scavenger

I obtained a doule-entry tourist visa in Hong Kong last August, and it went very smoothly. To get a double-entry, you will need two tickets into Thailand though. You can find more by looking up my report in that section.

Thanks UbonJoe and Paz for clarifying. You both do a great job here, and I think you both deserve your holidays now... All the best for 2015!!

Those laws and rules, have they actually been abolished, or did they just fall into the mai pen rai zone? If the law is still there, that it has not been enforced for years won't stop one from enforcing it again. This is why I do not do border runs, and when I need to leave the country to activate a second entry, I actually travel and come back a few weeks later. I don't care if an I.O. tells me mai pen rai, I feel much more comfortable followint the actual writtem law, however archaic it might be, to the extent of my knowledge.

I have written off the other four a long time ago, but I visited Nan two years ago and it actually IS (was?) a quality destination. I wish they could just leave Nan as it is, or do they really want to screw things up over there too?

I think many if not most of the dangerous or highly unpleasant situations arise when foreigners buy into the local sayings "mai pen rai" and "don't think." The same safety precautions that apply in western cities should apply anywhere in the world. I won't let my wife go out for a snack alone at 2am regardless of whether we are in New York or Singapore or Bangkok. I don't drink but when I used to I would drink less in unfamiliar surroundings, wherever that would be. Men who would run away from a stranger in overly-feminine dress saying "hello sexy man, I like your nose and I want to have a baby with you" back in London think it exotic and romantic here and then go complain about unfaithful Thai women who just wanted your money.

Do streets and roads in Thailand look so much safer than those at home that you feel you can do away with seatbelts and helmets?

Some issues I have seen in the visa discussion section seem to arise from the same roots of "mai pen rai" and "don't think." I prefer following the written law whether certain rules are currently enforced or not. I don't leave my passport with agents that tell me they can fix everything for me for a fee; if I cannot legally do it myself at immigration or a mission abroad, then why would I believe their services would be legal. Would we let Thais cross the border from the US to Mexico to come back half-an-hour later for a new stamp?

I apply the same common sense and behavior "rules" wherever I am and so far it has been keeping me put of trouble. Not always the easiest route for sure, but it's the safest.

I assume that the members who want to see those stateless human beings towed to high sea are converted buddhists, wake up at five in the morning to give alms to monks, have observed Buddhist Lent and therefore duly abstained from alcohol and any meat for its whole duration, speak and write Thai perfectly, and have even not merely adopted Thainess as a way of life and philosophy but actually obtained Thai nationality.

However, I am not convinced that the majority of Thais agree with your fear and hate of other religious faiths. I am truly disgusted by some of the comments above.

Will the executions be public? If so, at which stadium?

I saw the death penalty announcement as a desperate one in a nation where no one seems to care about the law, safety, or anything that does not directly concern oneself. But what percentage of the population would you say has actually seen the news or read the newspaper, and how many of them had the comprehension skills to know what this is all about?

I don't know any "tourists" who would be carrying that amount of serious money on them.

It's way more than the allowed amount for bringing in and taking out of the country too.

tourists? Or couriers?

And all I've been asking for is change from a 100 baht bill...

Yes, there are honest Thais, and plenty of them. But I don't need the coconut propaganda. Considering this is a forum aimed at us rescued homeless farangs whose taste buds aren't refined enough no appreciate potato chips, why do we have to be exposed to all the coconut jingoist crap?

This was on the BBC News site yesterday, but without the headline's spotloght on Bangkok, though I am not surprised at the adulteration made by this jingoist "news" site tainted with racism ans misplacd pride, and just another site by Thais for Thais in poor and at times ludicrous English. Perhaps the moderators should rethink the (lack of) value of this "news" (out)source.

Hiw? By giving 2700 pistols to volunteers so they can kill more Muslims?

That line in the OP about young Americans taking pride into not traveling anywhere...I have stopped counting Thais who could not find Canada on a world map after 1,000, which didn't take long. Only yesterday a taxi driver thought it was next to Cameroun...

As for food in the USA, there is a lot more than McDonald's and awful Thai food stalls in food courts. New Orleans indeed comes to mind, so does Californian fusion (and wines) and New England (how I miss clam chowder!)

I wonder what reactions an American newspaper would get from the Thai community should they publish such a story in the States...

Please, could we farangs be similarly equipped to defend ourselves from...hmmm...Burmese, I guess,...when we go to the beach?

Nan, Lampang, Phrae, Sukhotai.

OP, thanks for the good laughs, you're hilarious! If you're bright enough to realize that we are laughing not "with" you but "at" you then there is hope, and no need to fly back to China. You are still very young, especially being Asian, and it is your golden opportunity to get some life experience and grow into a man - and then come back to this thread to laugh with us at your former self. Take basic safety precautions, take no more out of your safe box than what you are willing to commit to your "daily education funds", and go out, develop a sense of humor and have fun! (But do change your plans for that Full Moon Party lah...)

There are no Air Asia flight from Bangkok to Manila NAIA. You might want to look up Cebu Pacific.

Ia lso don't want to travel with that amount of cash on me. Though I have entered the country three times this year without ever being asked, I carry a little over that amount in traveler's cheques, Also serves as emergency funds should I ever lose wallet/ATM card, someone having the cheques' numbers at home. Not as convenient as an ATM card but easier to have replaced abroad.

15 days by land if you are not from a G7 country, 30 days at the airport, and who knows how many days by sea? I would play it safe, leave the sailboat in Singapore and fly in with my private jet.

What actual preparation other than TAT's Ebola Tourism project?

First, they had the cure for ebola...what's next ?...be its hub?

that was rather easy to "fix", by simply ordering foreigners not to meddle in internal affairs...

Something similar once happened to me a few years ago. When you go to get your 30-day extension, they will have to correct it first. Your visit to immigrationr will be a few minutes longer; no big deal.

The Philippines! Even just Manila itself has plenty to offer for the whole family: Intramuros and Fort Santiago, churches, parks with activities like go-kart racing, plenty of shopping, international dining choice, low cost, theater (for both children and adults, look on the ticketworld website), and, most memorable of all, the Filipinos, a warm, polite and welcoming nation. And there are easy options for daytrips out of Manila such as Lake Taal, a volcano lake. Or ypu could book a ticket in advance on either Philippines Airlines or Cebu Pacific for low cost airfare.

Singapore for the family would be extremely expensive.

A 20% drop just because of martial law? Wait unitl they read about the wristband and tracking, the violent taxi drivers back behind their wheels on the streets of Phuket, and of the immigration raid at Punspace in Chiang Mai...

Do you think the average tourist knows or even cares about a cafe in Chiang Mai? Tourists don't come here to sit in a cafe and work so they won't care. It has nothing to do with them and doesn't affect them. Do tourists stop visiting the UK because UK immigration raid a few restaurants there? N.

The comparison for raids in UK Thai restaurants would be a raid on an English school, not in an internet café. And I think that digital nomads are a good market for long-term tourism. That said, this raid was coupled with my post with other unpalatable news such as the decision to allow taxi drivers with a violent history to work in tourist Phuket and, most unpalatable, the wristband and tracking news. Not that I expect it to actually happen or be enforced -- but the insult remains.

I agree that few will read, and even less will care, with a similar attitude towards the local culture in general. The point I thought I was making is that martial law is not necessarily the major issue here, at least not since curfew has been lifted.