hawker9000

Pickpockets are actually the far more likely and prevalent threat, and I think you're all going to be largely, no, entirely, on your own with them.

8 hours ago, DefaultName said:

I think you can only get a 7 day extension on a visa exempt entry.  I could be wrong, but I don't think so, best check as he may have to do a visa run..

Absolutely, totally wrong.  This post is misinformational and should be deleted before it touches off a flurry of wasted response.  (It was never an "extension" in the first place, didn't have anything specific to do with visa exempt entries in the 2nd place, and really is essentially off-topic overall.)

11 hours ago, Nurseynutcase said:

I would add a proviso to universal healthcare.

 

I worked in the NHS in the Uk and saw how was abused by so many, so often.  So much so that the system is creaking at the seams.

 

Perhaps exclude some procedures and lifestyle drugs from the list of free drugs - if that is what is being planned.

 

Such a universal system here in Thailand needs to be VERY carefully managed and implemented, with clear guidelines on what treatment/procedures will be provided and what will not be provided

What's actually "creaking at the seams" is the global population, not some whack-a-mole healthcare system.  In not so many years you'll all be asking how to even FEED everyone, let alone provide healthcare for them.   (Starvation and scarcity of clean water are actually already at crisis proportions in some parts of the world.)

"Careful management" of healthcare systems (i.e., more oversight, more regulation, more reporting, more red tape) will only lead to more & more bureaucratization, ever increasing costs & delays, and ever decreasing efficiencies & privacy.  Most doctors already march to the beat of somebody's interests other than the patient's.  And those who were already sacrificing to pay through the nose for what they felt was quality healthcare will watch helplessly as it degrades to mediocre at best ... while its cost keeps climbing.   ...The epically sad story of the decline of American public education all over again   Amazing how many slow learners just don't get what happens to just about everything big government sticks its "progressive" nose and grasping, sticky fingers into.  But snowflakes love that stuff.

On ‎12‎/‎24‎/‎2017 at 5:26 AM, thaibeachlovers said:

No, I expect a good government to "manage" land prone to fires all the time. California has lots of money, they should spend some on that.

 

If they don't, expect a repeat of same till they do start managing the land.  All the scrub will have grown back in a few years.

Well then you're expecting the ridiculous.  The State of California is not just a "big lawn" that can be mowed every once in awhile.   And a good chunk of it is actually federal land.  Yes, there will be repeats and the scrub DOES grow back when the rains come again.  That's what scrubland is.  The threat is well understood, the peak risk periods and factors are equally well understood, and the state and local governments are constantly modernizing and upgrading, at considerable cost to taxpayers incidentally, but your citing lack of "land management" is just ignorant and delusional, when talking about something the size of that particular state anyway.  And while we're on the subject, when property is destroyed on such a large scale, governments lose property and other tax revenue, and in tax-happy states like California that means there's more than enough incentive for government to avoid and minimize that destruction.  You really need to learn a little more about your subject before you start going off.

6 hours ago, Pinot said:

I had an old style $100 bill in perfect condition that no bank would exchange, just a heads up. 

Maybe you should've been looking for a collector instead of a money changer... 

18 hours ago, Dante99 said:

It is not always that the bank did not want them.  It can be because the teller did not want to take a chance that her boss would not want them and force her to take them with a deduction in her pay.  But you are correct that marked or torn money is not easy to exchange.

 

It can be weird.  A well known much used Singapore money changer put some USD thru his machine and 3 were kicked out.  He said he could not accept them but could not tell me why.  The next shop put them thru their machine and all were accepted.

 

Merry Christmas to you too.

Just out of curiosity, I wonder what would have happened if the first money changer had run them through again.

In the states where vending machines will accept bills as well as coins, it's not at all uncommon to have a dollar bill kicked out, and then sometimes accepted on a 2nd or 3rd pass, or by another vending machine.  Even relatively fresh, untorn, un-dog-eared bills.  For employees working those machines in Thailand, I'm sure they're simply following basic instructions to just let the machine do the thinking, no ifs, ands, or buts.

8 hours ago, welovethailand said:

Education starts in the schools

 

NO!!!!!   It STARTS at HOME!   I knew what the term "defensive driving" meant, along with the importance & priority of pedestrians, etc.,  before I ever set foot in a drivers ed class.   Schools are an important place for learning courtesy, consideration and respect for the law to be sure. But bad habits and total disregard for others are things learned before a child gets to the first grade from watching parents and elders, and then not likely to be easily undone.

22 minutes ago, farcanell said:

Phuket, whos west coast is covered in beaches for the sun seeking tourists..... lmao.... how’s it going sorting out the life guard situation, to help protect beach users from danger

 

don worry... no ploblem... no beach users, we fine them for smoking so they no come ?

"no beach users, we fine them for smoking so they no come "

Absolute rubbish.   'Just the opposite in fact, IF it's enforced on a lasting basis.

On ‎12‎/‎14‎/‎2017 at 11:30 AM, hobz said:

the war on drugs has been about going after the producers and dealers. but it doesn't work. its too difficult and expensive and u catch one cartel and it results in nothing but more misery as the body count and blood bath that ensues in the power vacuum and finally one or two new cartels replace the previous one.

sad but true.

The problem is actually one of corruption in Mexico.  It's simply (and obviously) already a failed state, and THAT's why the situation with the cartels is what it is.  In many parts of the country no one dares lay a finger on them, and they buy whatever and whoever they want.  And who they can't buy, they simply kill.  And then Latino gangs like MS-13 bring all this into the U.S...   There's a neighborhood in Washington, D.C., less than 7 miles from the White House, under the thumb of MS-13.  Homeowners there actually paying protection money.

The ONLY way to get a handle on this is to start with and get very tough on the users.  It's DEMAND that keeps all this going.  I wouldn't build any more jails for them: I'd build work camps instead, and I'm talking hard labor!  (Building the border wall, for example...)  And the death penalty needs to be applied to the chiefs and traffickers, not just those on whom police might be able to pin a murder wrap.  Those chiefs and higher-ups go to prison and end up controlling their gangs and ordering hits from THERE, so it does little good to just incarcerate them.  Even less good to deport them - 'almost nothing (until a wall gets built, that is...) to stop them from coming back.  And they do precisely that.  And members of city councils in cities declaring themselves "sanctuary cities" need to be indicted on conspiracy charges; they're using public office to openly aid and abet illegal activity and known criminals by refusing to cooperate with federal authorities.  Get a few of them behind bars where they belong, along with members of the judiciary playing along with this, and the tide will turn.

Snowflakes have convinced their drones that all this is impractical, inhumane, racist and politically incorrect (OMG! - the worst cut of all!).  With the exception of the PC-part (which is after all whatever they say it is...) , it's none of that.  It just takes the public will to solve the problem at hand with the means at hand. 

3 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Given that fires are a normal event, has the Californian government "managed" the scrubland with the purpose of limiting the effect of fires ie have they been creating firebreaks, mandating local councils institute anti fire measures etc etc etc?

I don't think you quite grasp the scope and nature of the problem.  You're not going to firebreak a state the size of California.   The state had a "wet" winter last year which created a lot of scrub vegetation.  Then this fall CA did not have the usual rains starting in OCT.  So all that scrub vegetation dried out and became nothing but fuel.  And THEN there were some relatively intense Santa Anna's (very dry winds which blow in from the east where the desert is), first affecting LA and later moving south to San Diego.  Under these conditions it takes very little to touch off a wildfire, and they spread VERY quickly.  As long as the dry, gusty winds and very low humidity continue, it's difficult for firemen to  contain it because embers are picked up by the winds and carried ahead of the existing fire for miles.  And a single ember can ignite another flare-up or get up under the eves of a home and into an attic and ignite the house.   There ARE things homeowners can and should do to make their homes more "defensible", but that's not where these fires start, and if a big one comes your way, there's nothing much to do but evacuate. (Some homeowners do remain behind refusing to evacuate, but that's almost always ill-advised & dangerous and an extra burden on firefighters & police.)

I just happened to be watching the news at noontime when the "Lilac" fire started; fire trucks were there literally within minutes (the first one took less than 3 minutes - it started right next to a major interstate/state-route interchange and so was reported immediately).  But even so, with fire trucks on scene and aerial drops called it, in just ONE hour it went from 17 acres, to 50 acres, to 150 acres, to 450 acres.   By early evening they were saying 3500 acres and it went to 4100 acres before midnight.  For awhile, they were thinking it wouldn't stop until it got to the Pacific Ocean.  The Santa Anna let up though, and they were able to get a handle on it.  And THAT fire was a pinprick compared to some of the fires up in LA, such as the Thomas Fire which is @ more than a quarter MILLION acres at the moment, started Dec 4th, and firefighters expect to still be fighting it come January.

The snowflakes running the CA legislature are pandering morons to be sure, but they can't be blamed for this.  The problem in this case is NOT one of lack of awareness, lack of resources, lack of preplanning & preparation, or bureaucratic interference & delay.  And everyone in Southern California was well aware of this year's threat months ago and watching for it.   Even Navy & USMC helos were participating in the airdrops.

19 hours ago, TKDfella said:

I wonder that under the present circumstances NK should or even needs to make a statement?????

'Always a few Pyongyang thug-loving sympathizer-twits standing by to support it and cheer. 

20 hours ago, farcanell said:

Yes I remember them..... government sponsored safety initiatives to increase public safety and highlight dangers.

 

that’s what good governance does.... protects the people. Bad governance... not so much

 

ironically, that’s what we want... good governance and protection, but when it happens, it’s labelled as a nanny state

 

anyone here (posting), who would trot out the “then go home blah blah” mantra.... think first about how many times you (personally) have critised police inaction, government corruption, repetitive flooding, raw sewage on the beach etc etc.... things that good governance would provide... that a nanny state provides.

 

no... I don’t want to live in a nanny state.... but maybe a big sister state would be nice....

Oh!  The nanny states have conquered cybercrime, have they?  No phone scams in the nanny states either? 

What rubbish.  Nanny states are so busy running one big institutionalized scam they call "government" themselves ("just let us grab most of your hard-earned wages and we'll take care of every li'l ol' thing..."), they don't have any better hand on these criminals than any other country.

Nanny states are the UN-solution to this problem.  They'll actually PAY some witless drone a union-scale salary just to answer the phone and suggest you call some other union-scale witless drone (rinse & repeat)...

16 hours ago, sahibji said:

ladies and gentlemen give the man a chance. let us hear what action plan he has to tackle rouges who beat up tourists, whatever, the circumstances may be.

LOL.  "Give the man a chance."   Sure, like any of us have a vote.  I honestly don't get your point.  Do we have any choice?

What's going on here is called "comment", and most of it is based on past experience with maybe a little knowledge of the local "culture" mixed in.  If you want to be a cheerleader, then go ahead and enjoy the pompoms while ye may...   The rest of us are entitled to our opinions and are not going to get our hopes up, just as experience teaches.   If anything actually changes, we'll be very pleasantly surprised.   So far - just the usual grand proclamations...

8 hours ago, wakeupplease said:

For god sake don't moan at the Chinese as they are all Thailand have left to rip off.

'Talk about trying to squeeze blood out of a rock...

13 hours ago, natway09 said:

Hiring a bike without a bike licence being asked for should be  an offence.

If the business renting the bike cannot show you current comprehensive  insurance cover

Move on , on foot

I agree with your main idea.  Foreigners, esp. tourists, should definitely NOT be allowed to rent a motorbike unless they have a license - Thai or from home WITH a motorcycle endorsement on it - AND obtain insurance which they can show includes equal coverage for motorbike operation. CONFISCATE bikes being operated by foreigners that don't have this and revoke the business permits or licenses of the rental outfits. Start actually confiscating a few bikes and the rental guys will get the picture. 

10 hours ago, Coconutman said:

You cant blame the cop... they dont get paid enough.

Give me a badge a gun and road block cones i would do it too

Oh, they're forced into police work then?   I didn't know that.

19 hours ago, Dave67 said:

Spoiled little Mummies boy with his little rich kid bird, showing the world what rebels they are by scribbling on a public phone, 

Bad parenting and that sense of entitlement are unfortunately and by no means limited to American rich kids.   They get it in the schools and from all directions thanks to the snowflake nanny state.  As an American I find their behavior embarrassing, but if they'd have been fined 10x that much, made to clean it up while wearing signs around their necks, or even spent a night in the slammer I wouldn't have thought it undeserved.   Defacing public (or someone else's) property in one's own country is bad enough, but as a guest in another country it's a deportable & blacklisting offense as far as I'm concerned.

11 hours ago, Jedsada3 said:

I never liked to use Microsoft IE.

And Chrome... it shouldn't be Google everywhere, should it be?

 

I was a fan of Mozilla Firefox from their beginning until a few weeks ago.

When they updated their browser to Quantum a lot of add-ons didn't work anymore and the one still working didn't have the same functions as their old versions (for example : "Clippings" Grrrr!).
So I decided to look for something fast, light, open source and where the old addons would work as they used to do.
I found "Waterfox" and since then I enjoy again every minute on the net.

Waterfox is based on Firefox and IMO is faster and lighter than its "big brother". The old add-ons are working as they used to work on FF56 and all the features of FF are present.

 

 

 

Waterfox was being panned early last year (2016) by some, who alleged very slow loading & some freezing.  Presumably that's ancient history by now.  "Heavy users" seem to benefit more from the speed advantage than light users.

12 minutes ago, gk10002000 said:

As i recall it was like 1800baht service fee for a visa agent to do a simple extension.  Pay them, and of course the extension fee and stop worrying.  Since you seem to be asking about office hours and location, I assume you can get around a little bit.  Let the visa people do it and not worry about opening closing, standing in line, not having the correct documents, photo size/quality etc. 

I thought it was illegal to have an "agent" obtain such things from Immigration for you.

13 hours ago, mrwebb8825 said:

Most of this discussion does not address the fact that one must have a country before one can have a capital. 

Precisely the attitude that has always stood in the way of the "Peace Process".  The Arab world, using Palestinians as their pretext, but whose true agenda has always been refusal to ever recognize Israel as a Jewish state, simply wants to perpetuate anti-Semitism and Jew-hating in the world and wants the Jews gone.  Out, done, gone, period.  Pointy-headed academics and pandering "diplomats" struggle to deny this, but every once in awhile someone like you comes along and unzips their fly and we get an ugly glimpse of what's really going on.  Israel of course is well aware of it, and is simply and obviously not going to submit to another round of elimination, persecution, and extermination which is the subtitle to nearly everything "Palestinian".

Thank-you mrwebb for helping put the lie to the usual Jew-hating propaganda.  Enjoy your coffee.

Am totally uninformed about this and have never had any such personal experience (i.e., with being hospitalized or otherwise incapacitated and having permission to stay about to expire), but over the years I thought I'd seen mention now and then of being able to get some sort of doctor's written statement, substantiating medical condition and inability to travel, for which Immigration then has some sort of process. 

3 hours ago, wump said:

To anyone who still doesn't believe the system exists: Have a closer look at your plane ticket. For the past 12+ months it would include some "Advance passenger screening fee" or something like that (under 'taxes and fees'). I think it's 30 Baht.

...which proves they collect a fee.  And that is what the webpage says.  LOL   Yeah, who can argue with that?

On ‎12‎/‎19‎/‎2017 at 7:49 PM, Mattd said:

All airlines that fly in to Thailand must comply.

Source please.

57 minutes ago, twig said:

Unless one has a high tolerance for bad customer service and discomfort, i think they all bad, but this one and the mini vans are worse than the blue and white Roong Reuang buses, which the dips**ts who operate them call "Deluxe".

 

I only take these blue and white "Deluxe" jalopies:

- Seats, like a Chinese sitting torture. Some not even attached to the floor of the bus. The cup holder will even disassemble itself if you brush by it the wrong way.

- On older ones, seat number labeling was done by retards, where you have to look on the back of the seat to know what the number is, which creates confusion among visitors on almost every trip I've been on. Understandable - the service has only been in operation what, a decade or two?!

- Even the newer refurbished ones need new shocks and drivetrain maintenance, because it feels like you are riding a mechanical bull back in the Lone Star, with a vibrator stuck up your (!) FOR 2 FREAKING HOURS PLUS!

- The AC ducts are filled with mold. I only tolerate them well if i wear a dust mask.

- On most buses, the AC outlets can't be shut off. Your best option is to try to aim them so they blow on someone else.

- Severe case of "we get paid the same no matter what" and "don't let the door hit you in the (!) on the way out" among all personnel - from cashiers to the drivers.

- The paint job that looks like it was done with a hand roller is hilarious, whenever i see it, but no skin off my nose.

 

From Don Mueang, go to Mo Chit bus terminal instead of Ekkamai. Unless you know exactly where the bus is though, don't expect to find it as easily as Ekkamai.

Look for other folks pointing which way to go, because they see farangs lost looking for the blue and white circus and torture service all the time.

 

Often same at Suvarbabooni airport: the driver gets paid whether you find the bus or not. So, unless you catch him coming in to call the passengers, he just nonchalantly strolls near his bus, which he parks way out the door by the ticket desk, all the way to the left to the end of the bus platform.

 

Best deal i have from a car driver is 1200. So, it's way more expensive than these clown shows called "Deluxe" bus service Bangkok-Pattaya.

Someone could make a fortune offering something priced in between.

"Unless one has a high tolerance for bad customer service and discomfort, i think they all bad, but this one and the mini vans are worse than the blue and white Roong Reuang buses, which the dips**ts who operate them call "Deluxe". "

Total and unmitigated BS.  Have used Bell Travel Service frequently.  They run on time, the busses AND minivans are in good material condition and clean, and the personnel conduct themselves professionally.  My only comment might be that the seats are made for Thai-size people, and if you happen to end up seated next to a fatty or someone who hasn't washed, the trip can be something of an ordeal (but that's not exactly Bell's fault and just as likely to happen on one of the public busses if full).  Also they generally do their best to fill the minivans, but those are only the last/first segments of the pick-up/drop-off links, so we're just talking about a few minutes..

54 minutes ago, Get Real said:

Unfortunately, there is to many that like the booze and sex industry. That´s what the city is buildt on. Very sad, indeed!

You're going to wear yourself out with your moralizing.  Pattaya was there, doing what it does, long before the self-righteous do-gooders came along or even took any notice.  If you want pure & wholesome and want to preach, join a church, and live & let live.   But as for Pattaya, nobody says you have to so much as set one foot in the place.