Spoke

I just renewed my non O visa last month in Nakhon Pathom. The Immigration office did ask me to have my Canadian marriage certificate certified by the Canadian embassy but did not require a Thai translation or registration of the marriage with any offices in Thailand. Perhaps the requirements vary based on the Immigration office you go to.

I have taken a bicycle on many buses with me without ever putting it in a box. Simply take off the front wheel and help them put it in the baggage compartment (standing up) and have someone pick it up from the other end. I normally pay about half the price of an passenger ticket for the bike.

I live in Nakhon Pathom province although in a rural area of it. I do most of my shopping at Lotus or Big C with the occasional trip to Makro for cheese. All of them are in Nakhon Pathom city. I go to the local market for fruits and vegetables. If you need something which is only available in a big mall then The Mall Bang Khae on the western edge Bangkok is not far away. Entertainment options are fairly limited. There are several movie theaters and Thai style bars but a lot of expats head into Bangkok for a night out. Overall it's a good place as you're not breathing the fumes of Bangkok and do not have to deal with its traffic but if you really need something from Bangkok like a trip to the embassy or airport then it's only 60km away.

Our son went to Meta international school for one year of kindergarten. We found a definitive lack of academics in his education. They were not teaching him any reading or writing or math. Not sure how it is in later years. Personally I was not too concerned that he is not learning much in terms of academics at an age of 5 except that most Thai kindergartens do teach these subjects and if we decided to change schools in Thailand later on he would be at a disadvantage.

We decided to transfer him to St Joseph Uppatham school in Sam Pran district of Nakhon Pathom for his last year of kindergarten and grade 1. The school is very large (a few thousand students) and is reasonably good. He is in the English program where the instruction in English and Thai is balanced at about 50/50. It is a catholic school but there is little religious education and many kids are not catholic. You actually specify on the admission papers whether your child is catholic or not which decides whether he/she participates in some infrequent religious activities. Most kids in his class are Thai but a handful are half Thai half foreign kids. A school van picks him up from my home in the Nakhon Chaisri district (25km from the school) and drops him off after school. I woulod definitely hate to have to drive in to Bangkok every day to drop him off at school. It would make your life miserable.

The easiest (aside from flying there) should be the boat from Chiang Saen (Chiang Rai) to Jinghong (Yunnan province). I understand that it runs on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays but it only if there are enough customers. From Jinghong you have train connections to the rest of China. If you go this way then you do not need to get Laos or Burmese visas. There is no train service from Thailand to China. Your only other options would be bus through Laos.