richard_smith237

Nearly... Depending on which side of 1 year he has overstayed - the ban is 1 year or 3 years.

About 10 years ago while in Malaysia I turned my phone on (with Thai Sim) for 5 mins and received about 20x Multimedia message (in Thai) from MCOT news... when I returned to Thailand I was charged about 6000 baht for those messages (exact figure I can't remember). I contacted AIS complaining that they had no right to charge me, I'd never signed up for a news service and it was up to them not to forward messages which I have not signed up for - I was pleasantly surprised they rescinded the charges of those Multi-media messages. No one should be charged for receiving something they have no control over.

Wow, must be so nice to be Mr. perfect. Why he suddenly believes he needs a pink card is his business, not yours. Your rudeness is not needed. NanLeaw makes a valid point - If the Ops friend has not found any need for the Pink ID, why bother now? is it something he needs or just figures its something he 'wants'.... the subject of 'why the Ops friend believes he needs a pink card' is at the very core of this topic as he may not need one at all. Personally, I have found it useful (but thats because I don't have a work permit here). With 20 years working here - it would make more sense for the Ops friend to take the PR and Citizienship route to secure healthcare which would otherwise become prohibitively expensive (with higher insurance costs) as he ages.

So, what's your excuse? Those who make such statements usually present more insight into their own situations than anything else...

Exactly how many 'more' problems and accidents will it create ? Should the bars all be closed full stop under the premise of 'preventing all alcohol related issues' ??..

Valid point - thats a policing issue not a licensing hours issue.

It seems you need to be holidaying at a Wellness retreat not a town already well know for partying... If you don't want to get woken up by louts at 4am dont stay in central Patong or central Pattaya... isn't that somewhat of a no-brainer ? And no... Thailand hasn't shot itself in the foot at all.... The heyday for Thai tourism was when there were no rules.. back in the late 90's early 00's.

do they use alcohol and drugs in those businesses too?? ... and then start replying to their own posts ?? You think people working in the late night entertainment industry are more stressed because the 'customers' use alcohol and drugs ? Will they get paid more for the extra hours ???... that could ease a financial burden and generate less stress. Or... it may give late night staff (restaurants / hotel staff / shift workers etc) an outlet to enjoy themselves. There are so many variables... looking at this matter though the singular lens of negative myopia shown above is perhaps 'brainless'.

My Thai-bought laptop has got "£" on "3". My Thai brought lap-top has a # where the 3 is and a $ where the 4 is... but its so simple to do the letter mapping... so that £ appears on <shift 3>.....

Flippin ek... So he's admitting to hitting you deliberately and driving off because your bag clipped him at the previous lights. IF so... are you pushing the police to file criminal charges and hammering him for all compensation you can get... its attempted murder as the above poster (NextG) highlights.

Absolutely agree.... Practicing 'hard braking' is of course a good thing... But... it doesn't really help with a slippery surface, sandy surface, oily surface etc.. unless you are practicing all of those and then know exactly what surface you are on at all times - its simply not practical. My ABS has engaged over a drain cover I saw too late... (sure I should have been riding more defensively to see such drain covers someone will say... but we're talking real world situations)... Cars have slammed their brakes on for no reasons, rear wheel ABS comes on (not really an issue at all IMO, the rear wheel gets slightly skittish)... Front, no way I want that to skid or slip and the road surface here is so variable its simply unpredictable - its why I wont ride in the rain at all (until essential or caught out). I do believe ABS has saved me from dropping the bike a couple of times, I'd never want to ride a bike without it (unless on a track etc - and lets face it, we don't ride on tracks and this is not about that).

Amazing. I could have written that. I am blessed. Same story. But many of my Thai Farang friends can not write the same story. Absolutely agree.... however, I never would have written that... my Wife reads the forum sometimes... Got to keep her guessing !!!!

With the 'small kiosks' what are you a bit wary off ?... Data security or quality of work ? I'm about to get a screen replacement on on MacBook Air (it broke last year). I'm also about to get a keyboard replacement on a MacBook Air (keys worn down). I will get this work carried out at https://www.unlimitmac.com/ I had a repair carried out on a screen about 10 years ago and they did a solid job so I'm happy to use them again.

Agreed..... I've had the ABS surprise me by engaging a few times in Bangkok. Of course, some will say I've 'grabbed to much brake'... or 'I need to increase my skill level'... Or 'skilled riders don't need ABS' etc etc... Yes... they are amazing bike riders who've ridden the world yadda yadda yadda..... For the rest of us normal people, ABS simply makes things so much safer.

Quite the exaggeration there... An extra two hours is going to cause the workers at late night venues to get stressed... What about all other other businesses that operate at night ?

For someone who appears to have been here for a while... how have you not become aware of the colourful language used by Thai's ??... Every culture and nationality has its colourful language and Thailand is certainly no different at all. The Thai's who get offended at Westerners swearing in their 'western language' are the ones looking to be offended by anything. They are already angry and just looking for the 'trigger'. In this case we have a kid who fell off her bike and ran into the house.... (because a street dog was chasing her). We have a pickup driver not looking where he was going and ran over the the bike. We have the pickup driver getting angry at someone else because he ran over something in the street. We have an 'uncle' westerner exclaiming 'F$%K !!" becasue the bike was run over. We have the pickup driver, already angry, getting triggered. We have the Westerner not backing down and telling the Thai guy he's wrong... the westerner is correct, if the Thai guy can't see a bike in the street he shouldn't be driving.

And the tour groups are run by who ???

... This reads more like the tour-guide has a chip on his shoulder against Thai's and was looking for any opportunity to Thai-bash.

Neither will it harm the economy. Lots of tourists visit Thailand and Thailand relies a lot on that tourism - Doing as much as possible to accommodate all visitors is a sensible thing.... Of course, not everyone wants to be out late, but quite a lot of visitors do and accommodating that in lisenced area's doesn't hurt. Thailand just needs to sort a few more things out such as removing dual pricing, sorting out the hassle with beach vendor,s deck-chair operators, jet-ski scammers, taxi / tuk-tuk scammers etc... It all adds up to more repeat visitors and few more percentage points with GDP gained from tourism and that makes a difference.

I brought some cheeses once and flew through the middle east... While well wrapped I kind of cr@pped it a little... I was worried about the 'potential for stink' getting into my clothes. Getting your friends to bring it instead is a wise choice...

Agreed.... though perhaps not a supply for years... But, on each UK visit , if convenient, I stock up on 'mens-stuff'... (Deodorant / ShowerGel / Razor Blades / Moisturiser).... That stuff is more than double here & there are no local reasonable alternatives.

Tolerate implies they dislike us but put up with us. But also, tolerate is the closest to 'general indifference' and thats probably how the vast majority of the country thinks about foreigners... We just don't register on their radar, they are busy doing other things !

The answer to this one is a lot simpler than people always try to project. In General Thai's feel as indifferent about us (foreigners) as they do about each other. That's they really don't consider us at all until interacting and when there is an interaction its generally taken at face value. There are of course those Thai's whose attitudes have become tainted in area's where there are a lot of foreigners because some have behaved poorly which triggers a negative bias and self perpetuates a degree of mutual disregard. In my daily interaction with Thai's in Bangkok in general walks of life I feel perfectly normal, I feel I am treated perfectly normally.

Erm.. thats someone what of an oversimplified misunderstanding... The companies I consult for have large IT departments, large multinationals... It is the IT techs that cause most of the issues IMO (under the guise of security in many situations). The most common issue though is windows stalling or crashing when I'm trying to do too much.... Similar issues, different companies, different machines, different countries... the common denominator is that Windows just isn't as stable or reliable as it should be.

The 'shiny and dark' stuff is just the 'Dark Roast' coffee... all the oils have been drawn out... You'll be looking for medium roast...