Enzian

The Ice Man in Bolzano has tattoos on his back and elsewhere (I've seen his body lying in the cold room). But his are from 5,300 years ago; back then they had a more serious purpose. Today, not so much.

Ubonjoe, I'm quoting you to get your attention and ask a question. I just got the approval you predicted at 9:15 this Wednesday morning, close to 48 working day hours from application. Thank you! The catch is that I got approved by submitting a repeat of my old success with my old room number in The Trendy Suk 13, as you suggested. So what will be the best strategy and timing to correct my room number with Immigration eventually? My rental agent confirmed she does not file a TM30, and I'm sure the owner in Bangladesh doesn't. I never made any kind of report of moving to a new address when I arrived in Dec., because I had been gone 5 months and I was still in the same building, which doesn't seem to me like a change of address but I guess it is. But the copy of my lease I provided in Dec. when I extended my Non-IMM-O had the new room number--but Immigration never shares nor enters that anywhere? I may move again in a few months, or may not, but that's a different bridge. Thanks!

Indeed how can the government address the issue without generating moral hazard and eventually leading to more debt? Are there any examples of bailouts (other than a few genuine examples of force majeure) that actually made things better over time? It would seem that better underwriting is the only sensible approach. And why is underwriting by Thai lenders apparently so bad?

Does the time of day matter? I have an 8 AM sharp departure for Seoul on Thai Air on 3/23. I'm in the Sukhumvit Asok area and figuring if I get up by 3 AM and in a taxi or the Express train by 4:30 then I will be out there by at least 5:30, but that's only 2 1/2 hours ahead, which of course used to be fine. Any tales of experiences with early flights are appreciated.

I submitted early Friday the 3rd morning, got a "successfully received" notice at 9:30 AM, but should I expect nothing to happen until after the weekend and the Monday 6th holiday? Thanks.

Karma is wonderful.

In 2016 I swore I would never spend another April in LOS, but Covid put that on hold for 3 years. This April I will spend in a part of southern France where the average daily high in April is around 17.5 Celsius. The flight is booked. Have to do it while I still can.

That's the question, and my unscientific opinion is that in Thailand sex is a matter-of-fact, outside morality, hardly to be judged, natural as breathing, sign of temporary and harmless friendship (even if based on exchange of money--but everyone needs money) beyond almost any other country. But I need to do a lot more research to understand for sure.

But how can something be regulated when the regulators, members of the RTP I presume, are allergic to work?

My application explained above was rejected with no explanation The only thing that changed was the room number in the building. So now I have to get a service or go out there myself? And do I have 7 days after the 90 date date to go out to Immigration?

I immediately got the email that my online submitted form was successfully received, but when I open the attachment I see I did not check the box for NON-IMM nor did I type how I arrived on Dec. 10. Do these two things matter? It won't let me just try another one which makes sense. I guess I thought that when I hit the search symbol everything important on the right side would be filled in, I just had to retype the things on the left. Tired and in a hurry. I'll just have to wait and see if this one is rejected? I have till Feb. 9 I think. Thanks! Edit: Also my room number in the Trendy building changed when I arrived in Dec. after 5 months away; only that number changed, nothing else about my address. Did that constitute a change of address that should have been reported in 30 days? I'm rusty since it's been a year roughly since I had to do a TM 47 it looks like.

A few days ago I had a bank manager in person delete the (well designed) bank app I had on my phone for this very reason. Earlier I had them destroy and cancel my debit card. I never got a credit card (use my US ones). I do everything with a teller or a manager, and that's fine. For money to disappear it would almost have to be an inside job, or signature fraud in some form I suppose--I don't know what other possibilities there are.

All this is mostly for show, but I find interesting what Orban is reported as having said: that Russia at this point can't win, but as a political matter Putin can't afford to lose, so what's left is to turn Ukraine into a wasteland and then depart. Further, I know Russia is a (very) bad actor, but I still think the EU could have handled their side of it all better before the invasion started. Unless of course, they wanted it to happen; but incompetence may be a better explanation.

A massage woman was telling me she's been semi-disabled for over a month by gut issues. Having been there myself and read up on it, there are so many possible ways for that to happen in Thailand as well as the ways that commonly happen everywhere, that it would make a very long list.

I was "out on the town" the past two nights around Asoke/Nana and I could almost always see someone nearby vaping. Isn't this going to be like the recreational aspect of the pot initiative, once it gets to this stage it's never going to be walked back or stopped?

The country needs more like him, and in fact we all need backups for him, to take his place when he is possibly taken down. For the entertainment value even if nothing is improved--but I think it will be. Can you imagine a half dozen like him, each coming up with something new about every two weeks or so?

Could this be Chuwit's next news release?

So hash, which I guess is just concentrated pot, is illegal, but pot itself is not? Does anyone know why hash is still listed as a narcotic? How this works? The larger issue, tip of iceberg: I still wonder how all this pot said to be from California and for sale all over Sukhumvit is getting into the country, though I assume however it is, it's not the way this mule/amateur with the hash was trying. (I want to add that I'm sorry for the guy in any case, what he will go through: he was likely not the source.)

Like I told a younger business partner, do the work but don't get greedy. Like that couple arrested for using the same MO to break into 34 gas stations. These guys were involved in more than issuing visas, stuff more humanly serious, and probably by more than association. There has to be more details to come out.

A friend who passed away a couple of years ago was probably one of the half dozen top Pali scholars in the world, and he would say The Thais are not Buddhist. But you don't have to be a Pali scholar to know what he was talking about.

Is the writer of this piece being intentionally dense? It's all a function of the fact that western countries have a normal income 3 or 4 X Thailand. Same as why half of Syria and north Africa wants to move to Europe. Enough.

This is the very most No. 1 slippery slope.

They are good at "driving" IMO, if that's defined as moving the vehicle around. The biggest problem as I see it is that they speed and leave no margin for error, which has to be some kind of fatal cultural blind spot. Would it help if, as in the US, killing someone through negligence would result in financial ruin for years or life?

Off topic, but only a bit. If Chuwit would expose the "agents providing evidence of 800K in the bank" system at Immigration, maybe the whole thing would blow up and instead of losing (tens of?) thousands of spending farangs the government would reform the system allowing a much more reasonable reserve requirement. I'm probably dreaming.

mirabile dictu, we are now reaching never before seen levels of disingenuity.