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Probably enjoy not having to do visa runs!
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Apr 13, 2020 09:34
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| # ¿ May 9, 2024 06:53 |
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Query for those in Thailand - are expatriates living there long term able to leave Thailand in a relatively straight forward manner at the moment? Say an Aussie Passport holder living in Sarin with his family getting out and back to work in Africa?
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May 27, 2020 14:55
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Ta - I am not worried if he can get back in haha. He has 10+ weeks onsite before that question will come up.
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May 27, 2020 18:26
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I really enjoy visiting Singapore and have done a number of times with and without children. It is its most valuable as a refresh and reset oasis after being deep in the likes of Borneo or Myanmar for awhile but even fresh out of Europe or Australia I still quite enjoy it. With kids or without, there is plenty to do with a little research. If you have been to Hong Kong it is a bit more organized and less chaotic version of that. Compared to Manila, it is more expensive, quicker pace of life, higher standards, more variety of high quality tasty and healthy food, more organized and less friendly with no auto-kano status boost like in The Philippines. Heat is less of an issue in Singapore than the likes of Cebu just because it is so easy to get in out of the heat whenever you want. Going troppo is not a thing in Singapore much these days thanks to ubiquitous air con.
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Jun 20, 2020 13:10
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Atlas Hugged posted:Actually, I think you can enter if your spouse is Thai. You'd just have to jump through hoops. Interesting that as one of our workers is planning to spend his next break in Egypt as it has set up a tourist bubble in Sharm El Sheikh and he doesn't think he can get back into Thailand (where his spouse and kids live).
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Aug 18, 2020 08:07
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One of my work colleagues has a wife and family in Thailand and he is doing his next work break (we work FIFO into Africa) in Egypt because of how difficult it will be for him to go home.
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Oct 16, 2020 18:44
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There is an absolute world of difference between having a gold ticket passport (Singapore, NZ, etc) and something like Chad or even Indo, Philippines or Senegal. Even once you get the visa, it is not the end - I once sat in Business Class beside an obviously wealthy Senegalese lady that spoke fluent English (in addition to her native Wolof and French) and when we got to Paris, the flight was told to have our documentation ready for inspection at the bottom of the stairs (they parked the jet out on a remote apron) - I (in my rugby shorts and old work shirt) get off the plane, don't get anything of mine checked and go directly onto the bus. She (in very nice clothes and expensive jewelry) gets shepherded into a fenced off section along with the hundreds of other blacks in the drizzling rain while customs sit in little tents to slowly check documents of all people the French customs didn't like the look of (blacks) on first pass. They had little prison trucks behind ready for documentation failures. I do kinda admire the countries that have a reciprocal treatment policies in place - you charge our citizens $250 to enter your country, we will charge your citizens the same. My partner is from a non-golden ticket country and she often pays cents for her visa (if she can get one) where I pay tens to hundreds of dollars. Some downtrodden countries even do Visa on arrival for other normally downtroden states - Armenia is one off the top of my head.
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Oct 19, 2020 14:29
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Waltzing Along posted:Isn't the point to attempt to stop people from less desirable places from illegally (hah!) emigrating to a nicer place? So someone in Japan can freely travel to the US because they are fairly equal but someone in Vietnam is going to need to jump through hoops because there is a higher chance they won't willingly leave when their time is up. Oh sure, there are very good explanations for why it is so including what you say about probability of someone following the visa rules. Just that a lot of the world are completely ignorant that these differences exist and their unknown privilege they have. I have travelled and worked a fair bit overseas and my observation is that in addition to the above there is also a correlation between how accepting the culture/how insular it is and how stringent the rules are relative to the problems you outline.
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Oct 19, 2020 23:45
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Cheese Thief posted:I have a coworker friend that is leaving the US to work for the Red Cross, being stationed in Gingoog City, in the province of Misamis, Philippines. I want to hop on a plane and visit him and see how he likes working for the Red Cross incase its something I want to do someday. Anyone itt have some insight into that part of Philippines? Doesn't seem very touristy. Also plan to keep heading East and go around the whole planet, still in the planning stages. I am in Cagayan De Oro (CDO) city RIGHT NOW (for the first time since before Covid), which is less than 100km / 60 miles away by road from Gingoog (pronounced sort of like hin oo oh) although I have only been as far as Duka bay (38 km away). Very pleasant part of Mindanao and there are some touristy things to do in the general area - depends what you like. Resort stays, fun parks, water parks, Islands (Camiguin Island is a must see for you), hikes not so much, driving around is an adventure and I love it but looking at how a bunch of wowsers on R/idiotsincars are and that you are from the US, it might be a bit too exciting - get ready for lanes that stop without signs, shops built on and taking up a lane after a blind bend, Ford Ranger is entitled to your lane if you are in a small oncoming car (I have an Hyundai Eon) if he needs to overtake something, you know the normal sort of give and take driving). There is a few caveats, traffic will stress, water gets liberally splashed over everything in washrooms after use (floor, seat, the bog roll), hot water systems are generally (even in luxury homes) not installed so embrace the cold and security is a real issue. On security, take note what the Red Cross is doing for your friend, I think that will be a good guide. I lived in a gated estate in Philippines and worked in Burkina Faso so it has been years since I have been where ATMs / malls and nice peoples homes didn't get armed guards. Separatists (MILF, et al) are not really the issue but regular violent crime. I have not heard of kidnap for ransom for a few years now of Westerners but maybe Covid might be contributing to that and I have not actually been here for a few years. When I drove around Malabalay and Valencia looking at rice land, the locals were a little nervous just to be around me if I hung around too long. I feel safe around CDO in general but not sure about Gingoog. Hit me up on PM if you want more info/contacts. Electric Wrigglies fucked around with this message at 07:07 on Apr 21, 2022 |
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Apr 21, 2022 07:02
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webmeister posted:Yeah I think most people from rich westernised countries would be astonished at how difficult it can be for folks from less developed countries to get visas. Especially in the Anglosphere where there’s so much bullshit narrative about “immigrants stealing jobs” or whatever Totally agree and this can manifest in the sad way where people will take a liking to some local or other and of course they say something along the lines of "you should come visit Australia, of course you can come in because I will vouch for you".
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May 7, 2022 10:33
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webmeister posted:This was basically our experience with the old town as well, though minus the pickpocketing. Ha, I got hassled for a LOT of selfies in Myanmar. I would have these girls, families, whatever approach with a camera and I think "oh hey they want me to take a picture of them with the temple/park as the background" I reach to grab the camera, they wont give it to me and pull back "uh?, well fine I misunderstood. You don't want me to take a photo, you were just saying hi". They keep saying photo and eventually we worked out that they want a selfie with me in it so my GF (from Malaysia and thus not worth having a selfie with evidently) would take the photo.
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Aug 4, 2022 11:51
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Mandalay posted:Must be a white people thing, I'm Burmese-American and I have never heard of or witnessed this. My brother is blond and in regional Vietnam about 20 years ago he visited the family of a uni mate. People consistently wanted to touch his hair when he was there. Complete strangers, family of his mate. Being different attracts attention, a lot (most?) of it curiosity.
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Aug 5, 2022 14:30
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Strong Sauce posted:Hi thread, I will be in Thailand/Cambodia between Dec 3/Dec 20. I eventually plan on crossing the border via Poipet I may be way out of date but Poipet is the biggest shithole in the world I have ever been. And I have been to Adelaide. If you enjoy seedy dens of inequity, maybe you will enjoy it but it was aimed at Thai's that wanted to gamble and run amok, not westerners (although scammers will cater to them as well, when I went through 10 years ago there was even fake border crossings to scam travelers out of the visa fees). My advice is to bust straight through to Siam Reap. The drive is not all that interesting either. I generally overland wherever I can and caught a plane to BKK from Siam Reap rather than do the drive in the reverse direction as well.
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Nov 16, 2022 09:06
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In SE Asia there is a huge cultural thing around not getting sick from the cold / wet weather through prevention - just try carrying your own baby outside in the lightest of drizzle will have handy helpers running over to you to tell you it is raining and the little one needs to be taken inside. And I agree it is from a time (in some places current time) when getting sick through exposure was time off work, a crop not harvested or harvested late, etc was just being reckless. Australian Union rules during the first world war had stoppages mandated for wet weather for the same reason. A few days unpaid work was not worth the unnecessary exposure.
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Dec 6, 2022 19:11
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mobby_6kl posted:There are a bunch of places I want to visit in SEA and around (Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, but also SK, Japan, Australia and NZ which aren't SEA obviously) and it's very time consuming and expensive to fly from Europe to each separately. Since I can work remotely, are there any places that a) would let me stay for more than a few month on an EU passport, b) are cheap to do so c) have good low-cost airline connections to other countries around? Singapore is not an easy place to just chill out immigrate to and not cheap accommodation wise. Thailand is/was the crowd favourite. Malaysia is popular as is the Philippines. Air travel around SEA is not quite as easy as around Europe but it is probably the next best after Europe for international flights so don't be afraid to be a little out of the way. Philippines is probably the easiest to do due to English being an official language and still being quite cheap for a given quality of life. I would just book an AirBNB for a short while sussing out the place and probably make sense to book an AirBNB for the full time you are there. How will the timezone difference effect you? If you are a nightowl, then the eight hour time difference between Philippines and UK might be right up your alley or maybe your work is time of day agnostic.
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Dec 14, 2022 16:12
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Midjack posted:Thailand works similarly, you can do a day trip every few months to slap the snooze button on your visa. Both places will get annoyed if they officially notice you working while there on a tourist visa but you are unlikely to be detected if you aren't interacting with the local economy as part of your duties and you aren't taking up two tables at a cafe as your "office" every day for a month. They started doing a big cleanout of the old visa run crew. At first just focusing on the bus to poipet and back visa run crew that they let exit the country then not let them back in, then on air ticket visa runs. Has that stopped now? Have they got rid of enough lost in Asia in the 70's -90's that were hitting retirement with no saving types that were begging off other expats so they can go back to letting the visas be refreshed again without issue? My workmate was married to a Thai and he was getting grilled at one stage there.
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Dec 16, 2022 21:31
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Hello thread, I got something a bit unusual. I'm planning a wedding in Vietnam and specifically on a boat in Ha Long Bay. Neither family is from Vietnam, the location chosen as the most viable location for both families to travel to and still be interesting. Current thought is, Budget ~$100k but not strict - a lot of it will be consumed by flights/accommodation though. Late Dec 2023, early Jan 20224. A two days one night wedding boat package - partner went and looked at one package provider in person and the boat seems nice enough and the staff gave a professional impression. The quote was $18k USD for 60 people, not including the bus to and from Hanoi, photographer or band mainly. A number of guests would not be able to afford to come so some of the budget would be on their flights/accommodation. For those, I'm thinking to get accommodation in Hanoi old town for the time outside being on the boat for the wedding itself (say a week as this will be the only international trip in their life for some of them). The other guests would sort themselves out aside from being picked up and dropped off in Hanoi. Faily low maintenance wedding expectations. My concern is while a google search suggests that the weddings in Ha Long bay are a thing, not all tour operators are reputable and unsure best way to verify that all will be fine. My overall lack of contacts in Vietnam is a cause of concern. It is tempting to just ask the package provider to do as much as possible - photographer, hotels, visa support, renting suits, etc. Anyway, any thoughts you might have, jot them down and post as it would be appreciated.
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Dec 20, 2022 09:37
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Yeah for me a big part of the joy of Angkor Wat is that it is so big that you can just wander around like an old timey explorer and ruins covered in vines and trees will be sitting there with no-one around to just walk around, poke your head in, have a look around with what takes your fancy, etc. If you try and checkbox it (I have to see this particular building and this under sunrise, and walk this trail to see this) it takes away a lot of the magic that could be had by spending extra time.
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Dec 23, 2022 11:27
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webmeister posted:Yeah, it’s pretty easy to organise a private driver for the day in Thailand. Best to go through your hotel, but organising anywhere is fine really. Just make sure to insist on no shopping. But you can get such a cheap driver for four stop only....and he will also make sure you don't accidently go to the temple that is closed for that day and to a better little small one instead.
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Feb 2, 2023 08:39
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They really crushed the visa run indefinite stays, huh? I have a workmate married to a Thai (well divorced now, but his ex- in-laws and children live with him while his ex has left her home town) and it was hells own trouble getting back into Thailand for him for awhile, covid only made it worse. His logistics seems to have become straight forward now but was interested if they kept on track to remove all the lost in Asia folk nearing pension age with no preparation/savings/actual retirement plan.
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Apr 11, 2023 17:22
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It is way less about elite visa and more about removing the lost-in-Asia crew. These were generally guys that discovered Asia in the prime of their working lives, took up things like TEFL, put all their income into enjoying life and have a fat old time, every 30 days doing a visa run by taking a bus to Poipet or some other border town. Then as they aged out and TEFL is not as lucrative anyway, their health costs increase while their income drops and as they have not lived in their resident country for decades in some cases, they are not entitled to a (for eg) UK pension of much value. Not even having enough money to get back to the UK (not that they could afford to live there anyway) Basically, the lost-in-Asia crew ended up being paupers-in-Asia headache for Thailand - begging off tourists, getting involved in crime, sleeping rough on the streets, domestic violence, etc all the stuff that comes with desperate people. Which having them in the country was obviously not the intent of a 30 day tourist visa. Starting about five years ago or so they started making efforts to tidy up the Thailand tourist scene. Shutting down beaches for cleanups, efforts on corruption, and removing the paupers-in-Asia (via clampdown on visa-runs). Thailand is more sterile (maybe) and more expensive but Thailand has a growing per-capit GDP so it was always going to gentrify.
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Apr 12, 2023 08:18
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Evisa for Vietnam was pretty painless - had mates from all around the world (Ghana, Norway, Philippines, Liberia, Aus, etc) knock it over pretty well. Trip report on my wedding on Ha Long bay, was absolutely fantastic. Everyone had a great time and the tour company did a great job. They told me it was the first Christian wedding they had been part of but rather than being slap dash, I think that just helped keep their quotes reasonable and efforts high because they put a big effort in and I got away with an all food, all drink three day/two night cruise for 60 people, all the decorations, violinist, makeup, band, cake, photography/drone team, bussing etc for about $35k US. No regrets at all on the location or how we went about it. Only points of detail; halal food could sometimes be tricky (although the boat crew sorted that) and Vietnam is a seafood/oyster sauce centric place so seafood allergies really limited one of the guests options out and about in Hanoi. A lot of guests then done their own tours around the wedding and Ninh Binh seems to have been the crowd favourite although Da Nang impressed as well.
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Jan 16, 2024 11:02
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Strong Sauce posted:even if you take 1000 baht from a person.. that's ~$28 (atm)... how do you play this game to sustain yourself? are they tricking that many people a night? 1000 BHT? you would only need to do that once or twice a day and you will earning more than a lot in Thailand. "Dec 9, 2023The labour ministry approved new rates for the daily minimum wage nationwide, ranging from 328 to 370 baht, "
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Jan 30, 2024 09:22
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Strong Sauce posted:
I am in two minds on when a local tries to scam me for an amount I can absolutely live without, on one hand, like you say it is $6 or $20 and who cares but at the same time, normalizing that foreigners are a soft touch for an easy payout attracts predatory and sometimes organized behavior that takes a lot of effort to undo once it is entrenched as acceptable by locals (good example is the "tie a string around your wrist in Paris, et al and demand payment after" it is not much money but it is not fun to deal with (especailly when they get violent because the foreigner didn't want to be "reasonable soft touch willing to drop $ on all who ask multiple times a day") and is not helping France/Thailand/Cote D'Ivoire become a better place to not push back on it. On the dropping your salary to live in SE Asia, it is attractive but many a person has become a "Lost In Asia (LIA)" person that enjoys the low cost of living, etc but if your own career is not developing there, you run the real risk that as their GDP per capita improves, your own standard of living will become more precarious and you will not be set up or can afford retirement. Thailand about five years ago went on a big cleanout of the elderly LIA crowd that were causing problems like constantly begging off tourists etc. E) on the how much better life is when you remove the normalized predatory behavior, Uber may not have friends in the anti-work crowd, taxi-unions/mafias or those who hate techbros but taxis around the world now are by far and away, hands down, no doubt a far more reliable, safe and reasonable experience post uber than they were before. in 2009, I had a mate pay something like 200k Indian Rupee to get from the airport to the hotel we were at via taxi and complain that India is expensive when we had paid less than a 100 rupee for the same trip earlier that day. A couple of friends and I got driven around Aukland on our way to the cricket and when we arrived, the Kiwi host (who had taken a different taxi but knew the way so arrived ~40 minutes before us even though we left first) got stuck into our driver so much that he halved the bill that was on the taxi meter. Now not only is the fare generally reasonable, it seems the drivers are way less predatory and aggressive about the fare, chasing you as a customer, etc. Electric Wrigglies fucked around with this message at 09:46 on Feb 1, 2024 |
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Feb 1, 2024 09:27
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the heat goes wrong posted:I saw that video too, and that girl wasn't skipping meals because plate of chicken costs 50 baht in Bangkok vs 25 in Isaan. If there is one thing that is a bit frustrating to me in SE Asia is the common (not universal of course) expectation of parents to live off their kids when they can. I worked with a Filipina Planner that her parents quit working the moment she got her Planning job even though they were early 40's and still had other kids in school. She was sending the majority of her salary to them every month and they had retired because they had "made it" in SE Asian terms (kid got a good job so no need to work).
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Feb 1, 2024 13:30
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Teriyaki Koinku posted:I'm just kind of going Not as illegal as having some not anything other than very positive thinking out loud comments about the King!
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Feb 6, 2024 13:39
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since weed is "legal", but e-cigs and even having a deck of a certain size of cards are illegal. I mean, weed should be legal regardless, but it kind of blows my mind given my Amerocentric and even Sinocentric standards.
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| # ¿ May 9, 2024 06:53 |
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Atlas Hugged posted:Also this week, an entirely different Swiss guy beat the tar out of an old woman in a grocery store. She's currently hospitalized and may need a month to recover. What a grub. Was he on drugs?
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Mar 7, 2024 09:06
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