clokwise

She has a semi-urgent visa renewal application in process with them now. I told her what I read here about the shut down. She later called them to confirm - on her own volition. Fancy that - a Thai woman who can think for herself and doesn't need to be told what to do!! As for me, I was simply relaying information.

Regardless of these sensational stories in the media about the dangers of cannabis, I do believe the Thai govt missed a terrific opportunity to regulate and tax the growers and vendors. Look at how it works in the USA, where you can only purchase weed legally from a registered marijuana vendor, and can only purchase products grown under license. Often the products come with a QR code link to an independent assay of that particular batch. This provides greater assurance of the quality of the product in terms of THC levels as well as knowledge of the strain and whether any pesticides or chemicals were used in the growing process. Finally, the state adds ~20% tax on all cannabis sales, providing pretty decent revenue. Of course regulations vary from state to state, so that example is just a generalization. But what we have in Thailand is unknown vendors offering mystery product (strain unknown, THC levels uncertain, potentially grown with pesticides), sold on the street without any tax revenue whatsoever. I'm the biggest stoner I know, but now that it's legal I'm still not gonna buy from some rando dealer. I'd much rather pay 20% tax if it means I can be assured the product I'm ingesting is safe.

FWIW, I did the online test. It's stupid easy. First they make you watch a one hour video and it has to be in the foreground - you can't open another tab - and they will pause periodically and ask you a question (unrelated to the video) to ensure you are still in the room and paying attention. Once you have "watched" the video, the exam comes up. It's a total of three random multiple-choice driving questions, unrelated to the video. In my case it randomly asked the same question twice! Anyhow, you only need to answer two out of the three questions correctly to pass. If you have any doubt about your answer, just type the exact text of the question into google and the answer will come up. Once you "pass" the exam you get a QR code to show when you do the license application. Then, when I was asked for the QR code, the examiner just glanced at it, did not scan it, and that was that. Got my license renewed.

I'm sure your information is 100% accurate, however, FYI, my Thai wife just called the CM visa department and paraphrased your post to them, they claimed they are not aware of any such staff shortage at the CM Embassy.

Any word on whether this affects Visa issuance for Thais as well? My wife literally just today sent in her passport to get a new visa ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Yup, same here.

There's actually another dead mall some people have overlooked, which was constructed, tenants booked, but never even opened, that big yellow one between CBP and Big C on the superhighway.

I didn't want to post another of those "Where can I find X" posts, but I'm genuinely stumped. I need to find a source of bacteriostatic water in Chiang Mai. It's commonly used in by doctors or hospitals to reconstitute medicines. It's not the same as sterile water. Hoping this is obvious to someone here because every pharmacy I've visited so far has no idea what this is, let alone stocks it. Can't find it for sale locally online either apart from a very suss body-building website. Mods... I'd have posted this in the Health forum but it's pretty dead there, and I would prefer to find a source in Chiang Mai, although online is acceptable if nothing locally.