Living In Thailand Blog
Saturday 15th June 2013
The cost of living has risen steeply in Thailand in recent years and, together with the plummeting exchange rate after the global financial crisis, I feel a lot worse off now compared to a few years ago.
However, there are still things that are ridiculously cheap. A lot of Thais can't afford cars and their only transport option is a motorbike. There are millions of bikes in Thailand, and accordingly there are lots of one-man motorbike repair operations to service them.
Owners of motorbikes don't tend to have much money and therefore repairmen can't charge much. They work hard for very little. I've seen signs offering a 24 hour tyre repair service. You can wake the guy up in the middle of the night to fix your puncture and he will only charge Bt30.
My wife's bike hasn't been treated very well in life. After she bought it she never got it serviced and when we were badly flooded in 2010 the poor Yamaha Fino was completely submerged under flood water for several days.
On one occasion I crashed it, and after she got her car the bike wasn't used for months. When it was being used regularly we were too lazy to go to a proper petrol station, and instead filled it up with bottled petrol that many Thais sell on the street. This cheap fuel normally contains a lot of muck and it contaminates the fuel system.
The unfortunate bike kept on going for a long time, but eventually all of this neglect and maltreatment rendered it inoperative. I managed to kick start it and drove it very slowly on flat tyres to our local repairman.
He fixed the tyres, charged the battery, removed the grunge from the carburettor and fuel tank and got the bike working again. He did say that it would need some more attention. All of this only cost Bt350.
The bike has been running, but very slowly, and I decided to take it back for more attention today. Again, he spent a lot of time (about three to four hours) cleaning out the fuel system and fitted an additional fuel filter to try to prevent further problems.
When I asked him how much it would be, he said he would have to think about it. If he had said Bt1,000 I wouldn't have had a problem. The final bill was a paltry Bt195 and I felt almost embarrassed.
We had some outdoor lighting installed last week. The electricians did a good job and used a fair amount of cable, conduit and extra switches. My wife thought it would be about Bt2,000, but they charged Bt3,500.
She thought it was expensive. I normally think what the cost would be in the UK, and Thai prices always seem cheap. In certain professions it seems that tradesmen can charge what they want. The electricians probably increased the price because a) we have a nice house and b) I am a 'rich' farang.
Thais selling cheap food or repairing motorbikes can't do this. If they raise their prices, their customers will just go elsewhere. Many work hard and struggle to make a living.
As with many self-employed Thais, the motorbike repair man's work area was at the front of his house. It's probably not ideal but many Thais working like this can't afford to buy or rent separate premises for their business activities.
The front of the house is a greasy, oily garage and just behind is his living area. This is how my wife's brothers live. They are all involved in the motorcar trade and live and work in the same place.
Certain things are very easy to find in Thailand. If you have a motorbike problem there is always a repair place nearby. There is a lot of bureaucracy in Thailand and it is heavily paper-based. Whenever you deal with Thai bureaucracy you have to get lots of photocopies done. For this reason, it is always easy to find a photocopy shop.
Something else that is always easy to do is to get keys cut. In the UK I got this done in shoe repair shops and there weren't that many. In Thailand there are people with key-cutting machines everywhere and it is never a problem finding someone to cut a spare key.
And not forgetting food. There are street vendors everywhere and you can always buy freshly cooked food very easily. I'm sure that my wife, who has never been outside of Thailand, thinks that everywhere else is the same. I don't think she would enjoy living in England because she would miss all this stuff.
I believe it is even more varied in India, where you can find street dentists who will fill or extract teeth. Thailand isn't quite the same, but for people from boring Western countries, such as myself, the street life in Thailand is always quite interesting - even if it can be chaotic at times.
Friday 14th June 2013
What do insects and tropical fruit have in common ... apart from both being abundant in Thailand?
No matter how many you see, you always come across varieties that you have never seen before. In the 10 years I have lived in Thailand, I have seen a lot of tropical fruit. However, Thais still occasionally offer me a type of fruit that I've never seen before.
It's the same with insects. Now and again an insect will appear that I've never seen before. Some of the insects are beautiful. The bright fluorescent green beetles that appear occasionally look like jewels that have been made by a master craftsman. Some insects are ugly. Cockroaches seem to be universally detested and our old rented townhouse had lots. Thankfully, I have yet to see one in our new house.
Some are dangerous. The two that worry me most are stripy mosquitoes that transmit dengue fever and termites that can do enormous damage to houses. Later this year I will need to contact a pest control company about arranging a maintenance program to keep termites at bay. The house was treated when it was finished being built and should be OK for the first year.
Some insects are annoying. There is a constant procession of ants marching through the house and when it rains we are inundated with flying insects that enter the house through small gaps in the doorways and then die. They are completely harmless, but they make a terrible mess.
It has rained heavily the last couple of days and this morning the kitchen was covered in dead insects.
Many are fascinating. Sometimes I just watch ants at work. It's more interesting watching red ants in forest areas, but a degree of caution is required as their bites are painful. The way they work together in a coordinated fashion is amazing.
Mantises are also fascinating. I took these photos recently after one of the cats brought me home another present. Click on the thumbnails for a larger image. I didn't use any focus stacking techniques for these shots and therefore the depth of field is quite shallow, as is normal with macro photography.
Their big eyes follow you around as you move and it is quite a weird feeling being observed by an insect. Unfortunately, our cats regard large insects and small reptiles as toys and most are dead by the time I find them.
In addition to dead flying insects in the kitchen, the other thing I woke up to this morning was a flashing digital clock on the oven indicating that there had been yet another power cut overnight. Power cuts occur frequently, but especially so when there is heavy rain.
A couple of weeks ago I stopped procrastinating and finally bought an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) for my computer. The computer was switched off when last night's power cut occurred so I still haven't tested it yet in a real situation.
I didn't want anything fancy and didn't need a huge capacity. All I want it for is to iron out small power cuts so that my computer remains switched on during blips, or to give me enough time to do a controlled shutdown in the event of a long power cut.
There are several models on sale in Thailand at a variety of capacities and prices. I chose probably the cheapest model, but it seems fine and I'm sure it will be perfectly adequate for my needs. The brand is Syndome. It was Bt1,590 but the retailer signed me up for their loyalty card scheme and that entitled me to a Bt100 discount on my first purchase.
I was really worried that lots of power cuts would eventually result in a hard disk crash or other component failure and Bt1,490 is a fairly small price to pay for peace of mind. The internal battery should be good for about two years, after which I will need to buy another complete unit as I doubt that the battery can be replaced separately.
At lunch today my wife's fried rice was served up with a long black hair. After telling the waitress, the rice was taken away and returned. All they did was pull the hair out in the kitchen and return the same plate of food.
She then found another hair and we went through the same procedure. When she found a third hair she didn't bother saying anything. She took the hair out and tried to eat her rice. I then found a hair in my sweet and sour chicken.
Some Singaporean friends visited a while ago and I recommended a restaurant. The food is normally good, although it's not cheap by local standards. The large bowl of rice that we ordered didn't just have one hair inside, but a clump of hair. It looked disgusting.
I called the owner over. She removed the clump of hair at the table in front of everyone, gave us all a stupid smile, and that was it. In her eyes the problem was solved. There was hair in the rice and now there isn't. Enjoy your meal. She never considered actually giving us a fresh bowl of hair-free rice.
I don't like this kind of behaviour, but I have become used to it after living in Thailand for several years. This type of 'problem solving' isn't untypical in Thailand.
Singapore is the only developed country in Southeast Asia and Singaporeans aren't used to this kind of thing, either. It really spoilt what should have been an enjoyable meal. Naturally, no compensation was made and no charges were removed from the bill.
About 17 years ago I was on vacation in Phuket and stopped at a small restaurant in Phuket town for a sandwich. The sandwich contained some salad and it was full of ants. I told the waitress. The look on her face was one of exasperation, as if to say, "Why are farangs always complaining about nothing?" She took the sandwich (which I had already taken a bite out of) to the kitchen, brushed off the ants, and returned it to me. Problem solved.
I was trying to explain to my wife that if this happened in a Western country the restaurant staff would be highly apologetic and quite embarrassed. They would prepare a fresh dish for the customer instead of simply removing the offending articles. They would then probably tell the customer that there wouldn't be any need to pay - "I'm really sorry about what happened, this one's on us."
This might happen at some of the better establishments in Bangkok, but those establishments probably wouldn't have problems in the first place. My experience in provincial Thailand is that the foreign objects are simply removed and the food returned with no apology and no compensation.
I don't think that human hair or ants in food pose much of a health hazard, but that really isn't the point. Finding either can really put you off your meal and just removing them and expecting you to eat the same food isn't an ideal solution, but in many cases it is the Thai solution.
Thailand continues to make lots of progress with its development, but in some respects it is still very Third World.
The other thing to note from today's incident was my wife's reaction, which was also very typically Thai. She had a perfect right to complain and to get angry, but whenever she called the waitress over she was always exceptionally polite and almost apologetic for causing any inconvenience.
She smiled and laughed a lot to diffuse the situation and to avoid any confrontation. Thais are non-confrontational most of the time (except when they are driving) and to lose one's temper and get angry is considered to be a loss of face. This cultural behaviour can be very attractive, but it doesn't help when it comes to improving service levels.
If this kind of thing happened in Western countries there are people who would storm out of the restaurant in disgust, and those who would get really angry and cause a scene. There's no way they would accept the same food after the hair was removed and many would expect some kind of compensation.
After you've become accustomed to living among Thais, this kind of confrontational behaviour can be very disturbing. However, if a few more Thai customers showed a little more anger then general service levels might improve.
When the restaurant does something bad and all of the customers just sit there smiling saying, "mai bpen rai" and "kor tort," it isn't very likely that service levels will improve very much.
Thursday 13th June 2013
I received some interesting e-mails from a reader in Australia regarding my post about the high price of Australian-made Ford cars in Thailand.
He pointed out that Thailand and Australia signed a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) on 1st January 2005.
Key outcomes of the Thailand-Australia Free Trade Agreement
The FTA includes a section on Automotive:
"Thailand immediately eliminated tariffs on large passenger motor vehicles (engine capacity of over 3000cc) and goods vehicles, previously at 80% and 60% respectively. For other passenger motor vehicles, Thailand immediately reduced the previous 80% tariff to 30%, before phasing this down by 6% each year to zero in 2010."
Immediately, the FTA made a huge difference to retail prices in Thailand for cars imported from Australia and tariffs were further reduced from 2005 to 2010.
For the last three years, since 2010, cars imported into Thailand from Australia should have had no tariff applied. So why such a big difference in price between Thailand and Australia for the same car?
I wondered if I had underestimated the particular model of car for sale in Thailand. The most expensive Ford Territory I can find on-line in Australia costs AUS$63,240, which is about Bt1.86 million. That's still a lot cheaper than the Bt3 million price tag in Thailand.
He asked whether the car was made elsewhere in a country that didn't have an FTA with Thailand. As far as I can tell, the Territory was designed by Ford Australia and is only made by Ford Australia. That doesn't seem to be the explanation.
He then found another link explaining what had happened:
Foreign import hurdles hamper Australian car exports: Parts makers
Last August Ford Australia exported 100 Australian-made Territory Titanium SUVs to Thailand to test the market. The vehicles had a luxury vehicle tax levied on them that limited their market. Ford declines to comment further on the issue, but the association of manufacturers that supplies the company, and manufacturers Holden and Toyota, are more vocal.
"We're supportive of FTAs, as long as they're in they're fair trade agreements," says Federation of Automotive Parts Manufacturers chief executive Richard Reilly. "We sign a free trade agreement with Thailand and then, post-agreement, Thailand imposed this non-tariff barrier. Various other countries we're negotiating with and dealing with can, and do, impose non-tariff barriers."
Mystery solved. Despite the FTA, Thailand still applied a large tariff to these vehicles and that's why the price in Thailand is so high.
A previous attempt to import the larger engined 4.0 litre Ford Terrritory was scuppered in 2005 when a late change to the FTA imposed a 60% excise on foreign models with engines bigger than 3.0 litres. Presumably, this was why Ford Australia chose to power the model intended for Thailand with a 2.7 litre V6 turbo diesel engine, but this model was also subjected to a high luxury tax.
Ford Territory export hopes for Thailand
Here's another article, which says that the imported Territory was hit with a 50% excise duty despite the FTA that is in place. This article also complains that the Thai/Australian FTA is all one-way traffic, with most one-tonne pickup trucks ('utes' in Australianese) sold in Australia coming from Thailand.
Thailand has the world's second largest pickup truck market after the United States, and this sector is dominated by Toyota and Isuzu. Ford's new Ranger pickup is doing well in Thailand. All of these foreign branded trucks are priced reasonably in Thailand because they are assembled in Thailand.
Locally-made Territory could be headed to Thailand but in strictly limited numbers
And a further article describing Australia's disappointment with how Thailand has behaved since the FTA deal was struck.
"We should never have signed that agreement without knowing what the Thais could do to prevent the export of our manufactured motor vehicles into that country," Mr Bracks said.
Australian motor industry 'disadvantaged by poor Thai, Malaysian trade deals'
What is most concerning about this is that an FTA between two countries is not a trivial undertaking. It is carried out at the highest levels of government and I would assume that it needs to be signed by both Prime Ministers. In addition to all the legal points, there should also be an element of goodwill and trust.
Once it is in place, how can one country be allowed to find sneaky ways to work around key points? How can one country agree not to add any import duty on cars, but then add a 'sales tax' or 'luxury tax' of 50% or 60% depending on the size of the engine?
Brits and Australians might say 'It's just not cricket'. Unfortunately, the sport and the concept of fairness and level playing fields are unknown in Thailand.
If you sign any type of agreement in Thailand, how confident can you be that the agreement will be honoured?
I was chatting to a foreigner years ago, but I can't remember the exact details of the conversation. He had got involved with something, but I can't remember if it was a relationship, business, or buying property. It was something that involved him transferring quite a lot of money into the country.
Whatever it was, the issue had concerned him enough to go to a lawyer in order to get a legal document drawn up just in case there were problems. He felt a lot better after doing this.
The crux of what he told me was that there had been a problem and when he had tried to use the document to defend his financial interests he found it to be worthless.
Draw your own conclusions.
Tuesday 11th June 2013
On 11th May I wrote about some large signs that have appeared locally warning of a serious dengue fever outbreak. The disease is particularly dangerous if contracted by young children and we have a two year-old in the house.
My wife was watching Thai news on TV this morning and the province we live in, Songkhla, has the highest death rate in the country from this latest outbreak of dengue.
She told me that seven children have died in Songkhla province recently and four in Chumpon. In one case a child complained of headaches one day and died just three days later. The doctor said there was nothing that could be done.
There is no vaccine and all you can do is try to prevent bites from stripy mosquitoes. We have mosquito screens and plenty of insect spray in the house for when mosquitoes do get in. I have told my wife to be extra vigilant when our daughter is playing outside.
She is like a magnet for mosquitoes. If I'm watching her while she plays in her paddling pool I normally sit with a can of insect spray in one hand so that I am ready.
On 9th April some men from the local municipality arrived to fog our housing development. We've been living here for about eight months and they've fogged once. At our old house they used to fog about twice a year. Unless they do it regularly there isn't really any point. Once or twice a year won't make any difference.
All the residents here have to pay an annual service charge to cover security and other general amenities. The company should include mosquito fogging as part of the service, but they don't. Thais won't spend money or do anything unless they really have to and this particular issue doesn't seem to be concerning anyone. It's only life or death, after all. Saving a few Baht is far more important.
For many years foreigners could live indefinitely in Thailand without having any form of a visa. They went to the nearest border crossing every 30 days, left Thailand, came straight back in again and got another 30 day stamp in their passports. This was perfectly legal.
The free 30 day stamp with no requirements and no questions asked was intended to make things easy for tourists wanting a vacation in Thailand. This then became a loophole for foreigners wanting to live in Thailand permanently without meeting any of the requirements for a visa.
This ability to live easily in Thailand under the radar attracted bad foreigners to the country and also some fugitives who were on the run from the law in their own countries.
There was a big international murder case where the suspect (a man then, but now a woman) was arrested in Bangkok while working illegally as a teacher on a tourist visa.
Thailand probably felt some heat from the United States and in 1996 there was a big immigration clampdown, which a lot of Thai expats had suspected would come eventually, and the perpetual 30 day border runs were stopped.* All foreigners living in Thailand were then expected to have proper visas.
For marriage and retirement visas there are financial requirements. You need to prove a monthly income or have a certain amount of money in a Thai bank account. Marriage visa: Bt40,000 per month or Bt400,000 cash. Retirement visa: Bt65,000 per month or Bt800,000 cash.
It can also be a combination of income and lump sum. For example, if your income is Bt50,000 per month and you need a retirement visa, multiply Bt50,000 by 12. This gives you Bt600,000 and therefore you need Bt200,000 in the bank to meet the Bt800,000 requirement.
The only acceptable proof of income, as far as Thai immigration is concerned, is an official letter from your country's Embassy in Thailand. The British Embassy charges Bt2,070 for this service. I would imagine that other Embassys charge a similar amount.
In order to get the letter, you need to provide some proof to the Embassy. In the past I have had letters sent from the UK for this purpose. The letters went missing and I then had to ask for more letters, which were sent to my parents' UK address and then delivered by hand.
I have terrible problems with incoming mail and about half my letters don't arrive. I was pleased, therefore, to receive confirmation from the British Embassy recently that they can accept proof in the form of printed electronic correspondence.
The British Embassy also advised me that my UK income should be specified in pounds, not Baht, and that their letter of proof shouldn't be more than 15 days old when I take it to immigration for my visa renewal.
I was at the local immigration office yesterday transferring my visa to my new passport. I met a Canadian man (originally from Germany) who didn't fully understand this and he only had a letter from his company, which Thai immigration wouldn't accept. They needed to see a letter from the Canadian Embassy.
The last time I applied for a proof of income letter I went in person to the British Embassy in Bangkok. It can also be done by mail if you don't live in Bangkok. The British Embassy charges an additional Bt100 to send the letter by mail.
If you go to the Embassy and pay in person, you can pay using cash or a credit card. If you apply by post, you must pay by postal order. These are available at post offices in Thailand.
* I've spoken to a few people in recent years who still live in Thailand by doing perpetual border runs. One difference now is that if you enter Thailand by road, which applies to most border runners, you only get 15 days. Going to the border every two weeks for a stamp can't be much fun and you must get through expensive passports very quickly.
You still get 30 days if you arrive in the country by plane, but doing border runs by plane every month must work out quite expensive. By making it expensive and impractical to do endless border runs a lot of the old problems have disappeared.
Without any prompting on my part, the German man from Canada started ranting to me about Thai drivers and told me how angry they make him. Anyone reading this blog will know that it isn't necessary for anyone to tell me how bad the driving is in Thailand and I agreed with him. He was really pleased that someone agreed with him and excitedly told his wife.
There are some expats near where he lives and he had previously put it to them, "How can they have traffic laws here, but no one follows them?" The group of expats he was talking to told him that this is what they like about Thailand. They can get away with things in Thailand that they couldn't get away with back home.
Thailand attracts very different types of foreigners who come to Thailand for very different reasons. We are all here for different reasons. Unfortunately, there are quite a few who are attracted to Thailand for the wrong reasons, including weak law enforcement.
I have met foreigners living in Thailand who don't have visas and who have no interest in getting visas. Some have overstayed for years. They can't be bothered and/or don't have enough money. They know that no one ever checks and there isn't much chance of getting caught. I can only assume that a few have the same attitude about passports when their passports expire. It's up to them and it's up to the Thai authorities to clamp down if they want to catch illegal immigrants.
Everything above that I wrote about visas applies, of course, only to those foreigners interested in living in Thailand legally.
The German guy followed up by saying that his relatives in Canada were shovelling snow off their driveways a little while ago and he has to remember that there are advantages to living in Thailand. He had quite a balanced view of the country overall and that's what I've found with most expats.
There are a few who moan about every single thing in Thailand, and conversely there are those who won't make any criticism of the country and get upset when others make criticisms.
Thailand is just like anywhere else; there are good things and bad things. It's easy after a while to take the good things for granted and only to focus on the bad things, but this can lead to quite an unhappy life.
It's also naive and stupid to walk around wearing rose-tinted glasses not seeing anything wrong with the country because there are lots of problems. Try to keep a balanced view.
Monday 10th June 2013
Imported cars cost a fortune in Thailand due to very high taxes. I had an appointment at the local Ford service centre today and took a quick look around the new car showroom. They had a new Ford Territory, which is a model that you don't see very often in Thailand. I believe this is a model that comes from Ford Australia.
The model was a Titanium AWD with a 2.7 V6 engine. The price was just shy of Bt3 million.
I did a quick search on Google and found a new Ford Territory for sale in Australia that has a 2.7 V6 engine and looks very similar. The price was AUS$44,000 - about Bt1.27 million at current exchange rates. That's a big difference.
Quite a few years ago I was in the fancy Siam Paragon shopping mall in Bangkok and came across some exotic European supercars - Porsches, Ferraris, etc. The prices were astronomical. Exchange rates were very different back then compared to now, but I remember doing some quick mental arithmetic and working out that the cars were more than three times the cost of the same cars in the UK.
Personal vehicles with engines larger than 3,000 cc and developing more than 220 horse power (which applied to all the cars at Siam Paragon) are subject to an import duty of 328% - The Customs Department of the Kingdom of Thailand.
Wherever you find rules and regulations in Thailand, you also find people trying to find a way around them. Some Thais are very crafty and know all the tricks in the book.
At one time, Thai students studying overseas were allowed to buy a car abroad and bring it back into the country without having to pay import duty. As with many things in life, the intention was good but some crafty people used this as a loophole and suddenly Thai students started to buy Porsches and Lamborghinis while they were studying. After this went on for a while the authorities started to smell a rat.
Another method used to avoid paying import duty is to import exotic cars in the form of parts and then to assemble the cars locally in Thailand.
Some very exotic cars being transported on a trailer went up in flames recently. Interestingly, no one claimed ownership of the cars and police suspect the cars were imported without paying the proper import duty.
Police then found illegal vehicle assembly plants and have now seized more luxury cars.
More luxury cars snared in tax scam raids in and near Bangkok
There are no Thai car manufacturers, but there are several large assembly plants in Thailand where foreign cars are assembled. Locally assembled cars aren't subject to high import taxes and are priced quite reasonably. However, there isn't a huge amount of choice unless you want a basic Toyota or Honda car or a Toyota or Isuzu pickup truck. If you want something a little different that is manufactured abroad and then imported into Thailand it will be expensive.
The high import duty doesn't seem to apply to cars made in other ASEAN countries. My Ford Escape was manufactured in the Philippines and the new price isn't that excessive. Malaysian made vehicles, such as Protons, are also fairly cheap to buy in Thailand.
Low import duty rates even seem to extend beyond ASEAN. You can buy Chinese made vehicles such as Chery or Indian Tata models quite cheaply. This might be because the vehicles are assembled in ASEAN countries. Chery has a manufacturing plant in the Philippines and assembles cars in other ASEAN countries. It is probably the same with Tata.
Saturday 8th June 2013
I have just replaced my UK passport because it was almost full.
If you live in your home country your passport is only of importance if you want to travel abroad. When you live permanently abroad it is a vitally important document. It also tends to get filled up quite quickly with visa stamps and re-entry permits, etc.
Citizens of the United States can simply obtain extra passport pages from their Embassy in Bangkok. This service costs $82 and can be done in an hour. Americans are lucky.
Brits aren't quite as fortunate and have to apply for a brand new passport every time their old one gets filled up. This is the second time I have had to renew my passport since I started living in Thailand.
On the first occasion I had to visit the British Embassy in Bangkok. I don't live in Bangkok, therefore this meant airfares and hotels. The process was quite straightforward. I downloaded the documents and made sure I had everything that was required.
I made my passport application in person and collected my new passport from the Embassy the following day. Had I made any errors on the form I would have been told and corrected the errors.
About three years ago everything changed. Brits living in this region now have to apply to the British Consulate-General in Hong Kong for replacement passports.
Again, I downloaded the forms from the government website and in addition there was a credit card authorisation form to be completed.
The instructions on the website are very thorough and exact.
Apply for, renew or replace a British passport if you're outside the UK
The photo requirements are very exact and dimensions are specified to the millimetre. This is all to do with biometric passports and the fact that facial feature biometrics are embedded in the chip contained in the passport.
Passport photos: guide for photographers
A light grey or cream background was specified. When I had my photos done the background looked orange. I asked the girl what colour it was and she said cream. Before an argument ensued the manager of the shop (who I am on good terms with) intervened. He agreed with me and got her to do the photos again. The last thing I needed was for someone to reject my application on the basis that the background in my photos was the wrong colour.
Once I had completed the forms I sent everything by DHL courier service for a fee of Bt712. DHL in Thailand are familiar with sending British passport applications to Hong Kong and at one time they used to advertise the service on their front desk.
My biggest concern was that I had forgotten to check a box or made a mistake. This would mean a lot of wasted time and more expense because the mistake wouldn't be picked up until my application arrived in Hong Kong.
For once in my life I was pleased to see a charge appear on my credit card statement a few days later where the FCO had charged my card. This was confirmation that my application had been accepted.
The cost for a 48 page passport and the courier fee to return it to me was £177.59. The new passport arrived from the UK and not Hong Kong, so this must be a triangular process.
DHL telephoned this morning and my new passport arrived a little later, 23 days after sending off my application. The process worked well, but had I made a simple mistake and the application was rejected in Hong Kong it could have turned into a lengthy saga.
There is a helpline and webchat service if there is a problem, but neither of these services are free; in fact, they are quite expensive and you have to give them a credit card number before they will speak to you.
I would much prefer to apply in person and have someone check my application for mistakes, which I could then rectify. That not being the case, my best advice if you are in Thailand and need to replace your passport is to be very careful with the application and check it several times before posting it off to Hong Kong.
Incidentally, the application form is generic and applies to all countries. There is something in the form about sending your old passport when you apply for a new one. This doesn't apply to Thailand.
You could find yourself in a lot of trouble not having a passport in Thailand. Hang on to your old passport and it can be cancelled when the new one arrives by cutting a corner off the front cover.
The new style passports have a very intricate design and it looks as if a lot of effort has gone into making them difficult to fake. Thailand is one of the fake passport capitals of the world, but these new UK passports will challenge even the most accomplished forgery artists.
Friday 7th June 2013
Since living in Thailand, the health of my teeth has never been better. I paid a lot of money in the UK for dental treatment, but still experienced a lot of sensitivity with my teeth.
When I first went for a checkup in Thailand I kept jumping out of the chair because my teeth were so sensitive. When I had my first filling done in Thailand the previous filling that had been done in the UK was so bad that the disbelieving dentist asked a colleague to take a photo. Thai dentists would never perform such ugly work.
I worked at a university dental faculty in Thailand for about four years and made good use of the facilities there. I had dental work done regularly, I never had to wait for appointments and - as a member of staff - I paid almost nothing.
After I stopped working there I slipped into bad habits (again) and didn't go for regular checkups. A couple of months ago I started to get a raging toothache and it couldn't be ignored. An upper molar had become infected and it was very painful.
Initially it was a problem deciding which dentist to go to because there is so much choice. There are dental clinics and hospitals everywhere here. I chose an older lady who was born in Bangkok. She studied in the capital initially and then did further studies in the UK before moving to live and work in provincial Thailand.
She speaks good English and has a very calm temperament, which made me feel better and inspired confidence. She asked if I wanted to save the tooth, which I did. This meant a course of root canal treatment. The first session was painful and needed quite a few shots of local anaesthetic.
I spent five sessions in the chair and the total cost was Bt4,750. I never had to wait for appointments. I understand that in the UK now you may have to wait several months for an appointment.
When the root canal treatment was finished she told me to wait three months to ensure that there were no further problems before fitting a crown. There have been no further problems and the crown will be fitted soon. I'm not sure yet what the cost of the crown will be.
If you have a trip planned to Thailand and also need to have some dental work done, not only are Thai dentists very good but it is quite possible that you will save money compared to having the work done at home. Depending on where you come from and what needs doing, you could save a lot of money.
I met an American man years ago who was in Thailand to have titanium dental implants fitted. The cost saving compared to having the work done in the States was so much that it easily paid for his trip to Thailand. He had previously worked at the dental faculty where I worked and had complete confidence in the dentists, as I do.
Incidentally, the majority of Thai dentists seem to be female. In all my visits to Thai dentists, I have never been treated by a male dentist.
Thai doctors and dentists do a six year university degree and it takes a lot of hard work to graduate. The faculty where I worked only accepts about 60 new students a year and thousands apply. Only the best and brightest are accepted. After graduating, many then go to work and study abroad for a while to get more experience. Not only does this improve their dental skills, but their language skills also.
Some people might have a bad experience with a dentist in Thailand, but this is the same everywhere. Overall I have been perfectly satisfied with Thai doctors and dentists and - in a few cases - highly impressed.
Thursday 6th June 2013
Ted, you aren't alone.
Aussie farmer 'conned' by Thai fiance
Most foreign men who get conned by Thai scamstresses just put it down to experience and become very bitter and twisted, but they don't take any action - probably because they believe there is nothing they can do. And they're probably right. This guy has returned to Thailand with a lawyer and wants justice. I wonder what will happen?
Some new traffic legislation in the UK:
The Department of Transport has not yet released official guidance on which types of driving will attract fines.
But police are expected to focus on situations involving slightly aggressive and inconsiderate driving, such as:
- Driving too close to the vehicle in front
- Failing to give way at a junction (not requiring evasive action by another driver)
- Overtaking and pushing into a queue of traffic
- Being in the wrong lane and pushing into a queue on a roundabout
- Lane discipline, eg needlessly hogging the middle or outside lanes
- Inappropriate speed
- Wheel-spins, handbrake turns and other careless manoeuvres
If you change 'slightly aggressive' to 'very aggressive', this is exactly what Thailand needs plus several other list items, such as blatantly ignoring red traffic lights, driving on the hard shoulder in the wrong direction on the wrong side of the road, undertaking, weaving in and out of lanes, and parking in the middle lane so that your vehicle blocks a complete lane of traffic.
The chances of similar legislation appearing, and (the crucial point) actually being enforced, in Thailand are about the same as me turning into a ladyboy and winning next year's Miss Tiffany contest.
Thailand's street food is world famous. Wherever you go in the country, the pavements are cluttered with food stalls, and vendors set up impromptu restaurants on the streets using plastic tables and chairs.
I am quite used to this, of course, but I was amazed recently to see a farang selling what looked liked kebabs on sticks from a food cart in the street. This is illegal. How do I know, did I ask to see his work permit? No, it's a lot simpler than that.
Many types of work are prohibited to foreigners in Thailand and street vending is one of them.
Prohibited occupations for foreigners
Thailand doesn't like open markets or level playing fields. Protectionism is the name of the game. There are laws to prevent foreigners from owning land and laws to prevent foreigners doing certain types of work.
This extends to language as well. English may be the international language of business and commerce elsewhere, but in Thailand everything is in Thai. Few foreigners speak or read Thai to any great extent and this of course gives Thais another big advantage in Thailand.
And don't forget dual pricing. If you visit a museum, national park or tourist attraction foreigners will pay an entrance fee that is sometimes as much as ten times more than the Thai price. This practice is hidden to 99.99% of foreigners by writing the Thai prices in Thai script and numerals.
Taxi drivers, massage shops and other places serving tourists informally arrange price fixing cartels, which is another way to avoid open markets. If a foreign tourist wants to travel a short distance yards in Phuket and every single tuk-tuk driver demands Bt300 (when the fare to a Thai would be Bt20 or Bt30), he has no choice.
Thailand isn't the only place where locals are given an advantage. Bumiputera laws give ethnic Malays special rights and privileges in Malaysia and I'm sure that similar things happen elsewhere in the developing world. Such policies would be impossible to implement in the West, but in less developed countries the concepts of political correctness and racial discrimination don't exist.
Policies of unnaturally manipulating and controlling prices to a certain group's advantage work within Thailand, but they can cause problems as soon as they cross the international border.
To poor Thais, money is everything. To already rich Thai politicians, power is everything. Obtaining and retaining power relies on getting votes and the majority of Thais live in poor, rural areas. Populist policies to get the votes of the poor are therefore a staple part of Thai politics.
Thaksin's populist policies blamed for rifts in society
Many poor Thais are involved with rice production and Thailand was the largest exporter of rice in the country. A few years ago a rice pledging scheme was introduced that guaranteed rice farmers a fixed price for their rice. This was very popular with the rural poor, of course.
Problems started early on with cheap rice from Cambodia being smuggled into the country in order to achieve the government's fixed price.
Cambodian rice smuggling apparently driven by Thai government subsidy scheme
The scheme increased the price of Thai rice to about US$800 per ton, whereas the market price was about US$560 per ton. Thai rice therefore couldn't be sold and was left to rot.
Thailand now has a huge stockpile of rice and is amounting huge debts trying to support the scheme. Moody's, the ratings agency, is getting concerned about the scheme and says there it presents a risk to Thailand's credit rating.
Bad credit rating or not, the outlook doesn't look good
The Thai government response is typically defiant. Thais don't like to be criticised, especially by foreigners, and especially if they are poo-yai (big people).
Moody's rice report to be rebutted
There is a lot of awareness in Thailand about entering the ASEAN Economic Community in 2015, but I'm not sure that many Thais really understand the implications of being part of a wider economic community.
At the school where I taught there was a big thing about ASEAN 2015, but all the students ever learnt about was the food, culture and dress styles of other ASEAN countries. The biggest highlight for some of them was dressing up in Vietnamese or Cambodian clothes.
What it will actually mean is a big levelling of the playing field, which is normally anathema to Thais. I would imagine that 'Free Professional Movement' means throwing away that list of prohibited professions to foreigners, at least to foreigners from ASEAN countries.
It is also a fact that many people from other ASEAN countries speak English far better than Thais. What will be the common language of ASEAN? It is unlikely to be the first language of any one member country and English is probably the most commonly spoken second language. English is already spoken widely in Singapore, Malaysia and The Philippines.
Development in Burma has already started to go crazy and this is another factor that will start to hurt Thailand in the near future. As soon as there is some decent tourist infrastructure, tourists will flock to the country to see natural environments still in pristine condition that haven't been ruined by over-commercialism and mass tourism.
Thailand has always been a lucky country. The country changed sides during the war and went almost unpunished. The US didn't want to punish Thailand. Britain made Thailand provide three million tons of rice as war reparations and Thailand was made to return annexed land to British Malaya, British Burma and French Indochina.
No matter how much political turmoil there is, the tourists keep coming and keep pumping money into the economy. Despite repeated flooding, foreign manufacturers continue to invest in manufacturing plants in the country.
How much longer can Thailand's luck hold out when the region is opened up and trade barriers are brought down?
Wednesday 5th June 2013
There was a bit of a response to Ted's story. One reader asks, "Was Tip even remorseful at all after the whole fiasco?"
I didn't pick up on any signs of remorse. There were elements in the film where I felt a little sorry for her trying to take care of a young daughter by herself without the support of a husband. However, at other times she also came across as cold, calculating, and quite evil.
Ted was a bit of a pathetic case. He was taken for everything he owned and left penniless. Even when he knew that there was no chance at all of saving the relationship he tried to hug the woman who had stolen all his money and it was clear from her reaction that she had no interest in him at all. It was as if he repulsed her.
When he said goodbye, she seemed to take great delight in saying, "Goodbye forever," and she laughed as she rode away on her motorbike. She was even reluctant to buy a ticket for him so that he could return home.
I've heard and experienced enough over the years living in Thailand for this kind of thing not to surprise me. One Englishman, a doctor and a very nice guy, got involved with a girl and at first everything was perfect - it always is.
The relationship got close to the question of marriage and all of a sudden he was told that an Australian guy had entered the scene and promised the girl's family a lot of money. Farangs that get involved with Thai girls talk of 'love', but are you starting to realise what Thai girls think about?
He was told that if he were to buy the family a pickup truck and hand over a lump sum of money they would get rid of the Australian. He smelt a rat and very sensibly extricated himself from the relationship.
Another man (quite a bit older than the girl) got to the marriage stage and went to meet the parents in Isaan. They gave him a list of things they wanted and when he told them he couldn't afford it they threw him out of the house.
Very shortly after moving to Thailand I got involved with an Isaan massage girl. When I first arrived I was as stupid and naive as most other farang men, even though I had been to Thailand previously for vacations. You don't start to understand Thailand until you have lived, and preferably worked, in the country for several years. As a tourist, you can spend a few weeks on a Thai beach every year for 20 years, but you still won't know very much about the country.
I did the trip back to the village in Isaan thing, but I didn't hand over a lot of money. I was just one of many men she was involved with and my failure to hand over all my wealth meant that I was dumped fairly quickly. She went off to work in Phuket beer bars, met a Norwegian and married him.
Poor Isaan families have virtually nothing ... apart from their daughters. The only chance they have of getting better lives is for their daughters to find farang men who will financially support them.
It becomes a lottery and because the girls' looks won't last forever they can't afford to wait around. You will be given a chance and if you don't come up with the goods she will move on very quickly.
Some girls are more honest than others. Once they have got the most generous man they can find, some settle down as dutiful wives. One woman in the video with an American husband told her husband that she didn't love him, but she had a comfortable home and seemed fairly content.
Others have no scruples and are conniving, like Tip. They will think nothing of completely destroying someone else's life and then dumping that person.
A gay friend in Bangkok was robbed of Bt1 million by a Thai man who he trusted. I have heard of other men who buy houses for their Thai wives and are then thrown into the street. It isn't unheard of for Thai women to hire contract killers to dispose of their farang husbands. Life is cheap in Thailand and money is everything.
On the other hand, I know farangs who are in very happy relationships with Thai women and these women wouldn't dream of doing anything as callous.
Someone the other day found my site by Googling 'everything about Thailand'. I can't tell you. I will probably live out the rest of my days in Thailand and I still won't know everything about Thailand.
If there's one piece of advice about Thailand I can give, it is that nothing is ever as it seems on the surface. It takes a long time to peel back the layers of the onion to start to reveal the truth about the country.
It was actually quite painful watching Ted in Thailand and painful to hear his thoughts regarding the girls because he had got everything so wrong.
The bargirls aren't all potentially perfect wives who were forced into that line of work and are just waiting for a farang knight in shining armour to rescue them. They have little formal education, but they have weighed up the options they have in life and they know exactly what they are doing. They are perceptive and masters of psychology.
When I hear farang tourists saying how much they understand the girls and how their particular girl is different to the rest, it just says to me that yet another stupid farang is about to be chewed up and spat out in the same way that many farangs have been chewed up and spat out in the past.
And despite all the warnings and everything that has been written on the subject, when they show up in Thailand where do they go to meet girls? This is why I have a problem feeling sympathy. If people act stupidly it is difficult to be sympathetic.
Saturday 1st June 2013
I was sent a link to a documentary style video related to Thailand. The man whose story the documentary describes could have been any one of several men who have written to me over the years. It was an all too familiar story.
The reaction of some people who watch the film will be to feel immense pity for him. In many ways it is a sad story.
I want to be sympathetic because he is a vulnerable lonely man who only ever wanted to fill a void in his own life by genuinely trying to help another person. However, his stupidity is almost unbelievable.
Lonely farang men over 40, who are the most vulnerable types of all, have been getting badly scammed by poor Thai women ever since farangs started going to Thailand. It's an old, old story. Everyone knows the risks getting involved with Thai women and since the advent of the Internet there is no excuse for not knowing.
There are always common themes with these men. Firstly, they are never failures. They are always highly successful in their own countries. In this case he was a fantastic salesman who could sell anything.
Secondly, the Thai girl that they happen to meet is always, always, always different to every other female in Thailand. Yes, the men know the risks involved, but this girl is different to the rest ... or so they believe. The problem is that they never are any different.
Here's a brief synopsis.
Ted from Wales, a brilliant salesman who can sell coals to Newcastle and mosquitoes to Thailand, is approaching 50 and can't get near a woman at home because he is too old. He divorced when he was 32. He sees attractive girls at home but it is a young persons' society and there is nothing for men of his age. This is all very valid.
He visits areas of Thailand where there are lots of bargirls. He is never seen without a large bottle of beer in his hand and the bars give him everything he wants. He swigs copiously from his bottle of Chang and gropes the bargirls, who give the impression that they enjoy this kind of thing. He's happy in Thailand and gets very upset whenever he has to go home.
Evidence that he is quite delusional comes early on when, talking about Bangkok bargirls, he says, "And you come to Thailand and suddenly there's all these nubile young things that genuinely want to be with you."
Er, no Ted, listen to me very carefully. They don't genuinely want to be with you. They have absolutely no interest in you at all. They only ever want one thing, and one thing alone. And it isn't you.
Like most men, the physical side of sex alone isn't enough. Groping bargirls and having sex with them doesn't provide any emotional satisfaction.
He then comes out with another old chestnut that you hear many times from farang men. The only reason he came to Thailand initially was to do business. Yeah, sure. If he was seriously about exporting goods to the UK to sell, he wouldn't be buying goods from street vendors in Patpong. Give me a break. I think we know what he's really doing in Patpong or the Soi Cowboy, or wherever he was.
The bargirls he gropes look delighted. What the girls don't want are farangs who speak/read Thai and appear to understand Thailand. They want stupid, naive farangs who have just arrived and don't have a clue about the country. Ted is a perfect candidate.
The bargirl he gets involved with, Tip, is apparently afraid of everything and doesn't have the confidence to go off with farangs ... at first. Her friend, Mint, convinces her otherwise. They go to the hotel where Ted is staying and she can't keep her eyes off the Welsh hunk. Perhaps she is a Tom Jones fan?
Tip finished school at the age of 13 and therefore has very little education. She has a young daughter called Som-Oh and is divorced from the girl's father. This is very common with Isaan bargirls, as is the lack of education. Her parents are dead (her father died in a train accident) and after the divorce whe went to work at a plastics factory in Bangkok earning Bt89 a day. At the end of each month she sends Bt1,000 to her daughter and she spends about Bt2,000 on food. She worked there for almost two years.
She doesn't have enough money for Som-Oh's continued education and takes the decision to work in a bar. She meets Mint, who becomes her best friend, and they work together. Mint seems to be a bad influence.
Ted sees the 'beautiful girl' looking at him in the hotel bar and at this stage I have undeniable proof that Chang beer glasses are far more effective than any other brand of beer glasses. Beautiful? This guy really needs to get out more.
Ten minutes later she is in his hotel room looking through his stamp collection and doing whatever else Thai bargirls do when they go to your room.
He is suspicious, but at first she is perfect. She doesn't ask for anything and helps him with the things he has difficulty with in Thailand because he speaks no Thai. He thinks it is too good to be true.
One of the first lessons to be learned in Thailand, and anywhere else for that matter. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
The girls aren't stupid and know about the reputation they have. They won't do anything that risks losing the man before they are in a position of power. The more you give them, the more powerful they become. At first they have no power at all and need to be on their best behaviour.
He tests her by leaving the princely sum of Bt100 unguarded in his room and finds that she doesn't steal the money. Having passed this test, Ted now knows that he can trust her with his life.
"She's not only beautiful, but she's productive," he opines, indicating that his Chang beer glasses are still working well. This is the girl of his dreams and he is completely smitten.
He spends five weeks with her and then has to go home to cold, wet miserable Wales where the attractive women are unobtainable and the sheep are frightened.
She calls him, telling him how much she loves and needs him. She knows how vulnerable he is and plays with his emotions. He can't control his emotions, and any common sense he has flies out of the window. This is the dangerous stage.
She is a poor Isaan girl, as many bargirls are, and he goes back to Thailand to live in her village. He decides this is where he will set up a new life and he sells everything back home. He then marries her and transfers all his assets into her bank account.
Oh, dear.
They build a pig pen and start a pig farm. He gets up at 6am to shovel pig shit. She controls the money that he gave her and gives him virtually nothing. He has no Internet access, no English language TV channels, no money to fill up his motorbike (about Bt100), and his only solace is drinking beer with other farang men who have married girls who live in the area. There is nothing to do in rural Isaan and even the joys of shovelling pig shit get old after a while.
After a while he realises that the bargirl who once professed her undying live for him doesn't even like him, let alone love him. She says he can continue living there, but he knows it would be an empty life. Tip says that Ted talks too much and she doesn't like people who talk a lot. She also accuses him of not doing anything and his laziness has got the locals gossiping.
He ends up going home to absolutely nothing because he sold everything and gave the money to a Thai bargirl who he hardly knew. And neither did he know anything about Thailand or how Thais think before he gave her all his money.
Had he written to me, as other men have in the past, I would have asked him three basic questions:
- Q. Where does she come from? A: Isaan
- Q. What is her occupation? A: Bargirl at the Rooster bar
- Q. Where did he meet her? A: In the bar at his hotel
I would have told him to stop being a muppet and get out of the relationship quickly. He would have ignored me because he knows better than someone who has lived in Thailand for 10 years, and because 'she's not like the other girls'.
Thai girls get a bad press, but farang men can be incredibly naive and stupid. If you are a good man who wants to meet a good Thai girl, don't associate with bargirls. Relationships with bargirls can work, but the odds are stacked against you.
Foreigners can't own land in Thailand and if you get scammed you don't have a leg to stand on legally. Laws in Thailand are always designed to favour Thais. It's a minefield. The girls think about themselves and their families. They enjoy their lives in Thailand, but there is never enough money.
This is where farangs come into the equation. In many cases the old adage about walking ATMs is perfectly true. Farangs serve no other purpose than supplying Thai girls with money to lead the lives that the girls want to lead. When the men no longer serve any purpose, they are simply thrown on the rubbish heap.
In the video, one girl remarks that Thais work a lot and have little money, whereas farangs work a little and have a lot of money (around 16:50). This comment is made in English and it is the perception that many Thais have. I don't know why there are no subtitles because other things that the girls say in Thai provide a lot of insight as to how they think. Not all farangs can understand Thai.
If you do decide to get involved with Thailand and Thai girls, never burn all your bridges, as Ted did. When it all went horribly wrong he was left with nothing. Make sure that if it does all go horribly wrong, you have an income and some assets of your own to fall back on.
More importantly, set out a strategy to meet the right kind of Thai girls in the first place, thus reducing the chances of everything going horribly wrong. Don't go to tourist resorts, don't go to bars, don't have relationships with bargirls or massage girls.
Go to less touristy areas of Thailand, attempt to learn Thai, find out how Thais think, behave like a normal person and not like a desperate lonely man, meet girls who have normal jobs - my personal favourites are nurses and teachers. Take your time and never jump into any situation that you aren't sure about. None of these things will guarantee getting into a trouble free relationship with a Thai girl, but there will be a much better chance of the relationship succeeding than just heading to the nearest strip of girlie bars.
I found the video quite interesting, if only as an object lesson in how not to meet Thai females. Here's the link:
MY THAI WIFE (HOW GUYS LOSE IT ALL IN THAILAND) SCAMS
Putting aside Ted's naivety and stupidity with Thai women, in the event his relationship had worked out how was he expecting to be able to obtain visas to stay in Thailand for the rest of his life with the girl of his dreams?
He had sold everything and put all of the money into his wife's bank account. He had no income and no savings. He was penniless. Did he realise that he couldn't just stay in Thailand indefinitely? Well not legally, anyway. Did he have any clue about different types of visa and the financial requirements for getting retirement or marriage visas?
If I had any sympathy when I first heard about his plight, it soon drained away after thinking more about his story. Absolutely clueless.