to 
|  |
TonyT's First Thailand blog:
3-months in and around the country:
September 2013 to November 2013.
PLEASE NOTE
THAT ALL CONTENTS OF THE BLOG HAVE BEEN TRANSFERRED TO MY MIRROR SITE
tony-tollitt.com
CLICK HERE TO TRANSFER
The Following Pages are Fully Functional but are no longer maintained a mostly out-dated.
HOPE TO SEE YOU ON THE OTHER SITE
This is the first of 5 blogs to date (latest written April 2018). Links to the other sites can be found on the final page of this blog
This one was written whilst in Thailand between early September and late November 2013. The reason for my being in Thailand principally was to support my Thai wife, Khemjira (aka Aom) in her bid to gain a Settlement Visa to the UK. She had already spent 6 months living in England with me under a Special Visitors Visa but the UK Border Agency rules that applications for Settlement have to be undertaken from the applicant’s home nation.
The application itself is done on-line answering a huge questionnaire. This is the easy bit…
A raft of support documentation has to be gathered including highly personal information from both Khemjira and myself. Official Thai documents and support letters have to be translated into English by a recognised translation office and stamped. She had to undergo a lengthy medical examination and In spite of the fact that her conversational English was already excellent, undergo a 38-hour English Language Course at a recognised school followed by a 4-hour written and oral examination which, in turn was followed by a 6 week wait for the results from Cambridge University in England. All this had to be paid for.
Once the online application form is submitted an appointment is made at VFS Global in Bangkok (the then commercial agents appointed by the UK Border Agency to vet applications). VFS had no say in the decision-making of visa applications, they were there to check the documents and see that the correct fees have been tendered in the form of a Bankers Draft. Once the application had been accepted by VFS Global it was couriered on to the British Embassy at Bangkok.
Applications for Settlement at time of writing take a minimum of 3 months for a decision to be made. The cost was also high at around £900; this was to fund the administration and processing and is non-refundable even in if the application is rejected.
So, I was resigned to stay with Khemjira whilst she waited for the outcome. It was as well I did as some of the additional paperwork could not have been completed without me being there in Thailand.
Furthermore, we had to stay somewhere within fairly easy reach of the British Embassy in Bangkok in case they wished to interview her or to query the support documentation. In this case, Pattaya fitted the bill as it’s only an hour and a half to two hours away by road. As it turned out, we need not have bothered as no such request was received from the Embassy.
Anyway, here’s the journal/blog:-
BANGKOK
Page 1
Wednesday September 4th: Check-in at Manchester Airport; unbelievably simple; no queues... anywhere... at security-check didn't even stop walking through.
Subsequent two flights of 7 and 6 hours (with 2 hour gap at Abu Dhabi) was the usual draaaaag but got to Bangkok on time, through the usual Thailand Immigration which is never swift (15 booths with less than half manned); rapid recovery at baggage-claim carousel and then into a taxi and straight to the apartment at 7pm through the usual hurly-burly crazy Bangkok traffic.
Thursday 5th: Cases dumped, 20 mins shower/shave and out for some relaxant liquid.
I must say it was good to sample the Chang beer again and, as before, it did taste rather nice but the stuff does go rather rapidly to one's head especially after a jet-lagging journey; by the way it uses to be a healthy 6.5% ABV which was a touch stronger than the San Mig, Singha and Tiger beers, but the rebranded Chang is now 5.5%.
Nice to see some old [lady] friends here again (Aom not too happy with one or two of them from my past though).
Friday 6th: Busy day. Aom up at 6:30 and out to Silom district for her medical examination. 10:00am back with a 100% OK and then we're off for breakfast.
Got down to completing the vast and immense on-line application form (this took over an hour) but it took a degree of nerve to actually click the "SUBMIT" button, because any mistakes or omissions cannot be undone.
Next step: online again to VFS Bangkok to book an interview for Aom for submission of documents. This done for next Thursday morning. So we'll stay in this apartment 'til 12th and then get the bus/coach to Surin and chill out on the farm.
But already we've had a change of apartment after 2 nights. Same address in Bangkok but we've moved up to the 25th floor. Some minor-works needed doing to the old one on the 18th. Pretty similar but with a balcony and TWO panoramas instead of one (corner suite). A long way down! Pretty wet and manky in BKK as well at the moment, and with at a reasonable 31ºC it's very humid. Not many mozzies this high up though.
ABOVE: a panoramic still view of the Bangkok skyline from our apartment in Sukhumvit, Nana.
BELOW: a short panoramic movie taken from the apartment veranda, including night footage.
|  |
|  |
|  |
- TOP LEFT: The apartment bedroom in Bangkok with the impressive view out of the window.
- TOP RIGHT: September is one of the wettest months in Thailand. This is one evening after one of the thunderstorms.
- CENTRE: Bangkok street scenes. Note the two levels of the Sky-train or BTS.
- BOTTOM: Other Bangkok streets. Bottom right photo shows a lively 'night-scene' in Soi Cowboy off the Sukhumvit Road..
Next: or Go To Page - 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30