khunjeff

"Apichart’s original sentence was reduced through multiple royal pardons to 12 years, 8 months, and 12 days. With these reductions, his sentence is now due to conclude on July 27, 2034."

The numbers in your chart are for monthly arrivals, not yearly. There will indeed be around 35 million foreign tourist arrivals (as counted by TAT...) in 2024.

I hope the contract is written very carefully. Every time they've done this in the past, the operator eventually ends up elevating the toll to such a high level that the government starts whining about how unfair it is, and trying to get it lowered. There is zero chance that the project will be completed and open for traffic just three years after the contract is signed...that just never happens.

That's all well and good, but how will it affect the profits of the tuk tuk and taxi mafia? That's always the most important question in Phuket.

Most of the stateless hill tribe people were born in Thailand, and have parents and grandparents who were also born in Thailand. So rather than just patting itself on the back for this magnanimous gesture, perhaps Thailand should ask itself how it ever allowed this situation to develop in the first place.

A similar setup was recently found along the bridge to Savannakhet, if I recall. How are technicians stringing miles of cable across international borders without anyone from either side noticing? Or does that question answer itself?

"It's not us at all! It's our wholly-owned online platform that has our name and that we've been heavily advertising! Why are you blaming us??"

There is no "whole office for LTR". The photo shows BoI's (clumsily named) "One Start One Stop Investment Center", which is where LTR applicants go to get their processing done. That office does a lot more than just LTRs, and the couple of times I went there it appeared that LTRs make up only a small part of the workload.

Not even close - the Saigon Floating Hotel opened in 1989. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel_Haegumgang

What is described in the article certainly sounds like nothing more than garden variety prostitution. The real rental wives were a major phenomenon back during the days of the US military bases in Thailand during the 1970s, when soldiers might arrange for a woman to live with them for six months or a year. There are still popular Isaan songs about "mia chow" (rental wives).

I would think an oncoming train would be easier to see in a dimly lit area, not harder, considering that it would have a very bright headlight on the front (and would probably be blowing its horn quite loudly, but that's a separate issue).

...which happens pretty frequently, especially in the wee hours. Or at least it feels like it 😄

Absolutely nothing in this article backs up this statement. Regaining Category 1 status will allow flights between Thailand and the US to resume, but the flights will only happen if some airline sees them as economically viable. Has any carrier announced that they plan to initiate these routes once they're permitted?

But if AoT bragged about it, it must be true! Seriously, though, just because a system has been implemented doesn't mean it will always be functioning properly.

Indeed - the arrest photo with six officers for some dope who overstayed by 4+ months and was discovered only because he presented himself at the airport immigration counter seems like overkill...

Who wants to break the news to him that he has no official position and isn't part of the government?

I somehow doubt that I would choose provincial police officers as the best-qualified people to lead an investigation of a major construction accident.

I was hoping that particular idiocy might be different with the LTR than it was with the Non-O, but apparently not. I don't understand why immigration seems to think of a passport as a sort of free-form notepad where they can jot down your entire visa history, rather than just keeping most of those details in their own computer system 🤷

It's not officially permitted, but I've read accounts on these forums from people who asked politely if their spouse or friend could join them and were told, sure, go ahead. This is similar to the Thai citizens line, which officially is only for Thais, but which accompanying foreign spouses are almost always permitted to use as well. Just give it a try - the worst that can happen is that they say no.

The responses all seem to be about immigration, but the system is meant to be about check-in, baggage drop, security, and boarding, in addition to immigration. Since this is an AoT press release, they fail to mention that the only part of that process that AoT controls is security. Immigration will decide who can or can't use FR to pass through their gates, and the airlines will decide who - if anyone - can use it for check-in and at the gate. Since airlines are responsible for checking visas and passports for entry to destination countries, they are generally not as open to using fully automated systems for international flights as they are for domestic trips. Still, if it speeds anything up, sure, why not. (If you entered the country legally, and especially if you ever got an extension of stay, the Thai government already has your picture, so don't fantasize that they're grabbing your soul by saving your photo.)

As opposed to Trump's incisive, sparkling, laser-focused responses in interviews. Uh huh.

And so the comedy continues.

The previous Protocol 5 only covered third and fourth freedom rights, so I don't think the name tells you anything. And they could certainly allow circular routes where pax who boarded in Thailand could get off at any of the stops, while Thailand-bound pax could board at any stop. Hardly ideal, but definitely possible (and not requiring fifth freedom rights).

How exactly will sorting work? They currently only send a single garbage truck and everything goes into it (after the trash guys have sorted it by the roadside and removed anything they can resell). Will they buy a whole new fleet of trucks to collect recyclables?

Since the lowering of the barrier is normally preceded and accompanied by flashing lights and loud bells or sirens, she probably knew a train was coming, but tried to gun her way through the crossing before it arrived. RIP.