mbenson

Funny how kreng jai เกรงใจ doesn't seem to apply to relationships with foreigners sometimes. Quite the opposite often applies. I hate to say it, but I guess some folks don't see foreigners as deserving the same considerations as Thais.

That's great! Thais have a natural talent for writing those instructions.

Here come the Mongoloids!!

Saving face for the Chinese. The way the Chinese plane fell from the sky, experts suspect terrorism. So, yeah blame it on the American plane. The plane (737-800) that crashed in China is not the same one that had the two crashes (737 Max) that required the plane to be taken off the market.

But they can be blamed for creating and perpetuating a confusing and restrictive entry policy while they are experiencing an acute need for foreign currencies.

Geez. Somebody probably put a new picture of their favorite pop star on Facebook. That drew complaints?!? and now these guys are going to interrogate the fan(s)? Let's pull the 16-year old pimple puss in for an inquest!

Wow, you put the live link to the malicious server in your post.

Despite the cool quote from Kilgore Trout, I must disagree. In the region that I live in, I can tell you of two women and one cop that were killed by crazed exs. And this is just the stuff that is big in the local news and I read about. In addition, a coworker's daughter was murdered by an ex in FLorida. The US is a big place and I am in a pretty limited region. I would think that this is far more common in big cities.

I live in the states and this frequent. Usually it is the wife/girlfriend who ends up dead, but we had one here not too long ago in which a police officer who was called to deal with the violent ex was ambushed and killed.

It happens often. Marriage not a necessary condition for it. Part of it is being spurned, part of it is not being able to cope with her being with someone else.

From the looks of the windshield, I'd say the impact of the guy's body generated some Gs.

No, but they were a bad influence.

"probelems in the documents that you submitted to the embassy." Embassies don't receive these documents.

Are we sure tha the PCR postive and ATK postive numbers are exclusive of one another? I had read the plan was to verify the ATK results with PCR tests. So I am wondering if there is not at least a partial overlap between the ATK and PCR results. Similarly, if there is a delay, say today's ATK results are confirmed by tomorrow's PCR results - is it really possible to add the two number together and say that the real official finding is a reliable daily sum? Just wondering.

Aren't attendance requirments quite strict for these visas IIRC it looked like you had to be there everyday of classes. There was little flexbility, meaning the only time you could travel was during school holidays. Maybe the let you do something if there is an intersession break between course enrollments. It looked quite serious and not something for students with tourist leanings.

When it was an ATK test previously on day 5, nobody knew what to do with the test. Some hotels didnt' want to hear about it, others said send a picture of the test. Far from ironclad proof that you are Covid-free. I think this is just a face-saver or window dressing to make it look like they are not being soft on Farang. I read of at least one oppostion politician attacking the Prayut government for being too lax with foreign visitors. Wow, somebody even more xenophobic than the current lot. However, that person has nothing to lose for saying stuff like that because they are not responsible for the effects of tighter Covid restrictions. Just raising a rabble with heavy Thai nationalists.

I lived in thailand in the late 80's. My feeling was that aw-aw's (wish I knew how to spell that in Thai) were rather common. Even a woman that I worked with at the university knew the term. I would see mamasan with obviously young girls sitting in the coffee shop of the Grace Hotel late in the evenings, and I know some shortime hotels specialized in aw-aw. At that time it was widespread and tolerated like any other prostitution enterprise.

Hopefully they don't just get a bigger net.

They did their best to scare the hell out of everybody, and now they regret it because they need to get the economy going again. Meanwhile, I am hearing ancedotes that indicate that there is far more Covid around than they are letting on anyway. I have a friend who works in a factory in Lamphun - her company is reporting more Covid than ever and her close friend and her family have it now. Their village in Lampang is a cluster and access is to be closed off. Lampang?!? You can bet it is everywhere. Bad timing for the Junta - the Covid measures are unsustainable so they are going to liberalize right in the middle of what may be the worst outbreak yet in terms of the number of cases.

Take this as confirmation of that. They just decided to be "transparent" about their opacity.

Yeah, that is what I would be worried about, the staff at the departure gates. There have been stories of them following out of date guidelines and struggling with things like this. Some folks, like yourself, have had a very unpleasant experience with them at least, and some have been denied boarding.

I sometimes wonder if you can get in trouble for volunteering without a permit. I was an ESL/EFL teacher by profession (Masters degree). I would love to teach at a temple school, but I think I can get in big trouble without a permit, even if there is no payment involved.

I think it all goes back to that guy that who supposedly got deported for helping his wife sell food. I remember seeing articles about that, but sort of story takes on a life of its own (obviously) and becomes distored with the retelling as you have observed.

You can apply up to 60 days in advance. I would definitely not wait until a week before travel.

soft power = impotent force