JaiDamJungLoei

Found a picture

When I was in Ayuttaya in 2005 I saw many nice new tuk tuks quite a bit different from the BKK/Pattaya type. Fiberglass body with doors for the driver, came in at least 2 lengths. I didn't stop to ask where to buy one, but I plan to go look when I'm back in LOS in April. The Thai wife thinks I'm crazy of course.

Most politicions in Thailand are simply crooks. They are in politics only to protect their business interests.

Hah! That should read "most politicians the world over are crooks". Just because we're better at hiding the corruption in the west doesn't mean it's not there.

I can point to our ex-pres Bill Clinton as a shining example. The man grew up middle class, worked for the government his entire life, yet somehow (wink wink, nudge nudge, say no more) managed to become a multi-millionaire. And when his mother said live on CNN she wouldn't vote for him because he was a pathological liar, CNN never repeated the story and no other press would touch it. So much for a free press looking out for the interests of the people.

Remember the old Chinese saying: Power attracts the corruptible.

In the vast majority of cases, changing governments simply changes who's pockets the money goes into.

That is a good Idea, I will look into it, it still would mean a visa for Japan though, Thais have to have one incase the onward flight is cancelled ARRRRH. but it probably would be way easier than the US visa. Thanks for the idea.

No need for Japanese visa if tranisiting through Narita. Have done it many times and you don't enter Japan.

TH

That is correct. When you get to Narita you will be run through security and sent to the departure area, where you will wait for your plane - even if it's late. No entry into Japan is allowed.

Last year there was a snow storm in Narita that closed the airport for a day. Over 10,000 people were stuck in the departure areas for up to 48 hours. If you're worried, bring enough cash to eat at airport restaurants, a couple changes of cloths and a blanket to sleep on in the terminal.

Getting a US transit visa is as hard as getting a tourist visa, so you might as well apply for a multiple entry tourist visa. My sister in law applied for a tourist visa last year and the embassy gave her a 10 year multiple entry. This surprised me, as the US had stopped issuing the 10 year visa for several years. Your GF will need to show sufficient evidence that she will not want to overstay. After that it's all up to the consular office she talks to.

FYI, if you are not listed as an additional person on her embassy appointment, you will not be allowed in the embassy unless you are a US citizen. Due to school constaints, one of my nieces had a separate appointment for a tourist visa from my sister in law. Her mom was not listed on her appointment, as her mom already had a visa. The embassy entry people denied entry to her mom, and then the consular officer denied my niece's visa because her mom wasn't with her. They had to wait two months for a new appointment, and pay the fee again.

Anyone who crying about the poor Thai girls has never bothered to spend any time with them.

These girls are not raised to be delicate flowers like western women. Sit down with a group of working girls one day and listen to how they talk about the farangs, and, give each other pointers on how to screw their customers out of the most money. My wife enjoys eating with them because of the stupid farang storys they tell, and likes to drag me along to help get them going.

You can also get a lot of it sitting with the female family members. Sooner or later they always start talking about what lazy bastiges their boyfriends/husbands are, and wouldn't be nice to find a rich farang boyfriend who would spend lots of money on them. These conversations always include the girl children from a very early age. All of my half dozen nieces, all of their mothers and all of their friends (married or not) want me to find them a farang boyfriend who they can sponge money off of. When I ask why they start with “Thai men are too lazy” and go down hill from there. Some of these women own a business and are very well off, but they still think it'd be good to scam money from a falang.

When you see a 20 year old Thai girl with a 60+ year old farang, it’s always business. Stupid farangs may not see it that way, but the girl always does. Even if they get married, all the girl wants is for her husband to buy some land & build a house for her, and give her lots of money & gold. As soon as he’s done that he’s history. My wife has several friends who have done this and are now very happy, and don’t care at all that their former tilak that they swore undying love to is now a bankrupt drunkard or has killed himself.

What does that say about my marriage? Only time will tell! There's a reason I married someone my own age.

My Thai wife used to call me uon all the time (I need to loose 20 Kgs - I was down 10 when we got married, but now it's hard to find time to exercise 90 minutes a day - any less does no good). But now that she’s put on 15Kgs since moving to the US, she doesn’t call me uon any more. Now we’re both 46 & fat. All my in laws still tell me I’m fat, but I know they are correct, and that they only do it to my face because they like me. My mom does the same thing.

In Feb we spent a week in Cambodia, where most people can’t afford junk food, and a large percentage of the population walk or ride bicycles to get somewhere. When we returned to Thailand I immediately noticed that almost all the young Thai women were poom pooie.

Sorry, but I don’t notice men’s personal appearance as much as women’s. Not PC, but, what can I do.

Anyway, thinking about this I realized that the younger Thais have been putting on weight steadily in the 6 years I have been traveling to Thailand. I just didn’t notice until I was reminded what the Thais used to look like. Looks like too much greasy junk food and no exercise is doing to the Thais exactly what it has done to Americans. Give them 20 years & they’ll look just like us.

In several other developing countries that had the airline collect airport taxes, when an airline started having financial trouble, they found that they could suck more money into the owners pockets before total bankruptcy by collecting the PSC and not forwarding it on to the government. All it took was bribes to a few government officials to avoid shutting down the airline for as long as possible.

A great example of this is VASP in Brazil. Even though the former owner of the airline is the richest man in Brazil, with a net worth around US$30 billion, VASP never seemed to be able to pay its bills or employee’s salaries. VASP also went about 3 years without forwarding the PSC to the airport. The government threatened them, but didn’t actually do anything to stop VASP for years. The final solution in Brazil was to have all airlines pay the PSC in advance by purchasing stickers for the boarding passes from the government. When you board a plan in Brazil, there’s a government rep at the security checkpoint scanning the barcodes on the sticker.

Also, a quick look at current ticket prices from the US (Seattle) shows an average of US$220 for taxes and PSCs on a round trip with stops in Tokyo or Taipei, or an average of US$55 per airport - not counting BKK, since we all pay cash there.