mike404045

ok thanks for the help mate

btw how is the tax calculated?

so EMS then, have you personally used their service before?

can anyone else vouch for EMS?

also does the item get delivered to your door or will i have to collect it from my local p.o. were i live?

asking because ive had items sent to me via courier that ive had to sign for (at my door) in the past though that was back home in australia, not sure if they do it the same way over here?

thanks for your input mate

nope unlucky no family or friends coming over here anytime soon

so what would you recommend doing?

should i send it via registered airmail or courier, and if by courier which one?

ive never sent anything to thailand before so im unsure of what or where to pay the tax, is it done at the post office or will it have to be paid upon arrival in thailand thru customs or at your door?

(ive got 0% knowledge when it comes to posting)

thanks

ok so ive been reading around the forums for a while and alot of posters have been saying that thai customs are crooks and that alot items in the mail are either lost or stolen...

i want to send 2 iphones worth approx AUS$1400+ to myself over here in bangkok but am very worried that they will be picked up at customs or stolen

im getting my brother back in oz to send them to me but as of yet have not sent them out.. so i thought id ask around on the forum if anyone could recommend me the best way/option to send them.

ive heard that having them registered with a tracking number and labelling them in both english and thai would help.. also labelling them as gifts worth under $50

any help woud be very appreciated

theres actually 2 hotels that are similar in name on petchburi rd.. the first house hotel and the first house.

only a few soi's apart and both are bad.. ive stayed in both and would have to agree that the first house hotel is horrible. the rooms are dirty and generally occupied by dirty people (wont go into that)

on the other hand the first house is also dirty but they make up for it with good service e.g. one time i had a pair of new nikes and around 100US stolen out my luggage!

a black panther on the lose geeeeez they always got great news stories on the thaivisa forum!

me too, didnt know that thailand had them here!?

what a horrible way to die..

wont happen to me either since i dont like to swim in the sea

pools are fun.. unless you get hit with electrical wires

a while back i was always flying back and foward to thailand and was always using thai airways so i held gold class status with them. i was always getting bumped up to business class and always wondering why, it happend 2 times in one year!

it had something to do with earing miles and not using them to get discount tickets and even a fly anywhere for free..

NanLaew, I think you've made a really great observation about so many who comment on this board. Seems every tiime I read the comments to a news story, there are always many who trash the Thai government - I wonder why they don't just leave if everything is so screwed up here. For the last six months I have just read the what seem to me to be moronic carping and sniveling and I usually just close the article but on this I feel I must comment.

Maybe I'm totally naive but I was under the impression that the Thai government functions for the benefit of the Thai people and generally within the context of their unique culture and history. Recently a friend who is of the old Thai nobility told me that they understand that there is corruption in their government and they can live with that as long as it is kept at respectable levels. Far too many come to Thailand because they believe that Thailand is just a place to party, get drunk, cavort with Thai women from bars and discos, and generally make sure that the Thai nationals they are in contact with know them as Ugly Americans and Ugly Europeans, and hence the resentment to fair skinned easily recognized farangs. If you don't respect the Thai culture and the Thai people (seems that far too many people characterize women as looking upon them as walking ATMs and all generally greedy and corrupt), why would you want to stay here?

agree with you completely!

an area i stayed in was full of drugs and drug related crimes. in the 16 months that i stayed in the area, a man in an appartment next to me killed a child, another guy killed his girlfriend and kept here for days.. ive seen wiloons in gang fights, ive heard gun shots one time, everyday and night i see people selling drugs, right next to the appartment i was staying in there was an area where wiloons use to wait and pick up drugs openly.

i mean the place was just F**ked mate.. im so glad i dont live there anymore!

that said, there are other places in bangkok that ive stayed in and have never heard or seen anything dangerous..

i use to live in an area in bangkok where so many youths were using/addicted to ya ba..

very unsafe, heaps of crime and just scary for a farang like me..

most of the kids were between 10-18, never seem to go to school and were always stealing and openly using in an area where even the adults were using drugs too.. i mean wiloons openly sold the stuff on a daily basis outside my appartment block and police often looked the other way.

drugs are a big problem here, and if this 23 year old person wasnt under the influence of drugs he may not have committed this horrible crime..

You mean with confessing the same kind of confession that was extracted from that self proclaimed American pedophile which was flown back first class only to figure out that he was not even in the country?

The problem with confessions is, especially in Thailand, that they hardly bear any weight. Half the poor inside prisons have confessed to a crime they did not or not commit on their own. The justice system is so flawed that you would ask Hun Sen to repair it. Without a lawyer present people get sentenced to life or worse. Have a look at how many times a Prime Minister, Minister of Justice or other hi-rake appears on TV and promises to catch someone within the next week. They always catch someone... not necessarily the one who did it. Besides if you have no money and appear in court you have two possibilities. Fighting the case, which you will lose due to lack of funds, or confessing which will half your sentence. Got the point?

I completely agree with you mythBuster..

from my own personal knowledge that they do indeed lock up the wrong people just to save face.

many people will make a confession and plead guilty because of lack of funds to pay for a lawyer. and then rather spending the full sentance behind bars they will co-operate with the police and go through those silly procedures so the courts will cut their jail time.

i feel very sorry for those people who do not have money/power to fight in the courts.

Like others have said the cost of living in thailand depends on your lifestyle.. if you live in bkk renting an appartment, going out all the time, hitting the piss, taking taxi's here and there and eating western foods and all that, yeah living in thailand will be expensive!

does the crackdown include internet cafe's?

original software isnt cheap, in fact when i started a netcafe i was told (by a family friend, a solicitor) to purchase original windows xp for every computer.. it cost me sooooo much and turned out to be a complete waste of money. After checking with other shop owners and some friends in pantip i was told that i wasted my money.. (enough money to buy an extra 4 PC's)

Also when we had our first police check i was talking with one of the IT guys they sent, he told me that i dont need the original windows because when the licensing people come and check it has to be a rep for the company.. so a windows rep...

he'll get 5 to 10 which i think is fair. All his assets are forfeited, so his lost everything he's going in with nothing coming out with nothing so i think thats punishment enough.

But he is lucky to escape the death penalty!

And i do agree with others about the laws in thailand being too strict, the death penalty for selling drugs in my opinion is totally wrong..

Jack's Golf and Sawasdee Travel both go to Baen Laem/ Pong nam ron. Much quieter. I use Sawasdee Travel as I don't like to get up for the Jack trip. SWT leave On Nut 8 am return 5 pm daily. Owner usually goes with the group which also makes me feel more secure. Hope this helps.

Sounds good.. can you please PM me a link to their website

Thanks

...but my last visa run to the cambodian border, (to where that massive market is) was horrible.

That sounds like Arranyaphratet, and is probably where you will go this time.

However an organised trip should avoid any hassles.

Yeah thats the place i went to and i dont recommend going there to anybody, especially if your travelling alone!

ok i understand, thanks for clearing that up.

i'll try to find an advert in the paper for a visarun company and get that sorted..

well again, thanks for the advice I really appreciate it

so the 2,000 baht fine is for what exactly, cause i was under the impression that it was for anyone who overstayed the 90 days.. or said time.

Can you please explain that to me.

Yeah going in a group would be safer.

Thanks for the advice.

2,000 baht is fair, i'll have to check that out.

but my last visa run to the cambodian border, (to where that massive market is) was horrible. As soon as i got pass the thai area i was flanked by a cambodian guy who practically forced me into a dark room with a bunch of cambodian police who made me pay for a free stamp after taking my passport from me.

That wasn't fun, so im a bit anxious about cambodia!!

penalties sound harsh, i read on here that some people were made to pay a fine of 2,000 baht.. thats why i asked, cause i was thinking miss it and pay a 2,000 baht fine, well it sounded cheaper than doing the visa run, though its a gamble cause i could very well be charged each day that ive overstayed!!

Thanks for the quick reply

A couple of questions..

I have a non imm cat-o visa, multiple re-entry's.

I do visa runs every 90 days, right now im a bit strapped for cash and wanted to know what is the cheapest and least time consuming method for doing a visarun from bangkok (im in pratunam)

and the reporting by mail is that only for people with special circumstances, or type of visa's.

Can someone please explain that to me.

ok and finally if i miss this visa run (by x amount of days) what are the consequences?

Thanks

Sure ive been hasseled a bit by people looking to rip me off at the airport, taxi's and tour guides waiting around looking for marks.. but ive never had any problems at don mueng or suvarnabhumi.

Ive learnt not to trust anyone and thats working fine for me.

But i got to say sometimes i understand that its very hard for thai's to earn a living, theres not many job opportunities out there and sometimes i got to admit if i get in a cab and they dont turn the meter on sometimes i will let it go and will pay extra.. cause whats a few dollars to me!!

Thats Horrible.......20 times!!!!!

i reckon she'll neck herself in prison though!

He escaped the death penalty... WOW very lucky!

this guy will probably be out in less than 15 ..

In my opinion all smugglers should be executed, their all scum..

I'd just like to say enforcing laws on internet cafe's is pointless..

the laws are already toostrict, and to me are ridiculous! And i would also like to say that internet cafe owners find ways around the laws.. examples: the 10PM law for minors, shops will close the front of their shop 'for appearance sake' and still let kids play thru to early/late morning.. or the 'can only play for 3 hours at a time' law, the shop owners will clear the time counters on the server computer when they reach 2 hours..

its simply impossible for police to check and enforce these laws.. then only real thing they can do is check your shop for licensing things like illegal downloading of thai songs and sex related things.. And believe me if they catch you its MASSIVE fines.. I got done 60,000 baht for one computer that had sex movies on it...

anyway they should go and fight crime, impose heavier laws against motorcyclists and drink driving, drugs and prostitution.. kids playing online games, titty pictures on the net and some mp3's are not such a big deal!!!!!!!!