wrecker

Visa agents cannot do anything more than you can do yourself. Sometimes and embassy wants to have an interview, the applicant need to go there themselves. in case of an visa in Europea Schengen countries that is refused they might offer the same solution you can think of. Just take an group tour to another Schengen country and leave the group. But in the end they do nothing more than prepare all the documents. If you really want to spend sometimes in excess of a 100,000 baht, hire a immigration lawyer in the country you like to visit, they can do considerably more.

Unless a visa agents know a corrupt official in an embassy (what sometimes happens) they can do nothing more than you can do yourself.

Thaksin already denied that he has asked for a Royal Pardon, so Suthep could stop looking where the three letters are. It would of course be a good thing for the country when they found common ground. After all Thaksin has done more good than bad for the country and bigger criminals were able to keep their money ask senator Choonhavan how Chatchai came away with it. In the case of Thaksin all comes down on good old jealousy. He has money and I do not have money. They love him and they do not love me, that hurts in certain circles.

Not really smart thieves. A Thai bankaccount and thus a Thai bank that stands to lose money, that means always big trouble.

How incompetent could banks become? Jamming devices?? That would become a bloodbath in Bangkok and other areas with lots of offices and atm's . Nobody would be able anymore to sent wireless data. The banks should simply go for better and thus more expensive atm's that are really protected. In Western europe skimming was a real problem, done by skilled people from Eastern European countries. In South East Asia it is a Malay sport, I bet that you cannot count the number of people who have their creditcard cancelled after paying with it in Malaysia. The proposed solution is again laughable, just like the comment that people can protect themselves. Do we need to inspect the ATM? Do we need to be on the look out for tiny camera's recording our pincode? Come on...

Unfortunately is the test that the Thai police is using completely inadequate. I strongly believe that the test results enable certain officers to extort money from complete innocent people. Most vulnerable are of course foreigners both from neighboring countries as welle expatriates in need of a extension of their work-permits. But also students run the chance to be the victim of police extortion.

Urine coloring purple can have numerous causes. Even widely sold medicines as Tiffy, weight loss medicines and numerous other food supplements could give the impression that someone is using drugs. That is good news for the police who often refuse to ask labs to check upon each and every positive test. The results I am afraid, will show that the margin of error is staggering. Moreover, the police should not have the power to ask for urine samples, it is an intrusion in the life of many innocent people, The fact that people have nothing to hide if they have not used is the typical BS from the kind of right wing people who do seldom think that they should be part of the not so randomly chosen group of people who need to get their urine checked. The way the authorities work stink more than their samples do.

I do not want to sound cynical. But there is not one army in the world who admits to a "SECRET" jail. That is why it is called secret. The Thai army however does not have the advantage of doubt on their side. After all PM Abhisit did not even know IF the Thai army was holding boat people from Burma in custody. The bottom line is that the army is a state in a state in Thailand.

No hotel room without a passport? That means thousand of people would have to sleep on the street (just as in good Old USA) after all lots of people leave their pasports with embassies in order to get a visa. In some cases that can take up to a week or more (Burma). Just make a copy of your passport and in most cases there is no problem.

However your problem is far more serious, if the US embassy relies on a system in which they are not able to see (even with same names) if their is a hit on you, it makes me wonder how many people are on terror lists that do not belong there. After all they know very well that nothing is wrong, otherwise they would not have let you leave from there. I would call it incompetence.

As with most things that this government is doing, the action might sound sympathetic but in the en it is opportunistic at best. If you want to attract tourists why do they need to get to a visa office, an embassy or a consultate. Just give them a three month stamp on arrival. No hassle, people can leave the same day. It is a bit like the economic stimulus package. Raising petrol prices with 5 baht including vat and complaining that the car industry is having a bad time.

But than again the ruling people want to benefit but at the same time they want to enforce a kind of police state regime.

MIGHT.... at least he knows so he could go elsewhere. But the Might must be seen as MIGHT NOT, given the comments of the real boss of this country, Suthep who said he will not ask for extradition. Abhisit must be very careful with what he wish for. He might get it and that means that half the population will rise up to him, causing bloodshed and and an even more shattered aconomy.

Pretty weird that they recruit people this way. Good for you, but pretty sad for Thailand that they use even here a patronage system.

Great story. Makes good reading and a terrific story for a movie. Let's add the story of the old injured Indian Mafia boss who got away on ropes out of the hospital at Thong Lor and we have a best seller about Thong Lor police station.

The government of Thailand, at least certain figures like Suthep are truly insincere. If they were really worried about the image of Thailand. They would never allowed to be a writer imprisoned, they would free a lady activist already in jail and they would withdraw legal procedures against a Chulalongkorn lecturer. They would show to be even handed by prosecuting the people who caused so much damage to Thailand by closing the airport. Abhisit would rectify the position of boat refugees and there would not have any ministers in this cabinet who have links with prostitution and elements who close airports. Abhisit is not really interested in making things right. He is interested in power and feeding power to the provincial godfathers in his government.

If the PM was really worried about Thailand's Image abroad he would have sat down with Thaksin and struck a deal. The headline should read that the PM is worried about the UDD and the fact that they muster far more support than the PAD and that is very damaging for a government who came to power without a mandate from the voters in which the Democrat party and Suthep in particular does not believe. After all any new election they will use again. On top of that Thaksin gets a free ride. The economy will slow down, hundreds of thousands of worker will be out of a job and return to the provinces where they can vote for his ex wife in the new elections and Thaksin only have to tell them: Look how they mishandled the country and nobody will refer to a credit crisis in 3 years time.

You do not even need a day pass. I have done it literally hundreds of times. First you make two copies of your passport, You leave your original passport at the border in the Thai passport office. (They check if your passport and stampo are still valid) You pay the regular amount to the Burmese bean counters, you get a piece of paper with a number, just like you should have left your real passport. You do you thing in tachilek, come back, pick up the copy of your passport and than you return to Thailand with the copy that bears a Burmese stamp. Than you walk around the building and pick up youir original passport. So no need to ask a re entry permit.

Let's assume for one moment that the murderer was indeed Burmese. I would not dare to bet my money on it as these kinds of judgements are often made far too soon and often without real evidence. What sense does it make to demand that all construction workers are removed from the job? They together with the Izan people are doing the jobs, so no work will be done anymore. The backlash towards Burmese workers is nothing new. Burmese workers, mostly Shan, are rounded up at will for many many years. Maybe Angelina Jolie does not even have to visit an refugee camp, she can just visit Chiangmai.

As the latest Academic refugee to England this week already stated. Thailand is becoming a police state. This government is the worst thing Thailand could have overcome. Abhisit and Suthep may think that they are respected abroad, the truth is really very different.

Did they forgot to pay off the Bell boy or the concierge? Unless they were an real annoyance to other guests it is very bad business for a hotel to report this kind of thing to the police. But remember, half the Thai people spy on the other half.

So the government is going to reimburse those people their million baht? It seems that Abhisit has received a lot of money from his backers.

Too bad. I really loved the Don Mueang airport, will this relocation means the the property around the Don Mueng area is going down?

Indeed too bad, but it makes you think what the military junta made tick to reopen it. Just plain greed I suppose.

It never made any sense to fly from two airports, but how long before it takes before the likes of Sondhi, conclude again that their army friends are losing out on business as owners of Don Muang? The bottom line here that Thaksin was right and the military junta wrong. Thai seem to be a pawn in a game. I would advise anyone with shares in Thai airways to immediately sell the shares as the government still sees Thai airways as theirs.

Well it worked out. The murderer is harder to catch. If the police sincerely thinks that smashing the light is a Shan thing than the Thai murderer can take his time to get away. Shan are not really animists anyhow if they ar animists the majority of the Thai are animists too, after all they they have all kinds of witch doctors (moh doo) who perform outrageous rites too. It looks a bit like the mas murderer that was creating havoc on the streets of bangkok, every time when a body was found in the trash the police said that it could not be a Thai as they would never do such a thing. Police incompetence in this country is appalling. By the way I smash my light now and than too but I am not a Shan, but I did take some piano lessons. It could also have been a muslim murder, they use to slash throats quite often. I would love to know how many innocent people there are in Thai jails because of the presumptuous way the police and courts handle their cases.

Highly unlikely. The court could revoke a passport, though that will not be easy when it is just a debt. It is not a criminal but a civil case after all. Luckily for you the police stays out of debt collection in civilized countries.

The VAT cut is of course going to the deep pockets of the hotel operators. The visa fees are nice, but I sincerely doubt that it make any dent except for the people here working in all kinds of odd jobs who should not be on a tourist visa in the first place.

It would make much more sense if they would wave the visa requirements completely except maybe for a few areas and extend the period you can stay from 1 to 3 or 6 months, that way you would be able to get mainly elderly people to spend time here. And if the change in the rules is meant to attract long time visitors, just like the Philippines is trying to do by offering homes and property for sale, the new rules are contradicting each other. In the case they would not mind to have people staying here all the time there would not be any need to reduce the number of days you would get entering Thailand over land.

Wouldn't it have been irony when the man who supported the PAD and who is still not doing anything to bring these people to justice would have been hit by this ping pong show?

A typical case of SOM NAM NAA, I am very sorry for all those upstanding policemen cheating out of the money that was most probably cheated from citizens anyhow. a beautiful irony....

Is the Samsung OMNI a genuine Alternative, here in T. ?

The Omnia is an unresponsive windows phone. Looks much better than it works.

Just buy an unlocked phone from Switzerland or any any European country for around 350 euro. you would be mad to pay up to 2000 baht a month for 3 years plus 10,000 or something like 16,000 baht initially. A phone is worthless after a years use.