OldAsiaHand

We got married in the US - 20 yrs ago....but didn't registered our married at the Ampur, is this OK?

Also we're planning to move to thailand in 2 more yrs, will this be a problem for me getting the visa?

I couldn't disagree any more with the earlier answer you received.

We followed exactly the same road and there were no consequences whatsoever to not registering our marriage in Thailand. I'm not even sure I can imagine what sort of consequences you might be concerned about, but in any event, there are none.

As to changing your wife's name on her Thai ID based on a foreign marriage, that can be tricky. If you do decide to do it (we did only because my wife was applying for US residency), you will have to get a whole pile of certificates and certifications, including one from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that your US marriage certificate is valid. They, in turn, will require you to get a letter from the US Embassy attesting to the validity of your marriage certificate. Naturally, the US Embassy isn't willing to give you anything of the sort. How could they? They're just notaries, not examiners of disputed documents.

At the time we went through it, the US ambassador was a good, personal friend, and even he couldn't get the Foreign Ministry to budge. We finally solved the problem in a very Thai way. I wrote an affidavit saying our marriage certificate was valid and signed it myself. The embassy notarized my affidavit saying that I was who I claimed to be and that was indeed what I said.

Even then there was one more hurdle. The Foreign Ministry rejected the affidavit on the grounds that it was attached to the notary certificate with a staple, not a permanent rivet. So we had to do it all over again. Eventually my wife threw a fit, called the Minister's wife who she knew, and the whole thing was fixed in two days.

Weclome to Thailand. And good luck.

There are a lot of pretty good mutual funds but you are still getting your returns in dollars.....

The level of intelligence reflected these posts proporting to give other people advice is absolutely appalling.

Look, a fund that hold Thai equities generates returns that are 100% in Thai baht. It doesn't matter in the slightest what currency is used for accounting purposes, the returns themselves are derived solely from Thai baht exposure, and a fund of SET listed equities would reflect 100% Thai baht exposure, which is what the original poster was asking about.

Jeez.

.....Please just answer with A,B,C,D or specify something else in E.

The correct ansser is A, , C, D, and E.

Actually, come to think of it, 'all of the above' is almost always the right answer around here.

Exactly what my wife said. She said it felt like an omen....

Forget bringing in anything that is not in your luggage. This is not the real world.

Excellent advice. Customs is probably the most corrupt, arbitrary government department in Thailand, and that's a hard distinction to earn. They are true professionals at extortion. Once they even demanded I pay duty on forwarded mail and threatened to destroy it if I didn't pay what they asked. You can more or less write off anything that falls into their hands.

For what it's worth, I think your comments are spot on in almost every respect, particularly the part about the foolishness of speculating in FX markets unless you bring a certain level of professional expertise to the table. Amen.

Yes it is. But nobody wants to buy it.

I got broadband internet from True yesterday and am looking to download movies.....

I gather you haven't checked the speed of your connection yet. At the kind of download speeds that you will normally see with True, your kids will be in college before those kiddie their movies are loaded and ready to watch.

....A bit like the US, come to think of it.

No, not at all like the US.

'A government not of men, but of laws,' we were all taught in school that we were, and that's absolutely true. Most western style democracies like the US and the UK are ultimately stablized by a shared belief in the value of institutions. Thailand has no institutions that anyone at all believes in other than the presumably non-political monarchy. It is the opposite of the US, a 'government not of laws, but of men.'

It is interesting to note that every single American newspaper I have read has condemed this mob challenge to a legitimately elected prime minister here in Thailand. From the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg on the right to the New York Times and the Washington Post on the left, they have been unanimous. This is a test of whether democracy can work in Asia, they say. If a mob led by a few self-promoting loudmouths succeeds in preventing a legitimately elected leader from governing, then Thailand's prospects, and the prospects for democracy in Southeast Asia in general, will have been dealt a terrible set back.

If you have a Marriott member card, you get 50% off the excellent buffet unlimited times and 50% off at the Steakhouse for (I think) 16 times per year. The discount applies to other Marriott restaurants too. So if you're into buffets and steaks, the member card makes the prices a lot more reasonable.

Do you get the same 50% discount for the Japanese restaurant Tsu at JW Marriott and Benihana at Marriott Riverside with that member card?

The discount isn't always 50%. It's done on what strikes me as a genuinely weird sliding scale. As I recall, you get 30% when dining alone, 50% with two people, 35% with three people, 20% with four people, and on down from there. The financial incentive is to come as a couple, not a large party. That seems odd to me. I would have thought they would want to encourage you to bring as many people as possible.

As for your specific question, the quick answer is yes. I think there is some limitation on the numer of times you can use it for Tsu, as there is for the New York Steakhouse, but it's a pretty big number if there is.

It's a piece of cake to live like that so long as you have lots of cash and a hot chick

This post tells you about all you need to know concerning the kind of people who are generally attracted to living in Thailand.

Last couple of times I have been to the New York Steakhouse at the Marriott I thought the food had slipped. Certainly not as good as it was when it first opened. If your thinking of spending that kind of money, I have always found the steakhouse inside the Four Seasons (was the Regent) to be excellent and surprisingly about the same price as the Marriott but probably overall a better experience, service and for sure the beef....

Yes, I think you're right.

I'm told that the guy who had managed the New York Steakhouse from back when it opened left a few months ago, althought that's secondhand and I can't vouch for it. Regardless, I was also there a few weeks ago and the place was a crashing mess. Confused service, blungled reservation, out of several menu items (no prime rib for two days???), and food served to different people at the table seemingly at random. Then, naturally, they've also raised their already highest-in-Bangkok prices. I really wouldn't bother anymore, not unless you also get a kick out of ripping up thousand baht bills and flushing them down the toilet.

As for the Regent, I gather you're talking about Madison's. It's not a steak house, not really, but I agree that the food isn't bad and the prices (particularly at lunch) far more realistic than the New York Steakhouse, which come to think of it isn't open at lunch anyway. Too bad it's open at dinner....

If I'm not mistaken - it's a while since I have been there - when you order Steak at Neil's Tavern they will bring out a tray of hard frozen cuts and invite you to select your preferred piece.

Some 20 minutes later your meal is served.

Now, assuming of course that you have actually been served the piece you selected, it's obvious that it has immediately been zapped in a Microwave to thaw out and then cooked.

Definitely not the way I would expect my Baht 1.500.- steak to be treated.....

Absolutely true, althought I also doubt they serve the piece you select very often, if ever. The total elapsed time is way too short to thaw a deep frozen steak and cook it as well. The reason they get away with that kind of thing at all, however, is amply illustrated by the smug posts just above yours.

'Gee, Neil's menu says they serve USDA prime beef so Old Asia Hand doesn't know what he's talking about,' to paraphrase. My God. Have any of these people been in Thailand more than fifteen minutes? By the way, guys, I'm selling a few genuine Rolexes you might want to take a look at.....

If you are from Texas and accustomed to eating US beef, you're going to be appalled at all of the placed suggested above (none of which serve US beef).

All of them except Neils serve Thai beef because it is cheap, but it is also absolutely awful: stringy, tough, and flavorless. Neils serves deep frozen Australian beef which has been frozen way, way too long. It's not much better. The only beef in Thailand that is even vaguely like what you are used to is the Argentinian beef served by the New York Steak House at the Marriott, and their prices are absolutely stunning. Real New York prices. Good luck.

Fugitive Scandinavian murderer arrested

Swede Bakken Geir, 53, wanted in a murder case in Norway, was arrested at his home in Chon Buri's Bang Lamung district where he lived with his Thai wife, Immigration Commissioner Lt-General Suwat Thumrongsrisakul said.....

The press releases for cases like this always try to imply that the Thai police busted the guy through tireless detective work and dedicated policing. That is never true. What is always true is that somebody grassed on the poor bugger and told the cops exactly where to find him and what he was wanted for. His 'Thai wife?' A pissed off business associate? A tourist from Norway who happened to recognize the guy? That's always the really interesting part of the story. Anybody know what happened here?

....I'd suggest you wait a few days. Unless something unexpected happens, the odds on the THB drifting back toward 39.2-39.5 have to be pretty good.

Just for the record, the above post was made five days ago.

This morning the mid-rate for the baht is 39.2.

Please hold your applause.

Good call. Just wondering...if it hadn't made it, what 'unexpected' something would you have blamed?

What I was referring to was somebody blowing up Beirut or an earthquake taking out Los Angeles. No matter how you try to anticipate the drift of a FX market based on factors you can anticipate, nobody can take into account a political or economic event that was beyond even the possibility of anticipation.

my agency will not stop until we uncover the truth and bring to light all the dard dirty dealings of authoities that are there to serve and protect.

Goodluck, you are going to need it! :D

I have a good deal of trouble seeing why you think the post you are quoting is so funny.

Maybe it's all just rubbish. The fact that the poster clearly isn't a native English speaker and has chosen to express himself in such a florid way certainly makes it easy enough to dismiss his claims as such. Still, anyone who has lived in Thailand for a decade or two knows his story could very easily be true. Stitching someone up here is just a matter of knowing the right people and having a few baht (fewer than you might think) to put around.

The press in Thailand couldn't care less about getting at the truth and the public wouldn't know the truth if it spit in their faces (which, come to think of it, it frequently does). You're on your own here, mate. Your only protection is to stay out of the line of fire. What the poster claims happen to this poor bugger could quite easily be true.

And, if it is, there's nothing funny about that.

....I'd suggest you wait a few days. Unless something unexpected happens, the odds on the THB drifting back toward 39.2-39.5 have to be pretty good.

Just for the record, the above post was made five days ago.

This morning the mid-rate for the baht is 39.2.

Please hold your applause.

........I know Thai printers are capable of high quality items, but will it cost me the same as the states?

I don't know where you heard that. My own experience is that, on the whole, Thai printing work is second rate. Neither the expertise nor even the necessary equipment exists in Thailand for doing work of internationally competitive qualitity. It is not accidental that almost all top qualitity printing working in the region goes to either Hong Kong (and that region of China in general) or Singapore. You can't expect to get first world work in the third world.

There's also a problem here with both paper availability and cost. The paper business in Thailand is essentially a monopoly controlled by [name omitted to prevent untold problems]. That means that here you must buy what paper they want to sell and at whatever price they want to charge, not what you need at an international price. As a result, major print jobs are always cheaper in Hong Kong or Singapore as well as produced at a higher level of quality.

'Alice in Wonderland.'

I think you will find they just look young...........

I think you will find a lot of them are liars........

The story around the markets is that Tamasek has been engaged in heavy buying out of Singapore during the last few days in order to fund the Shin tender. That coupled with the net foreign buying on the SET has raised demand for the baht significantly above normal levels.

I'd suggest you wait a few days. Unless something unexpected happens, the odds on the THB drifting back toward 39.2-39.5 have to be pretty good.

In a nation where there are hundreds of thousands of families who fit that description (and in fact often handed down by their grand-daddies and great grand-daddies), they've still set themselves apart and I'd say they still deserve the credit. It's a different ballgame from countries where a good majority of each generation manages to sell out or squander all that was built or acquired within one lifetime before anything gets handed over to the next generation (which IMO is absolutely pathethic, but to each his/her own).

Although your comments are fairly incoherent, I gather you are saying that western countries, not Thailand, are 'those countries where a good majority of each generation manages to sell out or squander all that was built within one lifetime before anything gets handed over to the next generation.'

Rubbish. Thailand has as many idiot children as any culture, probably more since the level of education here (and the respect for it) is so abysmal.

My point, of course, was that by no stretch of the term could any of these women be described as 'entrepreneurs.' And you respond by starting yet another of those tired old Thailand-is-better-than-the-west routines. Good Lord.

The worst part was the utter indifference of the Thais with whom I dealt to the mess they were making of everything they touched. On the whole, their attitude seemed to be that organization was a western concept and therefore it had nothing to do with a film festival in Thailand.

Just one more example of why this will always be a third-rate, third world country.

I always thought that the definition of an entrepreneur was someone who envisioned a concept, founded a business, and developed his (or her) own company into one of significance.

Now I gather, in Thailand at least, the definition has been expanded to include women who were put in charge of companies by their daddies.

Absolutely pathetic.