IMA_FARANG

Just o correct one statement, you are not forced to get a 54 page visa when getting a new passport.

At least in Bangkok when I got a new passport the application form clearly gave me two choices.

I could choose the smaller 28 page passport or the 54 page passport.

I chose the larger passport, simply because I normally get many visa stamps, and it seemed a better choice.

The price is the same.

My passport was "lost: in January 2017, so that was when I applied for a replacement.

And yes, I filed a police report on my lost passport with the Thai  police.

The "Tourist" figures are "cooked".

If you enter as a so-called Tourist more than once in a year you will be recoded as a  new first time tourist and that takes no account of the possibility that you are  repeat visitor to Thailand.

This makes "tourist" visitors keep growing in number every quarter.

It is just a statistical fluke/lie that makes TAT happy.

As Benjamin franklin said, "Experience is a dear school, but fools will oft learn in no other".

Most likely in Bangkok.

What is your visa and what is your nationality?

Just for the record I have a signed 3 month contract with my residence management.

I am billed each month for the previous month to include electricity, water, and telephone

charges.

I pay monthly, and the invoice is stamped monthly  by the  residence management.

Included in the agreement is a cable T.V system , weekly cleaning and 40 p1eces of laundry at the residence laundry downstairs monthly.

I keep the stamped invoice/receipts and use them if asked by immigration for my proff of residence.

I pay between 18K and 20K monthly for rent.

I have a monthly pension of about 50K Baht depending on the dollar/Baht exchange rate.

I honestly don't know.

I traveled there by air,

Lao Air has a flight  from Swampy to Vientiane and on to Savannakhet but it arrives to late and requires spending a night in Savannakhet.

Having applied for 5 annual retirement extensions I can ASSURE you that it has been always been the case that CW has always been for those living or residing  in Bangkok (immigration area one ONLY.).

They stress that point and have for years.

I personally suspect it will only be a short few years before Vietnam passes Thailand as the "favored" tourist destination in South  East Asia.

The greedy Thais are quickly "Killing the Golden Goose" of tourism  here in Thailand.

Go there (Vietnam), and see what I mean.

I 've been there 3 times in the last 5 years, but I live in Thailand at present.

But there are historical reasons why the "Chinese tourist" is not favored in Vietnam due to their centuries of Chinese attempts  at dominance in Vietnam (then referred to as  Assam) not to mention the years of the French and American independence conflicts.

The new generation, however, doesn't care about that.

More than half the population now was born after "liberation" in 1975.

In Thai tradition the dowry was for the Bride, to provide for her life if her husband died or could not provide for her because he could not, for some reason work

Or alternatively, it was to provide for her parents old age, since there was n such thing as government help for the aged then.

This tradition has been corrupted by imported  Western values, so now the Bride is regarded as a marketable commodity

That is the nature of the human female.

It has been that way for many  generations.

Women were the first farmers, they brought a few seeds back to the cave to drop outside the cave entrance and women were the first humans to realize that those particular leaves of that one tree when mashed up with some water and fed to their babies would stop the babies fever and crying.

10,000 years ago human knowledge was spread and cultivated by women, before men took over and started wars.

Although men dispute it women were the first farmers, the first doctors, and probably invented the first religions.

The carved  "fertility figures" of pregnant women you can find worldwide from that era are  the proof.

What ever turns you on.

I guess I am just  a 70 year old dinosaur.

But I HAVE found cash only discounts on such things as airline tickets and computers that were ONLY available if I paid Cash.

And if I see  another such deal again  in the future I may well go for it

New ways to be hacked and scammed.

Electronic ..payments are easier for the organized gangs of cyber crooks to steal .

There is an e-payment sucker born every day.

As others pointed out there are a number of valid ways to do it.

I arrived in Thailand 5 years ago on a Non O multi-entry visa then and have extended it each year annually in Bangkok.

In my particular case I get my Social Security pension sent to my Bangkok Bank  account by direct deposit from the U.S. each month.

It takes some paperwork to set up a direct deposit that way initially but once you have it running  the money arrives in your Bangkok Bank  account  on the 4th of each month.

I've been doing  it that way for over 4 years now, and it works fine  for me.

I am a U.S. Army Vietnam veteran if that means anything, but not retied military.

I opened my first account with Bangkok Bank in 1980 in Bangkok.

I now have two accounts now, one for my Be1st ATM card, and one for my pension Direct deposit from the U.S.

I guess you can see Bangkok Bank is my favorite Thai bank.

I voted NO.

My reasoning was this.....if a terrorist can force a revision of the laws about the death penalty, then the terrorist is the de facto winner.

By Buddhist Dharma revenge is like  poisoned water that will spread it's poison around the world  to all that drink.

Isn't there a saying that "patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels".

Maybe  that is because Patriotism is an easy thing to appeal to when you actually know that your action is not really in the best interests of you and the real long term good of your country.

Adolf Hitler  appealed to German patriotism, and at the time that was the answer to everything for Germany.

Learn the bitter  lessons of History, or be condemned to repeat them.

That also is a saying to think about.

I see your post and what you are asking, but you need to understand  a Dual Thai-British citizen has a right t enter Thailand on his or her Thai passport.

This right can not be denied if Their parent (at least one)  is Thai

It is almost always preferable for a dual Thai and foreign national to se their Thai passports  to enter Thailand.

But you probably know  all that already.

I have in the last two years flown from Bangkok to  Vientiane  with Lao  Air from Swampy.

However the flight from Swampy to Vientiane  means an extra one day hotel  stay in Vientiane  as it arrives to late to apply for a Thai visa that same day.

I don't think at that time Vientiane  required an out of country flight ticket to get a tourist visa at the Thai consulate   there, but I don't know about now.

As I recall it is only about a one hour flight from Swampy to Vientiane .

You will need a Lao entrance visa, but you can get that at the Vientiane  airport on arrival.

There have been similar incidents in the U.S. in the past.

The most notable one was some years ago during a spate of hijacking of U.S. plane flights to Cuba.

A famous celebrity in U.S. sports, whose name I won't reveal,  asked a flight attendant if she had any good cigars for sale.

Her answer was No.

Then the passenger jokingly said, "Well that's O.K. , maybe I will just pick some good cigars in Havana  while we are there'.

As a plane had been hijacked to Cuba less than a week earlier, the security on the  plane was not amused by hat comment, and the flight was delayed until all the passengers were searched and cleared.

That is a true story.

Donald's friend is my friend.

That's not a fair assessment.

It would be fairer to say that the EU officials involved accepted her statement  but they need more time to asses  it.

nothing happens quickly in government, either in the EU or elsewhere.

Your name on a Birth certificate in Thailand  does NOT automatically make you the father of that child.

It is usually the MOTHER who enters the supposed father on the birt certificate in the hospital as the child is born.

There is no legal requirement that she has to state the correct father's name.

However, if you are legally married to the mother (with a valid Thai marriage license) then the mother's birth certificate is generally accepted.

under Thai law a legal Thai marriage license is accepted as a valid marriage  "De Jure" and "De Facto", or under law and in fact.

In Thailand the mother's birth certificate is not necessarily legal, but if there is a legal Thai marriage license, as I said before, that is often accepted as legal.

This is different from many European countries.

There are ways here in Thailand to PROVE you are the father, such  as DNA testing if you want to go that route.

But the best chance is  if you can show that you are or were legally married to the Thai mother at the time of the child's  birth.

I had a Thai Chinese friend who as a young boy began his work career cleaning septic tanks for his family's business.

He was the youngest and smallest of the family so that was his job....to go down into the septic tank after it had been pumped out to wash it down.

He survived it and later became the manager of a Guesthouse/hotel.

the last time I heard from him he had built  a new house for him and his family in Bangkok.

That was a good 27 years ago however

I have many friends who spent a lifetime working to protect the U.S against foreign hackers.

There are many problems doing that but often the main problem is that politicians don't want to or refuse to listen to the professionals who try to tell them about foreign hackers as that information does not jibe with what the politician WANTS to hear for his or her own personal political reasons.

Or as the saying goes, " You can lead a horse to water, but you can't force the fool to drink."

The Nixon excuse.....I can't remember my conversations that clearly.

It didn't work for Tricky Dicky did it, now Dumbo Donald is using the same defense.