Drumbuie

Do you have actual data to support this claim?

If everyone had a card, not a token, which is swiped every time there's a change of operator during a journey, it would be possible, and relatively easy, to automatically allocate the fare proportionately between each of the operators. Because, you know, computers....

I used to commute by train and Underground in London. It was much the same as Bangkok in rush hour. You get used to it and, if you can, time your travel outside peak periods. A pal used to be a senior person in a British rail company and can, if not quickly suppressed, talk at length about rolling stock logistics ... The short version is that adding more carriages to a train is not as easy as you think.

Under 65 a person can earn 210,000 a year before tax is due on income (60,000 personal allowance plus the first 150,000 is tax free). Even in Bangkok people doing ordinary jobs don't earn enough to pay tax. THB 10,000 -12,500 a month (120,000- 150,000 a year) is the sort of wage you'd be paid in farang-facing hospitality, for example. It's not really worth the TRD chasing people who are dodging the 5% tax rate on the next tranche of income because it would cost more than it produces in revenues. It's logical to suppose that, after wealthy tax- dodging Thais, relatively high income groups like expats will be next on the TRD's list for investigation.

What's tragic is I bet the same farmers are paying for fertiliser when they could be composting, or ploughing in, that stubble and enriching their soil for nothing. I put all waste vegetable matter ( including coffee grounds) into a rotating composter and it's a matter of weeks before it's usable soil.

Think about it. Immigration will have every tourist's passport details, date of entry, and visa length on their database. Then it's the work of a moment to query that database and produce an easily circulated list of overstayers. So then police in tourist hotspots can keep an eye open - and so can CCTV with facial recognition software.

It is standard practice for all embassies to have some members of their police forces on their staff. I suppose you could call that "being undercover".

Wise would have had an arrangement with a "correspondent bank" , one that was a direct member in the Australian payment systems. Possibly it took a long time for Wise to become one, or perhaps they waited till they were sure they had enough Australian custom to make it worth their while applying.

To apply for a TIN you need to go to the Area Revenue Department for where you live ( which may not be the nearest one). Take passport, lease/house book/ whatever shows where you live, a copy of your landlord's ID and photocopies of all of the above. You can download the form beforehand and use Google Translate to fill it in. Tax allowances are much more generous to oldies than in, say, UK. Also ..guys, the Immigration has your passport number. Your bank account is linked to your passport number. There is no data protection in Thailand. Get a TIN and fill in a tax return.

That may have been true a few years ago but I think you'd be lucky to find one who'd charge less than £500 now - and that would not be in London.

Imagine you're on holiday in the UK or Poland, or the USA or indeed any other country and you're told to go to the police station; would you decide not to go because you " thought you'd done nothing wrong" ? Slapping a stranger on the butt is unacceptable in any country - including Poland. I am not able to dig up the tiniest shred of pity for this guy.

I regularly send letters to family in the UK - Airmail is 55 baht, they get there in a week. At Christmas friends posted Christmas cards Airmail from the UK - £2.80 ( about 120 baht)

Revolution and anarchy, IIRC.

Or he didn't want his wife to see what he was up to when the bank/credit card statements arrived.

It may well be that Wise is passing on a charge from the receiving bank.