ericjt

Uhh --

Wait a second, guys. How were these tests run? How were the children selected? What were the criteria for deciding whether somebody was "addicted" or not? Who ran the tests? Who paid for the tests? How were the tests desiged? Any biases on the part of the testers or sponsors?

We don't know a darned thing about what actually happened here, but we've already got the testers expressing conclusions and the posters commenting on those conclusions as though they actually meant something.

Come on folks. We can all be a little smarter about this.

Sure, it's scary to watch a kid spaced out on a computer game, but I'll bet I look about the same when I watch "Mad Men" or "Breaking Bad". And I don't think I'm addicted. We all get "carried away" with something we enjoy. That doesn't mean we're "addicted". We're starting to throw that word around pretty loosely. Maybe we should all step back and take a breath.

Lots of opinions, and not much else. If you don't know and can't help, why not save your post for some other thread? (Maybe I'm getting old and grouchy. Had to get that off my chest.)

A google search for "personal bankruptcy thailand" turns up several links that seem to answer a lot of the OP's questions. Jail? Probably not, as long as there is no fraud or concealment of assets. Here are the links:

http://www.thailawforum.com/articles/kanok-jullamon.html

http://juslaws.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=144&Itemid=217

http://absolutelythailand.blogspot.com/2008/01/bankruptcy-procedure-in-thailand.html

Thai bankrupcty law seems harsh and kind of unfair to individual debtors in OP's position, but these links will get OP started. Like I said, jail doesn't seem like part of the system. I'd worry more about losing my job as a govt worker. And the time it takes before you are declared "bankrupt" and relieved of your debts.

Hope these links help you get started. Maybe you can find your way to an experienced Thai bankrupcty attorney who knows more about how the system actually works. And maybe he/she can make some suggestions to help you better your position.

Good luck.

Expatj.....sound advice...

But..."200-400k$ into annuities will give @1-2,200 $ per month, guaranteed till you die and this can be part of a good solid income foundation for any retirement."

What if the company that sold you the annuities with a guaranteed income goes bankrupt????

Seems like a good idea, but 10 years from now, if inflation is running at around 10%/year (which it is), the buying power of that annuity will be only $100-$220/month at today's prices. And you might be locked in and unable to move or reinvest the money into something more productive.

In a non-inflationary environment, I think annuities would be the way to go, hands down.

But with inflation? Even if the annuity company survives, how much will your income be worth in 20 or 30 years?

I don't think annuities are the way to go unless they are indexed to protect you from inflation at the real inflation rate.

Not talking about a business but if four or five retirees all gotbtogether they could put up 200,000 baht each and just shuffle the fund around every year. Takes a little plannng for dates and such but you could get 4 r 5 people on it.

This has been done for a while, rct. It's the reason for the 90 day requirement that started around 5 years ago. Your bank has to certify that the funds have been on deposit for at least the preceding 90 days in order for you to use them as the basis for getting a retirement visa. And if the bank or Immigration gets the idea that your "arrangement" is being pursued, I'm not sure whether there will be problems with the visa renewal or not.

Don't understand why you're asking the question, when your stamp says you're OK until the 13th. Tell us what you're concerned about and maybe we can help more.

actually i have come here to see university with tourist visa but i wanted to be sure that my visa expiration date bcoz my chinese frnd was saying that i need visa extension if i stay here more then 1 month even though i have shown him my visa details ,n again my korean frnds said that i dont need visa extension ...so i become real confused ..anyways thank you so much you guys are really helpful ..

OK, yeah, the usual tourist visa or permission to stay is 30 days, but your paperwork gives you until the 13th, so you're good until then. Don't know why they apparently gave you a few extra days, but they did, so you've got them. Enjoy!

You have to read the contract. If it allows prepayment or early payment, then you can do it. If it doesn't, then you're probably out of luck. You can always go talk to somebody and try to work something out, but it all starts with reading the contract. No point speculating until you've done that.

Don't understand why you're asking the question, when your stamp says you're OK until the 13th. Tell us what you're concerned about and maybe we can help more.

Siamese cats? Siam? Thailand?

It's cute. It might even work.

Maybe not the best PR campaign ever, but certainly not the worst.

Come on guys, let's lighten up.

IMHO, Brown stuck his nose in where it didn't belong.

Sorry he got hurt, but that's what happens sometimes when you do that. Especially in a country where he's a foreigner and saving face is important.

I don't see him as a "good samaritan" from the story above. I see him more like somebody who doesn't know when/where to butt out.

I think it's already been covered Jay, but the size of the meter has nothing to do with how much electricity you can pull. It just measures what you pull and use. So getting a larger meter might keep it from frying, but it won't increase how much electricity you can use.

Doi Inthanon -- highest mountain in Thailand. Ride all the way to the top on a motorbike if possible. Wonderful ride, weather, air, views, etc.

Hot Springs National Park at Fang. Don't know the name, but it's the only one there. Neat little cabins overlooking the Springs for rent cheap if you book off season. Great massages there, too.

Forget the name of the 3rd place. It's a large Royal Project around 20 KM SSW of Fang. Ang (?) Something. But it's the only one up there and it's right on the Myanmar border.

Very few people, including me, know why currencies go up and down against each other. Maybe some central bankers do -- because they have a hand in setting exchange rates -- and maybe not.

IMHO this is the Thai govt giving notice that it's going to do whatever it takes to push down the value of the Thai Baht. So people planning for the near future should probably expect to see some weakness in the THB vs the USD.

Why? Because that's what the Thai govt has decided is in the country's best interest for now. It's been a long time since fundamentals like interest rates moved currencies.

I don't believe that's it at all. High interest rates certainly do move currencies. Right now the US and the UK are paying almost no interest, but Thailand is paying a relatively high rate due to a bad credit rating. The US and the UK can pay almost nothing because they are seen as safe havens. People who are risk adverse put their money there.

People who will take some more risk for a higher return will move money into Thailand for the higher interest rate. Every time someone does that, he has to exchange his currency and buy baht to deposit. This creates demand for baht and drives the price of the baht up.

Thailand is a tiny economy and can't do what the UK and the US do in managing currency rates. Don't forget that the US and the UK are deliberately driving the value of their currencies down to help their exports, and keep their industries and therefore their economies rolling. Thailand can't do that because its credit rating sucks and it has to pay the higher yield to attract the money it needs to finance its deficits and debt.

Also, Thailand has had a boom in investment in real estate and the SET, and all foreign money invested in that first has to be converted to baht, further creating demand for baht and driving its exchange rate up.

But if the SET starts dropping, and/or real estate starts going sideways, and/or the reality of the money owed for the rice scheme actually comes to light, people will rush to get their money out of Thailand. In order to do that they have to exchange their baht for another currency, flooding the market with baht and driving its price down.

If that happens there will be an almost panic selling of the SET and real estate, and Thailand will lock the banks to stop outflows of currency. People won't be able to get their money because Thailand doesn't really have it. The banks are broke and bluffing, and government is broke and bluffing, and if when this thing unwinds it won't be pretty.

I agree with what you say about maybe "hot" money coming into relatively lightly regulated Thailand, the SET, real estate, etc, and pushing up the Baht. Then maybe hedge funds coming in, too, and looking to profit from the rise of the Baht. Could be, I guess. Of course, getting large amounts of money *out* of Thailand is not always easy, right? Is it easier for the big guys than for us little guys?

But high interest rates attracting money to Thailand and pushing up the Baht? I don't think so. Not for the last 5 years, anyhow.

If somebody was looking for high interest rates during the last 5 years, Australia and New Zealand have been the place to go. As little as a year ago, retail savers could still get 4-5% on Aussie Dollar or New Zealand Dollar savings accounts. More on investment grade bonds. So why buy the Thai Baht when you could get higher interest rates from stronger (and more freely traded) currencies/countries?

So why, IMHO, has the Baht been so strong? "Hot" money? Maybe. Interest rates? Doesn't compute. And there's no reason I can see why a (small) .25% change in any rate should start driving the Baht down. It will take a lot more than that to move the Baht any appreciable amount.

Very few people, including me, know why currencies go up and down against each other. Maybe some central bankers do -- because they have a hand in setting exchange rates -- and maybe not.

IMHO this is the Thai govt giving notice that it's going to do whatever it takes to push down the value of the Thai Baht. So people planning for the near future should probably expect to see some weakness in the THB vs the USD.

Why? Because that's what the Thai govt has decided is in the country's best interest for now. It's been a long time since fundamentals like interest rates moved currencies.

So someone in govt is actually suggesting changing to driving on the right side of the road?

In a country where X,000,000 cars and trucks have steering wheels on the right side (i.e. the "wrong" side)?

And all traffic lights and road signs will point the wrong way?

The mind boggles........

You're *sure* this is not an April Fools joke?

Did anyone notice the date of this story? April 1? April Fools Day?

So this is a joke, right?

How come nobody else seems to have picked up on the date?

Or am I the one who's missing something?

This is a joke, right?

windows backup/restore does not clone!

Contol Panel>Windows Backup/Restore>Create system image , will create a full disk image

What version of Windows, 2008bangkok? I'm using WinXP SP3 and can't find it. Thanks....

Property and income taxes are much lower or non-existent, depending on which country you're from. Some food products at open markets are priced pretty cheaply. And they're fresh and good. Same for food at food stalls. Fuel is lower than in some countries. And hiring labor is much lower than in the US or UK. You can hire a live in maid for a fraction of what it would cost in most western countries. Auto insurance is less. Same for medical care, cosmetic surgery, etc. Much lower in most parts of Thailand than in most western countries. Most medicines are also more easily available and much cheaper here. Many you can buy over the counter. No prescription needed, which is a hassle and an extra expense on top of the price of the meds back home.

I've used Acronis to make an image of my old drive in a Thinkpad laptop and then restore the image to a new, larger, hard drive. But if you're moving to a larger new drive, there are a few hints and kinks to know about:

1. Be careful about disk numbers if you want to boot from the new disk. Set Acronis to copy the MBR (Master Boot Record), but NOT to copy the "disk signature".

2. There's a small box at the bottom left of one of the screens when you're setting up the backup. If you check it, Acronis will copy and restore the old disk number. If that happens, then your new drive will only run if another hard drive on your computer has that same disk number. The one from your old HD. So don't copy it.

3. Stop virtual memory, Norton Go Back if you still have it, and your anti virus software.

4. When the backup is complete, let Acronis verify the integrity of the backup image.

5. To restore, use the Acronis Boot Disk for recover. You made one, right?

6. To get your computer to boot from the CD, you might need to press F12 or some other combination of keys to get the computer to look at the CD drive if there's no boot information on the hard drive.

7. You might also need to be sure you can set your BIOS and/or that your machine will boot from an external USB CD drive (Acronis Recovery Disk) and "see" the USB hard drive where you have the image from your old hard drive.

8. When upgrading to a larger disk, use a partition manager to set one partition to the same size as your old hard drive. That will be Drive C. Then the rest of your new hard drive will be Drive D. If you don't do this, the I think the extra space on the new drive will be wasted. I think the new partition from the restore is the same size as the old hard drive. And the rest of the space on the new HD is wasted. I'm not sure about this, but I split my new drive into two partitions as described above -- and then restored my old disk image to the C partition.

9. You might also have to mess around a bit with your Master Boot Record if it has become damaged or causes problems. There are some files from Win98 you can use to fix errors in your MBR and/or edit it as needed, but I'll leave that for another post if you have MBR problems.

Good luck --

It is not a fistula. I am not looking for an answer. I am just sharing my negative experience, so others may be aware of it. Like say, if someone else goes there and the doctor just keep examining you session after session without doing much otherwise, they may decide to seek another doc.

Still don't understand your reluctance to be name the condition, chessplayer. I think it would add value to the thread without compromising your privacy any more than it's already been. I mean, heck, the people reading this thread already know you have a sore arse.

(And no, I'm not looking for any pictures, uptheos )

Try kickass torrents. kat.ph.

And thanks for that tip about hash numbers. Very helpful.

Sorry, Chessplayer, you're not giving us (me?) enough info to make a fair judgment re Bumrungrad.

You say it was a simple procedure. But without saying what it was, we have no way of knowing what complications the docs at Bumrungrad might have been concerned about -- maybe complications you don't know about.

BTW, you seem to be requiring that procedure more than one time? If that's the case, maybe your other docs are not addressing the underlying causes?

Quote: "This is not an issue, as the forex risks are taken care of. There will be no risk, even [if] the baht may weaken against dollar," he said."

From what little I understand, it seems like the BOT has done a great job of managing Thailand's currency. Thailand's currency has remained strong for the last 5-7 years. The only part of this article that doesn't fit is the part about "the baht may weaken against the dollar". Since the dollar is falling like a stone, that means the baht will have to drop even faster. A conversion rate of 35 or 40 would sure take a little pressure off the budget, but it doesn't fit with the rest of what the author is saying.

Yes. Use ATM's at bank branches when they are open. That way if they eat your card, you can go inside and ask them to take it out of the ATM machine and give it back to you.

Last time I used an ATM away from a bank was in Cambodia and the machine ate my card after giving me money and receipt. Took me 5 days to get it back from the bank in Cambodia, but I got lucky and finally got it back.

Now it's either go into the bank and get cash at the teller's window or else use an ATM outside a working and open bank office. My card is from my home country and getting a replacement is a major hassle. Earlier post mentions that going to the teller saves the 150 B ATM charge, but sometimes the bank adds a charge of its own. In Cambodia they added a $10 "service fee" when I used the teller to withdraw some cash.

I'm also thinking about asking for an extra card or two for family members. Then put the extra cards away and not have to worry so much about losing my main card(s).

I thought getting a usufruct (basically a life estate in a piece of real estate) from your in-laws or wife when you're buying/building a house for them protected foreigners pretty well, Markaew.

A usufruct gives its holder the right to possess and use a piece of real estate any way he/she wants as long as the usufruct holder is alive. I think it's about the same as a life estate under English law. When the usufruct holder dies, though, the usufruct disappears and the property is then held outright by its Thai owners -- as though the usufruct had never existed. That's the way it was explained to me, anyhow. Also that they are easy to do and the holder's rights are clear under Thai law.

So if a falang is married to a Thai woman and has children with her, she can buy a house and give the husband a usufruct interest in the house. It's a one page form at the Land Office, I think. The falang husband is protected while he lives, and when he dies, the usufruct disappears. The house then ends up owned outright by his wife, and she can leave it to the children, sell it, or do whatever with it.

If I'm missing something, or if I've got usufructs wrong, I'd appreciate any comments.

Not quite safe that way - in the past there have been cases during divorce where USUFRUCT between husband and wife have been considered part of the household estate and basically voided in the devorce as the land set aside as estate (which must then either be sold or go to the Thai). The safest way to do a USUFRUCT this way is to include a third party (a child is OK, but someone trusted that lives abroad is OK too - say an sibling of the non-Thai) this then stops it being part of the houshold estate (as it would affect the USUFRUCT rights of a third party).

Also, land can still be sold (and bought of course) whilst under USUFRUCT but the USUFRUCT goes with it. There may be issues with land that is below Nor Sor 3 as the government can take back the land as it is "loaned" rather than owned - this is usually farm land, though ex-farmland that sites a home without a chanote (or at least measured and registered NS3) would be unsafe and USUFRUCT could be disolved there too as the owner (Thai Gov.) would not have been the signee.

Note: The non-Thai can own the house anyway (legally registered) just not the land. It is the land that is USUFRUCT NOT the house - but all buildings thereon would be covered as would any produce of the land (that is what USUFRUCT were designed for - farmers protecting their produce when leasing land that is not their's by ownership).

Thanks for this clear, informative, and very helpful post, Wolf5370.

I didn't know about the transferability of usufructs, and didn't even think about title forms below Chanotte. From what you say, usufructs are transferable. That's one question answered. We should worry if we are trying to use them with lower forms of title than Chanotte. I didn't even think about that one. And the information you provided about what divorce courts can/might do to a usufruct without a third party added was especially helpful.

There's a lot of baloney sometimes on forums, but it's posts like yours that make them valuable. Thanks!

That's easy. People underestimate the underground economy here and the percentage it represents. Scamming foreigners out of their money. Foreigners buying/building houses for in-laws and wives and cannot have their name on the property. At the slightest whim the foreigner can be thrown out of the house they expected to retire or just live in and many are dumb enough to repeat the same thing. Not to mention the pros that have multiple boyfriends abroad collect huge sums of money. These are thousands of men bringing thousands of dollars, pounds, etc into the country. All this cash feeds this economy.

I thought getting a usufruct (basically a life estate in a piece of real estate) from your in-laws or wife when you're buying/building a house for them protected foreigners pretty well, Markaew.

A usufruct gives its holder the right to possess and use a piece of real estate any way he/she wants as long as the usufruct holder is alive. I think it's about the same as a life estate under English law. When the usufruct holder dies, though, the usufruct disappears and the property is then held outright by its Thai owners -- as though the usufruct had never existed. That's the way it was explained to me, anyhow. Also that they are easy to do and the holder's rights are clear under Thai law.

So if a falang is married to a Thai woman and has children with her, she can buy a house and give the husband a usufruct interest in the house. It's a one page form at the Land Office, I think. The falang husband is protected while he lives, and when he dies, the usufruct disappears. The house then ends up owned outright by his wife, and she can leave it to the children, sell it, or do whatever with it.

If I'm missing something, or if I've got usufructs wrong, I'd appreciate any comments.