Andrew65

Will he fly into Bangkok, or to the north where he was/is extremely popular?

Easy to say with hindsight, but what if the cops were talkng about this going to court, with the possibility of a spell in the monkey-house?????! 40k Baht, just under £1,000, I think I would take that offer.

I liked Nong Khai town, spent a few nights there many years ago.

I lived in Thailand from 1998-2018, I had also visited 3 times in 1985/86. Initially I was over at Soi Cowboy pretty much every night, but probably around 2005 I didn't really bother with it any more. I became quite cynical about that stuff. It was getting a bit too expensive, the girls weren't really into what they were doing anyway, and I didn't want to be hassled whilst drinking. In the last 10 years that I lived there I hardly ever went to such places, but a wealthy friend was still visiting nightly, as if he had first got off the plane on his first visit to Thailand 17 years earlier.

When I worked in Saudi I had a Syrian friend/colleague who lived in Beirut. He was not able to visit Syria for either 5 or 10 years because he was dodging the draft. After that he could return and pay a $10,000 fine and everything would be ok. (this was many years before the war in Syria) It would seem that the draft is unpopular wherever it is. Also, many regular soldiers do not want colleagues serving with them who obviously do not want to be there.

An old Ozzie friend worked for a Japanese oil & gas company in Bangkok. One of the reasons that they gave for pulling out of Thailand was having to deal with military men who didn't have the faintest-clue about what their business was in Thailand.

Bali wants to make a law to forbid foreign tourists from renting motorbikes because they are too pi*sed or high to be riding them????

An old British firend, pushing 90, came over to Thailand some years ago, his travel insurance cost almost as much as the holiday (90'ish and pre-existing conditions). Another old Scottish friend had contracted meiningitis soon after arriving in Thailand. The insurance paid the 2 million Baht (something like that), but as Ron said, any subsequent trip would have just been prohibitively expensive.

I believe that Hanoi, Vn is going to ban motorbikes altogether at some stage (crossing the road in Saigon (HCMC) is certainly a surreal experience!).

Here's a thought. I believe that when we stay overnight at a hotel in Thailand, the hotel is obliged by law to take our passport details, that will, or can be, handed to the immigration Dept or is it the Land Dept? The same thing would apply at a hospital, but that probably doesn't explain the hanging on to the passport.

It might be to do with where they want to check someone's passport because they might need their visa extending. Something they did for an old American friend many years ago at Bumrungrad. Then again, it might be to prevent someone from "doing a runner" when they owe them lots of money?

When I worked on a temporary 457 visa in Australia many years ago it had to be shown that I had health insurance with the application.

A man of German/Jewish origin accused of war crimes????

Many years ago an old friend had a colectomy (bag and subsequent removal of bag) at Bumrungrad, I believe the bill was £30k-£40k.

OK, let me explain what I mean. When we're in Bangkok, Patong etc, in up-scale eateries & bars, there will be many very wealthy Thais, for whom 100k Baht on a night out would be manageable, several bottles of champers, 'hostesses', super-expensive meals (you get the picture!?)???? However, like just about every Thai lady that I spoke to in Bangkok, whether they're bar-girls, hotel receptionists, hairdressers (or barbers), taxi drivers etc etc, they almost invariably come from the poorest parts of Thailand like Isaan etc. For them 10k baht would be their monthly salary, where for people like us farang, 10-15 times that is what we might reasonably earn where we come from (and that might only put us at middle-income). A lot to do with 'perspective'?

That was true 10-15 years ago, but a 3 year overstay would now probably be a blacklist of 1, 3, or 5 years? (No more smiles, no more Land of Smile????). Another thing being that in recent years they're finger-printing people arriving, so just going home and getting a new passport might not work any more?

Isn't the current 'deal' that the maximum fine for overstay is 20,000, which once thrown in the monkey-house defrays at a rate of 200 Baht per day? 100 days in pokey, and then deported.

If Thailand were like the UK we could use 'uman rights legislation to stay in the Land of Smile for the rest of our lives, and at least partly at public expense!????

In a country where the minimum monthly wage is about that...it is.????

When my parents married (in England) in 1956 it was 21. My dad was 20 at the time and had to get written permission to get married from my grandmother????

Look at it this way. In Thailand the minimum wage is around 350 (?) Baht per day. In the UK it's £11.XX per hour, so (I reckon) we should always think of money in those proportions. I often hear 'English teachers' in Thailand reacting with outrage at the wages on offer, when they haven't considered what I just mentioned. That, and the fact that real teachers (ie with a teaching degree) can earn considerably more.

Not true, the 'age of majority' is 18 in the UK.

The most famous TS in Britain had the op in 1960.

It kinda makes sense: 1. The financial cost of the op. 2. The worry that whatever they end up with might not 'function'. 3. Not wanting to go under the knife anyway (especially not down there!☹️).

Not sure about their culture, but I reckon that in recent years very many Indian and Chinese people have started travelling overseas, when it's something that they've never really done before. They're not experienced overseas travellers.