PingRoundTheWorld

Flip...flop....flip....flop. Amazing Thailand. But overall this is a good thing: less tourists and in particular less tourists of the stoner variety (young, no money). Poor guys "investing" in weed shop and production gonna have a **** time though (but the doctors will be happy with their new revenue source). Now if you can just do something about the Indians it'll be great. kthxbye.

Good point. If they look like a man in women's clothing no school will want to hire them anyway. It's just victim complex - they know it's impossible, but today they complain about being denied from the test, but if they passed it then they'd be complaining no one is hiring them.

Good. Children should not be exposed to mental illness at a young age. Transgenders should be tolerated and offered the mental help they need, sure, but not encouraged. Inclusion and diversity are not goals to strive for - they are problems society is forced to cope with.

Thailand: why are foreigners not coming? Also Thailand: let's do our best to make life harder for them! Also also: this will have the exact opposite effect as foreigners will simply not bother with a Thai license and drive with their home country license and IDP, or without a license at all.

Wet dream of some dictatorships for sure, but nah - not in actual reality. Not sure what you're on about but that's not happening.

That makes no sense. If interest rates are reduced the baht will weaken (which it needs to).

I'm confused by your logic: they won't weed out troublemakers because they want the income they get from them - so they should ban entire countries and the income they get from them?

And then they cry "why are the tourists not coming". No - you didn't over do it - you did too little and now the baht is artificially strong which impedes tourism and exports.

Temporary nonsense. Trump's economic policies might not benefit nor be favorable with other countries governments and financial institutions, but they are favorable for (the future of) the American economy, and that includes (foreign and domestic) investors. I expect record growth in the coming quarters for American exporters. As for the US Dollar being replaced by any other currencies - dream on. Ain't happening anytime soon.

Pretty sure VAT is supposed to be included in the price displayed on the menu, if it wasn't she was completely right. If the menu did display the final price correctly however, STAH.

There's a word for someone who hates an entire country based solely on where they come from: racist. These Russians don't represent all Russians, either: the problem is Thailand is not vetting which tourists can come and who to reject - they're letting all in, easily. There should be at minimum a visa requirement with proof of financial resources and more scrutiny given to young people's applications as they're more likely to get into trouble and/or work illegally. But they won't do it of course.

Just one case, which begs the question: why aren't authorities doing more to enforce and remove kids from the streets in the middle of the night and make sure they go to school? There are many many being forced to beg, steal, sell, or just loitering. If they don't meet their quotas they suffer physical abuse. There's a particular family(?) that loiters around Asoke, the parents sitting down on the sidewalk eating while they send the children after random passerbys. One time I was in a taxi nearby and one kid failed to get anything from a couple of passerbys, when he got back to the family the dad smacked him so hard I could hear it loudly across the street in a closed car. The saddest thing about this is that these kids don't get an education and don't know anything else - so they're likely to be the parents using their kids as slave labor when they grow up.

These days you can't find a decent condo in Bangkok for less than 15k/mo. They aren't going to live in Isaan. Pattaya Jomtien can still be had for 7k, but anyone that has to worry about the rent probably shouldn't come (for their own sake - Thailand sucks if you can't afford it).

If they run out of money then they won't qualify for the visa anyway. 500k in the bank and a steady income. Most likely the problems are because they simply don't qualify for the visa so embacies are struggling to verify that they do instead of flat out rejecting them. The visa was intended to bring money into Thailand, not to provide an easy visa for people who won't spend much. But you know they will. It's just a matter of time. Thailand tends to flip-flop on things like this once they realize them (which takes a year or two).

Thanks for wasting our time. This isn't news.