flattop

It seems to me that other Mafia bosses in Thailand with interests in the bigger tourist areas must be getting pretty pissed off with this jumped up little island Koh Tao which if it carries on like this is going to hit their profits from tourism big time. If the Thai judiciary and the Thai government will not do anything about it then I suspect the Thai 'mob' will, and If I were Mon or one of the family, I would be watching my back very very closely. It would not surprise me if Mon and Nomsod just 'disappeared' one day.

Last Winter on 2 visa runs over the Nakhon Phanom-Thakhek Friendship bridge I witnessed minibuses constantly arriving from Vietnam at Thakhek international bus station carrying apparently organised groups of young Vietnamese on there way to Bangkok to find work. About 200 were waiting for every Thai-Laos bus which arrived every 30 mins rather than the scheduled hourly bus. The bus companies and immigration were really cashing in as it appeared that on top of the purchased bus ticket, the bus drivers were taking 100bt from each migrant as they scrambled to get on the bus. At the bridge Laos and Thai immigration were also each taking 100bt inside every passport, and on the Nakhon Phanom side they were made to change buses probably paying another 100bt for the short trip to NP bus station. I counted 120 reboarding my bus at the bridge. Do the maths! Strangely, given the numbers, they seemed to be clearing immigration really quickly. I wonder why!

With immigration on this scale it is no surprise that there has been a crackdown.

Maybe it has little to do with a few farangs abusing the system.

So where the hell are you?

Further to my post above, I dont know how long the above was or has been going on, but if this is the scale of such activity, I can understand why the current immigration crackdown is happening. I think it has little to do with a few farang coming and going illegally.

Moderators feel free to post my info. elsewhere.

 

 

The Bridge shuts at 10pm but on the Lao side the Visa Office closes at about 6pm usually so if you don't already have a visa for Lao i would not leave the  Mukdahan side after about 4.30 or 5 pm.to ensure you don't get stuck on the Lao side and have to return to Mukdahan until the next morning. Also i am not sure but the bus you talk about from Ubon probably links up at Mukdahan Bus Station with the Mukdahan - Savannakhet bus to go over. I have never seen any bus with Ubon - Savannakhet on it going over the bridge. Also i have never seen more than 20 people at the Thai Consulate quewed up to apply for a visa in the past 10 years, so if there are 600 as mentioned on a previous post there must be an awful lot of people getting caught out by the clamp down on visas. 

 

There is no link up of buses. You get off what ever bus you are using to get to Mukdahan and then buy a ticket for the bus over the bridge to Savannakhet.

 

I was there last week. Far more people than 20.

 

Nothing to do with people getting caught out either, as 90% of people were Laos people applying for Thai visas. I only saw about 8 westerners.

 

Interesting that the Loas people still have to get a visa to come to Thailand but Thais are allowed to go to Laos without. Will be even more interesting at the end of the year when ASEAN is fully implemented.
 

 

Lao people can come over without a visa but can only stay 2 nights i think. If they stay longer they must pay 500 baht overstay per day. Many of these Lao people come by boat, not over the bridge, straight into the Indo-China Market. There are still Cargo boats that run across the river as well as passenger boats which only Thai and Lao people can use. Foreigners must go via the bridge ever since it opened.

 

The 600 could be mostly Vietnamese migrant workers now trying to enter Thailand legally whereas before the post coup immigration clamp down they were pouring over the bridge at Nakhon Phanom (and maybe elsewhere) I suspect illegally. I know this because last Winter on 2 x 60 day visa runs I saw minibuses constantly arriving from Vietnam at Thakhek international bus station carrying organised groups of young Vietnamese on there way to Bangkok to find work. About 200 were waiting for every Thai-Laos bus which arrived every 30 mins rather than the scheduled hourly bus. The bus companies and immigration were really cashing in as it appeared that on top of the purchased bus ticket, the bus drivers were taking 100bt from each migrant as they scrambled to get on the bus. Laos and Thai immigration were also each taking 100bt inside every passport, and on the Nakhon Phanom side they were made to change buses paying another 100bt for the short trip to NP bus station. I counted 120 reboarding my bus at the bridge. Do the maths! Strangely, given the numbers, they seemed to be clearing immigration really quickly. I wonder why!