SAWASDEE 3 (2009 Thai thread restarted)

[Danno2 0]

Thanks Danny.

Looks good! Of course, the checklist will vary based on each applicant's situation.

E.g. - in our case we needed change-of-name certification as well.

Btw - your new VJ profile photo of Chada is very distracting! Unless you want all us lonely guys drooling (maybe that's your intent?) suggest you switch to something a little tamer. She's smokin', man!! Wish you two all the best

,

She had that on her MSN today. As soon as I saw it I said Send that to me!

rotating it out of the lineup...

[afisher 0]

Danny,

Your Google document is locked. It's telling me that I'm not granted permission to open it.

I hate it when I do that. It should be fixed now. Bangkok Embassy Packet 3 Checklist

Looks good, but a couple comments regarding submission A (docs to mail to the embassy w/ packet 3):

1. No need to mail proof of relationship to the embassy w/ packet 3 according to the new checklist. Just bring it to the interview.
2. According to DS-157k, you need to include proof of engagement w/ packet 3 as well

You mean DS-156k

[rsn 135]

Danny,

Your Google document is locked. It's telling me that I'm not granted permission to open it.

I hate it when I do that. It should be fixed now. Bangkok Embassy Packet 3 Checklist

Looks good, but a couple comments regarding submission A (docs to mail to the embassy w/ packet 3):

1. No need to mail proof of relationship to the embassy w/ packet 3 according to the new checklist. Just bring it to the interview.
2. According to DS-157k, you need to include proof of engagement w/ packet 3 as well

You mean DS-156k

Yes. Too many forms!

[ThaitoUSA 15]

Anyone in Bangkok to report first-hand on the protests? I am curious as to whether it's confined to the the old city (city hall, Parliament, PM office) and Victory Monument (central hub of city), or whether protestors are dispersed throughout the entire city. My old stomping ground was Hua Mark, right off Ramkhamhaeng Rd., and I couldn't imagine soldiers and riot police marching through, shooting tear gas and firing into the air. Then again anything is possible.

[Danno2 0]

I'll be able to tell you in 24 hours when Chada gets back to Bangkok. I'm worried...

[AaronLV 12]

I talked to my Mother in law last night, and she has pretty much just stayed inside for the past 4 or 5 days. She said everything is so slow, she has about 7 condos for rent and has had most of the reservations canceled.

[birch- phuk_beer 0]

well, i got back this morning at 2am. I left bangkok sunday morning bangkok time and didnt se too much to do with the a$$hole redshirts.. An occasional police convoy and an occasional army helicopter over head.

regarding the embassy, yes they wouldnt let me in and 3 hours later, my wife and step daughter came out and didnt get thte visa., she just said "no". After looking, it was a 221g and I went back into find out #######!!

so, they didnt say now, just give us more sheit and go jump through some more hoops. and YES she got that fugging fat bald basttard. When he asked her where we met and she told him the Don Meung airport, he said to her five times, don meung what? what? what? real fugging a$$hole this guy is.

he grilled her for 20 minutes and asked the step daughter 2 questions.

She needs to get 6 more documents.

we have to redo the police report so knowing that would take the longest time, we went right to the police station and re-did it. We cant get that till the 27th because of song kran and everything being closed.

she needs to get a name change paper, a divorce paper which we gave him already, a sole custody of the kid paper which we gave him, my wifes mothers name change paper. ####### is up with that? her mother died in 1998.

then, you can only go back on monday and wednesday from 1-3pm to turn this sheit in. what BS!!!!!!

atleast she doesnt have to go see that a-hole again.

so, shes taking the 6 documents and passports back on the 27th or 29th of April.

she thought it was No, but i explained to her, it wasnt a No, just a "we want you to do some more work and get us some more papers first"

[TimS 0]

We have chatted a lot but have used Yahoo IM. I have saved some chat files but cannot find a log file for this service. How important do you think this will be?

Regarding Bai Rub Rong Sod, is this in addition to a divorce certificate?

Pretty quiet around here.

I spend the day working on the IM component for the Proof of Relationship attachment to Packet 3. It seems after I came back from my first trip in November I upgraded MSN messenger and it disabled my chat log history. Nice... So after pulling together files from 3 computers over 3.5 hours I have assembled a history showing 17,265 messages which is 267 pages in Ariel 8pt type with .3 top/bottom margins. Everything after 12/1 has been proofed for appropriate content. I'll probably have to spend 2+ hours going over everything before then. In case he wants the raw printouts I'm going to send Chada all the XML files on a CD. I hope to god he does not want the originals. There is nothing crazy in there but I would like to have some privacy and not kill a forest printing out 1200 pages.

BTW if you are using AT&T to track phone logs they did a system upgrade around Dec 20th that impacted the detailed calling reports. On my logs it shoes incoming calls from Chada as my cell phone calling myself. This is even though her cell phone number shows up on my caller ID every time she calls. I called AT&T and after 20 minutes of level 1 people telling me its her carriers fault and to call them I got escalated to a supervisor that said yes its their fault and happened at the exact time of a system upgrade. She promised to track down the issue and call me back. I guess you can imagine what didn't happen after that... Thank goodness Chada could pull detail billing off of her calling card.

[AaronLV 12]

We have chatted a lot but have used Yahoo IM. I have saved some chat files but cannot find a log file for this service. How important do you think this will be?

Regarding Bai Rub Rong Sod, is this in addition to a divorce certificate?

You only need the divorce certificate. The Bai Rub Rong Sod is only for woman that have never been married.

[Noi3125 1]

well, i got back this morning at 2am. I left bangkok sunday morning bangkok time and didnt se too much to do with the a$$hole redshirts.. An occasional police convoy and an occasional army helicopter over head.

regarding the embassy, yes they wouldnt let me in and 3 hours later, my wife and step daughter came out and didnt get thte visa., she just said "no". After looking, it was a 221g and I went back into find out #######!!

so, they didnt say now, just give us more sheit and go jump through some more hoops. and YES she got that fugging fat bald basttard. When he asked her where we met and she told him the Don Meung airport, he said to her five times, don meung what? what? what? real fugging a$$hole this guy is.

he grilled her for 20 minutes and asked the step daughter 2 questions.

She needs to get 6 more documents.

we have to redo the police report so knowing that would take the longest time, we went right to the police station and re-did it. We cant get that till the 27th because of song kran and everything being closed.

she needs to get a name change paper, a divorce paper which we gave him already, a sole custody of the kid paper which we gave him, my wifes mothers name change paper. ####### is up with that? her mother died in 1998.

then, you can only go back on monday and wednesday from 1-3pm to turn this sheit in. what BS!!!!!!

atleast she doesnt have to go see that a-hole again.

so, shes taking the 6 documents and passports back on the 27th or 29th of April.

she thought it was No, but i explained to her, it wasnt a No, just a "we want you to do some more work and get us some more papers first"

BirchBeer,

Thanks for sharing your experience. I am sorry to hear your got a 221g. Do you know why you have to do the police report again?

Hopefully everything can be worked out soon and she will be able to join you in the U.S.

I am supposed to have our interview this week, Friday but with the current situation am not sure if they will cancel it or what will happen.

[Danno2 0]

You only need the divorce certificate. The Bai Rub Rong Sod is only for woman that have never been married.

Looks like you lucked out. That document is a SOB to get. The guy that gives them out in BKK got burned by a girl before and just does not want to do it.

[Danno2 0]

We have chatted a lot but have used Yahoo IM. I have saved some chat files but cannot find a log file for this service. How important do you think this will be?.

I have not been through the process yet as I'm pre NOA2 but read up on this thread from about mid February for people going into the interview. Its seems pretty horrible.

Its a top priority for Chada and I to get as much 2 way proof of love we can.

Packet 3 and proof of relationship = full time job

Edited April 14, 2009 by Danny and Chada

[birch- phuk_beer 0]

well, i got back this morning at 2am. I left bangkok sunday morning bangkok time and didnt se too much to do with the a$$hole redshirts.. An occasional police convoy and an occasional army helicopter over head.

regarding the embassy, yes they wouldnt let me in and 3 hours later, my wife and step daughter came out and didnt get thte visa., she just said "no". After looking, it was a 221g and I went back into find out #######!!

so, they didnt say now, just give us more sheit and go jump through some more hoops. and YES she got that fugging fat bald basttard. When he asked her where we met and she told him the Don Meung airport, he said to her five times, don meung what? what? what? real fugging a$$hole this guy is.

he grilled her for 20 minutes and asked the step daughter 2 questions.

She needs to get 6 more documents.

we have to redo the police report so knowing that would take the longest time, we went right to the police station and re-did it. We cant get that till the 27th because of song kran and everything being closed.

she needs to get a name change paper, a divorce paper which we gave him already, a sole custody of the kid paper which we gave him, my wifes mothers name change paper. ####### is up with that? her mother died in 1998.

then, you can only go back on monday and wednesday from 1-3pm to turn this sheit in. what BS!!!!!!

atleast she doesnt have to go see that a-hole again.

so, shes taking the 6 documents and passports back on the 27th or 29th of April.

she thought it was No, but i explained to her, it wasnt a No, just a "we want you to do some more work and get us some more papers first"

BirchBeer,

Thanks for sharing your experience. I am sorry to hear your got a 221g. Do you know why you have to do the police report again?

Hopefully everything can be worked out soon and she will be able to join you in the U.S.

I am supposed to have our interview this week, Friday but with the current situation am not sure if they will cancel it or what will happen.

Dirty fat bald basturd said it was a copy and he wanted the original police report. which may be true.....

but he had the original divorce paper and others as well, sooo.......

I had everything orgainized nice and neat. When my wife came everything was all taken out of the sleeves and just a mess.

I think its closed now for Song Kran anyway. no telling what they'll do.

Edited April 14, 2009 by Birch-Beer

[birch- phuk_beer 0]

DAY OF INFAMY

Central Bangkok a war zone

Festive holiday is turned into a black nightmare

BANGKOK: -- The bloodstained start to Songkran - which transformed large swathes of downtown Bangkok into urban guerrilla war zones, leaving dozens of people wounded - was marked by the first shots around the Din Daeng triangle before dawn.

Less than an hour later, the crackle of sporadic live gunfire from soldiers could still be heard, alternating with angry shouts from red-shirted, anti-government Democratic Alliance against Dictatorship (DAAD) protesters who refuse to simply retreat.

DAAD leaders claim some red-shirt protesters were killed during the clashes.

The government has denied a report that officials covered up protesters' deaths by removing the bodies in a GMC truck. It cited reports by hospitals that no one receiving treatment for injuries died.

Everyone, including me, has to run for cover every now and then.

"There can be no end if no one wants to admit defeat," says a motorcyclist who volunteered to drop this reporter off at the nearby hotspot. He says he is an off-duty police officer and his wife and children are among the demonstrators.

Protesters curse the military for firing real, not rubber, M16 bullets at them. Some were aimed at the sky, others apparently not.

Not everyone is sympathetic with the pro-Thaksin Shinawatra reds, however.

"They deserve it," says Pairoj Somjaipeng, a cabby in the area who supports the People's Alliance for Democracy, the nemesis of the reds.

"Last night they carried wooden clubs and other weapons. I think what the military did was right. And nobody died," he says.

"I want to ask how the reds love the King ... I think they love Thaksin more," he says, referring to the frequent allegation that the reds are out to destroy the royal institution.

The military side is led by Lt-Colonel Chinnuphan Rodsiri, who commands 200 or so troops dispatched from Aranyaprathet on the Thai-Cambodian border.

A lone monk defies the 200 armed soldiers, stepping out to address them with a loudspeaker at 6.40am, just a few metres away from the troops. He urges the soldiers not to shoot at people.

"This area has become lawless," Chinnuphan complains to me. "They shut the roads down and search people. Even the Asean Summit [last weekend], which was the face of the country, wasn't spared. Everyone demands their rights but do not know their responsibilities."

Soon another monk emerges on the other side of the triangle as the jittery soldiers shout. "How can a monk carry guns" cries one, as the monk slinks away.

Some distance beyond the front line of soldiers, groups of reds sit in front of Santiphab Park, or Peace Park. "We only have rocks, bottles and slingshots," says one. The two bottles nearby are Molotov cocktails, however.

On the other corner of the triangle, protesters claim they saw a driver of a bus full of red protesters get shot and collapse while trying to run over soldiers before dawn.

"Please help us," pleads one lady, in despair. "Please don't allow them to die in vain."

The reds no longer believe in much of what most of the local media report, as they are convinced that the media are anti-Thaksin and conclude that the reports of deaths must have been covered up or censored.

Protesters here and at other locations appear to be acting at least semi-independently of the DAAD leaders who are still holding out at Government House with supporters.

And as the day progresses and more shootings are seen and heard, more Molotov cocktails are being prepared at various spots.

Public buses were set ablaze at several sites, accompanied by the sound of M16s firing. At least three LPG gas tankers were commandeered by protesters by afternoon, but disaster was avoided. The shootings, clashes and burnings were disastrous enough.

A DAAD leader who asked not to be named tells this writer in the afternoon that the torching of Bangkok is virtually inevitable. "They have all the stuff prepared and we can't control them. People died, but the media censored the fact."

Protesters fight and retreat, soldiers shoot and advance. Victory Monument was abandoned, Sri Ayutthaya Road retaken, but the protesters - portrayed by most Thai media as a paid mob - regroup and resist.

Would they have risked their lives for Bt500 or Bt5,000 on Thai New Year's Day

The skirmishes and retreats and regroupings go on well into the evening as protesters scatter to some dozen pockets in the 2 or 3 square kilometres of downtown Bangkok.

Most shopping malls shut down on their own.

"This is guerrilla warfare," one foreign journalist tells me as we watch a scene so surreal, as if it came straight from some apocalyptic movie. But it was all real.

Some children, oblivious to the chaos falling on the city, are still seen splashing water as they would on any Songkran.

For many others it was red blood that had splattered, mixed with tears, irritation, anger, desperation or shock, depending on whom you ask.

-- By Pravit Rojanaphruk/The Nation 2009-04-14

[daboyz 36]

DAY OF INFAMY

Central Bangkok a war zone

Festive holiday is turned into a black nightmare

BANGKOK: -- The bloodstained start to Songkran - which transformed large swathes of downtown Bangkok into urban guerrilla war zones, leaving dozens of people wounded - was marked by the first shots around the Din Daeng triangle before dawn.

Less than an hour later, the crackle of sporadic live gunfire from soldiers could still be heard, alternating with angry shouts from red-shirted, anti-government Democratic Alliance against Dictatorship (DAAD) protesters who refuse to simply retreat.

DAAD leaders claim some red-shirt protesters were killed during the clashes.

The government has denied a report that officials covered up protesters' deaths by removing the bodies in a GMC truck. It cited reports by hospitals that no one receiving treatment for injuries died.

Everyone, including me, has to run for cover every now and then.

"There can be no end if no one wants to admit defeat," says a motorcyclist who volunteered to drop this reporter off at the nearby hotspot. He says he is an off-duty police officer and his wife and children are among the demonstrators.

Protesters curse the military for firing real, not rubber, M16 bullets at them. Some were aimed at the sky, others apparently not.

Not everyone is sympathetic with the pro-Thaksin Shinawatra reds, however.

"They deserve it," says Pairoj Somjaipeng, a cabby in the area who supports the People's Alliance for Democracy, the nemesis of the reds.

"Last night they carried wooden clubs and other weapons. I think what the military did was right. And nobody died," he says.

"I want to ask how the reds love the King ... I think they love Thaksin more," he says, referring to the frequent allegation that the reds are out to destroy the royal institution.

The military side is led by Lt-Colonel Chinnuphan Rodsiri, who commands 200 or so troops dispatched from Aranyaprathet on the Thai-Cambodian border.

A lone monk defies the 200 armed soldiers, stepping out to address them with a loudspeaker at 6.40am, just a few metres away from the troops. He urges the soldiers not to shoot at people.

"This area has become lawless," Chinnuphan complains to me. "They shut the roads down and search people. Even the Asean Summit [last weekend], which was the face of the country, wasn't spared. Everyone demands their rights but do not know their responsibilities."

Soon another monk emerges on the other side of the triangle as the jittery soldiers shout. "How can a monk carry guns" cries one, as the monk slinks away.

Some distance beyond the front line of soldiers, groups of reds sit in front of Santiphab Park, or Peace Park. "We only have rocks, bottles and slingshots," says one. The two bottles nearby are Molotov cocktails, however.

On the other corner of the triangle, protesters claim they saw a driver of a bus full of red protesters get shot and collapse while trying to run over soldiers before dawn.

"Please help us," pleads one lady, in despair. "Please don't allow them to die in vain."

The reds no longer believe in much of what most of the local media report, as they are convinced that the media are anti-Thaksin and conclude that the reports of deaths must have been covered up or censored.

Protesters here and at other locations appear to be acting at least semi-independently of the DAAD leaders who are still holding out at Government House with supporters.

And as the day progresses and more shootings are seen and heard, more Molotov cocktails are being prepared at various spots.

Public buses were set ablaze at several sites, accompanied by the sound of M16s firing. At least three LPG gas tankers were commandeered by protesters by afternoon, but disaster was avoided. The shootings, clashes and burnings were disastrous enough.

A DAAD leader who asked not to be named tells this writer in the afternoon that the torching of Bangkok is virtually inevitable. "They have all the stuff prepared and we can't control them. People died, but the media censored the fact."

Protesters fight and retreat, soldiers shoot and advance. Victory Monument was abandoned, Sri Ayutthaya Road retaken, but the protesters - portrayed by most Thai media as a paid mob - regroup and resist.

Would they have risked their lives for Bt500 or Bt5,000 on Thai New Year's Day

The skirmishes and retreats and regroupings go on well into the evening as protesters scatter to some dozen pockets in the 2 or 3 square kilometres of downtown Bangkok.

Most shopping malls shut down on their own.

"This is guerrilla warfare," one foreign journalist tells me as we watch a scene so surreal, as if it came straight from some apocalyptic movie. But it was all real.

Some children, oblivious to the chaos falling on the city, are still seen splashing water as they would on any Songkran.

For many others it was red blood that had splattered, mixed with tears, irritation, anger, desperation or shock, depending on whom you ask.

-- By Pravit Rojanaphruk/The Nation 2009-04-14

They do deserve it. They are no better than drunken hillbillies getting drunk on moonshine and attacking Washington DC. They have their convicted criminal leader in Dubai egging them on. I say to the Army, don't shoot into the air today. Level your guns. Make sure your aim is true, and kill as many as you can. They are paid thugs by a coward who hides in his luxury suite. The man cares nothing about Thailand, only himself.