wrassell

I don't know if this matters much but the thirty days includes the day they stamp your passport. If you enter on say the first of a 30 day month then you stamp expires the 30th not the first of the following month. If you stamp in on say the 15th of a 31 day month you need to leave the 13th and this makes it seem like they are cheating you out of some days, but it is 30 days including the day they stamp you in....But to be sure I always go by the date the stamp indicates, my math isn't the same as Thai math. I stand corrected in fact it not a visa they grant you at the airport...thanks

Yes 500 is do-able but it is going to be tight as cybers1b has said. The heavly touristed areas cost the most. Bangkok is not too bad cost wise but your not going to be living high on the hog for 500. Bangkok has some business oppertunities that may help take up the slack but don't expect to get paid much. There are many little beach towns that have some Expats living in them, I kinda like Baan Pae (the port to go to Koh Samet). These little towns usally cost a little less overall and they are great places to chill for awhile. I managed to live oh Koh Larn (the Island near Pattaya) for two years with about 25,000Bhat /mo. With 500 bucks a month you are definatly going to be limited with the wine women and song area, and thats what brings most of us here in the first place.

I forgot to say retirement and marriage visa gives you one full year to stay but you still have to report your adress to immigration every 3 months.

Soi 7 is right Thaivisa dot com is the best info on the subject. But a quick rundown on visa stuff here for ya tourist visa on arrival good for 30 days cost nothing get it at the airport visa runs to Cambodia from 1700 to 2500 baht gives you another 30 days in LOS 1 year multiple entry have to go outside Thailand to get it, usally Malaysa from 12 to 25 thousand baht (depending on who is helping you) each entry gives you 60 days with a 30 day extension gives you 90 days total each entry, you then have to do a visa run. Extensions cost 1900 baht 1 year multiple entry from your own country before you leave about 6,000 baht same as above. Retirement visa cost 1,900 baht must allready have a tourist visa not the one from visa runs or airport, have to show income 800,000 baht per year or have that much in bank. must be 50 years old and up Marriage visa same as above but can be any age and only need to show 400,000 instead 800,000 and have to be married to a Thai national.

Just have to do some extra drinkin on Friday, then catch up on Sunday

I like to ride my motorbike so I don't worry much about getting cheated except when getting a flat repaired....But the fare you are talking about is 10 baht, unless the driver is trying to cheat you.

How about this calander to remind us just how lucky we are. Winter is comming soon.

I definantly agree motorbikes are dangerious. A little common sense can go a long way. I cover alot more ground riding a bike than walking. I save my lookin for in the neighborhoods. Yea Soi 2 can be bad.

Never open attachments without good up to date virus protection and even then sometimes it can be dangerous. For spam best thing to do is ignore them, if you reply to their remove link it only tells them that yours is a real e-mail adress. Get a junk e-mail adress to use for filling out forms so they will send their junk there. Try to tell your friends not to include you with a bunch of other names when sending you jokes, especially the ones that incourage you to send the same thing to 20 other people. Be very careful in internet cafes key loggers can record all your keystrokes like passwords and credit card info. Also ditto on all the above...

Alot of us here in Pattaya still use dial up internet. I didn't think there would be a difference in ISPs for dial up but the new ISP I now have seems to be much faster. First I was using Asia access but exactly every two hours I would get cut off and the bandwidth was lousy, getting cut off every two hours would force me into redialing and costing me another 3 baht each time so really I was spending alot more with them....Then for the last thirty days I have been using J-I net and it seems they have been getting slower and slower so when my last 15 day card expired I decided to to change ISP again. The new one is great it is called "e-15d" werd but thats the name, I paid a little more for this one but it was well worth it.... I thought that since they all use 1222 access number there wouldn't be any difference but there is, at least that is the way it seems to me. I guess the moral of this story is cheaper isn't always better and it sometimes it pays to experiment around, I am certainly glad I did. I think what happens is these companies buy a certian amount of bandwidth and when they sell alot of those access cards the subscribers get poor internet service. Can anyone else comment on some other ISPs out there good or bad. I hate being ripped off. This and other boards can help us get good value. Thanks

Places that cheap can be found but your probably not going to like living there. About one million will get you a comfortable place in a nice development. Some nice places can be had for 6,000/month but your not going to be in the middle of town. Best way to find them is get on a motorbike and look for for rent signs I see many of them this time of year. Along with high season brings higher rental rates and that is just around the corner....

I have never been to Mai Sai so I cannot say one way or the other. But for immigration officials to ask people to show any kind of funds at any of the border crossings is ridicules. Only an idiot would pack 10 or 20 grand with them at one of these places and to start flashing it around in front of people that have never even seen that much money before is just asking to get robbed. Could the officials really be that lame in Mai Sai.? Doesn’t make much sense to me. Does anybody really know what time it is?

You can be fat, bald, and sport a speedo as long as you bring money. If you want to wear a tux on soi 6 then as they say up to you. Don't worry you'll will do just fine until you have to go back

You can't work here without a work permit You can't get a permit unless you have an employer or lots of money Most jobs here are lousy and are low pay remember you are competing with locals If you get caught it could get nasty, real nasty Accountant hmmm maybe you could have people in the UK send you their stuff and and do your accounting in secret here on your laptop, dunno but i think some make some extra change online selling stuff. Chuck Dee kup

Hello I have been using a dialup connection here in LOS for over a year now and it is acceptable in as far as dialup internet goes. Now it seems TOT is finally going to offer ADSL in my area, Soi Kaltalo. My question is what are the pitfalls what are the good things, so far I have heard good things and bad things….How is the speed, is it suitable for VoIP if so how is the voice quality. I can live with dialup for regular surfing if ADSL is slow or unreliable or not suitable for VoIP. Are there some things I should watch out for, like contract periods hidden fees or the like. Can I change plans if the one I have doesn’t suit me. Any help here will be much appreciated. Thanks

Hello I remember once a rumor where Thai immigration was requiring people to show them at least twenty thousand baht before they could be admitted into Thailand. Many rumors circulate here. Do your research and use common sense. Be careful of bar room know it alls, there are plenty of them....

Really chatting with people that are here in pattaya over the internet can be fun, but not nearly as fun as being here. Nothing can prepare you for Pattaya it is like no other place on earth.... Cheers.....

As I said my post may upset some here. I didn't say we had to apologize to anyone for our relative prosperity. Beer certainly doesn’t cost 10 times more here than it does in the west, unless of coarse your drinking ten times more here (which I also tend to do). As far as things going up 5 baht here and ten baht there have you looked at housing cost in the US lately, and we all know about fuel cost. As for your salary not going up I am sympathetic I also have to deal with fixed income. Even on our fixed incomes most of us still have many times more spending power than most Thais do. Baht buses are convenient and even at ten Baht it is a bargain, try hailing a cab in San Francisco for 25cents. I am not suggesting we should throw our money away. When a foreigner boards a baht bus they pretty much know the fare the driver is going to ask for is ten baht. Bearing this fact in mind it seems the foreigner has a choice to use or not use the baht bus. So when a foreigner intentionally boards a baht bus knowing this and then intentionally pays the five baht that person is being deceptive. I don’t see many of these persons telling the driver they are only paying five baht before they board, no they just board anyhow, with the intention of cheating the driver out of five baht. When someone does this sort of thing I consider it stealing or cheating, not principal, remember we have the option to use or not use the baht buses, whatever the price. I am not a big fan of dual pricing, I don’t like it at all, and it affects me as much as the next guy. Given the fact that we are foreigners here we surely have the option to leave anytime we desire, especially if ten baht is too much to pay for transportation. Many of us come here for better lifestyle on what money we have and we can certainly achieve that, I don’t think paying ten baht for transportation is going to jeopardize that. Maybe I am putting too much into this, maybe I am just confusing the word principal with word theft, and maybe I should let well enough alone. I think that if principal were really involved then a boycott would be a fair solution I am sure they would take notice of that. Stealing from baht bus drivers just gives us all a bad name and makes me feel ashamed. Just my thoughts, thanks

Good story,,, I myself have had mostly good experience with the baht buses,,,most of them are just regular people trying to carve out a living....The thing that bugs me most is this 5 baht 10 baht contraversity. I am sorry if I offend some here on this board and this always seems to be a touchy subject. It makes me ill when I see someone with ten times the income and lifestyle who tries to chisel baht busses out of a lousy 5 baht under the guies of principal. If you want to talk about two tier pricing then why does someone in the US or any other western country make ten times what a thai makes, I don't hear many complaining about that....Just my thoughts

Thanks for the reply and it looks like lots of fun,,, but I was thinkin more along the lines of a club for the smaller bikes 100 to 200cc class that the other 90 percent of us expats ride here in LOS. I would love to have a harley but the cost prohibits it. I have gone down as far as Rayong to the south and as far as Chonburi to the north but I would like to go further and explore more of Thailand, that is one of the reasons I am here. It makes good sense to travel in a group for safety and it would seem to be more fun. Also I have been places that many of you haven't and vise-versa so we could become each others tour guides. Just some thoughts today I will head down to Baan Seray and look around, but it would be alot nicer to have more people along to share the experience. Russ

200K Bahts per month here in LOS and I think I would have died and gone to heaven. Yea I think I could manage

Hello Are there any motorbike clubs out there where short or medium lenth trips are planned. I think it would be fun to travel in an organised group like they do on the bigger bikes, not all of us have enough cash to buy a big Harly. I also think it would be safer travelling in a group. Anyone out there think the same.... russ

Koh Chang is a great place to chill for a few days I like to plan it around my visa run to Ko Kong. from Trat take a minibus to the border and back takes about three hours and cost 200 baht for the mini bus both ways, Cambodia Visa is 1,100 Baht, remember to bring your photo or they will snag another 100baht from you. Koh Chang is big enough to do some exploring around. Rent a motor bike and go exploring around if you are ok on motorbike, be careful the hills can be very steep be sure you have good brakes. Koh Samet is farely close to Pattaya 150baht by mini bus to the pier at Baan Pae another 50 baht for the ferry and your there, takes two or three hours at most. The national park there cost 200 baht to enter unless you know the way around the booth. The cheapest place I could find to stay was 600baht and that was in the little town. There were some good places to party but BYOG. Koh Larn is a great day trip the boat only cost 20baht each way and takes 45 minnutes very relaxing trip..you can bring your motorbike on the ferry with you for 100 baht each way..Nice locals on the island. there are 6 beaches all clean an entire day on the island cost min 200baht if your a big consummer of fun like jet ski and sprits may run you a grand. Ask the Locals about where to stay Chom Talay is a nice place for 800 baht beautiful sunsets there. Most people bug out on the 5:00pm ferry back to Pattaya. Not much to do at night there are three karoke bars mostly locals, but never the less a nice experience. A good website for good information is at Koh Larn website Yea I admit it, it is my website but I think I put together some good info that may be of some help. Cheers