joekicker

Yes. Appreciate the correction. If we're going to be correct here, might as well be really correct. The visa is what you get from a Thai consul(ate). Everything else isn't a visa. .

Nuts. Beat me to it. .

If you return to the country before your visa expires, then everything's fine. There is no limit on how long you can be out IF you have a re-entry. As MM says, the re-entry expires the day your visa expires. Come back before that, and it is as if you didn't leave. Come back the day after, and you're a 30-day tourist as said. 15 weeks or 51 weeks are fine IF the visa is still valid. EVERYTHING here depends on the date your visa expires. A multiple re-entry visa lasts ONLY as long as your current visa. .

Yes of course it was the BBC that turned the tide. Russia never had a chance until the BBC torpedoed Britain and the whole world turned against the British for the World Cup. Do you really believe that codswallop? .

Yep, and vice-versa for those who like Hua Hin, basically. These twain don't meet all that often. You don't have to go to Bangkok to drive to Hua Hin by car. Although I think by bus you either go to Bangkok for two buses or take several buses in a long journey bypassing it. I agree about the weather, even though the Gulf doesn't often (or ever) get REALLY horrible. It's in a pretty good lee, which is why there's never been a hurricane/typhoon in the area. Still, a boat that size could be an adventure in the monsoon season. .

They've done this before in various ways - ferry, hydrofoil, whatever. There are just very few people who 1. want to go between these two places 2. without their car. You get to the other end and there you are, on the pier. The catamaran trip you describe is about the same as a trip by car, in fact it should be faster by car, even an hour faster. And then when you've got to the other end you have, you know, transportation. I can't imagine there are enough tourists to be interested. I can't imagine enough residents supporting it. Sounds like something you might like to do once for the halibut. I can't see this as profitable. Wouldn't mind being wrong, it's a nice little service. .

So the Chicago Olympics are going to be held in Rio, and the US World Cup is going to be held in Qatar. That Obama guy is on a sports roll, and that's not mentioning he got 8 stitches playing basketball with boys, and the next day only played with girls. I wouldn't mention that. .

No comment necessary, really. Bangkok Post Fri 03 Dec 2010 Cobra suspected in Norwegian man's death CHON BURI: Police believe a Norwegian businessman found dead in his hotel room was bitten by a poisonous cobra he had been keeping. Per Christian Lindgaard, 60, was found on his bed yesterday with what appeared to be bites on his body in his room at a hotel in Bang Lamung district. He was believed to have been dead for at least three days before his body was discovered. There were no traces of a struggle. However, a cobra, measuring about one metre long, was found near his bed. It took police and hotel staff about 20 minutes to catch the snake. Many photos of the victim posing with snakes were found in the room. Oranuch Prasit-an, 34, a hotel cleaner, said Lindgaard had brought a cobra to his room and complained he had been bitten two or three days previously.

sigh. jacko - that is EXACTLY why I opted you out. Exactly. And for writing "Almost everyone expects a thanks," I got reamed by you for being smartaxx. And for NOT doing that I got reamed by for knowing everyone. One or the other, jacko. Not both. By the way: You haven't noticed publicly that I haven't said a word about what I (don't) give. So I'll stick with "almost everyone" if that's okay with you -- or if it's not okay with you, too. .

This is not in dispute, nor did I even mention it after you did, because it is not controversial. What I said is that (pretty well) everyone who gives charity is expecting something back, if only the warm-hearted feeling of helping. The Thais (and other Buddhists) have this merit idea, and probably had it before the Church of England invented it for the Sunday pass-the-plate exercise, but it's the same thing. And Muslims have mandatory charity. And Americans love to feel they are the biggest-hearted people in the world and are hurt when they go unthanked. The politicians expect your vote. The rich expect a tax break. "Superman" there on the magazine expects more viewers. As Yul Brynner put it, "et cetera, et cetera, et cetera''. And to put it another way: I do not dispute for a millisecond that Thais expect something back. I'm saying that so does everyone. The OP does or we wouldn't have this thread. For example. BTW, I wasn't being smartaxx. You should know that. .

You and three other people, then. Truly, jacko: Almost everyone expects a thanks. Some even start posts to write in forums about it. And if you don't give because it makes YOU feel good about the giving, then I suspect you're unique. .

Totally unbelievable. Why would a crowd pack Yankee Stadium to see the Pope and Pelosi? .

Nope, that'd be Ebytown, sister to Waterloo. The Taj is one of those bucket list items. It's well worth it, like the sunrise at Angkor Wat and the Korean DMZ under the right (tense) circs. It's one hell of a long way from Bombay, though - maybe a bit closer to Bangkok, actually. Okay, that's a stretch, but the Taj in Agra is a drive of an hour or so south of Delhi - and a long way from Bombay. If you ever get a chance to do the Taj, do it. It's like the photos, but spine-tingling better. .

I'm not talking about Ebytown, eh? .

Whereas the OP and the other 6.4 billion of us do not???? As the lieutenant in Good Morning Vietnam put it: "I recognise humour. Humour is good. Humour is good...." Were you afraid to read that article documenting a bit of the flood aid? The guy in this news magazine cover photo, as you know, is the top TV newsman. He's Superman (in the article) because he was one of the out-front leaders raising aid. .

York the good -- just doesn't seem to have the right ring to it. But calling it T-O just seems disrespectful. .

term: There are ALMOST no legal lotteries apart from the government lottery. There are very rare ones for specific causes with specific sponsors. There are all kinds of illegal lotteries, but virtually none of them have tickets or salesmen in the bars. Probably you got took. The good news is that if you buy a lottery ticket anywhere, anytime, you probably got took - a tax on stupid people, they say. I'm not that harsh, but it IS a tax. .

I actually just had a bit of a Leslie Neilsen moment, totally off the cuff: Me: Leslie Neilsen died. Mrs Kicker: What happened? Me: He stopped breathing. .

LD, You need one of those trips out to Thailand, too. You've been out for too long. Buses leaving every 15 minutes and you don't need a visa to go to Thailand. There is not just proof but huge, front-page documentation and in-your-face pride at the huge outpouring of giving in time, work, money and aid for the floods. In fact, foreigners didn't do squat for it, not a thing. Pattaya didn't have floods, remember? .

Generally quite good so long as you pay them. Figure 10 to 25 per cent of the US costs for what amounts to better treament, really - more personal and "nicer" - and equivalent medical professionalism. Heart and brain surgery, cancer treatment, all top class. There are already US insurance companies that allow US patients to travel to Thailand for certain operations/procedures because it is excellent and so much cheaper. You can get decent medical insurance but all in all you might want to consider just having the money. In my observation, paying is better than depending on the insurance company. I may be wrong, I've never really looked hard at it; it's just my observation. The exception is if you work in Thailand and have a "gold card" for the so-called 30-baht care (now generally free). .

This is not exactly right. Thais give VERY generously, and I'd suggest if you didn't notice that during the recent flood crisis, you weren't watching. There was quite a lot of notice and quite a lot of press noting that the public FAR outshone the government in flood relief -- work and money, both -- although the government gave and is doling out billions. That is not to say that any individual or any individual effort will succeed, here or anywhere else. But charity is quite a big deal in Thailand, yet another similarity with the US, actually. I have a feeling this might surprise you a bit but have a read and see what you think: Flood relief without terrible singing Quite wrong. The farang sure don't take their women, and they don't hate you for any reason at all, in general -- "you" plural. Some might hate you personally of course. .

That's "simple" all right, I'll give you that. .

When I say "Muslim" I mean a billion or so people, a HUGE number of which you can't tell to look at them are Muslim - and another four, five billion who look pretty much the same as them. If you go by name, or you go by appearance, it doesn't matter - you can't catch them that way. There's a little more to successful profiling than that, and people with Russian names and Indonesian names and Tamil names are going to sail right by your profile post, just for starters. I know Surin Pitsuwan is Muslim because he's very prominent - other than that he looks, talks and has name EXACTLY like any Buddhist Thai - like most of the five million Muslims who are Thai. For example. You will NOT get all those young Muslim males by appearance or by name. Period. (To be more clear: HUGE numbers of Muslims have "ordinary" names and their Islamic ones. Such as Mr Surin, for example. "Surin Pitsuwan" is the one in his passport. Like most Muslims in Asia, he sails past your profilers.) There's some kind of weird stereotype that Muslims and terrorists are Arabs. MOST of them aren't. Plus of course if you only (try to) stop young Arab males at the airport, they learn within two days and from then on the persons with the bombs will not be them (sort of like now, really). It's arguably dumber than Testing Sucker Americans (TSA). .

I kind of agree. But there is a HUGE hole in your "logic" if I can use that word loosely. The underwear bomber was not an Arab, but a clean-cut (well educated) African. The shoe-bomber was a Jamaican or whatever British citizen, a white guy. The dirty-bomb expert is a Puerto Rican. The guy caught on the battlefield shooting at Americans, and the current assistant to Osama bin Laden are California farmboys of pallor. The guy who was going to blow up LAX was a quite light Moroccan. The guy who was going to blow up the Portland Christmas tree lighting last weekend was African. The top Asian helpers of the 9/11 plot were Malaysian. The most recently common (if I can use that word loosely) suicide bombers were European women. NONE of these were Arabs. And so on. Most of the Arabs in the US are not Muslims. And anyhow, there isn't a single one of the Thousands Standing Around (TSA) rent-a-cops who could tell an Arab from an Indian from a Greek, and you and me together couldn't tell a Muslim from a non-Muslim under any circumstances at all. You should profile. But if you profile young Arab men, you're going to get blown up, which is not good, but MUCH worse you're going to miss the bomber and he's going to blow ME up and I don't want that. So your basic profiling standards suck a huge one, although profiling per se does not suck. There are SO many unclosed security holes. That's why I say it is only security theatre, meant to convince Aunt Emily and her ilk that daddy is looking after them and it's safe. You have to have some, but that's why it pixxes me off that they spend grazillions of dollars and promote hundreds of burger-flippers in moves that first of all violate my rights but just as importantly don't make me a tiny bit safer. The shoe bomber got on, the underwear bomber got on, the next "professional" will get on too. And let's hope we stay lucky, because for sure we aren't good. .

It's not looking much like an England walkover, anyhow. .