jaywalker2

Or maybe the truth? I go to the park every day. People would wear masks even when jogging until the government came out and said they were no longer necessary outdoors. Then they suddenly disappeared except for the diehards.

So does this mean the Thais will finally be told to stop masking because they're obviously not going to stop until someone tells them to.

I'm on my way!

So many thai women get these tattoo eyebrows and invariably they looked horrible. I don't know why they do it.

I guess you didn't notice Thaksin's efforts to shut down the entertainment areas aimed at foreigners in Bangkok. The first proposal was to limit the bars to 3 designated entertainment zones, which stirred up street protests on the part of the working girls. That proposal was dropped and then the financial requirement for retirement visas was doubled and visa regulations tightened. Finally, Thaksin's interior minister came out with a serious proposal to have all bars close at 10 p,m. His reasoning? Real tourists didn't go to the bars, they only went sight-seeing at the temples. The presumption was that most of the long-term foreigners were sex fiends who needed to be suppressed. The situation has only gotten worse since the military took over.

Immigration used to be much friendlier. I think it took me about 20 minutes to get my non-O visa and I was the only one in the office -- which was a tiny office upstairs at Suan Plu. They didn't ask for any documents either, just the passport and the application. The anti-foreigner attitude began underThaksin when they launched that pseudo-war against so-called sex tourists.

The issue is how a genuine tourist is supposed to know about the TM30 or why he or she should be held responsible for it (and if it's not filed, does the tourist get fined?). He goes to a hotel, checks in, needs to extends his visa, spends half a day going to immigration, only to be told that he needs a letter fromo his hotel? You think that is justifiable?

I was on several tourist visas after first coming to Thailand. Never asked to prove where I was staying or anything else. None of my friends who visit Thailand have ever been asked either the many times they've extended visas. So I would say your experience was not typical. Oh, and I remember once when I was applying for an extension, the IO smiled and said, "Sure, how long would you like?" Of course, that was 15 years ago. Things have certainly changed.

What's new is they are putting the onus on the tourist. Tourists shouldn't have to worry about things like TM30's. It's none of their business. Extensions used to be automatic because Thailand wanted tourists to stay longer.

Yes, he won't make any money from it

I guess Chuwit's worried about the competition

You can't "run" for PM. Chuwit ran for governor of Bangkok twice and lost both times. He did win a seat in parliament but he was kicked out by the Constitutional Court. If he wanted to be PM, he'd have to find a party to support him -- not that anybody in the senate would vote for him,

What a waste of money. It's amazing that they're still trying to spin this rather than admitting guilt and getting it out of the news as quickly as possible.

But they have your deposit slip. The passport is usually just for identification purposes. Under the government's new money laundering rules, banks are supposed to verify the identity of depositors (or so I was told). The government also planned to have people making deposits at ATM's sign in with their ATM card but temporarily shelved that idea after protests from businesses. On the other hand, it could also be that the banks are taking avantage of this situation to dissuade customers from using the tellers.

Carry a picture of your phone. They'll accept that usually.

He still would have had the same problems. He just would have had them earlier in the day. Everything he said about the bureaucratic hurdles you have to go through here is true. I don't know why anybody would even bother contesting it.

There's nothing illegal about a 1 month rental. It's only illegal to rent residential condos for less than 30 days.

The question "where are you from" is one of the most annoying. Even when you tell them that you've been abroad for decades, some still insist on asking, "Yes, but where are you from originally?" Who cares?

all you need are body cams. They should be required anyway.

I used the same thing as Sheryl last year. I tried to find a suitable free tax software provider but there were so many limitations, it was useless. Using the IRS site was relatively painless but I didn't have a very complicated tax return.

Give me a break. If that were the case, they'd be avoiding you, turning away when you talk to them, and you'd have the nutcases glaring at you. Once the mandates were dropped, they stopped caring. Not once has anyone even given me a second look for not wearing a mask. You really don't know how Thailand works, do you?

The solution offered by the police is to spread your money over several bank accounts and only keep in the online account as much as you need to transact business. Never mind how difficult it is to open even one account.

It's the same in the United States particularly with Venmo apparently which has been mired in controversy.

Most people store their passwords and user ID's on their phones, which makes them vulnerable to hackers. However, financial and other institutions seem determined to make us more and more dependent on our phones whether we like it or not. I don't think security is the only reason either -- when they have access to your phone, they have access to practially your whole life.

The only drug I've seen recommended her is marijuana, which is less harmful than alcohol. All of the drugs Elvis took (and Michael Jackson) were prescribed by his doctors.