Kerryd

If you watch the video, the altercation has already started and the LB and Indian (?) guy are in the middle of the beach with "her" chasing him and trying to swat him. They end up back on the sidewalk before going their separate ways. She-Hulk got a few amatuer shots in but I didn't see anything to suggest she-he had ever studied Muay Thai (shocker - not everyone in Thailand spends their childhood going to gyms and practising kicking coconut trees with their shins). She-he had lots of opportunities to drop some elbows on the guy's head or put a few knees into his chin but really didn't do much. (Maybe "she" was still in full "fight like a girl" character.) I suspect that those guys were cruising for some cheap fun and probably approached the Hulk and his/her friends and then said something nasty to them. While there are problems now and then with "aggressive" ladyboys, most of the time it's like when something happens at a bar/a-go-go. It's the customer that has a few beers in him and suddenly decides he's King Shi-ite of Turdburgler Island. And then suddenly finds out that the locals not only understand most of what he spouts, but aren't going to take his shi-ite either. I've seen some pretty rude people from the "sub-continent" over the years and a lot of them, like a lot of Brits and Americans, think they can get away with it like they would "back home" where people are too scared to get into a confrontation. And a lot of them think that the "rules" back home also apply here. Often getting quite a shock when they find out that Thailand doesn't give a **** what "your" laws are back home. There are a lot of Indian restaurants/hotels/shops on the north side of Central Pattaya road between Beach and #2 roads. I suspect that more than a few "newbies" get sent to Beach Road by their fellow countrymen for a laugh (not telling them that most of the "girls" there are really boys). Which may be why so many of them get into trouble down there as well.

Yeah, just ask anyone in Vancouver. Hong Kong money has been flowing in there for decades as many (HK) Chinese wanted a "safe" place to run to in the event China decides to go full Mao and start purging everyone. I remember seeing $250,000 homes being torn down so they could build $400,000 homes in their place and that was 25 years ago. In the late '90s, two working professionals with no bills or kids, could barely afford the mortgage on a 1 bedroom CONDO in the Greater Vancouver area. The cheapest detached house they could have gotten was out in Mission, about 80km away. And even then, there were people who were living in Hope, BC and commuting to Vancouver (180kms away) daily because they couldn't afford anything closer to the city. That is why Thailand doesn't allow foreigners to own land here. They KNOW that foreign money (especially from China, Korea and Japan) would quickly drive the Thais out of the realty market. And they know a lot (i.e. most) farmers would sell their rice fields for a quick buck and immediately spend it all (on fancy cars and clothes and jewellery) and within months would be broke with no land, no house and no job. And they know that foreign companies would quickly snatch up all those rice fields and consolidate them into larger conglomerates that would be able to control the rice market (and sell it to whomever they wanted to). Creating a nation of welfare cases within a year or two of allowing foreign land ownership. Some will immediately jump up and say "oh I meant they should only allow foreigners to buy 1 rai or one "property" of some kind". Which is a joke. How many of you are currently loop-holing the law on property ownership (or on your Extension requirements) as it is ? You can bet there'd be a hundred loop holes that would let people buy additional properties and amalgamate them into "one". Not to mention using "proxy" buyers (i.e. 10 shareholders each buy 1 rai or 1 property but sign control of it to the company owner who then does whatever he wants on that land). And you already know that "money talks" here so it wouldn't be hard for the "money" to make sure they got whatever they wanted. Sheesh, look at the housing prices in places like Pattaya as it is now. If they allowed foreign ownership those prices would probably triple overnight and quintuple within a year. (Which, I'm guessing, is what some are actually hoping will happen.) Meanwhile the Thais would be reduced to living in shanties on the other side of highway 36 because they couldn't afford anything better.

Should not be a problem. In fact, a lot of people stay for the 30 days and then go to another country "for a day" like Laos or Cambodia but quickly realize they prefer Thailand so they hop right back across the border into Thailand, sometimes within an hour of leaving, and get another 30 day stamp !

She claims (without saying how she knows) that the shop owner disconnected the CCTV before assaulting the child.

Some years ago there was a fire in a guest's room while he was out. He claimed he'd left his pants - with his wallet and all his money - on a hotplate in the room that "must have short-circuited" or something. Poor guy, no pants, no wallet, no money to pay the bill he owed the hotel for the time he'd stayed there, what could he do ? (He apparently hopped in a taxi and went to the airport. Seems he "forgot" his wallet but remembered his plane ticket and passport.)

I thought her name sounded familiar. "Khun Ying Pornthip Rojanasunand, also spelled Porntip Rojanasunan (Thai: พรทิพย์ โรจนสุนันท์; RTGS: Phonthip Rotchanasunan; born 21 December 1954[1]) is a Thai forensic pathologist, a currently member of the Senate of Thailand and medical doctor. First appearing in the media in 1998, her work and outlandish hairstyles quickly granted her celebrity status, and she became the best known of Thailand's forensic scientists. An author of several best-selling memoirs, her work introduced the Thai public to the role of DNA evidence, among other forensic methods, in crime investigations. High-profile cases Pornthip was involved in include the murder of Jenjira Ploy-angunsri in 1998, her controversial re-examination of the death of Hangthong Thammawattana in 2003 (which was later disputed by other forensic physicians), and the identification of victims in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami (for which she was both commended and criticised). In June 2009, she was one of the pathologists investigating the death of actor David Carradine. She frequently criticised the Royal Thai Police over their handling of forensic evidence, and was influential in the establishment of the Central Institute of Forensic Science, which works independently of the police and reports directly to the Ministry of Justice, and of which she served as director." "Pornthip was a vocal and sustained supporter of the GT200, a "remote substance detector" that Pornthip and the UK manufacturer claimed could detect from a distance various substances including explosives and dead bodies. Several nations have found the devices to be fraudulent. When news of the fraudulent nature of the GT200 devices became public in 2010, Pornthip defended the use of the devices, even if they were proven ineffective. She noted, "I do not feel embarrassed if the bomb detector is proven ineffective. Personally, I have never handled the device myself. But my people have used it and it is accurate every time." Note that during the Koh Tao murder investigation, she and the Central Institute of Forensic Science were not involved. "Thailand's best-known forensic scientist, Dr Pornthip Rojanasunand, whose institute was not allowed any involvement in the investigation, testified at the trial that the crime scene had been poorly managed and evidence improperly collected." I found it - odd - as well that it seems there were 199 MPs and Senators that abstained from the vote for Pita to become the next PM. 324 Yeas 182 Nays 199 - Abstained. Yeah, nothing shady going on there and she was a part of it.

It makes you wonder why they even bother with the subterfuge ? Why not just grant him a full pardon and then appoint him as PM again ? Then he wouldn't have to dance around to get all his accounts and money unfrozen and could have his revenge on the people that tried to put him in prison in the first place. That's literally how it looks like this is playing out anyways.

And in other news, the gov't is already setting up a committee "to examine the recent searches carried out on the residence of Police General Surachate Hakparn (Big Joke). So they are investigating what led to those raids and who to go after for reporting Big Joke and his subordinates to the Criminal Investigation Bureau. And the other article notes: "Lastly, it was clarified that the raids are not directly linked to the selection of the new National Police Chief set for tomorrow, September 27." Yeah. Just like when FBI Director Comey announced (with no evidence whatsoever) that the Bureau was re-examing the evidence in the Clinton "private email server" issue. 11 days before the 2016 election. (And then told Congress, just 2 days before the election, that the FBI's conclusions hadn't changed from July when they'd recommended no charges be laid against her). By then the damage had been done. Like that wasn't planned to try and skew a lot of "on the fence" voters to vote for Trump instead of Clinton, by making it seem they'd uncovered some nefarious scheme that would make her unsuitable for office. (And remember all of Trump's "jail her !" rhetoric. Yet throughout his time in office they never charged her with anything). (And she still beat him in the overall popular vote by nearly 2.5 million votes. But it did cause a number of "state electors" to go against the results of their states and vote for Trump instead of Clinton as they were supposed to do. However it seems she would have still lost even if those "faithless electors" had of voted like they were supposed to.) So one has to wonder how this case against Big Joke suddenly hit the news. The day before the selection of a new National Police Chief. Days after a convicted criminal that still hasn't gone to prison was touted as possibly becoming an advisor to the current gov't (effectively becoming the shadow PM). And days after a politician shot and killed a police officer and wounded another during a party at the politicians house, with the police providing him an escort to flee the scene immediately after the shooting. I'm sure it's all just a coincidence.

Is that even possible ? My friend (seriously, I do have one) normally gets a double-entry Tourist visa each winter, does the Extension, then the border run and then another Extension which is usually enough to get him through the worst of a Canadian winter. Generally stays 5 1/2-6 months each year. But recenty Thailand started using the "e-visa" online system. Last year he tried it and after a dozen failed tries gave up and just got a (45 day) stamp on arrival. He tried again this year and the same problem. It told him his password was no good. They sent him a temp password. It didn't work. He tried again. Same thing. After half a dozen tries he gave up. (He's getting into his upper 70's and computers are not his friend.) He is hoping he can arrive on a (30 day) stamp and convert that to a (double-entry if possible) Tourist Visa. I looked at both the TM.86 and TM.87 forms and they are identical except for the title. One is an "Application For Visa" (TM.87) and the other is an Application For Change Visa" (TM.86). (I downloaded them both and have them open in different windows right now.) Everything else on the forms is identical and it's the same fee for both (2,000 baht - mispelled as "BATH" on the TM.86). Because some barstool know-it-all fed him a story once about how all banks rip off the accounts of all foreigners in Thailand, he's not too keen on keeping a large wad of cash in a bank here. And at his age, well, even if he did leave a large sum in a Fixed Term Account (as I've told him would be just fine) - he's worried he may croak in the arms of some young (40ish) honey and his money would be lost. I've tried to get him to go the Non-O route and showed him how cheap and easy it is, with the advantage of being able to stay as long as he wants or return earlier or whatever, but now of course you have to leave 400k in the account all year (or, like some of us, leave it all in there all year anyways). Again though, if he croaks (here or back home) his money would pretty much be lost. (Even with a Will, it would be hard for someone back home to come here to claim the money.) He was thinking of just going to an agent to get it done but as most of you probably know, they'll charge him 10 times (or more) what it would cost him to do himself. (He has no problem going to Jomtien to do Extensions all the time so doing this himself would be easy.) Of course, the other option is the Non-0 but - from what I can find, unless you get a (rarely issued) multi-entry Non-0, the best you can do is get the 90 day initial stay and then extend it for a year ? Would they extend it by just 2 (or 3) months if that was all my friend wanted ? Once buddy gets here I can sit down on his computer and try to sort out his online application issues but that probably won't help him this year. (Unless he applies for the e-Visa after he arrives here, gets the electronic approval, does a border run and then uses the e-Visa to re-enter Thailand ?) That or arrive with the 30 day stamp, extend it, then do a border run, then another extension, then another border run. Sheesh - it would be cheaper to pay an agent !

You get the impression that someone is sending someone a message. Perhaps coincidentally not long after a certain someone returned to Thailand and was very recently touted as possibly becoming an advisor to the new PM. Hard to imagine the top cop would be so openly involved in a scheme which was so easily uncovered. Maybe this was a "don't look too closely at certain people or incidents (like the recent killing of a cop at a party which seems to have just disappeared from the news)" kind of message.

Just when you think things can't get any more ludicrious than they already are. Why stop at advisor ? Why not just name him as PM now and drop the subterfuge ? I'm sure the people won't have any problem at all with that.

My BS radar is going on full alert right now. Correct me if I'm wrong but from what I've seen the ONLY notice about his death is the story from his mother. (I haven't found any news about it anywhere else. The ITV story has been reposted on a couple other sites and that's it.) And, naturally, no actual details. Just "generalities". "jumped from a building" (somewhere on Sukhumvit Soi 50) Received "phone calls and emails" - but the ITV page only shows a blurry phone screen that could be about anything. "holding a suicide note" (saying what ?). And naturally - already had a GoFundMe set up BEFORE doing the interview. (Says he died on 7 Sept. GoFundMe set up on 11 Sept. ITV article dated 21 Sept.) Too much about this just doesn't ring true. The lack of details is usually the dead give-away. Never give specific details that can be checked. If a foreigner dies in Thailand it's pretty much automatic that the body is sent for an autopsy and the Embassy is notified. It's the Embassy that contacts the next of kin and you can bet they wouldn't be doing it in Thai. Or sending emails in Thai. It wouldn't be some flunky in a hospital or police station contact the NoK in England. The ITV report that Thaiger copy/pasted named him as Darnel Kimbia and his mother as Charmain Baptiste. However the GoFundMe - set up on 11 Sept by "christopher kiambi" names him as Darnel Kiambi. (So maybe a spelling error by ITV ?) There's a post dated 8 Sept on Charmain's FB of her standing with a young man. No message but a few of the more recent posts were condolences. And the photo seems to be the exact same one from a post dated May of 2016 in which she wishes Darnell good luck on his job interview. (His LinkedIn shows he started a job as a Supervisor in Oct 2016.) And according to LinkedIn, Darnel graduated from Essex College in June 2022 and has been working as a Trainee Insolvency Administrator from Oct 2022 until (present). (He's had 7 jobs in 7 years, none of which lasted longer than 1yr-10mnths.) Coincidentally, Nov 2016 is the last time Darnel Kiambi posted on his FB page. She also posted a message on the same date in 2016 about her other son (Chris Knowles). When you go to his FB page, he hadn't posted since Sept 2022 - until he posted the GoFundMe link on 11 Sept. I've seen a couple other GoFundMe stories very similar to this in the past year. Not enough details to actually prove - or disprove - the story. A couple years ago I saw a story in a Canadian paper about how a Canadian had been "kidnapped by people dressed like police officers who took him to a basement and demanded a ransom" days after his arrival in Thailand. Naturally, they had already set-up the GoFundMe. And again, no specifics in the story. Sounded really hokey so I did some checking. Turns out the guy (who was "of African descent") had arrived in Thailand and something like 3-4 days later was busted in Bangkok for trying to sell drugs to an undercover cop in an area notorious for "African" drug dealers. Seriously - within 4 days of arriving in Thailand and he was in an area known for drug dealing, selling drugs to undercover cops ! He'd been arrested and taken to a police station and told how much his BAIL was going to be. Seems he called home trying to get the money and his friends cooked up the ransom story to cover up what he'd really been doing, set up the GoFundMe scam and then contacted an "easy to con" newspaper reporter. I got ahold of the reporter to correct some errors in her story. She didn't want to believe me at first - until she contacted Foreign Affairs and they confirmed that "a Canadian had been arrested at that time and was receiving Embassy assistance". We found out he spent 3 months in jail and was then deported. When she tried to contact his "friends" suddenly they weren't available. In another case, a "model" set up a GoFundMe because her "friend" had a motorcycle accident in Phuket and she needed to fly there to help bring her friend home. The GoFundMe showed a generic photo of a white girl in a hospital bed - with no one else in the photo and nothing that could be identified. I checked and even contacted some news outlets. No story about an attractive young woman being in an accident and hopitalized. No police report of an accident. The "model" posted some photos on her Facebook of her travels to Thailand, a "hotel" (no name or identifying features) and pics on the beach. Not one photo of her friend or the hospital or "helping her get home". Not one. And remember that dodgy older couple that claimed they'd come to Thailand for their anniversary and were "robbed and beaten at gunpoint" on their first night in Phuket ? They'd set up a GoFundMe as well. But the police did some checking and found CCTV footage (from a different hotel than those two were checked in to) which showed the man walking down the hallways checking for unlocked doors and when spooked by a hotel staff member, he jumped off a (first floor) balcony and landed in some bushes, injuring his leg. They skipped out on their hospital bill and flew out of Phuket (to Dubai apparently) before the cops got to the hospital to question them. Thailand is often used as the location for a lot of GoFundMe scams as people (in the UK and elsewhere) don't expect anyone will be able to check their stories and call them out for being scams. They all have the same basic format though. It happen "at a restaurant". It was "in the summer". They were "near the beach". Because if you list specific details, people might check them. And then the jig is up. Like this story. Not enough specifics to be able to say it's true - or false. Though it looks really, really dodgy.

No s*** right ? I remember when some of those "dating sites" first started. Most were scams from the start with the site owners also pretending to be the "hot, attractive young women who just can't seem to find the right man but if you pay for a premium membership, she'll have all the time in the world to chat with you and maybe even send you some stock photos you could find on the internet yourself if you tried" ! The site operators were posing as the "attractive" women on the site to lure people into paying for memberships. You don't dare go to a site like Thai friendly (no spaces) these days. A couple months ago I was cleaning out some old bookmarks and saw the link so I clicked on it. Pages of women that met my "profile" filters. Saw that the message box was empty so I left the site and continued with what I'd been doing. Within minutes I had a dozen emails suddenly appear in my normal email Inbox from women who had "liked" me or sent me messages. A couple hours later it was up to nearly 3 dozen emails. Almost all the messages were "are you in Pattaya now" or "available for ST only" messages. I waited for a day and went back to delete the messages on the site. It was around 5:30am. Within seconds boxes were popping up on screen showing various women were looking at my profile. I quickly closed the window and then looked at my email inbox. Sure enough, within a minute email notifications started pouring in from women who had "liked" me or sent messages. And again, pretty much all of the messages were sex offers. But those sites are not the same as the "escort" sites. The "escort" sites are digital pimps while the dating sites are more like "freelancer" bars. If Thai friendly was making the arrangements for a girl to meet you and collecting her "fee" it would be a different story.

I'm guess they are referring to the LINE app as opposed to a paid service. Could be a "lost in translation" error as well.

Possibly because foreigners are less likely to sue for defamation ? (Especially when you can throw them in jail, have a court hearing to confirm their guilt and sentence, then back to jail until they are deported and blacklisted.) Remember, this is Thailand. Even if you get caught red handed, on video and confess to a crime, if anyone says you did it, you can sue them for defaming you. (Which leads a lot of people to simply look down and away and pretend they didn't see or hear anything.) (Maybe also why media aren't allowed into court proceedings. Which is why we pretty much never hear the outcome of most trials or what sentence, if any, was handed down.) And the media is changing. I remember (decades ago now) when media like Pattaya People and others would publish photos of someone's "Face page" of their Passport with photo, name, nationality and birthdate on full display with just their passport number blacked out (usually). As well, it was common to publish their complete (very complete) home address (if applicable) right down to the postal code. Thai media used to also publish graphic images of dead people that some "Western" media sites would blur a bit.

The fish. The Liver Fluke lives in klongs and paddies and ponds. Fish eat the Fluke larvae in the water. People catch the fish and eat them (or turn them into fish paste). The larvae get into your blood stream and when they get to the liver or bile duct they attach and grow into adult Flukes. That is what gives you the cancer. (Though you could be infected with them for decades before getting cancer.) The grown Flukes deposit eggs into the liver (or bile ducts) which get flushed out with your poop. In Isaan (and other areas) people will crap in the paddies or their "septic" tank outflow is simply a pipe draining out of the tank - often at ground level. When the monsoons come, the septic tanks flood, the paddies flood, the ponds and klongs flood and all those Fluke eggs get scattered around. They start to grow and get eaten by the fish. People catch the fish and - you know the rest. It seems the lifespan of a Liver Fluke can be up to 25 years. However, if you are living in Isaan and eating raw fish paste (and anything else harvested from the klongs and ponds that isn't washed and cooked, like watercress) you are probably going to get infected many times over that time. I avoid fish here like the plague. Even cooked fish makes me wary. Same for the small raw crabs they put in the Papaya Salad. (Coincidentally, Cholera is usually spread the same way. Cholera is spread by contact with infected feces (normally). People infected with it poop (wherever) and the poop ends up in the water. People come in contact with the water (or eat stuff that was in the water) and end up getting Cholera. It's purely a coincidence that Cholera is more prevalent in countries that "use the left hand" or "a bowl of water" to clean themselves. In countries that use the "wipe it with toilet paper till it's clean" method - Cholera is (generally) not an issue.)

The West doesn't want to sell Thailand their technology now because they know it will be in Chinese hands within days. Thailand is sliding deeping into China's pocket and so long as they keep electing officials that are more concerned with becoming "unusually rich" instead of doing their job, it's only going to get worse. But no politician is going to do away with the very laws that are protecting them now, like the Defamation laws. And no politician is going to crack down on the Prosecutors and Judges that keep letting (rich) criminals get away with their crimes. So Thailand is going to end up just like Cambodia soon. And then just like Myanmar a little later. I'm actually a bit surprised that the military Junta didn't go full "Hun Sen" when they had the power. Guess they were worried they didn't have complete control of their own military and were worried their heads would be on the block if they tried. But there's always next time......... especially if China is willing to back your play and keep the West from interfering.

Waiting for news about the police rounding up all sedan-driving "kung fu" foreigners and denying their Visa extensions (or just plain deporting them) like they said they were going to do with all (foreigners) wearing 1% patches on their motorcycle vests.

I guess it's hard to appy for a royal pardon when you are still running from the law. However, in light of a recent case, it seems one just needs to come back, spend a day in jail, move to a private hospital suite and then apply. Funny how Interpol just can't seem to find this guy though !

Wow - it's like you all think that poor girls with Grade 8 educations from poor villages should automatically know all the cons of the world and be able to do detailed internet searches to detect possible scams. And think they should be automatically suspicious if a "friend" tells them of an opportunity where they could make huge money and they meet another Thai who no doubt spins them a tale as well and fills their heads with dreams of easy money. Decades ago, Nepal stopped allowing their women to leave the country to go work elsewhere. I wondered why (in Afghanistan) we could hire Nepalese men but not women. Turns out that Nepal had a problem with INDIAN men promising Nepalese women big money for working menial jobs like maids and waitresses. But of course, once they entered India their passports would be stolen by their employeers and they'd be thrown into a brothel. If they were lucky, they might be able to escape after a couple years. It was happening so often because most Nepalese women have little or no education and even less experience dealing with foreigners. The lure of making 3-5 (or more) times the money for doing the same job is pretty strong when you are living below the poverty line. The "brothel" scam has also been going on for decades here as well. A friend of mine told me she'd been offered a "modeling" job in Indonesia (back around 2008) and it supposedly paid huge money compared to what she was making. I cautioned her and showed her some recent news stories about Thai women rescued from brothels in South Korea and other places that had also been offered "modelling" jobs. Same deal - it was a "friend" who told her about the deal. Some pimp pays a Thai woman to scout out possible victims and probably pays her a fee for each one she convinces to take the job. The girls think the woman is just being nice and trying to help them out like an older sister or aunt. Even in Canada. I knew a girl (early 20s), not overly attractive. She was telling me her sister had been offered a job teaching in Japan. As soon as I saw the sister's photo I knew it was a scam. She was HOT. She may have been magazine material even (good mags, not the cheap sleazy kind). If there had been OnlyFans back then, she'd have been a star. There was no way she was being recruited to teach English in Japan. Especially not for the crazy amount of money she was apparently being offered. But it seems the idea of not even having to be a qualified teacher in order to get a very high paying job in a school in a foreign country was too good to be true. (I never did hear if she took the job.) So it's not just dumb farm girls that get lured into scams like this.

They should be investigating the corruption of whoever decided to wait this long before laying the charges, knowing full well who Khun Itthipol Khunpluem is, as well as his family, including his father who also did a runner after being sent to prison for arranging the murder of a political rival. It sounds like someone wants to "tidy things up" a bit before the new gov't takes over. And after all, if a certain someone can spend a day in jail then get a royal pardon dropping his 8 year sentence to just 1 year with the hint that even more reductions could be granted, then something as minor as approving a building permit should be a snap to sweep under a carpet.

Surprised people were even able to escape using the fire stairs. Isn't it mandatory that owners block and lock those exits to prevent people from sneaking out ? (Yes I'm being sarcastic. Because it seems in almost all of the major nightclub/hotel/condo disasters in the last 30 years, one major issue was that emergency exits were blocked or even chained and locked.) In some cases, the fire stairs and areas outside of the emergency exits were used to store old furnishings/appliances (because it was cheaper to just stash them in an unused space than to pay to have them hauled away). This must be a luxury residence if people were able to get out. Funny how "Another resident, the room's owner, received news of the fire remotely and confirmed no appliances were left plugged in). Almost as though they know exactly where the fire started and who owned that condo and how to contact him. But this is Thailand and if you've seen what passes for electrical work in some places, you'd want to make sure you knew exactly where the exits are (and if they are clear) and maybe invest in a fire extinguisher or two as well. (I was having an issue with the power in my house once. Called an "electrician". He stood - barefoot - on a metal ladder and started pulling wires off the main feed, careful to twist them out of the way a bit. (I was sure he was going to electrocute himself so I entered the emergency number on my phone and was ready to make the call in an instant if things went wrong.) He went to remove one circuit breaker and it literally fell into pieces as he pulled it out. A cheap (30 baht) made in China piece of crap. Ended up changing all of them, just to be safe, with newer (more expensive) ones. (Probably the same quality, just more expensive.)

No folding chairs were harmed in this incident.

They used to be easy. It seems the new "online visa" program can be annoying to say the least. (For some people it seems.) Last year my buddy finally gave up on trying and just got the 45 day stamp when he arrived, extended it (by 30 days), did a border run to get another 45 days, another extension (for a total of 150 days) and flew home. So he ended up actually staying as long as he had planned to anyways (about 5 months during the dead of winter) and only had to do one border run, just like he would have had to do if he'd gotten his normal tourist visa. I'm waiting to hear if he's had more success with the online program this year. I even set myself up on it so I could review the process and guide him through it (up to a certain point). There's only so much you can do before it gets tricky (as in, applying for a Visa when you are already on an Extension of a different Visa type). Obviously a 90 Day Exemption Stamp would be awesome, even if you could only extend it by 30 days before having to do a border run. That would be literally 8 months of stay for the cost of one border run and two extensions. Although the idea of having to do 3 border runs and 3 extensions in order to stay for 1 year would be too much for a lot of people who would still complain about it and use agents to do it for them anyways. Makes you wonder how people survived back in the days when they used to have to do a border run each month to get another 30 day stamp. I knew a guy (from the UK) that was living off of money he'd borrow from one guy, then the next month he'd borrow even more from someone else so he could pay the first guy back and still have enough to live on for a month before trying to borrow even more from someone else. And he would pay an agent 6,000 baht to do a border run for him once a month ! I couldn't believe it. I was between contracts and paying 2,500 to do a border run once a month (with 2 free meals even). He was living off of money he was borrowing from friends and couldn't be bothered to spend half a day, once a month, to do a border run that would have saved him 3,500 baht. I swear, if Thailand came along and offered 1 year, no hassle, Visa Exemption stamps with no 90 Day report requirement, people would STILL whine. And still hire agents to do a "once a year border run" because it's "too much hassle" to do it themselves.

Gawd - even when they announce they are considering 90 Day Visa EXEMPTION stamps to replace the 30 days stamps currently given - people are still complaining ! Waaa - I already bought a Tourist Visa. Waaa - it won't go into effect until after I've already arrived. Waaa - the gov't will lose money. All the "permanent" tourists will be rolling on the floor in glee, along with the digital nomads who'll be cancelling their "Ed" visas in droves. You can bet a lot of people on marriage/retirement extensions will cancel as well if they can get away with doing a border run once every 3 months. It certainly would cut down - immensely - on the Immigration lines around the country. And put a crimp in the Visa Agent's business, though as we already know there are a lot of people who are too lazy to do a 90 day report and certainly won't do a border run every 90 days either so the Agents will still get some business. The hilarious part will be when all those people cancel their Visa/extensions and empty their bank accounts - and then 6 months later find out the 90 day exemption stamps are reverting back to 30 days (after high season). Only takes them a couple weeks to make the decision and a few more to have it "gazetted" and it becomes fact.