Mondy

My home license has expired and I would like to get a valid Thai license before I go back to the states. What do I have to do to accomplish that....or can I without knowing Thai? I will travel in Europe for several months before returning and have assumed that I can rent a car if I have a valid Thai license. If this is not the case, it is a moot point.

As an aside, if I were to tour around Indonesia for 5 weeks, could I get a visa there to return to the kingdom?

OK, to out of the Dutch oven example and back on topic: I do appreciate those who give genuine advice.

When I came last fall, I was to use Thailand as a jumping off point to travel around but made friends here and got lazy. Teaching at a school would have tied my hands. Hopping from place to place wears me out a bit but this visa crackdown might have lit a fire underneath me to tour more. From the information at hand, would ya'll say trying to get a 3rd tourist visa is foolhardy? I could go to Vientiane and try to come back in and just keep traveling if I cannot., I could travel around a month and then TRY to come in with a tourist visa OR the 30 exemption-which would give me good timing for my trip to Aus/NZ. Or I could just start working my way down through countries to get to NZ now.

What I don't want is to risk getting some kind of scarlet letter stamped on the passport that hurts my chances to return this year. I know that if I go back to the US I will abandon travels and just go back to working. And a college here may be hiring me in early 2015 which would give me 6 months of enjoyable work before I go home(the lethargy with which that developed has brought me to this stage).

and what happens if someone pays for the tourist visa but gets turned away at the border such as today in Malaysia? Does it get stamped as such?

Well that gives me an option then. I didn't want to purchase a ticket to Australia from Bangkok when I didn't know if I could get back into the country.

I was presuming a tourist visa. I do plan to go to Australia around mid-September so I might only need 1 month back in BKK though.

I have been here since taking an TEFL course in the fall and have nearly exhausted my second tourist visa. I have done a bit of traveling and have more that I would like to do. Some beautiful hiking in China is on my bucket list. If I were to leave and then tour for a month, is that adequate to break from the consecutive visas and gain another tourist visa? I may have a job offer in the coming weeks but I have to leave soon. I figured I could handle some of that while traveling too.

The theory.

There was at the start a fund of 500 billion put aside to pay for the scheme. This was supposed to be a revolving fund from which money was paid out to the farmers and all the other expenses like milling, storage, cartage ETC.

There would then be sales of rice out of the stocks bought to all the world who would be pleading with Thailand for rice as there would be a world shortage.

The high price obtained would then be fed back into the revolving fund to be paid out to the farmers for subsequent years crops forever and ever with huge profits.

The reality.

The 500 billion ran out very quickly as no or very little rice was sold, and with no real accounting as to where it went.

The Govt asked for and got another 270 billion to top up the fund to pay for the next seasons crop.

Then along came the protests over other indiscreet moves by the Govt and the house was dissolved.

At that point the 270 billion had disappeared into the 500 billion and many of the farmers had still not been paid.

This non payment was estimated at 130 billion, frantic attempts at raising this money mostly failed and we find ourselves in the present position of the Army ordering the finance ministry to find the money to pay the farmers.

So the cost.

The original 500 billion

The extra 270 billion

The estimated130 billion

Total 900 billion.

What now needs to be resolved.

How much rice is still in storage and realistic value

How much rice has been sold and for how much

How much has been paid to ; the farmers, the mills, the cartage contractors, the storage facilities and anything I haven't mentioned.

Who this has been paid to.

How much has been paid in commissions.(BAAC and others)

Who have they been paid to and why.

And anything else I haven't mentioned.

Once this has been determined and a total of pay-outs determined then there will remain the question :

Where did the rest go ?

The Audit office with the data they have has already said the loss to the country MAY be less than 500 billion.

I would suspect the mills, the cartage contractors, the storage facilities have probably been paid seeing as there hasnt been any of them protesting, maybe the mills at some point but i forget . That would also have to come out of funds.

im not going to going to be surprised whatever the finding, One thing im certain of tho, it wont be just PTP members if there has been pilfering, i suspect mills and traders have been selling some of the rice out the back door and in deals as soon as they got it..

There were many dodgy things that were reported and some that were confirmed.

For instance, it was confirmed that rice was brought into the scheme from Cambodia and Lao and probably from the other direction as well.

It was reported that high quality (fragrant) rice was taken from the middle of the stacks in at least one warehouse and sold then replaced with low quality rice. The high quality rice on the outside was left intact. I remember seeing photos and a video of this happening so it could probably be said to be confirmed.

At one time the millers did say that they had not been paid.

At one time the Bank also said they had not received their commission. I may be wrong but I understood they deducted that from the first money that was raised to pay the farmers before the farmers were paid.

There were reports of trucks of Nuttawat transport moving rice from one warehouse to another without explanation.

There is also the Thai company owned by the "Monkey on a rope" and his wife which was involved in the non existent G 2 G deal, and apparently others.

I suspect the NACC will be looking into these and many others, we wait to see the results.

In a crop of 25000000 tons the options are endless. If its corrupt there should be thousands of cases. Thousands.

Well help is at hand to fully understand, fabie will be along soon with full, clear and total accounting to prove there were no dirty dealings whatever and prove that all accounts and documents are fully transparent.

On a volume this big over a 3 year period, the mould losses will probably be 5,000,000,tons. Maybe 10%.

So trying to find a loss of 3mn in fraud when mold might be more is ridiculous. 3mn can be lost or gained by buying overly wet rice.

Do they really have to take an account of rice now?? It was reported to Yingluck in 2012 and the woman was fired. There is a paper trail and witnesses who can testify to the discrepancies. People who counted that stuff for a living......until fired of course. Forensic auditors will have the tools they need if the goal is to get to the truth.

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The concept of the rice plan was a good one. However changes in world rice markets affected the price offered.

I understand that the information is pointing more to those red culprits. Unfortunately information on the corrupt is still coming in from the yellow angels.

How dare a democratic government develop business relationships outside the respected, trusted in house, local business networks, old-boys, and the Mr 10+ percenters that the Democrats would have developed and dealt with. The Democrats networks have all this catered for, with payments being more anonymous and sophisticated then any program the Pheu Thai party could have developed. Plus any over-payments would have gone to the right people, not Yinglucks crew.

Plus there were more whistle blowers in the civil service keeping their hand on it, that knew when and how to get blown.

A good plan? What specific change to the world rice markets are you talking about? Taksin thought he could manipulate the global market for rice as a small percentage of total production is actually traded internationally. He built warehouses to withhold the rice from the market with the stupid hope that the price would go up. Well another failed attempt to corner a market as has been done in silver, etc. IT was a greedily designed devious plan that was doomed to fail from the beginning (check my posts made at the initial announcements). The only the thing the world market did was take advantage of Taksin's stupidity.

AND didn't "Yingluck's crew" advertise their scheme to the farmers(they told them 150% right) and OF COURSE the rest of the world? What do foreign rice producers do when they know you are going to drive the price up by withholding your rice supply? THEY GROW MORE RICE!! Can they bring them up on criminal stupidity charges?

So who appointed NACC? Do they want to find graft in the Yingluck circle of friends? And why doesn't the army bring in outside auditors so that Yingluck's followers don't scream frame up in the end?

Is it true that Yingluck appointed all the members of the NACC? I know the junta charged them with resuming the investigation.

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Thanks Robby NZ for that link. Do you guys have any more links detailing any of the corruption, extortion, nepotism since the rise of Thaksin?

So are the farmers going to be paid at the above market rate that they were promised in the rice scheme or at a rate more in tune with the market? Are the tax payers then covering the difference? I assume if everyone is flipping the bill for the scheme rate that you can define it as re-allocation of wealth, but is that made bigger by farmers declaring losses and not paying taxes on the year?(I don't know how the taxes work here or with this fiasco)

I am somewhat new to Thailand and have heard truly astounding stories of corruption under Thaksin: 30% bribes on all construction called a 'Thaksin tax' for which Yingluck was a 'bagman', a Bangkok Air takeover attempt that led to a strike, the telecommunication deal with Myanmar with a low loan taxpayers flipped the bill for etc.

Much of it is of a 'he said, she said' nature and I would like to know of a credible type source to read.

Thanks for the response Joe,

I am curious if this pending crackdown on Tourist Exemptions will affect my attaining another Tourist Visa. It sounds like they assume anyone here who doesn't have hotel reservations is working. I have been here 6 months as a tourist and several months before that as a student getting a CELTA to teach English but have not really looked to find a teaching job in a school. Will I get locked out trying to get another Tourist Visa? Don't a lot of people in their 40s-60s come here for a number of months and just enjoy the country without working?

Joe,

I didn't know that I could get a tourist visa here. I thought it was all done outside the country. Malaysia has the best Penang and it won. I didn't plan to fly at all, just take the train down from around Surat Thani and see parts unknown on the way back up.

Thanks Mario,

I want to see Krabi and other places when tourist season is low(and it will probably never be lower than now) and I have a friend going with me. The plan was then to go to Malaysia and see some things and attain a new tourist visa. But if I can only get a single entry visa, that brings up a new question: Can I enter Thailand with the 30 day tourist exemption(non-visa), which I did once when I first visited in April 2013? Then travel a month later to get the double entry tourist visa? A flight from Kuala Lampur to Vietiane is $400 and a bunch of hassle in a country that I have already seen and I wanted to hit some spots on the train ride back up to BKK anyway. Just to be sure, a single entry can be extended to equal 2 months, correct?

I plan to see Malaysia and get another tourist visa for Thailand. Am I limited in the type of visa vs. Laos(single vs. double entry)? I didn't have to fly in or out but these older posts seem to imply that I would need to do so in Malaysia. My citizenship is U.S.

thanks,

I am not afraid of the rain. I now know that most of the scuba comes to an end in Mid-May until October but I still want to see the south when the hoards of tourists are absent. Especially Phi Phi Leh. I hope that the access to there do not stop in the off-season.

Parts to that Wat are continually replaced. They don't clean or repaint those ornate pieces but rather cast and replace them year round. It employs a lot of local artisans. The inner mural may not be the same now but I doubt repairs won't be made and the outer art preserved.

I am re-opening this string because I want to travel to the south(Krabi, Kao Soak, Koh Lanta) and Malaysia in June. I go for the hike, bike, climb, scuba type vacations rather than Full Moon Parties. I would like to see Koh Phi Phi Leh when it isn't loaded with tourists, even if that means rain. So my question is really: will I find these things closed or are they open and cheaper than high season?

So, just what is the indoctrination? The song I hear at movies, of course. What else?

Ah, then my question is probably a moot one then. A tremendous amount of time goes into research, photos, Powerpoint presentation construction etc. A 10 hours weekend course is well over 50 hours. Thanks.

Thanks Mario. That might be an issue for the extension. If that is the case, I should not teach too large of a class if it will translate into too few hours/mo and might need to teach several classes that aren't quite full to make sure that the hours don't fall below that possible threshold.

Spoonman, I did not know if the sponsoring business for the visa needed to give a detailed job description. Since the work scheduled would b unconventional, I wondered if it would affect visa and/or permit. Thanks guys.

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