crazygreg44

Though I fully agree with the article that the kids have to eat more healthy and do more sports, I always think it's strange that the government want to promote milk so badly but the prices are 110% higher than my country in europe... than I still not talk about the taste of milk here

of course they mean SOYMILK - the national school milk distribution ( Lactosoy , never seen their ads ? )

For the long staying guests, just because you've been here longer doesn't qualify you to reply to a question belligerently. A simple I don't know, is fine.

But for the tourists who would like to stay and would prefer to not leave the Kingdom, for the purpose of renewing their visa, wouldn't it be a win/win situation if we could just go to the local Immigration office. We pay either way.

You are repeating a standing error - your error :

Once you like to stay, you are not a tourist any more. At least that's what the thai government will think of you when you tell them you'd like to stay. They will think, he wants to become a resident, okay, we've got laws for that and he can simply follow them.

and that's the same in every other country. A TOURIST status means that you , after having seen their temples, beaches, tasted their beer, toured through the locales, did a few hop-on, hop-off's . . after that you MUST LEAVE . . . . .(because you quit being a "touring" being after a certain spell of time, here in Thailand the usual 3 months like in every other country as well. 90 day visas are the norm in most countries to enter on TOURIST purposes )

So, please, behave like a TOURIST ( it is very easy!) : LEAVE and come back any time you like, with the proper visa !

in reply to post #21 madmitch :

No, the german company was/is Diethelm, Bangkok, a long standing registered company. The foreign tour guides have/had work permits. It is absolutely legal for them to do a job a Thai CANNOT do or perform in the manner required. Seemed Diethelm found a loophole here, maybe the "guide" was employed as a "fluently german speaking hostess" so as to get a permission.

And yes, as other poster here confirm, the Thai tour guides are seeking their share of comissions in "guiding" the tour groups to places of their interest, not of places in the interest of the group tour. Examples have been laying out the problem. The tour I was referring to was guided by my sister in the nineties (18 years ago) and she had a work permit. Of course the Thai guide had no chance for scamming jewelry and beauty product big scale, however he was free to pick a restaurant for the inevitable lunch and late afternoon breaks. This earned him SOME comission at least.

I can clearly see by the unisonic replies to this topic - the root of the problem is GREED

not really, but when shopping for foodstuff, I noticed the steep inflation rate that has hit this sector . . . . .

If you are in Bangkok, and ready to meet your appointment in the embassy, go to Thai Airways Headquarters one day before and make a booking some date near your preferred travel date. They will print out the reservation for you to show at the embassy and enclose it with your Schengen Visa application.

Thai Airways headquarter is near the Pan Fa Bridge ( Ratchdamnoen Khlang Road) and Thanon Lan Luang. Search the internet for the correct address.

Why choose Thai Airways ? If your Thai friend travels for the first time, it is always wise to let her board and fly with people who speak her native language.

And contrary to a previous reply post, you can set the date up to your requirements ( if seats are available ) . Allow enough time ahead as the Visa application process can take up to 2 weeks. The later your choose your flight date, the more time they allow you for cancelling or paying.

you should rather ask yourself, does Thai Massage qualify as therapheutically related and medicinal massage, with the aim of healing an existing joint/neck/back pain situation ?

Thai massage has close to zero "healing" effects, it is solely for the purpose of relaxation and for giving a boost to Lymph-Fluid circulation. If you suffer from bone/cartilagic or traumatic issues, a correctly trained western therapheut would be the better option.

I have heard stories of a few friends and also myself endeavoured this : we all went to a Thai Traditional massage to solve neck pains ( actually rheumatic pain due to cold climate, which would settle by itself given enough time in tropical warm temperatures), the massaeuses involved, armed with their 2-week seminar at Wat Po knowledge backing them, would make the situation even worse.

Feel warned.

34 baht for a can of Leo , jomtien soi watboon

that's when you realized how cheap you can live on the Soi Watboon , drinkin Leo in the danish market bar is just a smile more expensive . . .

contribute to both cultures. When I meet a Thai friend, I first WAI to him/her . . .then include a western greeting. If I know the Thai friend long enough, it will be a hug and a two cheek kiss (french kiss). if he/she is a social aquaintance, it's shaking hands after the WAI.

Learning to tone/subtone your WAI, is important. If your initial WAI has not been appropiate, all the cheek kissing or the hugs or the hand shaking that follows to underline your western culture, is for the clowns

Central . . . 2nd floor, entering from Beach Road you have to walk all the way towards the other end . .just before the the last store, on the left side, are two big size shops. I forgot their name, though. They did NOT have MY size . . . . .

Better, yet, but not in Pattaya, is Bangkok's MBK center. 6th floor (that's where the food court is) . There are open stalls, when yu walk alongside, the store-in-store shops start. DR ZHOU is the name, very cool oversize strong men's stuff . . . . . . . . reasonable pricing. Underwear, Tees, shirts, Sweatpants, Jeans, Bermudas, Swimwear etc until size 6 XL

..if you can't locate it, here an easy hint: start walking from the booth that refunds the food court coupons. When you stand in front of the booth, walk the direction that is three o clock. keep walking, staying in the same aisle . . . . keep left at all forks . . it will lead you directly past DR ZHOU which is at your left . . .

more interesting info !

http://www.wildlifethailand.com/index.php/Thailand-s-Wildlife/khao-ang-rue-nai-wildlife-sanctuary.html

actually not so funny, my GF and me once were attacked by a raging elephant bull on the road . . . . that day i wished the car's reverse had a few more gears !!!! We managed a close escape, though

Would like to warn everyone not even think of driving any close to a whole HERD !!!

OP... if your here a long time, open up a thai bank account and send money over here once a month. It will save you heaps in ALL the fees. I just opened up one recently with a tourist visa and calculated that doing IMT from my country will save me $50 a month all up. Over 12 months....

very funny ! . . and your home country bank takes how much of a fee for the International Money Transfer ? And the Thai receiving bank charges how high a fee for depositing it into your account ???

An IMT always costs fees & charges, along with maybe one of the banks offering you the most gruel exchange rate.

An then there's always the point, do your banks charge you a fixed fee, or do they charge by percentage of volume ? A large amount for a fixed fee might come as a real bargain, while for some monthly smallish pension transfers the fixums are a constant pain.

It is really a question of careful cross-examination of all available methods, on ATM withdrawals versus IMT, I think ATM withdrawals win !

try to find a bank in your home country, that will reimburse the fees for foreign withdrawals. And be disciplined, don't allow so many fees from arising, by using the yellow bank and withdraw 30,000 THB in a one-time transaction, so in effect you help them keep the costs low in the long run.

I use a visacard from a bank in Germany whose policies clearly state that they will pay back all fees from foreign ATM's. I have never had a problem, they always pay back all those fees. 150 nor 180, I don't need to care.

And their exchange rates are excellent, so I always wonder how they are making enough profit so they can continue this service. I have double checked but I am unable to find hidden costs as there are none.

Maybe the visacard yearly fee covers some of these expenses.

You should check the exchange rate your UK bank gives you for Thai Baht withdrawals, I think THESE rates are by far more important for your calculation than the oblivious 180 THB ATM fee. If they give you a good rate, you get at least a bit of compensation.

I think Schwab's is working on base of this policy for U.S. Americans, and Barclays in the U.K., however I am not sure about it.

Several posts removed.

oh, come on !! What was wrong with the " I love my Cock " video ?? It is satire . . . . .

the first one ?

It's days when you have two main choices : Mix with the crowd and party, or stay home , dry & safe

The days will pass and comes the day when wearing your business suit it indicates you are back in business . . . .

does anyone here in the forum remember the young, casually clad swiss guy who was adressing foreigners, in areas where tourist stay (Sukhumvit, Khaosan) ? He pretended to have worked in Thailand , had some ominous stamps in a passport as proof, being told by his boss that he could not work anymore as the company was finished. But now incidentally was near broke andneeded to fly home. He showed you a flight ticket out of Thailand, and said that this ticket was not fully paid yet - still 100 US dollars needed. If you could help him out ?

The flight tickets - he must have had a pile of them, there was actually always a close date printed, so the scam looked really really real !! The ticket thesedays were real tickets, the same agents would hand over, with flight, airline and date details added by typewriter.

Some time ago, i helped him ONCE then TWO years later he adressed me in a different location, didn't realize he scammed me before . . . . don't ask me what happened after . . . I am a mellow , humble guy believe me . . .

Quote: Last night in phuket I saw a pissed Aussie starting a random falang over some stupid shit

did he start a random fight or did he start a random farang ???? How many drinks did you have before you wrote this ?

Not that I have had one but I thought San Miguel light was a light beer but i think it's something to do with low carbs

So many suggestions I'll be like a kid at a lolly shop next time.

Thank you all!

You should drink some Tawandang LAGER BEER next time you are in Bangkok. . . . . .and their DUNKEL (dark) BEER . . . . Gosh, you will miss it back in the bush in Buriram !

In Bangkok and even Pattaya you are spoiled for choice if you don't mind paying more. I haven't been to Chiang Mai lately, but I would imagine it is a similar situation with many different kinds of beer available.

I really like the Belgian Abbey dark beers such as Westmalle Dubbel and Rocheforte 10 or Mared Sous 10, Tripel Karmelite is another great one tho not dark, but just as heavy and complex as a dark beer. Chimay is more widely available, same style and nationality, but not quite as good and just as expensive. The Belgians are complex beers that are very heavy, very strong (8-12% alcohol) and expensive but amazing. Not really good beer for sitting outside in the heat and drinking but in a nice air conditioned place or during the cooler season.

A good alternative is Fuller's ESB or Fuller's London Porter which I have seen at Tops in the basement of Central Shopping Pattaya, they are both lower in alcohol and cheaper than the Belgians but still higher quality and and better value than your usual mass production largers. Villa carries a great value dark German beer called Weihenstaphaner Korbinan, also strong at 8+%, but great chocolate, coffee and cherries taste to it. Some of the bars in Bangkok are now selling beers by an excellent American brewery called Rogue, Nut Brown Ale and Chocolate Stout are fantastic beers, but expensive. Also the Londoner on Sukhumvit Soi 33 in Bangkok makes its own bitter which I personally think is great, but most English people who seem to know about bitters don't seem to rate it very well. Can't beat it at 100 baht a pint between 4-7 pm and all night on Wednesday.

I am missing something in your list ! There's a german beergarden in the Rama 3 Road, whose owner is brewing his own dark and light beers !!! You would be surprised how well this stuff tastes ! You can even obtain kegs from him, for your garden parties.

Name is TAWANDANG GERMAN BREWERY and no, I am not the owner . . . . . just had the chance to drink his beers on a birthday party of a friend, and I have never tasted a better beer when being in Thailand !

Their website is http://www.tawandang.com/eng/home.html

the chinese are not only good in copying serial numbers, they even copy holograph stickers.

I know of a guy who saw a box with copy samsung phones, in a shop, all of them had the Samsung holograph and all bore the same serial number (!) which was indeed a real Samsung serial number. Just copied a thousand of times . . . .

So if an item has a serial number or not, is irrelevant, as this is not a proof of authenticity any more.

in reality the easiest way is fly to any nearby country ( Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia) and get a non immigrant visa based on being over 50 and seeking retirement, nothing needs to be shown but ur passport. stating your over 50.

come back in and near the end , ( ur money will have seasoned) u apply for the 1 year extension.

thanks phuketrichard, I was not aware that one can get a Non Imm O at said consulates in Laos, Cambodia and Malaysia. I always thought you can only get a Non Imm O in your home country.

this would be perfect for the OP. He can get a single entry Non Imm O in PP or a double entry Non Imm O in Vientiane. Bck in Thailand after 60 days , he does the extension for 30 more days. Soon after the money will have seasoned the required 2 months, and he can do the application for extension of stay based on retirement.