Front Row

How sad. His vacation has been postponed due to a global conflict. Probably the first time anyone has ever been inconvenienced by some outside force. Consider the alternatives.

Panic is hardly called for except perhaps in border areas. Assuming your car fuel tank capacity is about 50 liters and assume the price of gasoline increased by 5 baht per liter, you would save about 250 baht. While, I'm all for getting a discount, I don't really see a need to queue up for half an hour or more at a Bangkok petrol station to hoard gasoline. The government has promised the price isn't going to be increased and I'm sure the government will keep their promise.

We’re leaving in the morning to go visit my in-laws. I’m expecting to see the usual mixture of speeding, dangerous overpassing, changing lanes with not enough space, tailgating at high speeds, etc. Wish me luck. I’m happy to read the number of accidents, injuries, fatalities declined but there’s a long way to go before the highways are safe. IMHO, higher fines and additional enforcement are needed to deter the worst offenders. I believe they could turn such enforcement into a self funded profit center.

As a Thai resident they already restricted my USA banking. With these changes there will be almost no reason to use Wise. Put another way, I don’t see any advantage to maintaining my Wise account. It’s easier to just wire funds into my local USD account and then do FX exchanges with my bank as needed. Their fees and FX rates aren’t that much more competitive IMHO.

Will they check to see if the vehicle has proper paid up insurance, including liability insurance and personal injury insurance? With an insurance policy specifically for commercial use vehicles?

The way I read this article, this is all about nothing. Why are so many people here getting upset? Sounds exactly like what happens at every airport in the USA and Europe. We all lock our luggage with TSA approved locks, knowing they might be opened and inspected. We put our hand carry out to be x-rayed. If there’s something suspicious the bag gets manually inspected. We go through body detectors of one type or another. If there’s something mysterious we might get a pat down. If that doesn’t resolve the issue, we might even be escorted to a side room for a much closer inspection. How is this proposal any different?

When he exits the prison will he be sporting a suntan? Will his arm be in a sling? Will his family pick him up in the Maybach sedan or the SUV? These are the questions keeping me awake at night.

In other news, Italy has announced that everyone, residents and visitors alike, must eat fish on Fridays in order to maintain respect for religious observances.

I’m happy for you. 🤦‍♂️

Usually I stop reading at the mention of an influencer but I wanted to find out if the monkey was OK. 😝😂😝

The Mad King has diarrhea of the mouth and constipation of the brain.

You must be a lot of fun at parties.

Perhaps you didn’t read the entirety of my post. I’m not upset. I’m not worked up. The point I’m trying to make is that there are a boatload of bad drivers on the roads here. My opinion of course, but probably not disputable. That’s not going to get fixed by making it more difficult for older people to get a license renewal. (That’s not exactly what’s happening. They’re just making it easier for younger people to get a license renewal.) (Semantics?) Nothing that happens within the DLT office or within the license renewal program is going to improve traffic safety. What would improve traffic safety is better laws, better driver education, better enforcement, and more realistic penalties for infractions. And BTW age is not the only factor in what makes a good driver. I’m a better driver than my partner who is almost 20 years younger than me. Fact. And I’m a better driver than many of those kamikaze who are piloting those pickup trucks on the highway. You perhaps know of them. The ones who tailgate within centimeters of your rear bumper while driving 120 kph. The ones who cut in and out of traffic whether there’s enough space or not. But I’m sure it’s OK because they are ten years younger than us, and so they must be deserving of a driving license.

From my perspective this is pure ageism. I’m not about to get upset about that though. If this works to reduce the lines at DLT, I’m all for it. However, if there’s one country that needs to sort out bad drivers, Thailand is it. You can’t do that at a DLT site or office. It requires policing and enforcement and that is sorely missing here.

The OP tries to compare a flip flop beach sandal to a pair of shoes and wonders why the price is so much higher. 🤦‍♂️

Corruption is bad. It harms the country and it must be stopped! * *except when I do it

I’m certainly not going to get my knickers in a knot about this. Not yet. Reads like another concept of a plan. Let them get a new PM, cabinet, and legislature sorted out and then come back to this.

Deflecting, lying, disrespectful and obnoxious. She deserves to be impeached but that probably won’t happen until after the midterms, if then.

Will the Supreme Court take up this matter? That was always a foregone conclusion. Their ruling is probably a foregone conclusion as well. PP keeps losing their leadership, making it more and more difficult to put forward strong and principled candidates.

He was probably gay and you are probably a raging homophobic. 😉

The Mad King tells America to get over the Epstein files. America needs to tell The Mad King to get over the 2020 election.

My social calendar is so packed some weeks, there's simply no time for me to go to the post office. 😆😂😆

Thanks, Tod. So I have one question and one comment. Question: My understanding is that after a person returns to Thailand from abroad then the next TM-47 must be submitted in person. I presume that means no reporting by mail, no reporting online. Even though we all have to file a TM-30 immediately (24 hours) after arrival, Immigration doesn't know where we live? I'm trying to figure out a logical reason for why they make us all trek out the CW to queue up and show our face. Any ideas? Comment: There's no overlap of deadlines for filing by mail vs filing online. So let's say you file online on the first day (+15 days) that the system and regulations allow. Then you have to wait at least 24 hours for a reply, probably more like 3 days. By then the deadline for filing by mail (+15 days) has passed. So if the online submission is rejected for any reason you have no option but to make a trip to CW to report in person, because it is too late to file by mail. Unfortunately I'm one of those rare people that the online system doesn't seem to handle very well. Online reports fail more often than they are approved. I was once told by an IO that it has something to do with two different data bases in Immigration and I am in the old one. Not sure if that is true or she was just trying to make me feel better about how long it was taking her to process and print out a receipt of notification. (heh heh.) Sometimes I miss the old days when I was traveling 50% of the time and didn't have to even think about a TM-47.

Yes, of course. And by the way, the postage rates have increased. While Immigration recommends 10 baht of postage on the SASE, one should really put 15 baht worth of postage on the SASE. Not sure when Immigration might get around to updating that bit of their website.

With due respect, Dr. Jack per the Immigration website: "Your registered mail must be sent to the Immigration office at least 15 days before the due date of notification." So I wouldn't post it 14 days prior. But the website still doesn't answer the question of just how far in advance one could post the report.