bangkokburning

I believe Japanese get 90 days on arrival and being Asians I'm sure they can fly in and out indefinately. Hunch is the embassy is a pretty quiet place.

Half the list isn't even relevant if you ate not working, so you in ten years no?

I go thru Thai only channel with the wife all the time (marriage O). Incoming flights even when I am thru the Great Unwashed queue, its never more than 20+ mins.

You save b1900 annually but counter this with all the costs of obtaining PR down to every satang. The taxis, visits, food, forms, translations, whatever...

But...

- if you are 40 and you live to be 85...

1900 x 45 is b85,500

Gerald estimates the costs at 100k - so financially, it doesn't even make sense.

Certainty? More than an annual extension but citizenship it ain't! Can be repealed any time by govt decree. How many coups in Thailand now? New constitution every year.

Then you have the hassle of actually obtaining PR above the cost.

It would br one thing if it was allnstraight forward and assured process but even after all the money and time and hassle there is no guarantee whatsoever it will come to pass.

Unless it really helps you in your very sucessful business, just appears to be a waste of time and money from here.

Asus NETBOOKS come with 7starter so I doubt that gonna work with 7ulti.

When you wipe the disk you are going to blast the key, so any hope you might have of not entering that has vanished.

If you have the original disk for Asus laptop -great.

Im running rouge. F software companies.

If I could sort out the mess that is Linux,Id love to be there. Its nit friendly, tedious. I REALLY WANT to run Mint. Alas, I am a failure. Mint 14 better, but cannot locate Realtek WLAN driver (driver on site does not work). Sure after I sort that, will be something else.

No love for Windows.

If you do make the mistake of going to Phangan, stay away from Hadd Drin.

Go to the West beaches or try an old fave area of mine called Haad Khom, try the bungalow setup on hill that has its own little cove and beach (although pics Ive seen had building in the back). Been 15yrs, but was very quiet and lovely.

Reluctant to mention Phayam again due to weather. Bet some great deals there.

I don't get the temple thing at all. If you are no buddhist, why visit? It is just <deleted> hot, full of locals milling about and whiteys look as out of place as a pervert in a nunnery

Art, history, culture. The uniqueness that every older temple is. The differences between temples of different religions and often special uniqueness of each temple. Temples often built in most beautiful locations of the country. The wealth or poverty of a temple in its religios artifacts. Objects of veneration. Ability to bring you as a non practitioner more closely to understand the nation and Buddhism (Hinduism, Jainism) in a practical context.

Makes a great hike, picnic, photo shoot. Great place to bring a date.

The beauty and simplicty of the message of the Lord Buddha writ large.

Now, if you are speaking of the standard Thai temple seen throughout Thailand, southern Cambodia and South and Central Lao, I might be inclined to agree. Not worth a look. But since there was no distinction made, there is none made in your mind as well.

Temples are just churches for Asians. No it never was about them. It was about cheap good fun by the bucket load.

So what?

Buddhist temples are not in amy way shape or form utilized as Christian churches. I guess in some lame culturally retarded way you could ague simply that they are both 'houses of worship". Similaritirs end there. But if they did not, Id be visting old churces of Europe, Britain as well.

For most of humanities existance te sole conduit for art and creativity was directed toward religion. For many cultures to this day, it still remains the case.

But I understand. There is a huge contingent of Neanderthal farang in Thailand.

Food

Grog

Wenches

A lot depends how old and trusty your XP is. Vista and Win7 need a better video card and run so much better with at least a dual core. Newer versions of IE require Win7 or Win8. I like the UI of Win7 though it's not hugely different from XP. I did notice a speed improvement in Win7 and a big improvement in the newer versions of IE that won't run on XP. Finally new PCs have USB3, HDMI with sound output, faster wireless, Bluetooth, and other nice features.

So upgrade to Win7 along with a new(er) PC.

I run Win 7 on an Atom-based Asus eee with 2Gb of RAM and an SSD (and no page file), and apart from taking a bit longer to start than a desktop it's perfectly usable as a browsing/emailing machine.

Why dont you use (any?!) paging? Do you think it runs faster in RAM entirely? Does it?

I have same basic setup - Asus netbook 2gb 1001p.

For b150 are you kidding?

Its NOT Vista!

Just what aarn said. Make a bootable usb, boot, copy files and repartition.

Continuing to use the disk will only bring grief.

Download new favorite programs and. Net at ninite.com

This poll should have broken out those on stamps and tourist visas - and those on proper visas.

Pretty meaningless as it is.

Some people by definition are in.fact visitors (guestsl and others not: domiciled, married, local kids.

The fact that the government refuses to provide us with proper long term assurance to remain in the country despite meeting financial and family obligations does not make a person any less a resident of the country. Im sure at this juncture you can find some old guys who have lived here better part of half century on bloody extensions.

Citizen, resident by goverment decree - maybe not. But hardly a "guest".

My blood pressure is pretty high for fifty+

I walk a lot but I need cardio, I know it does in fact lower my bp.

Im on 20mg of Enaliril. I told the doc I wanted cheap, tried and true med that was not diuretic (as Thailand so hot I do not want the water loss).

Doc started me at 5mg <deleted>. Increased to ten, I increased to 20. Seems to be perfect.

I dont have heart issues pls note. You need to see a doctor.

All kinds of great whiskey in Cambodia. Insane prices. Try liquor store next to Lucky Market.

Limes have just moved from insanely priced to merely crazy priced. Highly dependant on season.

Never seen in BKK but I dont cruise around the open markets much anymore.

Not exactly a revealing interview.

Anyone learn anything?

More tripe to fill a blog.

Guy in Fortune Town recommended "Chinatown". Chinatown is a big place.

Clueless, thx.

600K is not a lot of money and won't buy much. You can rent the equivalent for 10K a month with the freedom to leave if the neighbours are noisy drunks or the place starts to fall apart. Why tie up even 600K cash for potential future headaches and the joys of trying to sell a 2nd or 3rd hand shoebox down the road?

Because, for me personally, I have come to the conclusion that most of the smart people that knew/know what they are doing, and don't have to work into their retirement years, bought property at some point (usually early). Yet, essentially I agree. 600k is not a lot of money.

I agree with your point about most of the smart people who know what they are doing. I would add they bought property in the west, not in Thailand.

I attribute my early retirement to being invested in equities not property. Huge numbers of people have lost their homes in US and more still underwater (forever).

Much of Europe and Ireland not any better.

Smart? Lucky people got out. You might have been insightful enough to see the signs, but were lucky to sell.

Multimillion dollar homes in FL down half mln still.

Black Pudding Bertha - I have come to really enjoy and value your real estate insight as much as trogers.

I don't really see a benefit, as it is tonal you willnbe stuck with some bastardization like Vietnamese. Anyone that has tried to pronounce Vietnamese will know that is a huge fail.

Thailand desparately needs to learn English. It is the lingua franca of the world, like it or not.

It will miss out on high skills training and oppty in the sciences, it will miss out in trade opportunities.

Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and HKG already leaps and bounds. Vietnam will be formidable!! Vietnam has the ability to deliver everything Thailand can, better, faster and cheaper. Further, when that gathers steam, Vietnam will hand off industries to Cambodia and Cambodia and Lao will boom.

If doing business is a hassle, no one can communicate and everyone is asking for kickbacks and bribes - the business goes elsewhere.

Thailand offers nothing unique. With the baht crushing its trade, its visa polices and lack of English it better wake up.

Thailand might (might) not lose ground, but will will indeed cede by laziness, lack of vision and corruption

Thailand needs English, not simply a Roman alphabet.

The link above is one of the best for browsing. I think you aill need to up your game to find anything that is safe, secure and not in the midst of downward spirial. You most ceratainly will be a few km away from mrt/bts. Maybe area flooded in past.

Not seeing a lot of happiness in such a place - and I live very simply and love to squeeze every baht I can.

Well, the Andaman is essentially closed this time of year AND you have that storm brewing as well.

Sad to say, Andaman off limits.

No way to Pattaya, Samed and Samui for me. Phangan, Tao also no for honeymoon for me. Phuket would give you evening sunsets but youd have to deal with all the nonsense.

Koh Kood might fill the bill. Both KK and Koh Mak I hear have tiny pricey resorts good for honeymoon.

Either embassy or consulate has shaded area for queing. Now Vientiane is not the flavor of the month, imagine mostly Laotians in the queue so roughly same wait.

If you use extensions or even a multi o, you will.have to have some sort of residence. So if you do leave Sakaew, you will need to have some base to put on the visa application. You could do single o visa in Vientiane and list a hitel I suppose.

There is a recent thread about Pattaya. Appears Immigration there is requiring a lease on top of everytjing for extensions.

You have to decide what works for you and your wife.

From my perspective, easiest option for most is living in Bangkok, Pattaya and CM in that order. Seems like the more provincial the office, the more hassles, money grubbing, lack of knowledge about the rule of law or the willingness to operate within the limits of it.

Issan seems like such a headache with Immigration I don't know why any foreigner would settle down there. Horrorvstories ate posted daily.

Good luck

My wife wants to stay with her relatives and to care of her kin. Our mother in law is living with us and taking care about the house and a garden if we are out for long awhile. Locals at our village are very friendly people and with a good Internet connection I miss a company of my friends overseas not much. However I agree that to stay in a community of foreigners somewhere in CM is much nicer. An advantage to stay in a middle of nowhere is cheaper life cost if it may matter. I see in time that more and more Western people are relocating to our area. May be these are not from a rich strata.

My point was not living around foreigners, but rather in a metro atea where Immigration officers ate relatively honest and have a reasonable grasp of their duties.

The reason I bring up location is that you will be required to use that "outpost" for extensions and reporting...You already were clued in on the hassles and problems. You might have a lifetime of hassles or at least until that officer that gave you grief is relocated.

I'm sure being Russian doesn't help, not sure if it hurts. Lots of farang get these hassles.

I rather like Russians myself, I studied Russian language a bit in uni as well as History and Literature. I visited the Soviet Union in 83. Applaud you taking an Asian wife, very unRussian of you ☺ I wanted to be a diplomat. My interests returned to East Asia with the fall in 91. I should have stuck with it, I tbink Russia is a very interesting place now.

Yes, many tourists visit CM and I would imagine many enjoyed their stay. In fact, friends of mine (couple about 60yrs) recently there, expats living in India. Enjoyed it.

I just see it as a dull backwater, not Bangkok, but not Pitsanulok. It's about as hot as Bangkok in reality, just has two months in which the am/pm's are cooler and more pleasant. Counter this with the fires and the fact you are basically 24hrs by bus from the Andaman.

The fires are serious and ongoing. The govt simply refuses to deal with it. Then there is the traffic and air pollution.

I will readily admit to being a seafaring man, hills and mountains are great to visit but lack anything really pleasant activities. Hiking without nature (animals) is a bore and hiking in CM area unguided many stories of robberies on the trails and more still about poor backpackers leaving their valuables with trekking companies only to have money stolen and cards used.

CM is a backwater. Bangkok is King and Phuket his queen. The rest just fall in behind.

CM is one of those places that finds itself in a guidebook and people go - because its in a guidebook. Little of interest. Better jungle walks and bird watching elsewhere in the NPs. It has Doi Suthep, bfd.

Pretty girls, yeah the women in the north are in fact the prettiest, but the beauties are in Bangkok. In fact, anyine that is trying to get somewhere in life not attached to their own small business is in Bangkok.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/05/15/a-fascinating-map-of-the-worlds-most-and-least-racially-tolerant-countries/

If the link gets killed by mods, see Washington Post map "a facinating map of the worlds most and least racially tolerant countries"