TravelerEastWest

.......Still, your customers need to have a registered company and VAT registration to be able to import commercially. Otherwise, send by regular post, that one slips through most of the time.

Raro,

You can import using FedEx or UPS very easily without VAT registration if you are below the limits. And individuls in business without a registered company can also import commercially without a problem.

Unless there are special restrictions for clothing imports perhaps?

It would not work if you import via a freight forwarder. As for parcel services I don't know, completely different business.

Freight forwarders are not needed for such a simple situation.

As an example UPS picks up, does the paperwork in Bangkok charges 1284+ baht as well the VAT and duty could not be easier.

Customer pays the driver upon delivery unless above a certain amount - again very easy.

No need for a registered company unless I am misisng some special rules for clothing imports?

As for freight forwarders I am not clear what you mean - are you saying that there are special laws in Thailand when you use them or only that they prefer to work with registered companies?

.......Still, your customers need to have a registered company and VAT registration to be able to import commercially. Otherwise, send by regular post, that one slips through most of the time.

Raro,

You can import using FedEx or UPS very easily without VAT registration if you are below the limits. And individuls in business without a registered company can also import commercially without a problem.

Unless there are special restrictions for clothing imports perhaps?

A child was snatched recently in a Northeastern province and apparently (only hearesay from the locals) this happens as it is easy to whisk them over the order into Laos and then they can be sold. True or not, I know I wouldn't take the chance. It's your kid, don't let it out of your or your families sight, I dont think it is acceptable for it to be with strangers or other kids at that age.

As for the "Thai Men" comment, I agree about drunks but some of the women are just as bad as the men.

Protect your kid at all costs, if you step on a few toes so be it. Better to be looking at her than looking for her.

Agreed.

Although kids are probably snatched and abused as much or more in the big city.

Better safe then sorry.

I also would never consider for a second letting a baby on a motorcyle which is possibly a bigger problem?

What a thoughtful and wonderful post - many thanks.

I started out with my 2 small kids going to the nicest preschool that was within a 15 minute drive. It is a small friendly Thai school. Are the standards what I want = no. but the teachers are kind.

Now a friends kid goes to a very nice school in the Sukhumvit 31 area which would probably take me a solid 30+ minutes to get to with light traffic in heavy traffic 2 hours?

Even with the traffic I am thinking about changing schools.

I just got my almost two year old son a Thai passport in Bangkok.

Very easy except getting him to sit still for the photo.

For all to go smoothly you need the Thai parent's ID card and house card. Plus passport of the non Thai parent.

Sounds like you'd be better off just getting a 50 Baht business license for her and setting up a small shop(20k).

Hello Science Guy..are u saying i can Legally get a business licensed for my gf regardless of the type of business for 50bht and a small shop for her would be around 20k bht ....I plan on opening a reasturant with a good amount of capital and teach her how to manage this type of business as this is my expertise. Also, there will be other employees and taxes and social security will have to be paid...can I still do this on a 50bht lic( sound like sole proprietor here in the states) or do I need a thai corporation.

Regards - Kcore

Yes, your girl friend can operate as a sole proprietor and you need to double check for her type of business but possibly she will not have to keep receipts for tax deductions as many small businesses in Thailand are allowed to simply deduct "X" percent - depends on the type of business.

Liabilty is always another issue...

"And if you keep going the way you are going the Thais will expect 15% as the minimum!

Look, I do tip. But I tip the people who go above what they are paid to do. The security guard downstairs who is paid to 'whistle' cars into their allocated parking spaces does not deserve a tip when he does just that. But when i come home from Tesco with my young baby and 8 bags of shopping and he helps me with my bags to the lift, then that does warrant a tip. Those people who keep saying tiping is all in the heart, take my challenge. next time the people who you say help you, dont tip them and see if they will help you next time. Then tel me its from the heart."

I am with you - well put.

I do not tip automatically but am happy to pick for extra service or kindness.

We give a bottle of JW black each New Years to a manager at the old post office were we used to live who is a nice guy and who has helped us above and beyond the call of duty many times he still forwards old mail to us now - which is important as we still get formal tax mail etc there (We own the old house and it is on the wife's house book).

I tip taxi drivers small amounts if they are friendly and drive safely.

Small tips again to friendly staff when we go out to eat.

In America tipping is completely different in restaurants it is part of their pay to get 15% for basic service which I think is fine as long as you understand this. Better than automatic tips in Europe.

"How slow are you talking about when you say that Thunderbird is slow? On a typical email that contains no attachments and now photos, are you getting a delay of a few seconds or a few minutes to view a newly arrived email?

Also, as an experiment, have you tried using POP3/SMTP with GMail & Thunderbird instead of IMAP to see if that might be faster?"

Original Poster,

Good questions -

Text email typically only has a few seconds delay.

A 5 mb file will be a couple of minutes with a Thunderbird client compared to 7 seconds in web based Gmail for the same file.

For some reason I seem to recall Pop as being faster - but my emails are mission critical for my life so I need IMAP as a safety measure.

I had a very nice talk with a true tech today and the bottom line is that I will need a web based email for now so I shall I try the basic free version of GMail.

Crushdepth,

After exploring all my options the standard free version of GMail powering Thunderbird it will be.

Ads seen while I am traveling are ok.

Hopefully within Thunderbird/Gmail I can still get return receipts.

I do not use them for personal email but have some business letters that really do need them - if for no other reason than seeing that the emails were received.

It sounds like you might be over-analyzing this. GMail doesn't cost anything regardless of whether you use it's web interface or a standalone client such as Thunderbird or Outlook. Ads are only present when you use the web interface, not when you use Thunderbird or Outlook. Speed of reading a new email with Thunderbird or Outlook might be slower than reading with the web client if the email has attachments because the web client doesn't need to dowload the attachments for you to be able to view the body of the email, whereas by default most standalone clients connecting via POP3 or IMAP will download the entire email (complete with attachments) before you can read any portion of the email other than the header.

Original Poster,

Thank you for letting me know that there are no ads when I use a Thunderbird client - good.

I assume you are talking about the standard version of Gmail as looking on their site Google there is a $50 per email charge for their higher level service - more storage etc.

Which I can pay but sadly they charge for every user and I only need the service for one of email addresses.

In my case the current speed problem is like night and day - very slow with Thunderbird IMAP on its own and very fast with standard gmail.

This is true with or without attachments.

I have given up on the Opera option for feature reasons.

I am talking to True support but they seem to know not much more than I do about (and sometimes less)the internet which is scary.

I am trying to find out why I have this problem as the account is lightning fast in the USA and as I mentioned Gmail works fine for downloading photos etc.

Thank you very much for the replies!

First, at the moment I am using Gmail for 90% of my emails that I send. I need to use Thunderbird for things like "Reply receipts" which Gmail does not seem to have - unless I am missing where it is?

Also I do not like Gmails advertisments - annoying and taking up space.

My mail is fowarded to Gmail so I have a copy on my local computer which I want for safety and a Gmail copy.

Now as for combining Gmail and Thunderbird that may be a good idea.

1) Will I still have the ads taking up space?

2) Is the basic version free - seems to be but I am not sure.

3) If I need to pay $50 a year for no ads that may be a good solution but I have more than one email address on mydomain.com and paying $50 per address would not be ok.

Am I misunderstanding? Can I pay $50 for [email protected] and then keep my several other addresses on my local Thunderbird client?

4) I am exploring opera's email and it is a little difficult to use but seems to have no ads and the same speed as Gmail. Anyone tried using Opera with IMAP?

5) Are there any Bangkok ISP possibilities that do not throttle email ports? Possibly change my modem?

Best email ISP provider for Bangkok?

Currently I use True 12 down 1 up in Bangkok and my VOIP and internet surfing is 90% ok but my email using Thunderbird as my client and a US IMAP webhost is very slow.

Using Gmail my email is just fine and I can download photos and large files at a good speed.

It seems that True is throttling the ports that I use for my IMAP account and not the webmail for GMail.

I think...

1) Does my conclusion sound correct?

2) Is there a way to still use a local email client like Thunderbird and my US IMAP account yet get good speeds like when I use Gmail??

As a side question when you need to make a stop on a round trip what are the rules for the meter?

As an example I start with a taxi from my house in the morning with my kids and then I drop them off at school and return home.

I always pay the meter and if the driver is friendly a small tip. On rare occasions the driver will ask for the meter to start again on the way back from school as this makes the total fare more expensive. I always politely say no and if need be get another taxi.

For those who are not familiar with Bangkok taxis the first kilometer is the most expensive and after a while the rate is much lower - hence the interest in drivers to have the meter start again.

At Suan plu I wa stold no by the 90 day staff downstairs but the officer in room 206 told me no problem.

I use EMS not registered mail as it is easier to track.

I concur with the poster. I've been there several times already to change over WP and handle visa affairs and reporting. It's quite efficient as long as you don't show up around lunch time (12ish to 1ish) or during the grand opening of the office, as I did one day. Best to go in the morning in my experience, but that's often true in offices across the globe.

My only complaint is with the middle of nowhere location that's way outside the catchment area of the BTS or MRT, but the government center is where it is, so wish in one hand and p_iss in the other I suppose. 90-day reporting can still be done at the satellite office apparently.

I am confused why would anyone in Bangkok go in person for a 90 day report?

Per their website (unless it recently changed) you can do mail in reports you just need to mkae lots of photo copies and send it via EMS to be safe about 2 weeks ahead of time.

Unless I am visiting immigration for my yearly extension I always mail in my reports. They keep the reports until the correct day and mail back the receipt and your photocopies so you are good to go for the next report.

In the near future rumor has it that the whole extension process will move even faster if you start it online.

All in all the system is not bad at all.

I went the other day to extend my Non-O based on marriage for another year and it went FAST! id say 20 minutes to be called and hand all the paperwork over and get the 30 day decision stamp. I did my 90 day also since I was there(I usually use Rasa Tower one stop service). Total time was about 45 minutes. oh and to those that have cars here PARKING! PARKING! PARKING! There is literally infinite parking spaces at the new location so don't worry! They seem to work faster NOT using the queue system from Suan Plu. I cant really explain the new queue system, maybe someone else here can. There is one thing i noticed thats still around from Suan Plu. That lovely body odor stench!

You have to be careful with the queue system - We were next in line and a couple jumped ahead of us and put their plastic tag in the box outside the cubical and then the immigration officer proceeded to help them.

I politely showed that my tag was next and the queue jumper was asked to return to his seat.

Another interesting part was the income verification. with this year's changes I wasn't completely sure if I needed a bank balance plus an embassy letter or just one type of verification.

They took my American embassy letter and returned my bank information explaining that you only need one or the other. A word of caution - other offices may have different policies.

Next year I shall just use the bank verification as I am rarely downtown near the American consulate.

They did ask for family photos but were not strict on house numbers and so on - which is good as I just took a few photos with me that I already had.

Using True residential 12/1 in Bangkok

Vonage is fine 90

+% of the time.

On Tuesday, the wife and I made our annual excursion for a O visa extension to the new Chaeng Wattana immigration office in Bangkok.

We live not far from Ramkamhaeng university and it only took around 30 minutes on the highway just after 9. No traffic.

In the past it took around an hour to go downtown.

To do the extension, 90 day report and a reentry visa an hour and 10 minutes - done.

In the past all morning.

Summary all is well a great new office,

Much as I like the office I will do my 90 day reports by mail as before.