markg

How about

Thailand - Land of the U-Turns

Please dont be confused. There are two types of checks in the UK.

One is the Police check under the disclosure of information in the Data Protection Act. This is NOT valid for working in schools in the UK and specifically states is not valid abroad. This check is the one that costs 10 pounds and you can do it yourself by post. Its kinda just for your own benefit to see all your convictions and also to see if you're wanted. Mine came back on a letterheaded A4 piece of paper with one sentence on it. "We have no knowledge of you "

Or was it "Bailiff, whack his pee pee"

The other check, and the one we need to concern ourselves as teachers in Thailand, is the CRB check. This is the one that CANNOT be done by yourself but has to be done by your school or some other organisation. It checks the Police National Computer (as per the police check above) PLUS it checks on other data bases, like the sexual offenders register and some other Department of Education blacklist databases.

Just wanted to point that out.

Still doesnt clarify much from the point of view that the CRB check will take 6 weeks, not counting postage both ways. Thats 8 weeks. Then you have to apply for a none B somewhere, then the Teachers licence, then the work permit.

We are advertising for jobs starting in August..................if you apply now you might just make it......................

Mark

At some point they will have to settle the visa and residency issue for people who want to use Thailand as their base to work in the region. Otherwise nobody but retirees and rich people who already have 3 or 4 homes around the world will buy anything here.

And that is exactly the sort of people they want. No demand on the infrastructure, pay for expensive things, keep quiet, dont make problems...................they dont want low or medium grade people. The government have stated that with their tourism policy. they want quality not quantity. I think the visa rules now reflect this. They want rich over 50's or people who can afford the Thai ELite card or whatever it is.........The working class rest of us can go to hel_l. Or vietnam.

Which licence do I need to apply for that enables me to ride up the wrong side of the road with no headlights, carrying 5 passengers with no safety helmets and ignoring all road rules????

Oh, that'll be the standard Thai licence for a motorcycle. Thought everyone knew that?!

They can deport whoever they want back to their homecountries.

Only that if a extradition-agreement exists, they 'cannot' refuse if the terms of the agreement is filled.

Spot on TAWP.

Any country can kick out any other country's national for any reason they like.

Except England of course who just wrings it's hands for years.

We could all really do with knowing about the actual logistics of this.

E.g. do you have to attend the police station in Bangkok twice? Once to submit your fingerprints and then again later on to collect the completed form?

As someone has already mentioned, this is rather inconvenient if you are working in say Chiang Rai or Had Yai...............

If anyone has any actual experience of the logistics of the system, Please update here !

Get an IDP and the only test is for your eyes and reaction.. Very simple..

Its even possible to trick your way through with a mail order IDL.. Shouldnt be but they dont seem to know the difference.

LivinLOS - i notice that the adverts have started up in the Phuket Gazette again for the 5 and 10 year International Driving Permit. They have slightly changed the advert so it says something like, Translation of International Driving Permit or something similar. I have heard that not only are they not recognized by the cops, but also you cannot exchange them at the Phuket driving licence office for a full Thai licence.

For the OP - the test in Phuket is easy, it's just very time consuming. Budget to use most of a full working day to do the eye and reaction test, the written test, and the practical.

i'm not sure where you come from, but if you are from the UK, you can get a proper International Driving Permit from the RAC on-line for 15 quid, sent to your UK address. Get that sent out here and then they will exchange that for a full Thai driving licence at Phuket office.

Nothing worse than a rude waiter.

Thats not true.

I remember one time getting my nipples caught in the closing doors of an elevator.................

That's worse. believe me.

Lopburi, in fairness to TRopo - this thread IS entitled Penang holidays for visa runners.

We can fairly reasonably assume, on a Thai forum, that the visa runners will actually want to know the dates that the Thai consulate in Penang are open.................

A 30 day visa runner wouldnt go as far as Penang.

here they are for January for the CONSULATE in Penang should any one be interested........

January 01: New Year's Day

January 02: in lieu

February 03: Makha Bucha day

My two pence worth

Bout 6 weeks ago a bunch of us went to Phi Phi. I tried to buy the ticked the day before at the port. Way expensive and lots of sideways glances between the ticket sellers. My Thai GF was with me too. We ended up booking it at a tour shop in Phuket town which also included free mini bus pick up.

I ve since heard that it's a Mafia at the port and none of them will drop below a certain price.

any one else heard that?

Also to the original poster - you wont get anything cheap on Phi Phi in december but it depends on what you call cheap. Y'see - you might think 1000 b a night is cheap whereas i think its expensive !!

Good luck there in December - let me know if you see some Thai people.

It's a typical Thai trait of doing something without thinking it through first...

You don't let young children play with matches for fear of them getting burnt, you also teach them to look both ways before crossing a road... unfortunately this level of learning hasn't been developed yet in Thailand and so when they get a big red button to play with that could send off several nukes you can be sure that someone will press it to see what will happen and only after the dust has settled do they say "I don't think i'll press that again because i don't like it..."

Welcome to Thailand, the land of short sighted people with little or no vision.

Couldnt agree more.

Lets do this. Oh its not working. Ok, try this. Lets try the first one again. ad infinitum.

How the hel_l they run a country i just dont know.

Since i ve been here i have lost count of the number of knee-jerk reaction policies that have very quickly been rescinded because they just wernt thought through.

It staggering it really is.

They think the damage has been reversed? I doubt that. People are gonna tread a whole lot more carefully before investing here.

Yes i had a similar problem. The UK embassy in Bkk didnt give me a letter or anything - i also heard you were supposed to keep the receipt for your new passport (I didnt )

Anyway, immigration at Songkhla were "ok"

To be honest - it was as if they had never done it before. The stamped and wrote, and wrote and stamped over 3 pages. Because i have the new 32 page Biometric passport, i now only have 29 pages left.

The good thing was that it was free.

I would get your passport renewed here if you can, (mine took 28 days) then transfer the visa's over at immigration for free, then fly home.

Good luck, and bring us some decent chocolate back.

We stayed in Kuta last year, 2 days after the second bombings.

Nice place.

Have to disagree with the poster who said its like Pattaya. I didnt find that. Its MUCH more familly orientated, though of course there are a lot of young Ozzies there too. We didnt see any girlie type bars and i was more than happy to take my thai girlfriend into any of the bars there.

We booked a hotel from the counter at the airport. It was 800 b a night but i cant remember the name of it. It was smallish, convenient for everything, price included breaky, it had a nice pool set in nice gardens. we only intended staying a couple of nights and finding something cheaper - but we had a good look around and could find cheaper but not better.

People were very friendly, prices about the same as Thailand.

In saying that, i wouldnt go again. I live in Phuket and it was almost the same. So bit of a waste of money from that point of view!

Good luck and enjoy your holiday

Stamps or days? Wait and see Lopburi, wait and see......

I hear ya Lopburi - however for someone (not me by the way) who has stayed here for years by doing 30 day visa runs, there clearly will be no difference between the number of stamps and the number of days.

Of course, there are going to be some great arguments between imm and business men who (say) come here 6 or 7 times within a 6 month period, each visit being for only a week.......

I think counting the days is gonna be a lot harder than imm imagined. Then again, TiT.

Yes JML your post needs clarification.

1. You say you have a work permit so why are you trying to get a 1 year type B visa?

2. If you have a business etc then you can get a 3 month Type b visa from Penang which gives the Labour office a bit of time to process your work permit - once that is done, you get an extension to stay from Immigration.

But you already said you have a work permit.

I think you need to clarify why you need a type b really

One big advantage in bying a bike compared to renting is that you can then get a good insurance.

The insurances offered by the rental companies are "self insurances" where they accept some of the cost in the case of theft or damage.

If you buy a bike you can get something more comprehensive for a few hundred bath, no insurance company will insure a rental bike.

zzz where did you get your insurance from? Do you know what the better insurance is called in Thai? I just went to a local "highstreet" insurance shop and bought bike insurance. to be honest, i thought there was only one class of insurance. It only cost me a couple of hundred baht.

ut if you are thinking of picking up chicks, they arent gonna be impressed when you turn up on some old clunker that their granny recently sold. Thai people are VERY materialistic, in my short experience anyway.

...........................................

summat and go chase some tail.

ah, of course. Someone posts about coming to Thailand for three months so they must be looking for "chicks"

Actually i did say "if" you are coming to Thailand and thinking of picking up chicks...

Not, you "must" be coming to thailand to pick up chicks

There is a difference.

Surprisingly, some people do come to thailand to pick up chicks. Go figure !!

Well........if that's what it takes to save the world. So what.

One of the downsides of the night time closures though was the huge proliferation of roadside whisky bottle petrol vendors. Ever so slightly unsafe!

I dont understand WHY closing at night cut down on petrol consumption, but apparantly it did. So thats a good thing in my view.

Here's the difficulty.

You buy a bike for 9k - if you re lucky. I will bow to other posters eperience as i have only been here 3 years and have only bought 3 bikes in that time.

When its time to go home, you need to sell it either on the last day of your visit, or be bikeless for a few days.

You have all the aggravation of the green book, insurance and tax from the ministry of slow transport etc etc.

We are talking pennies here mate. Rent a revvy new one for 3 k a month. It will be sexy and reliable. You hand it in the day you leave. No worries.

Seriously, i m not making assumptions, but if you are thinking of picking up chicks, they arent gonna be impressed when you turn up on some old clunker that their granny recently sold. Thai people are VERY materialistic, in my short experience anyway.

Stopping off at street side bike repair shops is askin for trouble for someone new in the country. They will look at your lilly white legs with no exhaust burns on them, eye up your bulging wallet, ask you how long you ve been here - and you answer them truthfully. Then they will sell you a dog of a bike for a whole load of money.

Why even bother................

I looked at heaps of bikes 6 months ago for the missus. All <deleted>. For 15k more you can get a brand new one. I'm not ######ing about trying to save 200 quid on on new versus old. Would you do that back home? Buy a used car for 75 percent of the price of a new one when the used one is 5 years old? Would you ######.

Dont be so daft. Just rent a nice Mio or summat and go chase some tail.

The dealers won't sell new bikes to tourists.

You can buy used ones with a tourist visa.

If you only need one for 3 months you're better off renting. If you shop around you can get a fairly new machine for 3000 a month.

what a usless reply. Why did you bother to post?

If I can buy 2nd hand for 9,000 Bhat in working condition, I can give it out for free to someone

when i leave at least

Thats a bit harsh isnt it BKK Dude............

I think Kasi was just pointing out that renting for 3 months is a better option than buying.

Look guys - the kinda bike you re gonna get for 9,000 baht is gonna be what you would politely call a "fixer upper" or more realistically a "knackered old dog"

Its gonna be old. genuinly, it may not make it up some of the larger hills in Phuket at all, even with just one person riding it. Plus, how is a tourist gonna insure and tax it? Its just hassle.

A rental will be quite new, the shop should service it for you, it certainly should be taxed and insured and if it aint then just go to a rental shop that is better.

For 3 months on a tourist visa its a no-brainer. Just rent.

There are a few second hand bikes in dealers shops. And i mean a very few. And the prices are a joke. How about 35,000 for a 2 year old bike? A new one is only 45,000.

This is anecdotal but i can kinda see the logic.

Apparantly a "bar owner" in Patong got busted for standing on the staff side of the bar. The cops said he was acting as a "host" and entertaining the customers of his bar and therefore working.

Another one. I hear that the guys who opened the Bavarian Pizza place in Nai harn got closed down after a month because one of them was observed clearing some dirty plates from the tables. He was working and he didnt have work permit.

I know for sure it was closed for a couple of months though has now re opened.

I know the labour office were being picky about people doing even volunteer work after the tsunami in Phuket and said that they too needed a work permit even though they werent getting paid for it.

I would say you may need a work permit if you are going to pick up so much as a brick mate. Just my opinion though.

I still find it inconceivable that an entire country can believe in the lies!?

Such a shame that so many people are not allowed to choose their own lives

Really. Didnt some people vote George Bush in. Twice !!

lots do, just don't register it to yourself and flog it when you leave

3000 a month rental 9k

crap but still goes bike 6 k

sell for 5 etc when you go

Ok, but who do I register it to. I´m travel around.

Barely worth it in my opinion. Might as well rent a new bike, fully insured for the pennies you re going to save. You dont have all the aggro of selling it then.

2nd hand bike market in Phuket is almost none existant. You would think there would be hundreds if not thousands up for sale, or even a weekly market. But no. Thais dont really like buying much second hand stuff. They need new stuff to impress their friends.

There is a place in phuket town near Natural restaurant that does sell repo'd bikes but a tourist cant register them. YOu need a work permit i think.

Good Luck

You can swim perfectly safely all year round at Ao Yon which is opposite Chalong bay.

But there isnt anything there apart from beautiful unspoilt beaches.

There are no chairs, or shops, or preeeeeety girls to look at.

My last renewal at BE Manila also says FCO. However whilst on the subject can anyone tell me how long it takes to renew a British passport here in Bangkok.

Also how does one get around finding someone of British nationality who is supposed to have known you for xxx years and signs a agreement to that effect.

It's so many working days, can't remember the figure but it only takes about a week in my experience so that points to five. For info my last renewal was Feb '03 so any changes to procedure etc since need to be factored in.

I just renewed my UK licence last month from Bkk. It states FCO and nothing else. Which is cool. It also took 28 days to arrive which is longer than they state on their website. Also you can only get the bio-metric ones now, which are nearly 7000 baht. And you cant get the ones with 48 pages yet, only 32 pages.

On a more positive note, they credited me with the remainig 7 months of my old passport. So i got a new one which expires in 10 years and 7 months. I believe they will credit you with up to 9 months.