joekicker

Not sure where you get this. There are a couple of hundred thousand work permits out there. Like anywhere, you have to show you're not taking a job from a local. Like anywhere, it's bureaucratic and paper-intensive. Like anywhere, people who don't persevere don't get it. At any moment, there are hundreds and hundreds of jobs for foreigners (apart from a million illegal immigrants). From advisers to the prime minister to teaching English, there's all kinds of work for foreigners. I'm curious where else it's attractive. I've heard Singapore has lots of jobs but high standards, is that right?

That's terrific. ANA usually codeshares with United, so you may end up on a United flight, I guess.

Tom as always has good advice. It's highly unlikely your missus would ever work as an actual nurse in Thailand, in the real world. But there are specialty jobs in the "medical tourism" industry, where her language plus medical background could get her employed - and most especially if she has a language other than English. Your Arabic would be a walk-in "yes" at several Bangkok hospitals, and if you had a medical background you'd do better. I were you, I'd be considering what else to do besides ESL because it's a crappy industry, where you need huge dollops of luck in addition to skill. It's a real crap shoot, and you make peanuts. Teaching in international schools can be good. I presume you realise you're neither one of you going to get rich, and the paperwork for work permits is horrible, first time around. Frankly, your son probably has the best run of anyone. Look at good hotels first of all, not necessarily five-star either, and some restaurants in Bangkok - possibly a couple in Pattaya and Rayong area. He can actually make good money, and once he gets *a* job, the future is pretty bright to move upwards in salary and prestige, both. There are a lot of foreign chefs, and it seems a work permit isn't as difficult as in some of the other categories. choke dee mach

I actually sort of like this idea, although you'd never sell it in Thailand, where it's one of those cultural things to leave food - which is why the salad bar at the very few places that have free salad bars (Sizzlers, say) are set up with teensy bowls, for example.

Oh, I see. You missed the point. The point is you MUST buy one drink if you eat, and you will be charged for that drink. The drink is part of the meal. So you can't get out of the restaurant for 99 baht, unless it's nothing. Jeez, jacko, what the hell did I do to deserve that?

Hmmm. Okay, thanks. I'm pretty sure that said 35 baht for a soft drink when I wrote my first post, but could be me misreading.

I'm not kvetching about the price in any manner. I'm registering a small complaint about the advertising. It doesn't pass the truth test, sorry. You MUST spend 134 baht. I'd gladly do that, too, for the meal described.

It's not nice to pixx on your parade, and I hope you do well, and it sounds like a very good deal, well-thought out. BUT If you have a one-drink minimum, then it is NOT all you can eat for 99 baht - it's all you can eat for 134 baht - for which you get a set menu and a glass of soft drink.

The old airplanes COULD be made to look non-old, but it seems THAI doesn't want to do that, either. They say they do, but they don't even have a budget. Meanwhile, for a number of bad reasons that all have come together at the same time, they can't get credit to buy new ones, either. The airline has a new, non-career, non-THAI president. I'll give him a little time to show his stuff. It's a very difficult place to move, inside the THAI culture. Very powerful interests are raking in scads of money from the airline, and they do NOT want change of any kind. It's going to be a bumpy ride for a while. .

THAI has stated many times in many ways they don't want the A380s AT ALL any more, they only signed the purchase contract on an impulse, and an ill-considered one. I predict that they will never fly that airplane. And it's nothing to do with Airbus-Boeing, etc, THAI was one of the movers who brought Airbus to Asia, and they like Airbus. They've just figured they don't want these big airplanes. FWIW, I think they're right, THAI have never done well with big planes of any kind - DC10s and 747s were constant money-losers. I couldn't figure why they bought the 380s, I can only imagine there was a non-airline reason involved, such as many new Mercedes in many driveways one bright, sunny contract-signing morning. Now THAI is trying to figure how to cancel or pass on that purchase. There are lots of ways, even including leasing, which THAI has done before with big aircraft.

You wouldn't like the real answer to that question, I'm thinking.

Penthouse, yes. GIYF, but it's way past its sell-by date, I'm afraid. They still (promise to) have a couple of slut-merchants with your name on a sign who will ride in the backseat to Pattaya with you, yep.

Heh. Hard to see how you could get more successful than that.

Heh, headline of the day THAI stuck with Airbus jumbo Thai Airways International (THAI) has no other options but to keep its order for six Airbus 380 megajets it wanted to cancel as doing so would lead to huge adverse consequences. more at This Bangkok Post link

The whole sad thing is the duopoly of TOT and CAT defending their sorrier and sorrier axxes and everyone pays the price. For the Internet, CAT has the only legal gateway and thus 100% of the bandwidth, and a sorry amount it is. They lovingly and graciously dole it out to private companies, and then skim those companies' profits, literally skim. The Internet is a fairly small part of the whole shebang, which revolves around phones, mobile and fixed. "Concessions" aka skimming is the only way the duopoly lives. It's true that parents Jasmine International took the profitable bits away from their bankrupt child TT&T, but I don't believe for a millisecond that has anything to do with the actual service. It's a financial conspiracy thing, one set of rich guys and their lawyers screwing another set of the same. In this case, as in many, it's leapfrog and everyone does get a turn at assuming the positions of straddler and straddlee.

There's no law that short-term visitors have to have a Thai licence. There's no law they have to have an international licence. There is a law that visitors have to have a valid driver's licence from somewhere. Overall, the issue of your licence isn't important in the Grand Scheme of Things. You won't be stopped for a check. If you're stopped for something else, the matter of your licence will be of secondary consideration or a lot less. Not having a licence AT ALL is not a biggie. Police might stop you, and might tell you different. You may feel inclined to help them out with the cost of a couple of LD, to make them go away and stop bothering you. Or you might want to spend the next two, three years fighting over it and winning because you used your home-country licence to drive, which is perfectly legal. Up to you.

Yes, times three. I'd bet that any random power strip does NOT have protection.

No, he won't get zapped in Pattaya. Tens of thousands of computers are plugged in and turned on every day in Thailand. That's not even mentioning that netbooks are for travelling. Of *course* you can try to be safe, I wouldn't say otherwise. And you can also drive yourself nuts trying to account for every last little thing. For me, with all the crap I carry (and I am not even CLOSE to one of those "road warriors" of the computer magazines) I wouldn't dream of carrying an entire surge protector strip for my netbook in Thailand. That's my advice.

I'd just buy one in Thailand and take it home. Saves money, saves lugging it.

Yes. In general, there are not a lot of storms - although this year there were. The climate itself is very hot and humid. Most of the rain is usually at sea (offshore winds) but that will vary from year to year. On average, some very light rain showers (mango rains) once a week. In reality, you COULD have an hour of rain every second day, torrential once in a while. You will NOT be cold outside in April, even in the most vicious rainstorm.

If the oxygen masks suddenly descend in an in-flight airplane, "euphoric" isn't what I'm feeling, believe me. Especially if the plane vertically accelerating in the earthbound direction. I saw another version of that story where the investigators said the passengers were not prepared for a crash. Weird. Could it have lost that much height without the pilots even being aware??? Doesn't seem possible. "Seat of the pants" tells you you're falling, surely, no matter what the upscrewed instruments say. Anyway, all interesting.

Two lines that always cracked me up (one no longer used). In case of a water landing.... Yeah, sure. ... place the mask over your face and breathe normally. No problem. Oxygen masks wouldn't increase your breathing rate or anything.

Surely that would have to be because more and more farangs are buying bars. Damn few people learn such lessons BEFORE they buy. The world's full of bar customers who figure it'd be a profitable cinch to move from the stool side to the cooler side of the bar. .

Right on. And really, there are only two chances of getting any kind of deal worth trudging from door to door - fat and slim.

Vertical acceleration. Heh. You've got to love these dweebs. Thank goodness they have translators for their final reports.