Tom Parkinson

I went to Chaeng Watthana on Tuesday to get a one-year extension of my 90-day non-immigrant retirement visa.  Getting my bank letter from Kasikornbank proved to be a major circus lasting four hours (and travels between three branch offices between Muang Thong Thani and Phrom Phong).  After a taxi ride involving several wrong turns, I finally arrived at CW, made copies as needed, and got to the queue counter at 3:31 -- only to find out that the queue counter (as of September 1) now closes at 3:30.  

Having spent the whole day in pursuit of the extension -- and having missed the cut-off time by such a slim margin -- I was not going to give up that easily.  So I waited until the last queue number had been served and then pleaded with an immigration officer and clerk to serve me.   After I deflected their initial salvos of "cannot be done without queue number" and "bank letter cannot be accepted without the listed balance of each separate account", I guess they figured the path of least resistance was simply to serve me.  Thankfully, I got my extension at 4:17 pm.  Thank you, Immigration!

But I thought I would note the changed timing of the queue counter so as to save anyone else potential inconvenience (and frustration).

Just curious... What happens to you as a suspect if you refuse to take part in a "reenactment"?  Can you say, "I am innocent. What you are asking me to do is a fiction."?

Perhaps this is just part of routine police training.  Start by shaking down pensioners playing dominos, move on to traffic offences, and finally graduate by taking brown envelopes from bars and massage parlours. 

I'm just curious...  Every definition of "gambling" I could find equates gambling to betting or wagering on an uncertain outcome.  All of the games mentioned in this thread involve uncertain outcomes.  So one COULD gamble on them.  But gambling requires betting or wagering (and the implied passing of money based on those wagers).  It might be reasonable to postulate that gambling was occurring in this instance.  But was there any mention of evidence that they were actually gambling?  Simply keeping score would not constitute such evidence.  Or is evidence not required for conviction in such cases?  Is playing games of chance assumed to constitute per se evidence of gambling?  

I'm an American. I came in on a 30-day visa exempt and had absolutely no problem getting a 90-day non-immigrant ("O") visa in BKK. I'm planning on getting the 1-year extension in about 10 days.  

I don't have specific suggestions... particularly as I prefer the older apartments with larger, more open layouts. But this is an invaluable resource for anyone looking in the Sukhumvit area...  http://www.kobayashi.co.th/Thaigo/sukhumvit/sukhumvit.htm

I agree with other posters that there is no absolute limit. For seven years I worked in Hong Kong and had clients all over the region. I used Bangkok as a sort of home base. I flew in and out routinely on visa exempt status. I remember flying in 37 separate times one year (2012 or 2013).

i think it is true that they are scrutinising such behaviour more closely. Nonetheless, I have not had any real problems. I noticed that they would spend a lot more time leafing through and looking at all my entries. One officer did ask me why I came to BKK so often. I said, "My wife lives here; I come to see her."  No further questions. 

2 hours ago, bark said:

Soi 10 , I didn't like living there. Too many condos and hotels. Very busy with cars, hard to walk. ( My opinion).

I agree with On Nut. Lots there, cheaper. I lived in a 95 sqm. for 14,000 bt. Five year old building. Lots of cute girls.

Warning. When you think you have found the right place. Spend time in the area. Rent hotel near by, and go to the location,

different times of the day. Good luck.

Bark, I've never spent any time in On Nut.  But I agree that soi 10 is not the easiest soi to walk.  How do you get around On Nut?  It didn't seem to me that there was a lot within easy walking distance of the BTS.  It looks more like a place that you can really only navigate with a car.

I live in BKK, but worked (until recently) in Hong Kong. Over the last seven years, I have flown into Thailand >200 times on 30-day visa exempt status. I tend to book my round trips with a BKK origin, as these are generally less expensive. So I often do not have a ticket out of Thailand when I enter.

The airlines sometimes hassle me when I check in. They point out that I am required to have a return ticket out of Thailand before I enter. Having done this many times, I have learned the following...

The airline is responsible for making sure that you have a return ticket. But they (or, at least, Cathay and Thai) have a form you can sign that absolves them of any responsibility. Basically, the form says that if you are stopped by immigration, you will buy a return ticket on the spot. I've signed 10-15 such forms over the years. Never once has Thai immigration raised a whimper.

Good luck!

40-50 years ago in the US, the situation was similar. Doctors were treated as gods. My brother died from a failed kidney transplant. He rejected the kidney, but the surgeon said my brother was too weak to survive the removal of the kidney. So he just left it there. It got infected. The infection spread and my brother died.

My father and I considered initiating a malpractice suit. A doctor friend advised against it. He said there would be no way to prove the case except by getting a doctor or two to testify against the surgeon... and he said that was highly unlikely, since the medical profession at the time was a close-knit fraternity. Doctors did not turn against their own.

I wish this man and his wife good luck, but I suspect they are p*ssing into the wind.

My strategy of dealing with bad/spoiled food is: (1) get the manager to agree that it is bad: (2) if the manager agrees (most of the time), then I ask for a suitable replacement; (3) if the manager says it looks fine, then I request that he take a large bite and tell me how it tastes.

I've actually never had a problem getting a replacement after initiating step #3...

OP: I am about to go to get a SETV in Laos, but I have noticed I only have one full page free, the back one is marked as not being acceptable for visas.

I had the same issue last fall. I booked a weekend in Vientiane with my wife on short notice. I had completely filled my passport (including two 28-page extensions) and had only a few scattered openings for stamps -- no whole pages for visas, and I had no time to renew my passport. I went through the visa on arrival line. The agent ascertained that I had no space for a visa. He told me to wait until everyone else was processed. He then made up a separate six-page insertable "booklet" with my picture and visa. It was ad hoc -- and slowed the immigration process way down -- but at least I didn't get turned away!

Does anyone know if the junior traffic officer who gave her the parking ticket and posted the video has been duly reprimanded and punished? I can only presume it's now time to shoot the messenger...

I'm just wondering... We all know that one can be charged with defamation in Thailand for making public information that is damaging to someone's reputation, even if the information made public is absolutely true.

So does Chidchanok now have a valid defamation case against Piyawat Supanwong, who took and posted the video?

Jeez... Exactly what "prostitute" services were being procured for 400 baht?

Methinks they (the RTP) doth protest too much!

Hasn't 13th until 26th been removed from that account?

Just curious... Has anyone checked the "Waybackmachine" for any of these deleted items?

I believe that A grade Thai blokes marry A grade Thai girls. But the A grade girls are not always geniuses, they however come from the correct families and have the right looks. I cant remember seeing or knowing any foreigner marrying an A grade Thai girl. That leaves us with the lower graded girls, thats devided between the rest of the Thai guys and the foreigners.

Princess Ubolratana went to MIT, got a BS in mathematics and a Masters at UCLA. I would call her A grade. She married Peter Jensen, an American.

This sums up - in a nutshell - why the Thai police are considered by many to be totally corrupted

I also want to add that I asked my Thai family if this news story had featured on Thai language TV news reports.

They had not seen any news reports about this, (although maybe the cartoon channels don't run news stories...)

This is the interesting aspect of this case. All of us here on TV are aghast that the police chief could be so brazen as to state publicly that he is above the law and then instruct his subordinates to conduct training of these volunteer officers so that they will not repeat the "mistake" of asking a senior officer to take a breathalyzer again. We cannot fathom how the police chief could say this and not get his head knocked off by the PM.

But the case doesn't make the Thai news. Why? I presume because it's not news... A police chief announces that he's above the law. All Thai people know this already. Moreover, they probably accept that this is the natural order of things. So why would this qualify as news-worthy?

Oh, really... Where's the fun in having power if you can't abuse it!

If there are any sceptics out there I suggest watching the film 'Z.'

Do you have any more info on this film?

Check... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z_(1969_film)

Cheers, TP

Not sure about 2b. I hope that's wrong. If the bodies were cleaned before sending to their home country, then that's despicable. However, after observing all the other screw-ups in this case, it wouldn't surprise me.

What makes you think thoroughly cleaning the bodies was a screw-up? Wouldn't that be essential in a cover-up?

If I were a political enemy of Gen. Prayut, I would be sitting on the sidelines salivating, in hopes that he would sign the purchase order... What a political victory for the opposition that would be!

But if they do buy them, I do hope that buy some spare parts and a maintenance contract. I'd hate to see them have to cannibalize two of the subs within five years so they could keep the third running. But then, the Navy must certainly be more competent than the SRT...

Did I miss something? This General Tawatchai says that some unnamed father claims a "foreign organization" brainwashed his son over the course of two evenings... Really?

Why can he not say which of the 13 sons has been brainwashed? Why can we not name this subversive foreign organization? And why can the father not speak for himself? What evidence is there that there's any shred of truth to this story whatsoever?

I'm sorry... I'm going to wait for a real news story before I post again...

Sorry, but there's nothing anyone can say that will convince me that these two "midgets" committed those murders.

Sorry, but there's nothing anyone can say that will convince me that these two strong physical laborers did not commit those murders.

Sorry, but there's nothing anyone can say that will convince me that anyone on TV could possibly have evidence one way or the other. Yes, you can choose to interpret the meager evidence in one direction or another, but at least from what I've seen discussed, there is not obviously solid evidence of anything. But maybe you folks are hiding something from me...