BobbyBoy

I will never do a land based visa run in particular to Ranong, I have had a problem there every time over the last 4 years , last time 18 months ago was my last ever. Your life is at risk in the longtail boat which is overcrouded , and at times rough water, jumping accross boats and walking the plank like a pirates victim not good after a stroke. The other alternative is the big boat run which is expensive and money was extorted from me , although completely legal. Cost of fuel there and back to Phuket 2k plus all other moneys required close to 3k total. 

Now I fly to KL with air asia return for little over 2 k if book in advance a few weeks 200 baht to park car at airport , go in morning come back pm trip around 6 to 12 hours depends if you want to go into KL. 

Good day or stay for a few days up to you.

In Australia I also rarely use an ATM , I go inside the Bank to do transactions , and card skimming in Australia is not that common , in asian countries it is rife , there are posts almost on a daily basis of gangs being caught here , but you being a senior member with many posts would be aware of that ! aren't you ?

My post and advice was to help members protect themself from ATM fraud in asia . It is simple avoid ATM's at all cost go inside the bank during bank hours to get money using bank passbook. Have emergency cash at home in a secure place Banks are open 9 am to 8pm in shopping centres , its not hard to play by these rules for your safety.I know that the last time I used my credit card at the Siam Commercial Bank there were 2 falang guys that used the machine before me and then used it again directly after me. The fraud on my credit card occurred a week or so later in eastern Europe not Russia but border country old USRR.

I worked in law enforcement in Australia for a number of years and my money is on the 2 guys lurking at the ATM before and after I used the ATM. I last used my credit card in Australia probably 1 year maybe longer before the fraud took place, too long a time gap . There are many falang living here that can not afford to the honest ones go home the scum stay here and scam $ what ever way they can drugs , skimming , stealing , bludging off friends , I avoid these people.Hope this has answer your question and you take notice of this good advice.

Well done bank staff and police , I had my Australian visa card skimmed a year ago after only using it 3 times in 3 months at The Siam Commercial Bank at Rawai ,, where I thought it would be safe ,covered my hand , did all the right things to be safe ,the last time was a few days before I returned I to Australia .On return to Australia I used the card a couple of times before my Australian bank contacted me and asked if I had purchased anything in eastern Europe in the last few days and where was my credit card, I advised card with me and used last few days , bank subsequently cancelled credit card , but not before A$2,800.00 had been withdrawn.Thank my buda it was Australian Visa card and I was refunded the stolen money some 4 weeks later after Australian bank checked my statement I made in writing to get refund ,I provided copy of ATM receipt of 3 transactions, and copies of 2 transactions in Australia since returning from Thailand.I believe from what I have read here Thai banks you will have problem getting money back from them if your Thai bank card is skimmed.

What this has taught me , avoid using credit cards in Thailand , now I go inside the Thai bank and withdraw money using my bankbook only. Do a travelex bank transfer from your home country to your Thai bank when your currency is up . Take cash from home country to cash to Thai baht as long as you have a secure safe to store your cash.Get a Travelex cash debit visa card for emergency use only with a limited amount of funds.Never take or use credit cards with large amount of funds available on holiday with you.If you take credit card for emergency use to buy airline tickets etc. have a low level of credit available and only use for online purchases from airlines etc. avoid ATM's.Never rely on 1 form to obtain money while overseas ,Home county debit cedit card with limited funds for airline ticket purchases , Travelex debit/credit card for emergency use , cash from home country or US dollars. Hope everyone takes this advice on board and learns like I did avoid ATM's in all asian countries and inside a bank when open best.

This is very important that debit /credit cards with large limits that have your mortgage , bills , etc., are not taken on holiday with you and used overseas , get a card with limited funds just for holiday use . If my card had of been skimmed at the beginning of my stay in Thailand , and the bank had no way of contacting me , I dread to think of the money that could have been stolen. Inform the home country bank of you travel arrangements and a contact number if you have one to check any transaction and keep all reciepts . Keep safe good luck !

So why did you conclude your card was skimmed at scb? Does skimming not happen in Australia? No chip on your card BTW?

Well done bank staff and police , I had my Australian visa card skimmed a year ago after only using it 3 times in 3 months at The Siam Commercial Bank at Rawai ,, where I thought it would be safe ,covered my hand , did all the right things to be safe ,the last time was a few days before I returned I to Australia .On return to Australia I used the card a couple of times before my Australian bank contacted me and asked if I had purchased anything in eastern Europe in the last few days and where was my credit card, I advised card with me and used last few days , bank subsequently cancelled credit card , but not before A$2,800.00 had been withdrawn.Thank my buda it was Australian Visa card and I was refunded the stolen money some 4 weeks later after Australian bank checked my statement I made in writing to get refund ,I provided copy of ATM receipt of 3 transactions, and copies of 2 transactions in Australia since returning from Thailand.I believe from what I have read here Thai banks you will have problem getting money back from them if your Thai bank card is skimmed.

What this has taught me , avoid using credit cards in Thailand , now I go inside the Thai bank and withdraw money using my bankbook only. Do a travelex bank transfer from your home country to your Thai bank when your currency is up . Take cash from home country to cash to Thai baht as long as you have a secure safe to store your cash.Get a Travelex cash debit visa card for emergency use only with a limited amount of funds.Never take or use credit cards with large amount of funds available on holiday with you.If you take credit card for emergency use to buy airline tickets etc. have a low level of credit available and only use for online purchases from airlines etc. avoid ATM's.Never rely on 1 form to obtain money while overseas ,Home county debit cedit card with limited funds for airline ticket purchases , Travelex debit/credit card for emergency use , cash from home country or US dollars. Hope everyone takes this advice on board and learns like I did avoid ATM's in all asian countries and inside a bank when open best.

This is very important that debit /credit cards with large limits that have your mortgage , bills , etc., are not taken on holiday with you and used overseas , get a card with limited funds just for holiday use . If my card had of been skimmed at the beginning of my stay in Thailand , and the bank had no way of contacting me , I dread to think of the money that could have been stolen. Inform the home country bank of you travel arrangements and a contact number if you have one to check any transaction and keep all reciepts . Keep safe good luck !

I had a similar experience 15 years ago caused by a blister on my big toe caused by breaking in new sandals , and walking through the creek water outlet at Kata beach which was toxic . A day later my big toe swelled up , my thai girl friend applied various witch doctor remedies which all failed badly , at this stage my toe was weaping badly and skin was off half the big toe and puss etc. smelt like rotting flesh , and my foot had turn purple and swollen to size of football. This was 4 or 5 days after the infection started , I decided to rush to hospital for treatment as the pain associated with the infection was unbearable . I attended Phuket International hospital for treatment the doctors there took a look and said I had a very serious infection that could be life threatening ,if not treated immediately.

First remove dead tisue 25% of big toe, clean , pack wound with strong anti infection solution, inject area with pain killer , administer with injection anti biotic followed up with strong oral anti biotic every 3 hours . I was advised that if treatment did not work within 24 hours , they would have to amputate my foot before infection spread further.Fortunately , the treatment was successful in stopping the spread of the infection , but I needed hostipal visits 2 times a day for 3 weeks until toe wound sealed , I remained on anti biotics for some time and until swelling in foot went down. It took several months before my foot went back to normal.

What I learnt is forget Thai girl friend witch doctor treatments , any cut or scratch douse with bedidine immediately and cover with bandage and clean wound 3 times a day and bandage and avoid washing wound in tap water use bottled water only. If stiches are required go to an international hospital immediately.

Avoid walking through any creek or waterway , particularly if you have cuts , but if you can not aviod wash down in clean water asap.

Cheap flights to many destinations with Air Asia to different destinations , some less than 1,000 baht each way , have a holiday for a few days at the same time. If you can not afford to do this , maybe time to think about going home.

This is well overdue ,but late is better than never ! and hopefully they do a good job. While they are at it they should enforce a 50 meter no parking zone for boats either side of one of the few public boat ramps at Chalong. This area should be restricted to launch and retreval of boats only. There should also be no parking of motor vehicles within 25 meters of the boat ramp access to allow boat and vehicles to access the boat ramp.

Currently , the ramp is totally blocked with vehicles and speed boats so the ramp can not be used , unless you are one of the taxi boat mafia that block this site from public use , clear the area of these mafia pricks and I will buy a trailer power boat like I intended, but after investigating this site which is mafia controlled,and another site at Rawai which is only accessible 3 hours either side of high tide, I have gone off the idea of a trailer boat.

There should be more public boat ramps in Phuket , you can count on 1 hand the total available in Phuket and most and the best are mafia controlled, ie. Chalong.Please fix this problem and police the area and give big fines so the public can also have access to the sea by boat ramps.

You obviously have not been reading many recent posts (including a couple from me) warning of problems with going to Ranong for a Visa run.

If your smart , and listen to all the recent bad experiences at Ranong ,you will not consider it . In my opinion fly to Singapore or other destination in / out in 1 day or have a holiday for a few days, up to you !

The accused may not have eaten the body parts , but what about the guests that stayed at his bed and breakfast was there any footage of them having food in his video collection ?

Did the police check his menu for daily specials like Finger Food or Sweet Bread etc., the mind bogels . I would suspect this may of happened and should have been investigated.

I wonder if he has done this before ? If I were police I would be checking other properties the accused has had access to for possible remains.I was a former prison officer who had daily contact with the notorious Snowtown killers in South Australia in the late 90's who killed and ate their victims total number 12 and stored some of the left overs in a former bank vault at Snowtown in large plastic barrels. These murders were referred to as the "Bodies in the Barrel Murders ".The 4 convicted killers Bunting,Wagner,Hayden, and Tslacios (spelling probably wrong) apparently compared human to pork. So it is quiet possible that guests at this bed and breakfast were tricked into eating human flesh . Food for thought !

Yes , I have noticed that approximately 50% of resident expats leaving Phuket in the last few months as a consequence of this crack down , in my opinion the only looser is the Thai economy , which get considerable income from Visa runs ,not to mention all the money spent by falang in 7/11 , food outlets, hotels ,transport, bars, restruants, etc., etc.,By all means crack down on those working illegally and not possessing a valid visa , but maybe better to review work permits now and make the rules more flexible for both employer and employee and far less costly for all concerned.

If this is not addressed now ,there will be a huge shortage of expat workers , as they would have shifted to neighbouring countries where working is more friendly to expats.In 2015 when the borders open up is too late to address the problem.Good luck Thailand I hope you see the light ,this is a wonderfull country , I have been enjoying for 25 years legally on the correct visa .

There was a waning about Ranong border crossing a few days ago by a member exiting on a marriage vsa , I replied to that post telling of my big problem with Immigration leaving and re entering on 13/8/14 on a non Imm B visa which I have used for approx. 10 years with no problems until Ranong.My advice in that post was not to go Ranong fly Singapore or other loocality.They obviously do not want in/out at Ranong for falang, only Burmeese. It pays to check this site for visa information before going anywhere for me I will only fly in and out from now on, never go Ranong again.

Well I had a similar experience on 13th but not at the Andaman Club , at the other cheapo xing where you get a longtail boat for 300 to 400 baht a person depending on how many travelling on the boat.

On arrival at Immigration at 8.30 am , I was taken away by a female immigration officer , I have a non imm. B visa which I was advised by the Australian Royal Thai Embassy was the appropriate one , I have previously had both IB and B non. multi entry as I have an interest in a business but have never worked in Thailand.

The officer asked me for my work permit which I replied I do not have as I am currently not working and have never worked in Thailand , although in the future I may start to work if I start a business and at that time I will get the appropriate work permit . I also advised the officer that I postphoned starting a business as a direct result of the termoil in Thailand and that you would have to be crazy to start a business at present but maybe by the end of the year things may pick up at the beginning of the high season to do so.

I argued for the best part of 40 minutes until a male immigration officer intervened and listened to my reasoning and accepted the explaination, and my passport was stamped and duly got on the long tail boat to Burma. On route the tout I was travelling with who organised the boat and other passengers was pushing the sale of cheap booze , fags , and of course viagora etc.I advised I was not interested as I do not use any of the above.

I got the Burma stamp , paid the $10 US and returned to the boat with a 200 baht bottle of genuine Burma Malt Whisky haha. All good at that stage then the boat was filled with a dozen 12 other passengers , on the way there only 4 , I was sitting at the very rear , I made sure life jacket on and done up , this boat was way overloaded and not safe..

Did about 4 stops check points on way back , after the second stop the tout said you have any viagora etc. I replied no , why , you need to hide on boat as security army check and if have on you . monkey house for you ! Well he was trying to sell me this shit then he tells me later illegal if you get caught with it.

We pulled in to Army check point and Officer asked to inspect my bag , I was the only falang on board and I was the only one who had their bag inspected , nothing found of course thank god !

Arrived back at Immigration and got the same female officer who once again started to give me a hard time and I feared I was not going to be let into Thailand , I really think she thought I had been working without a work permit and wanted to get me for something.She asked me if I had a flight out the country booked I relpied no but intended to go back to Australia mid Sept. and return in Oct,/Nov. once I had finished business in Australia.It was obvious to me she was reluctant to approve my reentry for 90 days.as she thought I was illegally working . Fortunately for me , I was carrying my Thai bank passbook in my bag with a reasonable amount of money in credit , I also pointed out to her that I had paid in a large sum of money into this account while I was in Australia in April and that there had only been withdraws from the account since and no deposits. This information of the Bank book got me across the line proved I had sufficient funds and had not been working in Thailand , like I said , thank god , Passport stamp 90 days good bye for ever Ranong !

The moral to this story avoid , Ranong , do not buy things from touts as you could end up in the monkey house , carry Bank book with you on visa run , only do visa run by air ,the cost of flight to Singapore 3,000 baht return from Phuket and it cost roughly the same to drive and catch boat etc. at Ranong but your life in danger in small boat , get hasseled by touts etc., I did not see any other falang at Ranong doing a visa run definately my last time !