Highlandman

An Interpol notice to go after someone who criticized someone else. Lol. Never going to happen. Interpol officials would burst into fits of laughter. Anyway, good post. However, I read that this passenger plans on returning to Thailand, suggesting he lives there but of course I don't know.

It heavily discourages freedom of speech. Yet Thai trolls on social media still like to make the claim that Thailand is a "free country" compared to Laos and Vietnam, when in fact, there's really not much difference between any of them.

Yes but not very likely to go to court in the context of a passenger giving his or her opinion of a flight. Defamation cases in the US are usually politically motivated and high profile. They're not fragile snowflakes like Thais/Thai corporations are, who will sue anyone making even a slightly negative remark.

If you speak fluent Thai like me or you go shopping at malls and supermarkets, you never have to worry about being ripped off, except at dual pricing venues. Therefore, I don't think you need to be particularly concerned and can get out of the car when your wife does and/or change your shopping habits. In Thailand, markets sell produce that is arguably less safe than what supermarkets sell. The THAI flight to Istanbul began on December 1, but you've been able to fly twice or thrice daily to Istanbul on Turkish Airlines for years.

Yes. I won't either, in protest of this action. While I did read the passenger's FB post and didn't necessarily agree with all of it, I think if he wants to vent, let him. Companies suing their guests/customers (passengers in this case) for giving an opinion provides a very dangerous precedent. No way a similar post would result in such actions in the USA, but then again, the US doesn't have draconian anti-free speech laws like Thailand does.

A good idea if such a person still exists. I think Phu Yai Ban are only a thing in rural village areas. There might be an equivalent in the cities, but I can't think of one, other than the "Tessakit".

By public transportation, it's different. Most Burmese are poor, the ones who come into Thailand via land borders and go beyond the border areas are migrant laborers who don't have much money and thus use buses. Hence why they check all passengers on such buses. Most passengers also tend to be Burmese as well; Thai passengers on routes such as Mae Sot-Bangkok and even Mae Sai-Chiang Rai, tend to be in the minority. Burmese aren't allowed to drive their cars into Thailand further than the border areas (usually a max of 15-20km from the border), which is why you generally don't receive as much scrutiny if you're driving or are a passenger in a Thai registered car. I travel extensively by car and often to border regions where they have these checkpoints (Myanmar border). I've only very rarely been asked for my passport and the same goes for any Thai or other passengers inside my vehicle. I've also carried Chinese, Vietnamese, Sri Lankan, European, American, Australian, Canadian, Lao and many other nationalities in my car over the years (all friends or acquaintances/business partners etc). Burmese citizens have also ridden in my car but only in border areas on both sides of the border, never through a Thai checkpoint.

I understand. Obviously, once you provide your ID card that should be it. I'm sure you've explained that as a Thai citizen, you're not giving your passport as it defeats the purpose?

They don't fly into Bangkok. They only code share, meaning you can earn miles on their frequent flyer programs while flying a partner Japanese airline. An airline only flies into a country if their metal touches the ground in that country. Currently, no American carrier offers flights to Thailand. It's interesting how Delta flies to Ghana of all places but not a single American carrier flies to the so-called "first Asian ally" of the United States, which is Thailand. It's basically a snub, indicating that Thailand isn't an important country for the USA in any terms. Not for business, people to people exchanges or even for vacation. The fact there used to be American carriers flying into Bangkok (albeit never non-stop) but aren't anymore amounts to what is effectively a diplomatic rebuff.

I'm not saying one has to get upset and become aggressive. Quite the opposite, that's never a good idea in Thailand, particularly if it's just a minor issue that simply requires some gentle persuasion. Assuming the OP speaks reasonably good Thai, he can do it himself. If he doesn't, and his Thai wife refuses to engage, then he should enlist the help of someone else to assist him. It's usually a simple case of explaining the issue and that resolves the problem.

Other people have critiqued your comments even more than I have, but you seem to have some sort of personal vendetta against me. Piece of advice - this is the internet. Don't like criticism, don't come here. I haven't said anything different to anyone else, I only used different words. FYI I rarely venture into bars.

I don't think so. I encounter Thais of all education levels and they have zero problems with my Thai or that of a foreigner who speaks Thai well. Sometimes they compliment it afterwards. If anything, its the poorly educated Thais who have zero knowledge of any foreign language who do NOT expect to hear anything but Thai, even from a foreigner. Also, these days there are more and more foreigners who speak Thai anyway, including western actors who star in TV lakorns. I have had Thai colleagues tell me they or their Thai friends (who are also quite successful businessmen) that they don't understand my Thai speaking Burmese colleagues too well, but the one I'm thinking of, doesn't speak emmaculate Thai anyway, though it's reasonably good. The other thing is, his phone connection, being located in Myanmar, though near the Thai border, is often poor. Like I said, virtually the ONLY times and they're rare indeed, that I get anyone refusing to speak Thai to me is when engaging with a small section of highly educated Thais. Usually doctors, lawyers, university professors and the like. I know they know I speak Thai well, but they refuse to speak it because they feel speaking Thai to a foreigner is beneath them or something. I usually shut down on them as a result as it feels like a personal insult. I think it could be that your Thai simply isn't good enough, because outside of the situations I've described you won't encounter this very much at all. You will encounter it frequently if your Thai isn't relatively fluent though. Frankly, that's to be expected in any country and isn't an issue. It's only when you're fluent in the language and know you are, but due to local attitudes, some locals may refuse to speak their language with you. This happens only rarely in Thailand, though first encounters, especially in tourist areas usually involve a Thai attempting to speak English first just because they rarely encounter anything but foreign tourists who don't speak the local lingo.

Unless his Thai is poor, then that would make Thais incredibly racist, because it would be the equivalent of refusing to want expats to learn their language even though Thais speak such horrible English that most of us can't understand what language they're trying to speak. In my extensive experience, every Thai understands my Thai, because it's native like. It's only when a farang has heavily accented and poor Thai, that it's difficult to understand (and this includes Burmese speakers of Thai for example). I once told Thai police officers to speak to me in Thai because I don't understand Thais speaking English to me and it was readily accepted. Normally I don't even need to do this, they get it immediately. On that day I was pulled over for attempting to go straight from the right lane. The only Thais who think they're "too good" to speak Thai to a foreigner in my experience are the highly educated ones, such as university professors who want to show off their English skills, which are sometimes pretty lackluster. These people "pretend" not to hear westerners speak Thai and are secretly racist but don't make a spectacle of it.

That video came up in my feed again recently. Victim was an older fellow, 70ish, with a Thai daughter (his own biological daughter) aged in her early teens in school. Thai man who hit him was in his 30s by the looks of it.

Back around 2004ish, I saw a young Asian American guy begging the staff to allow him through at Don Muang Airport despite not having the 500 Baht..stupidly, they didn't accept credit cards for payment yet at the time, Cambodian airports did, despite the fact credit card acceptance has always been much higher in Thailand than Cambodia. Luckily, they scrapped cash airport tax payments before departure in 2006 and Cambodia followed soon afterwards. My guess is someone lent him the 500 Baht.

I simply greet them in Khmer or Burmese to "suss them out". Luckily I know a bit of both languages.

How long do the Africans loiter at the Skytrain entrance? Do they have a sign? This guy stands out more simply because he has a sign and is seated in one position for hours on end. I'm sure if an African did something similar to this guy, they'd be deported real quick.

I thought those "Thais" were actually Burmese or Cambodian. The other day, I did have some Thai creep, who looked like a beggar trying to stop my car but I drove off quickly by cutting him off and turning onto the road. This was not far from Suvarnabhumi airport. Never had anyone try to do that in all the years I've driven past that road. Makes me not want to stop off there to go to the ATM anymore. BTW this was in broad daylight at around 1030 or 11am, not in the middle of the night. A couple of months ago, some weird middle aged Thai lady was begging for money on the 2nd floor parking lot of Central Bang Na. At first she wanted me to drive her somewhere in Chonburi as she claimed she lost her wallet and had some sort of police report as proof. I was with my young son at the time, which got me thinking "the nerve of this woman!" I would NEVER approach someone with children in tow like that, even if i was in a desperate situation, unless I had no other choice because they were the only people around. It's just rude and weird. I gave her around 20 Baht as a contribution towards a van or bus fare to her destination in Chonburi to get rid of her. Lucky for her, vans and buses depart from in front of the mall. I don't recall any such incidents before Covid. I wonder whether there are more beggars now in Thailand and not just of the foreign kind, but locals.

Sydney to Bangkok is served by Air Asia as well, but I don't think I'd fly with them. Strangely, Air Asia stopped flying Melbourne - Bangkok almost a year ago.

Why would you do that when you can just get on a Singapore Airlines flight and transit through to Bangkok? An alternative is getting on a 6am flight to Sydney and catching THAI or Qantas to Bangkok. Both flights leave around 10am ish. Thai's second flight to Bangkok, which resumes in March, leaves around 250pm, so that would make it even easier. I am sure they'll resume flights to Brisbane once they acquire more aircraft and assuming there are no calamities that might prevent that from happening in the meantime, such as a new "pandemic". I think there is a reasonable chance they might resume flights to Brisbane by the end of the year.

Hopefully an American carrier will one day serve Thailand again, but I can't really see it happening. Thailand, Vietnam and all SE Asian countries except Singapore are considered as "leisure" or "visiting friends and relatives" markets, with minimal business travel (even though Thailand has a lot of multinationals in the country, but they're managed through local or regional offices) hence most SE Asian flights operate on thin profit margins. Recently, United started flying to Manila, but the Philippines is also the country of origin of millions of American residents. Their diaspora is huge. Singapore is the only other SE Asian country with direct flights to the US operated by an American carrier. India and China have many flights to the USA primarily due to their huge diaspora. Business travel, particularly in the case of China is another factor, but is dominated by the ethnic Chinese diaspora.

What's "unusual" about it? This sort of thing is quite common these days.

That's why I'm questioning this whole thing as it's weird, except if it was an anomaly due to Covid. You say they can't tell who's an Asian foreigner and who's Thai by sight (yet if it was me, I could although at the time of your flight when everyone was wearing a mask it was a lot more difficult). Exactly why the default is to make bilingual announcements regardless of who's on the flight. Also, Thai cabin crew can invariably speak English, even if it not always very well and Air Asia is a Malaysian airline. THAI Airways cabin crew are given instructions in ENGLISH by the pilot/FA and never in Thai as English is the language of aviation. For example "cabin crew, cross check" or "cabin crew prepare for landing". Does Air Asia use Thai?? Which would be highly unusual. So again, there is no need to single out obvious foreign looking passengers like they did. Even in China, where you don't have foreign passengers on every flight (which I can guarantee you do in Thailand, except maybe during Covid) the safety briefing is a pre recorded message in English. All other announcements are only by the FA and only in Chinese (though this may depend on the airline). I do remember other domestic flights in the past having announcements in English as well. Interestingly, all the high speed trains make bilingual announcements, with lines going to ethnic areas also providing announcements in the relevant minority languages too. As you are probably aware, Thais know their language isn't a global one. Unlike in China, most road signs and many (most) restaurant menus are also in English, except in local restaurants in very rural areas. Boost Juice bars only has English menus and they're not alone.

Same thing. I carry photos on my phone and also photocopies.

Did you read my comment? This is NOT true. Only if the individual looks like they're Burmese (or maybe Cambodian or something). Especially if you travel by private vehicle, which I always do.