tracer

Sorry those are immigration forms. It was the police I was reporting to.

Also I have a been doing 90 day reports because I have an extension of stay.

I have alos been at the same address for over 7 years.

Is that of any importance??

Seems wierd Thaksin gets 2 years for 773 million baht scandal, and they're counting up to five for a bar mat.....

Yeah, like I said 'situational interpretation' of law.

This incident was unnecessary for any reasons.

I thought they said about 73 Billion baht and its likely only what they think he ripped of while PM. Add his partner in AIS who lost his money and got the boot etc and its likely much more... Add other stuff and I think what they got back is likely peanuts...

Whatever the cost of the Bar mat (stupid name) is not important, to me much more funny is that sofar nobody remarks that the lady has likely a Dutch family name and Smoel has a bad meaning! I am not going to explain it now but she clearly doesn't know that sometimes its better NOT to speak.... Ie, keep the mouth shut...(g) I assume she had an ancestor during Napoleons time when they had to select surnames who also couldn't keep her mouth shut!!! And changing a surname in Holland is rarely done as they need the queen for that and you need good reasons....

He says bar employees told him police saw Smoel's friends roll up the bar mat and place it in a bag. He says when police confronted Smoel 'she did a runner'.

So is the charge theft or what?

If the police actually saw the friend roll up the mat and put it in her bag, then they know that she is not guilty.

I don't know this bar, but assuming that it is a Farang tourist spot, would undercover Thai police go in? Most tourist bars that I know, Thai men customers would stick out like a sore thumb.

Some big bars, keep some off duty cops around, so as to help out in any security issues..

Theres a lot more off duty cops than most people realize.. Sit back when sober and look around the bangla frontage.. Around shipwreck, rio, a few places.. Often a couple of plain clothes sitting watching the road.

Having lived here many years I donot have any beer mats in my house... Most of the ones you use get wet and who wants that in a hand bag!!

On the other hand if you want nice ones consider that a polite talk with the barowner will be the least troublesome way to end up with the mat of your wishes.... And if he has a silly price ask why as some but obviously not all mats come from other countries.

Corruption pure and simple.

I just asked my Thai wife what would happen if a Thai person was caught for the same offence.

Just a small fine was her response.

This kind of shit rarely happened when Thaksin was in power. Now corruption is at near plauge proportions. This is a common occurance. These cops are stalking tourist areas looking for shakedown opertunities.

Does anyone know the name of this Aussie bar?

It is going to be very interesting to see where this will lead now the Oz PM is involved. It will be interesting to see if the Thai government has any control over the police forces. My guess is NON and now the whole judiciary will be involved.

It's all about money. Shame on you Thailand, shame.

Name is the Aussi Bar... And unless there is more then one its in Patong. I assume other Australians have already told the owner what they thought of it.

Its kind of a silly thing what happened as these beermats are cheaply or freely available. On the other hand the bars in that area arent seemingly doing too well....

May as well allow the Banks to throw EXTRA SERVICE CHARGES on Foreign Cash Withdrawals..

Never do I cease to be surprised by the behavior here .

AMAZING THAILAND

Yet another stealth tax imposed on us...150 baht to make an ATM withdrawal from my UK account + what the bank in the UK will charge. I guess someone has to bail out the Thai economy. Why pick on me?

You have to be kidding me. If you are worried about a 150 baht bank charge that allows you to withdraw money from your home country while on vacation you shouldn't be on vacation. I am sure you spend hundreds of baht if not thousands on drinks each and every day and yet you complain about a 150 baht charge. I would have to say the bank in your home country are bigger thieves than the Thai banks here. I know for certain that my bank back in Canada charges me more on just about every single bank ATM transaction than is typically charged here. I can withdraw money from almost any bank's ATM (not my bank's ATM) without a fee unless I am outside of Bangkok. Try that in your home country. I can take out up to 20,000 baht from my home country account and only pay 150 baht. Seems like a deal to me. You obviously just like to complain. Next time you order a drink at the expensive hotel make sure and complain to them how awful they are in making a profit. Remember you can get it from 7-11 for less than 40 baht rather than the 300 or more you are paying them. Who are the real crooks?

Seriously the Thai Bank ATM fees are exceptionally cheap.

You pay the 150 ON TOP of all the other charges!

one of the reasons for using an ATM is that you don't have to carryu loads of cash, and it's quicker than TT's.

If you use your card every day for 2 weeks that puts over 2000 baht on the cost of your stay. - in some places that's 4 nights' hotel rooms.

Consider you likely can manage to open a Thai bankaccount and you just move money in one go and after that its free...

Take what you need and when going back, leave the rest for next visit.

Just ask and you very likely will find a place giving it to you...

I wouldn't feel confident bringing loperamide into the UAE after reading this.

Factually speaking loperamide is a powerful opiate drug. We all know it better as 'immodium.'

Well I have never been able to stop ... with immodium. I buy from Thailand Noxy and it basically stops toilet trips...

Is that illegal as well? what about dalmadorm or dormane..allowed or not??

http://www.thaiphotoblogs.com/index.php?bl...p;tb=1&pb=1

Mr T also claims to have a German residency card

of course fog of war applies and whether any use.....

Interesting but does anyone has idea if he has used it at any German checkpoint?

I would strongly suspect that if he crosses any borders with that card he will end up getting stopped but obviously going through EEC borders is often like passing a paper border...

The world is getting smaller for him!

<deleted> about Kasit revoke Thaksin passport.

Maybe I have been watching too much HBO. I thought another can just pick a fake one from one of the backstreet forgers (same day too).

Try Kao San road. On top of fake degree, press pass, driving license, student card, teacher card, I am sure fake Thai passport is a penny a dozen.

Well, there is something else more funny: can a Thai national use a Nicaraguan passport and stay Thai???

Quite a few countries donot allow it and that means there is now maybe a person without Thai nationality running around and having land.....Seems like a golden opportunity to grab some of it or all.....

I heard from my army friend that the Reds would go underground, this will lead to the Yellows doing the same, so we will end up with an underground civil war in the heart of BKK akin the problems down south. My heart bleeds for the normal people of Thailand who want a normal harrasment free life. Its so different here than 10 years ago when I first came, its kind of depressing.

That's what somebody said in another thread yesterday

and brought up the possibility we could be looking at

both groups resorting to leaving bombs in public places-

-bit like we have seen over the years in Ireland

They were saying somewhere that Mr T is traveling on another countries passport. Can one do this as a Thai without loosing the THAI nationality! They said it was from Nicaragua....

Perhaps Thailand is just trying to catch up with the US, in terms of insane gun violence.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2009/04/17...cs_30100677.php

Please note that according to the Nation he had a bullet in the head....Check above link!!

Times say PM Abhisit defeats Mr.Thaksin in media battle

The Times declares Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva winner of the media battle with former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, saying that Mr.Abhisit "seemed reasonable, patient and articulate while Thaksin, his exiled antagonist, was shrill and unconvincing" during his interview with CNN on April 13th.

Despite the magazine’s criticism that the Abhisit administration embarrassed the country by postponing the ASEAN Summits in Pattaya due to a red-shirt protest, it said the government was successful in preventing Thailand from descending into anarchy and redeeming the country’s image in the eyes of the foreign press.

The Prime Minister’s phone-in after CNN’s interview with Mr.Thaksin successfully clarified the latter’s allegations that Mr.Abhisit’s government used force to disperse red-shirt protesters, resulting in deaths and injuries. Mr.Abhisit also rebutted the allegation that his administration was undemocratic by saying that the Democrat-led administration had ascended to power in the same way as the administrations of the now-defunct People Power Party.

However, The Times believed that there was a tough job awaiting Mr.Abhisit in terms of the government’s operations to tackle the remaining red-shirt rallies throughout the country as well as suspicions on the protest dispersal in the capital Bangkok.

Source: National News Bureau of Thailand - 15 April 2009

Personally I think it quite likely they went ahaed with meeting in Pataya so that if Taksins followers did anything silly they could get the reason to declare an emergency...

Kaiwatnok

Are you ex military?.....No, I thought not

Now we see how the folly of journalists (assuming when you say 'working for Foreign News', you don't mean teaboy or sandwich maker) can escalate a situation when they display the level of irresponsibility that you have done in your post. Paper bullets as they have been termed still have a brass cartridge. The brass cartridge is required to hold the charge, that in this case propels the wodge of paper forward. You would not be able to tell the difference in the noise of the weapon whatever munition it was firing. There was one scene I remember when there was intense firing activity from the troops and the guns were indeed horizontal. Let me tell you, if they were using live rounds at that point the scene on the streets would have resembled something you would see on the inside of a butchers shop. So really it is not a wonder that the people were not killed, they were not killed because there was no lead flying at them, just paper, which I doubt would travel more than 60-80 mtrs. Had the bullets been real, the ensuing wall of lead would have taken out many many people. As a journalist I am sure you will have access to the resources to ascertain how many people were admitted to Bangkok hospitals with bullet wounds, and if they were bullet wounds were they from M16 or hand held small arm weapons that the reds were carrying. Go ahead, make yourself a name with the subsequent breaking news. I can see the headlines now 'Just about Nada, zilch, zero deaths and injuries from M16 rounds'.

Thaskin was right, there were many people killed on the streets in Bangkok on Saturday night, Sunday and Monday, what he omitted to say was that the deaths and injuries were caused as a result of heavy drinking and driving during Songkhran festivities.

I donot think most people have any idea how many types of blanks have been produced and in Europe years ago plastic was used for the lot and it didnt have a bullet part. ONLY a cartridge made out of plastic making a bang... First time I saw them I wondered what it would to the riffle...

Anyway, at least it looks that at present the mess is more or less over but I wonder what will happen to that request to essentially kick him out of the Middle East!

Well don't you take the girls out because they take your money?

I have lived here about 26 years and believe me with 2 daughters and 2 sons it would be rather silly.

Anybody who wants to really know, go next time with elections to isan.... Its not where I live but I have many friends from there...

Anyway, it is not the money.

Channel 3 just reported that Phuket Immigration office will be open. No mention of other Imm. offices though.

George, a question please. I am on paper supposed to visit Phuket immigration in the weekend to show my passport and get a stamp for the next 3 months.

I obviously could go on Monday as the Sunday is obviously closed...

But when are they officially now open?? Thursday? Friday??

And is that Phuket or ALSO Patong as I find that a better place then phuket town for the 3 months stamp...

Almost all the multipassport offices use Phuket, which you need for extension but as you only need to go Patong with whatever is required for the 3 monthly stamp....

Why all the moans and groans about this - TIT things change instantly - So go with the flow and enjoy an extra couple of days holidays, beer, sun, cute girls in wet T-shirts, what more could you ask for.

Speak to your friends back home ask them what they'd prefer beer and sun or work !!

Right I'm off the protesters are going home, I'm gonna go get wet

Enjoy

Well I donot know what the weather is in BKK but in Phuket we had rain the last 3 weeks... Not all day but it gets longer and longer... Well, someone should check if we had a normal raining season or if its coming earlier ...

I heard already from a guy that it was also dry earlier and to be honest normally (ie the last 25 years) I saw the change of the winds as the clouds go in opposite direction. At present they seem to go different from what I remember...

could also be almost 26 years...(g)

When the next round of elections come in to view, they can campaign and canvas mightily, and try to get their chosen candidate(s) elected.

Sounds great. So what happens when there's another coup, or the military appointed judiciary remove those elected MPs for whatever reason they can; hosting a cooking show or buying votes for example, or the other paramilitary mob that wears yellow takes over the airports again because they didn't like the results?

Back to square one?

Doesnt matter as they will vote for the one who gives them most money...

My understanding of Thaksins' rise to wealth (corrections welcomed):

· He was a lowly police officer in the North.

· He opened a PC repair shop as a sideline, and suddenly gets a cell phone company operating license for the Northern part of Thailand, without previous experience to run a cell phone company.

I didnt know he had a computer repairshop but maybe thats where all those messed up second hand IBM pc's came from....

Any idea when that was???

Cellphones: it was set up with an American who got booted out and never got his money back.

· He acquires other cell companies and becomes the cell magnate of Thailand.

· He enters politics.

· He sells his cell phone company to Singaporean interests to avoid and sales tax in Thailand.

And to really cheat his partner

· He gets pinned for some real estate deals (along with his wife), buying undervalued Government land, and immediately re-selling to commercial developers for a huge profit (while in office as Prime Minister).

Well, from what I heard he has so many properties he likely needs a staff just to keep track of them...

· He flees country, two steps ahead of the Jailer.

Thats why they let him go...

· He has a vast number of assets seized by the Thai government.

He has much more money and property in and outside Thailand..

So anyways, what does everyone suggest the solution to the problems are? I see fighting and attacking on here but nobody offers a solution. Do we all agree that there is no solution? Or is there a genius around that has one?

i am your man, in fact i have been offering solutions all afternoon

the problem is none of them lead to the return of your man Thaksin so you have not responded

like many armchair protaganists, if it does not suit you just ignore it

i would advise you to watch Thaksin interviewed on CNN

he looked like a bumbling fool.

he is a spent force and after watching that interview anyone who thinks he could run this country again in my opinion is an idiot

Sorry to ask, but is that interview somewhere on Internet??

You should have loaded anti theft software on it!

http://remotetracker.sourceforge.net/

It's free, and you can activate the GPS and get the location back just by sending an SMS to it.

It will also automatically activate the GPS and send the location to a pre-programmed number when the program detects that another sim card has been inserted.

Is there any way things like this can be send to the Imei number?? I mean his phone / GPS has already been nicked...

For a lost phone to find it back: unlikely you manage that BUT you can make it utterly useless to the thief.

To do that properly you need the 'imei' number, normally in the phone under the battery, on the box if you bought it new and in your case maybe the gps manufacturer. Check your invoice, check anything where they may have written it down and in NORMAL cases you could go to the shop where you bough the simcard Or the unit.

You likely will not get the unit back but please remember it for the future as IF you have the number you may need a passport or id card to get number cancelled but this is exactly what I told a Thai girl to do when her phone and simcard were stolen and while she didnt get her phone back she got new simcard with same number!!

And the money which was in it had only 50 baht used up.. I told her also when you have same simcard and it HAS been used they can tell you who has been called so likely the Thiefs friends /Familly are in it as having been called. IE asking for a list of your bill (with all the calls specified to where they were made) you should be able to get if you want. She didnt want as it was a customer who nicked the phone!

Over the years I have seen many backpackers who were on a trip from Europe to Australa or New Zealand and Thailand was for them a MUST. However I can see that if they are going to be fleeced they likely will travel on to Malaysia (Penang) before going to Sumatra... Its a kind of standard route or anyway it was with them ending up in Singapore, getting a visum for indonesia etc.

Secondly there are many retired people living or trying to live in Thailand and it should be recognised that they are good for the local economy even if not all are staying in a 5-star hotel...

Personally I wouldnt stay in such hotel if they offered it free!

They may look nice on travel brochures but personally I prefer a smaller place and to spend the money in a better way!! After all I worked for my money and I love to have the fun of spending it the way I want and NOT as wanted by some politicians...

That recent change is fixable quite easy, both by making visa for students / cheaper/easier.

Passports have a name /day of birth and as Thailand sticks all those details in the immigration computer its quite easy to check on.

In most countries study is about 5 years so give them 5 years cheaper rate!

Retired people: one has several categories but it should be recognised that many either visit here every year as its cheaper and warmer then at home (which by the way is disappearing as reason due to 'tourist' prices being charged even to your round retired people.)

Secondly being older they normally have problems with legs etc so sending them to a border is for many not a good solution!

Friends of mine are end 70's, live in Europe for 1/2 year and then stay 4-6 months in Thailand and they already were complaining that the current financial problems means that this could be their last visit!

There should really be an easier way to get people like this an extension or a visum for the whole period! Most of the required details are in the passport!

I have a few remarks regarding this problem:

when you get a credit or cashcard there is a form you sign or at least gets filled in by the bank which sets the validity and other details to certain numbers. I saw it one time and its no real problem but a big security loophole.

Ask to see it, read it and have it modified. Almost any bank seems to fill them in the same from what I saw.

Like the card when lost STAYS valid! Unless cancelled by the bank or at least the pincode changed.

Personally when I loose or have lost a card (didnt happen often) first thing it did was go bank and cancel the thing.

At present after many years I dont have any creditcards (cancelled them a long time ago..) which obviously this year around new year was a problem as my money sits in a bank and the only ATM card I have sits on an almost empty bankbook...

There is absolutely no need for large amounts to be withdrawn from an atm card.

Normally I use a special Bank account for the ATM card and that has rarely more in it then I need.

The other Banks where I have accounts I have no atm....

Hello,

Did you have any luck with your email account?

What do you really want, them out and account back or getting them picked up by the police...

Email account is Thai provider I asume. Have you got any idea who nicked the account, Thais???

I asume you tried getting and resetting the password??

When you opened the account did you fill in paperwork or get a receipt mentioning email username and that you paid...

I recommend you at least for the moment if you havent done it already setup a google email...

Free and it works. I have an acount there..

Best of Luck

tracer

What is your problem here ? If you run a company here, you should not need to leave and renew your work permit & visa outside of Thailand. You can either do it at immigration in Bangkok or at the BOI one stop service centre.

I have been here for 11 years on a work permit & visa, running a company and at no point have I had to leave the country to renew my visa & work permit.

Of course, if you don't have a work permit & are working here illegally, then it would be an issue.

the reason you no problem is because your visa is subject to the same rules as 11 years ago

i have non imm b visa isssued in aussie 11 years ago never even had business and never leave either

I have been here at least 24 years...

I had many extensions in Thailand when I had a non-b, went for about 10 years not outside and now enjoy (well I get bored...) not working. While I would admid these changes are worrying, they are survivable, and especially in Penang as its very easy with the same rules upsetting us to also upset local business people in Malaysia!

And they complain loudly!

So normally it results in many complaints and then plans get 'modified'. All it means is that new boss is now seen to be energetic....

I have been here long enough to recognize that what is happening is almost a standard procedure...

If you work here in Thailand you need a workpermit even if working via the net if you want to use non-b (as far as I know).

Ok, you pay a little bit of tax, pay the social security and include the wife in it or whoever else is working for you (could even be a cleaner, niece of wife, whatever...) AND, you may be VAT liable due to internet work. Some firms were taken to court on this and lost... Ask an expert on this..

Workpermit you apply for it in Thailand and I cannot remember I ever extended it or had to.

Social security by the way saves money due to medical costs, you donot have to pay!

Ok, I have a retirement visum now, NOT by choice, a motorbike accident too many; immigration as I was in the process of extending it advised me to do it...

Looking back on what I did, it wasnt always the smartest thing but on the whole I am happy with it.

Finally: there are too many socalled expats here or tourists who complain to much to immigration etc. Donot forget they can in practise remove any unwanted person... MUCH better/easier to get what you want by staying polite... Ask advice etc.

Well I had a look around at hotels in Phuket, and note I donot need a hotel...

However I went a few days ago to Bangla Road where I was asked where I had been all the months (what else but a motor bike accident..). Anyway, in the day many bars empty . but I was told in the evening sometimes busy but quite obviously it depends on prices the bar handles. I see 1 chang going for 50-90 baht... Guess who gets the customers!

Now, it should be noted that some places have been closed as owners hadnt paid the rent... But in general all the cheaper ones were getting business but DONOT use a motor bike or car as police IS checking which means the visiting farang may get a bill of 20000-30000 for being drunk and driving... And the same was done during any days requiring a shutdown.

This is asuming anyone survives the trafic!

There are some guest houses but likely to many to really even advertise as I know a Dutch one which I think hasnt even got a website...

Anyway I will later when I return from Patong post address.etc

Note: traffic is crazy, drive carefull!!