joekicker

It occurs to me, arbiez, that your chances of moving to Thailand and no one finding out about that even though you are in daily contact with them is so close to zero as to BE zero. Someone (probably you by accident) or something will give you away. Example: Some techie at your company is trying to track down some network problem and he'll go, "Hmmmmmm, that's weird, arbiez' email shows it's coming from Thailand. I wonder why." From there, it will take him about 14 seconds to find out exactly why -- because it IS coming from Thailand. For example.

No one is giving away major sports these days. You don't just hook into a satellite signal. They're all encoded and as soon as you break the code they change it again. It is a wearisome game you cannot win, trying to keep up with the decoding. And they don't sell to individuals. With very, very rare exceptions for one event here and there, if your middleman doesn't resell it, you don't get it.

Paul. For somewhere around 1,500-2,000 baht a day you can have a great companion. Plus expenses. And you can be gay or not, up to you.

Good for you. I've about given up on my own personal mission to point out that people are sitting on the greatest database of information ever assembled in the universe, it's all free and it's even easier than starting a new message thread and putting all the information here. If they don't want to type "google", fine.

This is what I figured, that you have misunderstood. All this 180-day nonsense is only for people with NO visa. That is, if you arrive at the Bangkok airport with a US passport, they will allow you to stay for 30 days, without a visa. There's a stamp in your passport that indicates this. If you do that, you're under that 90/180 day nonsense. Anyone who has an actual visa of any kind, issued by any Thai consulate, does not come under the 180-day thingmy. I don't know what visas are available where. A multiple-entry tourist visa (good for 60 days each time you enter) is available, but I haven't a clue how to get one. A non-immigrant visa for 90 days is available and would be needed if you intend to parlay that into a one-year-at-a-time work visa after you get to Thailand. As I say, you CAN do that, you handle all the paperwork not your company. But it's up to you. In any case, if you plan to get some kind of visa in your passport, any kind, from any Thai consulate, you can forget the 180-day limits. heh. thanks. Yes, good one. It only distresses me that so many emulate him unwittingly.

Well it certainly varies, but in my home I have better service than my "high-tech" office so that's not a problem for me at least. I'm not a big satellite fan, not the iPSTAR anyhow. I'd get cable but damned if I'm going to move downtown just for that, yuck! Generally speaking, people in Thai towns including the Bangkok area can have DSL up to 1024MBits for about 1,000 a month. TOT throws in wireless for that. Well, that's the nature of torrents and plus the Thai ISPs try to throttle them. There are, um, steps you can take. I got the three football games I wanted last Monday by 3 in the afternoon, i.e. 4am New York time the night of the games, and that included Sunday night football. Live is always better, live with a DVR is best of all. I still actually use VCRs with Thailand TV. It's good to get up in the morning and watch when I want. Most baseball is in the morning here, but most other sports are overnight, i.e. afternoon in the US or evening in Europe for golf, rugby and the like. Soccer is often late evening, however, if you're into that.

Like any tax avoidance, this depends on not getting caught, of course. Under US and Thai law, you should be paying Thai taxes. There is nothing to do with 180 days. If you use that Rube Goldberg method of a 60-day visa-etc, you can go out and turn around and come back in. I think you're confused with the 30-day on-arrival "non-visa". Your plan to use a 60-day tourist visa doesn't require any absence and no one counts to 180 days. You should know that if you do that job, you can get a work permit and one-year visa and never have to set foot outside the country unless you choose. Of course it's up to you. In general, Bangkok service is superior, but I know people who live in towns all over Thailand and they all have fine Internet service including Skype. What happened five or two years ago really isn't relevant. Most of the commercial, ISP-type "broadband" Internet is ADSL and thus depends to a huge extent on the state of your telephone line. There are other types of services including satellite. There isn't much cable outside central Bangkok and the vast bulk of the very limited amount of fibre-optic is in Issan, centered on Udorn Thani..

Yes. This I agree with. If someone were to set up a Slingbox doodad in the US or Canada, I'd buy in. Actually, I do know families who are capable of doing this for me, but the selfish baxtards want to watch TV of their own instead of letting me use their TV set. I watch live stuff all the time on the Internet, usually on those "free TV" thingmys like TUV, which works very well for me, I often have TUV on, just droning away with the news. There is sports on there, but it's not dependable since you're never sure if the US ESPN, say, or NBC is going to be up and running today. I get most of my sports right now from Torrents. Everything is available, very quickly. I often burn to DVD and watch on TV; I'm just not into watching on the computer if I don't have to. The drawback is you have to avoid the sports news for a couple of days while you get and then watch the games. I can get watchable live baseball and football from MLB, Yahoo and NFL, all three. I consider it expensive, though.

The Green Tree has quite good Thai food.

For a working stiff with a salaried job and not much else as described in the original post, there is no need of professional advice. It's pretty simple. If you live in Thailand, you have to pay income tax in Thailand on your earned income, pretty much as you would in the US. Any "in kind" payment like school fees or help with the rent is income, to both countries. Thai tax forms are pretty simple but you'll want some help filling one in around, oh, February, because, surprisingly, they are in Thai. Actually, the tax people at each amphur (district) office are quite good at helping on this, and on occasion I have just brought along all my receipts and pay details and let them do mine. YMMV. The countries have a tax treaty. The income taxes you pay in Thailand can come off the gross earnings you must report to the IRS in the United States each year. If adjusted gross (including minus Thai income taxes) is less than $93,000, you are not liable to pay US taxes. "93,000" is adjusted every so often, something you are almost certain to be aware of if you live and work in Thailand but on which you certainly don't require profession help, since the IRS is happy to tell you. If you are MORE than just a working stiff getting a salary or regular part-time income, you may want to ask some guy with a degree who gets paid a lot more than you do per hour. If that's the case, and you're going to pay someone anyway, I would be far more inclined to hire an American tax preparer, there are grazillions around the area including in Thailand, and just sign the forms, instead of paying for advice and trying to muddle through it yourself for hours and hours.

Reality check, aqua: That is what you got on your connection at the moment you tested. At a different time, say 10 seconds before or after, you would get a different result. A different person across town, at exactly the same moment, would get a different result. If we had a couple of hundred tests at the same time, it would INDICATE what was going on at that time, but still wouldn't be all that indicative of what we might expect tonight. Just for fun I did the same test on my True line that's rated a little faster and more expensive than yours: Download Speed: 1883 kbps (235.4 KB/sec transfer rate) Upload Speed: 417 kbps (52.1 KB/sec transfer rate) That is at 6:15 in the morning. In two hours, that will be quite a different download speed, I imagine, but the only way I'll know is to test it in two hours. Presuming you have a router, which you usually do with the TOT accounts, they are not wrong. Note "not wrong". It is possible and in my view superior to use the router as your firewall, just because hardware is always superior to software in security. That doesn't mean they are right, but if you have a router, they are not wrong. I have no idea about your specific setup, Alan, but it is possible that Zone Alarm is your main problem if you have chronic problems, repeat POSSIBLE.

For what you have described, Bangkok Internet is much more than adequate. Skype is fine, just for example. There are certain steps you need to take if you DEPEND on the Net, but those are easy, and easily determined and implemented. The visa is your problem. Depending on the job and company, you may qualify for a non-immigrant visa and work permit. All things are possible, though. If I wanted to do exactly what you are thinking of doing, I would do it. In fact in the past I have done pretty well what you're describing, with all legality. It's just a question of how much you want it and how flexible you might be in dealing with the problems in a new and therefore alien place.

Er. Did you notice the flag at the name of the OP? It's nice to know about Slingbox, but you just gave him Rube Goldberg instructions on how to rig a complicated and costly device so he can watch Thai TV from his Thai home in LOS. The way he watches local TV from his home in LOS is... he turns on the TV.

Very cold (ice on the outside of the bottle) in an iced glass if you use glasses. It cannot be too cold until it actually freezes, at which point it's sxit, take it back! Colder the better, and yes it makes me drink more beer. I'll be interested in the responses to this. I'm betting there won't be a consensus at all.

Boy, this is a tough one. We don't want to be pestered, but we want girls to be friendly. I don't want a girl to come to me until I'm into my first drink at the very earliest. But here's the tough part: If one comes over, I might say "no" because I don't want her but I want a girl who's "better" OR I might want to be left alone to yack with my friends, or just left alone. I don't know how you or the girls can tell that. I think maybe the best policy for you is to tell the girls that if the first one is sent away, then wait for the customer to call one.

Jeez, I swear no one can keep track of all the new hotels that open in this city. The area is very good for BMs, it is possible to spend 4 days and never sit at a red traffic light for the whole time. A colleague who has been inside has just told me it's a decent budget hotel and seems very clean, if the public rooms are any indication. I had a look at the web site and I consider that Internet price is way out of line, but up to you and there are only about nine jillion Internet cafes in the area if you want to do that. So all in all, seems quite good, although you didn't say what price you got.

Wow, that used to be the standard citizenship language test. Sounds like a hard marker there. Never heard of that happening, although they can do what they want, of course. Was this in Bangkok or.....???

Fair enough, I stand properly rebuked.

Thanks so much for posting this. The only other way we could know this would be the active thread that started two hours ago. Jeez.

Exactly right. Park your money by all means, but do not expect to see it grow.

His name is Gary. He isn't correct about this. I know about 50 people with resident visas, and have come in contact with a lot more than that. Here is an unofficial translation of guidelines from the immigration folks about the mechanics of it. I was wrong, by the way, about the huge payment, which is NOT for the application but for the actual visa. First, though, let me repeat something I've written many times here in many ways. "Rules" here are... pliable. Gary could well have been told absolutely that you have to speak Thai for a residence visa. It may be that the guy/gal in charge of the office where he goes will absolutely not give a residence visa to someone who doesn't speak Thai. Down the road, hell, ACROSS the road you may find a different rule. When the office chief changes, you may find a different rule. And there are always, ALWAYS exceptions to the rules. I hope this helps: The annual quota for granting permanent residency in Thailand is a maximum of 100 persons per country. The Interior Minister is responsible for issuing the announcement each year that the quota is open for submission of applications, usually from in December. The Immigration Commission has the power to define all regulations concerning permanent residency. The Immigration Bureau is the agency that handles all procedures concerning permanent residency applications. Qualifications of an applicant: 1. An applicant must have received permission for yearly stays in Thailand on a non-immigrant visa for at least of three years prior to the submission of an application for permanent residency. Holders of multiple NON-Immigrant visas can not appy. You must have 3 consecutive yearly extensions in order to qualify. 2. An applicant must be holding a non-immigrant visa at the time of submitting an application. Documents required The list of required documents, including Visa type, depends on the category under which the application is made. Investment, Business, Expert, or married to a Thai Fees: Application for a residence permit, non-refundable - 7,600 Approval of a residence permit (payable on receipt of residence book) - 191,400 baht Approval of a residence permit (payable on receipt of residence book) for a foreigner married to a Thai, the spouse of a resident, and any of their children who have not reached the status of a Thai juristic person (i.e., unmarried children aged below 20 years) 95,700 baht. The Thai Immigration Bureau has set quotas for all expatriates applying for residence permits at 100 persons per nationality. All foreigners may qualify to apply for a Permanent Residence permit if he or she - 1. Holds a passport of his/her current nationality, which was granted a Non-Immigrant visa, and the individual has been permitted to stay in Thailand for at least 3 subsequent consecutive years by 1-year visa extensions up to the application submission date. 2. Has personal qualifications that meet one or more of the following categories: 1) Investment category (minumum 3 - 10 Mil. Baht investment in Thailand) 2) Working/ Business category 3) Support a family or Humanity Reasons category: He/she must have relationship with a Thai citizen or an alien who already possesses a residence permit and is - - A legal husband or wife - A legal father or mother - A child who is under 20 years of age up to the submission date of application and must be single 4) Expert / academics category 5) Other categories Submission period for the Residence permit applications- The applicants can submit the applications once a year. Recently, the opening date for the applications has been in December. Due to the extensive information required in, and with the application, it would be best to start preparing the required documents 1-2 months earlier. Once opening date for applications is announced, applications can be submitteduntil the last working day of the year. The results are usually announced in May of the next year, and the residence permits will be issued in December of that year. If approved, a residence blue book is issued to the foreigner. The new Permanent Resident permit holder must register their place of residence in Thailand at the local Amphur Office and obtain a house card. 7 days after receipt of the residence certificate he/she then applies for an alien book (red book) at the local police station. And he/she must re-register there every year - the fee is 200 Baht. ..... An alien with permanent residency status will be eligible to apply for Thai citizenship after 10 consecutive years under this classification.

A red book is a decent thing to have. It's sort of like a green card. But in the past 15 years or so they have become less lovely to have, because now you will still require a work permit. Some guys, grandfathered thank goodness, have books that ARE like green cards and can work anywhere, change jobs -- basically are, legally speaking, Thais who can't vote and require an exit visa (like a re-entry) when leaving Thailand. Go ahead and look into it. The application fee has gone up again and is horrendous. You don't have to speak Thai, Gary, you're thinking of citizenship, although speaking Thai won't hurt you and frankly if you want to be a resident you should speak Thai, why not? There is not that much advantage. You don't have to go through the annual application stuff, but you do have to report annually and get a stamp, just to prove you're still alive more or less. Immigration and its website have lots of info. The 100-person rule can be and frequently is waived if you have the right connections, which you should have if you're thinking of being a full-fledged Thailand resident.

No. Not in a savings account. For six months or even more, you won't make back cost-of-living rise.

Some or most banks won't open an account, but you can find one what will. Savings accounts pay virtually no interest and only are a place to park money, nothing else.

It's the same as the purpose of any bank. It gives loans.