to your room and have fun"

I think that this is a total misunderstanding of what your friend was experiencing in the Russian village. Russians feel that they have to entertain their guests, with a table full of food and, naturally, vodka, in most cases whether they can afford it or not. It's in their culture. Russians don't drink more than any other nationality - it's just the way that they party that gives them this reputation; they're binge drinkers. This is how bad rumors start - by writing things like the one above.

Once a friend of mine guested in a Russian village. He couldn't manage to stay there a planned week and left after 4 days. The reason was alcohol abuse by the locals. For 4 days he did not see a single sober face. They drink really hard guys. As he said, they do not actually eat well. Whichever house he visited, In the center of the table is always a huge bottle of home-made alcohol and a sausage, or a bread loaf for a "snack" . The whole family including children and old people are drinking. As he said they drink continuously, go to vomit, come back and drink again. And it is offensive for a host if the guests are rejecting a drink. He happened to be there in winter, temperature was minus 30 and along the street you can see drunk people sleeping everywhere on the snow. (or maybe dead already, who knows?). He says that even local police were drunk.

Another thing. In one of Dubai hotels, me personally observed such a scene: a Russian family: husband, wife, grand mother and two kids around 11 - 12 years old came down to the hotel bar. Security had to stop children, as it is illegal to visit bar if you not reached 21 in Dubai. Parents were extremely frustrated and what they finally did, they bought a bottle of Smirnoff and handed it to the kids, saying " go to your room and have fun"

That is so misunderstood! I wonder if this is how all bad gossip starts! Russians feel that they have to entertain their guests, hence a lot of food, vodka and a party, whether they can afford it or not.

i think the (Thai?) bar owner was arrested too, same as at Guitarman

Well, he's a musician, only a bar owner incidentally and Thai into the bargain so I imagine he'll be putting up a spirited defence in favour of the freedom to play music. Before anyone suggests it, I strongly doubt that a change in Tea Money arrangements has any part to play in this (as was mooted in the Guitarman case) since the NGJC always packs up on the dot of midnight in my experience and is run by locals who have no need to ingratiate themselves with the authorities. The majority of musicians are Thai and in the tradition of minority music venues all over the world, they welcome visiting players without regard to race, gender or, on occasion, talent. The audience includes Thais, expats and visitors of all ages brought together by a shared passion for the music.

The debate about the legality has been done to death in the last thread on this subject and by now we all know it's illegal blah blah, but this apparent determination to withdraw the tolerance previously extended to the music scene is plain dumb as well as having ramifications beyond the immediate.

Firstly, this attitude threatens Chiang Mai's status as a centre for creative people and the arts. OK, it's not New York, Paris or London but I'd venture to say that our city is possibly the best served in SE Asia (outside of Bangkok and who wants to live there?) as far as the arts and cultural events are concerned. The arts, and particularly the music scene, was definitely one of the main reasons I chose to live here and I don't think I'm a lone voice in that. Stifle this freedom and everyone, audience and artists alike are the poorer, and I don't mean financially. Musicians need to experience each other's talents close up to allow styles to develop and closed minds will produce just the kind of results they deserve. The tourist authority spends millions of baht on promotion but seems to be miserably complacent about highlighting the value of these kind of activities as contributing to a visit to Chiang Mai.

Secondly, musicians have to make music. It's in their blood and, like most artistic endeavours, it's the sharing that gives the real satisfaction and seldom, if ever, simply a money thing. Musicians are unlucky in that their craft is more often than not performed in places that are readily accessible to the public and where food and drink are available for those watching, leaving them open to the accusation that they are there to provide customers for a commercial enterprise. Would people go to see, say a jazz gig, if there was nothing there to eat or drink? Probably not many, so you could have grounds to say that they are not the primary attraction although it would be a tough case to argue especially in the face of Asian Logic. Would the bar still have customers if it didn't give space to the band? Lots do.

Thirdly, where is this going to stop? Writers live to write. Photographers are compelled to capture images. Film and video makers take copious amounts of material and make records of festivals, hilltribes and who knows what. Tell an artist they can't show anyone their work.

Are these things so different from what has got the musicians into trouble? I don't think so.

Writers distribute their work as Blogs, many on free platforms like Wordpress whose owners make serious amounts of money from the ads that run alongside the efforts of those simply wanting an audience for their efforts. You Tube, Flickr, Photobucket, Vimeo and a hundred thousand other sites including Thai Visa make their income by providing a platform where the talents of ordinary people can be aired and selling something (in most cases advertising) on the back of it. In fact it's the most widely used online business model and serves the interests of content providers, the audience and the business owners alike.

Are we now heading toward a time when we have to beware of posting our pictures, writing our blogs or even contributing to a thread like this? Whenever a newbie posts a question about working in Thailand, about 10 Old Hands are guaranteed to leap into the thread and (occasionally rather smugly, I sometimes think) point out that volunteering and working online even if unrewarded both require a work permit which in practical terms makes either occupation untenable. I'm willing to bet that those very same people are supporting one or more of the businesses above by virtue of their talents and, if the rules really apply, should be getting out the WP application forms themselves.

Other than being a much higher profile I don't think there is a fundamental difference and, being the case, we should all view these developments in a serious light. Application of these regulations to the letter of the law could easily turn what many of us regard as home into a much poorer and less attractive place to live.

Khun Por (the founder) at the North Gate Jazz Co-Op in happier times.

Well said. We're music lovers. Just like Ubud in Bali is an artist colony, Chiang Mai is a musicians' colony.

Jailed for making music? Were their songs and playing that bad?

As David Oxon says; this is hearsay and I would not take this seriously for the time being.

If there is any fact in this, then there maybe more in this then just a bunch of guys making a few songs or it`s time to pack our bags, give Thailand the 2 fingered salute and go somewhere else.

It's not hearsay, it's true. I was there when they were busted. Three Farang that we know personally.

I am in the process of purchasing my first vehicle in Thailand, and aside from the sticker shock that all Farang experience the first time around, it was unsettling to find out that there was no reliable source to check values on used cars - a fact that has been alluded to before on this forum.

Well, I just had a surprise at my insurance agent's office. I am buying a 2007 2-door Toyota Vigo from a dealer. The agent told me that Thai banks that offer auto loans maintain their own databases on used car values. The agent checked the car I wanted to buy and told me that I was paying as much as 60,000 baht too much!

Granted, this is not the NADA blue book; as the agent cautioned, every bank has their own database and they may not necessarily agree with each other. But it certainly makes me feel that this whole business of buying a used car here does not have to be a matter of stabbing in the dark.

Has anybody out there ever used these bank databases? If so, did you find them reliable? I'd be very interested to hear from anybody who knows more about this. At this point I want to go to the dealer and cancel the transaction - I only put down a 3,000 baht deposit.

I am (not at all) surpised that these boiler room operations still find victims. But then again, the Nigerian scam has been going on for several decades now. As long as there are naive, gullible and greedy people out there, they will continue to operate. After all, they wouldn't if there weren't any potential victims, right?

Exactly!

Sorry, I don't get it.

I've never had a long wait at the airport clearing immigration and customs in Suvaranabhumi. Rather the contrary - it's about the fastest I've ever cleared. Try the lines in New York. And in China they met us with drug-sniffing dogs.

And I've never had a hard time getting a metered taxi there, once you know where they are - and they've always been in the same place every time I've gone through the airport for the last three years.

As for the food, I've never seen an airport where food wasn't grossly overpriced compared to the local economy. A cup of coffee at the airport in Miami is $5.00.

If you think the touts are bad here, you should try the airport in Delhi or Mumbai. You haven't experienced what a real tout is like until you've been to India.

Perhaps this subject has been visited here before, but a subject like this is a moving target.

My wife and I have been living in Thailand for two years. We originally started getting dental work done at a clinic here in Chiang Mai. We paid 150,000 baht for extensive work on my wife's teeth, only to find that the work done was totally wrong, the dentist had left decay, cracks in roots and infection untouched under several crowns that he installed, and the work had to be re-done completely - in fact, the later work cost even more because further work had to be done to repair the damage the first dentist caused.

My question to the forum is this: is there any legal recourse in this? We have already confronted the doctor and he reimbursed us 15,000 baht for the last work done, but the damage was much more extensive than that. If there are any reliable attorneys here that can handle this sort of work, or if anybody has a similar experience that they have dealt with successfully, I would love to hear about it. I could just walk away from this and consider myself lucky it wasn't worse, but there is a considerable amount of money involved, and I am not a wealthy man.