thaigold

Wife has U.S. Green Card, no problemo at OZ embassy.

No departure point will address your visa violation in the same way. This one you can take to the bank. My advise is for you talk to an attorney at Sunbelt Asia for legal advice, not guesswork. Good luck.

Tel (+66) 02-642-0213

Ineptocracy (in-ep-toc'-ra-cy) - a system of government where the least capable to lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed are rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a diminishing number of producers.

Sound familiar?

Yup...Certain state governments in the United States. Especially south of the Mason Dixon line.

I wish people would stop politizing this flood. Look at the Mississippi River flood. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had to flood 12,000 square kilometers to save Baton Rouge and New Orleans. This is a national tragedy for Thailand. Political carping is not helpful - so Farangs should offer support, not criticism.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Mississippi_River_floods

Thailand has some amazing people handling a disaster situation with grace, caring for each other, and kindness. If you watch any of the Thai TV news showing the people moving their children and only possessions they have in a tub you will still see some smiles and humor. It is Amazing Thailand. They deserve our praise.

The Thai Way is why so many of we Farang refugees choose this unique nation as a place to retire. Here, you get a smile, not a silent challenge from an unhappy and disaffected zombie from our own countries. Thailand will be OK ... I say support the Thais in any way possible.

...housing refugees at Suvarnabhumi? Amazing Thailand!

If it isn't the Yellow Shirts shutting down an airport, it is dispossed folks bussed there by Yingluck's Gov't in charge?

One thing is certain...Tai politics is never dull. Never ho-hum, never boring.

Western press not controlled by Thaksin is labeling Yingluck as "Thailand's Novice Politician."

Finally, some candor in the matter. Hold the Burberries.

This has been an ignored Humanitarian Disaster since August with the pleas for help from Ayutthaya covered up or ignored.

Now the crows come home to roost.

I had a close friend send me a photo of her house well underwater in Ayutthaya, the roofline barely visible.

In the background and not intentional, was an ocean going frieghter. It had the appearance of pulling in for some somtam bpuu.

Interesting. This thing could spell doom form months and months. Not weeks.

No one is in charge.

Asian face-saving coming head to head with the Force of Nature.

SomNam Naaa

The Mississippi flooded thousands of acres, inundated cities and one nuke plant - and even then some knuckle-dragging Americans wanted to blame Obama. The flood is nature, not current politics. Thailand's monsoon floods could have been harnessed decades ago and the Issan turned into a garden of Eden, if those in power had just built the system. Billion dollar swaths of shopping malls do not a prosperous nation make. Best wishes to our Thai friends during this difficult time.

" am gonna grow fins and go back in the water again "

Captain Beefheart .

I've already lost my fins. I'm going to metastasize and emerge as an amoeba in Texas. Yep, Texas, user friendly to strange lifeforms.

You can not let it be, huh?! Teary eyed, yes! Maybe because she feels sad for her herself...but maybe...just maybe, she also feels sad for people dieing, drowning, loosing their possessions, being in horrible situations....

It is called "compassion"- something that most of you are obviously lacking!

Thanks for a bit of decency. This flood is no more a political failure than the flooding of the Mississippi River or Australia earlier this year. Some posters are just self centered mules.

Firefox died 2-years ago. Better give your computer an enema, and get a 21st Century browser.

I'm so chilled out it's like I'm floating.

I'm so chilled, that if I got any chillier, I'd be in a coma.

Many hope all the comments here are positive and helpful to all our friends, both Thai and the expats living in the Kingdom. Now is not the time for recriminations or political vendettas.

Australia suffered immeasurable damage from its floods; Japan has hundreds of square kilometers of nuclear polluted areas, unlivable for centuries; The Mississippi ran wide and destroyed hundreds of square miles of cities and farms; Turkey just had and earthquake; The Philippines are a wasteland ... the list is long.

Come on people, let's work together.

Many say US insurance is only good for elective medical care. If fact the US Government site advises citizens not to subscribe to part B as it is useless beyond the US; its territories and protectorates. Her's the US Government's own web site advice in this regard:

"Because Medicare benefits are ­available only in the United States, it may not be to your advantage to sign up and pay the premium for medical insurance if you will be out of the United States for a long period of time. But you should be aware that your premium, when you do sign up, will be 10 percent higher for each12-month period you could have been enrolled but were not."

Any American citizen can opt in or opt out through the good assistance of the US Embassy. It is true, however, you will need to do an advisory call to the US in this regard. Easy ... Although it burns me that my Euro friends get full coverage medical coverage overseas, we Americans are left to fend for ourselves.

Having said that, visit the embassy (you'll need an appointment) and do what's best for you.

Good luck....

This evening I tried to access Rolling Stone's web site (the Magazine) and got an access denied message. Does anyone out there know why?

My God...in the US they would have closed the airports; shut the bridges; closed the bus terminals; declared a curfew, and SWAT teams would have begun tasering the males and macing the females. Grannies included.

I can only speak for California, but anyone in the professions is sternly warned, do not talk to teenage girls unless you are accompanied by a female witness. This also applies in the business arena. If a oral or written warning is issued to a female employee, you must have a female witness in the room. Some say common sense, given the tenor of the times.

Imagine yourself an American with a sweet, blue-eyed blonde hottie - and she wants to gogo at a Sin Fernando Valley gentlemen's club. Well, there's your answer my friend.

Additionally, 90% of Thai women wouldn't even be seen near a gogo bar. Tell your wife to get a normal job - in the absence of that, dump her and get a new woman.

You also might consider FedEx if time and security are important.

Al I can say is; don't run out of gas on Long Beach freeway in LA, going to San Pedro and Long Beach. You'd have better luck trying to hitch a ride outside of Auschwitz, in 1944. Or better yet, try the New York Metro (after 9 in the evening). Scary.

Pattaya: aka Rancho Romero / City of the Living Dead.

In all fairness, I'd choose the BTS over the New York Metro any day. Dirty, dangerous, and really crowded. Jai Yen Yen.

Good for Thailand. Raise the bar, keep out the trash. For those that find fault with this premise, merely take a peek at Australia's / New Zealand; the US; or the Euro's requirements. The Thai Kingdom is more than fair.

Stop your whining...follow the law. Easy...

Life is valued here as much or more than in New Zealand. Shame on the poster for his unkind views.

A close friend of mine has been married to a Thai for close to twenty-years. The wife owns several rai of commercial and agricultural land in southern Thailand, but, all of their liquid assets are in a US bank. Under the advice of their Thai / American attorney, the land is held only in the wife's name; while the real cash is safely offshore, in both their names. The local government has no knowledge of this connection.

It seems to work for them.

final score thailand 1 sweden 0

Don't you mean final score: Thai: B11 million (= house + 1 million in jewelry)

Swede: Zero

There is no "final score" until the game is over. For long as there is a population of Thais in Thailand, and a steady flow of farang, and there remains gross inequity between the Thais and all those who come to exploit, or simply 'take advantage' of this, the game goes on.

It is rather naive to expect all Thais to play by the rules, 'rules' as perceived by most Westerners. I know of one 'Westerner' who is cheating Thai artists, and using the wealth he generates in a non-EU Scandinavian country, (wealth he denies having in order to evade taxes), to expand his property empire in Thailand, displacing Thais and shoving $millions off shore, to the benefit of no one except himself. The day I hear of him being tied between two buffalo, stretched, drawn and quartered, and whatever assets stolen, I will celebrate with the locals. And you can all have fun speculating, as to whether it was his Thai wife, a neighbour, or his almost Swedish name, that was the cause of his demise.

Some say, let the law take its course. The Thai police are better than some think. It is their country, after all.

It's called the California / Nevada border syndrome. Californians used to check their brains at the border, as they headed for Las Vegas (lost wages). Ain't love wonderful? The same holds true for Euro newbies. Another one bites the dust.