samuibruno

hi all

just heard about this new ??? requirement and wondered if any body else heard about it and if it affects private villa rentals?

Warning from Tourism Authority of Thailand to online booking for guides and any other tourism related activites.

There have been many scams done by those using the internet for booking tourists wanting to visit Thailand. For this reason The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) is now cracking down on these businesses with new laws.

Starting Dec. 1, 2012 any operation in the tourism industry from tour operator, hotel, guest house, B&B to guides and taxis will need to register with TAT and pay 100,000 Thai baht in escrow. This money will be held in case any of these businesses commit fraud or fail to deliver services promissed to clients. The money will then be paid to the unsatisfied clients and then the company who committed such act will no longer be able to do business in the tourism industry.

This is to protect the consumer so make sure before you book with a tour operator, hotel, guest house, B&B to guides and taxis make sure they have a TAT license. The licensed number should be posted on their web site or in their email. The license number will be 2 numbers then a dash then 5 more numbers. The TAT now has a task force in place to monitor search engines and social web sites such as trip advisor to find those doing internet booking. If they are not registered with TAT they will be fined and shut down.

i usually get mine bought over with friends

but good to know its possible somewhere

everybody knows if you take your eyes off the road ,you risk death on samuis roads

and ive just seen this new sign because i was walking at the market

they couldnt have put it any higher? or in a less busy place ?

because if you look at this sign when your on your bike at 5 pm when half of samui is stopping in front of you it will be the last sign you ever see

if this got rid of the exorbitant priced taxis

i would be happy to use/back it

brilliant idea

but they have spent the next 10 years budget already just for the feasibility study

another thought

why don't thai visa samui organize a meeting with the mayor so we can put forward our suggestions for improving samui

then at least there will be something new to whinge about

ive some great ideas as far as smoking in restaurants go

for me this is much more disgusting than some rubbish around the place ,having to suck in others smoke while we are trying to dine on some nice food is downright horrid

the boys in brown would make much more tea money wandering around airconditioned restaurants than standing in the middle of the hot sun stopping helmet less riders

we could also pay the immigration a [legal??say 30%] portion for a stamp in the passport [for us legal working ,taxpayers]

so we dont have to do visa trips

im going to post again

its their own fault

the teesabahn issue all the house books on samui,these usually relate to a building permit which shows clearly where all properties are on samui [so no excuse for not finding us ]

if the property has chanote title ,this is surveyed by satellite to a few centimeters

so they are clever/thoughfull enough to take your money for building permits /land titles/

but are not clever enough to find where you live for rubbish disposal fees ?????

give me a break

they should just make rubbish collection compulsory for all and send [or deliver] an annual account

maybe they should work with the police and gave them 30% for an escort while they collected their fees they would earn a fortune

They do not have licenses surely someone out there has some spare time and could do this, they would be well paid.

contact me personally if this is still needed

So what happened to the 'storm' that was meant to hit today?

its going to hit today .......................or tomorrow ............................or next year

imo

if you dont like the way this country works then simply go home and stop whining

hi there

dive courses are done here

with the actual diving bit done on Koh Tao

so if you go to koh tao to do your course you can save some money

different prices for different things all over the world

its called shopping around for the best deal

life guards with jet skis????

the tessabahn will be collecting more money from us then for this service as well

very sad situation

but accidents happen

soon it will all be fenced off [for safety]and our island paradise will be no more than a western style regulated place just like many of us ran away from

A bit unrealistic samuibruno

For a start, a lot of Thais burn all of their rubbish so they do not use the bins. The department that does garbage do not know that you are going to use their services.

When the land department issued your book - you can bet that they did not walk across the road and say - "hey - another one here - send them a bill!"

It would be uneconomic to automatically create bills for 30 baht per month and then post them. (Which is what True Visions do.) By the way - I did not get a UBC bill for 8 years - they had my address but did not know where the house was. True Vision know that you use their services because you went and registered with them.

As you saw with Alf Garnett- they asked him to pay and he just lied to them.

Sorry but it just seems like more excuses to me or would you happily pay every month if the guy turned up? (I leave my money in my letter box and he leaves the receipt!)

slightly . nuff said

the garbage charge should be compulsory [not voluntary] every house book issued should be sent an account [annually]

either thai or not

so again

they have my address as they themselves issued it

its their own fault

they dont seem to have problems sending me mail when theres a land problem ,next door advising me that they will be there on such a date ,at such a time

and yes

if they bothered to turn up at my place for 30 baht

id happily pay them

i would rather actually pay them for a year at a time and save them the monthly petrol cost of collecting the fee

which would be better spent on actually collecting the garbage insted

30bht for rubbish collection?even 60 baht,no wonder the island administration has n't got enough money.

I have to agree. Even at 60 baht per month it is a very small price to pay.

I still do not understand why so many 'rich' farangs do not pay it. According to the guy who collects the money - I am the only one paying out of the 40 properties there. All foreign owned.

They quite possibly don't know how or where to pay. No one would shy away from paying such a nominal sum, its just a case of knowing how and where to go i'd have thought.

My rubbish collection is organised but if it wasn't then apart from running outside at three in the morning to meet the refuse truck i wouldn't know either.

the tessabahn [not taliban]

issued me a house book with a number

they know where i live and if they are so stupid that they cant find me and ask for garbage money or even send an account to the registered number they them selves issued

then im sorry

its thier own fault

true visions dont seem to have a problem sending a bill nor the monthly magazine

so the teesabahn has only got themselves to blame

had it been the taliban tho i would probably have paid a yeat or 2 in advance

very expnsive, education poor, infastucture a nightmare, hospital care expensive and poor, no doctor worth his salt would work in Samui. car is advisable as motorbikes are dangerous. never ever would i take kids there. the guys i know with money have there kids educated in bangkok. shopping well that resticted to tesco etc, no cental, mbk, empuraim etc. i lived ther 9 years and looking back it was 8 years to long

your last few lines gave it away

no central,no MBK,emporium

you are a city person and have no place in village life

thank goodness youve left

yep im blind today

winds change direction about may so you can go west side before and east side after

yes agree

common sense seems to be lost by many tourists somewhere between the airport and their hotel

ive been here over 10 years and with all that common sense being lost, would have thought i would have seen some at some stage but alas............never

you need to let us know what dates you are on samui to inform you better of choices

I hope this election is going to be nullified because of vote buying.

Then everyone can have another go at the handouts.

Again and again gets nullified until some poor man wins.

Yes I agree with that.

I've during the last 3 weeks learnt about agents and recruiters, seen extended family members checking their name lists against voting lengths and getting paid a red one for each undecided voter they are being able to list.

I don't think it is the major (sic) candidates funding all of it, each tamboon elects 2 candidates to work with the new mayor so they are likely the ones shopping for votes.

Extended family got very upset a few days ago when the fat cow team upped the ante..

look buying votes is a world wide epidemic

how much money was spent on the USA elections ?????

and we have to put up with total media cover for 6 bloody months

corruption is world wide

but at least thailand is open about it

i think that if you could walk around your car and get back to where you started is a great test and the boys in brown should get world wide acclaim for their broad minded thinking and tolerant policing

good on you BIB

I saw the guy from Premier Bar in the pick-up McGregor was riding in. He got a very brief, but full-screen head shot.

He survived it ?

yes he survived the filming of the movie

Where are you from and do you already have a driving license from another country already?

Depending on the country you can swap it for a Thai license without having to do the test.

The transportation office offer lessons if you do need them, not sure if they have English speakers but good to ask. Passing the test is easy. Just need to be able to reverse straight and perform a parallel park.

and herein lies the problem

the thai instructors cannot reverse nor parallel park

my wife did this perfectly when she did her licence

when the next person came to do thier test and asked the instructor what they needed to do

the instructor turned to my wife and asked her to show how it was done

we laughed for the rest of the day

thailand land of smiles