Farangus

Thank you for information! There seems to be no point in 15-day visas on arrival for those who are used to vacationing in Thailand for 2-3 months. Only makes sense for short travel packages.

10 minutes ago, Pattaya57 said:

So I'm assuming you are from Belarus? They gave Russia 60 day visa exempt so why not you?

Because this Belarus is not Russia (although now we are under political occupation of Russia thanks to our dictator) 🥺

12 minutes ago, UWEB said:

Than you are not from a Country in Center of Europe, that would be a EU Member State or Switzerland.

I did not mean the center of the European Union, but the Geographical Center of Europe (as parts of the world from Portugal to the Ural Mountains in Russia). (in fact, several countries claim to be the center of Europe and my country is only one of them).

In fact, getting a Thai visa here is not very difficult (there is an Honorary Consulate), but one of the requirements is very stupid: confirmation of PAID accommodation for each day of stay in Thailand (between the date of arrival and departure according to the air ticket). For a person who arrives for 2-3 months and likes to travel a lot around the country depending on the weather and mood (without an exact schedule), this is very unpleasant. So I crossed my fingers that I could at least get a visa on arrival...

8 minutes ago, UWEB said:

If you had 30 days Visa exempts / Visa free before you will have 60 days in future.

No, I always applied for a 60-day visa. There was an option with a visa on arrival more than 10 years ago, but it was later cancelled.

42 minutes ago, Georgealbert said:

The unconfirmed list, from Thai media reports, of the new countries being added to the visa exempt list, but the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has yet to release the official list:

Thank you! Unfortunately, I did not find my country in the center of Europe on this list (it seems that the citizens of Papua New Guinea and Tonga are more important for Thailand). Maybe you have a new list of countries for visas on arrival?

Please post a link to a list of all 93 visa-free countries for Thailand and a list of 31 visa-on-arrival countries.

12 hours ago, kiwikeith said:

The USA overthrew the government of Ukraine and there's been nothing but mayham since, The USA have been doing this world wide using the CIA, and people have now had a guts full, protests world wide now and most media under severe control. 

This is the main narrative of Russian propaganda, which blames the United States for what happened in Ukraine in 2014. Because they cannot accept that Ukrainians (the majority) voted for the Western path of development and rapprochement with the European Union, and not the “Russian world” with the “Eurasian Union” (which is the brainchild of Putin). President Yanukovych won the elections in Ukraine precisely because he declared rapprochement with the West. But after receiving several billion dollars from Putin (which were eventually appropriated by them), he completely changed his rhetoric and abandoned the European path, announcing his imminent accession to the Eurasian Union. People in Ukraine were outraged by this treacherous betrayal and came out to protest. First of all, young people. And after the special services began to shoot protesters, an armed confrontation began and Yanukovych was evacuated to Russia. Russian propaganda continues to call the Ukrainian authorities a “junta,” but the fact is that it was the legally elected parliament that removed Yanukovych from power, and after that there were already 2 democratic presidential campaigns in the country.
And regarding this topic, over 10 years of regular trips to Thailand for 2-4 months, I can notice that not only the number of British, but also Europeans in general has decreased. Especially in Pattaya, where Little India is now in the city center, and on Walking Street there are more and more Indian clubs (although both establishments are somehow empty - after all, Indian tourists don’t seem to like sitting in bars or meeting Thai girls ( alone).

Do I need to get a re-entry stamp every time at the immigration office if I want to leave Thailand for a few days/weeks on a retirement visa?  Or does it act as a multiple-entry service and I can visit Thailand as many times as I want during the year?  I find conflicting information on this issue...

10 hours ago, Hakuna Matata said:

This is a big mistake made by the new prime minister. Visa rules should be tightened for certain countries including China, Ukraine, Russia, Poland, Lithuania, Romania, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Romania, Nigeria, Korea, etc.

I can understand your concerns about Russia, Ukraine and Nigeria, but why should the citizens of Poland - a democratic country with a strong economy - have a hard time visiting Thailand? The same with Lithuania.
And about Belarus: the citizens of this country (including me) have never had easy ways to visit Thailand before and now: no visas on arrival, no stamps, no electronic visas. Only an ordinary tourist visa after a large package of documents for the consulate (air tickets in both directions, a bank statement, 100% prepaid accommodation for each day of stay in Thailand. And all documents are accepted only in English). And if someone is traveling with children, it is even more difficult (additional documents). It seems to me that these are already very strict rules, which is why so few citizens of Belarus visit Thailand (visas are not needed for neighboring Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia and China).

4 hours ago, timmyp said:

Whoa! I didn't even know that it's available at Big C! Many thanks for the tip

I think you can find it not in every Big C store, and the amount in the refrigerator is quite small.  Wild boar meat and deer meat are also usually sold there.  Plastic transparent packaging with white meat is small, only 250g.  That is, it is much more expensive than 70 baht per 1 kg (in fact, it is 540 baht per 1 kg).  But it's cheaper than buying from street food sellers.  I cut the meat into pieces, add some pepper, salt and lime for now.  After 2 hours, you can fry over low heat (the main thing is not to over-fry, otherwise the meat will become very hard).  I cooked several times for Thai girlfriends and they thought they were eating pork.  For some reason they are afraid to eat a crocodile ????

39 minutes ago, timmyp said:

I'm going to order a few kilos from Shopee right now and explore. 

There is something strange in the photo... I advise you to just visit Big C and buy a fillet of crocodile tail for 135 baht (frozen food department).  I like meat from the tail of a crocodile, it is considered the most valuable.  And when I cook it, it smells delicious!  By the way, I don’t understand why everyone is talking about the similarity of a crocodile and a chicken.  It's more like lean pork.  In fact, I'm squeamish enough to handle raw chicken or pork without gloves.  But crocodile meat is pleasant to the touch even raw!  And one more thing: unlike pigs and chickens, crocodiles never get sick.  They have something like their own antibiotic in their blood.  Therefore, it is tasty, healthy and safe.

How the Thai police and military generals work - John Burdett described well in his books (a series of books about an almost honest policeman from Bangkok (there are 8 books, the first part is called "Bangkok 8"). Of course, there is fiction in these books, but a lot will be true  for these law enforcement agencies in Thailand and the Thai army, at the same time, the Thai police can indeed quickly find some criminals using modern technology (if they really want it).

In my country, the QR code is not printed on a white background, but on a complex colored background.  In the end, after many attempts, trimming the QR code helped me, but not immediately.  The system only accepted my code when I cropped the image the same way (width and height are the same with one pixel precision).  Maybe this information will help someone.

42 minutes ago, Puccini said:

 

Have you already registered for the Thailand Pass? 

I didn't have time to do it.  My second vaccination is tomorrow and I don't have a certificate.  I could not get vaccinated earlier because  was ill with covid in October.

14 minutes ago, aussiexpat said:

TAT says 7 days, but Phuket Sandbox is only one left alive 

Air tickets to Bangkok have already been purchased.  Too expensive to change to Phuket ... So it is interesting to know about quarantine in Bangkok or Pattaya (how many days)

Is there any information on the number of days of quarantine for those, who has 2 doses of vaccine? (who could previously use Pattaya Sandbox). 7 days in AQ hotel or 10 days?

36 minutes ago, Tuvoc said:

in my case my plane arrives on Friday around midday, fingers crossed I don't land and only learn then that they've immediately implemented a change like that !

I think in your case the risk is minimal.

It is unlikely that the new rules will be adopted immediately after the government meeting. At least the next day.

2 hours ago, itsari said:

How on earth do you arrive at the people that die on the roads in Thailand would not vote for the present government ?

I appreciate that 80 percent of the road deaths are motorcycle users . 

So all motorcycle users would not vote for the present government in your opinion?

I think that something else is meant here: Even the most loyal to the current government, Thais will vote against this government if there is stricter traffic control, stricter rules for issuing driver's licenses and stricter traffic police control on the roads (with real fines and  jail for drunk driving) ...

It doesn't change anything for me, because my country is not on the list of 63 countries.  But what about the idea of reducing your SHA + hotel stay from 7 to 5 nights?  Will this decision also be reversed?

I also never understood this prohibition on the sale of alcohol in the morning and afternoon, especially in the resorts.  When I couldn't buy beer in one store in the morning, I just walked to another 7Eleven located 50 meters away and bought alcohol there without any problem ...