clinique

Both my wife and I have had Proton Gen 2s for a year and a half.

We shopped around , Ford, Nissan, Mazda et al before buying, test drives etc. Listened to all the poopooing of Proton as well.

Anyway we bought the Gen 2's, 2 0f them.

Result - nice car to drive, good mileage, never had a problem with service, infact never had a problem at all.

So much for all the "bad" reports.

i beleive the Op was askingabout his own Embassies views regards his hypothetical questions, and not Thai immigration.

As previously stated your passport is the property of your governent, is your responsibility and is supposed to be with you at ALL times, and not be given to others.

Accidentally deleted first answer.

Hypothetically , Since your passport is the property of your government, is your responsibility and is not supposed to leave your sight (theorhetically), giving to such parties (or anyone else for that matter) is technically a breach of the rules and regs covering the issue of said passport because it allows said others to use it for illegal activities - such as terrorism, fraud, etc. Dont think any Embassy would be too pleased.Hypothetically speaking.

Hypothetically speaking, I guess it also depends on how much privacy you want to maintain. Or whether you are happy for your government to know more about you.

I spend half my time in Thailand and the other half in tropical north eastern Australia. My wife and I own a comfortable home in LOS and we work here in Australia. Cant afford to live there full time at the moment but very happy with the present situation. Easy lifestyle and affordability is what attracted me to Thailand also the country is not over governed as it is in the west...

Very true.

Agreed, nor is it a nanny state, and basically everybody minds there own business, and lives and let live.

Becasue its relaxing and I am happy here. and there is alive and let live attitude, unlike overseas. And there is plenty to do and see if you get a bit involved in the community..

1) Freedom from oppression by women

2) Freedom from oppression by the state

3) Nice climate

howzat!

I will take your 3 and raise you.

No income tax, no western PC BS, no Euro land socialist policies bleeding me, not paying to support illegal wars or illegal immigrants.

I second all of the above and plus the "Live and let live attitude".

tend to agree with jingthing. and also agree that Thai perception of sex with other males is in no way similar to western perceptions / beleifs. I would also add that Thais who are 'working ' are unlikely to admit to you what their orientation or preference is, mainly in order to avoid the truth getting back to their friends/co-workers. As the majority of them are looking for money and not relationship you may never know the truth in most cases. On the other hand if youknow themover a long period of time you may eventually become enlightened if an dwhen they trust you enough. Of course the caveat here is as with manyother posters these comments are generalisations.

More than once, I have met a boy in a 'host bar' who claims he is the only gay boy in the bar. For what it's worth (probably not very much)!

That i beleive i would put down to a) a forward style and marketing. And as i understand some bars also have a 'rotation' to make sure everyone working gets the chance to go with customers.

tend to agree with jingthing. and also agree that Thai perception of sex with other males is in no way similar to western perceptions / beleifs. I would also add that Thais who are 'working ' are unlikely to admit to you what their orientation or preference is, mainly in order to avoid the truth getting back to their friends/co-workers. As the majority of them are looking for money and not relationship you may never know the truth in most cases. On the other hand if youknow themover a long period of time you may eventually become enlightened if an dwhen they trust you enough. Of course the caveat here is as with manyother posters these comments are generalisations.

Pib, I think that ascribes too much knowledge and initiative on the part of your average low-wage cashier, whether at Sizzler or elsewhere...

My guess would be instead that at any given business, the manager or supervisors train the new and existing staff on how to do things... And someone has to explain to them the detail of how to handle credit/debit card transactions...

And so at the places that try to do DCC, it's probably because the manager or supervisors at that particular place have instructed the staff that when they get a non-Thai card, they're supposed to process it in a particular way... And it may well be because those managers, but I think not the staff, know it will mean somewhat better profit on the transaction.

In my experience, most of the time, the line level staff don't know the difference in what they're doing between DCC and charging in baht... They're just following whatever routine they've been given. I've been in a couple of places where the line staff didn't know how to do it any other way, and it took the manager coming to show them how to ring up a U.S. card in baht...

I believe there is more too it than that. Whenever I use my overseas cards in another country, be it Thailand, Singapore, HK, Dubai, the cashier swipes the card then asks me do i want the charge done in local currency or home currency. So I beleive it is the card processing system that prompts the cashier to ask the customer which one they want. My read in Thailand would be that some stores simply see we are farangs and tell there staff to automatically process in home currency rather than give us the option by asking us first. It has happended to me inSizzler to - my overseas card is always charged at the home currency.

Thank you,

Anyone know how expensive it is to register 10 small apartments, room with bathroom and little kitchen, built as a horizontal condo as a condo that can be sold separately ? Compared to just registered as 1 building for 1 owner?

I didn't reread that condo stuff but if I'm not mistaken you have to have a minimum 40 units and they need to be a minimum size.

yes i believe thats correct, perhaps subject to a little 'negotiation' but basically thats it.

Try Paris, Perth, Wellington.

there are a couple of shops that sell them in the old city, off Rajdamneon road near Wat Chedi Leung and the guest house i think its called 3 sisters or 3 something..

just for info - the fees were completely different, not only by exchange rate differences , so dont know what that was about, but will check to make sure next time.

...That said, assuming he flies, he wants a standard 30 day visa exemption stamp - he's just coming here for a 2 week holiday...

This means he has a return ticket with the return flight within 2 weeks from arrival in Thailand, doesn't it? If this is the case, he should email the airline and ask for confirmation that they will let him travel with his passport expiration date.

maestro - very good point.

it would be far safer to transfer directly to the developer .

As far as I know that is precisely what you should NEVER do.

Totally Agree - 100%. Never transfer money directly to developer.

assuming he is allowed to fly, would say it should not be a problem in Thailand, assuming he has onward/return airticket not exceding the visa on arrival stamp.

Hi Clinique, Kui Buri is a long way out so would only be good if you like remote beach resort places.

thanks, thats actually why we liked it. my querie was really whether anyone has been to these resorts or has experience with them in regards to either staying as aguest or as a Residence owner. cheers anyway.

and agree with Soutpeel as well.,

It will likely depend on his Visa type, how long he intends to stay, and if he has onward airline ticket. i have friends with this experience where they were permitted to enter but only on the proviso they had onward travel and/or a 30 days visa.

It is the passport holders responsibility to obtain new passport when validity is less than six months.

sounds very generous of you..but why would you be willing to give it all away??

You must transfer the funds from Malaysia to your Thai bank account. This account must be in the same name as your passport. The transfer must state that the funds are for "Condominium Purchase". Your Thai bank will then issue you a Foreign Exchange Transfer Form to confirm the funds have indeed come from overseas. This form is required (ie: you must have this form) to transfer the title deed (chanote) into your name (as it appears in passport) at the land office.

Do not transfer the funds directlyto the Developer.

PM for more details if you wish.

It should be free at any Consulate - Consulates are not free to charge what they want but are under direct supervision of the Ministry of Foreign Affair.

good too know thanks. I have used 3 different consulates in the past and all charged differently for same visa type.

Hi, we are looking at staying at these resorts by X2 in Samui and Kui Buri and possibly buying a Residence with them. Wondering if anyone has stayed with them before and has comments. Much appreciated.

Hi

I would then suggest possibly contacting MBMG International (google on this to get their web site). This company was first brought to my attention my TV member ''Churchill'' and I then met with them in relation to my book. They have been on the scene a while and I would think you would find them to be competent and professional.

- CB

Yes I have been using MBMG and they give good advice on a range of services .

Hi Churchill and chiangmaibruce--you two seem to be the resident experts on MBMG. Someone showed me a graph on their website--wondering if you could explain it because I wasn't sure if I understood. It shows the performance graph of a fund they manage called "Osmium". It shows some stonking outperformance of this fund against MSCI the World and the S&P500, beginning in Feb 2000. Yet the finer print says "Actual performance shown in bold from 1 June 2009". What should I make of that? Unless I'm mistaken, in markets where regulation is enforced, this is called False Advertising.

Remember that anyone can produce charts - or websites for that matter.

Is the fund listed or unlisted? If listed then its performace will be public knowledge, if not then how can you check performance??

Talk to Bernie Madoff perhaps.! He offered outstanding returns too!!