Tomtomtom69

Point 2 - I do. Agree with you on point 4 only. Point 5 - that's a strange one. One would think that the more you can speak the local lingo, the better.

Depends. It's almost never that bad unless you're heading into the city on a Friday afternoon.

I don't like either but I'd prefer the second one. Sitting in the comfort and privacy of my own car is far superior and preferable to being stuck in a metal box with thousands of sweaty strangers.

How do you watch Thai TV if you can't understand Thai? How do you go for a massage if you can't speak Thai? If you want to live here, learn the language. Same as Afghan refugees do when they migrate to Sweden. They learn Swedish (OK, not all of them, but surely many of them do). If you can't speak Thai, you'll never be able to communicate effectively with those you live amongst.

Foreigners cooking food for Thais, even during Covid and for free, is illegal and we know how that went down. Foreigners were threatened with deportation.

You need glasses and to do a simple Google search. Jackie Chan is Chinese born and clearly Asian. His accent is NOT American. Yes, perhaps there is a hint of an American accent but it's still largely Chinese. His English is of course, very good.

That's the case in ANY country, in theory at least. No, only the government can decide whether a foreigner can come and stay or not. Thai citizens who don't work for immigration have no say in the matter. Just like we in the west have no say when it comes to whether we want to be replaced through mass immigration. No one asked for our permission. No matter what our opinion is, and how unpopular mass immigration is, it continues because governments do what they want, irrespective of what their citizens want. It's the same in Thailand. The government allows masses of foreigners to come in as tourists and some of these become expats. The Thai people have no say in this. I'm pretty sure a lot of Thais don't want 40 million tourists a year, nor do they accept the presence of millions of migrant workers. Yet every year there are more tourists, more expats and more migrant workers.

Her English isn't that good. It's about average for a Thai person. I realize he may have been a bit out of line but she clearly didn't want to listen to what he had to say.

Jackie's English is very good but his accent is NOT American. That is the point. I'm responding to this ridiculous notion that according to this story, the man looked Chinese but spoke in an American accent. In other words, he was probably one of the millions of Chinese-Americans.

Err...he doesn't have an American accent and neither is he an American citizen to the best of my knowledge (or even if he is, his accent is still quite Chinese). Try again...

What is that supposed to mean? Ever heard of a Chinese-American? 5% of the American population is of Asian descent (this probably includes Eurasians, though the vast majority remain "pure" Asians) and this percentage is growing fast. Thais must be extremely ignorant if they aren't aware of the fact America is a multicultural country. In fact, in barely 5 years from now, Whites will no longer be an absolute majority any more (which is both sad and shocking) but this is happening in every western country. In just a few decades from now, claiming to be an American if you're white might attract some strange glances (I kid you not) that's the direction we're headed in. So this man may be ethnically Chinese, but based on his accent and fluent use of the English language is very likely a native born American citizen.

You really have no idea. Imagine a day in the future (this already happened during Covid) when you won't be able to pass an immigration auto gate because you didn't get vaccinated. Or because you didn't pay your taxes. Or you said something you shouldn't have on social media? All these things can be overridden by a manual officer, but with a machine it's one size fits all. You either meet their requirements or you don't. Also, auto gates are slower than manual processing. Case in point is at Brisbane in Australia, where even babies are forced to use the auto gates on departure and it takes like 3 minutes to process each child because being children they're not going to be looking at the camera the way an officer wants.

Yes, new dystopian things. Cashless payments using QR codes are dystopian. So are auto gates. Fortunately, Thailand will take years or even decades to perfect them so I will continue to have an officer stamp me in and out.

Another made up claim. Imported food and drinks regardless of what it is or how popular it is in the local market will be more expensive than locally produced goods unless the country of origin is Malaysia or China, then all bets are off. Chances are that whiskey you refer to is made in Thailand.

I've compared the two and found imported cheese is even more expensive in Cambodia than in Thailand. Only alcoholic beverages are cheaper... No tax on imports in Cambodia? ROFL!!

What a misleading article. I was at the airport this morning to send wife's relative off and after he went through departures, I took a peak inside the immigration area, which is separated from the public area by a glass partition. I made out TWO auto gate channels labeled "ALL NATIONALITIES". Next to that on the far end of the terminal building, were maybe 5 or 6 auto gates for Thais. In front of both of the auto gates marked "all nationalities" were a bunch of foreign nationals, 7 or 8 in each row waiting to get through. Why they didn't use the manned counters with no one waiting behind them beats me. In the main departure area in the central part of the terminal, there were 8 or 10 auto gates for Thais and again, just 2 for other nationalities. Again, there was a queue in front of both foreigner auto gates, a minimal queue in front of the traditional manned counters and maybe 1 Thai person using the Thai auto gates. I personally endeavor to never use auto gates. They're dystopian and actually take longer than passing through a traditional manned counter. Another case of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". They've had auto gates at larger land borders such as Nong Khai and Mukdahan (for Thais only) for years but they've just sat there for like 10 years completely unused. Why even bother? Just employ sufficient immigration agents. Isn't that hard.