I call BS on the 6 month Thai tourist visa, in reality it's either 30 days on-arrival or 60 days with a visa with possibility to extend 30 days more. If you've had a 60 day visa you will not get a new one for another 90 days. This means that sooner or later you have to start visa runs to the border in order to live on the 30 day on-arrival visas. It can be fun at first but will become a chore. All Asian countries suffer from lag to US or Europe because of the congested cables. The further away you go from Japan, the first landing point of the cable(s), the worse the lag is. HK and Singapore offer better quality connections than Thailand or Malaysia. In the latter two it comes down to area and service provider and can vary between okay and non-usable. The winter is not that great experience in South Europe, the apartments can get cold and musty and it can feel colder than it really is, pace of life and entertainment also tones down. Weatherwise I'd rather head to anywhere in Asia in wintertime.
Yes I'd be interested to hear about Manila in terms of what type of visa did you have and what sort of accommodation and internet connection you got. I assume you lived and traded from there for a while without fully relocating there..?
For Thailand, if you are from a western country you can get a 4x3 month non immigrant B or O from a Thai consulate in your country. In US it's any of them other than the actual embassy in LA apparently. Same with UK, Consulates will give you a B or O, Embassy in London sems reluctant to issue tourist visas even. Still need to do the 3 month border run, but now there is a good one day trip option to new border at Ban Laem. leave BKK 7.00, get back 4.30. Pleasant, unlike Aranyaprathet/Poipet which is a horrible place with horrible border officials. Google Jacks Golf for day trip organisers- Korean outfit that is professionally run.
Manila.You get three week visa on arrival.Then you renew for five weeks.Then each renewal is for two months.You must leave the country once a year.During my visit I stayed at one apartment and two" condos".And I failed to get my own internet connection.On the surface,there appears to be several internet options.Reality is,they will not deal with foreign visitors.And, despite what the locals tell you,PLDT especially have impossible requirements.Your best chance would be to find an apartment/condo that was already wired for Destiny cable.They were the only cable company offering broadband and they had a pre pay scheme so I think they would service foreigners.
I have been to Goa and mumbay. I can speak indian well , but No india for various reason -South east asian food is more to my test -I prefer Buddhism culture over hinduism, though religion-wise they are very similar -SEA tourism destinations are better developed and still cheaper -India is less foreign friendly and safe compare to SEA I been to HK, S.Korea, singapore, taiwan, brunai, china If i hadn't invested some much time with Thailand first days, I would try somewhere in Malaysia or Bali and may be Philippine but not much safe and behind in term of infrastructure compare to thailand (not been to last two place, but i was informed geographically they are nicer than thailand) If i wasn't concerned about business opportunities, then 1-Chiangmai 2-somehwhere in Isaarn (Korat, Khon khen, Udon or ubon,...) 3-somewhere close to Phuket 4-Bangkok I personally prefer Isaarn or south thais over most Chinese Thais generally speaking
Call it "BS" is your limited experiance I can get 3 x 60 days= 180 toursit visa from thai consulate here in Dubai, there are various option doing that in thailand also for total 180 days Meantime you don't have to wait 90 days to get another 60 days visa doing border run, i hear this first time Doing border run through different route everytime is very exciting, you get the chance to see thailand better
Is that means they want you stay longer? why is that? I heard each tourist entry visa from US or UK around $100 for 90 days? I pay $27 for each 60 days here
I hear it is virtally impossible to get a 1 year B or O from the UK Thai Embassy. Visa issuence has a large element of discretion so it varies at each Embassy. Some are paranoid about a foreign stealth takeover of Thailand it seems. You need all the correct paperwork to get a 3 month B or O at UK embassy. You then get your 1 year visa with work permit in Thailand, but the B needed must generally be obtained outside the country. The consuls are independent contractors selling visas for a commission. They want to sell you the visa but for a 1 year they want to see around USD20k in a Thai bank (or broker) if you are obviously living there.
Too many british visit thailand every year, and most go for very lenghty journey from home. Afaik, England ranks#1 western country for No of tourist/Country population in TAT statstic per nationality, and this cause more control at Thai embassy in UK Next are German, australia, sweden, france...Not a high figure from US comparing their 285 Million population
Nana, if you get a longer visa than 60 days it's no longer a tourist visa per Thai classification unless it's a multiple entry visa which can be 3x60 but you still need to make the border run. I agree it's not that much of a chore only every 2 months. Yes the 90 day delay period between visas really exists. I have found it out first hand at many Thai embassies and it is also a published fact on Thai information pages. So after your visa runs out it means 3 months of monthly on-arrival visa runs before you can apply for a new visa. Lovely country but hard to settle down without marrying or starting a business and they have been getting tougher on visa runners in the recent years thanks to Thaksin's policies. One visa-free option could be settling to Johor Bahru in Malaysia and doing visa runs over the bridge to Singapore every 3 months, I think that's even 6 months for Dubai etc citizens. It's different than in Thailand but the closeness of Singapore compensates for much. Or Penang and doing visa runs to South Thailand. I like Georgetown. Singapore can also be an option if you're willing to establish a tech company (automated trading development anyone?).