Caldera

I admire the restraint displayed by this judge. He could have locked up Trump for contempt of court a long time ago.

He and his military commanders need to be shipped off to stand trial for the war crimes they've ordered. It's one thing to fight terrorists, quite another thing to wage war in a heavily overpopulated area with a total disregard for civilian casualties.

You seem to be sharing your wet dreams with us again, not what actually happened.

That has been predicted for a very long time. And by many an "expert". Don't get me wrong, it could happen, but where do you get the confidence from that it WILL happen SOON?

Is that really "notable"? I'm asking because that has been the case at every single condo I've lived in in Thailand.

Good for them. By all appearances, the UK is in a horrible state nowadays, so it's great to hear that some found a place to spend their retirement in comfort, elsewhere.

Nonsense, the booklet says clearly when the last day they will give you stamps will be and when the last day they can be turned in will be. For someone with a tendency to be pedantic (not looking at you, Lou!), the latter should be considered the expiration date.

It's not like the staff have any discretion; the cash register tells them exactly how many stamps they owe you. And so does your receipt, by the way, so you can actually verify that they gave you the correct number of 1-baht and 3-baht stamps, respectively.

Ah, The Base... What they didn't ruin in the construction phase they ruined with Airbnb over-usage. It's about the last place I'd buy a unit at. The location is great, obviously, but that's where the greatness ends.

You might want to add which immigration office you're using. Many if not most immigration offices are fine with online TM30 notifications, and accept screenshots of online notifications as proof of satisfying the notification requirement. But as always, things can be different between different offices.

Pure garbage as per usual.

Well okay, if you enter your credit or debit card information in a questionable app, something bad could happen, same as if you enter it on a questionable website. I don't see any problem with using the banking apps offered by Thai banks, on the other hand. People who get scammed using them are usually tricked into transferring money to the scammer, there's nothing wrong with those apps as such.

You need to open a claim with your card-issuing bank in the EU, they'll contact the Thai bank that owns the ATM through the proper channels to have it investigated. You'll get your money back, but it could take a few weeks. It's also possible that the money will be returned to you without doing anything. ATMs and bank systems are pretty good at logging all kinds of issues, so they will probably notice that something is amiss and rectify it.

This train line will be great to deploy PLA peacekeepers to unruly Southeast Asian vassal states in the not too distant future.

The economy in China cannot be as bad as people say, if the Chinese still have the energy and headspace to quibble over Lisa’s shenanigans in Paris.

Well your first problem is that you miss your flight that you aren't allowed to board, which could cost anything from 1,000 baht to a few hundred thousand baht. I don't see how you could claim that money back from Thai immigration, even if it's due to a mistake they made when entering the data. Then you'll most likely need to engage a Thai lawyer to get the problem fixed with immigration. You will be paying that lawyer, never mind that it isn't your fault. No idea how often this actually happens, it's certainly not something I've seen reported more than a few times.

I think you should be fine in Savannakhet, as they seem to focus on how much time you've spent in Thailand just before applying there. You will have stayed out for quite some time once you'll apply there, and didn't spend a lot of time in Thailand this year so far. Vientiane would be a safer bet though, as long as you have an appointment and meet their requirements. Personally, I'd try Savannakhet but make an appointment for Vientiane beforehand for a few days later. If Savannakhet gives you the visa, you'll save yourself the detour to Vientiane, just cancel your appointment there. If Savannakhet doesn't give you the visa, you're all set to apply in Vientiane

As it is, the "online" extension process is a joke, if for no other reason that you still need to attend immigration anyway. Hopefully they'll improve that process, at least for a simple 30-day extension for a tourist where (almost) no supporting documents are required.

During your ban, if you attempt to board a plane to Thailand, the airline will get a "do not board" message via APIS. There have been a few reports of people denied boarding after their ban was supposed to have ended, presumably because the end date was entered wrong in immigration's system. It's not "near impossible" to get that fixed if it happens, but not necessarily cheap.

With an overstay of "roughly a year", it really matters if it will be less than a year or not when he heads to the airport. The fine will be the same (20,000 baht), but if he has overstayed for one year or more, a mandatory ban will be imposed as well.

What we do know is that meth was involved. Either he went crazy himself, or someone he was doing drugs with did, by all appearances. Not the best way to have a safe and happy holiday.

Ah yes, a promise that previous immigration chiefs have made - and failed to deliver on. I vividly remember the "bad guys out, good guys in" campaign. Lots of rhetoric, a few arrests here and there, but most of those netted were low-hanging fruit such as overstayers. So they desperately needed those "smart cars", and again, pretty much no tangible results.

It just seems to keep getting worse year after year.

If you fly out, you will have no problem leaving, but if you apply for another extension in the future, this might well come up and cause you problems. It would be a good idea to have the extension canceled properly before leaving. If you leave overland, there's a good chance you won't even be allowed to leave without canceling your extension first.

Wouldn't you give your full European account number (IBAN) to anyone who wants to transfer money into your account? I don't think the BOI would accept an obfuscated account number. I don't think you have a legitimate reason to withhold your account number from them, as it's pretty normal to give it to 3rd parties.