allane

This is a guess, but if I may say so myself, an educated one. Your wife's situation is a technicality, it is not as if she has been negligent, or deliberately done something wrong. I think that if she writes a letter to the relevant authorities, they will "transfer" her visa to her new passport - they generally do have "transfer" and "correction" stamps.

My own situation was not precisely the same, but similar. I was issued an erroneous Work Permit, erroneous in the sense that it was issued for longer than the remaining validity of my passport. When the authorities subsequently realized that they had made a mistake, they first repeated the error in my new passport, then stamped a correction right next to it. In my situation, the mistake was all within one country (Thailand), and the officials could easily contact each other by phone if they wished to. This is not nearly as easy in an international context, but worth a try anyway I think.

I recall reading that Thai landlords must pay tax if they rent the space, but not if they rent the furniture.

If I might jump ahead to what may become a future issue: if you are having trouble finding a barbeque now, you will probably have trouble trying to find charcoal in the future.

This is third-party information, as I have never used Moneygram myself. It is my understanding that Moneygram takes 2 - 3 days, while Western Union is virtually instantaneous (providing of course that the recipient's local Western Union office is open, and he knows that the money has been sent).

This may be Western Union's justification for charging higher fees and exchange rates.

When it comes to dealing with protesters, mace is much more effective than garlic.

Search Google for "map of Bangkok". One of the maps which is printed at the top of the search results is: www.guidetothailand.com/maps-thailand/map-bangkok At the top centre of that map you will find the Morchit bus terminal (labelled on the map as "Northeastern Bus Terminal". Your objective is to get to the lower right (southeastern) corner of the map, on Sukhumwit Road. Follow Sukhumwit past Soi 103/1, then turn left (east) on the Bang Na - Trat Highway, a major road which has an overhead expressway above it. From the corner of Sukhumwit and Bang Na - Trat Roads, it is about 200 km to Rayong. Follow Hwy. 3 (Sukhumwit) about 130 km. until just before you get to Pattaya. Turn left there on Hwy. 36 for Rayong.

Because you will be riding a motorcycle, you are not allowed to use the expressways.

I have also bought them at Family Mart.

School #8, about 6:00 p.m. I think.

Working as flight crew I've had multiple problems with my foot. There are several places that you can go. The best I found I was www.footcontrol.net which is the foot control center at the end of Charon Krung road near the Bangkok Bridge. I have tendinitis/flat feet and this guy (farang) has a shop made me custom inserts which cost 4800 baht. Well worth it! I've been wearing them since April and my feet feel great!!

I too am a satisfied customer of Henry's (Foot Control). I have his E-mail address as [email protected] If he has changed his E-mail address, it would be helpful if you would return here to confirm that.

I don't know if this is considered a "customer service" story or not, as it involves whichever bus company runs from Phang Na to Surat Thani. I was in Phang Na and bought a bus ticket to Surat, noting that the last bus left at 5:00 p.m. At about 4:40, I wandered across the road to the 7/11, returning to the bus station at about 4:50, where I was informed that the "5:00 p.m." bus for Surat had left without me. I explained to the ticket seller that I had to work in Bangkok the next day, and was on my way to Surat to get on a train that evening. She put me on the next eastbound bus, which took me about 20 km east to the first major junction and then stopped. I asked what was happening. The conductor said "That's your bus there", indicating another which was stopped beside the road.

The lady at the bus station had called ahead to someone, and had them stop the Surat bus just for me. Not remarkable in a way; the sign in the bus station was a painted one, not a temporary one. The bus shouldn't have left without me. But, being "just a farang", I hadn't expected the ticket seller to get very excited when she realized the bus had left without me.

pick up from bkk, pat, or both?

This is an application of common sense. I highly doubt that they do pickup in Bangkok, unless your location is very close to the route they take from Century to Pattaya. (Usually the new motorway that more or less parallels Rama 9 Road). Bangkok is huge, and they could spend hours picking people up in the far flung corners of the city, burning up whatever profit they would make from the trip.

They do pick-up in Pattaya at least from south Pattaya and points northward. I am not sure about Jomtien; from what one of the other posters has said, it sounds as though there is a seperate van service which originates there.

I don't have the van's business card on me. Get one from the driver, or on your first trip to Pattaya, go all the way to Wat Chaimongkhon and get one from the ticket seller there.

Minivans from Bkk. to Pattaya leave from Century Shopping Centre, at the southeast corner of Victory Monument BTS Station. The ticket seller sits outside the northwest door of the shopping centre (the one nearest the BTS station). The fare is 150 baht one way, travel time about 2 hrs. to Wat Chaimongkhon in South Pattaya. They will stop enroute to let you off, if your destination is before Wat Chai.

I will be doing this flight for the first time within the next 24 hrs., and returning about 1 week hence. I am flying Cebu Pacific. It seems that only they and Phillipine Airlines fly Bangkok - Manila - Davao. Prices on the two airlines are very similar, though PAL is more "upfront" about their pricing. Cebu Pacific quotes a much lower price, though when you go to book it, and add on the extra surcharges, it adds up to be the same as PAL's shich I presume (!) to be an all inclusive quotation. Going from memory, I think I am paying about 14,000 baht for a round-trip flight.

Can anyone advise as to what is the last departure time for Bangkok city buses running from the airport into the city ?

I pay 400 baht/yr. +GST at a branch of the Bangkok Bank. No strings attached.]

A Tai Jiao speaker once told me that he could understand 50 % of what was being said by a Mandarin-speaking customer, who had come here to do business with him.

He, his brother, and late father are quite well-known amongst the resident expatriate community, at least by those of us who take an interest in Thai public affairs. When I first came here, I was an avid reader of the English language newspapers. (In those days, The Nation was a respected and serious newspaper, which I found to be even more informative

than the Bangkok Post, not that there was anything wrong with the latter).

Anytime I read an in-depth interview with a Thai person who expressed "western" ideas about democracy, human rights etc., almost invariably that person had received at least part of his education in the west. Almost as long as I have been here, I have wondered what percentage of the Thai population would admire, or even recognize, the names of the Ungpakorn's, and people like them. My guess is that it would be a small percentage indeed.

In 1997 and the years leading up to it, I was hopeful that what became the 1997 Constitution would put Thailand well on the road to western-style democracy. Then I watched as the democratic process was perverted in the Thai Rak Thai years. And of course, the events of the last year and a half have shown not how far Thailand has come, but how far it still has to go.

Who are you, and why do you want to do a service to him ? Your post is nothing except a mix of emotion, half-truths and outright lies.

I used to live in that area, and can say with a high degree of confidence, that there is no other hotel, other than the Royal River, that might be referred to as "nearby". The only other place I can think that is even close of is on the north side of Boromratchanonni Road east of Charansanitwong Road. Even after doing a Google search the exact name escapes me, but it has "Pacific" in the name, and an English sign out front. I have no idea as to prices etc.

I said "take", not "buy". (The gold that is, not your wife). You can keep her.

Why doesn't she just take the kids and go in ? The worst that can happen is that they will tell her to come back together with the father. That would seem much more sensible than your coming here to ask a bunch of people (most of whom are not Thai) to speculate as to what the rules might be.

Do you hasppen to know the opening hours of Mike's pool ? Also, are there secure lockers ?

Bought some Pakistan yellow gold looks same as Thai will my wife like? Or say not the same as Thai Gold!

If she turns up her nose at it, I will take it off your hands.

Rules of ATM

1. Try to use ATM with a bank attached.

2. Try to use the main branch bank that is in charge of all ATMs in the area

3. Be observant of neighborhood while conducting the transaction

4. Cover up when putting in code

5. Do not count money on site but quickly pocket money,card and receipt(count money later)

6. Follow up ASAP on any problems

7. Check bank records against ATM receipts

Re: #2 above: Do you mean the main branch of the bank with the faulty ATM ? Or is it possible, especially outside of Bangkok, that one bank takes responsibility for all of the ATM's in a geographic area ? I would think the latter unlikely but if it is the case, I would like to know where to get a map or list of the zones, and the bank responsible for each.

Your credit card has an expiry date. If the company does not have your current address, you will not receive your new card, and they may cancel your account altogether. Of course this depends on whether there is anyone else at the address, and whether they have presence of mind to notify you when important looking mail is received.

Another aspect to consider: If the OTHER person moves, and you are unaware of that (or don't have their new address), you may lose your credit card, if your new one arrives during that interval. That happened to me once, thankfully it wasn't my only home-country credit card.

On a related topic: Use each of your credit cards at least once annually, or they may be cancelled for that reason too. Especially if you have not used your card in a while you may want to make a discreet enquiry to your credit card company on this point, without telling them who you are, or why you want to know.