sidneybear

Well the status quo in Thailand really isn't that bad. It's much better than when marauding thugs were setting fire to department stores.

Service agents routinely look up visa requirements and check them before they'll give you a boarding pass. I agree that collecting the 300 Baht at check in would be problematic, but this (or its foreign currency equivalent) could either be collected at Thai immigration, or simply added on to the ticket price. It really isn't rocket science that we're dealing with here.

I first came when Prem was in charge. Some may say he wasn't too bad, but others would call him a military strongman. Who fits your definition of a proper politician? Thaksin jacked up the price of visas, and PR went up from 25k to 250k ....

All I'm doing is forecasting the future, based on countless past experiences. Keep dreaming if it makes you feel better.

The young will be sent for "attitude adjustment" in army camps, or forcefully cleared from the streets, just like every time before. It's a ritual that goes back many decades. Maybe it's not a bad thing - who wants Thailand to be like the West? People move to Thailand because it's different, right?

Most countries practice autocracy and repression these days, in one way or another, so it's a bit unfair to single out Thailand.

Thailand has much more to its economy than tourism.

Hope springs eternal. People have been saying that after all the coups I've lived through. Thailand has its own way of keeping itself on an even keel.

Well, all those pot smokers are in for a rude awakening if Thaksin's lot get back in. Funny how all the junta huggers on this forum have disappeared too.

This is an odd claim for airlines to make, as they are used to checking passports and visas at check in and could easily see if someone is a non-Imm, PR or a citizen quite easily. This all looks like deflection - the real culprit for falling arrivals being the airlines themselves, having doubled their prices since Covid.

Déjà vu. Fast forward a few months and we'll see yellow shirts on the streets, then Pheu Thai kicked out, then a coup, then back to the start.

I'd end a friendship like that. Life's too short.

Functioning democracies are hard to find anywhere these days.

Now you're just resorting to ad hominem attacks and rudeness, because you've lost the argument.

Ever since I first started living in Thailand, back in 1990, there have been all these prophesies of doom, that Thailand was going to hell in a handcart, from all these culture shocked farangs. Here we are, in 2023, and life goes on. Thailand has come a long way, and will continue to prosper.

Well anyway, we're into the etymology of where the term Asian Tigers was coined. Regardless, Thailand has a robust economy that is the envy of its so called superiors.

It's difficult to think of a truly democratic country anywhere in the world right now, regardless of what CNN might say. Most western countries, for example, have a couple of main parties, propped up by huge corporate and individual donors and marketing machinery - when they get elected they then do all do exactly the same things and have identical policies that benefit them and their mates. The smaller parties are drowned out and are unable to raise sufficient funding to compete with that. It's like a cottage industry trying to compete with Coca Cola. Yet, despite its democratic failings, the West always stomps around the world, wagging its collective finger and lecturing other countries that have their own culture and systems of government. It's a giant sized hypocrisy, designed by the west to keep the rest of the world under its steel boot.

Asian Tigers. I remember them. A gigantic credit fuelled asset bubble that imploded in 1997. I haven't heard that term used since, although while we're on the subject of credit fuelled asset bubbles, the West looks so very vulnerable to a similar bust right now. Anyway, there are no more Asian tigers. Thailand hasn't done too badly since that bust though. It's got a growing middle class and people are much better off now than they were back then. For all its political instability, Thailand has quite a healthy balance of agriculture and industry that would make many deindustrialised western countries envious. It's tough everywhere, but Thailand's economic indicators compare favorably.

Very true, and good advice to all.

Semantics. The government was chucked out. It doesn't really matter whether the military does it, or the judiciary does it. Actually, if you include judicial removal of a PM, you could claim four coups I've lived through then.The first one in 1991 when Chatichai was deposed by Suchinda, who was himself forced out following the Black May riots (terrifying, I was there). Then Thaksin. Then Yingluck. Then Niwatthamerong, who was a bit like Thailand's answer to Liz Truss. Blink and you missed him. Have I missed any coups Eric? There have been a lot of them. Thankfully, the powers that be now keep Thailand on am even keel.

Well, there are good ones and not so good ones. Businesses are kind of like that. Lucky you if you've only had good experiences. I've had some bad experiences of insurance companies trying to renege, and so have lots of other good folk. I haven't heard the term "cobblers" for a long time. Makes me feel homesick ????

Mate, I was there. Three coups I've lived through in Thailand, so I don't need to read about them in Wikipedia. And I do think we're into semantics here because the military most certainly did chuck Thaksin's lot out. Twice.

I doubt it. It's pretty obvious that Thaksin is just a rabble rouser who's out to make a buck. He couldn't care less about Thailand.

Spot on. Insurance companies are profit making businesses, so they have a knee jerk reaction to try to wriggle out of paying, hoping that claimants will give up. Good for you in insisting and getting a payout.

There was a day when I might have done that. But then I came round and saw the errors in my thinking, and how I had fallen for Thaksin's skillful PR and marketing. I cringe when I think of that, because admitting we're wrong is difficult, and I'm glad I did it.