maechanman

2 hours ago, delh said:

How, exactly, didn't Brexit help?

It certainly didn't help the currency exchange rate, £ dropped like a stone after the vote to leave, it has never recovered to pre Brexit levels.

On 3/23/2024 at 7:16 AM, Darksidedude said:

Walking street died decades ago, was great in the 90s

It was even better in the 80s when it wasn't called walking street.

I've never been asked for a 12 month statement, just copies of the pages from the previous 12 months of my bank  book.

This was at Jomtien Immigration.

Just now, maechanman said:

Does anybody know if there are busses that go from Korat to Karasin and roughly what the journey time is.

?

 

I've been trawling the internet and can only find busses that go via Udon that take over 9 hours.

Sorry should be Kalasin

Does anybody know if there are busses that go from Korat to Karasin and roughly what the journey time is.

?

I've been trawling the internet and can only find busses that go via Udon that take over 9 hours.

I did it this week and was rejected, I resubmitted it and lo and behold it was accepted.

This is the third time this has happened to me , every time after I resubmitted the application it was accepted.

8 hours ago, Scouse123 said:

 

 

Girls told me many moons ago they didn't like them as the Indians wanted group sex with one girl and only to pay for the equivalent of one encounter.

I heard a story of 3 Indians negotiating for a 1 hour massage, they wanted 20 minutes each.

17 hours ago, Jack Hammer said:

Why not make it 90 days to all the countries that have a 30 day free visa allowance 

Because that comes under the heading of 'Logic'.

A lot of them don't stay slim, I came here for the first time back in the 80s and it was rare to see any thai people that were overweight.

Back then though there was very few fast food outlets, now they're everywhere.

These days a lot of thai's have a craving for these sugar laden drinks that most coffee outlets sell.

Born and raised in Manchester so my accent is distinctly Manc despite being over here for many years.

1 hour ago, quake said:

Was that one of those  ones, that hang about at the top of Soi white house. 

 

 

From memory it wasn't far from there.

15 hours ago, it is what it is said:

 

yea, like the average european/american is a healthy lifestyle role model. glass houses.

I'm not saying that the American/European lifestlye is a healthy role model, far from it, I thought the topic was about Thais.

Eat a balanced diet and exercise regularly to keep an healthy weight, many Thais do neither.

I've seen them hop on Baht buses to travel walkable distances (200/300 metres) on many occasions.

I drink coffee most days and prefer it to be hot ,not warm or lukewarm, if it's not too my liking then I send it back and tell them it's not hot enough. Of course it does help if you can speak some Thai to emphasize your point.

In my experience many coffee places here serve warm tepid coffee, I've made myself a regular at a couple of places where the coffee is nearly always served piping hot so I tend to only use those places.

Thank God I'll be Hip Hopping out of Pattaya over the Songkran period.

Flew with them to Vietnam and return about 3 years ago pre covid, both flights on time and no issues whatsoever, I would use them again.

49 minutes ago, possum1931 said:

Yes, but not by around 50%. The big problem is companies tend to apply at least the full increases on to the customer, and will not take part of the hit themselves. Pure capitalism.

Correct no way have prices gone up by 50%, I myself use the Nakhonchai air VIP bus often and have done over a number of years, their ticket prices have not really increased by that much.

These border run companies are profiteering big time

4 hours ago, BritTim said:

I am dubious as to whether, going forward, it will be possible to stay long term in Thailand on just tourist visas/visa exempt entries. It had already become pretty challenging in 2019. Here are some considerations if attempting to do so ...

 

If you have not spent much time in Thailand in the last year or so, you can reliably get a couple of visa exempt entries by air before airport immigration start to give you a hard time, and possibly deny you entry. At that time, you must avoid trying to enter visa exempt through any airport, and be selective about airports you use to enter with a tourist visa.

 

Visa exempt entries by land at most crossings are completely safe, whatever your immigration history, but you are only allowed two of these per calendar year. In general (unless right at the end of a year) you should regard these safe visa exempt entries by land as your emergency fall back option when you fail to get a tourist visa.

 

Thus, so far, you can see that when trying to stay long term, the visa exempt entries are restricted to land crossings, and mainly then in an emergency. You become reliant on tourist visas.

 

These days, all embassies/consulates in nearby countries impose some limits on issuing tourist visas. I discuss this a little more below. If possible, see if you can once a year, at least, get a multiple entry tourist visa from home country.

 

With a tourist visa (single or multiple entry) if you have been living in Thailand on tourist entries, be aware that Immigration at some airports (including Suvarnabhumi and Don Muang) may refuse to honour your visa. You need to arrange to enter via airports that follow the law (such as Chiang Mai) or by land.

 

For getting tourist visas in the region, you need to stay abreast of the practices at each of the embassies/consulates, bearing in mind the need to enter by land or via a law abiding airport. At the current time, we are still in the early post Covid era, and have little to go on.

 

Historically, Vientiane and Savannakhet (Laos), Yangon (Myanmar) and Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam) have been relatively good places to apply. They look at only visas they have issued themselves in deciding if you are using tourist visas too much. Vientiane/Savannakhet are excellent for entering Thailand by land. From Yangon, a bus trip to the border at Maesot was doable, but Myanmar is basically closed right now. From Vietnam, safe entry with a tourist visa tended to involve flying to Chiang Mai.

 

Getting tourist visas in Phnom Penh (Cambodia) and Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Kota Bharu (Malaysia) has been possible, but with practices subject to change at short notice. Entering by land is possible in all cases, but (from Phnom Penh) the rogue land crossing at Poipet/Aranyaprathet must be avoided, and some will feel nervous using Kota Bharu which means travelling across insecure provinces in the South of Thailand.

 

Visas from Singapore, Seoul, Manila, Jakarta, Bali and a few other places might be possible, but is hard. Hong Kong (once a good choice) is no longer possible, and neither are India or China.

 

At many embassies/consulates, they carefully scrutinise your immigration history as visible in your passport. That being the case, you can improve your chances by periodically replacing your (unexpired and non full) passport, so they are unaware that you are living in Thailand on tourist entries.

 

It is very possible (probably likely) that at some stage all Thai embassies/consulates will move to use of the e-visa system. When that occurs, I believe staying indefinitely as a long stay tourist will become virtually impossible as the system has too much information on you.

 

The use of education visas to supplement tourist visas can be a solution, with agents able to facilitate doing so.

 

This post just scratches the surface of a complex subject, but should be enough to give a flavour of the challenge of being a long stay tourist in Thailand.

Pretty much spot on, friend of mine has recently attempted to get himself a tourist visa from the UK, the application is now online and the requirements are frankly ridiculous so he gave up.

I used to do these visa runs many moons ago and I never paid more than 2000 Baht all in.  Back in those days I had a multiple entry 1 year visa which required that you had to exit the country every 3 months.

Unfortunately those type of visa's are no longer available.

It's getting a lot harder now to stay here long term unless of course you are eligible for a retirement extension.

Been to them all over the years except for Udon Thani,....

Ubon 6

That Phanom 4

Nakhon Phanom 5

Khon Kaen 7

Nong Kai 5

Phitsanulok 8

Lopburi 5

Khorat 3

Nakhon Sawan 8

Mukdahan 6

Sukhothai 8 (visited temple ruins only}

These are just my personal opinions and I assume that this is for the cities/towns and not the provinces.

2 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

I think you mean medisafe pharmacy, they do delivery to Pattaya monthly, maybe more frequent now and yes may well be cheapest

Yes Medisafe deliver to Pattaya now twice monthly, I use them myself and have found that they are usually cheaper than all the Pharmacy's here in Pattaya.

2 hours ago, CartagenaWarlock said:

Can somebody confirm if Soi Buakhao bars are open? Just informed by some one that bars in Soi buakhao are open now.

Open and busy especially at weekends.