Onrai

13 hours ago, Orton Rd said:

Thread is 6 years old why dig it up?

Good question. I didn’t see that it was 6 yrs. old. Better question is how did it show up in my forum featured threads a couple days ago.

Some people are extroverts and some are introverts. Extroverts generally feel more comfortable in social situations than introverts. 

When in the States I never go out on New Years Eve, 4th of July or any holiday where there are a lot of people drinking and driving. 

In addition some people want to be part of the community and to others it doesn’t matter so much. Maybe they are missing out on a party or Songkran but are connecting with their neighbors or community in different ways. I am not a big party person but love to connect with the owners of the restaurants and stores I visit. I really don’t believe that their are many expats that come here and intentionally have as little to do with the Thai people as possible. 

Language is a huge issue. If you can’t converse it is hard to communicate. If you don’t drink-well it is like going to a bar and drinking soda water all night. Not exactly the same as when you drinking along with the group. 

I has a similar problem. Wanted to fly to Chiang Mai while my passport was being renewed at the US Consulate. I checked with the airport in Loei (they didn’t fly to Chiang Mai but I figured if the Loei airport said yes then we could go to Udon Thani and catch a flight from there. I had a laminated copy of my passport page and the Loei airport wouldn’t accept it. I then showed them my California drivers license and they said yesterday  I could use it to fly.

So, I took the chance and went to Udon Thani (which flies to Chiang Mai) and was flatly refused to fly anywhere -with the copy of my passport page and drivers license. The moral of the story-maybe you can and maybe you can’t. It really depends on the individual in charge at each airport. The airline in question is Nok Air.

On 9/27/2019 at 11:23 AM, ubonjoe said:

“ House Master ” means any persons who is the chief possessor of a house , whether in the capacity of
owner , tenant , or in any other capacity whatsoever , in accordance with the law on people act."

I must be missing something. It is the landlord’s, house owner, house renter, not the guest that is required to report. So listing all the various types of ownership still does not make the guest liable for any failure on the “House Master” to register you.

Same just happened to me. Went to Chaing Khan immigration to submit my finally paperwork for a one year retirement visa. The reporting officer asked where we stayed  (Udon Thani and Khon Kaen) and none of the 3 hotels had reported us. He did the reporting since we were there but said it wasn’t required to report to immigration if I left the province, only if I left Thailand and returned to Loei province. I got my one year retirement visa and a multiple entry permit and checked again with the immigration officers inside. 3 month reporting and reporting if I’ve left the country and returned to Loei. Pretty  interesting that all 3 hotels asked for a copy of my passport and didn’t report me. 

When I apply for my non immigrate type O visa at the Thai Consulate in Vientiane 3 months ago I didn’t know how to satisfy the police report/no criminal background requirement. I went to the US Consulate and wrote a statement that I had no criminal record in the US and paid the Consulate $50 fee to have it notarized. The Thai consulate accepted it as did thai immigration in Chiang Khan. The consulate is not verifying my statement they are just notarizing my affidavit. I wouldn’t recommend this approach but it worked. 

I agree with those that keep copies of their documents on their phone. Very handy if the original gets lost and when applying for visas for another country. 

I also know from personal experience that domestic airlines will not accept a copy of your passport if you want to fly domestically.

Bank of Bangkok will issue you a debit card when you open your bank account. Bangkok Bank charges me 15bhat (roughly $.50) to withdraw money from Bangkok ATM machines outside the province where I opened the account. If you withdraw within the province (Chang Wat) where you opened the account there is no withdrawal fee.

I am new to the Thai nation forum but would like to comment:

No one care about the TM-30 reporting issue other than the people that it is affecting in Thailand. That it even enters world news is surprising. The East Timor genocide under Suharto took years to reach an international audience while 100,000- 300,000 were slaughtered. So much for the power of the press to sway international outrage.

I completely agree that reporting to immigrations if you have spent a night is draconian and a complete waste of time. Hotels and guesthouse are already required to report you to local immigrations, so what is the point of going to your local immigration office and saying,“I’m back”. That said, in the USA,

land of the free, we have the NSA, CIA, FBI, Homeland Security to name a few. You have the director of the NSA admitting that , if they could, they would collect every phone call, every email, every bit of data on every single person in the USA. Read Glen Greenwald’s book “No Place to Hide” on the US surveillance  system. My guess is the Thai government is using a play from a more developed country’s playbook.

From what I have read- no more visa runs are allowed. That means you are going to have to get a Laos Visa to enter Laos and a Thai visa to return to Thailand. Since every other country in SE Asia requires a visa, Thailand will shift to the same requirement. The question is - why did it take them so long to require a visa when they are surrounded by countries that do?

I don’t see any mystery in Thailand setting up a deposit or monthly income to obtain a long term visa. They want to screen out the people that don’t contribute substantially to the economy. Given a choice do they want middle or well to do ex pat retirees or banana pancake trail, hirsute, tattooed, penniless, travelers that contribute little and take advantage of the system. According to one recent thai nation post- foreigners racked up more than 1 million bhat in unpaid medical bills. So which group didn’t pay their bills? 

In closing- the freedom from petty harassment is one of the great, great things about Thailand. As an American-you tow the line- don’t run a traffic light, full stop at a stop sign, dog on leash, use your seat belt, use your turn signal, wear your helmet, on and on and on. In Thailand you are mostly left alone. You are responsible for your safety, not some law whose purpose is to increase the local coffers.

We should be free to travel the country without having to report to immigration when we return. No question. I am just adding perspective to us that have forgotten why we are here in the first place.