Money talks

Your articles on work and stay permits confirm my 2004 decision to settle with my Indonesian wife not in Indonesia but on Thailand's booming eastern seaboard.

Besides the easy process for obtaining a one-year visa (1,900 baht/Rp 380,000), the highly skilled and efficient immigration officers make the (simple) paperwork a pleasure to do.

The entire procedure is corruption-free, transparent and takes 20 minutes the first time, and 10 minutes for yearly renewals.

Reporting every 90 days where you are living can even be done by the Internet. It is obvious that Indonesia is missing the ""loaded-baby-boomers-retirement-boat"", due to an antiquated, irrevocable, irreparable and highly corrupt bureaucracy.

And by the way: Why should a sack of cement in Indonesia cost triple what it does in Thailand?

WILLIAM H. VAN EWIJK
Chonburi, Thailand