Has anyone actually considered what more Indian tourists means for other tourists?
Maybe they find the place less enjoyable due to their presence, and it contributes to their decision to stay away.
At the Bangkok airports, you might well run into trouble much sooner than that. Especially if you extended your previous visa exempt entry, fly out and (try to) return within days. Or if you did an overland border bounce before.
Shouldn't the headline read: Senators accuse Thaksin of faking illness to dodge prison and of scheming to install his daughter as his puppet PM?
Glasshouse. Stones.
I'm sure that would be an interesting option for quite a few people who wouldn't enjoy the long minivan round-trip from Bangkok and prefer to organize their own transport.
What you can and what you cannot get away with varies a lot between checkpoints and even individual immigration officers.
Ultimately, you have a decision to make, either play it safe and pay upfront or take your chances and potentially deal with a denied entry.
That's a pretty silly theory, especially when you consider that most overstayers aren't even from the countries mentioned.
Where's that exponential increase in rootless Westerners roughing it out in Thailand illegally? Only in the OP's head.
Those savings come from selling their house, so if and when they return because "Thailand didn't work out" (no income stream, no real plan other than homeschooling the kids), they'll be homeless.
I feel sorry for the kids.
I have yet to see actual evidence that they match passport numbers rather than names. Their announcement was about matching names.
I mean the automatic matching they did. I don't doubt that you'll have to show the same (current) passport to both network provider and bank in case the automatic match failed and you have to visit them.
Indeed, they've been very busy promoting that they are back. I used to be a customer and just re-installed their app to have a look around - my original registration is still valid. I'll give them a try next week.