"Case 4: A 33 year old man from the Ivory Coast was arrested for supplying patrons at the bars in Patong, Phuket with cocaine. He was arrested in a sting operation in Soi Anamai, Patong with a one gram packet of cocaine"

100% of the Ivory coast, Nigerian and Senegalese poor young men who say "hello my friend, can I help you" to complete strangers in nightlife areas are drug dealers. They stick out like sore thumbs. It takes simple observation to see what they do. It doesn't really need a complicated sting operation that then gets presented to the media.

My question is not why the police allow this. That's obvious. But why do the Thai mafia allow these West African gangs to step on their turf. Surely they could do the same without attracting as much attention.  Or do the Thai mafia run the Africans.... with the support of the police?

Maybe they have looked at Cambodia and seen what can happen when the door is opened to people from <deleted>hole countries with huge populatations of poor uneducated people....

We should all be glad we don't live in that shithole country.

Unless any of us have our money in GB £.

In which case those people should be scared they don't live in a shithole country.

How much is your room?

The girl stuffing her face whilst walking down the street deserves to be fat. And she will get fatter and fatter no doubt and she won't understand why. Wait for mealtimes and eat at the table. It's healthier and more sociable. 

Sounds like good stuff.

Let's hope Chanocha has realised that he shouldn't block poor people from earning a decent living and getting a decent education..... and that the number one goal of a PM is NOT to control the people in the name of orderliness and to keep them in a child-like, disempowered state .... in spite of his military training.

The government's nationalistic export promotion policy is backfiring. Penalising imports through tariffs and taxes and subsidising exports has created a huge current account surplus which is pushing the baht to unsustainable levels. This causes exports such as farm produce, manufactures and tourism to suffer as the equation tries to balance itself.

And the common Thai anti logic is making things worse for sellers and buyers.

As the baht goes up and imports get cheaper you expect that to feed through to cheaper prices of imported goods in shops, supermarkets and restaurants. Not happening. The sellers don't want to lower prices. 

And as tourist demand drops you would expect prices to fall too. But many Thai businesses are putting up prices to make up for the shortfall. Tourists are getting ripped off. Tourist operators are physically fighting each other for customers.

There is nothing ChanOCha can say to alter the laws of economics. His misguided nationalistic economic policies have created the current problems Thailand is facing.

The BOT is trying to reduce capital inflows to put a brake on the rise of the Baht. In fact the proper thing to restore balance in order is to moderate this nationalistic export promotion policy that has come back to bite exporters ... the very people it was supposed to help.   

The politicians should be the representatives of the people and should do the people's bidding.

But in Thailand, as in almost all military dictatorships... the PM and his NCPO have only one goal... to control the people by stopping them doing what they want to do.

They are controllers and stoppers. They don't have the intelligence, knowledge or experience to do anything else.

I have to leave food out to cool before it goes in the fridge. It does mean it can sit out on the bench for a while cooling and getting to room temperature.

I often cook bigger portions than for one or two people so that we don't have to cook from scratch every mealtime. And I if I try to put the excess into the fridge before it has properly cooled to room temperature I get scolded. 

This has been the case for ages. I've had cosmetics taken out of my carry on and thrown away a couple of times over the last year for the container being more than 100ml.

Those British people that return the money that they found are responding to social media 

What about the African drug dealers who sit in front of Spankey's bar in Sukhumvit Soi 13 and the 7/11 on Suk road at the end of Soi 13. These people have been there for years in full view. Hassling passers by. The police stop and say hello to them and then disappear. If you watch these pushers for an hour you will see them dealing in the street.

The reason people don't take the police seriously is because they focus on smaller easy crimes from which they don't benefit..... like not registering TM30, overstay or working without a permit.... but the real criminals go untouched when the police benefit themselves.

Which moron wrote this article. Headline news: there is no news about the Thai currency. The Thai Baht, one if the strongest currencies in Asia over the last few years has not been artificially weakened to make it weak.

I went to CW to do my annual non-B extension in January. I went there the day after I'd arrived back from Hong Kong so that I could do a TM30 at the same time. I live in Bangkok in my own condo.

I asked for a ticket for the non-B extension line and a ticket for the TM30 line. The IO told me to get the annual non-B extension first and then come back to get a ticket for the TM30.

The IOs didn't ask to see a TM30 receipt to get the non-B extension, but when the visa was finally issued it was 4pm and the counter where they give tickets for each line was closed. 

So I went home without getting the TM30 and didn't bother to go back. I still haven't ever done a TM30 after 10 years in Bangkok. This was in January and things might have changed. Others have said that it might also depend on your type of visa whether they expect a TM30 receipt.

Given the increased chatter about tightening up on the TM30 in Bangkok I decided to apply online for login credentials. I registered as a housemaster on 20th April and immigration sent me a login name and password on 28th April. I will do a TM30 the next time I come back from a trip abroad.

I have been looking for the last couple of weeks and there are zero dates available for affirmations of residence for 2019. Since the embassy make about B2000 for each affirmation this should be a profit making opportunity for them. Why would they ration time slots like this? I wonder if they really are so incompetent, or don't care about British citizens in Thailand or are reacting against the increase in bureaucracy and surveillance of foreigners by the Thai authorities by forcing Thai government to do more work themselves. Whatever the reason, it's a pain in the butt. Could be time to try to get a yellow house book.

The respondents on this thread who comply with TM30 rules in Bangkok all seem to fill out the form and mail it to CW.

Wouldn't it be easier to provide details online? I thought that 'house masters' were able to get online accounts with immigration to do that.

Does anybody know whether this is possible and how to set up an account if so?

I bought from someone who had paid a deposit pre-transfer - but had to get the funds sent from overseas to get the FETs. The selling agent (developer) came with me to the Thai clearing bank to help me get the FETs. I need to use the FETs for my visa. Immigration dept check the FETs thoroughly and in fact had a 20 minute chat with the clearing bank to make sure they were genuine the first time I applied for the visa.

Maybe it's true that there is some way the agent can make FETs for you but it doesn't sound entirely convincing and I am not familiar with it. The written rules on FET seem quite strict.. e.g. the funds are supposed to come from an overseas account in your name to a Thai account in your name (I have had problems explaining this to immigration before because I used a cheaper intermediary rather than my bank to transfer the funds).....

I would double check with someone you trust. A lawyer perhaps or another agent.

Will Asian airlines allow female flight attendants to leave the make up and tight clothes at home?

"Some regional airlines, principally AirAsia and Vietnam’s VietJet Air are being criticised"

Will western moralists, religionists and feminists stop criticizing people in other countries...

On this video by Chonburi Immigration... at 3'30" to 3'55" the narrator says that long term residents don't have to do the TM30. 

"So if we live in our homes we don't need to register again"... because the 90 day report registers the address.

It is from April 2017 so may be out of date. I wonder if it is inaccurate too?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tStMlfgVu8Y&feature=youtu.be

Is it Bobby Charlton?

“Cambodia can’t rely solely on foreign aid or exchange its sovereignty and independence for anything,” the prime minister wrote.

Isn't the prime minister exchanging Cambodia's sovereignty and independence for investment and patronage of China.

He is choosing the Chinese takeover rather than EU and US economic concessions because China doesn't complain about him screwing his people.... because China is screwing them as well....

I'd been to Sihanoukville a dozen times before the Chinese invasion. And liked it.

I thought the Cambodians and Barangs were exaggerating about how the Chinese have taken it over, destroyed everything that was there before, and installed a lawless disorderly version of a Chinese society that is run by Chinese for Chinese.  

So I went again last year. And its true. I hated it.

At least in China there is a functioning government to keep the people under control. In Sihanoukville there isn't. And the Chinese are running riot.