sandyf

Money gets wasted on delusional schemes even before the corruption gets a look in. Nearly £900,000 of taxpayers’ money was spent on a study commissioned by Boris Johnson that found it would be too expensive to build a bridge or tunnel between Scotland and Northern Ireland. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/jan/20/research-into-johnsons-planned-irish-sea-bridge-cost-taxpayers-900000

Did you get an email from them? I got one immediately saying the information had been submitted successfully, and then approval shortly after.

You should have said Chonburi city or Muang Chonburi, unlikely anyone is going to recognise the district name, I didn't and been here 15 years. You are wrong to say no one speaks English, several do, you just didn't come across one. A few years back, before they rebuilt it, I was in the queue waiting for the doors to open after lunch. A guy in front of me was going for an IDP and as soon as the doors opened he shot up the stairs. My queue hadn't moved and 10 minutes later he was back down again. I asked if he had run into problems, No he said very easy, flashed his brand new IDP and disappeared. The driving licence bureaucracy increased after the rebuild and looks like the IDP has as well.

Took 58 minutes to be approved, nothing to complain about.

Neither have I in 15 years, so how can it be described as harassment. I came back in Aug on new E-visa, wanted to change renewal date, did extension in Nov and a few minutes ago did first 90 days since returning. First time since they revamped the online, not a problem and a bit easier than before.

To certain extent, but a bit more involved than that. I have just done a Laos e-visa and that was very easy but Laos only do a tourist e-visa for 30 days, no other e-visa. It is a couple of years since I did the one for Vietnam but think that was the same. Thailand has a variety of visas available on the e-visa platform which has resulted in the tourist visas picking up some of the steps used in the other types, but you do get a visa for a much longer period.

That is not quite true, the word "only" should have been "normally". A UK national living and working in France can quite legitimately obtain an E-visa for Thailand from the London Embassy. If you have permission to remain in a foreign country for 6 months you can apply to your own embassy.

Nothing more than media hype, ITV trying to take the heat away from the UK, you don't need covid there to die. When most people hear that phrase “humanitarian crisis”, they think “abroad”, “somewhere far away”, and certainly not in Britain. But how else to describe the tens of thousands of bodies avoidably piling up in the nation’s mortuaries? One funeral home worker says that they’ve run out of spaces for the deceased and “are having to keep some encoffined in office rooms”; another hospital porter reports that the mortuary has been near capacity for two weeks. This national issue should be splashed on every front page and leading every bulletin. It isn’t: why? https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jan/15/britain-excess-death-rate-covid-nhs-cost-of-living

So with all that time in hotels you think you were never tracked or traced, your words? "Heaven thanks I was never harassed with this track and trace in Khon Kaen over the years."

Quite, why I went for the TP Link MR600.

You mean first personal submission, unless of course you mean in all the domestic travel you never stayed in a hotel. I lived here for the first 6 years on ME non O. In 2014 following a short trip to KL I submitted my passport for renewal but unfortunately the UK in it's wisdom had just moved passports from FCO to HO. After a couple of months when permission to stay was getting close to end I had to apply for extension to get further 30 days, passport came back 3 days before that ran out. Following year I changed to retirement extension and TM30 came up, had the same one in passport since.

Friend of mine had the Austin Healy frog eye sprout.

The TM30 in my passport is dated 2015, been out of the country more times than I can remember. A lot depends on the office.

I think this is the crux of it. An IO can look at historical info and make an assessment, I use the word loosely. Trying to program that would probably cause more problems than it is worth.

I suspect the address on the 90 day online submission has to tie up with the last TM30. If not you may need to do the 90 day in person. Last time I went to UK I came back on a new visa. I didn't need to do a TM30 for the extension but had to do the first 90 day in person. Quite straightforward but couldn't be done online. Who knows what and how cross checks are built in to the system.

There are 3 different charges applied. THB70.00-E7(Thailand Advance Passenger Processing Charge) THB30.00-G8(Thailand International Arrival/Departure Fee) THB700.00-TS(Thailand Passenger Service Charge) If Thailand introduces the 300THB on tickets it will become a bit like the UK that has Air Passender Duty over an above the Passenger Service Charge. APD varies between about £80 and £130 depending on class of seat. If proposals go ahead, Thais may well have to pay PSC, APD and Tourist Tax to visit Scotland. Thailand could of course take the simple option, follow most other countries and just add the tourist tax to hotel bills. Just think of it, no extensions unless you have paid your tourist tax. People should be careful what they wish for.

There are a few available but very expensive, in the order of £400+. https://www.comms-express.com/blog/review-the-best-5g-routers/

Exactly, but many cannot see further than their bar stool. Tourist tax is not new and certainly not unique to Thailand. When I went to Bali it had to paid to the hotel as you checked in, all foreign passports. If people are whinging about 300 baht, what on earth would be said if Thailand adopted the same system at 9 Euros a night. Malaysia is a bit the same at 4 Euros a night. It is also being proposed in Scotland where it would also include self catering accommodation. Tourist tax in Indonesia only applies in Bali. In 2019, a new law stated that foreign tourists must pay a fee starting from €9 or around Rp146,517. The income from this tax is used for programmes that help preserve the environment and Balinese culture. https://indonesiaexpat.id/travel/25-countries-where-you-will-pay-a-tourist-tax-in-2022/#:~:text=15.-,Indonesia,the environment and Balinese culture.

Explains a lot if you think buying an airline ticket compares to buying a coffee.

You have to bear in mind that there is an individual outlook on the currency as well as the relative relationship in a currency pair. At the moment the dollar is getting weaker, this can be seen on the dollar index. So if the baht stays the same the baht gets stronger against the dollar. If the pound gets weaker it will also deteriorate agains the baht, but if the pound weakens less than the dollar it will appear to get stronger against the dollar. Far too many permutations for it to be straightforward.

Quite, the statement you replied to wasn't right. First Direct is a division of HSBC who also offer the Bonus Savings account. When I tried to do it online I got a message saying I had to verify I was a UK taxpayer. Not sure what they would want for that so will do it at the branch when I go back in April.

That can work but not straightforward and will depend on the bank. I started with Ukpostbox about 10 years ago and put that as my address on bank account. Ok for about 3 years and then one day got an email to go to the branch. I said I was out of the country and it would be a few months. That wasn't a problem and went along when I was next back. The manager said they had detected my address was a postbox and that wasn't allowed as they had to have a recognised residential address. I explained the situation and pointed out the post in Thailand was unreliable. He accepted the situation and as I had my pension paid in would keep the account open as long as that continued. He took a note of my Thai address and bank account and all been ok since.

How does that work out when UK APD is based on class of ticket. I paid economy, those in higher class seats would pay a lot more APD. Not wage related, more on the ability to pay. The 300 baht would be less than 1% of my fare and for those in better seat almost un-noticeable. But let the whinging continue.

Stay in context.

Every point in the post was garbage.