on-on
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Posts posted by on-on
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It's available to Thai taxpayers, foreign taxpayers who are legally employed (i.e. receive a social security number) and to Thai citizens who don't pay taxes, but choose to pay the THB 300 (400?) a month to receive it. The part I'm not clear on is whether retirees and other visa holders who are here legally, but who don't pay taxes because they don't work can pay the monthly fee and receive it. It's not open to tourists or other people who don't participate via one of these mechanisms.
It's quite good basic care, incidentally. I had surgery at a relatively local hospital (Kluaynamthai) and it went off without a hitch. They even dressed the wound daily for a month for free. Even offered to write me a voucher for a taxi. Had the same operation in nearly the same place 15 years ago in the US and it was a nightmare of infections and re-opening the wound and drain tubes left in. Thai people I know talk it down like it's the worst thing ever, not having used it, but I had a great experience. When I tell them about my experience their jaws hit the floor. Coming from the US, it's hard not to be really appreciative of such a thing. I have and can afford private insurance, but having public healthcare is positively amazing.
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Quote from a female friend who went:
"Fat Boy Slim is an old farang man
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I lived in that area for a couple of years, moved a year or so back. For a long time those checkpoints were there because of the ongoing (never-ending) war between the tenants of the Khlong Toei Market and the new owners/Port Authority. There had been shootings between them and beatings and mob violence and such. Sometimes they were there to stop the motorcycle gangs from racing from 1AM to 4AM every Friday and Saturday (ugh). I never once got stopped as a farang for anything coming home at all hours all the time. Not sure what they're on about there, since it's not exactly a highly trafficked farang area, but that's interesting. Maybe they think you're the "farang sniper" lol.
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MRT, BTS and the airport link serve no real purpose apart from giving Bangkok an air of modernity. They are way to small to serve any valid function other than that.
They beat getting a taxi around Bangkok. I can get from Ratchada/TCC to Silom in less than 30 minutes any time of the day. If I tried that in a taxi, it would take 2 hours.
Yes. Whatever complaints I have about execution, statements like the one you quoted are total lunacy. If you really think there's no effect to having these kinds of amenities, go try getting across Jakarta or Manila during rush hour and see what you think. Then come back and pillory Bangkok's infrastructural upgrade. The only valid complaint about them is how stupidly the last mile is handled on each effort, not the sum total of the efforts of the last decade or so - which includes multiple expressways, a subway, a skytrain, an airport train, a bus rapid transit program, multiple extensions to many of the above and several brand new lines underway as well as a monorail. When you have to sit in traffic for four hours just to get to the airport, as you used to have to in Bangkok many days and still have to in Manila on some days, you won't think the skytrain and subway are anything short of miraculous.
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Get ready for more of this kind of disconnected nonsense as well. As one poster mentioned, it's a fantastic set of individual mass transit options and it's amazing (compared to most Western cities) how quickly it goes up, even with the delays. The problem is solely in the inability to think beyond fiefdoms. Still even when it's a single authority managing something, the problems are inexplicable. For example, the new subway extension from Bang Sue isn't (as planned now) going to connect to the existing Bang Sue station, which already has a second set of tunnels and access points built in underground - even though it's all being managed by MRTA. It's supposed to come up and terminate in its own station. Similarly, other extensions aren't planned to connect directly into existing stations. Then there's the issue of the 5 cards we'll all need to navigate the different systems. On balance all of this is incredibly positive, but it's a bit maddening to see Bangkok repeatedly take the ball all the way down field and then just kick it off the side of the field, sit down in the middle of the field and start arguing between teammates.
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The idea that the "express" would be at a station completely disconnected from any other rail alternatives is absurd. Granted, they obviously have future plans to develop the area and what not (I've done both Phaya Thai and Makkasan several times), but the SRT is in existence right now and there is no obvious construction being undertaken to make the Makkasan-MRT connection in any way convenient, so when I pass Phaya Thai BTS on a regular basis I see tons of people with roll-off luggage. When I go to Makkasan, it's a ghost town. I talked with the taxi guys and they even kinda chuckle about it. Traffic in that area is horrendous any time of day, there's no direct connection to another rail service and the area looks like a demilitarized zone for the moment. As much as I really think Bangkok and Thailand are doing a great job building out tons of rail and public transit, the total lack of coordination and oddball fiefdom politics that always interfered with efficiency are a bit annoying. The lack of a sensible city express depot for the SRT, completed BTS line to Wong Wian Yai sitting unused for years waiting on signaling system contracts, completed line to Bearing sitting unused for years because the head man doesn't want to sign off on procurement and so on. On balance it's easily 80-90% positive, but it's difficult not to notice the 10-20% of stupidity that prevents it from being as efficient as Hong Kong or Singapore's or KL's rail links.
EDIT: I forgot the 2-4 different tickets needed to traverse the MRT, BTS, BRT and SRT and the total idiocy of the BRT being stuck in traffic on non-dedicated lanes at key intersections. Soon we'll have monorails with a totally different ticketing system surely as well. All of this is par for the course, but with just a little more effort to think about the end user and not lining one's own pockets it could be at HK or SG levels of efficiency. Also, my wallet wouldn't be stretched from carrying so many cards. Why is my Nuduan card, for example, a separate entity from my regular BTS card? This country is lovely and I enjoy it, but it couldn't market its way out of a paper bag.
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A grey area is where it is a community project, such as a village clean up, is this voluntary work or just doing your civic duty?
I suppose it'd be in the eye of the beholder and owing the the golden rule, yeah, which is that if someone is pissed at you they could theoretically report you. Seems pretty unlikely though, unless there's some separate circumstance involved. Just as an example, I participated in the big Bangkok cleanup after the protests. I sat there all day long scrubbing graffiti, washing walls and so on. A number of other obvious foreigners did as well. Since it bears on the topic of this thread, I'll point out that I was interviewed in two newspapers, on Thai television and spoke with a number of Thai people and officials who came by (I got there early, so there weren't as many farangs yet). In fact, the Governor did a a TV interview about 10' from me at one point. According to Thai Visa I should currently be in jail or deported, but according to how real life works in Thailand I was allowed to carry out a civic duty as a Bangkok resident unfettered. In fact, if anything, people and officials were overwhelmingly too nice about the whole affair.
So, basically, when it comes to various foreigner-related laws and issues there are a lot of know-it-alls on these forums who love to quote the letter of the law and then scaremonger, like bad sensationalist tabloid show hosts. This is a bit of a problem because when you're first coming here and you read Thai Visa (as I did) the country sounds like an authoritarian nightmare of immigration gulags and plainclothes minders scrutinizing farangs for any perceived infraction. When you live a normal working life here, apparently in some alternate universe from where the denizens of Thai Visa live, you find out that things are pretty much normal. While there's corruption and there are legal issues and, at times, instances of egregious behavior (such as the Harry Nicolaides case), day to day existence, at least for me and literally every farang I know in person, doesn't include shakedowns, bribes, fines, fees, jailtime, Thai neighbors who snitch you out for mowing your lawn or anything else even remotely like this. Of all the people I know, only one got jailed briefly for a ridiculous incident, but tat was because he was a subcontractor on a highly political government contract (Suvarnabhumi) and he was subsequently released, uncharged. I think we all know that certain areas are risky - government contracts, real estate, journalism and so on. Anything where you're getting into land, politics or public humiliation (real or perceived) of others. Otherwise, of the 40 or 50 farangs I know well enough to say I know them well, many of whom have lived here for 20, 30 or more years, none have had any issues and many have built businesses and lives in Thailand. Sure, they've had to cut corners here and there and figure out how the local networks operate, depending on what they do, but that's about the worst of it. Certainly there's not so much as one story among them of a guy getting hauled off to jail for hammering a nail into the wall of his business or the kind of ridiculous nonsense you read on these forums. And no one I know has ever been bothered about the various charity and volunteer activities they participate in regularly - nor have I. And some of these people spend months building schools for villages, sewers for refugee camps and so on. Still, best to be safe and sit home on the internet worrying about it and telling other people not to go outside and do anything helpful.
All that said, the original post was about teaching English without a work permit and while I'm sure you could get away with helping people out here and there, or maybe even longer depending on the situation, since that's such a high profile career (in its own odd way), I'd avoid it. If, however, the OP were about helping to mow your crippled neighbor's lawn or something - go for it.
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Since you asked about the reality and not the letter of the law, the reality is that people do volunteer work here all the time for year upon year with no problems. Many wives of friends spend months volunteering up in the North for example while other people I know perform very highly visible charity and volunteer work either outside the scope of their work permit or as spouses without a work permit. It goes on constantly unpunished, though of course it can be punished. The golden rule is not to do something that puts yourself in between someone and money, unless maybe you have a bigger patron than any interested party. Teaching's generally not a good idea because lots of other people make money at it, there was a thread recently about a guy who had been volunteer teaching local kids and the local cops came by and warned him. Note: they warned him. In Thailand if you don't piss someone off or you're not just incredibly unlucky, people will usually warn you first if you're edging into sketchy territory because they don't want to create a big hubbub. On the other hand, if you show up to a village in Mae Hong Son (as several friends do and have done for years) and work with a local group to install wells or help with a clinic, most likely nothing's going to happen.
On ThaiVisa, you will hear that no matter what you do without a work permit you will be put in the slammer, sodomized, stuffed into a cannon and shot back to your home country with a blackball stuffed in your mouth, but cases like this are either A] total outliers or B] cases in which there's something more to the story than "All I did was help my neighbor dig a ditch!" and the person is lying by omission.
Use your common sense.
(cue the "NO IT'S ILLEGAL YOU WILL GO TO JAIL THE TSUNAMI BLAH BLAH" or "ME MISSUS' FRIEND'S HUSBAND GOT PUT IN JAIL FOR MOWING HIS LAWN" brigade)
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In my experience they ask whether you're an alcoholic and whether you have a history of mental illness or something like that, then they give you a few tests for syphilis, TB and some other diseases. I've also heard that if you go to a more local hospital it's considerably more pro forma, but I've always done mine at several international hospitals (I'm on #2 in 5 years). One guy bugged me about a chest X-Ray once, but I told him that wasn't going to happen (I don't like getting unnecessary X-Rays). My advice, if you're worried about it then show up for your checkup unannounced around 16:30 when they're about to leave for the day - I was told flat out by the nurses at one place that they'd have been more stringent, but it was closing time and the doctor was in a hurry to leave.
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US backing for parents' website on Thai danger
A website set up last week by the parents of New Zealander Sarah Carter to warn others of the dangers of visiting Thailand has received the support a United States man whose fiancee also died there. Richard Carter said the website thailandtraveltragedies.com was created out of exasperation at what he sees as a cover-up by Thai officials over his daughter's death on February 6.
If they actually did this right and got some SEO people involved they could have a real effect, but as it stands they probably won't, unfortunately (no one searches 'thailand travel tragedies' while a few search 'thailand tourist deaths' for example). It is the right idea, though. If you can't force direct action by the governments involved or public officials, then the best and only avenue left is public shame. The conundrum is that unless you manage to get some traction in PR terms you're just spinning your wheels. I wish them all the best of luck, because loss of income and public shame are about the only two things that will elicit a response and that will only come with enough negative PR. That train of negative PR has certainly been building over the last few years and at this rate something is going to cause it to reach a tipping point in the not-too-distant future.
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Note this tactic in comparison to the total sucking sound where it concerns the tax practices of GE, Google and most major American companies. Quick, get the expats. Meanwhile, sure, here's your 2bn tax rebate, GE, good accounting work on those transfer payments and offshore schemes! They could recoup 6bn by simply going after a single major American company.
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I thought I was the only one too. I'll absolutely echo Tod's experience and results. Not just with the "technique" as it were, which has worked for me since I figured it out too, but with the trying to get by someone and having them meander left and right in whatever direction you choose to pass on. I've never seen a place where one person can block an entire sidewalk with such effectiveness. Young, old, in between - doesn't matter. I used to think there was a pattern to it of circumnavigating storm drains and other obstacles, but the more you watch it the less sense it makes. For example, it happens all the time on empty BTS walkway platforms where there are absolutely no obstacles.
Anyhow, it is un-Goddamn-canny how all this works. I enjoy Thailand and this isn't a major gripe, it's just one of those things that amazes me. Especially the part where people make a subconscious beeline for you on an empty sidewalk. What compels that, I don't know, but it's guaranteed.
One thing I do know is that a lot of money could be saved by cutting the contracts for whoever paints the arrows on the footbridges. Those things are as useless as tits on a bull.
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The FBI can work with the DOJ to bring cases against Americans caught abroad for various crimes - particularly when the crime itself involves telecommunication activity that passes through or terminates in America. As well, a number of laws have been passed in recent years to deal with the globalization of crimes and frauds targeted at Americans. One good example is the USA Safe Web Act, though that's targeted at allowing bi-directional sharing of information between the FTC and foreign governments (not the FBI). These kinds of laws have sections that specifically allow American agencies to cooperate with foreign agencies and to establish a formal method for sharing evidence so that the evidence can be used in the American legal system (and vice versa). Whether this particular case is driven by the FBI, who knows? Sounds mostly like Australian grievances, but the two nations are very cooperative and it's entirely plausible that if some Americans are involved the Australians requested assistance and the two, together, strongly asked the Thai government to intervene. And, of course, the FBI regularly sends teams abroad to investigate. The bombing of The USS Cole is a good example.
Good to see this kind of thing shut down, though, as many have pointed out, it's a drop in the bucket.
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here comes climate change - unpredictable weather, floods and droughts just hundred km apart
Oh, really? Where is the drought?
That was last year:
http://www.google.com/search?q=drought+in+thailand
And this year:
http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90851/7332120.html
Climate change is often ballyhooed over semantics. Who knows what the cause of all this is, I don't, but "climate change" doesn't mean that it's warm everywhere at once, rainy everywhere at once and so on, it means different locales will experience historically uncommon changes in their climate.
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Thanks everyone, I really appreciate the replies. The link on the internet situation clears everything up on that. I'd heard it was pretty good, so that's good to see. My impression is that the only real personal stumbling block is going to be transport, since I don't want to own a car again and like at least one poster I don't think that I'd be the smartest guy on a motorbike since I haven't ridden back home. Doesn't sound like there are many options, though. You either drive yourself or you pay through the nose for some tuk tuk mafia guy to take you. That's pretty infuriating for such a massively populated area, but it is what it is and there's no point in bitching about it further I reckon. The housing prices and advice on house vs. condo was illuminating too. I'm used to living in Bangkok, so I hardly ever think about renting a house, heh. Thanks for that. Overall that answers most everything, yeah. The rest has got to be lived, I suppose.
Ah, yeah, in closing I guess I'd ask one more question: How are the Thai and farang communities respectively? Obviously that's a broad-brush stereotype, but I've lived here long enough to know that some of the stereotypes are broadly true (and that they're not universal, of course). Certain cities do have a much rougher farang community and certain cities do have a much more jaded Thai community. By the same token, other people would describe certain cities as having a much snootier farang community and a much less down to Earth Thai community. Some places just get the label "laid back." I have no opinion on Phuket as I've only known a few people who lived there long-term and they seem like nice people who could live, work and socialize anywhere in the world. It sounds a lot like it depends which community you live in (Kata, Patong, Kamala, Chalong, Rawaii, etc). Is one area demonstrably "nicer" in terms of people than any of the others? I'm sure if the logic of seaside tourist resort towns everywhere holds, then Patong is the worst in almost every category, so I'm not really considering it.
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Yeah, yeah, it's too broad a topic and there can't be any specific answers - I'm not interested in what you don't know or can't answer, just what you can.
I've lived in Bangkok for a number of years. I like it, it's a nice city as cities go and I can't complain. I've got a potential offer in Phuket, but while I've been there several times on vacation we all know that's not the same as living somewhere. Every Thai city craps on Bangkok and Bangkok craps on every city, but I'm not interested in that provincial squabbling - what I care about is the reality of daily life. I really just am interested in hearing about Phuket. So, I have some questions if some of you denizens would be kind enough to answer honestly.
- How Does One Get Around - Is A Car Or Motorcycle Required, Or Are There Bus/Sangtaew Options?
- What Is The Cost Of A Typical 60sqm Condo (Not On The Beach)? If You
- Are The Scams & Touts Actually As Bad As They Say? Keep In Mind I Live In Bangkok, I'm Not A Tourist, And I Speak Thai - But The Stories Of "Don't Park Here!" And Beating Old People Are Appalling.
- How Speedy Is International Internet - Specifically Any Of You Who Do A Lot Of Data Transfer & Voice Overseas?
- How Is True 3G Coverage?
- Any Thoughts on Patong vs. Chalong vs. Karon? Obviously Patong Would Be The Touristy-est And Most Ridiculous I Assume.
It's a short list, but I don't want to ask too many questions. I don't really have an opinion on Phuket. I found people nice when I've been there and I enjoyed the more common natural beauty, but it's also a much more touristy place and I found that because there's such a penetration of tourism there that there's also a much higher percentage of jaded people - both local and international. What's the vibe like? How're things? I genuinely appreciate any help anyone can provide
And, yes, I searched old threads for about an hour and read plenty.
- How Does One Get Around - Is A Car Or Motorcycle Required, Or Are There Bus/Sangtaew Options?
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Please buy them all and then burn them. Those things should be used in prisoner interrogation.
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This business is actually legal in India, and pretty well-known. I do business in the international medical field and this stuff is something I've never personally run across and that I would never touch, legal or not, because of the obvious ethical issues that would bug me personally. First, the women involved are under economic pressure that causes them to choose this work. In only the economic vs. ethics sense, not in the nature of the work, it's not much different than going to work in a go go bar. I wouldn't own one of those either. Second, while I don't have a problem with surrogacy in theory or between individuals who make the decision together, the concept of commodifying it and turning the developing world into a factory for babies is just distasteful in much the same way that the voluntary organ harvesting in The Philippines, India, Pakistan and elsewhere is distasteful. A pregnancy is a pretty serious and traumatic event for a woman's body and the results are far from guaranteed for the mother and the child, so you're not just selling a baby, you're paying someone to take a risk to their health and to the health of a life that you pay them to create. What happens if the baby's got some debilitating birth defect or has autism or something - do people still take it? I doubt it.
I'm not exactly surprised that it happened, but I'm also not surprised that it's largely Taiwanese and Vietnamese involved in this and not Thais. Not just because this is a pretty innovative idea (if ethically reprehensible in many ways) either. There's a ton of inequality in this country and the justice system is screwed up and so on, but by and large you don't see Thai people going to the extreme lengths in screwing over their countrymen that you see in India, The Philippines, China and so on. It's usually more garden variety screwing over. I assume this is because the economic situation here, while not exactly ideal, provides for a considerably better life for many more people than it does in rural China or the slums of Mumbai and what have you and that family networks are less strained because of it. There are some culturally quirky exceptions, though, like prostitution that make sense historically. Not that there aren't plenty of cases where Thai people are perfectly happy to treat Rohingya, Khmer, Burmese and other looked-down-upon peoples like human garbage, of course. Anyway, blah blah blah.
Kind of curious why they didn't do it in Cambodia, with the more lax laws and oversight. Maybe it's because they'd stick out more there? And the NGOs that work to protect human rights would catch them a lot easier and then have a field day? Maybe they just liked living in Bangkok, that's certainly why plenty of other scammers work here. It's a nice town and it's got probably 10MM people, making it pretty easy to hide among the crowds in, I suppose.
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Why not clear the damned footpaths of vendors - far cheaper...
What you don't understand is that many of these foot path operators pay to have their shop on the foot path. This money gets syphoned off as either a graft or a tax to the government. All of the big suburban shopping centres have markets in the car park. All of these markets taking up the available car parking spaces pay (on average) 200b per night. So if you add all that up the shopping centre management makes a lot more money from the markets than it does from the cars being parked there.
Expect the same from these public walk ways and accept that the walkway markets will be kinda like a toll.
I dunno if this is necessarily true. The majority of BTS, MRT and BRT stations and walkways have stayed vendor free and the only exceptions are in special areas that are very spacious where vendors are in dedicated shops or off to the side in dedicated areas (Siam & others) or lined up against the walls (Bang Sue MRT) - oh yeah, then there's that platform outside of National Stadium BTS that's full of break dancers and such, but I figure that's an MBK thing. As well, the tollways have stayed free of 2-wheeled vehicles (police notwithstanding). There is a precedent for new infrastructure in Bangkok to be managed differently than existing infrastructure and it's not like I have to weave around noodle carts to make my way between Chong Nonsi BTS and Empire Tower on that walkway or between Sala Daeng BTS and Si Lom MRT on that walkway. I know it's the Tha Visa mantra to kvetch about everything, but while things could go either way, I don't see that it's cut and dried.
That said, I appreciate that you at least got past the usual TV belief that every single thing is about paying off police. As you mentioned, there's a government body dedicated to dealing with street vendors and the arrangements in different areas vary widely depending on the area - you may have to pay a property owner or the local big man or maybe no one. Sometimes nobody is paid off and it's simply "your spot" - though this is in less competitive areas, of course. Upon talking to vendors in various areas one finds that the reality doesn't necessarily match the cynical view that every single thing in Thailand is about paying money to police (though, of course, a number of things are about that
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Honest to God typical Thai Visa wisdom. "Me mate once got hauled off to the IDC for shakin' off his own dingaling in the WC! It's true!" Eventually I have to come to one of these meetups to meet all these people in person, because in about five years here no single person I've met or known has ever had any of the alarmist experiences of Thai Visa's Visa forum crew who, apparently, are arrested on a regular basis for things like nailing pictures to a wall, sitting among customers at their bar or speaking English to a Thai person without a teaching work permit.Any act that will deprive a local of his or her vocation. Thus, bathing yourself is considered working.
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Typical Thai visa reply, hah. WHY ARE YOU ASKING QUESTIONS!? WHAT IS THIS, A FORUM? PIPE DOWN.
For what it's worth, he's right, many of the "Indian" tailor touts aren't from Thailand. On Sukhumvit they seem to be, but most tourist areas I go to they're Nepalese, Burmese, Indian, etc. Can't speak to African gem traders. The Chinese more Thai than Thai? That's a new one. How about they all have citizenship and are equally Thai? Sounds more likely.
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This is what I had come to ask. That's too badAll this to-ing and fro-ing is forgetting the major point. White Spot is not back
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The original poster already said this:
"I have a year non immigrant B visa which expires in March"
Doesn't that pretty much end the discussion? He can stay until the next time he needs to leave based on his entry under the 1 Year Non-Imm B, not based on an extension of stay or a work permit or what the school says or does.
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I disagree with you guys on the common sense aspect. You could save probably a number of lives by educating people. Many people didn't grow up near the ocean and just by their nature don't understand anything about how it works or can't even fathom that anything like strong undercurrents even exist. If you grew up swimming and boating then you know about undertow and what not, but some tourist from a landlocked country may have no idea how serious this kind of thing is and probably views the ocean as a giant swimming pool. Putting a relatively prominent, but innocuous warning where they can see it might save some lives and it's not too in-your-face to be annoying to typical visitors. I think it'd be a good compromise instead of restricting the activities of more experienced island residents and visitors, which is the more odious approach we'd take back in The States. Of course you won't save everyone. I just returned from Phuket this weekend and it's of course chock full of drunk moron tourists, but not everyone who drowns is an egomaniac who flaunts the rules, some are just ignorant of the realities and might be saved if they had ever heard anyone point out the potential for serious danger.
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Puchao Samingprai Ferry Hours
in Bangkok
Posted
So, basically, you have no idea. Just refrain from posting. I speak plenty enough Thai to get around and can tell you the ferry times for a number of ferries as well as boats stops and informal ferries and longtails that run ancillary routes. I need to know this specific ferry arrangement because I'm on the other side of town and can't verify it. As I pointed out, official ferry times mean nothing whatsoever as anyone who takes the boats regularly can tell you. Thankfully, the Thai Visa denizens are there yet again with no idea of how anything works in Thailand, but plenty of smarm and speculation. Surely if I'd asked where to buy Heinneken at Sanphawut I'd get a reply lol.
If anyone from the area knows, I'd appreciate it. Otherwise, can it, please. Thanks for any help anyone has to offer