RegularReader

So you tipped them for doing their job.Some of you blokes just can't help yourself.Do you tip at airports for immi officers letting you in and out of the country,yours and here.

No, it is not necessary.

However, when I did my extension, last year, we did give them a bag of longans, provided by the guy who came to the office as our witness, because they had been helpful. Nw we have left Thailand for a few years in Melbourne, I hope the same helpful approach is still there when we return.

Having done extensions previously in Bangkok, at both venues, Udon and it seems some of the other provincial centres, are much better to deal with, both fo extensions and 90 day reporting.

Just the same, treat them well and in most cases the attitude is returned. It's not all about money.

Note that income can be from abroad but money in the bank needs to be in a bank account in Thailand.

There is no requirement to transfer your income to Thailand.

As this will be your first extension, the money needs to be seasoned for only two months. After that it needs to be for 3 months prior to an extension.

Isn't it the other way around?

First extension 3 months.

After that 2 months

No, it is as I wrote.

The first time they give you time to open a bank account and transfer the money into your bank account in Thailand.

Sorry Mario, I might be getting a bit confused here. I am referring to extending a non-O-Immigrant Visa, Married to Thai Wife

Note that income can be from abroad but money in the bank needs to be in a bank account in Thailand.

There is no requirement to transfer your income to Thailand.

As this will be your first extension, the money needs to be seasoned for only two months. After that it needs to be for 3 months prior to an extension.

Isn't it the other way around?

First extension 3 months.

After that 2 months

So much needs to be done - such as proper enforcement of the laws and education.

More, it would also help if everyone stopped calling people "drivers".

From what little statistical information is made available, more than 75% of victims are on MOTOR BIKES.

Instead of the talk about banning alcohol and painting a picture of mad car/pick-up truck drivers, it would help to start at the root: MOTOR BIKES.

Although I am happy to remain on a Non-immigrant O Visa (Married Thai Wife), partily in the slim hope, that one day rules change for those who have been long term residents (15 Years) and allow a more permanent arrangement than the current yearly extension with THB400,000 etc, the Thai Elite does look interesting. My situation makes PR as it is now, highly unlikely to obtain, hence my interest in this.

I have just one question, we live in Udon Thani and I do my 90 Day Report here.

If I took up the Thai Elite card, can I still do my report here in Udon Thani, or does it need to be processed at Chang Wattana ?

Anyone know ?

The marriage certificate is a requirement by the rules. The Kor Ror 2 is an additional document they want to prove you are still married. Immigration requires you attach a copy of both to your application.

And that's why I said "it doesn't hurt" - didn't realise it was a requirement. Maybe my wife does, as she prepares most of the documents and does much of the talking at Immigration.

The point I was making, is that over the years experience has shown me it's better to be "over-prepared" when dealing with Thai paperwork.

I am Australian and we were married in Hong Kong, in 1994. We went through much the same verification process of our HK marriage, as you seem to have done for your US Marriage. About 5 years ago, an officer recommended we register our marriage in Thailand - which we did.

Although we still present our HK marriage documents (duly translated), more notice is taken of our Thai registration. It does seem to make life easier.

For the small inconvenience involved, I suggest this is the way to go.

Thanks for the info - very helpful!

One question: Is there any particular reason why you submit your original (but translated) HK marriage documents along with the Khor Rhor 22 when applying for your extension each year? I would think that a current Khor Rohr 22 would be enough proof that you're married.

We probably don't need to do it, but it doesn't hurt.

It's like showing the Yellow House Book to Immigration.

Officially they don't take any notice, but it does reinforce your situation.

I am Australian and we were married in Hong Kong, in 1994. We went through much the same verification process of our HK marriage, as you seem to have done for your US Marriage. About 5 years ago, an officer recommended we register our marriage in Thailand - which we did.

Although we still present our HK marriage documents (duly translated), more notice is taken of our Thai registration. It does seem to make life easier.

For the small inconvenience involved, I suggest this is the way to go.

Whenever these silly and totally unworkable ideas are floated by civil servants, it shows just how out of touch with real Thailand they are.

There is not one mention of the myriad of mom & pop stores who pay no attention to the present stupidity, of not selling alcohol before 11am, or between 2pm - 5pm, lest they "corrupt" little children.

Enforce that law, with that group of shopkeepers and there would be riots in every soi in the land.

Pass this law and these people will love the powers that be, forever.

If the reason is to try and cut down on the horrendous road toll, then it will be a major fail. Stats show two things 1. the majority of accidents are motorcycle related and 2. they happen on minor sois (where the mom & pop stores are usually located).

Perhaps the motive is to give the "grass roots" Thai a chance, against what are anachronistically called, "modern-trade" such as Big C, Lotus, Makro and so on.

I'm not sure this is what the "good doctor" had in mind...

our local mom & pop store here in Udon Thani has a great deal on Beer Chang Classic (much better than Leo IMO)

2 Bottles + Ice THB100.

Seeing Tops and Big C near us are now THB 50 per bottle - that's a pretty good deal!

Over the last week I have been having connection problems Skyping between Thailand and Australia.

The calls will just not connect.

This goes on for a couple of hours and at different times of day.

During these non-connection times I have had no problem calling Hong Kong, Tokyo, or within Thailand.

Has anybody else experienced this problem?

I first came to Udon Thani in 1994 to ask my wife's father for her hand in marriage. We were only here for one day, but my impression of the place was that I had come into some backwater place, like I had only seen before in movies about India, or parts of Africa.

Now, 20 years later, after spending time in Hong Kong, The Middle East and from 2000 until early last year, Bangkok, we are happily ensconced in Udon Thani.

My wife had been pushing the idea of a move for many years, but until about 3 years ago, I railed against it. All I could see was my "original" impression. Then about 2 years ago, following the end of a job I was doing in Bangkok, we somehow found ourselves up here, for an extended period of a few weeks. It was during this time, I started to see the good things about the place.

Over the 20 years there has been so much growth. The infrastructure now is pretty good for a city this size (around 400,000). The internet is as least as good as Bangkok and from my experience, matches most parts of my home country, Australia. The roads are now good. There are lots of good eating places - not just Thai tin shacks beside the road. The malls (Central Plaza, Landmark etc.) and shopping in general (including several excellent Falang style food stores) offers a wide variety of Thai and international products. Food is excellent and cheap.Imported food and booze is about the same price as Bangkok.

We don't have a lot of money, but we get along quite well on far less than we ever did in Bangkok. More, the air is clean (except when some locals decide to burn plastic!). I go running on tracks and roads around the rice fields nearly ever day. We grow our own vegetables. The family farm is only 5 minutes from our house. The centre of Udon is around 4kms (as the crow flies) from our house, which is in what you might call, a "semi-rural" area.

My mother in law is 86 and my wife is able to now spend quality time with her and the family (as do I).

If you set ground rules that both you and your wife agree to(which you would do, no matter where you live),being surrounded by family can actually be a pleasant experience.

For the moment, this is as near as we can get, to having an "ideal" life style.

Of course there are threats on the horizon, such the growth of Udon overtaking the farm and area we live in. Sudden changes in economic conditions, poor health and lots of "black swans" one cannot prepare for.

I suggest anyone, who is contemplating a move to any where in Isaan, must understand, it is not the same as "Farang-land" or "Falang-land"(as it is called here). There are lots of compromises (its not all beer and skittles). But if you are able to see this, you'll have a great time and an excellent life style.

At least it keeps "something" up there.

Then, when this mob are kicked out (after one term hopefully), a new government puts enough resources into bringing the channel back up to full strength.

But of course, because there are not many votes in this, it will be up to us expats to make a noise so it is not forgotten.

looks like moves are afoot to back door morph Australia Network into Australia Plus

see http://australianetwork.com/announcement

I've always found abc international product an inferior service. It was nice for a bit in the 90s when overseas and it was a good link home but the channel hasn't kept up with competition and it is a pretty much last choice for where I'd go on anything australia wise from a Entertainment and news perspective. On demand is the future and iView is a superior product by far.

They'd be better off spending the 20 million a year they use now to sort out rights issues and broadcasting abc news 24 on the satellite, and freeing up access to iView. Better use of money I reckon.

Not sure I agree with it being of "inferior quality".

Also back in the 90s the channel was run by the 7 Network.

As for "keeping up", there's not really anything to compare it to, except perhaps the French and German channels.

It is a hybrid of News, Education, "soft diplomacy" programs, Documentaries, Australia Dramas and of course the AFL.

This is most certainly a wide spectrum, much of it being content the ABC was required to carry, both under its charter and the deal with DFAT.

Now that has finished, it seems the way they have extended their news coverage especially by taking more from ABCNews24 and changed The World program into basically a 60 minutes bulletin with some commentary, is perhaps an indication as to where it might be heading - if the channel stays on air in some form, or another

I'd be happy if they put more into the online development and providing access to programs currently geo-blocked. But, one issue that needs to be addressed is the requirement to service local communities throughout Asia. Remember that once you get outside the major population centres in many countries, the internet speed/quality is not much better than dial-up

when I say inferior quality, I meant that it didn't really show the full gammet of what was available on the ABC proper. And what you get on the current channel compares poorly with other satellite offerings. Al Jezera, BBC, Bloomberg etc.

As for soft diplomacy - no one watches it apart from expats who wanted their AFL/NRL. It wasn't even put on True Visions so I don't think even educated Thai's wanted it. And you get some crap on True Visions which says alot for where ABC stood in the pecking order.

I'm not sure somone up country in any asian country is really watching it apart from expats. Which sucks if you are an expat upcountry with a crappy internet connection.

Most locals up bush can't really afford the satellite dish you need. And if they could, they werent going to watch it. So for me the soft diplomacy argument, while a good aim, was always a stretch. Old fashioned as it sounds, I reckon scholarships etc are better forms of soft diplomacy.

Maybe, but I thought that the "soft diplomacy" approach did work with some educated Filipinos, Singaporeans, Malaysians and others getting some amusing entertainment in the form of "Parliment Question Time", which to them was like an intellectual comedy show, with politicians ripping each other apart using (to non-Australians) such colourful language as "what a bunch of galahs".

As for it not being on Truevisions, well, maybe the Thais who subscribe to it are more interested in entertainment channels (often for their children), such as movie channels like HBO, Star Movies, or children's channels such as Disney, Cartoon Newtork and perhaps even Natgeo and Discovery Channel (both of which have some genuinely educational shows/documentaries) rather than the Australia Channel or even DW TV, TV5, CNN, BBC or CCTV etc. (even if some of these channels are offered).

Not sure which providers hotels in Thailand are partnering up with, but I've been able to watch the Australia Channel in hotels ranging from Centara Mae Sot to hotels in Khon Kaen and Chiang Mai, so there has traditionally been good coverage so far. Similar story in neighboring countries - plenty of hotels in Cambodia, Singapore, Malaysia, Laos and Vietnam with the Australia Channel.

I'm not sure if these other international broadcasters consider their programming in foreign countries to be a form of soft diplomacy, perhaps they do or perhaps they don't. But in an indirect way at least, I feel it is. Either way it's a loss for Aussies and anyone who was interested in watching Australian programming abroad.

As for Al-Jazeera and the BBC, I get the former here but rarely watch it. It's not bad, but as a news channel you'll quickly realise that recurring news broadcasts become very dull and monotonous after just an hour or so of watching. There are the occasional documentaries, but for the most part it's repeating the same news over and over again or an in-depth analysis on what's happening in the Middle East, a region of the world not particularly relevant for me. As for the BBC, well, their programming is much more boring and with less variety than anything the Australia Network has been able to show. Although again, since the BBC is a news channel you can't expect much variety in terms of programming, it's just basically news and news related stories. The main international news channel I watch is Channel News Asia, which is Singaporean. Their Asian-centric programming is exactly what is relevant and interesting for me, but again, you can't watch it all day, you watch it for the news and maybe a half hour documentary or something and then switch to another channel.

One thing I thought they did particularly well - much better than BBC or CNN - was to provide a knowledgeable and fair minded approach to events in the region. Their coverage of the recent Indonesian elections and the trouble in Thailand were very good and as unbiased as they could be. But now people like Zoe Daniels in Thailand and Karen Percy (?) in Indonesia have been moved on. Both these journos learnt about the places they were in and were able provide a much better coverage than either BBC or CNN. This will be missed, too as is obvious in the current news services and the now shell shocked nightly Asia Pacific current affairs program, The World. Those left to carry on are trying hard, but with such little support it must be so difficult to put the show to air and remain relevant.

I've always found abc international product an inferior service. It was nice for a bit in the 90s when overseas and it was a good link home but the channel hasn't kept up with competition and it is a pretty much last choice for where I'd go on anything australia wise from a Entertainment and news perspective. On demand is the future and iView is a superior product by far.

They'd be better off spending the 20 million a year they use now to sort out rights issues and broadcasting abc news 24 on the satellite, and freeing up access to iView. Better use of money I reckon.

Not sure I agree with it being of "inferior quality".

Also back in the 90s the channel was run by the 7 Network.

As for "keeping up", there's not really anything to compare it to, except perhaps the French and German channels.

It is a hybrid of News, Education, "soft diplomacy" programs, Documentaries, Australia Dramas and of course the AFL.

This is most certainly a wide spectrum, much of it being content the ABC was required to carry, both under its charter and the deal with DFAT.

Now that has finished, it seems the way they have extended their news coverage especially by taking more from ABCNews24 and changed The World program into basically a 60 minutes bulletin with some commentary, is perhaps an indication as to where it might be heading - if the channel stays on air in some form, or another

I'd be happy if they put more into the online development and providing access to programs currently geo-blocked. But, one issue that needs to be addressed is the requirement to service local communities throughout Asia. Remember that once you get outside the major population centres in many countries, the internet speed/quality is not much better than dial-up

when I say inferior quality, I meant that it didn't really show the full gammet of what was available on the ABC proper. And what you get on the current channel compares poorly with other satellite offerings. Al Jezera, BBC, Bloomberg etc.

As for soft diplomacy - no one watches it apart from expats who wanted their AFL/NRL. It wasn't even put on True Visions so I don't think even educated Thai's wanted it. And you get some crap on True Visions which says alot for where ABC stood in the pecking order.

I'm not sure somone up country in any asian country is really watching it apart from expats. Which sucks if you are an expat upcountry with a crappy internet connection.

Most locals up bush can't really afford the satellite dish you need. And if they could, they werent going to watch it. So for me the soft diplomacy argument, while a good aim, was always a stretch. Old fashioned as it sounds, I reckon scholarships etc are better forms of soft diplomacy.

We live in Udon Thani and apart from maybe a few other crazy Aussies, and a couple of bars in town, what you say about Thais and the dish is true. However, at my mother in law's house (also in Udon) they used to subscribe to a local cable company who carried the Australia Network.

But, let's not get bogged down in Thai viewing habits. They are rather unique.

I doubt an Australian Drama - with so many words and subplots - such as "A Place To Call Home", or even the "Rafters" (both could be regarded as "quality" soaps, I guess), would be able to compete with the melodramatic clichéd story lines, side ways looks of the about to be ravaged, damsels in distress and the ever present slap stick maids of the Lakhon series.

But there is an audience apart from expats in many other places, such as the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and India, as well as in the Pacific region.

More, the ABC was beginning to develop an interest for its children's and educational programs in China.

AFL is sport - not the sort of "soft diplomacy" programming I was referring to - no matter how much I enjoy watching it. I was meaning the soaps, such as Home and Away, the cooking shows and some of the adventure and nature programs.

I think under the pressures from pollies and the charter requirements, they did a fairly good job of fitting a lot of square pegs into round holes.

Change it. Make it more relevant to the region by all means. But. don't destroy the work of the last 15 years or so, because of some petty polly ego centric carry on like we have seen.

I've always found abc international product an inferior service. It was nice for a bit in the 90s when overseas and it was a good link home but the channel hasn't kept up with competition and it is a pretty much last choice for where I'd go on anything australia wise from a Entertainment and news perspective. On demand is the future and iView is a superior product by far.

They'd be better off spending the 20 million a year they use now to sort out rights issues and broadcasting abc news 24 on the satellite, and freeing up access to iView. Better use of money I reckon.

Not sure I agree with it being of "inferior quality".

Also back in the 90s the channel was run by the 7 Network.

As for "keeping up", there's not really anything to compare it to, except perhaps the French and German channels.

It is a hybrid of News, Education, "soft diplomacy" programs, Documentaries, Australia Dramas and of course the AFL.

This is most certainly a wide spectrum, much of it being content the ABC was required to carry, both under its charter and the deal with DFAT.

Now that has finished, it seems the way they have extended their news coverage especially by taking more from ABCNews24 and changed The World program into basically a 60 minutes bulletin with some commentary, is perhaps an indication as to where it might be heading - if the channel stays on air in some form, or another

I'd be happy if they put more into the online development and providing access to programs currently geo-blocked. But, one issue that needs to be addressed is the requirement to service local communities throughout Asia. Remember that once you get outside the major population centres in many countries, the internet speed/quality is not much better than dial-up

Kevin Rudd also wanted to get rid of Australia Network a few years ago.

The price for online streaming rose this year so with maybe no alternative it could get expensive to watch AFL next season.

And remember, Hawke and Keating both had their "moments" with the ABC.

So, the animosity is "bi-partisan".

Sorry I wasted my time to bother to try and help.

Apologies if I offended you.

Wasn't meant that way.

It wasn't a waste of time.

Your suggestion does offer a partial solution.

But, it would have been better of they didn't shut the channel

Don't mind offending the current Oz gov't though...

I just watch iView. Get what I want from the abc without the endless repeats of home and away.

iView is a good service, but a lot of programs such as Dramas and Educational programs are geo-blocked and so not available here via the service.

I don't want to break forum rules, but if you look up DNS solutions to geo blocking, you'll find plenty of answers. Suprisingly simple and gives you full access.

I didn't come down in the last shower.

I've been living outside Oz for the past 20 years and know many ways to get "around" problems.

But this closure will mean having "to do" things again, so I can watch programs.

I only wish "to do" also meant to get rid of Tony & co.

I just watch iView. Get what I want from the abc without the endless repeats of home and away.

iView is a good service, but a lot of programs such as Dramas and Educational programs are geo-blocked and so not available here via the service.

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No these prices are VERY realistic.
I talk about brand name stuff not fake Chinese junk.

In that case you're not talking about the typical tourist, as your initial post had suggested.

I'd like to see the $250 pair of shoes that you use to go tramping around Ayutthaya.

A lot of back packers would be carrying more than that. An iPhone, camera, iPad....much more than THB10k