OldAsiaHand

If you could stretch your funds, dee jai, go for an international school to give the kid a proper chance.

You're absolutely right, of course, but the problem is that international schools in Thailand are all run as businesses on a 'for profit' basis so the stretch is a pretty considerable one. ISB and Bangkok Pattana, which are generally considered to be the best and most established of the international schools, charge a one-time registration fee of B200,000, annual tutition of B600,000 or so, and a host of other small fees every year. There are other and cheaper international schools, of course, but as with most things in life, there are no bargains. You get pretty much what you pay for.

Absolutely right. Even actors appearing in films here that are financed abroad and have no connection with Thailand at all other than being filmed here must have work permits; and the labor department just loves to send inspectors around to ask for them.

I lived in Bangkok for many years. One of those years was with my wife and baby daughter. I lived right in the centre on Sukhumvit road, one of the worst places in town. I had to get out, and now am. Bangkok is no place for a kid. When I go back to Bkk now , I am amazed at how I could have lived in a shithole like that for a decade.

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Perhaps harshly put, but nevertheless accurate. It is hard to imagine a worse place to live with a foreign wife and a small child. Those who manage to survive here for any length of time almost always are connnected to the culture in some way, generally through a Thai-born spouse, and even then it is bad enough.

Your proposed place of work is in the city and therefore you will have two choices. You can live in a high rise apartment in the city and never venture out of it other than by car in horrible traffic , or you can live in a bleak and plastic housing estate an hour or so away and drive to the city through horrible traffic. There are almost no houses in the city itself that would be acceptable to you, even if you are prepared to pay rents right at the top of the market (which is a level of at least USD5000 per month).

I can promise you two things: your wife will hate every minute of it here and your child will lose out on an important piece of her growing up. Those of us who live here generally do because we have to. Those who tell you otherwise, and rant about how much they love it, are usually those who've already realized they can't survive anywhere else. And God knows there are plenty of those foreigners around. Bangkok draws them like flies.

I really cannot allow this to pass unchallenged.

I worked happily and reasonably successfully in eight other countries before Thailand, and have been contentedly ensconced in my present location for three years, having left Thailand in exasperation. There is absolutely no way I either expected or wanted any of those countries to resemble my own. I was happy enough to take the good with the bad, as long as in my own mind, the advantages outweighed the disadvantages. As has been pointed out several times on this thread, different people have different expectations, desires and perceptions. One man's heaven is another man's prison. Some people are unable to adjust to life in the Middle East. I, like many others, took to it like a duck to water and enjoyed the lifestyle on offer there (16 years in total). I do not recall those who decided to leave being derided as "failures" or "losers".

You obviously enjoy living in Thailand. Good for you. I did not. Do you think that my experiences and opinions are somehow less valid than yours? And for the record, one of the main reasons I left, aside from the ludicrously convoluted immigration regulations, was because I did indeed feel that I was being treated like a serf by the Thai institutions for which I worked.

An intelligent and thoughtful observation, something of a rarity among the gaggle of love-it-or-leave-it halfwits that usually dominate these discussions.

For whatever it's worth, I've lived here for nearly fifteen years now and have long understood a basic truth that most foreigners in Thailand either never figure out or insist on closing their eyes to. It is this: on the whole, Thais don't like foreigners very much. Now if you are self-absorbed enough that you don't mind living among folks who don't like you, and particularly if cheap pussy and lousy beer is high on your list of lifestyle requirements, then this may indeed be the place for you. Otherwise, maybe not.

But the inevitability of trashing anyone who comments here that he thinks this place is something less than heaven is getting really tiresome. Good for you, Rumpole, for not letting it pass unchallenged yet one more time.

The absolutely honest answer is that no one else understands the rules as they apply to short-term business visits either. Of course, that's not going to stop all sorts of people from telling you with absolute certainity that THEY understand, but they don't.

As a practical matter, all countries tend to overlook short-term work by visitors and genuine non-residents and group those visits under varying kinds of 'business visitor' visas. As a strict matter of law, as a result, a lot of visitors to a lot of countries could probably be found to be working there illegally, at least technically.

In any event, I think your take on your status is right on target. If you are going to be 'based' here, regardless of where you checks are issued, the local subcontractor should apply for a work permit for you as an advisor to his company. He will have to certify that he is paying you a fairly minimal salary, but whether he actually does so or not is another matter.

That will not only cover all the bases with respect to your legal status here, it will put in your hands a document that is often required for all sorts of things in daily life -- opening all forms of bank accounts, getting some kinds of internet service, utility connections, getting telephone service et al. A work permit isn't always required to do these things, of course, but the demand to produce one can crop up at the oddest times and result in real trouble for you if you don't have it.

I hope this helps.

I have accepted a job working in Thailand for a subsidiary of a foreign-based company and will be paid in Thai baht.  I need to send money back to the US every month to my two kids who are in college.  Until I read this thread I thought this would be easy, now I know.  What is the process to get permission to do this? How long does it take? Can I get an ongoing permission or do I have to do something every month?

Thanks for the help.

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Support of children in college abroad is a common reason for approving wire transfers abroad.

You should find out the name of an officer in the wire tranfer office of your bank (he would be at the home office, of course, not in some local branch) and make an appointment to see him. Go in with a list of the transfers you propose to make and ask him how best to obtain permission and whether you willl have to do it separately for each transfer. Your answer, depending on who you end up talking to and his mood that day, will range somewhere between 'no can' and 'no problem.' If it's not the answer you need, however, look for another bank. You shouldn't have a problem finding one who will sort the matter out for you.

You are always allowed as a matter of course to transfer out of Thailand any amount you transferred into Thailand. If you once, no matter how long ago, wired an amount in GBP into your account at TFB, then they are permitted to match up your outbound wire with that automatically and send an amount no greater back to where it came from.

If, on the other hand, you want to wire out funds you generated here -- income or investment profits -- then you are into one of those wonderfully Thai 'grey areas.' You can't do it unless you have permission. How do you get permission? With a 'good reason' such as the payment of a school fee invoice or because you know somebody or.......well, that's why they call it a 'grey area.'

There are 2 secondhand bookshops near emporium...

1. Elite Bookstore - across Emporium near Villa Market

2. Dasa Bookshop - near Sukhumvit Soi 26 (main road sukhumvit)

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I hate Elite -- the owner is a arrogant prat and it's stupidly expensive -- but Dasa isn't bad.

There is however a third used bookstore right in the same area that I really prefer. It's just exactly across Soi 24 from the side entrance to the Emporium, above the 7-Eleven (staircase at the back). I know that probably doesn't sound very promising, but it's a verry pleasant little place. Homemade and comfy with drinkable espresso no less. Certainly worth taking a look.

One man's opinion.

I guess it is. But then, that one man was the Director of Immigration for the Bangkok region when I asked him and it is his view that I related. "If you ask Immigration,..." you will recall I clearly said.

Of course, you are such a smug prat that probably doesn't make the slightest difference to you.

Ajarn: Can you please expand on this. I thought if you did ANY work, paid or otherwise (even as a Consultant for an overseas based company), you need a work permit.

I was told I would need a non-immigrant class B visa and have a work permit to work in Thailand.

Even the post-tsunami volunteers needed work permits to stay in Thailand.

Peter

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If you ask Immigration, they will tell you that Peter991 is absolutely right. All work performed in Thailand, whether you are paid or not and whether it has anything to do with Thailand or not requires a valid work permit. Of course that is stupid and unenforceable as a practical matter, but if you want to make that argument to Immigration as to why you really don't need a work permit, I wish you would tell us where and when you will be doing it so we can all come along and have a good laugh.

On the other hand, I doubt you will be doing that. If you do what you are proposing and keep your head down (as do many people), it seems highly unlikely that you will ever have a problem. After all, remember that prostitution, too, is illegal in Thailand.

Still, do not convince yourself that you have cleverly discovered a loophole the law. You are breaking it, and if anyone with official power here wants to nail you at some point in the future, they will have no difficulty at all doing so. It's just that the odds against happening historically have run in your favor and there is no particular reason to think they will not continue to do so. Good luck.

Just heard a revue and interview on the ABC.

Short stories about BKK by a young Thai.(26)

Sightseeing - by Rattawut Lapcharoensap  ISBN: 0802117880  A$37

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I read about a third of it, but couldn't manage anymore. It's a bunch of high school or maybe at best college level short stories. If they had been written by a white guy, they never would have been published, but the usual western media fawning over a 'native' writer, which I have always thought rather patronizing, has now cranked into high gear and made a big deal out of some adolescent rubbish just because it was (supposedly) written by a young Thai. It is hardly surprising to hear that the ABC is leading the pack. So what else is new?

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Oh for God's sake, what self-rightous slobbering. To live is to make value judgements based on experience, and without exception, all such value judgements are by definition generalizations. Now Mr.Goodie-Two-Shoes here is all a twitter because someone's experience has led him to conclude something about Thais that, on the whole, is not entirely positive and he has shared his experience and his conclusion with us.

If someone had said that Thais were nice people by and large, would this twit have attacked him for generalizing? No, of course not. But when the value judgement made by someone else is negative, even arguably, he decides to sound off just to let us know what a fine, non-judgemental white guy he is.

Oh, give me a break.......

Dear Asiahand, it seems to me you may be well versed in the currency trade business. I am a youngster, please give me your on opinion on where the baht will be to the U.S. dollar by years end 2005. Thanks for your time, Sam. Old I guess in experience, aye asia hand ?

The previous poster is quite right, of course. Prediciting markets is pretty poor science. Nevertheless, everyone who has any money does it everyday. Whatever choices they make are a prediction, even if that choice is to do nothing at all.

At the moment there is an oddly even spit among most observers on the more probably future course of the baht. As a result a lot of folks are taking those in the market who think it will strengthen, subtracting those who think it will weaken, and getting zero. That then leads them to the conclusion that most likely nothing at all will happen. Have you ever noticed that the usual market wather's prediction in most places (for equities, bonds, real estate, currency, whatever) is that what ever is happening right then will continue to happen, but perhaps just a little less?

Anyway, you asked for my opinion and you shall have it for whatever it is worth. The end of 2005 is eight months away. On the whole, and discounting unpredictable political shocks, I would say that over that period the bias is toward a strengthening baht rather than a weakening one. Not by a lot, perhaps, but perhaps something in the 3-5% range. I would place the chances of the baht moving in that fashion at 65-70%.

So there you go, as I said, for what it's worth.

I gather you must talking primarily here about the way foreigners see such things. Among Thias, birth is what matters, today and forever. Money's not a bad thing, of course, but it can never repair the rank into which one is born. Ask almost any truly upper-class Thai (not Thai-Chinese) what they think of the PM, for example, and you will almost certainly get a particularly vivid illustration of that.

In a word, no.

Partly, I would think because it would serve no real purpose for Thailand just now, and partly because they know they couldn't even if they wanted to (after the debacle of 1997, the central banki obviously understands that now).

The ability of a cental bank in a small country to manipulate the value of a minor currency is so limited as to be effectively useless. The level of the Thai baht is going to be determined by a vastly greater powers than the Thai government can bring to the table (the unexpected uptick in the US dollar and the looming adjustments to the Chinese monetary system being two of the major players right at the moment).

Remember..........he  who  laughs  last , laughs  loudest. 

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.....and a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

(I really doubt anyone can follow this with something even dumber, but hey, that's never stopped the folks around here before, has it?)

I've been renewing mine annually for ten or eleven years now and it has always just been a matter of filing pieces of paper to get that 'Thai Wife' stamp placed in my passport for another year (I've always wondered if there is a stamp that says 'Thai Husband?').

As far as I know, no one has ever done anything to confirm that the pieces of paper are legitimate and that we are really married. We've certainly never had a visit from the police.

This thread has certainly become a striking reminder of what seems to me and many other long-term expats to be the worst drawback to living here: the kind of foreigners who, all too often, are drawn to this place. Nasty, simple, small-minded jackasses and ignoramuses. My, oh my. No wonder so many intelligent, well-educated Thais want to have as little to do with most foreigners as they can.

Me!

There was a young fellow named perkin

Who was always jerkin his gherkin

His father said perkin

Stop jerkin your gherkin

Your gherkins fer ferkin not jerkin

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Speaking of jerks....

Some guy offers an interesting post worth a little thought and this is the kind of comment he gets in return. Lord help us.

My favorite line in the story was the sentence that began, "In a trial lasting seventeen years...."

It's hard to add much to that, isn't it?

My current understanding is that it is not possible to use an 800 number from Thailand at all, so the cost is a moot point. So, your option might be to try to find a direct number to call, at cost. This won't always be available. In reality, a large pecentage of the 800 call operators are in India and the Phillipines.

Note: if someone does know a way to call an 800 number from Thailand, please tell us.

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With respect to landlands you used to be right. AIS and some of the other mobile carriers have always permitted it, but not the fixed line carriers. Now, however, you can also dial US 800 numbers on True at least, although I don't know for sure about TOT lines. You simply have to pay for the call at normal direct dial rates.

Find a farang, marry her, and get permanent residency in the US.

a lot of condo units are sold off plan to investors , they are sold on again when the building is nearing completion for a healthy profit.

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The standard practice here is that a great many of the "sold" units are not really sold at all. They have been reserved by the developer for friends and family and so on. Funnily enough, the deposit that is required of the general public is seldom (never) paid by friends-family-and-so-on. Those units are simply set aside to be resold by these insiders for a profit when the building is (possibly) finished. If the market is weak when that time comes and they cannot sell them, they walk away and leave the lender holding the bag. Nice way to make some money, but of course it only works if you are Thai and properly connected.

Last data value in Graph erroneously shows the reciprocal.

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Yeah,I think you're right. That's one for the books, isn't it?

The NZD was at .7174 bid against the USD as of Friday night, which is off a few pips from early March but consistent with the modest strengthening of the USD recently against most currencies.

You "have lost half the value of your NZD against the USD?" If you're going to watch currency rates, mate, you'd better learn to read them first.