khunjeff

Perhaps enforcing existing hygiene regulations for restaurants and food stalls would be a better use of their time, rather than cracking down on the virtually non-existent scourge of vendors secretly adding expensive herbs to their food while - remarkably - keeping the prices the same and not telling anyone.

I disagree completely. It certainly hasn't outlived its life span, and it's not a tourist trap by any normal definition of that term. Most of the market is still not geared towards tourists at all, and even the parts that are (souvenirs, etc) have fair prices and zero aggressive sales tactics. And pre-Covid, JJ was absolutely world class. Since it's one of my favorite places - I've been there literally hundreds of times over the last several decades - I would take all of my foreign visitors there, and pretty much all of them thought it was one of the most amazing markets they had ever been to. The problem now is that so many vendors went bankrupt during Covid. I was there yesterday, and it's improved since a few months ago - I would guess that half of the stalls are closed, versus 75% at the very worst point - and is really hopping along the main sois. If they set rents low enough, they should eventually be able to get vendors back to the less desirable spaces deeper inside, but it will take time - and the BMA and SRT will have to avoid the temptation to try to "improve" (i.e., ruin) it in the meantime.

These could be something like limiting the passport for direct return to the US if you took out a repatriation loan, or changes of expiration date for limited passports. In practice, endorsements aren't used much these days, since usually they'll just issue a new document instead. That's true. The US Government doesn't care if those pages are used for visas or other stamps (since they're unlikely to ever be used for endorsements), but some foreign governments absolutely refuse to use them. That depends entirely on the whim of the particular embassy - I've certainly had visa stickers placed on pages with staple holes. In the old days, when Thai Immigration stapled the TM6 into the passport every time, most pages would end up with holes if you traveled frequently.

They've had it on their list of requirements for the past 5 or 6 years, if I recall, though obviously they've never been able to enforce it 100%, since plenty of people have lost or thrown away their boarding pass by the time they reach the counter.

The devil will certainly be in the details, as usual, and insisting on poor quality Thai insurance instead of unlimited overseas insurance is one of the "details" that I'm also thinking may be introduced to derail this plan before it starts. The O-X visa also sounded good when it was first described in broad strokes, but once every Tom, Dick, and Somchai had introduced his own extra requirements, it became a total bust. Anyway, I'll try to stay optimistic and withhold judgement until the real, specific requirements are announced.

Grab should be fine, just leave a small amount of extra time in case there are no cars nearby at that hour. Bolt is also ok, but you'll need to pay cash. The price should be nowhere near 1000 baht - right at this moment, on a weekday afternoon, Grab is under 500 and Bolt is less than 400, and at 5am it will likely be even less.

The forms seem to be listed in random order, but you can use the automatic translation feature on your browser to look for the application for extension of stay, or just look for the number "7" (ตม. 7). If you look at the file size on the right, the TM7 is the one that's 137.22 KB.

Why on earth would the army have a drug testing lab and the police wouldn't? ????

Cannabis isn't cheap. Why would any vendor add it to food and drink unless that was a specific selling point that they wanted to advertise?

So, he's asking the police to "prevent" a trade that isn't violating any law? Got it. I guess the buyers who line up all day to buy weed were not one of the sectors consulted...

The astounding level of hypocrisy continues to take my breath away.

They didn't seem to have thought much about fairness when they charged zero baht to riders on the outer extensions, 15 baht on the inner extensions, and full price on the original network - more like throwing darts at the wall.

That's probably exactly what they do think, but any immigration officer who honestly believes that a mass-produced letter printed on copier paper somehow "verifies" a passport filled with high-tech security features that took years of testing and millions in investment to develop should consider seeking alternate employment...

Very unclear from these reports as to whether this particular agency's services had been legitimate (form-filling, handholding), semi-legitimate (getting mysterious but genuine extensions from small provinces in other parts of the country where the applicant had never set foot), or illegitimate (fake or stolen stamps). We've seen all three over the years. If the last, this could end up being very painful for the clients involved.

Actually, embossed/raised numbers are the "ancient" way of doing things. My US card issuers started going to the flat style with the number printed on the back a few years ago, and as of late last year all of my US credit and debit cards have been replaced by non-embossed versions - it hasn't affected their acceptability at all.

No, not even during the peak of the pandemic - most certificates in the world don't show a passport number or nationality, and many don't even show middle names. Thailand accepted all certificates that appeared genuine, even the handwritten paper cards from the USA.

"to prevent a hassle while waiting for the changing of the law, Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul has signed a directive to enable citizens over 20 years of age to use, store, transport, and sell cannabis imediately without having to obtain permission, according to Mr. Panthep." Oh, so this wasn't a sudden, bizarre restriction thrown into place by the Department of Witch Doctors, it was a compassionate and generous gesture by Anutin to prevent "hassles"! Well done, sir! And well done choosing a spokesman who looks like a James Bond supervillain!

Yes, it seems that Thailand is the one magical place on earth where Reefer Madness is a genuine medical phenomenon rather than just a silly movie ????

That horse left the barn a long time ago.

Airport facilities were specifically exempted from the law on sales hours, so that was totally above board. That's true, but the law was completely dormant until Thaksin (or rather his Interior Minister Purachai) revived it.

It's certainly very impressive that the notice addressed "all" concerns about the demon weed, but I'm still not understanding how the Department of Witchcraft and Jungle Medicine can impose restrictions on its own volition, without any apparent debate or approval by the government or legislature. I'm also wondering how they can "bar" pregnant and lactating adult women from accessing an otherwise legal substance - something which they don't even do for the far more dangerous alcohol and nicotine.