OldAsiaHand

We never shop there so I don't know, but you never really think of Carrefour as a place for imported western foodstuffs that nobody else has, do you? Anyway, thanks. I'll have a look.

Has anyone seen Heinz sweet relish for sale here in the kingdom?

NOT the mustard / relish hotdog relish.

Yeah, I miss it, too.

Occasionally (very) we have been able to find it at Villa, but it still hasn't been exactly right. It seems to be made with a slightly more sour taste that I'm accustomed to in the States, so it might be sourced from Australia or somewhere else.

The only other possibility I know of is the US Embassy commissary. They have it now and then and, if you have a friend there, you can get it through them.

Otherwise, I've been keeping an eye out here for years with no joy at all.

The poster asked for some straight-forward salary guidance with respect to Thailand and you guys begin evaluating her supposed qualifications for the job in the pettiest possible terms. We've got a great bunch of folks posting here, don't we?

Now, if you people wouldn't mind me actually trying to answer the woman's question.....

More and more overseas hires throughout Asia are being treated as local hires, which lowers the salary considerably and generally blocks most if not all expat benefits. You didn't say what industry you are in, which makes it hard to give you a precise number; but on the whole, it's rare for any local hire executive here to get more than THB100,000 per month in any job (except, naturally, for the very top people and those who are related to the very top people).

For example, I know a woman here -- well qualified and very well connected -- who is a country manager for a European bank that doesn't run its own branch operation in Thailand. She makes about THB80,000.

Based on what you have told us, I would think the THB300,000 suggestion is way over the top. Unless your new employer is very generous, or they are expecting to put you on an expat package, I doubt they have in mind anything over THB100,000.

... am I just being paranoid? Any thoughts you guys?

Yes, I think you are. Even if these filings were policed as rigorously as some of the more high-strung folks on this board claim (they're not), your mistake here is, as the lawyers say, di minimus. My advice is not to start filing amendments. All you'll do is draw attention to yourself and, in dealing with government, that's really, really the last thing you want to do. Trust me on that.

... BTW, the Kinokuniya in Paragon is bigger than those in emporium?

Yes, but more in terms of floor area than stock. You'll find more or less the same kind of books stocked in both stores. On the other hand, Kino tends to order only one or two of each book they stock, so you are just as likely to find what you want in one place as the other.

Don't know if you can set up an online account from the US.

For Asia, HSBC in Hong Kong might be worth looking into. This bank has branches in the New York area. If you're in any country where they have a bank (almost everywhere in Asia) funds can be transferred easily from one account to another in a different country using their internet banking service.

I don't believe residency is a pre-requisite for opening a bank account in Hong Kong and Singapore.

Due to the Patriot Act, it's a lot more difficult dealing with US financial institutions from overseas due to stricter "know your customer" requirements. I would therefore plan to do as few US/Asia transfers as possible.

Good advice here.

HSBC would definitely be the best and most flexible call for general Asian-based operations, and residency is indeed not needed to open all the bank accounts you would like in either Hong Kong or Singapore (although Hong Kong might be the better choice for you since out-bound wires are relatively expensive in Singapore).

Respectfully, it's not possible.

I have no doubt that the massed might of the United States government could put together a reasonably complete travel record on anyone they wanted to if it was important enough, but for a casual traveler? Nope, no way.

To determine what other countries you have entered, they would have to access other databases, which is possible, but not easy or routine. A list of the countries you have entered is not in a US Immigration database, not unless they are watching you for some reason perhaps.

I think someone needs to look at the actions of the Thai police....the Thai police basically talked freely to the press about everything the guy said (or they thought he said), or they heard from their friend that he said.

At least they didn't follow the usual routine: make him reenact the crime while they posed with him and shutters clicked all around......

Are there people on this forum who actually wish to help?

Yes, and the abundance of helpful advice posted on this forum to a huge number of inquiries bears adequate witness to that.

On the other hand, we generally don't waste our time with jerks who have made three posts and used two of them to call other posters 'nasty' and 'ignorant' and 'useless.'

Good luck to you, pal.

Unless you're on a tight budget, I'd say the Oriental is really the only choice. Most of the other suggestions above (other than Mousses & Meringue, which is pretty good) are more or less on the fast food level. Unless you'd serve Big Macs at a birthday party, go to the Oriental shop on the top floor of the Emporium and they will fix you up.

Oh dear. You say you know nothing and ask for advice, then -- when you are given some -- you promptly label it 'useless and ignorant.'

The plain fact is that what the poster told you about the video business here is absolutely correct. Perhaps his flip concluding line offended you, but if it did, my sincere advice to you is to stay wherever you are now. You're not going to like most of the people you meet in Thailand.

Come to think of it, the phrase 'useless and ignorant' probably fits pretty well into this thread afterall. It's just that you applied it to the wrong person.

I've been wiring foreign currency into accounts belonging to Thai citizens for many years without the sightest difficulty. Occasionally, the recipient has been asked by the receiving bank to give them the source of the funds and a reason they were wired, but simply saying 'personal expenses' has always been sufficient, even when the sums were very large. It's not an intelligence operation, just a minimum-wage clerk filling in the blanks.

I suppose one should never say never but, as a practical matter, the answer is no.

The Thai television business is sttrictly local and effectively closed to foreigners. If you Thai is absolutely fluent, maybe you can find a way to slip in somewhere, but if you're relying on offering your foreign television experience and hoping that will give you an edge in Thai television, you can forget that. Thais couldn't care less about foreign experience.

You do realize that Thailand is actually the center of the world, don't you?

The Treo 650 works like a dream with the Mac OS. I can't recommend it enough. If you're running Entourage as your email client, I'd also recommend you buy Missing Sync for the Palm OS. The combinnation of the Treo 650, Missing Sync, and the Mac OS will provide you as perfect a computing experience as exists anywhere on the planet.

There's no such thing as an international copyright. Copyright is established according to the laws of a particular nation and enforced (or not) according to the laws of any nation in which the issue becomes relevant. Since I seem to remember that you are an American, the best (and really only practical) alternative for you is to register your book's copyright in the US.

As someone above correctly said, as a matter of law, copyright attaches to whatever you have written as soon as you write it. What matters, if the issue of copyright is ever raised, is being able to prove when you did write it and that is what registration accomplishes.

The form is available online with complete instructions and it's only a single page. Download it and file for US copyright registration is you want to take the professional route with your manuscript. And, if you are serious about trying to get it published, that is what you must do.

Not at all, though if this is the general thought of the locals i will go else where.

I joined this board to help with advice to people and gain knowlege from other members, however there is a small minority who seem to think because they have met some fellow members in person that they have the right to abuse those they have not whos points of view differ from theirs and when they get the same treatment in return they start calling people trolls or calling mods to ban them or get the thread closed down.

It should be noted that infact if you read the post history of such users around 60 percent of the posts they have made over the part 2 months would be considred breaking Thaivisa rules. ie, flaming or pointless comments.

Childish? yes, Petty? yes, Annoying? Slightly, Sad? most certainly.

Thank you, sir. Well and truly said.

There's something about Thai boards that seem to attract the kind of folks you describe, certainly to a degree that you seldom find on boards devoted to almost any other subject. These guys appoint themselves experts on this insignificient little country, then devote themselves energetically to rubbishing those who give advice or express views different from theirs. Naturally, since they are the experts on Thailand, what others know or think has little value. And they seem compelled to express their distain for others in the mostly laughably self-righteous ways. Quite odd.

LaOpera, Perhaps the oldest place in town, down Sukhumvit Soi39. Nice neighborhood place.

I'll second that.

Well, it is an old-time neighborhood place, I guess, but other than for a few foreigners who don't know any better, no one has gone there for a decent meal in ten years or so. It's really second-rate compared to places like Zanotti and Calderazo. Strictly airline food qualitity and you're surrounded by fat farang families.

TG said Friday that they were not permitting any electronic devices inside the cabin on any flight. No laptops, cell phones, iPods etc etc.

Then they said they were.

Then they said they weren't, but they were anywhere except to LHR.

Then they said.....

Welcome to Thailand.

For all you long term residence, what items from home do you find you can not get in Thailand?

I presume you mean 'residents,' not 'residence.'

Which brings me quite nicely to my answer....

Intelligent people.

It is not a strong baht, it is the weak US dollar.

It hit 1.91 to the UK pound last week!!

Right you are.

And the comment in the piece about the baht being driven by 'an inflow of foreign capital, particularly to the SET,' is utter rubbish. Total volumes have been modest recently, as has net foreign buying. These wire service wrap-up pieces always seem to be written by clerks who know absolutely nothing.

It's a story that reappears every now and then with a slightly different slant. Usually the point made is related to relative educational levels, that the domination of the Thai university system by women is increasing rapidly and that educated Thai women have more and more difficulty finding equally educated Thai men to marry.

The entering law class at Chula was one example used the last time the story surfaced. I can't recall the figures exactly, but the breakdown went from something like 45% female ten years ago to over 90% female today. This is rapidly becoming a society of educated women and male motorcycle taxi drivers (and strutting, preening male politicians, of course, who are just about equally productive).

THE BEST POST I HAVE SEEN IN THIS FORUM!I AGREE 100PROCENT.***edited for racist comments***THAT IS WHAT I BELIVE. Knutisan.

I'm having some trouble understanding how this forum is moderated.

Posters are occasionaly warned that 'anti-Thai' postings will not be tolerated. However, it appears from the above (and a posting from a moderator just below it without comment) that obviously ignorant anti-semitic rantings are okay.

I really don't understand that.

One thing to be aware of, she might lose her Green Card status if she is gone longer than 1 year out of the US. I believe this is not the case if she becomes a US citizen.

If you are planning to be out of the US for an extended period, greater than 6 months but less than 2 years, you might want to fill out an I-131 re-entry permit before leaving the US.

We recently had an Immigration officer insist to my wife when she entered the US that she HAD to have a reentry permit if she was out of the US more than six months. I didn't want to stand there arguing with him (boy, would that have been a bad call), but he was absolutely wrong.

We obtained an application for a reentry permit right after that and it says clearly right on it that a reentry permit is only required if a green card holder is absent more than twelve months. Under twelve months, the form states just as clearly, a green card alone is sufficient for entry.

Just a reminder that you can't even count on immigration officials always to know the right answer to all these things. These days my wife carries a copy of the reentry permit application just in case the subject ever comes up again.

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I'm rather at a loss as to why you think renting to Thais would produce a more stable income stream and lower vacancy rate than renting to foreigners. My guess is the result would be exactly the opposite.

<end quote>

As there is something like 60 millions Thais and considerably less foreigners I think it is a fair assumption to make.

I would have thought it fairly obvious that I was speaking to the issue of tenant quality, not quantity.

Apparently I have once again woefully overestimated the intelligence of some people reading this board. In the future, I will try to keep that lesson clearly in mind.

....Can someone please tell me why, with all the stunning Thai women in this country, the producers have to bring in a pale,bland looking Chinese "actress' to play a Thai woman. Surely there must be someone with enough talent....

Probably not.

I'm certainly not going to argue with the comparison between the pictures you provided, but as to the talent question....well, Thai actors and actresses are, in my experience, some of the least talented on the planet. Casting an international standard film here with local 'talent' is impossible.