richard_smith237

I renewed in Nov 2024 (so not 2025).... It took a 8 weeks and a little messing about. Firstly they wouldn't accept my payment method - I had to fill out a form and use my UK credit card details (I didn't like this and though it insecure) they told me there was no online payment portal. - My payment was rejected (unknown reason) - I was then given an online payment portal to pay (which was accepted). Next they would not accept my Passport Photo (said it wasn't recent enough). - I had to post another passport photo to HMPO in the UK About 8 weeks later I received the e-mail from VFS to collect the passport. So... IMO, it should take about 4-5 weeks, but there can be some hickups.

As per my point above - even when using the vehicle for private only use ?

Is it ?? I'm not sure but you seem to answer with certainty so you may know the facts, or at least state the information as a fact. When taxi driver takes his family on holiday using his taxi - he's not using it as a public service vehicle, he's using it as a private vehicle. If he were to let a family member drive that car (taxi) while on holiday, is that then illegal ??? i.e. Can a Taxi, or TukTuk or Motosai taxi (with yellow plates) only EVER be driven by those with specific Taxi or motorcycle taxi licenses ???... even when used privately....

True.... But what exactly has the TukTuk owner done wrong ? Is this any different from you letting your mate drive your car ?

Of course he does, everyone driving a vehicle on the road needs a valid licence. How could you even pose that question rationally? Even you cannot be this literal and obtuse.... Its pretty clear he meant 'specifically a TukTuk license'... as if such a thing even exists. Thus: the what could the possible charges be against a foreigner driving a TukTuk ? Its no different that you driving my car (if you have a license). OR... does the Por-ror-bor (basic insurance for) TukTuks ONLY allow for Thai Nationals to drive it, which I doubt.

This sounds serious. I hope the Thai Police have the capacity (via Interpol) to urge or push the Omani authorities to look far deeper into this.... ... Firstly this girl is at terrible and grave risk (if she is still alive). ... Secondly, her 'Boyfriend' seems like a real 'piece of work' and other accusations need investigation.

Classy comment - says a lot about you.

This is is more to do with... .... "Being a foreigner and colouring outside the lines".... Thai authorities tend not to like this... I cant see that there is anything illegal about it at all...

Was the TukTuk insured ? It was the 4 wheeled variety ? - what is different from this than another small van ? If the foreigner had a driving licence (in English Language or an IDP) then I can't see how he was driving illegally ? Are these 'TukTuk's a special license ? ------ We used to drive TukTuks in Bangkok for a laugh - we'd pay the driver a little extra to let us have a go.... Our driving licenses covered us for 3 wheeled vehicles so there was no doubt of legality. However, there may have been doubt over insurance - but realistically, I doubt any of these TukTuks are insured beyond the basis Por-Ror-Bor anyway, which means anyone can driver them.... no ?

To be fair, I've used this forum as a 'resource' and asked questions, often fairly boring ones which have been answered quickly by someone in the know and the thread has died of quickly - it did its job, provided me information I needed..... I don't bother starting topics about getting short changed in a 7-11, or someone queue jumping etc... But I will start something I consider more important... i.e. something which creates traffic chaos in a certain area, experienced scams or recent experience of obtaining an IDP (which sometime comes up but has mixed information)...

This womble went on the ignore list within a day of reading his posts - I haven't seen any real or positive contribution from him at all.

So we should remove sad and confused so that only positive opinions are recorded? Perhaps... if the forum is 'counting' the value of positive contributions... The original system of +1 and a -1 seemed to be the simplest, and we could tell who'd posted them. Only the +1's countered and someone who contributed a lot of positive info had a lot of +1's to their name.... I thought that was a fair way of telling who provided good, helpful, entertaining content vs those who were simply trolling idiots....

C'mon.... you're both popular posters in your own rights... You both may post content which is controversial or disliked by some and considered popular by many, but neither of you could be considered trolls or the pathetic idiots to deliberately trigger argument in every post... Posters such as yourselves were the core and are the core of this forum and you are being diluted by the AI time wasting rubbish that as infiltrated the forum over the past year... ... I think thats the point of the Op.... We are loosing real people genuine opinions (even if they are disagreeable) in lieu of 'meh' topics...

And Airblade, and Cub ....... about 1/2 the scooters in Thailand are 110cc waves. Its only a legal issue anyway - its not as if the kids (or anyone else) has had any training on a scooter and they are all capable of riding into a pole at 100 kmh. It would have been a far better provision by the school to provide all the kids with driver / rider education classes instead of getting them licenses. I say this of education in the West to.... Priorities are still stuffed up somewhat. - Nearly every child will drive at some point - Nowhere near every child will need to use trigonometry. - The same can be said for water and electrical safety. Schools seem not to priorities 'life skills' instead focusing on traditional formal education which is of course incredibly important, but I'd like to see some importance places on life skills every child will grow up needing - and for Thailand, that means teaching every kid road safety, especially on scooters (motorcycles).

Qatar are also quite terrible for the 'bait and switch' of their air-craft. In the past I've booked for a Q-Suite only to see the aircraft altered - I guess all the airlines have little choice but to do this due to operational reasons. This has also benefited me in the past with a Bump up to First Class, so its not all negative ! Qatar Airlines do offer the Chauffeur serves just as Etihad and Emirates do. And yes, they also fly into Gatwick.

I was replying to a poster saying it was illegal, when clearly it isn't. I didn't specify if it was a good idea or not! Fair enough - for further clarification - that license for 15 year olds permits them to ride bikes 110cc or less (if I'm not mistaken) and there aren't many of those around. So... any 15 year old, with a license, riding a greater than 110cc bike so most are in fact 'illegal'.... Its only the Honda Scoopy (110cc) and Wave (110cc) that meet this criteria.

The table counts 'emoji' responses.... all of them, wether +1 or confused and anything between.... Its somewhat of a mispresententation... someone who gets 600 'confused or sad emoji's in a week for posting tosh, will be up there on the table as if they are 'popular posters' when they are not. This is mixes in solid and resonable posters such as yourself with the tosh and twits I've already deleted for posting so much bo!!ox !!! (then when I do open their posts I see all the negative emojis and realised why blocked them in the first place !!!)... As far as being reminded how much time we 'waste' on the forum - I see it as entertainment, like watching a TV series or a movie.... I can't always be out going for dinner or going on holidays.... and when we type quickly (or as quickly as I) its very easy to make 10 or more responses in as many minutes which may seem to others as though we've spent a lot of time here - then somedays I'm just chilling at home all afternoon.... and feel like doing nothing (especially this week after an incredibly hectic previous week when I hardly posted).

I flew TG business class last year... BKK to Tokyo. I've flown Qatar Business Class numerous times in the past 12 months... BKK to Doha I've flown Emirates Business Class numerous times in the past (previous to 12 months ago). They're all good, and I would expect them to be so, but IMO the Q Suits offered by Qatar Airlines out does them all... One think Emirates do that I like (that the others don't) is bring out a thin mattress that makes the seat (bed) a little bit more comfortable. Food wise Qatar is better, and Emirates is better than Thai. Entertainment / infotainment wise, Thai is terrible... Emirates is by far the best of them all. Crew wise - In Qatar, Emirates and Thai - they're all top notch as would be expected. Its only really in Economy where Thai falters.... partially because its almost as if the cabin crew give off the impression that they feel they are above the peasants...... and thats something to do with 'socio-economics'.... traditionally, Thai cabin crew have been sourced from educated families with connections and that seems to seep through in their attitude, almost as if 'economy' is below them... (not all, but certainly a few seem to exude this attitude).

'In the movies' the aim has never been to 'destroy' an oncoming asteroid but to 'reach it early' enough with a 'nuke of sorts' to deflect is trajectory to ensure it misses earth. The reasoning seemed sound enough... i.e. a 0.15 degree deflection far enough out could be sufficient if the asteroid is 5 years out. But also, not only a 'deflection' change would work, but also a 'momentum change' where a subtle 'slowing' impacts (delays) the orbit relative to earth. Theoretically a 5-megaton nuclear explosion 1 year before impact would cause a deflection angle resulting in the asteroid missing Earth by approximately 6,450 km (according to AI).

No chance, sadly he has demential... ... We'll have to rely on GammaGlobulin to bore the asteroid into another dimension !!!!

Due do your age, or humanity wiping themselves out. If the latter, tin foil hatters have been babbling on about such nonsense for over 50 years.

I'm guessing a lot of them (selling cars) have 'borrowed' adds from other sites and are trying to make money as 'middle men'.... and thus are unable to answer the questions. When I have tried to sell my car in the past (on FB market place) I've seen my car pop up as an Add elsewhere.... bunch of charlatans and its exactly the same with houses. Meanwhile, when selling my own car (on FB market place), I get questions that have already been answered in the advert (i.e. mileage, is it still available, where is the car).. Its a pain - but when it comes to buying or selling something online, it seems the other party is commonly extremely lazy and just can't be bothered.

In that case.. Yes.... I understand your point. I recall a 'friend' ( a police officer ) refusing to 'return an escaped prisoner to the north because he'd be expected to pay his own flight ticket and hotel. When they (the BiB) have to buy their won uniforms and guns then we can start to see the size of this issue. Nevertheless, they are not completely 'devoid' of resources.... It doesn't take anything other than a radio and effort.... to position police offers down-stream from traffic lights to catch red-light jumpers. Equally so... it doesn't take anything other than 'effort' for the Policemen to walk out at any junction with stopped traffic and issue fines to all those without seatbelts... ... It doesn't take policemen anything other than effort to 'stop those riding on sidewalks' and fine them.... The truth is - even without decent resources, a lot of police work could still be carried out if they weren't so apathetic..... All the police seem interested in doing is 'rising' within their ranks to get a better cut.

LOL, who are they trying to fool??? I have to agree.... While they are not as bad an undeserving of the poor reputation they receive on this forum, neither are they anywhere close to a 'top-tier' airline. Seating - seats are closer (less leg room) than its seems on other airlines (perhaps an inch less 'knee room') but that could be my negative bias after feeling wedged in last week. Infotainment - horrific, nothing worth watching at all. No issues, this was expected and I had my iPad (as did my family). Flight attendants - doing the bare minimum - Dinner service, then clearing... then they were absent from the cabin for at least 2 hours, no walk throughs (we were at the rear row of the first section near the kitchen, they were sat there talking for 2 hours) - not really service minded at all. Food - outbound: Inedible, we didn't even bother with it, Wife and son refused to eat it to, pretty awful. Inbound: Semi-decent, not good, not bad either - edible and average. Drinks: Wine - not that it bothered me, but its like they were rationing it, less than half a small beaker, maybe due to turbulence risk, but asking for a refill seemed not to be a popular request. The aircraft itself as clean and seats as comfortable as any other. In short - Thai airways didn't offer any more or any less than I expected of them, which certainly is no where near top tier status. I think they need to do a lot to improve to top tier status: - Improvements in catering - Improvements in flight attendants (attitudes and training) - Improvements in infotainment (movies etc) Its not that Thai airways are bad, its just that they are not good either. I'll fly them again when the timing is most convenient, pricing is better or I'm using air-miles but they are never a primary choice.

100%... and the only way they 'become motivated' is through either financial incentive... in this case the 'amounts were not worthy of investigation' (not enough 'cut')... OR 'face' when social media embarrasses one of the bosses sufficiently to demand action....