Khun Ed

Thanks. Yes, Myanmar was easy and quick for me on a previous visit.

Would you say it's best to stay in a country a few weeks before applying?

Thanks. Sounds a bit beyond me at the mo thanks to Bitcoin slump and some horrendous investments. It would take me a year to save for that after rent etc

Thanks.  However, I am in KL and there are no flights there

Thanks. I spent 2 weeks in manilla before applying for a visa. I wonder if that helps? Elite is $10000 for 5 years right? The Savannakhet option I guess would get me 1 month as it's overland.

Looks like this has been filed in the I dont give a shit folder. I'd prefer to read about Pattaya bar girls being strangled by someone called Kevin.

I would be grateful for some advice. I am 45. After 2 and a half years of mostly staying in Thailand on tourist visas (with a few excursions to Bali, and other local places) I received a red stamp in Penang 6 months ago saying it would probably be my last granted tourist visa. I plan to go back to Europe in the summer but it would be good to have one last 3 months in Thailand as I  live with a GF.  After I received that warning I went to Philippines for 2 weeks and applied. I showed proof of over $1K in my account. I got no problems. Visa granted. I have had a residual income from the web for over 16 years. My latest trip was to HK. The paper work just to apply was a nightmare. No blue bg on photos, 2 copies of arrival card. I showed proof of $1k in 2 accounts. The officer asked  me how I was supporting myself. I told him I had retired early and relied on passive income from my legal business. He asked if I was married. I told him my Thai GF was with me and we planned to get married. He said come back with a letter and her id. So I even brought her to the office. I showed printed documents of proof of Pay Pal payments due to me in subscriptions. I was turned down. Painful. I am now thinking of staying in Bali for a few weeks and trying again.

I dont get it. Are water guns illegal in Thailand?

They should have looked at Isla De Margarita, Venezuela or Caracas. It  would be one in 20

There are amazing beaches round the world and Bournemouth would break into my top 1000 - just if you added food as part of the criteria. They do have steak and kidney pies and pink ice cream.

It is hard  to name a top 10 as there are so many places and no one has been to them all...

Thailand must have one or two candidates for top 20 ie: The bay at koh phi phi and Koh Lipe.

There are further afield beaches like Playa Paraguito, Island of Margarita. Mexico, Maldives and some mentioned above that could be candidates.

Totally ridiculous! Who voted - people who have never left England? I would call it more of a broad brown sand bank next to a cauldron of brown ice water.

Many people go to Thailand for other reasons: great food, great weather, friendly people in general, learning a new culture, more affordable prices, less of a nanny state than most European countries. Pattaya does have that reputation and some dreary people who usually have never been to Thailand cast the whole country like that! Yawn

He will never make it to number ten after his gaffes about picininies. Quoting Kipling near the large bell that the British tried to steal from Myanmar - he's not the brightest!  Parochial plonker!

As a UK citizen I want to say stop sticking your nose in UK Government. Thailand has got it right! They punish criminals not put them up in fancy cells with tvs and pool tables. This is the same UK Government that allowed a UK citizen(Nigerian parents) who took heroin to Laos to leave Laos and serve her sentence in the UK after 6 months!! (she was black and UK is rife with political correctness) Shame on you!

These crack downs dont seem to have reached Hua Hin yet.

I have a few years left before I qualify for a retirement visa. I have monthly payouts to my bank with out having to work. I have been entering Thailand on a tourist visa  for the last 2 years. Suddenly I got a red stamp in my passport in Penang saying I may be turned down next time. Does any one know if that is from all Thai consulates abroad? I was under the impression you could have unlimited entries on a tourist visa...