PERTURBED

I've never been to TOS either, I always thought it was a make believe place where lawyers went to write voluminous babble about online services. Let us know how it is.

The French are shit. Most of them walk around wearing Che Guevara shirts with a smug look on their face, while they speak French as loud as possible. I always ask the morons if they know who the guy is on their shirt. Most of them don't know and don't know what kind of man he was. Fucking idiots.

Stupid people should not be allowed to reproduce; they only make more. You should have kicked him in the balls, then in the ass on the way out. I would have told him that he was too stupid to use my computers. That's just me. You have the making of a good blog - go to http://blogger.com and setup a blog.

You are thinking of Bumrungrad Hospital - The last stop. I agree they probably have more than one, I was hoping for one a bit closer to Pattaya or Sattahip.

I need a proper foot doctor - surgeon - does one exist here?

--- The following is The Daily Pfennig, a daily email newsletter. The email address which was subscribed to the Daily Pfennig is: marvin.friedman@yahoo.com. You subscribed to this email at WWW.EVERBANK.COM, or via an email to us requesting a subscription. You also confirmed your subscription in a follow up email. To unsubscribe, simply: - Send a blank email to mailto:leave-749660-857278N@ny-mlm.everbank.com or - Contact EverBank Customer Service at 888 882 3837 or - Send a letter via regular mail to: EverBank Customer Service Attn: Pfennig Opt-Out 11 Oval Drive, Suite 107 Islandia, NY 11749. --- EverBank World Markets A Pfennig For Your Thoughts Tuesday, December 19, 2006 ........But first a word from our sponsor....... EverBank® Metals Select* Solidify your portfolio with gold or silver. Many financial experts agree: A truly diversified portfolio should include an allocation of metals-and we are confident that Metals Select is the best way to buy gold and silver. Proven to be an effective hedge against inflation and economic uncertainty, gold and silver hold an important and unique place in your portfolio. Give your portfolio the strength and stability that only metals can afford. Call 800.926.4922 to apply, or visit us at www.everbank.com to learn more. *EverBank Metals Select products are not FDIC-insured, not deposits of EverBank, and may lose value. .............................................................. .............................................................. In This Issue.. * Thai Government slams on the brakes * BOJ keeps rates unchanged * US Current Account Deficit widens And Now... Today's Pfennig! Thai Government slams on the brakes... Good day...The big news in the currency markets yesterday came out of Thailand, where the new government decided to use currency controls to limit speculation in the Thai baht. As we have been reporting here in the Daily Pfennig, the Thai baht had out performed all other currencies this year increasing over 15% vs. the US$. Yesterday morning, Thai regulators required banks to lock up 30 percent of new foreign exchange deposits for a year to curb currency speculation, causing the baht to slump by almost 1%. Overnight the markets have calmed and the baht held at just below 36, where it had sank yesterday morning. Overseas investors buying baht starting today will only be able to invest 70 percent of what they transfer, and only recoup all of their funds if they keep the money in Thailand for more than a year, central bank Governor Tarisa Watanagase told a briefing in Bangkok yesterday. Those who withdraw the reserved amount in less than a year will be penalized 33 percent of that 30 percent portion, she said. The move caught the currency traders totally off guard and froze most trading in the baht during the morning hours. As of this morning, spot sale transactions are being done, but the forward market is still unsettled. The major impact has been seen in the Thai stock exchange which has dropped by over 15 percent overnight. In reaction to this move, the Thai government has decided to lift the lockup requirement on stock investments. So what will this mean to EverBank investors owning Thai baht? First, we are currently unable to make a forward market in the Thai baht, so we will not be able to continue to offer Thai baht CDs or Access deposit accounts. Our two WorldCurrency index cds which contain the baht, the Orient Opportunity Index CD and the Asian Advantage Index CD will also not be able to be offered. Access deposit account holders of the Thai baht will need to contact the trading desk at 800-926-4922 to give us instructions for these funds. All Thai baht access deposits will have to be liquidated prior to year end. These funds can be crossed over to other Asian currencies such as the Japanese yen, Singapore dollar, Hong Kong dollar, or even the Chinese Renminbi. Those investors holding the Thai baht single currency cds will need to give us trading instructions at least 5 days prior to the maturity of these cds. As of right now, these cds will need to be held to maturity, and the Thai baht can then be sold with the proceeds invested into some other currency or placed back into the US$. Again, because of the Thai government restrictions, we will not be able to sell the Thai baht cds prior to their maturity. For investors in the Orient Opportunity and Asian Advantage Index cds, we have developed two new index cds which replace the existing exposure to the Thai baht. Holders of these two index cds will be able to cross their maturing cds into either of these two new CDs or can also move to any of our other WorldCurrency index or single currency cds. Because this cross sale of the currencies has been forced on investors by the new Thai government currency restrictions, EverBank will move maturing Orient Opportunity and Asian Advantage index cds to these new index cds without any currency spread. Orient Opportunity Index cds will be able to cross their maturing cds into the new Pan Asian Index CD which has Australian dollars replacing the 40% exposure to the Thai baht with no change to the remaining currencies. This index will continue to give investors excellent diversification in the Asian markets with interest rates equaling the old Orient Opportunity Index cd. The Asian Advantage Index cds will be able to be crossed into a new Asian Advantage Index CD with Hong Kong dollars replacing the 20% exposure to the Thai baht. This new index will therefore have 40% exposure to the New Zealand dollar, along with 20% exposure to Hong Kong dollars, Japanese Yen, and Singapore dollars. It is unfortunate that the Thai government has taken this dramatic step to reduce short term currency speculation, but with the tremendous appreciation of the Thai baht vs. the US$ during 2007 most investors will be able to sell their currency holdings at a gain. We will continue to follow the Thai baht and will keep readers informed on any new developments as the central bank has said it may adjust the curbs "if the baht doesn't continue to be strong". "We may have new measures which may be more relaxed or more aggressive depending on the situation," the assistant to the central bank governor said today. As I said above, the Thai central bank has already back pedaled in reaction to the 15% sell off in the Thai stock market, lifting the reserve requirements on stock purchases. Other Asian currencies held steady after the announcement and will likely benefit from additional inflows originally destined for the Thai baht. The currency controls did heighten concern about investing in emerging markets, but the move did not trigger the currency collapses we saw back in 1997. As I said earlier, we will try to keep you informed of the latest news. The Bank of Japan kept the lowest interest rates among major economies unchanged as it gathers more data on consumer spending and examines the strength of the global economy (I remember writing almost the identical sentence yesterday!). Governor Toshihiko Fukui and his policy board kept the key overnight lending rate at .25% with a unanimous decision. Fukui said economic indicators in the past two months have been mixed, singling out weak inflation and consumer spending as reasons for keeping the rate low. The big news in the US yesterday was the release of the Current Account deficit numbers for the 3rd quarter. As predicted, the deficit widened to a record $225.6 billion last quarter as the trade gap grew and the US paid more interest to overseas investors. The shortfall in the current account followed a revised $217.1 billion second-quarter gap. Dollar bulls tried to spin this deficit news by saying the Current Account deficit's growth has slowed. I'm not sure who they think they are kidding, even if the deficit's growth slows at $225 billion per quarter we need to attract $75 billion of overseas investments per month! This deficit, combined with a slowing economy and narrowing interest rate differentials will continue to erode the value of the greenback. To no one's surprise, confidence among US homebuilders deteriorated in December for the first time in three months as sales remain sluggish. The housing market in the US continues to weaken, putting pressure on the FOMC to continue to hold rates steady. Today we will see the November Housing starts and Building permits, both of which are expected to be slightly stronger. Further weakness in this market could force the fed to consider cutting rates during the first have of 2007 which would be very negative for the US$. We will also see additional US inflation data today with the November PPI expected to come in higher than last months negative numbers. And finally we will see ABC consumer confidence which is usually a non-event number. Tomorrow we will get a plethora of data in the US with the 3rd quarter GDP, Personal Consumption, and Core PCE which is probably the most closely watched indicator by the fed. We will also get a report of the Initial Jobless claims, continuing claims, leading indicators, and the Philly Fed index. Should make for another exciting day tomorrow. Currencies today: A$ .7831, kiwi .6934, C$ .8650, euro 1.3169, sterling 1.9638, Swiss .8219, ISK 69.01, rand 7.0357, krone 6.2061, SEK 6.8648, forint 192.41, zloty 2.899, koruna 21.04, yen 118.06, baht 35.92, sing 1.5443, HKD 7.7747, INR 44.75, China 7.8243, pesos 10.8605, dollar index 83.63, Silver $12.49, and Gold... $617.15 That's it for today...Quite a day yesterday with the events in Thailand! Today is the birthday of Ty Keough who passes a big milestone!! Many outside of St. Louis know Ty as the former Olympic and professional soccer player and ESPN color analyst, but locally Ty and his father Harry are best known as ambassadors for the game properly named football. The two of them continue to promote, educate, coach, and volunteer their time to benefit the St. Louis community. Ty has also been a great addition to our currency desk. Happy Birthday Ty, now I can really call you an old man!! Chris Gaffney, CFA Vice President EverBank World Markets 1-800-926-4922 1-314-647-3837 --- All comments and opinions are solely those of the writer and are not in any way comments or opinions of EverBank or its affiliates. Additional information is available upon request. Information in this publication has been obtained from sources believed by the writer to be reliable, but the accuracy, completeness and interpretation are not guaranteed and have not been independently verified. Opinions expressed are subject to change without notice and, due to the rapidly changing nature of currency markets, may quickly become outdated. The opinions and information presented do not constitute a solicitation for the purchase or sale of any securities or options on securities. EverBank is a member FDIC. --- Click into www.EverBank.com for better banking - Voted "Best of the Web" by Forbes.com 5 times. For more information about this ranking, please visit http://www.forbes.com/bow. --- This message is for the named recipient's use only. It may contain confidential, proprietary or legally privileged information. No confidentiality or privilege is waived or lost by any mis-transmission. If you receive this message in error, please immediately delete it and all copies of it from your system, destroy any hard copies of it and notify the sender. You must not, directly or indirectly, use, disclose, distribute, print, or copy any part of this message if you are not the intended recipient. EverBank and each of its subsidiaries each reserve the right to monitor all e-mail communications through its networks. Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender, except where the message states otherwise and the sender is authorized to state them to be the views of any such entity. Unless otherwise stated, any pricing information given in this message is indicative only, is subject to change and does not constitute an offer to deal at any price quoted. Any reference to the terms of executed transactions should be treated as preliminary only and subject to our formal written confirmation. --- The above is The Daily Pfennig, a daily email newsletter. The email address which was subscribed to the Daily Pfennig is: marvin.friedman@yahoo.com. You subscribed to this email at WWW.EVERBANK.COM, or via an email to us requesting a subscription. You also confirmed your subscription in a follow up email. To unsubscribe, simply: - Send a blank email to mailto:leave-749660-857278N@ny-mlm.everbank.com or - Contact EverBank Customer Service at 888 882 3837 or - Send a letter via regular mail to: EverBank Customer Service Attn: Pfennig Opt-Out 11 Oval Drive, Suite 107 Islandia, NY 11749. ---

Global Market Brief: A Look Ahead -- The Next Big One November 09, 2006 23 06 GMT The U.S. economy is decelerating and will bottom out in the first half of 2007. The dreaded word "recession" might not be appropriate to use, because the United States might not actually meet the technical definition of two consecutive quarters of negative growth. But a slowdown is clear. The yield curve has been inverted for months (which indicates money is being used irrationally); productivity gains have now fallen below gross domestic product (GDP) growth while labor costs are rising (which indicates the labor market is overheated); and the housing sector -- red hot for nearly a decade -- has finally lost steam. However, there is no looming disaster about to befall the U.S. economy, or a structural imbalance that will imminently tear the system apart. The trade deficit is not a concern, and the budget deficit is not the monster it once appeared to be turning into. And no matter what one might think of a Republican, Democrat or split Congress, it is a rarity when the legislature's decisions affect the economy on a time frame of less than a year. Every aspect of this slowdown appears to be part and parcel of a normal economic cycle. The fundamentals of the American economy -- cultural, political and financial -- remain sound. For now. From time to time Stratfor takes the long view, peering ahead to spotlight the development trends that are as critical as they are unavoidable. Now is one of those times. Money, Money Everywhere Ultimately, long-term economic trends filter out much of what happens in the day-to-day life of policymakers. Those policymakers can shape the underlying strengths and weaknesses of an economy -- and that is indeed important, as they determine the relative speed of growth that an economy can achieve -- but they have very little control over the macroenvironment that dictates the range of possibilities in which policymakers play. The macroenvironment of the past 15 years has been remarkably conducive to strong growth in the United States. Do not confuse this with specifics of the U.S. system of mass education, reward for risk, functional bankruptcy laws, a mobile population, enthusiasm for technology, relatively uncorrupt culture or any of the other factors that help spark growth. What is being discussed is the overarching environment in which the United States and the rest of the economies in the world swim. The single most notable characteristic of that environment has been cheap -- extraordinarily cheap -- credit. Stratfor and others have made much of the idea that the Asian economies function on a system of cheap credit to stimulate their economies. In most Asian states -- with China and Japan atop the list -- the state actively intervenes in the financial system to ensure that anyone who needs cash can get access to loans at well-below-market rates, regardless of the soundness of the borrower's business plan. In such systems the concern is not for profitability, but instead for market share and mass employment. Consequently, firms that would have been shut down in the United States because they cannot make money (to be more accurate, they bring in plenty of revenues, they just cannot break even) are habitually allowed to continue operating. We will not deal with the consequences of this system here (interested readers can follow these links for Stratfor's take on the situations in China and Japan) but these states do not operate in a vacuum. Their financial choices affect the rest of the planet because their artificially cheap credit does not halt at their borders. Japan's cheap credit policies have flooded the system with more than $1 trillion in yen as Japanese firms tap that credit for international operations. China's system -- not even touching private or state-firm capital flight -- has resulted in $1 trillion in U.S. Treasury bond purchases. By an extraordinarily conservative measure that does not even take into account Taiwan, South Korea or any of the other Asian states that have modifications on the theme, Asia has added $2 trillion in cheap cash to the system. And that is the small end of this picture. The real source of cash is not in Asia, but right here in the United States. Baby Boom Bomb From a financial viewpoint, people fall into three categories. First are the young workers who are buying homes and raising children. Aside from those lucky enough to have an income that allows it all to be done with cold hard cash, these people have to borrow. They need to get a mortgage, maybe even a second one when it is time to think about college for the kids. Living from paycheck to paycheck -- or credit card statement to credit card statement -- is a way of life. Young workers consume credit, and lots of it. Second are the mature workers. The mortgage is paid off and their house moves from their debt sheet to their asset list. The kids are moved out and through college. Such workers' debts are paid off and they are preparing for retirement. Money that once went to the children or the mortgage or to interest payments on credit cards now goes into a variety of savings and investments. These mature workers generate the credit the young workers consume. Finally, there are the retirees who live off of their savings and who want no surprises. They move the vast majority of their investments from the adrenaline-provoking roller coasters that are the stock and private bond markets, and into the sedate world of government Treasury bills. With every year their nest egg shrinks a little bit. And so the system flows: People turn from ravenous credit consumers to seasoned credit suppliers and eventually withdraw from the system altogether. The system works well so long as the demographic forces remain in balance, so long as there are enough mature workers to support the young workers and so long as the retirees do not pull too much money out of the system. It is this demographic balance that is shifting. In the United States the baby boomers are the mature worker generation. They are the largest population cohort that the United States has ever produced (as measured by their percentage of the total population). Beginning in the early 1990s their kids started leaving college, and as of 2006 nearly all of their kids have moved on to their own lives. Some of the older baby boomers are already starting to take early retirement, but the bulk of them will not leave the work force until after 2012. It is the baby boomers who have supplied the bulk of the working capital for the United States for the past 15 years. Their investments -- well out of proportion to what any generation before them has ever been able to provide -- caused the low interest rate environment of the 1990s and 2000s, and single-handedly funded the most expensive and revolutionary transformation the U.S. economy has ever experienced: the computer revolution. When the baby boomers retire en masse, that surge of capital will simply go away, being poured into government bonds. Replacing them in their role as the country's financiers will be Generation X, the children of today's newest crop of retirees, the war babies. And unlike the baby boomers, there are very few members of Generation X. In fact, they are the smallest population cohort that the country has ever produced (again, as measured by their percentage of the total population). Collectively Generation X cannot hope to hold a candle to the amount of money the baby boomers have proven able to sock away these past 15 years. Consuming this reduced pool of credit will be another large population cohort, the baby boomers' kids: Generation Y. Often called the echo boomers, Generation Y is nearly as large a population cohort as their parents. And they are about to need loads of credit for their own kids, cars and homes. Replace the baby boomers with the numerically smaller Xers and add in the demands of the numerically larger Yers, and the United States faces an inversion of the credit environment. Instead of a large generation supplying credit to a small generation, soon a small generation will be supplying credit to a large one. Getting By With Less A reduced supply of capital and credit has two implications. First and most obvious, the cost of financing the purchase of anything -- whether a group of aircraft carriers or a staple gun -- will go up. Fewer people and governments will be able to afford the payments that go along with higher interest costs, leading to reduced consumption and slower growth across all sectors and economies. All in all this is horrible news for anyone who is not one of the Generation Xers, who will be able to demand top dollar for their scarce investment dollars. Second, a smaller pool of anything -- credit, in this instance -- results in a smaller margin for error. Economists have a fancy bit of jargon they use to describe this: volatility. Supply crunches are rare occurrences in well- or over-supplied markets. Lower availability means not only lower growth, but that the swings between booms and busts will be far more rapid and disruptive. And that is the good news. Japan had something similar to the U.S. baby boomer bulge, but instead of peaking now, it peaked in 2000. Instead of capitalizing on that population bulge as the United States did with the computer revolution, Japan squandered the opportunity on chronic deficit spending and now faces a national debt that is the largest in human history (and still getting bigger). Japan faces a 20-year dearth of credit as its post-World War II baby bust takes over the reins of capital formation. And after a brief respite from Japan's 1970s baby boom, the country faces a credit collapse. Europe's demographic scenario is only slightly more cheery than Japan's, but the core problem that each successive generation is smaller than the last is broadly the same. In fact, Europe's demographic decline is in some ways already more serious than the United States', because its average age is already older. In the United States, pension outlays account for some 4.5 percent of GDP; in Italy and Denmark it is already three times that. Such "population chimneys" -- a term that describes how a population bell hollows out over time because of reductions in the birth rate -- are not limited to the developed countries. Russia's post-Cold War trauma has given it a demographic picture that is worse than even Japan's, and though 60 years of China's one-child policy has indeed slowed population growth to a crawl, it has done so at the expense of unbalancing the country's demographics. On average, every four Chinese grandparents now have but one grandchild. The only major economy in the world that has a "traditional" population bell curve is India, a country that has never been an exporter of capital. A Bit of Good News Unlike Japan, Germany or China, the United States has a generation waiting in the wings to take the baton from Generation X. There are a lot of Generation Yers, and when they mature into providers of credit in their own right, the spot that today's baby boomers are just now beginning to step out of, much of this demographic/financial imbroglio will rectify itself. That, however, is some time off; it will not happen until today's college students not only have kids, but have put those kids through college themselves. Until then, the forecast is for more and more expensive credit in the United States and internationally -- for upward of the next 40 years. CHINA: The Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court on Nov. 6 identified IBM as one of three companies that Zou Jianhua introduced to Chairman Zhang Enzhao of the China Construction Bank Corp. Zou -- who is said to have promoted the use of IBM equipment at the bank -- has been indicted for paying approximately $340,000 in bribes to Zhang, who was sentenced to jail Nov. 2. The court assumes IBM paid $225,000 to Zhang. This is latest in a long series of such cases that have embarrassed China's banking industry. Chinese banks are in the midst of trying to raise foreign capital to modernize operations in preparation for China's December World Trade Organization deadline to open its financial market to foreign competitors. However, these scandals do not seem to have shaken investor enthusiasm for Chinese banks, if the recent successful $9.2 billion initial public offering of China's Construction Bank is any indication. VIETNAM: The World Trade Organization (WTO) on Nov. 7 formally invited Vietnam to become a member. The invitation comes after more than a decade of entry talks. During that time, Vietnam has gradually reduced tariff levels and agreed to open its banking sector. The country has already successfully completed bilateral trade agreements with the European Union, Japan and Australia. As a WTO member, Vietnam will likely enjoy increased foreign investment and will benefit from the removal of quotas on its textile exports to the United States and Europe. However, Vietnam will be forced to stop giving subsidies and tax breaks to domestic companies and must continue to open its markets to foreign competition. Vietnam's legislative National Assembly must still ratify the conditions of membership, 30 days after which Vietnam will officially become a member. ARGENTINA/VENEZUELA: Argentina and Venezuela's ministers of finance and economy announced Nov. 8 that they will sell $1 billion in an joint bond issue. The plans were first announced by the two countries in July. The move is unprecedented; joint sovereign bonds have never been issued by any country. The decision to issue a joint bond appears to be politically motivated; Argentina has a close financial relationship with Venezuela, from which it has borrowed more than $3.2 billion in the past year. Both countries have relatively easy access to local capital markets, where the bonds will be issued. However, Argentina remains unable to issue debt in international markets without risking the seizure of funds by holdout investors who did not agree to Argentina's previous debt restructuring and who hold $20 billion in untendered debt. GULF OF MEXICO: Norwegian oil company Statoil has expanded its drilling in the U.S. sector of the Gulf of Mexico with the acquisition of deepwater stakes from Anadarko Petroleum Corp., representatives from both companies said Nov. 6. Statoil is the world's second-largest subsea operator and has extensive expertise in deepwater extraction. INDIA: Local police in the Indian capital of New Delhi had to use tear gas and water cannons this week to disperse violent demonstrators who were protesting a government sealing drive against illegally constructed businesses. Protesters blocked traffic, and commercial truckers in the city, who operate more than 80,000 commercial trucks in Delhi every day, have joined in the demonstration to pressure the government to aid the traders in stalling the sealing drive. The truckers have lost a great deal of business from the traders, who have closed their shops in protest. With the truckers on strike, businesses throughout New Delhi have been roped into the conflict. The protesters are also looking to India's well-organized medical and legal associations to join in the demonstrations. The government will most likely be forced to stall the sealing drive once again to bring daily life in the capital back to normal, but in the meantime the protests serve as an example of the difficulties of enforcing controversial legislation in India. GERMANY: Germany's five "wise men" of independent government-sponsored economics late Nov. 8 issued a damning evaluation of the government's economic plan and inability to overcome political impasses to achieve structural reforms, saying that economic policy was following a "slow-moving zigzag course without a recognizable strategy" and was all the more "disappointing" because "the year 2006 offered not only good political conditions" for decisive reforms "but also the most supportive cyclical environment in years." If you would like to start receiving these reports and gain unrestricted access to Stratfor Premium, please visit us today to find out about the special offer available to you. Click here to become a Premium member and avoid missing another Global Market Brief!

I am curious about one thing. Everyone says the breakfast is one of the better ones in Pattaya - but if the hotel is so sukapoke wouldn't the kitchen be just as bad? Ptomaine anyone?

I have applied for a 1 year extension to my non-immigrant O visa under married to a Thai, supporting a Thai.

Dear Pattaya Area American Citizens, The Consular Section of the American Embassy in Bangkok is pleased to inform you of an upcoming Embassy consular visit in Pattaya. Consular staff will be available to provide consular services on Friday, October 27, from 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM at the Dusit Resort on Pattaya Beach Road near the dolphin circle. The outreach will be held in Dusit Rooms 5 and 6 in the upstairs lobby. The following consular services will be available during the visit: *Passport renewal applications (US $67.00 or baht 2,680 for adult passports – please bring exact change and a copy of your passport photo page) *Additional passport pages (no charge, but please bring a copy of your passport photo page) *Notarial services (US $30 or baht 1,200 for the first notarial; US $20 or baht 800 for each additional notarial – please bring exact change). Notarial services include affidavits for retirement and other visas in Thailand, Thai driver’s licenses, and marriage affidavits. *Embassy registration and/or address change *Absentee ballot application and voting abroad information *Social security, VA or other federal benefits question NOTE: Due to the large amount of time and paperwork involved, no applications for Consular Reports of Birth will be accepted during consular outreach trips. Important Notice for Persons Seeking Extra Passport Pages: We often experience crowds of over 150 persons during our outreach trips to Pattaya. Inserting passport pages requires us to conduct a computer check on your passport beforehand. If you plan to request extra visa pages during our visit, we ask you to either fax a copy of the bio/photo page of your passport along with your Social Security Number to 02-205-4103. Send the fax attention: Pattaya Outreach, Extra Visa Pages. Or e-mail your passport information and social security number to ACSBKK@State.gov and write Pattaya Outreach, Extra Visa Pages in the subject line. If e-mailing, please provide your name as written in your passport, your date and place of birth, our current passport number, and your social security number. Please send this information at least two days before our visit. Doing so will allow us to provide you with faster and more efficient service. If you have any questions, please e-mail: acsbkk@state.gov or call the American Citizen Services Unit at: 02-205-4049. We look forward to seeing you at the Dusit Resort in Pattaya on October 27th. Sincerely, American Citizen Services U.S. Embassy Bangkok **************************************************************************************************** To subscribe or unsubscribe to this list, go to: http://bangkok.usembassy.gov/embassy/acsemaillist.htm The U.S. Embassy Consular Section is located at 95 Wireless Road, Bangkok 10330, Thailand (Nearest BTS Skytrain station: Phloen Chit) American Citizen Services Unit Window Hours: Monday - Friday, 7:30 - 11 AM and 1 - 2 PM Note: The ACS unit will be CLOSED on Monday, Oct 23 and Friday, Oct 27. Tel: +66-2-205-4049 Fax: +66-2-205-4103

My 30 under consideration stamp is up on a Saturday and that is when they told me to return. I didn't think immigration was open on Saturday. Am I incorrect?

Thank you Pete, I managed to get close enough to the post office to find it. I'm not sure what market you referred to, but at the bend in the road I didn't see it and drove past it. I first saw a Farang - turned out to be some German who wasn't much help. When I asked him if he knew where the Post Office was he looked at me as if I had two heads. I asked him what he spoke - he understood that - and he replied Duetche - ok I speak some German so I ask him where the Post was - Luft Post - he still gave me the look. A nice Thai man pointed it out to me. The post office stank - of what I don't know. In America you can smell the stench of civil servant but here it was a stink I have not smelled before. Not as fetid as the fish market but stale. I think the way they portray Santa Claus in the movies was almost the way this place was. I can't imagine anyone getting their mail. After some time they found my letter for which I had to sign. And guess what, as I'm leaving the German piece of shit old man comes walking in the door. I managed to polish my German a bit by chewing the old bastard out - fucker was going there all along. Not to worry, he looks like he won't be here too long - I think death will grab his ass soon enough - probably an ex-Nazi hiding out. Maybe he smelled Jew on me. Drove around Naklua but was not impressed. Reminded me of Appalachia.

Arrogant? I read some post by touristman (useless and pathetic) slamming America. I noticed that that thread is still in full swing even though it demeaned Americans, yet my thread which indeed shows Americans are superior to the rest of the world, is locked. Martin, an American, is obviously cowing to the loud Brits who rule this board. It's a clear double-standard. They can talk about how awful America is and I can't say how we are the brains of the world while the rest of you are the bollocks? A fine double-standard indeed. Arrogant? I don't think so. Outraged? You bet your ass. I am really PERTURBED.

You're painting all my words with the same broad brush or are you just referring to the words that started this topic? Did you have a problem with my facts? Fact: They went to the trouble of printing a card to show they were here, and that you need to visit them. Fact: There is no address on the card. Fact: Facts numbered 1 through 2 together make whomever wrote the card, a stupid git. So what is wrong with my statement? If you would like to defend this, please explain why it is so intelligent to do it this way. I'm open to enlightenment from all comers.

In true Thai style, the post office has left me a slip telling me I have a package that they couldn't shove through the slit in my mailbox. You would think that the paper would tell me where the post office is, as they requested that I come there, but they do not. I saw the same thing on my water bill when it was overdue. They don't tell you how to find the fucking office. Why are they so stupid? How do I get there from Sukumvhit? - Pattaya Klang and Sukumvhit will do nicely.