"Pattaya Police and immigration launched a city-wide search yesterday targeting foreigners on overstay or who might have been involved in illegal activities."
An orgnisation called the RTP and the Immigration Bureau...they were doing their job.
My experience was five minutes before posting on this thread...
"...both Lloyds Bank's contact numbers that do connect from here, I just got through on both of them".
Using "004".
"When I redial with the normal 01 intl code I always get through (but about 14 baht/min)"
Maybe that explains it, then, the standard internaitonal code from Thailand is "001". not "01".
"Bangkok airport taxi scammers"
You were told how much they wanted to charge (albeit illegally) and you had the opportunity to reject their offers so there was no "scam".
It was a bar, the sole purpose of which was to sell alcohol for customers to consume, what do you expect, a bar full of sober people?! By definition, anyone who drinks any amount of alcohol is intoxicated to some degree.
"the operators are requesting to be allowed use the beach to make a living".
The illegal operators are requesting permission to obstruct public beaches so that they can charge the public for using the beach that the public are entitled to use free of charge, by law. Seems perfectly reasonable to me.
What else did you expect? You couldn't have tried very hard with those numbers before you posted your unwarranted, derogatory remarks about Lloyds.
And thanks so much for your shouted reply.
"...mine out of the entertainment industry".
Wow, you were lucky, was she a singer, comedienne, chat show host, something like that?! I think the posters on this thread are assuming ex-bar girls are being discussed!