Why shell out millions of baht to buy a house or pay inflated condo prices when you can rent a decent home relatively cheaply?

Rent and you won't stand to lose a small fortune should decide eventually that Thailand is not the paradise you imagined. There are worrying signs that we falangs are generally less popular here than we used to be. At grass roots level, one has only to scan the correspondence columns of Thai newspapers to gain an insight into what the "ordinary" people thinks of us. We are blamed for everything from wrecking the Thai economy to destroying their morals.

More worryingly, government spokesman are adding fuel to the fire. One recently accused us of turning Thai women into prostitutes. Not surprisingly, government agencies are taking a cue from their political masters. Over the last year or so the immigration authorities have well and truly jerked the welcome mat from under our feet. Visa fees have been hiked to record levels and one now needs twice as much money in the bank to obtain a marriage visa.

Hardly a month passes without someone erecting another barrier for us to crawl over. An example is the insistence by some immigration offices on 90 day reports being made personally and not by post. Bad news if applied to falangs living in Hua Hin. To reach their relocated immigration office they have to negotiate a road potholed as a Somme battlefield. One gathers the building was gifted to the police by a local developer whose houses for sale line the sides of the soi. Surprise, surprise.

Then there is the new edict which dictates that any falang rash enough to take his Thai wife out of Thailand must report with her to their local immigration overlords within 24 hours of re-entering the country. Small wonder we are all starting to feel jet-lagged.

"If they don't want us here why the hel_l don't they just say so," ranted an expat friend of mine recently. My guess is they will - when it suits them. Meanwhile, I have put my plans to build a home for my Thai wife and five children on ice and settled for staying in our rented home for the foreseeable future. All the signs are that the current worrying situation is unlikely to improve. Indeed it may well deteriorate when the present liberal and enlightened monarch is no longer with us and the xenophobic "nationalists" waiting in the wings are given their head.

I agree about renting. Your fears about how welcome we are here may be exaggerated and overstated, but perhaps not.

Over the last year or so the immigration authorities have well and truly jerked the welcome mat from under our feet.

Not from under mine or anybody I know, but maybe from under the feet of some on the lam from various con jobs, scams, fake bankruptcies, morals charges etc.

Bad news if applied to falangs living in Hua Hin. To reach their relocated immigration office they have to negotiate a road potholed as a Somme battlefield.

Golly, it takes 6 minutes more in your air con taxi to get there. Life is hard, then you die. Woe is us!

To reach their relocated immigration office they have to negotiate a road potholed as a Somme battlefield.

potholes apart , it is a very strange location for the immigration office.

there was more than enough space for expansion in the town centre police station where they used to be located , why move to new and presumably expensive premises miles away from anywhere in the middle of a (falang ??) housing development construction site.

there seems no logic to it ?

Went to do our first 90 day report on Monday, went just after lunch as previous visits found this to be the best time as confirmed by one of the lovely immigration ladies there. They seem to be making a serious effort to improve some stretches of the road, but anyway, from the waterfall road where we live it only took just 20 minutes despite holiday traffic going through the town centre, we were in and out in just five minutes with both our extensions safely in the passport and including some friendly conversation with the official. Perhaps if you go in with a smile, exchange friendly conversation with them you'll be like us and have no hassle as we have had in three prior visits to them.

I managed to enjoy a cold Chang while I awaited the person ahead of me. What an ordeal.

:up:

I wonder what planet posters like yourselves are on - but not for too long.

Why do you bother to 'report'?

I post mine and have done so for several years. maybe you enjoy the six minute trek up soi Somme