khunjeff

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.

It's not clear from the media reports (all of which just parrot an ASEAN press release) whether this would involve full fifth freedom rights or not, and I can't locate the actual text of the new protocol online 😕

I'm not British, so I have no dog in this fight, but my understanding is that these are what the US calls "totalization agreements". They allow people who work in multiple countries, but don't have enough years in any one country to qualify for a pension, to add up all their years and end up getting retirement benefits. What I do not understand is why these agreements have anything whatsoever to do with whether British pensioners receive annual increases - that would seem to be a 100% internal UK decision that doesn't require agreement from any other nation. Just as an example, US Social Security recipients get the same amount of money whether they live in the US or abroad (other than in a tiny number of countries that are under sanction or don't allow official access to beneficiaries, but even in those cases the benefits will eventually be paid if the recipient moves out of the problem country). The presence or absence of a totalization agreement doesn't affect the payment at all.

A wondrous condition that didn't stop him from flying around the world the day before returning to Thailand, or traveling around the country giving speeches as soon as he was free. Truly complex.

Ex-con with no position in the government says whaaaaat??

I didn't realize the Dept of Corrections had jurisdiction to decide what the Parliament can and can't do.

I drink alcohol, and I stay in hotels, but I have never, ever ordered room service alcohol from any hotel restaurant or bar, and I don't know anyone who has...

As though this hasn't always been permitted?! Do any hotels come and empty the minibars at midnight and refill them again at 11am?

Translation: the car drove onto the tracks without looking and without considering the possiblity that a train might be coming. We were taught even as children - when approaching a railroad track, STOP, LOOK, and LISTEN before proceeding.

Is the good general clueless? Or does he think we're clueless? Or did the reporter just cut and paste from old stories? This is from 1 Dec 2022: "Commander of the Immigration Bureau Pol. Maj. Gen. Choengron Rimphadee has said that officials only spend 45 seconds checking each arrival's passport information, visa status, biometric information, and blacklist status." https://domesticflightsthailand.com/news/suvarnabhumi-airport-ready-to-process-150-passengers-each-minute And this is from 5 Feb 2024: "The inspection revealed that it normally takes about 45 seconds for a person to enter Suvarnabhumi Airport." https://www.khaosodenglish.com/tourism/2024/02/05/pm-evaluates-the-suvarnabhumi-issues-with-his-own-eyes/ That's very interesting, because APPS has already been in use for the past nine years: "AOT will start using Thailand APPS on 1 December 2015. Arrival passenger, transit-transfer passenger and departure passenger will be charged 35 THB." https://dcs.aero/product/thailand-api/ If you don't believe that, look at any international ticket that you've bought since that date, and in the "taxes and surcharges" section you'll see that 35 baht fee under the code E7...

The description is very poorly worded, but I think the idea is that a tour agency hires a properly licensed Thai tour guide to fulfill legal requirements on paper, but the real "guiding" is actually done by the foreign tour leaders who have the necessary language skills to communicate with their customers (while the Thai guide just "sits").

People experienced years of traffic chaos during the construction of the eastern portion of the Orange Line, but due to breathtakingly incompetent contracting procedures, they have yet to see any "convenience" from the project at all.

I was wondering why UNESCO was ranking airports, and the answer is that it isn't. The Prix Versailles was started by Diversum, "an association founded in France in 2006 that has always had a focus on questioning the links between the economy and culture under globalization". Neither the association nor the prize organization is run by the UN - they simply present their annual awards at UNESCO headquarters. https://immobilier.lefigaro.fr/article/quand-l-unesco-s-interesse-a-l-architecture-commerciale_aea227fa-18ba-11e5-a3b7-228dc60e8a1e/

Oh, they've been told to refrain from overcharging! Then it's all taken care of. Thank you, police! 😁

There are 54 judges on the panel?! Doesn't that seem like overkill?

This is about illegal entry, not "illegal residency".

Aggressive vending is an occupation reserved for Thais 😉