khunjeff

Over the last 30+ years, I can't remember the cool season ever starting in mid-October, at least in Bangkok.

How is the prime minister elected in Thailand? <snip> Seem that he was indeed elected in accordance to constitution. In this case, there's a very big difference between "elected by the people" and "elected in accordance [with the] constitution".

I think organizing the press conference to announce the donation already cost more than 3 million baht...

Plus you then have to haul them away in trucks, due to the weight and size of the bunches - and all for a few hundred baht each. I certainly believe that this theft is happening, but it's hard for me to see how it's worth the effort unless it's being done on a nearly industrial scale.

That hasn't been true since Big Joke got rid of the coupon system. Under the current system, if you show a business class boarding pass from any airline, you can use fast track. The last few times I passed through, hall 2 was being used for all fast track categories except first and business class pax (diplomats, Thai Elite, LTR, etc) - the premium class pax were sent to an area near the queue for Thais. I assume that's a temporary arrangement, but I don't know what the final plan is.

This was Ethiopian, which is consistently terrible about not expediting priority baggage, but I've had the same experience on many other airlines, including Thai. Only a few carriers really bother to segregate and expedite priority bags, and even those often have problems with luggage that transited en route to the final destination. As for advising me of fast track? Ever since they stopped handing out fast track coupons, I've never had any airline advise me that I was eligible for fast track, ever. I always have it through my visa anyway, so that isn't an issue for me.

The issue is that he says he doesn't like Thai coffee because the beans are too dark and oily, and people are correctly pointing out that his complaint is with the roast level, not the beans themselves. I've ordered beans on Shopee from a number of northern growers, and always ask for light or medium roast. They roast to order after receiving the order, and the beans have never been dark or oily.

I just got a VN e-visa last week (American, not Australian, but that shouldn't make any difference). The visa doesn't show an authorized length of stay, just "from" and "to" dates, which is normal (they just admit you to the "until" date, regardless of when you enter). With both this visa and the several I've had in the past, the dates on the visa have always been exactly what I entered onto the online form, so I'm not sure why you experienced a disconnect. Two possible issues: first, the form will often pre-populate the "until" date - be sure to change it to the date you want. The limit used to always be counted in months - e.g., one month was Nov 1 to Dec 1 - but now it's in days, so 90 days is Nov 1 to Jan 29. The system will tell you if you entered a date too far in the future, so you can just keep backing up a day at a time until it's happy. Second, the system always shows you a summary of what you entered so you can review it before going to the payment page. This time around, I noticed on the review page that the "until" date I had manually entered had changed back to the pre-populated default date. I backed out to the data entry page and re-entered the date 90 days in the future, and this time it stuck. Something to watch out for...

In the immigration queue, you're stuck standing in a crowd, shuffling along with no break until you finally get to the counter. Once you get to the baggage hall, you can sit down on a bench, go to the restroom, look at duty free, or whatever. I know where I would prefer to spend my 45 minutes. Totally depends on the airline. Some are very good about prioritizing business class bags, and some don't even try. I arrived on business class last month, and hundreds of economy bags came out before mine (but the airline employee bags somehow magically emerged first...).

You do know that the vast, vast majority of visitors to Thailand spend less than three weeks here, and never have to do any reporting or form-filling of any kind after their initial entry?

If the workers have already found their way to UAE or Jordan, there's no problem to return to Thailand on regular flights - the hard part is getting out of Israel. If THAI isn't able to help with that part, their "repatriation" flights are of minimal value.

It's an oddly specific false accusation.

Please Explain. It's the same creative math used by the movie and recording industries - calculate losses to piracy by pretending that every person who used the pirated content would have otherwise paid full price. In this case it's even more absurd, since (as far as I know) the Thai stations weren't making this content available to viewers abroad, even if those people might have been happy to subscribe to an official streaming site.

It appears to be just regular candy that happens to have been imported from a foreign country without permission, and doesn't have a poorly printed Thai label in a microscopic typeface plastered over the original packaging. The "authorities" carry on regularly about these illegally imported food products, but since people don't really believe that the Thai FDA has some kind of special inspection and approval process that doesn't exist elsewhere, regular folks mostly pay no attention.

Exploiting migrant workers is an occupation reserved for Thais.

So this isn't about an actual military need, but just a desire to buy something...anything...?

Thanks, this is very useful information. I recently got the first shot in New York (paid by insurance), but probably won't be back there during the recommended window for the second. It's great that I can get it here instead.

Who cares whether two customers had taken drugs? They would probably get the same result if they did surprise urine tests at any 7-11 after midnight.

They continue to ignore the reality that millions of Thais don't live anywhere near their registered address. A worker in Bangkok or Phuket will only be able to spend their Khon Kaen or Udorn money during their twice-yearly trips "home", which doesn't make much sense.

I suppose the next step will be to say they need to implement the tourist fee to pay for this?

So if visitors from China and Kazakhstan still required visas, the police wouldn't arrest people for crimes?

Haircuts - check ✅ Vests - check ✅ Ok, all the outstanding issues with the police have been taken care of!

The real question is, why do the workers pay anything? Why doesn't the government require that all expenses be paid by the employer?

What a surprise - most people answer "yes" when asked "do you want free money" ????

That is only for renewal. For an applicant who has never had a US visa before, an interview is mandatory.