Kerryd

Got to love all the people thinking "he's a fellow Brit so that automatically means he must be innocent and this is all a frame up even though they have evidence and he pled guilty to all the charges".

Remember the case a couple years ago about the (Brit) guy who was taken to the hospital after a motorcycle accident and while there admitted to having murdered a woman in his home ? Cops were called, they go to the guy's house and sure enough, dead woman.

But oh no ! On TV there were those who, without reading a single sentence of the story, decided he was innocent and the cops must have beaten a confession out of him.
(And they were still convinced it was a frame up even after it was pointed out that he'd confessed before the cops, or anyone else, even knew there'd been a murder.)

Meanwhile, if this guy is lucky, after about 5 years he should be eligible to apply for a "prisoner transfer" back to his home country.

For example. Some years ago a career criminal (Michael Karas) from Canada "stole" some ID while out on probation and flew to Thailand. He spent a year living with a Thai woman (with her renting the rooms).
They got into an argument (she caught him cheating on her). He broke her neck, then mutilated her face (trying to prevent her from being recognized), dismembered her body and hauled it to a local swamp (in Pattaya) and dumped her remains.
He then zipped to the airport and, still using the "stolen" ID, flew back to Canada.

He was arrested for violating his probation and while in jail, Thailand started extradition proceedings.
Karas even admitted to a couple of "cold case" robberies he'd done and ended up with a few additional years in prison.

But when his time was up, he was extradited to Thailand, found guilty of all charges and sent to Thai prison.

5 years to the day his lawyer applied for a prisoner transfer. They concocted a tear jerk story for a Toronto newspaper, going so far as to say that, instead of him being in prison for 5 years, he had been in for "half a decade" to make it sound longer. They figured Karas should be transferred back to Canada and immediately released.

It worked and the POS Liberal Public Safety Minister (Ralph Goodale) rubber stamped the transfer.

I emailed the Minister directly to let him know who Karas was and what he'd done.

I received a reply from some flunky in the Corrections Bureau who assured me that they would make sure all conditions were met (blah blah blah).

I found out that, about 10 months after he'd applied for the transfer, he was arrested in Winnipeg (Manitoba) for a string of armed robberies he'd done in Ontario.
Which means he was transferred back to Canada and released almost immediately after arriving. And then went back to his old job of robbing banks.

So he ended up doing just over 5 years in prison for murdering a woman, mutilating her face, dismembering her body and dumping it in a swamp.

(F'ing Liberals. Never met a criminal they didn't want to put back on the streets and never met an innocent citizen they haven't wanted to through in jail.)

This guy can only hope that he can get the same kind of deal from the UK a few years from now.

5 minutes ago, mikeymike100 said:

You must not get much! Apart from other areas in Thailand, especially in Bangkok, many other countries have areas where girls can be obtained for a small or large fee. Even in some countries you wouldn't think of like Indonesia or Dubai, both Muslim countries. But certainly Mexico, Philippines, Germany, even Nigeria!

And one of the most famous of them all ?

The Red Light District in Amsterdam.

And the "Reaperbahn" in Hamburg, Germany.

And half of Budapest. (I actually went to the seedy little "Bangkok Bar" in Budapest a few months before my first ever trip to Thailand. Was disappointed as it was basically a dank, dark room in a basement with a couple of (cold) short time rooms in the back and not an Asian girl anywhere. Most of the "working women" in Budapest at the time were from Russia or it's poorer neighbours.)
(In hindsight, I was probably lucky I got out of there without being mugged/drugged/rolled/murdered, not necessarily in that order ! Apparently the Russian mafia ran a lot of those bars.)

And when I did make my first trip to Thailand (Feb 1993) it was only because I'd forgotten my International Driving Permit (I'd planned on renting a car and driving to Germany) and then I found out what a ticket to Casablanca would cost (at the time, about 1,400 Deutschemarks) and that a ticket to Thailand would only be 300 Dms more, so I took that option.

I shared a row with 2 guys and when they found out I was going to Thailand,  told me that they used to go there but now they prefer the Philippines as the "girls were cheaper".
(At the time I had no idea what they were talking about as the only thing I knew about Thailand was the Yul Brenner movie The King and I and the song "One Night in Bangkok. Back in late '92, early '93 there wasn't really an "internet" so you couldn't look up stuff like you can now.)

So yeah, plenty of places to find "sin" around the world.

The hotel bars in Dubai are usually packed with Chinese and African women looking to make extra cash. Like packs of piranhas in those places.

Even in Kabul, Afghanistan, they had Chinese Restaurants were the "special meal deal" also included food ! (The girls came from Urumqi, in the NW corner of China and they'd "swap" them out every 3 months it seems.)

When Prayut first took over, he "vowed" to get rid of Walking Street and his first Tourism Minister promised she was going to end the "sex trade" in Pattaya.

That was 8 years ago and they did nothing in all that time.

Maybe someone "higher up" actually looked at some honest numbers and realized that all those hordes of "zero dollar" Chinese tourists and the "6 to a room, 6 to a beer" tourists from India weren't actually contributing much to the economy despite their numbers.

(Which was plainly evident pre-covid. All you had to do was look at how many Chinese and Indian tourists were "walking" up and down Walking Street and how few were actually in the bars, shops, restaurants and shopping malls.

I have not met one single business owner who says he was making money from that "demographic".

And the "Group of 100" (the people who own all those businesses on the "water" side of the street) wield a lot of clout and not just at the "city" level it seems.
Otherwise those buildings would have been razed years ago.

The city had no problem shutting down that Bali Hai condo and they had no problem going after the billionaire owner of Sukwatdee over buildings they decided he'd built on "public" land, but they haven't touched those businesses on WS.

Lol.
Never, in all the years I've been going to Immigration, have I ever had them tell me to go to an "agent" nor have I ever been asked for a bribe.

But then, when I go to Immigration I have all my paperwork in order and ready, before I arrive. I also shower and wear clean clothes (something a lot of Caucasians seem to think is a waste of time when they go there).
I've stood in line with some stinkers that would make your average Afghani smell almost bearable.
(And I spent 10 years working in Afghanistan.)

I do find it a bit odd that, considering the lack of tourists over the last 2 years(ish), Jomtien Immigration always seems as busy as it was before the covid crisis.

No matter which day of the week, there always seems to be lines of people, just like 2019 and before.

Oh well, still have a couple weeks before I have to worry about it again. Plenty of time to get all my ducks in order.
 

I know of a couple people who were "grassed" for drugs. Old g/f of mine got a 3 year sentence after cops found drugs in a room she shared with another girl. Supposedly the drugs belonged to the other girl but the cops busted both of them.

The landlady of a building I used to live in was asked by a former tenant if she could deliver a box the tenant had left behind. The landlady was stopped by the cops who apparently were waiting for her (having been tipped off by "someone" it seems). I was told that for a couple hundred thousand baht the whole matter could "disappear". (I wasn't about to donate any money for that.)

A few months ago, a guy I know through a friend got busted. He runs a hair shop and, because business is bad, makes house calls. I'm told a friend of his asked him to come over and give him a haircut.
Shortly after he arrived, the place was raided by the cops who accused the hairdresser of being a drug dealer. (He claims he never sold drugs and what they found in his friend's room wasn't his.)
Not sure how that went down. Can't tell if the cops were watching him or his friend or if it was just a set up (which wouldn't make sense as the guy doesn't have the cash to pay a bribe and isn't the kind to do anything that would p*ss anyone off to the point they'd go through the effort of setting him up).

He's still in the remand center waiting trial it seems.

Doesn't take much though, to p*ss someone off enough that they'd go to extreme lengths to get back at someone, like planting drugs in someone's house and then tipping off the cops.

I know I've only been coming to Pattaya for just over 25 years now so I don't have the same experience some here claim, but in those few short years there's 2 things, wait, 3 things I've never had happen.

I've never had a bill "padded".

I've never been attacked by security guards for any reason.

(And never been "mugged" or pick-pocketed by a ladyboy.)

Things I have seen during that time include;

T.W.A.T.S. pretending they are just "stepping outside to take a call" and then trying to wander off down the street without paying their bill.

T.W.A.T.S. waiting until they think no one is looking then crumpling and tossing their "bin" (bar bill) on the floor while pretending to have paid it.

T.W.A.T.S. thinking they should be able to walk into any bar with their 7-11 bought bottle of beer and getting pissy with the staff if they try to stop them.

T.W.A.T.S. getting pissy because some bird they fancy is sitting with some old geezer (that's buying her drinks) instead of with them (who they seem to think are so "hansum" that the girl should be grateful just to be in their presence).

T.W.A.T.S. getting violent because they thought all those tall women with the huge knockers still sitting in the bar at 1 am must the "real deal" and then finding out they are in a ladyboy bar.

T.W.A.T.S. staggering down the street deliberately trying to "bump" into people and then threatening them (also usually well after 1 am, when all the best looking women are already gone and they're too drunk to score anyways so they start looking for a fight).

T.W.A.T.S. haggling prices with a ladyboy (or a couple of them) and getting pissy (mouthing off, calling them names and so on) because they won't drop their prices. (And then whining to the police after that they were "mugged" or pick-pocketed.)

Yeah I know. Obviously haven't been here that long. Back between 2004-2014 when I was working in Afghanistan, I spent most of my holiday time (3-4 months a year) on Walking Street. It wasn't uncommon that I'd go back to work and realize I'd spent 4 months of "war zone money" during my 1 month on holiday.
I drink Jack when I'm in the bars. The smell helps to let you know you are getting the real thing. I recall nights at the old Polo where my "bin" would be 4,500 baht and that was a "quiet" night. (I buy usually drinks for the dancers/service staff/mommasans but rarely ring the bell.)

I even tried the trick of buying a "bottle" at a bar, drinking some of it, asking them to keep the remainder under the bar for me and then coming back 3-4 months later to see if they still had it. Did that at 4 different bars and they all still had the bottles each time. (One time, one was a little "shy" of the mark they'd made on it and the mommasan replaced it with a new bottle. It was only cheap Sang Som anyways.)

Funny though, never saw any security guys just start beating the <deleted> out of someone for no reason at all.

Oh right, the guy was from the UK so that means he must be an angel who would never do anything wrong.

Interesting.
Some "Canadian" drug dealers were also recently killed in Mexico (on 22 Jan).
https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/hotel-shooting-victims-criminal-activities/

Apparently members of (or connected to) Vietnamese drug gangs in Canada.

And it's not hard to travel on a fake passport. Or one that was "stolen" but never reported as such.

It used to be common in Thailand for people to sell their passports when they ran out of money, then claim they'd been "stolen" from their hotel room (or while they were on the beach, etc, etc). They'd then have more money to extend their holiday and get "emergency travel documents" to get home with later on.
Two Iranians on the missing Malaysian MH370 flight were apparently travelling on (Austrian and Italian) passports that had been reported as "stolen".

Michael Karas was out on probation (after serving time for a string of armed robberies) when he travelled to Thailand on a passport he supposedly "stole" from someone, who never reported it stolen for over a year as Karas used the same passport to return to Canada after murdering the Thai woman he'd been living with for a year.

The mother and the sister of Omar Khadr (the 15 year old terrorist who spent time in Guantanamo) were both placed on a "restricted" list for (Canadian) passports due to them both claiming to have "lost" their passports a few times too many.

They would use their Canadian passports to get to (wherever) and then give them to their terrorist friends to use, then after awhile would claim to have lost them and apply for new ones. Something they apparently did often enough that it raised flags and ended up getting them on the restricted list. (But not because the father and 3 brothers were all involved in terrorist activities that the mother and sister supported.)

We've had (in Canada) people who've been deported (usually to India it seems) and caught (in Canada) again months later, deported (again) and caught (again) barely a year later. (Makes you wonder why they keep going back and how they can keep getting new passports.)

Most IOs see so many faces everyday they rely mostly on the computer to tell them if there's a problem with the passport. So long as your skin colour and hair look similar to the passport photo, they don't really look that closely at you so it's easy to get by on someone else's passport (assuming they haven't reported it or are wanted themselves of course).

Biometric scanners (fingerprint scanners like they use at Suvarnabhumi, retinal scanners used in other places like Sharjah in the UAE) will put a crimp in the ability of some, but many countries do not have that level of tech and even countries that do, may not use it at all border crossings, so a certain element will still be able to travel around far too easily.
 

There is stuff in that article that may apply to you that wasn't included in the bit snipped/pasted in the OP.

Stuff like:
"In the last week, changes first introduced on October 1st last by the Ministry of Public Health in respect of enhanced requirements for any foreigner applying for an O/A Retirement visa were highlighted by Thai officials and international embassies.
 

This means that those applying for this retirement visa type, which should be differentiated from the normal O Non-Immigrant Retirement visa, must show hospital inpatient insurance of $100,000 or ฿3.4 million, an increase from the previous requirement of ฿400,000.
 

Higher medical coverage requirements for O-A retirement visa option but now Immigration Bureau will also accept self-insurance for those with assets

However, the Thai Immigration Bureau has, at the same time, provided an option for applicants to self insure provided that they have adequate capital and income available.
 

New health insurance regime for retirees living in Thailand means foreign firms can provide cover

The critical requirement for this option is to show ฿3 million in available assets including cash in the bank, available financial assets or ownership of property.
 

It is also understood that Immigration Bureau officers are authorised to accept evidence to show that any hospital bills will be paid for by sources from abroad.

This would apply to insurance provided to foreign retirees by their national governments or services in their home country.
 

The evidence requirement will mean that written documentation must be provided and certified by the foreigner’s embassy in Thailand.
 

New regulations do not yet impact the more popular Non-Immigrant O visas for marriage and retirement

These new arrangements do not impact current requirements for non Immigrant O visas or extensions either for marriage or retirement visas for now but may signal future intentions by the government which have also been regularly aired publicly by senior officials.

(So - rich Chinese in, old (white) retirees out. (Kind of like the "good guys in, bad guys out" motto of Immigration eh ?)

People think because they've read the article in English that means that it's all about them. 
You are reading an English translation of a Thai news article ! 

Guaranteed that they are not thinking about you when they plan schemes like this. They are thinking about their masters in China and the boat loads of wealthy Chinese that Beijing wants to transplant into other countries to spread their influence.

The ones who will help China's ambitions by promoting things like high speed rail lines and "exclusive" resorts (and new airports and so on, just like they are doing, or have done, in places like Cambodia).

They don't give a toss about the geriatric Westerners scrapping by on their meagre pensions (yeah yeah I know, you all are bringing in and spending well over 65k a month, blah blah blah).
They also don't give a toss about the "digital nomads" who contribute little more than the odd Yelp review while their income goes to their home banks and they spend their time moving from the cheapest dive hotel they can find to the next cheapest.

Yeah, those "digital nomads" are not all (insert big tech company here) millionaires living the "free" life. They are mostly the ones doing the "Top 10 signs your cat want's to kill you" type garbage or whatever piecemeal work they can get to pay next month's rent with.
 

Watching the video closely a few times. When the Mercedes enters the intersection he starts moving to his right to go behind the Honda but appears to go into a skid. About halfway through the intersection it looks like he's "turned into the skid" (like you're supposed to) and his momentum carries him into the Honda which is basically sitting still in the middle of the road like a deer in the head lights.

As a result, the Mercedes hits the Honda almost smack in the middle it seems, instead of slamming into the front-left corner like it seems he would have if he'd kept going straight. 
Watching the video, the Mercedes is on the right side of the middle lane before getting to the intersection. As he enters the intersection it is clear he is trying to move into the left lane to go behind the Honda.
However, the Honda enters the intersection and stops just before crossing into the middle lane, thus blocking the left lane. 

The Honda hesitated in the intersection. An experienced driver would expect the oncoming traffic to figure out that he (she) was going to cross in front of them and they would go behind them rather than try to cut in front of them.

Had the Honda driver continued to cross the intersection, the Mercedes would have passed behind it probably without incident.
Obviously the Mercedes was going too fast and the driver was possibly distracted, or at the very least was expecting the Honda to cross the intersection, not stop in the middle of it. Probably by the time he realized the Honda was stopped he didn't have enough time to react (because he was going too fast) and jerked the wheel to the right to try and go behind the Honda, only to end up going into a skid.

I'm not sure where the lights are but I'm guessing the Honda started to turn because the lights had changed and it had the green "right turn" light.
(Which would mean the Mercedes would have had a red light, which he apparently ignored for whatever reason.)

Happens so often and because there is pretty much ZERO police enforcement of traffic laws, people get it in their heads that it's a perfectly acceptable thing to do.

So many times I've been at a red, waited until it turned green, let off the brakes and ZOOM ! Someone goes flying through the intersection at high speed and you know full well they had plenty of time to stop. Especially as many of the intersections have a couple second delay between one light turning red and the other turning green (which probably is why many of them decide it's OK to just blow through the red anyways).

Other times I've been approaching an intersection, saw the green flashing, knew I couldn't make the light, slowed down and stopped just as it went red, only to have some car/truck/SUV blow past me and through the intersection.

They do it because they know there is pretty much zero chance that there will be any cops anywhere in the area so the chances of getting pulled over and ticketed are pretty much non-existent.

3 hours ago, phetphet said:

And why do the police have a parachute and wings on their uniform? Do they do parachute training? Serious question.

"Mile High Club" member badge ?

Seriously, you see the same (or similar) badge on almost every uniform worn by a gov't employee. Teachers, politicians, police, ect.
I've seen more "wings" here in a couple of years than I did in the 22 years I was in the (Canadian) army !

People forget the "real" reason this tax was brought in. Supposedly "foreigners" were leaving the country without paying their hospital bills and that was costing the Healthcare system a little over 300 million baht per year.

So the gov't decided to add a tax to airfare, on top of the "Airport Departure Tax" they already had. (When I was here in 1993, it was 250 baht flying out of Don Mueang. When Swampy opened I think it was at 700. They had switched from collecting it at the check in counters to simply adding it to the airfare. That way it is hidden and most people never see when it is increased or by how much.)

Considering they were getting nearly 40 million arrivals per year (before covid), a tax of just 10 baht would have more than paid for all those evil foreigners who skipped on their bills. (At one point I think they even tried to suggest it was "expats" who were responsible in an attempt to blame "white" people for the problem. That was when they also added that ridiculous health insurance requirement onto anyone with an O(A) visa.)

A 10 baht tax would have earned nearly 400 million per year but no, they decided to make it a 300 baht tax. A thirtyfold increase designed to bring in 12 billion baht a year with the excess (assuming they covered those unpaid hospital bills at all) going who knows where.

Sure, 300 baht isn't much to the average person. 300 baht times 40 million though is a lot even to a rich gov't minister just waiting to get his hands on it.

And you can bet that not a penny of that money will actually end up going to cover those unpaid hospital bills.

The "non-commissioned" part was probably either a translation error or a "civvy" error (i.e. a civvie being someone with no knowledge of the military or how it works and just throws out words and phrases they've picked up from movies).

Generally speaking, all officers are "commissioned" and would hold what is called a "commissioning scroll" that they receive when they are promoted from cadet to 2nd Lieutenant (or equivalent).

"Non-Commissioned Officers" - better known as "NCOs" are everyone who isn't a commissioned officer. Basically everyone from Private to Chief Warrant Officer.

In Canada, Junior NCOs are Privates, Corporals and Master Corporals while Senior NCOs are Sergeants and Warrant Officers/Master Warrant Officers/Chief Warrant Officers. 

In the American military they have Officers, Warrant Officers (who hold a "Warrant" or a "Warrant's Commission"), Junior and Senior NCOs. Senior NCOs are those holding Sergeant ranks (Sergeant, Staff/1st Class/Master/Top Sergeant or equivalent).

Everyone starts out as a cadet (officer school) or recruit (everyone else) and then gets promoted (or not) up the "chain". 
In some (rare) cases, an NCO may get "commissioned" and become an Officer. In my 22 years of service I knew of 3 who did that.

The article was probably written by someone who doesn't know the difference between "Commissioned" officer and "Non-Commissioned Officer". A colonel would definitely be a "commissioned" officer.

I thought they'd decided against going after the "low income" tourists and were going to go back to trying to get the people who actually spend money to come back again ?

Typical gov't "doublespeak".

On one hand they are saying the "Test and Go" program is "very popular" and on the other hand (one paragraph above) they are saying that 87% of tourists are rejecting their "Sandbox" schemes.

Good thing they don't mention how "popular" their various "let's only try and attract the richest people in the world to come here and stay in their hotel for 2 weeks before going home again" schemes. 
Might look bad to admit that they are probably being rejected by 99.9% of the people they were hoping to attract.

They had high spending "value" tourists arriving by the planeloads - from Europe and North America - and then the gov't decided there were too many "white faces" around and shifted their tourism focus to India and China.

That resulted in years of low (or "no") spending tourists arriving, which made the "arrivals" numbers look good but did squat for the economy as hotels, restaurants and bars suffered.
It wasn't hard to look around the shopping malls and other places and see who was spending and who wasn't even in the building.

But the gov't was too busy kissing up to the "big red one" and turned a blind eye to it, hoping that increased "volume" would make up for the loss of "value". 

And they've shown the same attitude with all their schemes to get tourists back after the shut down, by making visas designed for the tiny percentage of tourists that generally travel in "luxury" class, in the hopes that they will turn things around while ignoring the masses that, literally, spend money like drunken sailors every time they come here. (Giving berth to the term "2 week millionaires", something I highly doubt anyone ever calls the Chinese or Indian tourists.)

Seems the gov't would rather have 20 tourists spending less than 500/day each (10,000/day total) on hotels/food/shopping/entertainment than 5 tourists spending 5,000 a day each (25,000/day total). 

You know, like it was back in the 80s/90s/00s and early 2010s. 

We'll see what happens after the next election (assuming the junta even allows another election that is). I think the current gov't wore out their welcome a long time ago and haven't done themselves any favours recently. 
Maybe a new gov't will have better business sense.

3 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

And the response was ? 

Especially if it means that the bars in Pattaya can open as well. Which is what Prayut is trying to prevent.