PdJ100712

The coppers you pay bribes to are nowhere to be seen when you need them. A few years ago I accompanied a Thai friend to one of Bangkok's IDC (immigration detention centre) where her Rohingya boyfriend was locked up.  This Rohingya guy had lived illegally in Thailand for many, many years, paying 1,000 baht a month to a policeman at one of the stations in Lopburi. One day he had a bust up with some other Rohingya guys in his household, and one of these Rohingyas working legally in Thailand reported him to the police. The illegal guy was arrested, taken to the IDC in BKK and deported to Myanmar two days after I went to see him with his Thai girlfriend. Two weeks later he was back in BKK, having used a smuggling route only known to illegals.

ThailandRyan: I have never understood why they talk about food all of the time....

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Thais by and large do not read books. They are sociable people and will share their food (and unfortunately personal items like combs as well). Food and other life essentials like gossip are good to fall back on, in the absence of academic challenges from discussing books or plays.

Why is the Thai electorate inactive on rampant corruption and travesty of democracy? They are busy taking pictures of their food.

Thaiguzzi, you have got the wrong end of the stick, I am afraid. Thai nationals who have been granted a 12-month visa for the UK, be they students, workers or whatever, are free to roam around the UK for a year, without having to report their whereabouts if they go overnight from London to Bath (for example), and do not have to leave the country every 90 days. Moreover, after 5 years, provided they have been able to get visa extensions, have stayed on the right side of the law and can show they have consistently been able to support themselves financially, they can apply for a British passport. How many European long-term residents can say that about Thailand? What Thailand wants is 50 million tourists a year and zero long-term foreign residents. I wish they would say so in not so many words.

"He said his Bt8 million in assets declared to the NACC included his parents’ house worth Bt7 million"

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If you do not have title to the house, because it belongs to your parents, why declare it as your own asset?

This is pure, unadultered, industrial-strength BS. I doubt whether they are smart enough to be able to link up the 1 billion baht unpaid medical bills precisely to Non-Immigrant O visa holders. This is just another money-making scheme from xenophobic Thailand. This country is striving for 50 million tourists a year and zero long-term residents.

DrTuner. Spot on. Government House was commissioned by Rama VI in 1923. The inspiration was Cà d'Oro in Venice, Italy. Designed by Annibale Rigotti, the construction was completed by Corrado Feroci (of Silpakorn University fame) and Ercole Manfredi. Most Thais seem constitutionally incapable of acknowledging that the best-known Bangkok landmarks were created by foreigners, particularly Italians, at the turn of the 20th century. 

Surely this is cause for celebration, for adhering to the 'Sufficiency philosophy'?