Eneukman

As well as the board slowing down to slower than snail's pace at times, I got this error message earlier today. Other boards were OK at the time - IPB WARNING [2] mysql_connect(): Too many connections (Line: 131 of /ips_kernel/class_db_mysql.php) "There appears to be an error with the database. You can try to refresh the page by clicking here. Error Returned SQL error: Too many connections SQL error code: Date: Sunday 27th of August 2006 08:51:52 AM We apologise for any inconvenience" Refreshing the page didn't work nor did coming out completely and going back in. Any suggestions as to what was wrong? Alan

Ah yes - a reworking of an ancient one from 1991 at the latest. The version I have has the Romans fighting what they thought was a lone Highlander on top of the Cobbler Hill in Scotland. Again here there were actually 2 Highlanders. Alan

Brown1950, may I suggest that you read my post again. I did NOT say that I had it on good authority that the new airport would NOT open on 28th September. Also, note the smiley at the end of my comment to show that I wasn't being serious. Alan

The nwe airport is on the other side of Bangkok from the old one so there should be a saving of about half an hour or so in the time it takes to get to Pattaya. Whether or not there will be a reduction in the taxi fare to reflect this remains to be seen though. Alan

I have it on good authority that if the new airport doesn't open on 28th September, it mostdefinitely will on 23rd October. Hopefully, they'll have sorted out a few of the bugs by the time you arrive. Alan

The Residence Gardens also has wifi in all rooms. I can't remember the cost though. Alan

From what I've read, Don Muang will close as far as passenger flights are concerned. The Royal Thai Air Force will continue to use it though. Alan

The changes to your SIM card should be made automatically BUT I think you will have to change all the tg's phone numbers you have stored manually. Alan

That's what I do - most of the time anyway. I, too, live in View Talay but go into Pattaya if I want to find a girl to keep me warm that night. Traffic into Pattaya can be a bit slow at times but the only days when it becomes a major hassle are Christmas Eve and Hogmanay when you can wait at least 20 minutes for a baht bus into town. Alan

I found this on the net, which may be of interest to some of you. When I started working back in 1972, Boxing Day (26th December) was another working day as was New Year's Day in England. http://www.rampantscotland.com/know/blknow12.htm Alan

I'd forgotten about being able to apply over the internet. The Immigration office isn't far from where I stay so it's no problem for me going back again in the afternoon. Having renewed my visa for a further year on Wednesday, I went back again this morning to obtain my multiple re-entry permit. I was in and out with the permit stamp in my passport in less than 15 minutes. Last year, I had to go back in the afternoon so I guess I just got lucky this year. Alan

I think you just struck it lucky, gonzo. Last year when I applied for my retirement visa, I got it on the spot. Today, I applied to renew it and have to go back later in the afternoon. I'll do that in an hour or so. If you get there early enough, they may well process it on the spot but if you don't go till later in the morning as I had to do today, you may have to go back. Alan

Shipping goods to Thailand is expensive. The cost by sea is dependent on the actual size. I shipped over a load of books, CD's, photographic albums all of which fitted into 4 medium sized cardboard boxes and the cost came to more than £700. If you send the goods over by air the cost is, I believe, based on weight. Whatever option you chose, ensure that you get a door to door service! It saves you the hassle of having to go to Bangkok and uplift your goods. Also, unless you have a Business visa you will HAVE to pay customs duty on what you import into the Kingdom. I got away with 4,000 baht BUT no receipt. If I had wanted a receipt, Customs may very well have insisted on valuing all my CD's (as well as confiscating some of my photographic albums due to the content being deemed inappropriate ). Alan

And I'll be paying a visit to Immigration later this week to renew my visa. Alan

I've had the same problem with AOL as well. Shower of incompetent bastards who don't give a toss about customer service!!!!! Alan

The problem with the FTSE100 (and presumably the Dow Jones index is ) is that if one large company does particulary well (or badly) this causes the FTSE100 to move up or down in a disproportionate manner. A large gain (or fall) could therefore be caused by 2 or 3 large companies only. Alan

Hopefully that was why I couldn't get on 5 minutes ago. Alan

To get a non-Immigrant O Visa, there's a form you need to complete. You should be able to download it from one of Thai Consul's web-sites. You can get either a single entry or a multiple entry, which is valid for up to 1 year from the date of issue. You need to enter Thailand within 90 days of the visa being issued. With a multiple entry visa, if you re-enter Thailand a couple of days before the expiry date, you will be given permission to stay for a further 90 days. The multiple entry visa needs a reason for your visit and the Thai Visa forum - www.thaivisa.com - recommended that I put down "extended holiday" as a reason. A multile entry visa also requires a letter from someone who will guaranteee to pay the cost of re-patriating you back home should you run out of money for any reason. Mine was signed by my brother but there's no check to see whether he could actually raise the money to pay for my ticket. Some consuls are more user friendly than others - I seem to recall others saying that the consul in Denver is helpful, but don't quote me on that. Alan

I understand your confusion. Strictly speaking you can only get a retirement visa in your home country. What I and others who have retired here call a retirement visa is really a 1 year extension to a non-Immigrant O visa. The stamp put in my passport by Immigration says "Pattaya Immigration Office Extension of stay is permitted up to 23 Aug 2006 Overstay offenders must be prosecuted" The 1 year extension is based on when you last entered the country. I obtained my extension (otherwise erroneously called a retirement visa just to confuse people like you ) on 26th October 2005, having come into Thailand on 24th August. Alan

I get my generic Cialis there. It also stays open quite late as far as I can recall. Alan

I'm not certain, but I think it's 1 year. When I flew out for good last year, I bought a return ticket as it was cheaper than a one-way ticket. The ticket I had had a £200 fee if I wanted to change the return date but as the date I asked for (early August) this year was more than 1 year ahead of when I bought the ticket (April 2005), they had to give me a ticket with a return date of April 2006. They then attached a note in their records that I could change the return date free of charge. In reality, I simply didn't check in for obvious reasons! Alan

Yes, I've walked past that several times but don't recall ever seeing it being manned. I have no doubt though that Customs officers will be watching what's going on. Alan

I'm not American but a couple of points apply to people regardless of where you come from. 1. Retirement visa. Why obtain this in your home country? The process is so much easier in Thailand. No police report required and the medical is cursory to say the least. Obtain a non-Immigrant O visa and extend it when you get here. You will need a letter from your Thai bank certifying that you have at least 800,000 baht in your account and that the funds came from outwith Thailand. A medical certificate is also required but the "examination" takes all of 2 minutes, if that! You can renew the visa in Thailand. The requirements are the same as above. 2. Wills. It makes life easier to have separate Wills covering your estate in Thailand and your estate elsewhere. However, a word of warning. I spent 25 years dealing with estates of people who had died and whatever you do ENSURE 100% THAT WHEN DOING A NEW WILL YOU DO NOT INADVERTENTLY REVOKE THE OTHER! I have seen this happen by mistake. If you do a Will in Thailand, send a copy to whoever prepared your Will in your home country and get them to confirm IN WRITING that it will not cause any problems with your existing Will. The same applies if you change your Will in your home country. Let a Thai solicitor see a copy along with a copy of your Thai Will. Remember mistakes can be corrected while you're still alive but may be very difficult, if not impossible to correct once you're dead. Alan

The Residence Gardens also has wifi available in every room. Can't remember what they charge. Alan

When I was planning my move out here, I worked out a budget based on spending on average 80,000 baht per month on routine expenditure (i.e. excluding escaping from Pattaya during Songkran, side trips in Thailand etc and the one-off expenditure we all incur from time to time, though hopefully this will decrease the longer I live here. I've kept a track of my expenditure since November of last year and my routine expenditure is averaging out at close to 75,000 baht though this was helped by April's expenditure of 63,000 baht when I was in Malaysia for 10 days or so and by a low 65,000 odd baht in January when I had an eye infection and was recovering from a rib injury. On top of that, my "one-off expenditure" is coming in at close to 10,000 baht per month. However, part of that is taken up by the purchase of a video camera for 28,000 baht plus I've given a couple of girls 5,000 baht or so each to help them out with various difficulties. Treatment for an eye infection set me back some 5,000 baht as well. Installing a telephone line and obtaining a broadband modem set me back a bit over 3,000 baht plus the cost of a couple of MP3 players added to the cost. On top of that, I also bought a 60 Gb external hard drive as well as a crappy portable CD player. I think therefore (hope) that this will come down in the coming months. Holiday costs paid in Thailand at present average out at about 4,600 baht per month though this doesn't include general expenditure when I was in Udon Thani recently. It does, however, include the cost of the flights, hotel and taxis to and from Bangkok Airport. On top of all the above, some holiday costs were paid for with my UK visa card. In addition, I have ongoing costs there - life assurance policies (negligible), voluntary NI contributions, subscription to an American magazine, birthday and Christmas presents and so on. Taking all these into account, my TOTAL monthly expenditure seems to be averaging out at a bit under 100,000 baht per month. This may seem to be quite a bit higher than I had budgeted for, but I had deliberately set my budget for living here on the "low" side. 100,000 baht per month is comfortably within my total income and hopefully, the "one-off expenditure" will gradually reduce over the coming year or so. So to all those of you thinking about retiring here, don't forget those extra costs that you cannot avoid incurring - such as buying a new PC or laptop when your existing one refuses to work any more. Like the one I'm using!!! Alan