CaptMiguel

I did several years of METVs and I constantly got " u go out and in alot, U should get a retirement visa" I have even been told ..."U should go to Florida because they have nice beaches" This was on entry at BKK after being away for 6 months. The IMO asked why I come so much. I sed I like to ride my bicycle and go to the beach, The woman IMO sed she had visited Florida and it has nice beaches. then she says I should go there , Florida ! I bit my tongue but couldnt let that ridiculous suggestion go sooo I say but I spend many thousands of $$ here. She says we dont care how much U spend ... Indeed! at that point I am fuming inside and was almost to the point of saying just let me get my bag and I'll go immediately to Vietnam. Anyways she stamped me in. In my opinion in an ideal world she should of sed when I presented my passport Yingdi K Michael welcome back !

sooo it's a rather disturbing crack down on real tourists, seems they don't understand that someone has enough time and $$ to just hangout at the beach, stay in nice enough hotels and eat at good restaurants for more than the "normal" 10 day tourist holiday. I generally like to avoid winter in the NE USA for 4 or 5 months each year in SE Asia, mostly in Thailand. But to the point when there's talk about 150 days maximum stay r they saying in 1 calendar year? or 12 months? or?? thanks for ur replies

Ranong Border Visa Run Saturday Feb 24 noon, American Passport ,60 day se tourist visa and 30 day extension then a visa waiver from a border bounce in Nakhon Phanom to Laos. The imo in Ranong at the regular pier wanted a receipt from the hotel,which luckily I had, an onward ticket w/in the 30 days from Feb 24, but my onward ticket was 4 days over the 30 days soo the top official a guy wouldn't accept it and wanted me to change the ticket or get a new ticket, print it out and come back w/ the new reservation printed. I protested and he finally sed he would let me show him my new reservation on my mobile phone. sooo I went outa the office and booked a whole new ticket to Taipei on March 23. The woman imo sed she wanted it printed out, the top guy intervened and told her it was ok to just show my new reservation on my mobile phone. They stamped me out of Thailand after a frustrating hour of dickering w/ them. Then I did a trip over to Myanamar by boat w/ a Dutch guy who went thru exactly what I did w/ the Thai IMO's,ie book an onward ticket. We chartered 1 boat and skipper for what I thought we negotiated 400 thb there and back for 2 people. (btw don't forget ur crispy clean $10usd for the Mynamar Junta ) Everything went relatively smooth until we got back to the Ranong dock and I handed the boatman 400thb +200 thb tip, the boatman exclaimed 400thb each. I sed no it was 400 for us both. He reluctantly accepted w/ a wave of frustration and we checked back into Thailand and got our 30 day visa waivers. Beware other boat guys want 1000 thb /person. My Thai hotel owner sed he paid 400thb/boat w/4 farang the week before... I have been going to Ranong for visa runs for 19 years and this trip was the worst so far, but not the worst I ever had dealing w/ the Thai IMO's elsewhere. For many years I was doing solo trips over to Mynamar from the regular pier, then I started using the Andaman Casino boat w/o any problems but alas the Casino is closed. Chok di maak !