Chongalulu

Actually this was raised in UK and the answer is no. The handbrake has to be on,you have to be pulled over and the foot pedals cannot activate the engine start.

Drink driving is a far more serious offense when you will be arrested and attracting an immediate driving ban. Getting insurance afterwards will be extremely difficult and expensive.Use of the phone (UK) is a fixed penalty giving points on your licence but no arrest /court appearance . Reckless and Careless driving also mean a court appearance.

Firstly I am legal anyway by virtue of the monthly income I bring in and secondly I can’t access that 800k to live on - it has be be left untouched for months prior to my visa extension application and 400k can not be accessed at all. Given the return I achieve on my investments 20k paid to an agent is the cheaper amount . That’s even before the question of a lump sum being lodged in an institution and a country I would not choose to put there.

No,we were politely insistent and eventually they conceded but warned that next year it "wouldn’t work". This despite having the 20+ printed contract notes for each of the fx transactions. But yes,it would be cheaper to pay 20k to an agent than tie up 800k in a Thai bank account which I invest at a far greater return in my SIPP and ISA investment wrappers.

Said someone deluding themselves that things are the way they wish it were despite the reality. I easily meet the criteria for money brought into the country monthly but recently it was made extremely difficult for me on daft objections (why did I bring in so MUCH money- 3x the amount required actually!) . Clearly I was being pushed into using a agent for someone to get their cut. What should I do in that case , leave the country or pay an agent?

It’s perfectly legitimate to complain about corruption while having to go along with it in order to get things done. We didn’t make the rules of the game here but we are obliged to play by them.

By definition you cannot finitely measure corruption (think about it),but the metrics used are perfectly valid ,it isn’t someone just putting 2 wet fingers in the air.

Then all that shows is your breathtaking misunderstanding

C2,D,E rating ?

Perhaps a fickle sickle?

Major article in World section of Sunday’s Times (uk)re a reporter’s experience of being carted off to Phuket hospitel. Excoriating and further damaging the tourist industry.

Not only this which is today’s Times,but yesterday’s Sunday Times has the major leading article in World section of their reporter’s description of being carted off for quarantine in a Phuket hospitel. Thailand getting increasing poor press coverage of the treatment of tourists

To paraphrase Monty Python," It’s an ex high season" … and heading towards an "ex tourist industry".

Ironically,and topically,they were playing Meat Loaf's "Bat out of hell" ????

Worse still,there are those who believe,against all evidence,they are possessed of such. Try that mirror…

It appears you have contracted something worse than either ! ????

We know the tune your playing- you 'harp' on about it incessantly,but I’m calling you a 'lyre' …

Yet another Groundhog Day thread with the same tedious comments. Give up on this ,please ! ????

Most unfathomable Thai officialdom decisions are easily explained by reference to Hanlon's Razor and the Dunning Kruger effect. Or perhaps more simplistically by the 'Thai Thick gene ' ????

"Dog ate my homework " excuse ????

Very few Thais actually pay any income tax - it’s mainly collected by indirect taxes (spending - sales tax) so Farangs spending considerably more pay more taxes. Speaking as a UK citizen I am liable to pay uk income tax on my uk earnings including pensions and rent and that income pushes me into the 40% higher rate band. You don’t really understand tax law to make the rather ill informed statement that ‘farangs pay no tax in their own country throughout their whole life"

300 baht per tourist ? What are the government going to do with the extra 3000 baht pouring into their coffers this year…?

Unless they can restore their former tourist industry (and it won’t be the un achievable 'high class' individual they delude themselves about) the employment and wealth prospects for very many Thais is bleak. They simply don’t have the educational skills,nor English command, to make headway in the technological high skills industries to substitute. Tourism’s relatively low skill base suits them perfectly- unfortunately the current mob don’t have the intelligence to understand nor reinvigorate that industry here. An infrastructure is crumbling.

Undoubtedly the Thai education system is rotten to the core,both structurally and practically with poor quality teachers and nothing less than root and branch reform (which won’t happen) will address that. I brought my 9 year old non English speaking stepdaughter to UK putting her through a good state education institution. After getting A levels including Maths and English she went on to get a first class honours in Business Economics at a decent university,thence to a good graduate level job in an established on line commercial operation where she continues to flourish. That said,I think she is considerably more intelligent than the average Thai and some of the most basic common sense errors I see so frequently in everyday Thailand makes me wonder whether there is a genetic deficiency which some of us refer to as the "Thick Gene". ????

Upholding the law is their work? Selectively….