DonniePeverley

This is a flat out lie. Indians are not even in the top ten spenders per person in India. They are infact one of the lowest, per person. The GDP per person in India, is 3 times lower than Thailands. No other country has offered a comprehensive visa free arrival for indian citizens. For the main reason ... poor behaviour, low spenders, and third the perpetuance to start living and working illegally in that country. Thailand are unfortunately looking at the final total number. The way they are fixated on total number of visitors, they are seeing income from Indian tourists, without realising the pressure they are putting on public resources (transport, roads, etc).

https://thepattayanews.com/2024/10/18/indian-tourists-spark-outrage-for-littering-into-sea-at-north-pattaya-beach-ignoring-warning/

The men view every single lady as a prostitute. They are literally addicted to red light zones. Pattaya is now 75% Indians. Walking Street is full on Indian. You never see them in malls though spending.

Beyond stupidity. The mantra of quality tourism has now been thrown out the window in favour of complete mass tourism - and the enviromental impact that creates, as well turning away quality high spending tourists. Indian tourists spend very little per person, compared to other nations. They will come in mass, creating more pressure on local infrustructure, which is already crumbling. India offers no free visa for Thai citizens. Indians behaviours, especially their addiction in red light areas is alarming.

I used to like John Oliver ... but he's seemed to have really lost the plot. Getting emotionally upset at the prospect of a Trump presidency is utterly insane. It's this wild hyperbole drama like this that turns many people towards Trump. Harris has barely been tested. She's a seasoned polished politician who can navigate (and not answer) questions. Trump is pretty much an open book. In some ways it's refreshing to see. The unfortunate thing about Trump and those who support him, is they are far too right wing for my liking, and that leads to some of his supporters feeling it's acceptable to be racist. And that i cannot support.

In what way ?

John Oliver getting emotional at the horrific thought of a Trump presidency is utterly insane. He was president for 4 years and it was literally the same old <deleted>, nothing new. If anything there were less wars around. Things these days seem more sinsister and underhand.

It's not really about the massage place, but the messuse. I've been to some fancy places and clearly the massesue is knackered or doesn't give a crap. I've also been to some lower backstreet places where i have had the type of massages that sends you into relaxation heaven, and to that sleepy point.

My estate agent says the visa is a trap to bring you into the tax bracket

Needs stricter controls. Too many Indians abusing this. You can't literally allow people to live here without any form of income check - the current system is open to abuse with the income statements needed.

Very bad news for the Thai population. When property in a developing nation is being used as investment for foreigners - prices will surge for locals, in a nation where not everyone is doing well. Disgraceful and all protectionisms Thai's have had in the past has been slowly and rather quietly been thrown out the window.

Not correct. This is for visas. The OP already has a visa. He would only have needed a stamp. But even if you went by that page for a visa, he still only needed one page.

You are correct in stating Sri Lanka do not require two blank pages of your passport. This over zealous official, must assume the two page requirement is a blanket rule for all destinations. The problem with these Low cost carriers is they are very hard to pin down or have an effective complaints procedure - primarily as they have little competition or can't afford to deal with issues.

These will be needed for the low paid labour.

Are the red busses public or private? Because they spew black smoke massively. Vehicle emissions on the ground is just horrific here.

I wonder if they've let local governors know this - as most are on a mission to ban local street food and force everyone to eat KFC/s

It's an Americanisation that is annoying. It's clearly deceptive. It's banned in the UK and the EU for that reason. America is a nightmare as they add on tax on things you buy in a supermarket too !!!

Horrific news. Indians are turning away high spending tourists. I mean this literally ... we had some female friends who regularly go to Pattaya once every few months for a weekend break. Never again. The place has turned into India, and the Indian men are aggressive and assume every woman is a prostitute. It's ruined tourism there, not added to it. If you look at an arbitary figure and become obsessed with adding more people then go for it, but what happened to quality tourism and high spending tourism? It's an enviromental disaster letting so many in. No other country has given Indians a free pass to enter. It's a growing power, but GDP per person is one of the lowest in the world.

THIS. Adding a a service charge (tip) automatically disensitivises any quality in the service.

Democrats really needed to have an election to select their candidate. Appointing her just like that was a mistake. Her flaws are exposed, and she had no momentum of winning a race. Her answers are vacant, there's nothing there. Obama does a single speech, stars reciting an Eminem song and you think Wow this guy is inspiring

Russians in Phuket own so many businesses there. The employing a Thai front is abused to the chore. In Pattaya Indians have completely taken over. Chinese are all over the place too.

I got a bit miffed with my local to go place here in Bangkok, when they suddenly started to add VAT on their meals. Fine i let it go and continued to go there. Then tourism started to increase a bit more, and they added in a 10% service charge. Now the cheeky sausages, and my final straw, is they have added a 200 Baht per person charge !!! Absolutely ridiculously taking the biscuit with the per person charge, which i have only ever seen a few times in very high end restaurants in America. This americanisation of 'hidden charges' needs to be addressed. Or is Thailand now just purely on the lowdown for tourists and locals can go shove it.

POintless. They scrapped visa fees for Chinese and Indians. That cost must be in the billions. I would gladly pay ten times more if it kept out the mass cheap tourists the Thai government wants.

The EU did not help. It's the problem the system of the EU has, is that you can get some foolish people in charge at the wrong moment. All it had to do was make some concessions to the UK on immigration (which could have been dealt with in the longer term, in a time when there was less volatility in the politics and an economy on the rise again). They've already given concessions to the UK on not being part of Shengen, when the reality was it made no difference other than optics. Anyone who got a shengen visa also qualified quite easily for a British visa. The EU has been hurt by this too. You say the US and Beijing simply bypass the UK, and go straight to Europe. They don't. They bypass Europe now too. Without the UK, they have lost one of the few major defense partners in the world, and one of a few nuclear powers. Look at how the Polish leadership were annoyed with the EU leaders posturing over northern ireland, when if Russia made any advances to Poland it was only really the UK (along with France) that could come to help. The structural leadership of the EU is a problem. You have different countries, leaders with egos exerting influencing for short term gain, rather than looking at the bigger picture. They will never get a better opportunity to intergrate the UK into the EU than they do now. Labour will lose seats at the next election and be weaker. Make a deal with friction free trade. Make a deal on immigration (because that's what it's about with ignorant racist fools). And then slowly intergrate. Cast bind it, so no future conservative government can undue it without massive economic pain. But will they do anything? Nope. More posture, dealing etc The EU has stagnated, whilst China, the USA, and now even India are burgeoning. All we are now is a museum for tourists.

What's the indian situation ? Most are saying Pattaya is now little India