mamborobert

People also need to factor in a change in the exchange rates...especially if you are going to be here for a number of years. In the last 5 years the USD and Pound have gone down significantly, so if you were "ok" 5 years ago you might not be now. Likewise the Oz dollar has gone up a bit. Putting money aside makes a lot of sense, but living a bit within your budget rather than to your budget also has merit with exchange rates. I get paid in Oz dollars but my Thai prices have not gone up so I am saving quite a bit now, of course the converse argument exists for other nationals, eat into equity or modify lifestyle.

Start a thread on how to make up the 800 000 required for a retirement visa and see how many have schemes, plots, and wrangling to reach that number. It has not been indexed for years and not that there was any great science in it (now)but to me its not a bad number. Imagine the screams if it was indexed....

Absolutely shocking .....not the school kids in the pool but the fact that they are letting Thai children into schools and thereby facilitating this pool outrage, where will it end. Next they'll be voting, independantly thinking, become aspirational.....Mark my words one day they'll think they own the place, like they have a right to be here.....Been accessing Laguna with the family and kids, and (shock horror) friends of family...but I never relieved myself their ...honestOkay maybe once

pm sent just to confirm a few details

If she has a roundtrip ticket and a letter from me to Philippine Imigration stating she will be staying with me, that I am responsible for her expenses while she is in Thailand and the letter is accompanied by a copy of my passport, what is likely to happen when she gets to the airport?

Filipino nationals are regularly taken off planes (and in fact sometimes not even aloud into the airport) at Ninoy Aquino (Manila). I have on MANY occasions seen dozens not aloud to board planes bound for Persian Gulf countries with no appropriate visa, a dud contract, and a few times passports upping the age.

I worked at NAIA and Centenial for 18 months in a liasion role with the Bureau of Immigration.

The government survives on remittances from overseas workers and if they suspect that someone is leaving on a tourist visa and is likely to work (and there is a very low threshold for evidence) they will offload them and make them get the correct visa and register (and attend a course) by the POEA. This is the governments way of getting cut and trying to ensure that their nationals have adequate emloyment contracts/salary and heath coverage.

There is always scams going on any many nationals get tricked or end up in defacto slavery (seized passports/beaten etc) or have problems when there are civil disturbances and the embassy does not know they are there.

It is illegal to recruit in the Philipines without going through a registered agency and their harsh penalties (including imprisonment) for those who break this law.

The problem will not be Swampy....

It would help but also good is a letter from an employer if she has one saying that she on an authorised period of leave and has a job to go back to, or copy of a title dead or rent agreement for property, or clearly state if she has children there, copy of a passbook showing savings (not just a balance) or evidence that she has travelled out of the country for brief periods and returned (from stamps in passport, even better if travel is with you).

Trouble is that most filipino females will have none of this.

You can also send a few pics of you together in various locations (or family events/different clothes etc) or copy of any WU statements if you are sending money. This shows documetary (rather than just your words) evidence and history of a relationship and/or support.

Here's the situation.

For many many years I have obtained a Non Immigrant O at the consulate in Perth (now closed). I know I have had a good run I have no Thai wife and no property in Thailand. Do have along term GF (5 years) and rental and will get married no doubt in a few years but not just to get a visa now.

The visa has allowed me to live 6 months a year (in two trips) in Thailand for the last six years, with little or no hassle for border runs, get licenses, buy a bike open bank account, not have to deal with Thai immigration etc.

Went to another Thai consulate in Australia (after shopping around a bit) and got another year long multiple entry O from March 2012. The consulate made it bloody clear that Perth were soft and they would give me the visa this time as I reach 50 in Feb next year and they were enabling me to get on the "right" visa. So Retirement visa is the go as far as they are concerned, and its pretty much what i thought. I had a good run, the run is over..

I will not be retired for a few more years (by choice), I have a good seasonal direct employmment job where I make more than enough in two lots of three months to support myself being off in Thailand for two lots of three months. Basically I am three months work, three months holiday. Always paid out of Australia but do a lot of work offshore, never Thailand.

I can put the money in a Thai bank account no problems but can I get an income letter instead from my embassy if I am still working?

Does anyone know if the Australian embassy will do an income letter based on pay slips (or say ten years worth of group certificates).

Or, do you have to be retired and on some income stream to get an income letter?

I do not want to muck around with other visas and border runs and a retirement visa will still allow me to do that on the odd accasion where I make a 4 month stay.

Ideas?

Filipino nationals are regularly taken off planes (and in fact sometimes not even aloud into the airport) at Ninoy Aquino (Manila). I have on MANY occasions seen dozens not aloud to board planes bound for Persian Gulf countries with no appropriate visa, a dud contract, and a few times passports upping the age.

I worked at NAIA and Centenial for 18 months in a liasion role with the Bureau of Immigration.

The government survives on remittances from overseas workers and if they suspect that someone is leaving on a tourist visa and is likely to work (and there is a very low threshold for evidence) they will offload them and make them get the correct visa and register (and attend a course) by the POEA. This is the governments way of getting cut and trying to ensure that their nationals have adequate emloyment contracts/salary and heath coverage.

There is always scams going on any many nationals get tricked or end up in defacto slavery (seized passports/beaten etc) or have problems when there are civil disturbances and the embassy does not know they are there.

It is illegal to recruit in the Philipines without going through a registered agency and their harsh penalties (including imprisonment) for those who break this law.

The problem will not be Swampy....

Humanities degrees perhaps not very useful to support the motivations of power, greed, and ego. Nevertheless, refinement of heart and mind could bring one into a wholeness that more easily expresses universal values of loving kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, etc. Yes, maybe not very practical, nor very supportive of a phyical-emotional being, but fostering of a tendency to live, think, and act more on the mental-spiritual levels to the benefit of other selves.

And perhaps one cold save a lot of cash by forgoing the degree, and educating oneself in response to the prompting from the intuition within each distict individual.

And there we have it.....put simply if nothing else a BA will keep you warm at night.

BA = Bugger All

so Friday is the only day she may not die from an horrific head injury after being knocked off her bike? Why not make her wear it everyday?

You can "make" your wife do something that she doesn't want to do? Really?

I have told my wife that she needs to wear an helmet and explained the reasons why and shown her graphic pictures of why. Now she wears it all the time, not hard to educate people that you love.

I would love wifey to wear a helmet and I could make her wear one, at least until out of sight but what is the purpose of that. She has a "good" helmet and still will not wear it. Variety fo reasons,too hot, someone might steal helmet, just done something with hair etc. The only reason she wears a helmet is to avoid a fine.

She has had two significant accidents, one required hospitalisation for months and a metal rod in her thigh (and foot long scar), and still will not wear a helmet. She wasn't wearing one on the two occassions and a helmet would not have helped with injuries (her rationale). She is not the only one by any mark, there are people including those with expat partners riding around with little more than projectile babies/infants.

I have also shown photos, talked about head injuries etc, but there are some things that I cannot do even through education. I cannot convince her to put food away in the fridge rather than leave out for hours to collect its required amount of bacteria before it is devoured again, that there are no ghosts/spirits in the second bedroom, that Mr Shinawatra should not be cannonized, that channel seven soap operas are crap.........and that an amulet is not a good substitute for a quality crash helmet

Just over one week ago wifey and all of her friends started wearing their helmets for the first time this year....reason ...Songkran was coming up and the BIB would be out for more donations.

Usually wifey (and her sister) wears only on Friday as experience has shown them that this is the day that they will be stopped, and, that there are police in force at regular routes they take (over Nawarat Bridge for example, or later in night eastern side of Iron Bridge).

Driving around it does seem that there are more police in mass pulling people over for checks/helmets etc. They do not seem to be worried about speeding, or going through stops signs etc just pointing at people without helmets to pull over. Prett much the usual but to me just more of it.

Given the horrendous road toll every Songkran ...if they cannot stop people drinking then maybe they can reduce the injury through helmets (questionable though they are).

Couple this with the limiting of alcohol consumption around the moat and other efforts (there appears to be an increase in the helmet signs and coverage in Thai print media) this might just be a genuine and earnest attempt to reduce the road toll (rather than purely wifey's belief at contrinuting to BIB party funds.....I won't even try to convince her though).

Operations to rescue sex trade workers in Thailand have become highly contentious. The Empower Foundation, which represents sex workers, said in a report released this month that ‘‘we have now reached a point where there are more women in the Thai sex industry being abused by anti-trafficking practice than

Not a fan of buying out the debt bondage; that just encourages the practice.

Its more about acknowledging the practice rather than encouraging it...its been around for thousands of years and "releasing" or" rescuing" a person does not remove the debt, and the interest accumalates, and the family is held responsible, and the wider family cannot get loans any more (which might be a good thing). People in debt bondage do not see it as wrong, it is as it is, education would help but that too will take years and years. In total agreement that debt bondage should not be encouraged, but there needs to be an alternative to funds, and the issue attacked in many ways, over many years, by many people. Until the people engaged in the activity as debt provider and debt taker see it as wrong, and that there is a viable alternative, history has shown that the practice/service will continue.

I like the followig extract fromt the article

Operations to rescue sex trade workers in Thailand have become highly contentious. The Empower Foundation, which represents sex workers, said in a report released this month that ‘‘we have now reached a point where there are more women in the Thai sex industry being abused by anti-trafficking practice than there are women exploited by traffickers’’.

If you bring cash in every time (and you can legally bring out more than 10k from Australia as long as you declare it and have a reputable source for the money) how would you go about satisfying Thai authorities that the money (now baht in your Thai bank account) is generated from "outside Thailand" and hence be able to buy property. I have tossed this around myself, thinking of just bringing in 10 or 20k each time I come until I have what I need for a cash purchase through wifey.

Sacrebleu.....the Wales France game is live on WETV, French commentary but you can't have everything. TV5Monde....now pg if the Ireland game is on as well I will be in heaven.

The Olde Bell like to celebrate all the feast Days of Britian!?

That kind of

comes across as a jibe at the Irish

Worse still ...on March 1st experiencing my annual hiraeth I wandered to the Olde Belle as my first and only hope.....to find..... nothing, no leeks, no choirs, zip nil nada nix.....

Off home with wifey becoming seriously concerned at my poor substitute...beers, tears, and singing along with Ivor at Rorkes Drift on the TV. Its hard to explain to wifey but at least I had my choir over and over again but it just added to her escalating worry as to my mental state

My wife has not talked to me for four days. The first day I asked why as my telepathy was failing but was not graced with a reply. I have never been good at guessing games, I ask a few times, You don't tell me, the issue is then yours alone. Now I am just enjoying it, watch TV, play music, read books, its all good. Odd thing is that now that I am no longer asking why she is flitting around (silently) doing wifely tasks (placing ice in beer).

This is a repeat cycle in my life until wifey works out that I really don't care about the silence then we are all back on an even keel again. It is child like, and infantile...probably on both parts

I only say this as from my experience a Thai wife imediately vocalising an issue is unusual. Is there an underlying issue that you have to guess at? If she is angry at you, and you alone, then that is not a mental illness, albeit it may be irrational or uncalled for or ill informed. Forgotten a birthday, not noticed a new dress, her sister has a new house thats better, its not what matters to you its what irritates her.....and that is the $64 question. Tried asking another family member. Even if it gets back to her that you asked...the worse thing you have done is shown a caring nature...Good luck.

Just as a side issue...does anyone know what conscription requirements are for a child who has spent years as a monk?

My wife is the defacto mother of her siblngs (as well as having her own children) and as each one turned 14 the following April they were straight from the mountains into Chedi Luang in CM. Wife has the view that this keeps them away from peers that will be a bad influence as there is a big drug culture still in her old (and surrounding villages).

Now has 4 children in robes (longest being four years) and two more joining in April...she is looking at the here and now, makes them a better stable person, better spouse material, better education (and longer) than they would have got (or could afford) in the mountains...and so far so good.

But how does one be a monk for x amount of years and then immediatley do national service? or is this a Thai norm. Does monkhood get you any exemption.

Also another one of her freinds only did one years service apparently because father was in the military? And another in his second year seems to have some deal where he is fifteen days on and fifteen days off...he works in his off time and crashes at ourplace...really nice guy, good work ethic, and excellent example to kids.

...me ...loved Kapooka and all of my truest friends are from my time there .......

As this Saturday marks an important cultural date in the lives of Irish people everywhere I was wondering if any venue (or venues) have anything planned. Something beyond green beer would be nice, good band would be even better (i live in hope).

Tiocfaidh ár lá

There was a story out a few days ago that said the goverment was talking about raising the foreign ownership percentage in condominiums to 70% from 49%... or whatever it is now.

If that goes through, which it probably will, the actual foreign ownership will be as close to 100% as makes no difference.

At least that will make it easier to calculate demographics.

But however you figure it I think we're a long way from 33%.

There may have been some motive for quoting such a grossly inflated figure.

Farang-only ownership and or occupation of condominium buildings and moo-bahns might not be such a bad thing.

It would further reduce the often contentious interaction between them and local Thais.

The farangs who are overwhelming Chiang Mai at present are totally incapable of integrating or assimilating in any meaningful way. They just don't have the background. And even if they did, their sheer numbers would preclude it.

Middle-class mediocrities who are trying to re-establish lifestyles shattered by mass third-world immigration and the resulting economic and social decline in their own countries. They can't afford to live the way they used to anymore. So they come here.

And the retirees... old farts who have spent their lives as wage-slaves in mind-numbing jobs are suddenly emancipated into a country they were only vaguely aware of until recently.

The easy avaliability of girls on the game to entertain these old goats makes a "Blue Angel" scenario almost inevitable.

Given this situation the 100% ownership solution would be to everyones advantage.

Can I "half-like" this?

No.

That would imply that you only had half a brain. And, or, your virility was impaired by having only one testicle.

But presuming that you are of sound mind and scrotum, I will try to explain my apparent animus toward farangs. My own people.

I first came here in the 1970's when Chiang Mai was, by broad agreement, a truly beautiful place.

At that time a farang settling here had to live among Thais, to one extent or another, almost by necessity. There weren't many other options unless you had a lot of money.

Sure, there were always exceptions. Farangs who led a life apart. But they had their own organizations and peer support.

Religious, goverment, and corporate people cut off from the culture and frequently acting like a**holes out of ignorance.

This expat lifestyle has now become the norm with western tastes being catered to on every conceivable level.

The city has been transformed to accomodate foreigners.

It's true that Thais, especially the younger ones participate with alacrity. Their own culture being something they only practice and honour occasionly.

Only the more perceptive and intelligent among them have any idea of what they've lost.

R.I.P. Chiang Mai.

A "Blue Angel" scenario....really. I think I studied that in history, ancient history at that. If you are that old, and have been here in CM that long then I am sorry that others are now getting to enjoy themselves here. How dare they. CM should have stayed your own private fifedom.

Meanwhile back at the OP. Some media reports are including residential land owned by a Thai spouse in the calculation which is patently absurd but would no doubt give CM a higher percentage. Take it for what it is, a nationalistic national enquirer type piece that seeks not to inform but feed prejudice. Will be forgotten about, but dragged up again and again with the only alteration a simple date change.

Last time I went there it was just a little franchise operation part of Robinsons...that was a few years ago. I think the only stuff they have now is clothing in Robinson's...no "store" as such (per son a frequent mall rat). The number going through to main switch rather than Robinsons would seem to indicate that it is no more.

Contact details are still on the Marks and Sparks UK web site.

Try giving them a ring.

9. Chiang Mai

Kad Suan Keaw

21 Huay Keaw Rd

T. Suthep, A Muangchiangmai

Thailand

Tel: +6653224999

Fax: +6653220335

Anyone had theirs wrapped and had it cut open?

Yes, he will be 22 in April

You might need a bit more info. As you are no doubt aware bar names change and people abbreviate bar names. Ball Bar could refer to the old "Dragon Ball Bar" or if you have changed tack late in life the "Golden Ball Bar and Restaurant".

You completely missed my point. I don't want to be Chinese. To accuse me of that is just a display of ignorance. I pointed out, with Thai government statistics, that the Ford investment of $500 million is around 2% of the total Chinese investment of $24 billion in Thailand in 2011. They are far more important to Thailand than the USA, UK and Australia together. You may not like it, but you need to get use to it.

However, If you're talking about exploitation, can you tell me why the majority of US citizens cannot afford basic medial treatments. The Thais can afford them. The Chinese can. However, Americans can't. America can afford to send its uneducated youth across the world to kill and die in the name of 'democracy' though.

US foreign aid is about 26 billon a year. More than 150 countries receive financial assistance from the US. Medical care in the states tends to be expensive but if you can't afford it you will receive it for free. Did you ever hear of welfare recipients?

Never ending argument there.....the US has owed the UN over a billion dollars for years (a quarter of all money owed to the UN). So I guess Thailand (that has paid) is supplementing the US. Great that aide is paid by US but has been poor for years that does not pay its way (yet makes demands and holds a security council position) in the UN, the international body that provides aide. Also US owes China and Japan billions as well. The US donates money that is largely paid (and owed to) by China and Japan. I can be nice with other peoples money as well.

Picked up by the local media with the obligatory perp walk photo, and as usual a helpful (presumably) police presence to ensure suspect recalls correctly.

http://www.cm108.com/bbb/index.php?/topic/48935-nznc-aaoaaae-naeiaoeaco-acnaoaieaac/