nivram4491

My step daughter, who is a Thai citizen, has studied 2 years of IT engineering at Mae Fah Luang University.

She has an extra long summer break because of ASEAN.

I have a good friend in Taiwan whose uncle owns a huge hospital in Taichung. I want my step daughter to go to Taichung as a tourist and volunteer work in the hospital to improve her English. My step daughter would be looked after by my freind and his wife, who is also a good friend of mine.

My Google search gives different results for a visa to Taiwan for a Thai citizen. Can anyone tell me how difficult it would be for her to get a visa, the cost and how many days she can get, 60 days would be ideal?

Seems a bit like dirty pool to me..... like changing the rules after the ball game has started and the home team finds themselves behind.

One might have thought that they would say , ok we're stopping the program for new enrollees but will honor the agreement for those already on board.

But to not think things thru and then find out ...... uuhhh ohhh I'm behind so I think I will quit the game now ...... that's reeks of dirty pool.

Then to offer a refund BUT charge for services rendered that would have been included in the original agreement and deduct from the Insurance fee paid, and unilaterally cancelled is just wrong.

This just bothers me to think and say it , but is this another example of "Thainess"????

I totally disagree with this. I got the insurance because it was such a great deal - too good to be true when compared to health insurance for the aged in Thailand. What usually happens in these too good to be true schemes is that money is quickly skimmed off the top and then the scheme fails and a lot of participants lose their money. That is not the case here. The government realized that the scheme was unsustainable and stopped it quickly, enabling them to refund the money. What is wrong with charging for services rendered? Nobody got cheated. The same services at the commercial hopspitals would probably cost at least ten times as much.

I believe that the scheme was meant for migrant workers like the Burmese. Two thousand two hundred Baht is a substantial amount for them and their medical demands would be much less than for us farangs, meaning that for them the system is much more sustainable. I hope this is a case of discrimination against us farang in that I hope the system has not been cancelled for the migrant workers who truly cannot afford to pay for medical care.

First of all be careful in Saraphi - built high - as some areas there are prone to flooding.

You have two choices here when building a house - No 1 - either you go to a building firm they name the price after seeing your plans as a turnkey project or No 2 you hire labor / foreman and purchase all building materials yourself. If you have a lot of money and want a stress free building time - go with option No 1!

But be very careful when choosing the first option because if you do not hire a reputable builder they will quote you a price for the entire building - will then of course choose the cheapest possible materials to maximize their profits - and it so happens quite frequently run out of money half way through the project - seen that many times - of course you love your new house and want to move in soon - so you keep paying..

Ask a Thai to contact your local Orbordor where they issue the building permits - the people in charge there are architects / engineers and they are happy to make a few thousand Baht on the side. Some people will try to charge you 1000 Baht/ sm2 for plans - I was quoted up to 70.000 Baht for my house plan by architects and at the end payed 6000 Baht at the local Orbortor.

After contacting several building companies who quoted us for turnkey projects - we choose the second option of hiring a builder who had quoted me a price per square meter for labor (pay only in installments according to project stage otherwise he will have no money left to pay his people!) - and we purchased all building materials - in any case they will try to get as much money off you as possible - and you will need an honest Thai to handle all the purchases because if you walk into any hardware store as a Farang the price rises "slightly". Be aware of people showing up at your construction site and your builder pretends he has never met them before as he will call them and gets a cut on everything they sell to you. Then again if you think they offer value for money go with them - it keeps the builder happy.

If the person doing the purchasing is your Thai partner - be prepared to come as close to a divorce as you can ever get! hahaha....... it is a lot of stress - but it pays off at the end. I had an incredible Thai project manager - he /she is the most important person for you to liaise with the builder.

There are a thousand things to think of - cement, bricks, sand, gravel, steel - those are the easy ones we where lucky and had a supplier - reasonably priced - near us who delivered "free" within an hour of calling him. The stress comes later when you start dealing with the little details!

Do not built under time constraint - always allow extra time for everything and always calculate in delays otherwise you make yourself crazy!

All of the contractors / subcontractors will tell you they can do anything - if possible check out some of their previous projects and look at the little details - if your builder hires the subcontractors he will never pay them what he tells you they always take a cut sometimes up to 50 % - you can imagine how motivated the subcontractors are! - If possible find the people like electricians, tile layers, painters yourself.

Do not listen to sales people or others who recommend certain products from large companies as superior to those of smaller ones as it is mostly stupid made up stories circulated by the big companies - avoid a certain big roof-tile company like the plague! Ask people who have built houses here themselves for advise - they don't make money of you and will answer to their best ability.

Hope that helps - Good luck!

This is fantastic advice. One of the best posts I have ever seen on building advice.

It might be an idea to build up a knowledge base of honest and reliable managers, concrete builders, roof steel wotkers, tilers, plumbers (I know they are rare or perhaps nonexistent), electricians (ditto the previous comment) etc. Method 2 would be a much better option if you had the required knowledge but would probably take a long time to build the house.

I use a mortar and pestle to roughly break up the cinnamon and then a dry mill (on the right) that comes as a part of most blenders. Then seive the milled cinnamon and repeat milling for the bigger peeces that don't pass through the seive the first time.

A 17 square meter round earh bag cottage built in Thailand by Owen Geiger for a material cost of around 62,000 Baht is shown below. Google earthbag buildings Owen Geiger and you will find a heap of material.

I notice the flat roofs, presumably concrete. Does the upper floor keep reasonably cool or is there a lot of heat transmitted down from the ceiling in the late afternoon?

the roof is coated with a product that is always cool to the touch and I have a number is stainless steel pumpkins on the roof for heat to escape

Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect Thailand

Is there are gap between the roof and the internal ceiling? Also by stainless sreel pumpkins do you mean these whirly birds?

I notice the flat roofs, presumably concrete. Does the upper floor keep reasonably cool or is there a lot of heat transmitted down from the ceiling in the late afternoon?

first time is 2 months, after that it is always 3 months before you go to extend.

You can use the combo method, in that case money doesn't have to be seasoned.

I think the combo method is changing to 3 months as well. I just got my extension last week in Chiang Mai using the combo method without having the money in the bank for 3 months and was told that next year I would have to have the money in the bank for 3 months for my extension.

I was at Rimping Meechok today and they had ball jars, but very, very large ones.

Makro has a reasonable supply and varieties of sizes, also.

you might also check Home Pro. I've seen them there, from time to time.

Thanks. I found some jars at Makro Hang Dong that will do the job. They do not have screw tops but a clamping system that does the job, similar to the one shown below.

And I thought I knew every thing that is in Makro. I have been in that area upstairs many times but have never laid eyes on the jars before.

Is it possible to buy Mason Jars (which are used for canning) in Chiang Mai?

The 'news' forum is a cesspit of idiots repeating the same 5 clichéd arguments. Half the time im not sure if someone is being serious, or satirical in their post.

.................... I have noticed some of them disappearing only to come up again under another name. I think it is the moderators giving them a certain amount of rope and then pulling the chair out from under them.......

Yes exactly. Like hellodolly and northernjohn for example.

I live near Hang Dong. Normally I get 13 - 15 Mbp on speedtest.net on my 13 Mbp 3BB connection but now I am getting 2.5 Mbp.

My 3BB internet speed is back to normal again this morning. I'm getting 15.39 Mbs down and 1.07 Mbs up.

I live near Hang Dong. Normally I get 13 - 15 Mbp on speedtest.net on my 13 Mbp 3BB connection but now I am getting 2.5 Mbp.

I am using Maige TV in Bangkok, it works great, bought from china, no issues at all, thought about super english but hard to find reviews

Great to hear this. I bought the Super English IPTV box from IPTV Thailand last year and it was a total waste of money. It didn't work and there was no service as the seller could not be contacted when there was a problem.

How much did you pay for the system in Baht? Any problems in buying direct from China? Any problems renewing your subscription at the end of 1 year? What download speed does your Internet Provider supply?

My understanding is that the servers that you are using are not in Thailand but in various countries in South East and South Asia.

The maximum daily amount for Aeon is 20,000 Baht and unless you are lucky there is usually a fee at the international end (Australia in my case). So AEON is not convenient for larger amounts. For 20,000 Baht Aeon is very good, with fair exchange rates but my Australian bank charges $4 AUD per transfer.

I received a special offer from my Australian bank for free international transfers. Very convenient considering my visa extension is due shortly. The offer is shown below. I removed the bank's name with Photoshop.

And the catch is?

Always read the fine print! *Excluding AUD currency

The Australian bank exchange rate at that time was 26.86 Baht per AUD. My Thai bank's rate at the same time was 28.60 Baht per AUD. The difference is 1.74 Baht per dollar. The normal international transfer is $22 AUD for this particular bank or around 630 Baht. This means that any transferred amount above $360 AUD will cost more using the special offer. How many people do an international money transfer for less than $360 AUD or 10,000 Baht?

Also they design their International Transfer Web page in such a way that transferring in Thai Baht is the default. Some effort is required to change the money sent to AUD. It is very easy to get trapped unless you are wary.

Always do the currency conversion in Thailand rather than overseas.

Mike was very helpful, when I needed statement regarding my pension. I took along the Centrelink printout and he converted it to Baht and did a covering letter.

Were you able to use this for your annual retirement visa extension? I thought you had to go to the Australian Embassy in Bangkok for an income statement for a retirement visa rctension.

This might be of interest to you:

http://jetsetcitizen.com/cheap-travel/doi-suthep-hike/

Great link! Thank you very much. Makes it easy to do on your own not having to enter a competition as to who is the fastest. There are many sights and sounds to enjoy whilst doing a leisurely walk.

Does Astro Sport show the same televised NRL (National Rugby League in Australia) games as Setanta on True Visions?

Have we actually established the veracity of this whacky tale yet?

Yes, we have done our duediligence; would be crazy to publish something like this without doing so. It is ugly, but is one woman's attitude, hence our agreement with the university in question to later remove their name from the article. The reason we decided to publish it is that she is in fact a head of department and has influence upon the young. She also posted this on a very public forum and we believe it is a topic which is relevant to our times. Her comments have also sparked huge debate amongst her Thai students.

Pim Kemasingki (publisher of CityNews)

Thank you for publishing it and confirming that the story has been checked out..

The woman in question has a perfect right to say and think what she wants but the fact that she is a head of department in a university makes one wonder how she influences the students and teachers in her department. At least the university can see that her actions are not very good public relations. As long as these things are made public, in my opinion, slowly things will change. The fact that there is a huge debate amungst her Thai students is a positive sign.

The irony is that many of us farang expats living a good life in Chiang Mai are very happy to escape the political correctness from our home countries but the price we have to pay is having to accept this woman's right to post her attitude on a public forum.

'Out of sight -out of mind' is perhaps the axiom for building high walls thus making it difficult for a kamoee to 'case' your property.

One alternative to an expensive concrete wall is by planting dewarf 'buddha-belly' bamboo ( ไผ่ น้ำเต้า (phai nam tao) this variety produces an extremely gnarly cluster of dense and twisted lower culms that make a pass through near impossible for even a cat. These lower culms are very heavy and hard requiring a serious amount of work to hack ones way through it.The upper growth is thick and dense with a max. height of around 5m. Plant 4ft from your property line and 8ft apart and within 3yrs you will have a beautiful green impenetrable "wall" that will act as a air,noise & sight pollution barrier as well as an effective security parameter.

Bear in mind that this green-wall does require 'maintenance' to keep a desired shape, but in my option is worth it. This may not be practical for your entire property, however,there are many other aesthetically pleasing 'green' solutions to concrete.

In all the years I have lived here the only B&E incident in the soi took place during the rainy season, late at night and the sound of heavy rain covered-up the break where even the soi dogs were silent.

Wow, that's really useful information. I have been looking for info of this type for some time.

From what I've read, the change from 25 years residence to 35 years residence will not affect any Australian age pensioner not living in

Australia on Jan 1, 2014. However, if after Jan 1, 2014, you return to Australia and stay for more than 26 weeks, the new rules will apply if you leave Australia again to live overseas.

20+ years in Chiengmai.

20+ years in Chiangmai, and you still can't spell your hometown's name?

Chiengmai Gymkhana Club was founded in 1898. You would think that after 115 years they would be able to spell the name of the city in which it is located. Maybe you better let the club know about their spelling error.