Ireland2010

Hi there. Any help regarding my current situation would be greatly appreciated.
I am 35 years old and have been teaching in Thailand for the last 4 years. Following a trip home over the summer and the collection of a new passport (old one was full), I changed schools at the start of the academic year. Through the schools inexperience in applying for foreign teacher work permits (or so they say), I have been sent to the Thai embassy in Laos three times in the first term.
The first time I received a non-immigrant B visa but the school didn't do what they needed to do in applying for my work permit on time. So, with just a day remaining on my visa I had to return to Laos, but was unsuccessful in getting another immigrant B and had to return to Thailand on a tourist visa. The school sent me back again two weeks ago but yet again I could only return on a tourist visa. The immigration officer at Vientiane who I had spoken with each time I was there, told me the school were not handling my application correctly and that they could no nothing to help, though he seemed genuinely sympathetic.
I've since left the school and I'm going home for two weeks (a holiday booked prior to leaving the school). I intend to return to Thailand as it's where I'm set up, but I'm concerned as my new passport is now almost half full of entry and exit stamps as well as three Laos visas, one Immigrant B visa, and two consecutive tourist visas. I was thinking of trying to get a new passport while at home and starting fresh that way as I'd like to take a break from teaching until the next academic year. I have an income from some online freelance work from my home country so I can sustain myself. What I hope to do is come back through BKK on the 30 day visa, and if possible, get two consecutive tourist visas from Laos. From there I would apply for work at a new school.
Should I go ahead and get a new passport? Would that sort it? Or do you think I could get more visas on my current passport? Is there another option?
If anyone has had similar problems or knows the ins and outs of this and can offer some advice, I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks in advance.

It's not over til the fat lady sings. See what's going on at Udon Thani city hall, the crackdown has unleashed a monster of dissatisfaction which will go underground and the only way to return peace is a change in those in power.

Confrontations where both sides have each other by the neck are excellent opportunities to force both sides into a peace agreement. The reds now seem defeated in this battle but not the overall war and now have no reason to agree to any roadmap or long-term peace overtures. They will simply go away and regroup, learning from this lesson, while the govt itself might never recover in the long term having apparently murdered 50 people.

So, what next? A low level terrorist campaign against the govt that is based more on angst and revenge rather than forcing an election, therefore becoming unsolveable, an 'unseen' enemy which you can't negotiate with, and eventually an election which hands power to an equally terrible lot without either side doing anything to resolve the underlying problems and finding common agreement on rules for clean political engagement.

The PT are going to virtually bring parliamentary sessions to a standstill with their stubborn insistence that the govt take responsibility, meanwhile the investigation and charge against the instigators in this will not be able to proceed so long as it's queueing up behind the prosecution of 'yellow leaders'.

Good old Thailand, don't find solutions, just fight and find lose-lose options.

A very accurate assessment of the situation

Man shot while taking photos

www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBQsk8fwXiI

These are very sad days indeed for Thailand

52 pages in and what have we learned? There is no absolute. There are reds who want to fight, there are reds who do not. There are soldiers who want to attack, there are those who do not. There are those who support one side, there are those who support the other. There is no one red mindset, there is no one yellow mindset, there is no one military mindset, political mindset etc etc. Look at what a disparate group we are and how we differ from eachother, yet culturally we're not all that different. We are individuals though with individual wants, belief systems, thoughts etc. Why should it be any more different for the soldiers out there or the reds. At the end of it all it's not worth any of this. Dead people on the streets will not serve the people of thailand well one way or another.

I am niether red nor yellow as I said. If speaking out against inhuman acts of shooting people who are injured or waving a white flag in surrender makes me a red in your eyes then so be it. If this happened in afaganistan and an American, Aust or brit soldier shot a surrendering person they would be brought up on wars crimes. It is the acts I am commenting on not the colour the person is wearing. Tell me truely in your heart if you really believe shooting injured and surrending people is justified regardless of where it is happening.

I understand the sentiment of your comment, and I don't mean to nit pick, however Americans don't "do" American soldier war crimes. Bob Kerrey, a former senator, who led a seven man team of Navy seals into a village in Vietnam and murdered over a dozen innocent women and children in cold blood, is now the celebrated president of a University in Nebraska for christ sake. Back to your point though, it is indeed inhumane, it's all inhumane, all of it. None of this benefits anybody, there are only losers all round. When this is all set and done the reality of it will become clear... Thai people will have killed a lot of Thai people and this moment in history will be one of shame for all Thais.

Whatever either side will win or gain from all of this will never compensate for what has been lost

Hello all,

My brother and his fiance are due to arrive in Bangkok on Tuesday 16th March. Myself and my girlfriend are due to go down from Issan to meet them at the airport in the afternoon and stay two nights in Bangkok. I'm just wondering what the popular thought on whether we should go ahead as planned or make alternative arrangements. My worry is that if there is any trouble spilling over into Tuesday it could affect their flight, or should they arrive ok, that traffic problems might make it difficult to leave the city altogether.

I was thinking of keeping an eye on how it progresses over the weekend and if things got messy to book onward flights for them up to Udon.

Any advice is hugely appreciated. Thanks a million!