cbluck58

Every government in the world has a primary responsibility to provide protection to its citizens - religious differences do not preclude this responsibility.

Any and all terrorist activity represents danger to the persons that the government are responsible to protect and they are legally and morally obliged to take action.

THAT is reality - stop the violence and then tree is a place for talk but as long as violence represents a danger to the citizens of Thailand , the government, whoever they are have no choice but to respond.

"I'm just wondering if we are about to see another spike in missionary house-calls and other forms of unwanted high-profile activity."

 

Unwanted by whom?  Christian missionaries have done a lot of good all over the world.  Maybe you should give it a try before judging.

Which has been completely outweighed by the devastating levels of damage they have down throughout history , introducing diseases that have wiped out civilisations being just one example.

Sad tale indeed and one that could have easily been avoided - I thought that this forum was for helping with visa issues , not demonstrating what smart arses some people are and how they have cleverly managed to achieve what is obvious.

However not all people receive good advice , which is obviously what has happened here and the guy is looking for some sound advice not clever twats telling him how they have got multiple re-entry permits with their visas.

Unfortunately for the OP , there is no easy solution, he has to go through the whole whole process again , get a new retirement extension and a multiple re-entry permit, but someone could have told him that in one sentence and many people did.

Why then did others feel the need to display how smart they are ?

This forum could be a good and useful source of information people , let us try to use it as such and not a place to self adore.

Regardless of all the comments thus far posted , the advice of the OP to double check is very sound, particularly in light of all the changes being made.

I am 59 with a 13 year old and a 4 year old - life is great, I am better at it than when I was younger ( have 2 older offspring from a previous relationship ).

It is not worth considering the opinions of either particular other people or society's pre-conceived concepts of what is acceptable, concentrate on what will make you happy but seriously consider first whether this is actually what you want.

Under no circumstances should you embark on this road on a whim and produce a child for the novelty value only to find that you are unprepared to take on the responsibility later and blame your age.

Any child produced must have love and security, and as long as you are prepared for the commitment , your age is of no consequence.

I am currently on a retirement visa but prior to my qualifying for this by age I have had more entry and exit stamps than I care to remember having been here full time since 1984, and never experiencing a problem getting in either by land , sea , or air.

I am convinced however that , although it is wrong to judge a book by it's cover, your appearance and demeanour have a lot to do with how the Immigration guys react to you.

Example. In the South, just across the border to Malaysia ( between the two border control points ) is a very pleasant golf course. A lot of people used to drive down there for a day out and there was never a problem with the Thai authorities who, if they saw the golf clubs in the car would just wave you through without any formalities , you played your golf and just drove back through into Thailand again.

Fairly recently however, reports have been coming back that the immigration have now started to make life very difficult for farangs and insisting on full immigration processing in and out in order to get to the course.

The persons reporting these problems almost certainly arrived at the border under the influence, were loud and probably summarily dismissive of the need to understand that getting through without any checks was actually a huge favour and not something to be automatically expected .

I am not sure but strongly suspect that the Immigration authorities reacted to this affront along the lines that we all probably would when people take the piss.

Upshot of all this is that nobody goes there any more - a good day out f***ed up for the rest of us.

Immigration officials have a job to do like everyone else and they deserve to be treated with common respect , particularly by guests in their country - it is a crying shame that the UK Immigration service do not control entry into their country in the same way......it is not difficult to play by the rules, however if you don't like the minor inconveniences involved , GO HOME.