bkkcanuck8

In Thailand, causing loss of face could lead to extreme reactions... like vomiting on an officer and his subordinates laughing at him. In the case of negligence it could be choking/suffocating on vomit... and associated cover up. Or it could be just suicide by the individual. Either case if it is negligence or malfeasance... I think it more likely it is a combination with the hanging being a cover up.

Most people are not "Normal". If someone is not depressed or does not suffer from depression, getting drunk will not make them suicidal... however, if someone is depressed and does suffer from depression, alcohol can make it worse and the result could be suicidal. Some of what was quoted... I did get the impression that he could have been (I cannot point to specifics, just the feeling I got when piecing together it)... that said... it is just as likely (or more) it could be jailhouse negligence (and associated cover up) or malfeasance that could have lead to his death. That said, I think we have wait for what should be an independent autopsy and viewing of the video. The police unfortunately do not have a good record with honest professional ethical behaviour here in Thailand. (not saying all, but way too many and the system itself is corrupting)

The legal hours that 7/11 can sell alcohol are 11am - 2pm and 5pm - 12 midnight. I find that the most strict adherence to the law is by foreign owned companies. I don't even think the cash register system for 7/11 will allow the franchisee to ring up sales of alcohol out of hours. If a franchisee were to be caught selling out of hours -- they likely would potentially be at risk of having their franchise terminated by 7/11 corporate.

US taxes on worldwide income (i.e. including foreign)... regardless of being a US resident or not, he must file annually and he must report all include and it is taxable. Most banks now require US citizens to give them their SSN and report that back to the US (FATCA). Thailand is one of the countries that has an agreement with the US. (most countries you don't get taxed if you are a non-resident citizen)

That does not make it the next year's model, only registered in that year. When you say a 2021 Porche it is understood to be that year's model -- not when it was registered. It is fraud.

I can see how Prayut or Prawit can end up being PM on paper... but if the numbers in parliament are too much in favour of opposition, I don't see how either of them would be able to maintain control of parliament to get anything done... and I could easily see them then having to face no confidence vote and lose those votes. At that point he has to either resign or call another election (and calling another election so soon would not likely improve things).

That is the normal process, they exclude one day overstays -- but two days you would have had to pay a fine. The reason why they do this I believe is because people very often make the mistake of their calculation not realizing both the arrival and departure days are part of the 30 days (i.e. they start counting at 1 as of tomorrow from date of arrival rather than the day of arrival).

Yes, I think they were more relaxed during the last few years (COVID), but now they are out in force to clean up those that thought they could take advantage of the relaxed enforcement.

Your credit history is ziltch when you leave your national market (good or bad). When I went to work in the US from Canada (20+ years ago)... it was no different. If you were to leave Thailand with a debt, they cannot place a lean against your US property - it is all about risk management.

"I know Farangs have to show money and keep it there to get one - is it the same for Thais .? " This has more to do with risk, and in other countries where you are on a temporary visa (like the Thai Non-O is still a temporary 1 year visa) you would be in the same situation - only eligible for secured credit cards. If you were a permanement resident they know that since you are here permanently - there is little risk of you leaving the country and avoiding paying off your debts. If you are on a work permit (renewable), there is less of a risk since you would have more to lose than someone on a temporary visa -- you might be eligible for a credit card after a number of years. I think you will find that you would have a hard time getting a non-secured credit card in many western countries if you were on a 1 year temporary visa (more akin to a longer tourist visa) and thus lacked both a credit history in that country and some form of permanence. (permanent residence, work visa with an indication of permanence).

If they do a show-me order (however unlikely given my balance exceeds the amount by a significant amount)... I am going to go show them. The normal renewal process has been uneventful and an extremely quick process where all they have ever bothed 'needing' was the last 6 month statement (year statement you have to ask for it to be mailed)... I doubt if you ignore it the next renewal would be as quick or as easy and it is highly unlikely they would accept anything but a full years history.

The use of 'alien' in legislation is a normal and appropriate use for it. In law, an alien is any person (including organizations) who is not a citizen or national of a specific country. Thailand is just using the English terms used by English speaking countries.

Someone underage (18 by international UN Convention ratified by around 200 countries) cannot legally sell sex, and since they cannot... it is by default non-consensual - which means trafficking is applicable. [same logic behind statutory rape - no defence of it 'was consensual']. Widely publicized nabbing of them, makes it more difficult to let it slide for money... even if it was possible - most western countries laws on this subject extend to their citizens travelling in other countries. I can pretty much guarantee that someone from each of those embassies are in contact with Thai police requesting to be kept abreast of all the legal evidence as well.

Umm, slashing someones tires, putting sugar in the gas tank, etc. are dick moves.... stabbing someone.... that is a wee bit beyond being a 'dick move'

Not the way I deal with things, but given that dumping the contents of something on someone else is still an assault - I have no reason to fault her. I don't think she should have been fined.

If you are looking for surgical masks to protect you, you should try to acquire the equivalent of N95ish masks (N I think is an American classification, KF94 masks from Korea are also a good mask to get) and a face shield (that is what my sister wears when she has to fly - diplomat). Surgical mask is more about preventing an asymptomatic person from spreading the disease (in close quarters especially), outside the sun will disinfect surfaces better and outdoors is better as well for air circulation which in combination with the sun -- does a fairly good job... as long as you maintain the 2 metres or so should reduce the risk for outdoors.

He had conditions on entry to Thailand, he violated those conditions and he should be deported and blacklisted. In effect it is the same as illegal entry. Any country would do the same (or potentially more) if put in that position. All he had to do was take the day and 'recover from jet lag' have a few meals, watch TV and then take a test and when he passed leave. It is absolutely irrelevant if he was infected or not.

"aerosolized" = "minute droplets of water" Surgical masks are not respirators, but they do reduce the spread of those aerosolized droplets. And for those that say masks are useless, I hope you tell the doctor exactly that if you go under the knife for some reason.

This risk of death in most countries is around 1%, the risk of 'long COVID' is significantly higher at maybe 5%. COVID was first classified as a respiratory virus, but the medical community now thinks this may have been an incorrect classification that it should really be classified as a cardio-vascular virus (the reason why we have more varied symptoms). I won't have anything to complain about if I die, but I really don't want to be stuck with 'long COVID'. A vaccination lowers the risk of catching it (it does not prevent it, it readies your body to fight it once you get infected as with all vaccines -- basically it is an attempt to prevent a foothold situation). If you do unfortunately 'catch it' it significantly reduces the severity and risk of hospitalization - and the 'long COVID' potential... Vaccination (which I have received fully vaccinated as of 2.5 months ago, and I will get a booster in maybe March 31st next year) is one of many things that you can do to reduce your risks (wearing a mask reduces your chances of spreading it if you do catch it; and others wearing a mask will in turn reduce the chance of someone else spreading it to you -- is another).... Vaccines are probably one of the major reasons why the average lifespan has nearly doubled over the last century... no guarantees, but it raises the chances you will lead a longer life with less health issues... so I find this antivaxxer crowd to be .... silly.

The COVID vaccine half-life is closer to the Flu Vaccine half-life unfortunately... Vaccinations will lose their ability to protect after maybe 5 or 6 months at best. Anti-bodies die off over time, and the long term vaccine protection where your body 'remembers' [B lymphocytes; memory cells] do not seem to keep a 'blueprint' for rapidly recreating the antibodies necessary when needed. This is not noticeable with the Flu vaccine because that one basically gets reformulated every year because there are lots and lots of Flu strains out there - and seasonly the flu strains tend to differ (there is only one COVID strain that we are concerned about at this time [multiple variants]). For now, regular boosters will likely be needed (maybe every 6 months). This may change as the virus becomes a normal endemic virus that our body learns to deal with. It will likely be another few weeks before we know for sure, but it seems that the Omicron variant is much more transmissible -- but also less severe (meaning that more people will get it - but the hospitalizations will be less likely to be needed if you do catch it). If this is true, then our healthcare systems may not be as much at risk of being overwhelmed... which is really what lockdowns are suppose to help alleviate.

The transaction history is just not on the system when the passbook is updated (only up to 6 months max), it would show as a consolidated entry with a transaction code of 'CMB' which is a 'Combined No-Book Transaction'. The most common deposit system codes are documented on that back cover of the bank book. The older transactions would have been archived and not available online or for book update - you have to do a statement request that includes the transactions from the archival. You could have a CMB for 1,000 baht but it is really 1,000,000 baht of debits and 1,001,000 baht of credits.

The deposit system and ATM in those cases likely only carry around 3 to 6 months of transactional history, the rest of the transactions are archived. When transactions are moved off the system they would basically take all the debits and credits and consolidate them into a balance forward entry - and remove the transaction history before the date of the balance forward entry. If you go a full year without updating the bank account book, the system would not have the entire transaction history online connected to the system that the ATM is connected to... it would start printing transactions from the balance forward entry - that to the end user just looks like a consolidation of debits and credits. For Bangkok Bank, I am guessing you cannot get a full 12 month transactional printout at the branch because they also would not have access to the full 12 transactional history online. Transactional history takes up space, it can slow things down for administrative tasks etc. - and archiving them can keep operations more efficient.

It depends on whether the local immigration office is determined to mulish about adhering to the letter of the rule or just making sure they adhere to the intent of what the legislation was meant to accomplish. The letter is you must have x amount of money for these days, the intent was to ensure that this was your money in your account and not placed in there for the renewal then removed from that account after the renewal was granted (i.e. fraud with regards to the intent of the requirement). If your balance is always just enough to be approved, I expect that the immigration staff would require more to ensure that money is yours (i.e. adhering more to the letter), if your balance is often significantly above - and there is history of that balance being there (though not a years worth), then I would expect the immigration office to require less adherence to the letter of the rule since the intent was always - to make sure you had the money available and were therefore worth granting a visa to.

I am assuming the small deposit is for the savings account?. With my F/D (Bangkok Bank), I did not need to do a transaction - They just did a 'B/F' (transaction entry) with the current date/time. (Balance Forward) - So date (today, no sequence no, B/F for transaction code, no debit/credit amount and the total balance after that entry with date and timestamp.

If using a FD a/c then it is wise to give it to the bank staff at the time the letter is created, they will have the system give a balance update 'transaction' so that the last transaction printed in the bank book is recent (i.e. today)