khunjeff

Their cunning plan somehow always involves 20+ personnel in one big group at a static checkpoint under a tent with a refreshments table, and no one even pretending to look out at the road. Actually going out on the highway and pulling over reckless drivers never seems to be an option.

Yes, you're wrong. You're probably thinking of Easy Pass, which requires users to have a transponder in the vehicle to communicate with the toll gate, and to slow to a crawl so that the payment can be verified and the barrier can go up. M-Flow is a totally different system that uses license plate readers - so no transponder is needed - and allows vehicles to pass through the barrier-free gates without slowing or stopping. From what I can gather, anyone can use the lanes, but while registered users can have a card on file and be charged automatically, those who haven't signed up will get a bill in the mail that will need to be paid within a week in order to avoid a fine.

The bar under the bridge next to Thonglor Pier is still there as far as I know, but it sells yaa dong, not straight lao khao.

Let's see how long it takes before the first person is arrested after believing his words.

I think it's all mythical, period. Aside from some very limited and tightly regulated medical uses, the so-called legalization of marijuana would seem to be better described as a semi-decriminalization of hemp - nothing that anyone outside of Anutin's party would describe as "marijuana" is affected at all.

That may be true for GBP from UK accounts, but it certainly isn't universally true. @stat is correct that for USD from US accounts, using an ATM is more advantageous than Wise if your debit/ATM card doesn't have any foreign transaction charges, and also refunds ATM fees. A number of US card issuers fall into that category, including the Charles Schwab card that is popular on this forum. If your card doesn't refund the 220 baht fee (and especially if it has any extra fees for foreign transactions), then yes, Wise will be better. See the examples below, taken a few minutes ago. Using a card like Schwab, an ATM withdrawal of 30k THB would be about 85 baht cheaper than using Wise. Not a lot, but more than zero. Wise definitely has its advantages, particularly the fact that I can move a large amount of money at once, with a guaranteed rate. So I do use them for sending larger amounts, but for sums in the 30k THB range, I use an ATM. Again, your results will vary depending on your home country bank, card, and currency.

Buriram - what a surprise ???? But I don't quite understand how this all works. DoA is a government department, while AOT is a publicly listed, for-profit company (albeit one with a substantial government ownership share). So how will these airports be "transferred"? Will AOT pay for the opportunity to run them, or will they be paid by the government to operate them, or...? I'm having difficulty following the money here.

Exactly the same on my soi and the adjacent sois - you would never know the sidewalks were less than five years old. I can't even pull a suitcase on my sidewalk - I need to walk in the street if I'm trying to get to the MRT or Airport Link to go to an airport.

Cremated human remains are sterile, and the amount that is scattered is minimal. It's very unlikely that anyone downstream would even notice, and there certainly wouldn't be any noticeable environmental impact. Throwing mattresses and pillows into the river, on the other hand - yeah, that's not a good idea, and is also pretty weird.

In the past, your first extension would usually count as a 90 day report, and they would give you a slip like the one below. Did you get one? If not, then your reporting date hasn't changed.

Pre-departure testing is no longer required for transit through Singapore: "Travellers are not required to present a negative pre-departure test result to transit through Singapore. However, they may still be required to produce a valid negative Covid-19 test certificate if it is required for entry into their planned destination." https://www.singaporeair.com/en_UK/sg/media-centre/news-alert/?id=kataac8r Every testing requirement I've seen so far has counted the time period before the first flight in the itinerary, regardless of whether it's a domestic connecting flight or an international departure.

Give MedConsult a call and see whether Dr Donna can help under your circumstances.

This is a nice idea, but the reporting on the program seems to imply that the tours will be conducted in Thai. That's completely understandable, but would seem to be worth mentioning in an article aimed at English speakers.

Dr. Yong felt lonely after not being in the news for a few days, so it was time for another pronouncement.

Yes, Dr. Donna at MedConsult can issue one - see the attached photos.

Not to ensure that migrants are protected from abuse and slavery, but to be sure that Thailand doesn't lose face in a foreign report?

Is it just me, or does "Michael Bridge" sound an awful lot like Dan About Thailand? ????

Very well put, and so true! Add to that the hand-drawn map often required at immigration, where no one looks to see whether it reflects actual geography, or even has real street names ????

Yes, it's a mystery to me as to why CW only has six slots a day now for retirement extensions, when under the old appointment system they had them available every 15 minutes, all day. Very peculiar. I do notice that they now list the time for the service as "one hour", when the actual face time with the IO is usually less than 15 minutes; not sure whether that was intentional, or just a data entry error.

You're right, that was probably the idea - from someone in Bangkok who had never been to Betong, or looked at a map. I've pinned the location of the new airport below, just to illustrate how fanciful the idea of anyone popping over to Narathiwat from there really is. I do hope the airport is a success, though - I used to travel to Betong fairly often, and hated the long, hair-raising van rides to get there.

I know they love their hubs, but Betong is extremely remote, which was the motivation for building an airport there in the first place. It certainly doesn't "connect" to Pattani and Narathiwat, unless they plan on having interprovincial flights, which seems extremely unlikely.

CW's stated policy is that bank letters are acceptable if issued within seven days prior to the application, but that you must also update your bankbook on the day you apply (which for most banks requires a transaction). Of course, any individual officer might have her own idiosyncratic policy on the matter that you won't know about until you're in front of her...

Exactly - the merchant runs the card, and the charge is either accepted or rejected. No one has to make a policy about which nationalities can use which payment methods in which localities.

He's 64 years old, so I think it's extremely unlikely that he'll serve anywhere near 50 years...not that that was ever really a possibility.

I got it as well, even though I used my Thailand Pass months ago... Google was wise to the scam, and automatically classified it as spam.