joekicker

The 90-day rule refers only to people who do not have a stamped visa, i.e. people who arrive in Thailand without a visa and get a 30-day stay. Put another way: It has no affect in any manner on people who have a stamped visa when they arrive.

Your first two statements and your last statement are not logically connected. I don't think you've quite got the plot. In 1980, I got 20 baht for one dollar. By your logic, 34 to 1 is a huge improvement in the dollar's favour and of course the Thai baht has gone totally into a handbasket.

If I was to offer any advice it would be to research the industry in Thailand quite thoroughly before commiting yourself. There are a lot of rogue employers/agencies around that are best avoided and they aren't all Thai by any stretch of the imagination. The above should be required to appear as every third post in this thread. Just lovely. On Chinese, I'm a little laid-back. This all happed from Taiwan in the past. Yes it is different times, but most Thais still think how locked-in and limited you are with Chinese. It's about the same as Japanese, which also was a fad language in the 1970s when Japan was obviously going to be the world's biggest economic power.

tigerpiss, you're in the right place, I think. There is a HUGE archive of information and background and travel tips here. After you've absorbed some of it, dive in -- ask questions, give opinions. Very good people here with lots of ideas and even, very occasionally, an actual fact slips in.

Spoilsport! That place is one of the biggest hoots in Thailand. Thanks for the great pix.

I have a friend who has been doing this for... hmmm must be 25, going on 30 years. Hotels are his big business, but he does other companies. Makes a decent living, has some very good academic connections, lives in Isan when he's paying, and anywhere else in Thailand when someone else is. He was one of the original freelancers who carved out a niche and just stayed in it. I think there are not a lot of people who do this, but if you have some sticktoitiveness you can do okay for sure. Plus you don't have to put up with bored kids for a whole year at a time.

My IMPRESSION is that if you don't teach English, you do okay. If you teach physics or history or engineering, it's a decent job. That's an opinion based on anecdotes only. Also the real and qualified teachers who teach real subjects (not pidgin) in real schools often seem to enjoy their work. Most are in international schools these days, I think, but there are some in Thai schools, especially the elite ones.

You can say that again. No, wait, you just did! And I'm glad someone finally did. Wandering into Thailand and teaching English is a mug's game. It's like being a vacuum cleaner salesman in the 1960s. You MIGHT get by, but you almost certainly will not enjoy your job, and you will definitely not enjoy any benefits, job security and the like. Exceptions exist, but they are few and far between. You'd do better getting into pyramid sales. Sell Revlon door to door, maybe you'll meet a nympho housewife. Specific teaching of specific things in Thailand can be rewarding, in all senses of the word. Most teaching jobs worth shix are in uni. Of course, being an unpaid volunteer teacher at the orphanage can be very rewarding. But the teaching-English game is not a good one if you're planning on eating regularly and getting out of the rain. The supply vastly outstrips the demand, and the supply is treated very badly. And here's the worst part. If you're actually a GOOD teacher, the schools don't care, they'll treat you like the crap-teachers anyhow. You get screwed but you never get kissed. Only confirmed masochists should apply.

Online, anything is possible. But again, on YOUR computer, this can only happen if your own security is wanting (Internet cafes is a different threat level). Online banking is pretty safe. You have to keep out the scum who want to hide in your computer and wait to steal your password/etc. A good firewall, as I said, is the first good step. Make sure your computer is clean, with adware/virus detectors -- because the threat there is that a rogue download or web page will plant a listening device. 1. this is rare. 2. A computer with a decent firewall (ZoneAlarm or something of that quality) and getting scanned with anti-adware and anti-virus programs is about as safe as anything can be while connected to the Internet. Lots of people do what you want to do, in reasonable safety.

Any danger has little to do with the source of the Internet. You have to secure the computer you use, with a firewall first of all plus other security systems. The REAL danger is that some axxhole will put something on your machine and let you function as a spam-bot, say. That can happen no matter whether you are on a secure circuit or a public Wi-Fi system. It is up to YOU to protect yourself, and also to realise that once you connect to the Internet on any computer at any time, your computer is instantly insecure. But the imagine "danger" of most stories is that someone will get into your computer and find all the Swiss bank account numbers and the pictures of you with 7-year-old boys to use as blackmail against you. I think about 99.58% of people don't have all that exciting stuff than anyone would bother stealing. One of my main personal security tactics is to make sure there is nothing on my computer worth stealing. That is, if you got all my information from all of my computers, it wouldn't affect my life negatively. You couldn't tap my bank account or use my credit cards, for example. All of that said, there are MANY insecure things online, however, and as a columnist wrote recently the best guard is the software your parents gave you on your birthday.

Thanks so much. Restaurant reviews are fabulous, but I do like the pics that actually show it.

Yep. It is.

Oh good, a game. If I am a teacher, I teach manners. You didn't ask if I were a teacher, so I guess I don't have to tell you. You know what? You are absolutely right. I am not accountable. Why would I be? Great picture, don't you think? Or do you? Think, I mean.

It's possible although not mandatory that I would answer a question if you asked one. If you search the dusty archives of this thread, you will see you forgot to ask one amidst the vitriol. I don't know what you get out of this, but you seem to be so consumed that you don't even know what you've previously done.

Does the word "stereotype" ring a bell at all? Just a guess, for what it's worth: I guess you wouldn't tell us the details of your research if asked. I've seen more errors in one sentence before, but not recently. I'm sure you could do better. A search for clues would help, as you appear to have found none at all.

Koh Chang is an excellent place to visit, but remember you need to take your own, if you get my drift.

You're welcome. We'll see if the original poster has any thank-yous to hand out, shall we? In my opinion, he was stirring anyhow, but we shall see.

Just to be clear, I don't mind a little nationalist fervour, but horses-for-courses and all. This subject is just airplanes fer crissakes. As I say, everyone has a hobby horse and for a lot of people it's the companies who make airplanes, apparently. Me, I can get emotional about the actual birds, but not the People In Suits responsible for them, whatever accent they have. But again, that's me. If people have to go at it, they have to, I guess. Lord knows I own a couple of hobby horses, just different ones. I'm not complaining, just saying. I take your flag comment. I can be a very nationalist person at times; at others I'm global or better. I think one of the very bad habits I got out of some time ago was getting mad at PEOPLE because of their nationality, even the nationalistic ones from countries who governments I despise. I try to stay pixxed, if I must be pixxed at all, at the leaders who made the countries that way. Most people are pretty decent and some people are absolute dregs who should have been suffocated some time ago -- wherever you go. There's no country without prisons because there's no country without cretinous axxholes.

And if I read posts by ... um, certain other people I am equally well informed about exactly the opposite, and only the opposite. Unremittingly. And not a single poster has any influence over whether Boeing doesn't or it does. I'm sorry, but to me, it's like bragging/bitxhing about your ancestors. None of us deserves any credit/blame for what happened when we weren't even alive. I'd rather know the facts of what's going on in the business of making inanimate objects. I don't even see the point of showing a flag, let alone waving it. But most folks here disagree. No boblum. Everyone needs an obsession. Please. Resume your bickering. I may drop by and collect blood from time to time.

Totally agree with that. He seems to have a lot of facts, very good background and a distinct air of "let the facts speak for themselves." I like reports that let me make up my mind. This is definitely one, and the blog is excellent in general.

Not sure what anyone "contributing" here can do about it, one way or another. For any fact-lovers that might be around, the best, most-informative reporting I have seen at this particular stage is here: http://flightblogger.blogspot.com/2007/08/...unities-on.html

Er, no, you're talking about a woman who is in the United States and has been there for a while. Or at least that's the subject of this thread. The only reason I took the Miss Universe example is that it is a well-known example that shows that Thai divorces go on and on and are very aggravating and time-consuming. If this woman in America contests the divorce, the guy is in trouble in several different ways, that's the point. The advice to come back to Bangkok is BAD advice unless she totally agrees to the divorce, in all aspects. THEN it is good advice.

Hmmm. I would have thought that when you arrived in Pattaya, that is just when the pipe-laying really gets started.

The last sentence is the main point in this thread. So far the lady has agreed to zilch, and the OP seems to be convinced she won't. If she doesn't agree, Thailand is no more pleasant about divorce than anywhere else, but it can take a lot longer. Civil divorce suits are not settled in a hearing next week, not by any means. I do agree the man has the upper hand, but not anything like freedom, not in a court case. Just ask Miss Universe if the Central Department Store owner "just walked away" from her when he got stupid again, heh.

So after you spent some time in Pattaya your intelligence improved and your realised how hugely silly your post was. Good.