Essecola

At your own risk

4 hours ago, Tayaout said:

Funny also how the guy outside sell the queue number for 1500 baht now. There is way more than 250 applicants per day. If I remember right it was close to 500 when I went there. 

That's awesome news. A well priced payment option. Too bad they wouldn't offer a 120,oooTHB option for one year visits. Oh well. 

Funny thing about the new appointment system in Vientiane, there are only 250 slots per day. Some days in past, before this system, there would be 600 ppl submit applications. So actually they are in a sense giving up 500,000 baht or so of income per week in order to stop people from coming to Thailand easily. Nice.

What if you dont want to commit 500,000b of money to the elite visa. If you arent sure you want to commit to five full years here. If you have a change of plan after 18 months, can you get some of the payment refunded? Or does it all mean just not coming here more if u arent willing to be robbed of more money. 

Amazing that there are actually border hop companies that go to Poipet

Dont try your luck at the airport. Odd thing to say about travelling. Its not like the good old days when coming and going was easy peasy. 

1 minute ago, JustAnotherHun said:

If you wasted your lifetime and your money why did you stay in this country for ten years or so? If someone's not enjoying the place where he is living why not go elsewhere?

Where do I go? It is not Cambodia, Vietnam, or Philippines. So where then? Can I have a refund for my wasted money and young years here?

But my country is "for sharing". Ah but not here. Oh no. 1% of another people just spending their money is too uncomfortable. "This is ours" they say. But then when I "go back home" , I have to show my passport to an Asian when entering and I am a minority there too. The phrase "if you dont like it, go home" pops up often. So ok, where is my "home" then, where 99% of ppl look like me? Thai people can be in Thailand where it is 99% Thai. 

4 minutes ago, BertM said:

Sorry you feel that way... Your life starts today, you can change tomorrow and enjoy what time you have left in this world. Remember, we can't change the past and we all have regrets. Best to move on from regrets so you can be happy tomorrow... Take care... Kindly...

Oh no sir. The hatred from this will take a very VERY long time to go away, if at all. I cant get ten years of wasted money back. Not even enjoying the time I am here now because of CONSTANT, DAILY, worry about the "VISA"

Unending government issues in TH throughout many years. I spent a lot of money here and will be taking my funds somewhere else barring something stable popping up. Not recommending India, but at least they are decent enough to have clear rules that state visitors are allowed maximum of 180 days in a calendar year. Here there is no way at all to even make a halfways clear plan. Funny they don't like us. I come from a city that is more than half Asian immigrants. We have all heard the "go home if you don't like it" jingle, but when I go home, an Asian person checks my passport, and once on the street, and I am still a minority in the place my predecessors built and developed. I wonder if Thai people will ever return from a trip abroad and have their passport and baggage checked by a westerner. Oops, NEVER. These countries over here don't subscribe to diversity you see, not even if we are a tiny % (nearly 1.0-1.5%) and only spending money (as opposed to working).

Education visa will only stave off the problem for a period of time. And you are still at their mercy when you sit in front of them every three months and hope they don't decide to only extend u for 30 days rather than the 90 that you'd be expecting. It's really a shame they won't sell a one year visa for 100-125k thb. I'd love to buy an elite visa but what about after 18 months if I decide to open a business or go somewhere else, then a huge chunk of the 500k is gone and unrefundable. 

So much for the double entry tourist visa stamps they were promising back in Nov/Dec. Nice to see those never materialized. Just a friendly reminder, election is March 24, final results announced 6.5 weeks after that, according to news outlets.

Why have I read that the election is on the 24th but the prime minister isn't selected until 9 weeks from now? Seems weird. 

This happened at an embassy or immigration? 

Phnom Penh is an awful place to apply for a visa. One of the worst.

The truth is it is much more uncomfortable than in previous years. Wish I never came to Thailand in the first place.

Oh right, election. On March 24. But the PM isn't chosen until later, after 250 hand picked members are added to the 500 that are elected the 24th. Hmm.

12 hours ago, yuiop said:

It looks like Vientiane is not as friendly as it used to be, there's a post of a guy in another thread who got the blu stamp at his first Vientiane setv.

I'd be curious to see a link to that event too. That is insane. Warning stamp on FIRST setv in Laos? It has to be a joke. 

Fly into KL, stay in a hotel for a night, rest up, relax, eat etc, then fly over to Laos, one more night in a hotel, then over the border to Thailand. Yes it is a bit of an extra run around. But not so bad if planned well. Malaysia will pose zero threat of turning you around and sending back to USA so it avoids the worry of what was mentioned.

If fly directly into Thailand and you have those five entries on record, there is a great chance you get admitted with no problem if you have a visa but no guarantee at all that you dont get selected for the "we are sending you back because we feel like it" treatment. At least if you enter at a land border you just get sent back across the bridge and not paying to be in a holdng cell waiting for a flight back to the states.

If you fly directly into Bangkok, you do the 16 hours of flying with that worry in the back of your mind. Doesnt exactly seem like being on holiday does it? Having all that worry in your mind the whole time for the supreme privledge of being able to spend your money in Thailand.

He writes "even a slim chance" of denied if flying into Bkk. Well it id indeed slim, but that "chance" is DEFINITELY there. No way at all of knowing if immigration chooses to start something if you fly in to Bangkok.

Fly to kuala lumpur first then take a flight to laos and enter Thailand from there. Wow, getting pretty crazy if want to come to Thailand these days and it isn't your first or second time huh

Why is it funny the friendship bridge immigration lets in people who have a visa?