NanLaew

As we are both aware, Thailand's bureaucracy is all about creating and preserving their fiefdoms. Hakparn's bull in a China shop effort simply trod on the toes of some else's little fiefdom, that's all it did. His actions imperilled someone else's "retirement plan" and he summarily had his head pulled in. I wasn't talking about a low-level officer either. I was talking about how in the grand scheme of things, this immigration malarkey is low-level regardless of the seniority of the officer signing-off. The same goes for SRT and other state-owned entities, where the prime objective of leadership is simply to fill one's boots. Otherwise, I totally agree with your summation that "Corruption is an acceptable way of life over here..." but it going "all the way to the top" is something we cannot openly discuss.

They are not. They are a lower-level corruption that only becomes an issue to "upper management" when someone makes an inordinate fuss about it. The last chief of immigration who made an inordinate fuss about it found himself sidelined for a few years and since then, he's been kept well way from this particular gravy train. It's more of a turning a blind eye situation.

Their computer shows an extension issued by an up-country immigration office but, when asked, the extension holder stated a Bangkok address. If asked by immigration on arrival what your address is, give an address that's within the jurisdiction of the immigration office that issued the extension.

I applied on 7th December and received it on 13th December. Thanks for that. The Thai embassy London website says 3-5 days and there's possibly a higher volume of applicants just before the Christmas holidays. No panic, he's not coming till early February.

You could have had a more fulfilling response, but you have a "bit of a habit" of being churlish and condescending. Your concern for the travails of fellow forum members is rather quaint.

1 ) Traffic merging. I'm in nearside lane, doing about 60 mph, I see a truck, a pickup and panel van coming down the slip road on my left. I move to middle lane to let them onto the nearside lane. The pickup driver decides to accelerate past the truck without signal or looking in mirror, barrelling into the middle lane, nearly sideswiping me. I jigged into the 'fast' lane to avoid him. If there had been a vehicle passing on my right, it would have been a three-car pile-up. 2 ) Tractor trailer hogging the middle lane on the M6 (motorway) as he tries to overtake a smaller truck in the nearside lane. Both doing the regulation 70 mph but neither driver has the brains to back off and either give up the overtake or slow down and let the bigger guy pass. The 'fast lane' tailback was about three to four miles. Loads of flashing headlights... just like in Bahn Nawk. 3 ) The parking lot guy was a just too sad. Swore blind that I had 'whacked' his door with my door while I was disembarking. Couldn't see any marks on either door but he demanded I open my door again so he could point out exactly where I had 'whacked' him. I politely declined to play silly buggers and he threatened me saying he had my registration number. I reminded him that the day happened to be my birthday. When he asked what that had to do with anything, I told him it had absolutely no relevance at all, just like him having my registration number. I visit the UK twice a year and I have to say their standard of driving gets worse every time. Hardly see any police cars anywhere either, same same here.

It's OK now.

I have a DTAC SIM pre-paid that carried a few hundred baht balance and had a validity through to September 2024. I didn't move it to my new phone so it has been totally inactive for maybe two months now. Just tried it, and it doesn't communicate, doesn't receive the OTP to log in and check the account with the app and doesn't accept inbound calls. There's no signal strength bars and has the 'x' next to it. I assume DTAC have maybe suspended or de-registered it due to inactivity, but maybe it's not completely cancelled? I was of the understanding that if there's pre-paid validity, it can't be cancelled, but one needs to either make/receive a call or send/receive an SMS to keep it alive. Any advice if it's worthwhile following up at the DTAC shop tomorrow.

Body shaving is so yesterday. These days, real men wax.

You're not that weird French guy I worked with back in Iraq are you?

Same same Accrington, Blackburn and Preston. Why?

A friend of mine is an employee of his Thai wife's business. No issues with the WP. This is in Isaan and the business has been trading for maybe 15 years already.

So Britain has as many sh!t drivers as Thailand?? Did I read your post properly. I just spent a dozen days in England and had to avoid three "sh!t drivers" (one particularly persistent idiot was in a car park). It takes me about a month to reach the same tally up here in Nakhon Nowhere.

Context. Motorcycles are involved in around 80% of road traffic accidents, injuries and death. Note how the smart guy in the red pickup easily drove past the "carnage" totally unscathed.

If you say so 😮 What I said was........ 'Should be a law against these shirtless, old guys with man boobs'. Why are "old guys with man boobs" renting so much space in your head?

And your righteous indignation is just too funny. Thanks!

The application was submitted last Saturday. How long does it typically take to get a response and/or the visa? My mate says nothing in his email as of yesterday. He got a message from his card company that Kasikorn had taken his money within a few minutes of submitting the application.

Meanwhile, back on topic. https://allianz-assistance.co.th/roadside-assistance/en/ This was the company that roojai contracted their roadside assist to a few years ago. Used them three times for flat battery, jump-start service. Once in parking at Suvarnabhumi airport, once in Pattaya and the last time up in Udon. All very efficient. Then I bought a new battery.

ROFLMAO...thanks!

Could be worse, @georgegeorgia gets frustrated when the high temperatures down in Australia reminds him of shirtless foreigners in Thailand. What's wrong with you people?

So the high temperature in Australia reminded you of shirtless foreigners back in Thailand. I see.

Yes, seen that as well in the AIS shop and also with airport/airline staff, so it is safe to assume that employees with high interaction with the public are either following their employer's advice or just doing the mask thing anyway.

Tried that but I was still unable to view the actual docs as uploaded to verify if they were the correct ones. So binned that application and rattled out a new one, paid (with a little pop-up about the service being unavailable, try later) but it shows the application as accepted with the 30 quid payment receipt. We will see what Monday brings.

I am in the UK and there a growing concern about the "100-day cough" formerly known as Whooping cough. https://www.euronews.com/next/2023/12/08/cases-of-100-day-cough-are-rising-in-the-uk-heres-what-you-should-know-about-whooping-coug#:~:text=Cases of whooping cough - sometimes,Health Security Agency (UKHSA). Not a lot of social distancing over here and no masks either.

Coming back from a weekend on South Padre with my American girlfriend, we were stopped at an "internal" border patrol checkpoint where they were asking where we were headed; back home to Houston. They weren't too happy that I couldn't produce my UK passport. I wasn't too happy that I was expected to do that when we hadn't even left Texas and I don't look or sound remotely like a Mexican. Meanwhile, back in Thailand, just deal with it.