August 26th, 2009

The latest British Behaviour Abroad report released by the FCO pinpoints two areas of rising concern, namely motorbike and moped accidents and the rising number of arrests abroad.

Thailand tops the list on accidents with 269 British deaths there in 2008. The figures mean that Thailand has the highest rate of deaths in proportion to the number of British tourists of any country worldwide. In the same period, an estimated 860,000 British tourists visited Thailand. The majority of 324 reported hospitalisations in Thailand were due to motorbike accidents and a high proportion are fatal.

Wat Thai of Washington, D.C. is viewed as having been founded, informally, when two monks who were invited from Thailand arrived and took residence on July 5, 2517/1974, at a suburban house at 705 Wayne Avenue in Silver Spring. This house was rented by the Buddhist Association in Washington, D.C. for monks' residence and for use as a seat of Buddhist activities of the Association.

Presently, according to the notification the Temple has made to the city government, Wat Thai of Los Angeles usually holds twelve festivals and celebrations every year, viz.,

Vajiradhannnapadip Temple situated in West Bronx, New York City, was filed as a Not-for-Profit Organization under the Religious Cor-poration Law of the State of New York on July 22, 2518/1975. This founding date was both de facto and de jure. It now claims to be the first Thai Buddhist temple in the United States to be a full-fledged temple both legally and ecclesiastically, Legally, it is a legal organization established under local and national law of the country. Ecclesiastically, it conforms to the tradition of the Thai Sangha regarding the administration of monastic affairs. As prescribed in the bylaws of the Temple, the President and the Secretary of the Temple shall be its resident monks, putting executive power in the hands of the ecclesiastical section of its Board of Directors.

Overnight, a new temple called "Vajiradhammapadip Temple" was established at 179th Street in West Bronx. The site is a house on a 4, 121.5 square-foot plot of land purchased with donated funds of $43,000. The two monks moved in to residence on July 21, 2518/1975. The following day the Temple was granted legal status and its official establishment marked. Since then it is this new temple that has been known to the public and has been serving Thai people and Buddhists of other nationalities in the Tri-State areas of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut as well as in other neighboring States.

Do you want to live abroad and work as a teacher?

You can teach English to non-English speaking countries. There as a high demand for these professionals especially all across Asia. Japan, Vietnam, South Korea, China, Hong Kong, Turkey, Thailand and Taiwan are just some of the Asian countries looking for English speaking teachers. Even European countries like Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Poland, and France and also some South American countries like, Mexico, Chile, Peru, Brazil and Argentina offer teaching opportunities

There are two main streams of Visa for the Philippines, Immigrant and Non-Immigrant. The Non-Immigrant stream includes Tourist, Student, Business and Special Resident Investment Visa and Special Resident Retiree Visa. Immigrant visa's are either quota or non-quota, (Quota visa's are limited to 50 per year for very special cases)

The easiest visa to obtain is the Tourist Visa. Simply arrive at Nino Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in Manila or Mactan International Airport in Cebu and you will be automatically issued with a 21 Day visa. This can be extended , for a fee, for 38 days, then again for 59 days and additional 59 Day extensions may be granted to a term of one year from arrival. At this point you must leave the country for at least 24 hours and then repeat the process.