renaissanc

I think Thailand will continue to have a slow immigration system at the airport and visa extension process for at least two more generations. Firstly, the Big Bosses want the systems to be as they are. Secondly, their Assistants who will eventually take over from the Big Bosses have learned the current system so they will continue it. It may take two generations or more for these people to be replaced by people who will revolutionise the Immigration Department. Eventually, the airport immigration process will probably be carried out on planes with a special device before arrival. Only passengers with a problem will meet an Immigration Officer.

Maybe the threat of punishment is too weak. A mandatory 20 years in prison without parole for anyone participating in robbery and mugging together with a huge, huge fine would help stop it.

If you eat lots of fried food and street stall food I think you can't help but become fat.

The rule in my province is that you apply between about 26-30 days before the visa expires. More that 30 days in advance is not allowed. This year I applied exactly 30 days in advance.

My local IO has told me not to apply more than 30 days from when the visa expires. Last year I applied 33 days in advance and the official had to be begged not to send us home to apply again on the following Monday. The drive to Immigration takes an hour and that's straight driving without any traffic jams.

Well, there are apparently around 3 to 4 million foreigners live in Thailand. Add to that 5,2 million migrants. The daily workload for Immigration officials must be huge. An officer at my provincial IO said that they had to take work home because they couldn't keep up. How bad must the situation be for officials at Head Office?

I asked about that once and you can actually leave if you have a Reentry Permit, I was told. But I wouldn't like to try.

The Governor of Phuket and the Chief of Police of Phuket must now be shocked to learn that there is illegal prostitution taking place under their noses. After all these years of Phuket being prostitution-free! There should now be an investigation into how prostitutes managed to cross the Sarasin Bridge into Phuket before Police take advantage of the situation and charge places a monthly under-the-table fee to keep quiet.

When modern cars crash, they are often write-offs because nowadays they are made of plastic and the thinnest of metal. I continue to drive my 25-year-old Isuzu pick-up truck because back when it was made, they were made with thick and heavy metal. I can use a pinky finger to lift the bonnet of a modern vehicle, but you need strength to lift the bonnet of an old pick-up truck.

I should have gone to the provincial Immigration Office today, but yet again, the extension of my Marriage Visa has not yet been approved by the given date, which is a month after the application. This delay has started to happen more often in recent years. I don't think that Immigration in Bangkok can manage to check and approve the piles of visa renewal documents of hundreds of thousands of foreigners that are sent to them by the provincial Immigration Offices every day. There are just too many foreigners living in Thailand now. It might take another generation or two before this happens, still, it is time for a daring Immigration employee to suggest to the Big Bosses that provincial Immigration Offices should be allowed to approve visa extensions on their own. If the employee is really daring, s/he should suggest to the Big Bosses that visa extensions could be done online, though it might take three to four generations for the Big Bosses to approve this devilishly novel and creative idea.

I'd like to commend the boyfriend for ditching her at once. Very wise! She's not wife material.

Stupid is as stupid does. Double the fine. Make him watch hours of Thai game shows and lakorns (in Thai) and he'll be on his knees begging for mercy and promising to behave perfectly.

Foreigners who do this sort of thing obviously don't know that they will be caught eventually and then deported after jail time followed by time in a hellish airport detention centre, which can be limitless if they cannot get someone to buy an air ticket for them.

It's the prisons and airport Immigration Detention Centres that need upgrading from the (19)th century to the 21st century. Police stations nationwide are limited by money and space to implement change. If the laws about drug possession were changed, I expect prison cells could be emptied by one-quarter to half.

Having 28 cats there is a simple way to know if the world is flat or not.