DonniePeverley

I think many see a 'chinese person' and assume they are buying. But these are usually citizens of Hong Kong, Taiwan, sometimes chinese that reside in Singapore and South Korea. I'm talking about the Chinese people from actual China. Only a tiny fraction of them spend any decent money. This from talking to local business people. The Chinese agents also block book massive volumes of hotels for their tour groups at a fraction of the price they should be at. The fact that the tour groups, Chinese owned Hotels, Chinese owned restaurants, Chinese ran tour groups, are back is just beyond belief - all the money is going back to China. Why not put an end to that ? You let 10 million upwards in, and the pressure on the local communities, resources is just too much. Furthermore, they are untouchable. They could literally take a dump outside a palace and nothing will be done to them. The police take a very soft approach to them for fear of bad publicity. I watched the litter police around Nana fining tourists, but anyone who said they were from China were allowed to walk off scott free.

I remember them buying up baby forumla too. That was unusual.

Same here in Bangkok. Pulled up in a bus outside Terminal 21. Out comes the leader with flag. They all follow her around the mall. They buy nothing. Then get back on the bus. They then bizarrely drive past Nana Plaza, which is a very tight soi to drive through, never mind a big bus going through it. Just ridiculous.

There has been a huge influx of Chinese tourists these past few weeks unfortunately. The big busses are back. The bus trying to go down a narrow Soi is back. The leader holding up a flag followed by 20-30 Chinese are back. Packing out the BTS is back. Throwing litter and spitting is back. Not buying anything but crowding is back. Walking around and just hearing Mandarin is back. Unfortunately there also seems to be a rather unpleasant aggressive type of Chinese tourist, who may well be drawn by no visa fees. If you live nearby a touristy area, unfortunately you are going to start feeling like you are in China. I just wonder what is the maximum number TAT would be happy with Chinese tourists before it gets too much for the local population and infrustructure?

There is local pollution and city wide pollution in the enviroment. For me, i have really struggled and become quite disillusioned by LOCAL POLLUTION, mostly VEHICLES. We live in central Bangkok, and the volume of vehicles in my opinion has increased massively over the past 10 years. You just leave your condo, walk down the road to grab a bite to eat and you are surrounding by cars just blowing hot air into your face. Big cars bellowing out exhaust fumes. Those dirty busses (albeit now rarer) are still around. You go to work, cross a road, go to a bar, and you take the full wiff of vehicle pollution in. I went to China town, and you had motorbikes just going into the narrow soi's pumping away the gas into your face. I went to show some guests around China Town, as it's a big tourist pull. You sit there and eat whilst they allow cars, busses all just to blow exhaust fumes into your face. Many look at Bangkok pollition levels and think they aren't too bad. But on the ground, going around vehicles everydays really is becoming hazardous. The pollution levels on these meters doesn't tell you that reading. I am not one of those 'lets tax cars type zealot, but i think around the main arteries Thailand has to adopt some measures - 1) Begin a ban on old polluting vehicles, or put some taxes on them. 2) Increase the BTS / MRT lines. Have a good working bus line that has it's own dedicated lanes. Encourage people to use them through incentivisations. 3) Stop introducing clean zones - where cars have to pay to go into. I am thinking here of main arteries like Sukhumvit and Silom. Those who go into these zones for deliveries could be exempt. Eg, if you want to travel in the zones that the BTS goes along, you pay 100 Baht. That will bring traffic down. It's really started to get me down. And i just see the problem getting worst.

Will the Chinese be exempt from this? Most taxes are now incorporated into the the flights. Even Dubai rolled back on tourist fees, which once asked for a seperate fee to be collected by the hotel, have now seen it was a error and just incorporate it into the hotel fee.

FFS. So you want to go through x-ray machines, you want body searches, you want all your bags searched - just to go shopping ?

China isn't imploding. I've been reading nonsense about this for nearly a decade, that China is going to fall any minute now. It's just utter nonsense.

Do you want airport type security to get into a mall? Don't be silly.

MORE likely no one wants to go there. But Russia does have it's own migrant problems too - as citizens from neighbouring states do venture there. Any major metropolis will have a migrants. It's been the same since the industrial revolution. In part some countries face more migration due to their links to colonialism when they invaded those countries.

Hang on ... if you go through passport control at DMK, aren't you then screwed if something goes wrong at the permit desk ? I WILL NOT GET STAMPED OUT, then go for the reentry permit. At least at BKK, (and i assuming here) that you don't have to go through passport control if you fail to get your waiver. btw - can you only apply for a reentry permit once - so you either pick the single or multiple one time decision.

Not saying all Chinese don't spend. But the vast majority don't. So what happens is you need to go through 30 million non spending / cheap tourists, to get the 1 million who spend big. So you essentially push 29 million non spending tourists onto Thailand cities, heap pressure on local services, but the big issue is you turn of other nationalities who will see crowded places and be put off. The no dollar tours are still in my opinion going on. I was in Terminal 21 today, and you had the coach pull up and everyone just following the leader around the mall, then back on the coach. Nothing spent. It was the same in Pattaya too. They are back staying in Chinese owned hotels, chinese restaurants, and don't spend elsewhere. Thailand has done virtually nothing to push for European / American tourists - no incentives, nothing. It's just put all it's eggs into Chinese tourism.

Do you never go to a mall, or use public transport like the train? Never go to a restaurant ?

They aren't going to role back the visa waiver. Once you set up a policy like this, and with the Chinese saying they welcome it. To then put visas back on would be a loss of face, shame. It's permemant.

Thai women don't want a bigger nose. From experience they look for an implant to make the bridge bigger (the top boney part of your nose), and then reduce the size of the tip to make it smaller.

THIS. THIS. THIS. Driver of TukTuk pulled up behind the dreaded exhaust releasing bus. He behaved like he was nirvana rose pelt scents - we suffered the dreaded exhaust fumes. Partner had a cough for months after. Utterly horrific.

Was around lower Sukhumvit these past few days (strong tourist area) - i have never seen so many Chinese tourists in my life. This has to go back to pre covid levels (and then some more). Astonishing numbers that basically outnumbered local Thai's. Getting on the BTS and MRT has been a miserable experience these past few days, a huge massive increase of tourists have put enormous pressures on the local services. No seats, and squashed so tight. Literally a week ago it was a pleasure to ride the BTS and MRT with relative stable crowds. Then as we had lunch in icon Siam today, the whole bottom (street food type fascade built on the basement) was full of Chinese. I couldn't even move, so i just had to leave. The actual shopping centre shops, and the fine dining restaurants had no chinese in at all. Most the of the fine dining restaurants were still mainly occupied by Thais, some arabs, and a few westerners - but no Chinese. Really do question the wisdom of just opening the borders to them. Yes a few may spend, but literally the cost of 99% of the 30 million coming and not spending is a big burden on the local cities and infrustructure - never mind then turning off other tourists from other nationalities to go elsewhere. I have noticed (in Bangkok especially) how so few European tourists are coming here anymore. But it is done now, and can't be undone. At the time i was surprised at how quick they came up with the decision, when it was going to impact so much of the local populations. We've been spoilt by the past few years living here - no longer the case now.

Most airports i know have security first. From memory are you saying DMK does passport control before security ? That just seems very wrong. What happens if you are checked out of Thailand at passport control, but the face issues at security - where do you go then ?

Hang on - so you go through passport control (ie no going back), and you find out the paper work is wrong, or the workers at the desk have gone for a break - you have literally lost your visa then haven't you ? Basically i'd be screwed. Why would they not put it airside ?

The guy who faced racism was because he was black NOT because he was british. That whole 'that's not a race so it isn't racist' plays straight from the racist handbook. They love to trot it out.

Racism should be highlighted, and kicked out. Not brushed under the carpet and told to move on.

That is something to think about. Because when we go to extend our O visa for a year, we will only have 8 months left on our passport. So shall i commence proceedings for a new passport now ?

Ah blady hell man this sounds tough. Cheers for the help .

Do you get a number and wait ? Or do you get called back for a certain time? I ask because maybe our last experience had the agent doing the 'waiting' whilst my partner went shopping, lol

When we went for the O visa - my partner said there was shopping downstairs and food places - and she had a good time. Although she did have an agent with her.