tuyatim

No chairs, no food, no smoking. Sounds idyllic to me. If "no jet skis" can be added to the list then we will have reached Utopia and I'll be on the next plane to Phuket. We don't all want those things and I suspect very many others feel the same way. In my opinion the restrictions will attract a different type of tourist: ones who care about and enjoy their environment without all the trash that's forced upon us everywhere we go these days. The beaches will become cleaner so may even attract more tourists to the area.

I'm delighted to see this forward thinking, even if it has been brought about for other reasons. In many places the beaches are so crowded with chairs that you can hardly see the sand! Bring back our beaches I say.

Crap...just my luck, I'll be in Bangkok on 13th.

Me too. Not the best timing for a holiday that I've ever made!!

The difference is that the foreign countries system is clearly documented and transparent to a large extent to the majority of applicants. The Thai system is littered with hoops and stumbling blocks and generally dependant on the mood and whim of immigration officer or official you deal with each time.

How wrong you are about other countries' systems. My family has lots of overseas visitors to the UK and many times we've had problems that have been caused by the whims and laziness of UK Entry Clearance Officers. Many times we've had friends or family apply for UK visas only to have them rejected. Each time we've lodged objections and each time they've eventually agreed to provide visas. We even had to take them to court once and the magistrate gave them a good bo***cking for wasting everyone's time. And that's been the major problem; so much time wasted and, in some cases, quite a bit of money. So please don't think it's a fairer system getting visas for the UK than for Thailand. If it's that hard for our friends and family to get UK visas I dread to think what it's like for visitors who don't have contacts in the UK!

But as a regular visitor to Thailand, I don't want to have to face all the inevitable hassle of applying for visas. The expense is just another cost that has to be borne, albeit a relatively small percentage of the total holiday cost. Filling out the inevitable paperwork and supplying all the bits that will be needed with it, then waiting hopefully for a visa is far worse.

the divorce laws in the uk are a joke it cost me £50,000 for a four year marriage!!

good luck

That's actually not such a bad price to pay.

Could have been a lot worse.

Too right. Cost me over £400,000 to divorce my English wife (although that was after 27 years of marriage).

Another misleading headline. Sad that these countries see a need to state the blindingly obvious. Stay out of the (impending) warzone(s).

A non-story. Nothing to read here folk. Move along now, thank you.

It may be "blindingly obvious" to those living in Thailand, but most visitors won't know the areas to avoid - "the (impending) warzone(s)" as you call them. There is little or nothing on the news here in the UK to indicate any problems. Advice from the UK's FCO and other countries is invaluable to visitors.

A few here have said that if you have the right attitude you won't have any of these sorts of problems. I tend to agree with them and have found that it's mostly worked for me. It doesn't matter how much you hate what they're doing, how much you hate all the inconvenience, how much you hate THEIR attitude, YOU have to remain calm. Abusive comments or even simple sarcasm will be jumped on as a challenge by most border control officers - anywhere in the world. From what I read from the OP, this was his big mistake.

A humorous example of getting it wrong was when arriving at Dover docks after a working trip to France with a colleague. Our estate car was filled with unique technical equipment. The customs officer was a very cute young lady who I made sure heard my comment to my colleague about making sure the guns were well hidden. She ordered me to drive off to one side where a couple of other officers proceeded to take everything out of our car and place it all on the road, including the contents of our cases. The young lady just stood by and watched, looking very severe as she made notes on her clipboard. With everything scattered around she gave a massive smile and said, "You won't make silly comments like that again will you?" How right she was.

A less humorous incident (at the time) that goes against the "stay nice and you'll be OK" philosophy happened to my wife when she came to the UK just a few months after her first brief visit. She was taken to one side after Passport Control and questioned about her visit. Her then limited English led to some confusion and she was taken off to a small room and told to wait for an interpreter. An hour or so later the interpreter arrived and following much discussion she was told that she wouldn't be allowed to remain in the UK. All this time I was waiting for her at Arrivals and given no clue as to what was happening. Eventually an Immigration Officer came out to tell me what had happened. As the next flight back to my then friend and later to be wife's home country was a week later, they agreed to let her stay "in my custody". Throughout the whole process my wife and I stayed very calm, only told the total truth and made sure we didn't risk upsetting anyone. Very long story short, we took the Home Office to court on appeal against the refusal to enter and thoroughly enjoyed the Magistrate's castigation of the Immigration Officers for wasting everyone's time. Being polite and staying calm may have helped us to finish with the right result, but it didn't avoid lots of inconvenience.

Both those incidents were over 18 years ago and we've not had any problems at since then. We've been questioned a little more enthusiastically than we'd have liked a few times at Passport Controls, and we've been stopped by Customs a few times too. But it's never lasted more than 10 minutes and we've never had anything confiscated. (Although a friend did have some baby milk confiscated at Heathrow when we were with her and her young children heading for a flight to South Korea!)

Just stay nice when all seems to be against you and life will be so much easier. Bullies (including those officials at airports) are bamboozled by those who don't react by either trying to outdo them or becoming quivering wrecks, so they give up.

When a person tells me to go home, then I do not wish to debate any further with them so Byebye.

I wasn't TELLING you to go home, merely suggesting that you have the option of doing so instead of criticising your hosts. You are, of course, free to stay in Thailand and enjoy all that it has to offer. Your time will be so much better if you can stop complaining about petty things.

Instead of criticising the locals, if you don't like advertisements at bus stops you could always do what most of us would probably agree is best for those foreigners in our own countries who criticise us and GO HOME.

I don't mind adverts, did you not read the post properly? I was complaining about the board obstructing the view of the buses. Maybe you are the one who should go home and get better educated, so you can understand what people are writing about.

And if you were better educated perhaps you would have understood some light-hearted leg-pulling about the real reason for your initial complaint! Of course I know you were complaining about having to get wet in order to see when a bus was coming. Of course I know that you're so sensitive to rain you were feeling suicidal at the possibility. Of course I know that your home country never experiences rain so you're not used to its highly damaging effects. (Just in case you hadn't spotted it, that was more sarcasm!)

My point was that you entitled the thread "Thai Mentality" and made a clear inference that you considered it inferior because you didn't agree with something they had done. How would you feel if a visitor to your home country criticised you and all your fellow nationals on the basis of a minor error of judgement by one person? You'd no doubt tell them to go home!

I'm not Thai, merely a regular visitor to their delightful country. I've learnt to respect and enjoy their culture and their differences. If I didn't like it I wouldn't go there. The Thais are my hosts when I'm in Thailand and I consider it an honour to be there. I certainly would never denigrate their nature for any act that may cause me a little inconvenience.

Instead of criticising the locals, if you don't like advertisements at bus stops you could always do what most of us would probably agree is best for those foreigners in our own countries who criticise us and GO HOME.

I don't know what all the fuss is about. In March 2009 it was at around 36THB / US$. It strengthened to below 30 in late 2010 before weakening slightly again to nearly 32 in Jan 2012. By May this year it had again strengthened to 28.6. OK, so there's been a small fall since then, but it's still much stronger than it was before the middle of 2010 and the country seemed to survive for all the years before that. Similar rises and falls have been seen against GBP. The short-term financiers who regularly make a mess of world economics are at it again. Just ignore them.

SWMBO and I are flying to Bangkok then directly to Koh Samui for a week next January. Then we return to Bangkok for 4 nights before heading back to London. I bought EVA Airways flights directly from them a few days ago at a total cost of £1254.30 for the two of us just to Bangkok. Looking at their website today shows a price to include the Koh Samui flights of £2564.70!! Yep, that's an extra £1310.40 for the BKK - USM legs, more than the cost from LHR - BKK! I'll be booking these with Bangkok Airways direct and save the £900 for something far better.

Incidentally, I've noticed that the EVA prices go up and down more frequently than Thai bar girls' knickers! You have to keep a careful eye on them for the best price - and on the EVA website for their prices too

Leeroy from the prodigy owns a villa here

Gizz Butt, also an ex Prodigy member, lives next door to me in the UK. He's a really nice guy but I don't want to travel all the way to Koh Samui only to find my neighbour there. So I hope he and Leeroy don't holiday together!

Planning ahead to our 2-week visit to Thailand next January I noted that my wife's passport will be valid for just over 5 months when we arrive. The Thai embassy in UK's website wasn't totally clear on the 6-month rule so I wrote and asked them. This was their response:

So they didn't commit themselves either way. But my policy is not to take unnecessary risks and I didn't want to arrive at BKK only to be turned away! The good advice I received from elsewhere (Tripadvisor) was to renew her UK passport well before we travel because the outstanding months remaining on her existing passport will be added to the new one. Simples!

At 66 I'm nearly as old as the two gents who so tragically lost their lives, so this story hit me hard. My wife and I have a timeshare villa on Koh Samui and every time we're there we'll find ourselves walking by the roadside nearly every day. We always take care, but this story will ensure we take even more care on future visits.

I'm a keen motorist here in England and I have to agree with earlier comments about how bad the driving standards are in Samui and the rest of Thailand. But the country isn't unique in having such horrendously poor driving standards. I've travelled all over the world and have been regularly terrified at the antics of road users that appear to be the norm in so many countries. But just because everyone else is so bad, it's no excuse for those in Thailand to care so little about safety.

I'm pleased to read that some on this forum want to do something about this sorry state of affairs. I do hope they succeed. As just an occasional visitor to my island paradise of Koh Samui, there's little I can do unfortunately. But one thing will change for me when I'm there. Until now I've always sat quietly as a passenger in taxis when being driven to and from the airport and other places, cringing at the dangerous driving but not saying anything. In future I'll tell the driver that I'm not in a hurry, and certainly not in a hurry to die. I'll have to stop worrying that the driver may receive my comments as a farang's unwanted interference. Our lives are far more important than someone's feelings.

My wife and I will be taking a 2 week holiday in Koh Samui early next year. While we are in Thailand my Asian wife wants to have blepharoplasty - upper eyelid surgery to make her eyes look bigger. I say she's stunning anyhow - but who are mere males to comment on feminine beauty?!

Does anyone have any experience/knowledge of this procedure being carried out in Bangkok (which we understand would be a better location than Koh Samui) and can you recommend any hospitals/clinics?

Thanks

Thanks guys, my suspicions seem to have been correct. Looks like we'll be spending a few days in Bangkok on our way to Koh Samui.

My wife and I will be taking a 2 week holiday in Koh Samui early next year (at the beautiful Samui Peninsula resort which has the much maligned "timeshare touts", but see past them and the place is worth it). While we are there my Asian wife wants to have blepharoplasty - upper eyelid surgery to make her eyes look bigger. I say she's stunning anyhow - but who are mere males to comment on feminine beauty?!

Does anyone have any experience/knowledge of this procedure being carried out in Koh Samui and can give recommendations?

Surfing the net I've found 2 places that look promising: The Samui Clinic and Ssamui International Hospital. Any reports on these places, for blepharoplasty or any other plastic surgery?

My wife is also considering breast enhancement, but that's two bigger decisions to have to be made. However, any comments/recommendations would be helpful. (That's laid us open to some ribald remarks no doubt!)