Caldera

Oh dear, a corrupt former police chief, who would have thought?

He's no lesser criminal than any Hamas member, he's been war mongering and stoking the fire throughout his career. I hope all terrorists on both sides will share the same fate.

Considering how much is seriously wrong or outright rotten with the Thai police, their hair style, of all things, is the least of my worries.

If it's an "urgent trip", the eVisa won't work, especially with the upcoming holiday weekend. Otherwise it works great and saves you a passport page that would be occupied by the visa on arrival.

Looks like it was most important to appoint someone whose allegiance isn't primarily to the new government, but to what's above. That being said, I don't think any of the other deputies would have been more suitable based on merit alone. Birds of a feather.

They're legend. Understandable decision though.

Sums it up nicely, and isn't limited to Thai laborers in South Korea.

What happened to their plan to extend visa exempt entries for those from Western countries from 30 days to 90 days? At this rate they'll fail to implement this on time to entice some more snow birds to have a longer stay in Thailand this winter.

Having read about half of this drivel and regretting it, I'll go with "whatever". So here we have the proud owner of a Mercedes who nevertheless uses taxis enough to feel its worth mentioning that he overtips taxi drivers. And someone who doesn't send his triple-paid maid to the 7/11 instead of worrying about TrueMoney. Incoherent nonsense.

If that's in fact true, they sure are a fickle crowd. Teflon Thailand no more, if they continue to put their eggs in that basket?

He'd be well-advised to leave that baggage at home. Let's hope he didn't vote for the war monger who is responsible for the escalation of the conflict.

Oh great, another queue.

To become a competent speaker. If you can't even let's say read the menu at a restaurant, there's definitely something essential missing.

I agree. Being able to read Thai script is essential, being able to write it isn't.

If only they had implemented facial recognition in banking apps to prevent this from happening. Oh, wait... ????

For some strange reason, I've always seen them as a police farce. On a good day, a particular unit can look like a professional police force, but those days and those units are few and far between. This "transformation" won't change that no doubt. There's no such thing as an easy win when it comes to reforming this organization.

I wouldn't say the IO was acting rogue. Most Thai embassies and consulates nowadays require a flight out when applying for a tourist visa anyway, so demanding to see that is quite reasonable. Which also raises the question where your tourist visa was issued. You were in Singapore, but did you apply there or did you apply for an eVisa back home while not physically there? If you did the latter, consider yourself very lucky that the IO didn't spot or question THAT.

Getting a Thai tourist visa in Vietnam is quite a hassle nowadays. You need an appointment, pristine USD bills, all kinds of supporting documents, and of course going to the Thai embassy or consulate twice eats into your Vietnam holiday time as well.

Sounds perfectly reasonable to me. You know about weekends and public holidays well in advance and plan accordingly.

Nonsense. It certainly takes some consideration (a student cannot be absent from class for too long without a valid reason), but a few short holidays over the course of 15 months as outlined by the OP isn't a problem. Preferably during times when there aren't any classes (term breaks, public holidays), or having a letter from the university explaining the absence. Your statement that the OP's visa is "fraudulently acquired" is defamatory. While I won't deny that education visas are being abused by certain people, where's the evidence to back up your claim in this particular case? The OP can be a bona fide student AND STILL want to go on a short trip abroad occasionally.

Leaving aside this particular incident and looking at the bigger picture, it's blatantly obvious that it's much too easy for anyone to buy large quantities of guns and ammunition in Thailand. Even for a teenager with mental health issues who really shouldn't have access to weapons under any circumstances. If that won't be addressed in any meaningful way, then sadly, we'll see a lot more like this.

My compassion goes to his unfortunate victims first and foremost.

Yet another embarrassment.

The headline screams that foreigners don't need to worry, but then the article gives us plenty of reasons to be worried. Best case scenario, you won't need to pay (more) tax, but it will be a bureaucratic nightmare to declare foreign-sourced income and to prove that it has already been taxed elsewhere. Just looking at other departments of the Thai bureaucracy that I've already had the "pleasure" to deal with, that in itself would be a good reason to spend less than 180 days per year in Thailand from next year on.

Not possible at the airport if you aren't flying internationally from that very airport.