FarangFB

Ok so here is the outcome so far: I went to the one in Pattaya today - although I was booked for Friday they still accepted it. Was quite empty (the passport office next door was PACKED). They asked for a lot more documents than I had brought, good thing I didn't go all the way to Bangkok or it would've been a wasted trip. In 30 min I made a round trip to my house to get all the remaining documents and they finally accepted it, I had to pay 200 baht. However, as far as I understood they don't stamp anything here in Pattaya, it's all sent to Bangkok and it takes 2 business days, then I can come back to pick it up. Assuming nothing else goes wrong, this should work quite well. Thanks @DrJoy

No problems with that, my only concern is not being able to get this one on time.

that was a BIG help, thanks a lot. I just hope they can accommodate my request beforehand (earliest booking was Friday), I'm literally on the brink of not getting it in time. In case they can't make it in time, do you know if the Bkk office would accept walk ins without booking in advance?

I need to get a Thai person's signature authenticated/notarized with the stamp of the MFA. I'm driving from Pattaya so their office in Lak Si is quite far, I read they have other branches but they're caller Department (not Ministry) of Foreign Affairs. Are they the same? Apologies for my confusion about authenticated/notarized, but it's a document in English from the embassy and they requested that it needs to have a signature from my wife and the stamp of the MFA. When I asked if they wanted a notary to stamp it, they said the stamp they need is from the MFA. Also, is this something they can do in the same day? TIA

I have here an expired (in 2020) yellow fever vaccine certificate that I might need to re-enter the country. I know that the NHS/WHO has already declared worldwide years ago that all certificates are valid for life (even expired ones). But I am still a bit concerned that some airline/immigration staff might not know about this and I'd hate to have boarding/entry denied. Is there a place (preferably in Pattaya) I could go to and get a new certificate without taking the unnecessary shot? TIA

Thank you, will send them a message

Wife and kid are registered in Ubon, I need that to travel with the kid alone. I read that it's highly recommended to have consent letter signed/stamped at the Amphur office. Would the Banglamung Amphur office do it or would it require a trip to Ubon? Thanks

I thought about that but I don't think I could get approved unless I have flight/accommodation booked for the country I'm applying at, right?

Thanks, it will be great help. I've looked around and it's amazing that an agent could grow so big and with with such a bad service, the internet has countless complaints of all sorts of issues (website, not being able to contact, taking too long to return passports) and yet they managed to get so many countries to use them as the main channel for handling the visas.

That would be great, do you happen to have a link to this law? I couldn't find it on my search

The website appointed by the Danish embassy for a visa (Apparently the only option) has been a non ending frustration of bugs, rejected payments and even "restricting" my account so I can't do more attempts for 24-48 hours. Calling them was useless, a muffled voice with a strong Indian accent, had to try my best and they basically told me to keep trying. This is driving me insane, the trip date is approaching and who knows how long this will take. Are there any good visa services that would help me out with this? I don't mind paying the premium I just don't want to deal with this horrible company.

To me this is way worse than the actual decision of sending the money to the girl. If you're 62 and sort of broke, how come you are borrowing money to buy of all things a house in Thailand that won't ever be yours? And a quite fancy one if we're talking 4M upcountry. At that age, if you are single and don't have 4M spare, that should be a no brainer. Never use all the money you have to buy anything, let alone the money you don't have.

I think the point here is that by asking to call tourist police or interpreter is that you will cause them to potentially lose time, so if it's a bad cop looking for an easy victim they'll likely let you go and move on to another one that will be easier to scam.

Dogs can get away with ANYTHING in Thailand. If you were there and saved the guy by shooting the dogs you'd be in deep <deleted>.

Definitely, must be quite a delight to work there and have a daily accessible supply of japanese melons, korean/japanese strawberries and those other fruits that are 100x better than anything produced here. The strawberries here that come close are those imports that cost 2000+ THB for a box.

End of October? That's a new one then. I thought they would be referring to that one in Pattaya in which the Pitbull chewed on a little toddler for 5 minutes on a public road. Nothing happened to the dog of course.

Would be cool if in a distant future the A word becomes forbidden to Thais but acceptable only for farangs to talk among themselves. I could go up to you and say "sup my alien", but if a Thai called us that we would be deeply offended.

Name a few please. Thailand has its flaws but everywhere else I look you have at least a few of the following dealbreakers: - Risk of being mugged/stabbed while walking or even when driving - Extremely high cost of living - Freezing or scalding (proper hot, 40º++ every day) - Sharia Law - Actual xenophobia to the point of being attacked on the street for not being from a certain ethnicity - Heatwaves/draught, frequent natural disasters or devastating floods - Non-existent infrastructure for expats (mostly language barriers) - Entitled people everywhere, men hating feminists, wild Karens - Overregulated, get fined for everything Say what you want about Thailand, but it's relatively safe, cheap if you want, stable tolerable climate especially with A/C, freedom to do most things you want and nobody cares, very foreigner friendly despite the property/visa restrictions, no natural disasters apart from potential tsunami in a few beaches, floods rarely get above the knee, plentiful infrastructure facilities for expats, you can live comfortably without speaking Thai, western feminist/SJW mentality hasn't gotten here yet.

I think it's even beyond that, it's that Thais are afraid of being judged by others if not wearing masks (even though most don't give a damn), so they collectively wear it. The more "Thai" the location, the more they will wear. Pattaya and Phuket are pretty chill, I'd say less than 5% of the farangs are using masks and maybe around 70% of Thais. But non-touristic areas of Bangkok are hardcore. I've been to Mega Bangna recently and it was properly packed (Saturday), I've walked past thousands of Thais and not even one without a mask. The only person I saw with no mask besides me was the only other farang I walked past. These people will continue using masks for years no matter how optional it becomes.

With your restriction suggestion all motorbike delivery services would go extinct.

This is crazy dangerous and I see it daily, including on some special ramps and highways that motorbikes aren't even allowed. Also quite common in Isan highways which already lack illumination.

The problem is not supporting elderly parents (which I totally agree with). It's quite cheap to support a couple of old people in Isan. But many girls in their early 20s have to support parents who are in their 40s or even late 30s. In many cases they end up supporting also grandparents, uncles, aunts, brothers etc...many of which don't do any work and only rely on a slice of the money the girl sends every month. Then they run into debt from buying land/houses/motorbikes or even gambling and the pressure on the poor girl is very high. If the money stops coming all hell breaks loose.

And for many brothers, uncles, dads, moms a good reason to sit around all day gambling and drinking instead of working.

Not the case in Bangkok, every time I go there is constant a parade of Mercedes, Porsches, Alphards and models above. Shopping malls are packed, luxury brands (Chanel, LV, Gucci etc) are in most of them and with so many customers they have to set a queue outside the door. Omakase restaurants (can be north of 5000b per person) are often fully booked. Unless you're at least in the high 6-figure earnings (USD), you'll feel kind of poor in Bangkok.

With my limited view on Isan, I can almost certainly say that every other family has at least one member who is a useless addicted (drugs, alcohol or both) parasite. Almost always a male, the parasite drains the family resources and even terrorizes them on a regular basis. The parasites are always involved with the worst type of people in the village, are violent, irresponsible and often beats family members including their parents. The people from the villages are hostages because they can't really do anything, the police won't help them unless the parasite commits an atrocious crime. Bad behaviour, threats, minor violence and wrecking property are left unpunished. They even get away with rape. It would be easy to round them up, everyone in the village will know who they are, but there won't be enough jail cells for even 5% of them. Nothing will change.