simple1

Yes, this place is totally lethal to a biker, i'm scared every second i drive,

primarily because of the car drivers, who don't hesitate to cross my lane

Westerners, Thai or both?

My Thai wife was recently a victim of a motor bike bag snatch in Malaysia and it happens in seconds. I had always said if this happens don't fight back & she didn't. Nobody in the street came to our aid. The Malaysian police said it's an increasing problem in the past few years and that tourists have been injured. Here in Pattaya there are obviously bag snatch incidents, as we know also Thai on Thai. Difference is that the Thai's in the street will assist and a few have been chased, caught and beaten by Thai's (at least in the Soi Nernplubwan area).

My wife will not wear gold jewelery in Pattaya, that is visible, in the street or whilst driving her motor bike; day or night.

But my peaceful bigotry doesn't include murdering those I disagree with. When something they do offends me, I don't rush out and kill somebody/anybody, who cares. Cartoons don't drive me to burning mosques, and I don't believe that they are worth less than shit on my shoe because they believe some stupid, unprovable myth.

BTW have you ever wondered when the great voice in the sky was handing down rules on eating habits, the evils of charging interest, putting a bag over your wife's head and all the other <deleted>, why he didn't mention that sex with children was a big no-no? It seems it was culturally OK at the time, and god didn't see it as a problem either? Or maybe somebody just made it all up to suit themselves?

There is no such thing as peaceful bigotry.

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Re: The OP needs to take a powder and worry about his own driving.

Absolutely, I do take complete responsibility for my driving. However, one day I may be unable to avoid an accident and cause injury or death to a child due to the utter carelessness & stupidity of another driver. Someone switching lanes with no indication & cutting across the front of your vehicle whilst traveling in heavy traffic at 50 kilometers an hour leaves very little time to take evasive action.

Sales of tickets to Paradise have increased markedly since the US military was appointed as Allah's official travel agent. The recent introduction of mobile unmanned ticketing machines is taking sales to even more remote locations, without the risk of sales staff being injured in the rush of buyers trying to get to their final destination, and is a major part of this increase - expect to see even more of them. Well, you don't actually see them, but have faith that they are there.

and normal people... women, children... can also avail of this great service, even if they don't want it.

but the risk to them isn't important eh.

It certainly doesn't matter to the animals that hide amongst them as believers will go to paradise, and non-believers deserve to die anyway - in their opinion.

When the tally of dead from drones approaches that of muslim militants, I'll begin to be concerned. Till then ICGARA.

You're professing the same level of bigotry and hatred as those you despise.

For me it's nearly daily that I have to use defensive driving when a westerner just doesn't use safe driving in Pattaya, whether it be a car or motor bike driver. What especially annoys me is the western motor bike drivers with kids as pillion passengers with no helmets. Those of us who live in Pattaya see the new white marks on the road with outlines at the accident scenes every few days or so. It's as though many western drivers think they are immune to death and injury. As I said it's the risk they expose the children in their care that I fail to comprehend.

Hua Hin is OK. Younger people seem to not like it, older people love it. Not much nightlife. Beaches are OK. Beaches further south are better, but then you're dealing with a longer drive. I've stayed at the Hilton and Marriott a few times. Marriott is a bit out of town, but great pool and great place to do nothing for a few days.

South of Pattaya you have a few options. Depends on your budget. This one get's pretty good reviews, and there are a few others near it. Can't remember the name, but I think it's sunset beach resort.

http://www.seasandsunpty.com/

Further south you could spend some time on Koh Samet. Some really nice resorts there and not too far from the airport. About 3 hours. Nice island.

As your mother has a limited disability, if you decide on Koh Samet, make sure you get a speed boat to the island from Ban Phe. Getting on and off the ferries can be a struggle for older people.

Excellent point! I haven't been to the main pier in years (usually go to Ao Nang directly), but can't you just walk off the boat onto the pier there???? Ao Nang use to require a boat transfer out to sea a bit. Not good if you have a disability.

Ao Nang is in Krabi. I think you may be referring to Vongdeaun Beach that has direct ferry from Ban Phe. Could still be an issue transferring to the boat, would depend if it's docked alongside other boats and of course if it still requires the transfer to a smaller boat/barge off the beach. Haven't been their for a while as now overrun with tourists

Hua Hin is OK. Younger people seem to not like it, older people love it. Not much nightlife. Beaches are OK. Beaches further south are better, but then you're dealing with a longer drive. I've stayed at the Hilton and Marriott a few times. Marriott is a bit out of town, but great pool and great place to do nothing for a few days.

South of Pattaya you have a few options. Depends on your budget. This one get's pretty good reviews, and there are a few others near it. Can't remember the name, but I think it's sunset beach resort.

http://www.seasandsunpty.com/

Further south you could spend some time on Koh Samet. Some really nice resorts there and not too far from the airport. About 3 hours. Nice island.

As your mother has a limited disability, if you decide on Koh Samet, make sure you get a speed boat to the island from Ban Phe. Getting on and off the ferries can be a struggle for older people.

First visit to Thailand was 1987 on a stopover from London to Sydney. Arrived late at night and next day went to the swimming pool to relax. Got talking with a UK expat executive on his way back to London from H.K. Invited me to dinner, with his wife and he very kindly bought dinner and shared some good wine. They wanted to visit a high class "bar" so I went along. Wife wasn't comfortable so they went back to the hotel and the driver was requested to pick me up later. Had a great experience and the next morning asked reception the location of the nearest beach, said "go to Pattaya"...

Trying to book Air Asia today cannot take several valid UK and OZ Visa cards

SAdly only airline on route requested price is not an issue

My friend also tried aUK card no go

While scb direct debit thingy always works we cannot pay today as bank shut any thoughts

A friend sais SCB in the cities have ATMs where you can insert cash to top up account

Any ideas welcome

We have NAB CoOp Nat West Amex and AIB ,Credit Agricole SSBC and SCB accounts,CitiBank

Is your SCB debit card Visa/Mastercard cyber enabled? With Kasikorn this has to be requested and only takes a few minutes at a branch office. You will need a Thai mobile number for OTP processing

@Suradit69: Given the number of people in law enforcement there will always be a some who don't meet the standards and professionalism of the vast majority that do so. To insinuate (in your post #8) that UK police would rather look for bribes than investigate sexual assault cases is totally out of order.

Further detail of metropolitan police officers under investigation/convicted over a three year period out of 14,000 staff at:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-19728951

I still don't understand what will happen when they find him guilty.

As stated in the news report above the focus of the police investigation is not Jimmy Savile (dead), but "As we have said from the outset, our work was never going to take us into a police investigation into Jimmy Savile," Scotland Yard said in a statement on Friday. "What we have established in the last two weeks is that there are lines of inquiry involving living people that require formal investigation."

He said the government was aiming to limit or stop the demand for drugs and as a result "no permits for night-entertainment venues to operate would be granted". He did not elaborate.

They operate without permits anyway! Just paying tea money seems to do the trick!

There is some serious money at stake here, I can't believe that they get caught the first time they do a run of this size?

Even in Western countries with sophisticated border control/Customs capabilities, governments say that they only interdict about 10% of illegal drug imports. With a major bust, street prices go up for a while until the next large import gets through.

Looks like Nok Air is ok. They state on their booking page:

"For International credit card payments (credit cards issued outside Thailand), the cardholder must present the credit card at the airport check-in counter for physical verification. Otherwise, Nok Air reserves the right to deny boarding."

That implicitly allows the Thai-produced Kasikorn Bank card....

Any thoughts?

I have used my Kasikorn cyber enabled Visa Debit Card for buying both domestic and international flights. never had any questions/issues raised at check in.

BIzarre enough Thaksin is always blamed for the incident, while the 2006 coup-maker and than army chief Sonthi was with his boots on the ground as head of the Southern operation. Thai military seem to have a pretty crooked memory. Maybe that is why they are so incredibly incompetent when it comes to the South.

Sonthi is a Thai Muslim and even he was unable to put in place policies/tactics for the resolution for the conflict in the Deep South.

I am on a retirement visa so that is one probem sorted out anyway.

I had a long talk with my wife yesterday for the umpteenth time about going to the amphur and finding out exactly what they need to know and require.

My wife is good at talking about doing but not so hot at doing what she talks about and she went off this morning boot faced and with hump to do what I asked and hopefully it will relatively simple to do. I thought I heard her say something about stupid kwai farang but my hearing monitors deleted most of that bit. Sorry dear.

AFAIK we can put everything in our sons name but she told me that th people at the amphur say that it has to be in her and his name which I don't think is correct and can only be changed every 4 years.

The wills we drew up ourselves using templates from Thai lawyers and both are in English and Thai and will need to be witnessed by 2 people before they go to the amphur. We have friends that can witness the wills but the amphur may want its own witnesses.

Just a few small points. If you have two witnesses they should sign the Wills at the Amphur whilst showing their ID. If the witnesses do not wish to travel to the Amphur, staff at the offices can witness for you and your wife. I suggest the Amphur is saying to your wife that she be named as the recipient in your Will, but in the case of your wife dying your son is the recipient. Same would apply in her Will. As I said before don't forget to have a Clause in your Wills that states the assets will belong to your son, should you both die at the same time.

Please forgive if you are already across the above...

EDIT: It sounds paranoid, but you should have the Thai translation of your Wills checked by an independent third party

Re heroin: I had a good friend in the corporate world who was a regular heroin user & you would never notice any physical effect in his working life; used it for years. One night when he was interstate on business he scored from a street prostitute. He was found dead, overdosed, the next morning in his hotel room.

@hyperdimension: The use of drugs for different experiences of "Reality" no longer interests me, so legal or otherwise I don't do drugs anymore. Regards your other comments regarding the illegal drug industry, your choice if you wish to carry on contributing, as a user, to such a destructive industry. Yes I know alcohol and the tobacco industries have a major negative impact on society, but at least they are not deliberately targeting & murdering their competition, debtors and law enforcement officers. Of course some of the damage to society is offset by government taxes on the alcohol and the tobacco industries.

Human being will always be seeking some form of pleasure by the use of stimulants/depressants, but as I said the illegal drug industry activities are just over the top. Looks like we will have to agree to disagree

.

Yes if you qualify for retirement or marriage extension of stay you can convert to the required non immigrant visa entry for 2,000 baht at immigration as the first step in that extension of stay. You can not do outside of extension of stay reasons and you should have at least 15 days remaining on your current entry stay.

Regards your comment of 15 days for current entry stay. I has my passport stolen overseas and am not expecting to obtain the full replacement passport until the last few days or so of the 30 day tourist entry visa I received with the emergency passport on my re-entry to Thailand. Does this mean I have to depart Thailand & obtain another 30 day visa on arrival back into Thailand or what is a more cost effective method for compliance?

EDIT: I had an O visa extension based upon retirement

@hyperdimension. As already stated by a few posts in this topic, the risk to the majority in taking MDMA is that it is impure. The various stats you have quoted will no doubt be carried out by researchers using pure MDMA. You have stated you are able to acquire relatively pure MDMA - your choice. But please stop harping on about the joys of MDMA on this forum as I can just about guarantee any MDMA/ecstasy bought in Thailand will not be pure & heavily cut and manufactured with the equivalent of YaBa that is dangerous, physiologically addictive and very destructive within Thai society. Illegal drug manufacturers/distributors in Thailand and on the borders use murder (regularly) and corruption as tools of their trade.

Fine for you in the relative safety of a western country, but again as you well know major illegal commercial scale drug manufacturers & distributors in Western countries also use murder and intimidation as a standard business practice. Your personal friendly local dealer may not do so. If this is fine by you, OK. However, I recommend you need to take a long hard look in the mirror regards a trade that you seem to be supporting. Just like I did when I was involved in illegal drugs, when a friend of mine was murdered during a drug deal a number of years ago in the U.K. I came to the realisation that I had been extremely naive regards the illegal drug industry and stopped taking illegal drugs.

You were very lucky as this was not my experiance at pattaya. The female imigration officer was not at all polite in fact she said and i quote, why you not let wife fill in (you stupid ). may have got her on a bad day

but i had to return three times to get my passport back .I was told its not back from Bangkok each time.

so i have gone back to retire visa . Quick and easy and pleasant officer each time.

With immigration at Jomtien I wanted to apply for visa extension based upon marriage (married 17 years) & I was actively discouraged by the female officer at the back of the room. She said don't you have 800k baht for retirement visa and showed me a pile of marriage extension requests with all the paperwork attached. Not so subtle hint that she considered it a major pain in the neck to process. Got the retirement visa within 15/30 minutes.

One thing I have learned when I was in Thailand. Never rent or operate a vehicle in Thailand unless it is an emergency. When I did drive I always expecting the unexpected like, chickens, dogs, elephants, kids running out in the road at anytime, illegal parked cars, sudden stops in front, crater holes on the road, and of course wear the useless helmet in case there is an unfortunate accident. There really is no reason to drive unless you live in Thailand. Public transportation is cheap and usually reliable and reasonably safe. Just my thoughts and observations I could be wrong.

Was you on LSD?

Rbrooks post is correct. People arriving from Western countries are not familiar with Thai traffic conditions/driving style and the sometimes poorly maintained roads. Even in Pattaya when their is a rut/hole in the road someone will just put a plastic bucket or insert a tree branch to warn drivers in the actual hole, not before - if they can be bothered. Add to this the ridiculous driving test standards for issuing a license it's a recipe for disaster. Nearly every day I see the aftermath of an accident; new white marker outlines on the roads.

I drive a car in & around Pattaya & it's an absolute must that at all times to use "defensive driving" techniques. Of course this cannot stop people rear ending your vehicle due to tailgating - this has happened to me twice by motorbike drivers in the past six months.