richard_smith237

Absolutely agree... I carry a mask with me at all times, just incase I’m asked to wear it or in an area where its busy. Now... I’ll be away again for the next 6 weeks... Europe and Middle East. The next time I wear a mask will likely be back in Thailand if I go on the BTS or a hospital.. Unless the virus takes a turn for the worse, or there is a major flu outbreak etc..

I’m neither against masks or for them.... I’d just like to see intelligent balance in these discussions. It seems these discussions can’t be held with out someone either forcing those with a balanced opinions into a 'for or against camp’ where the extremes shout louder and are the only voices heard. I think there are situations where mask wearing would be preferred and beneficial and other situation where mask wearing would be considered excessive; - To some, this makes me ‘pro-mask’ and against the freedom of peoples individual rights not to wear a mask. - To others, this makes me ‘Anti-mask’ and a disease spreader. ------ I’ve traveled a lot in the last 6 months - Thailand is the only place I have seen where there still prolific mask wearing.... That said, I don’t see 100% of people wearing the mask. No one is wearing a mask at my Son’s international School. But, I see many Thai’s still wearing a mask in and around Bangkok... In Big-C etc. My Wife will tell me that people are still wearing a mask not because they fear a virus, but because they don’t want be the ones ’standing out’ - I think much of the mask wearing in Thailand comes down to that point - the 'Contagion effect’ (doing something because everyone else is). There is one facet of this discussion which I do think is important. The ‘contagion effect’ is what it is... its just copying everyone else... people are using this to suggest that people are smart and wearing masks because of the risk from Covid-19... I don’t see this so much in Thailand... its simply just ’the contagion effect’. BUT... as you ThailandRyan pointed out... IF there is a more serious strain of Covid-19 going around, if the symptoms are getting worse or there is greater risk of contracting influenza then increased mask wearing makes a lot of sense. The problem is the lack of balance and the extreme arguments which are the only ones being heard.

There are lots around... Do you want them hard-wired or battery operated. I installed ‘Blink’ (bought off Amazon) for the ease of installation and simplicity of use. They are not 24 hour recording - rather, they record only when there is movement. We can set sensitivity, zones of coverage etc... Batteries are supposed to last 2 years. The cameras can be accessed remotely (they connect to Wifi) and record either to the cloud (if you want) or to a base station which can be accessed on a home Wifi network. I think for something with 24 hour recording it would need a hard wired power supply.

You missed my point..... IF we have to be concerned about the risk we may potentially pose to every single other person around us we’d have to take extreme measures.... (hazmat suits) and that is clearly not practical. Is mask wearing everywhere we go, in everything we do practical ?... I don’t think so. Should we be wearing masks forever now ??... everywhere we go in public ?... I’ll ignore your obvious bias and use of the word narcissist which lends nothing intelligent to the discussion... ...but you do ask a reasonable question... ‘how does an immune compromised person go about protecting themselves ???.... ... How did they go about protecting themselves before Covid-19 ??? Would your argument therefore be, we should always have been wearing masks all the time, decades before Covid-19 ???? i.e. as soon as we knew what viruses are and how they are transmitted...

We should all be walking around in Hazmat suits then !!!... I think common sense can be applied... When the virus was serious being sanctimonious about mask wearing was justified... now it just seems like virtue signalling amongst those who are not aware of how things have moved on outside of Thailand. As I wrote - Wearing a mask on public transport makes sense - not for covid, but for any illness such as the common Cold and Flu... And busy area’s too but there is also a balance with practicality. And of course at hospitals because there are unwell people there with weakened immune systems. Anywhere else... those with weakened immune systems should be taking extra precautions to protect themselves... as harsh as it sounds thats life. Every other country I’ve been to in the last 6 months has moved away from mask wearing... except Thailand... it seems strange returning. That said, if I walk into a Bank or a Big-C etc and the staff are asking that we wear a mask, I’ll wear a mask... but otherwise I won’t. There’s no mask wearing at my Sons school either..

I wore a mask today for the first time in about 3 months. I’ve been flying in and out (to and from Middle East) - No mask wearing at the airport (BKK) or on the flights. I think the last time I wore a mask before today was on the BTS about 3 months ago... I wore it because there was an announcement asking that people wear it (I’ve not been on the BTS since). Then again today in a hospital, because its a hospital and there could be unwell or immune compromised people there. I don’t mind wearing a mask when its necessary... i.e. on Public transport I think its fair enough to wear a mask and in a hospital. But for other aspects of daily life I think we are past it. I’ve just been away for a few weeks... It's seems strange coming back to Thailand and everyone is still locked into the pandemic fear and wearing masks.

Are you suggesting compression socks are ineffective in reducing risk of DVT on flights ?

Policeman asks for a Passport... I answer “No”.... nothing else happens and I walk off... Thats happened twice. A further time the BiB (a group of them) were not so easy to ignore... they wanted me to get out of the taxi. They’d stopped the taxi and asked me for my passport, I held up a copy of my DL... They wanted a passport... So they told me to to get out.... I refused... Told them to wait and they can speak to the person who’s about to take my call... 5 mins later, waved on my way... ... some of these guys are just after a shakedown... I don’t want any part of it, but I also don’t want to carry my passport around (the risk of loss is higher than risk of getting stopped and having a major problem).

Nope... thats not how it goes down at all.... but you know that already just as we know you are not really that stupidly obtuse... The obvious answer is don’t over-stay. Anyone who’s spent any time here knows that law and regulation has little relevance as the Police don’t know or follow their own laws, they just follow the ‘legacy’ of their peers. Whether it involves BiB asking for IDP, Licence, Thai Licence or our Immigration status etc... the best option is to ensure our ducks are in a row... it just makes things go more smoothly. If asked for my Passport in the street... I’m not going to try and teach a half-witted policeman his own laws... I just play the game, I don’t carry my passport so what happens next depends on the situation.. i..e show Pink ID, Driving Licence, Photo of Passport... etc.. if they don’t accept that things get a little trickier... I have BiB friends I can call, so never a major issue.

Its out there some where.... Its an Order of the Ministry of Interior No. 1496/2561... an ID inspection can only be carried out by a police officer with the rank of second lieutenant or higher.

Your story about the "scam" is pretty vage. There have been a few a stories on this forum recently... People leave their Passport with an agent, then they can’t get their passport back. Agent is either scamming them, has lost their passport, can’t get the visa etc... but they’ve taken the money then are not responding... Call it whatever you want... argue the semantics of the word scam..... its irrelevant... Some Visa Agents are offering a service, taking the money, perhaps even making up false stamps or using connections at immigration to rubber-stamp a passport illegally etc.... All somewhat of a grey area.....

Obviously you didn’t download it and watch it, because you wouldn’t waste your time... ... So, how did you watch it ??

It amazes me how often stationary objects are hit through no other reason than inattention. ------- Coming in from the Airport we were in an AOT van which was pulled over by a Motorcycle policeman for being in the outside lane (apparent a van cannot be in the outside lane) - the Policeman clearly wanted a bribe from the AOT driver and was dragging the stop out. I was furious... Firstly I told the driver not to stop on the shoulder, too dangerous. I told him to pull off the expressway at the next stop but the policeman was being very clear and stopped him at the side of the road. My Son and Wife in the car... I felt extremely vulnerable with lorries and trucks speeding past. I was so close to simply getting in the drivers seat and driving off the express-way to a safer place to stop. Obviously nothing happened, but to have our safety compromised in such a careless manner infuriated me - neither the driver or the Policeman understood the risk. Yet, I have since seen so many occasions where someone was killed because they’d stopped their vehicle on the ’shoulder’ - in Thailand thats asking for someone to hit your vehicle.

Erm... this has to be a troll... no one is this stupid.... right ?

All fairly moot..... Ignorance of the law is not a valid excuse.

At least they didn’t suggest you take some assistance from the people following you...

I've been stopped at Asoke and asked for my passport too.... That doesn't mean its a legal stop. There are regulations that the Police ‘should’ follow... but when we see them riding around without helmets, how can we expect them to follow their own regulations. As I understand it, ONLY an Immigration Officer can enquire about your Immigration Status. Only a Commissioned Officer (any Police) can ask for ID, OR, an non-commissioned officer in the presence of commissioned officers in a raid or at an official check-point.

You seriously think that those foreigners with no permission to be here, regardless of the length of time, should not be arrested and dealt with? What do think should happen to them when discovered, told "Tut, tut, overstay, never mind, off you go" so that there would be no need for anyone to ever get a visa/extension? Perhaps your rationalisation is that those on overstay should be left alone with no consequences and those legal foreigners who do renew their extensions should just have to get on with it? You're not wrong at all... Of course over stayers should be dealt with accordingly, they have broken the law. But, there does seem to be a ‘clamp-down’ and a disproportionate amount of focus. IF the Thai police applied this level of focus to ALL crimes it would easier to suggest this is the police simply doing their jobs... instead there seems to be an ‘element of targeting foreigners’ about this... Why aren’t over charging taxi drivers being dealt with the same way ??? OR, any other regular indiscriminate crime we see and witness daily here ? (Perhaps because the others don’t have 20,000 baht to pay a fine ?.... there’s no profit in targeting other crimes). I’m cynical... but I have learned to be here.

He wouldn't have to pay "triple price air fare" if he had been here legally. & Someone else could get a ticket for him... (not triple fare of course)... I don’t think the ticket has to be purchased through Immigration.

Are you sure about that ? IF I’m not mistaken - only Commissioned officers can ask for ID (Government issued photo ID). An immigration officer needs to be present IF they want to check the Immigration Status of a person in the street. That said: If as you pointed out, the Immigration Police have asked for regular police to arrest someone for overstay, they are accused of ‘committing a crime’ and can be checked - in this case I believe an Immigration officer still needs to check the information (passport).

He's not harming anyone but one doesn't have to harm others to commit criminal offences. In isolation, a 15-day overstay does no less harm than a 1500-day overstay. Agreed... yet some people on this thread want the overstayers to face some rather extreme penalties... For an offence which (apparently) does not have an impact on anyone I’m not sure why someone who has overstayed for 15 days would face so much hate.

If thats the case, then fair enough. I do think it would be somewhat of an own-goal if the BiB were running spot checks on foreigners in the street - IF this isn’t happening and they (BiB) are dong their jobs intelligently and catching genuine overstayers then fair enough.

Saw them try to get a guy for 10 days overstay last week. Turned out to be a mistake in their computer records, but they were gonna get him! There are a lot of reports of overstayers in the medial recently - clearly there is an ongoing crack-down... I went out to watch the football the other night. While heading out it did cross my mind if I was going to get hassled by any BiB to show my passport and prove immigration status... (in light of all this news and apparent crack-down). I didn’t have my passport, nor had I taken a photo of the entry stamp (from the previous week). Of course, nothing happened, but the thought did cross my mind. I’m wondering if this is the thin end of the wedge and foreigners are going to get hassled, OR, if the BiB are responding to intelligence, reports, flags on the immigration computers etc...

I wonder if it has something to do with the return of tourists and concerns by the powers that be that perhaps Thai people will start to think too positively of foreigners as they see how necessary they are. I suspect that now foreigners are back, the Immigration Police can make a lot more money. They may be shooting themselves in the foot by clamping down too early and frightening off a huge ‘crop’ of potential future overstayers they could extort !!!

IF someone overstaying a day or 15 days is not just a minor or indiscriminate issue - how much of a serious crime do you think it is ?? I’m not defending over stayers... they know they laws, they either tried to break them or circumnavigate them... and yes doing so is wrong. But, there seems to be somewhat of an over-reaction, particularly on this forum by posters who want to see over-stayers face serious penalties ???... I’m just trying to work out what some people thing is so horrifically criminal about someone staying a bit too long ? So... What is the issue you see caused by someone who has overstayed by 15 days ? what harm is he causing someone ?