YaiJung

Depends on what country you come from 

https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50701595/cambodia-bans-entries-of-foreigners-from-five-countries

I understand your frustration, but you have to understand the way the drug economy works. Where there is demand, there will be supply. Don't think for a minute that if you eliminate these dealers the village will suddenly become drug free. Within hours(or minutes) a new supply will be opened up from another village or town. There is absolutely nothing you can do about it.

Another thing that strikes me is the way many people blame the dealers. You don't see alcoholics blaming the liquor stores. I have never heard a drug addict blaming the dealer for their addiction. They know they only have themselves to blame.

People take drugs to escape suffering(which comes in many forms). There is nothing you can do about it. Better to keep your family safe by minding your own business and staying on a positive track. Steering well clear of drug dealing cops is a good start.

This is a good question and a topic I am also interested in. 

Jomtien is pretty good, plus you have the trails at Pratumnak Park.  Sometimes I run the side streets in Pratumnak,  they are pretty quiet and can be a relaxing place to run.  Overall, Pattaya has been much better for running than I expected.  I hear that out in the darkside, by the lake, there are some good routes as well. 

Hat Mae Rumphueng in Rayong has a bike path that looks decent, but sadly, the last time I was down there the stench from garbage covering the entire length of the beach was overpowering.

Bang Saen promenade looks pretty good, but probably not on weekends, due to crowds. 

South of Hua Hin, Pranburi has a great paved running/biking trail along the beach, as does the next beach south from there.  You can check them out on google streetview. 

Here in Phuket I was told, if bitten by a snake, to find the nearest snake show. They will have the anti-venom and they are who the hospital will call anyway. Wake them up if it is the middle of the night. Oh, and try to kill the snake and bring it with if you can.

Sounds like a great idea to me.

It's a beautiful and peaceful get-away place already.

To add more "park-like" attractions can only make it better.

They sure have been doing a lot of work over there.

Its a terrible idea for me and hundreds of Thais who have used it for running / biking since it was only a trail. Btw, forget beautiful and peaceful hereafter.

Couldn't agree more. Why must everything be a tourist attraction and have a "view point" .It's always been a place to get away from tourists and just enjoy nature. Bus loads of people and all that goes with it .Another place ruined.

I completely agree, terrible idea. This is probably the last decent place to go running on the island and the last thing it needs is to be developed into another "tourist attraction". Really makes me sad to think about it. The people in charge of Phuket are greedy beyond belief and seem to really hate nature.

Those beach chairs in the second video look exactly like the ones being rented out on the sly by the beach vendors in Karon today.

You might want to keep in mind that soon the tourist visa will be remodeled with that new 1 year visa for 3000THB that could released in Feb 2015.

Worth waiting another month in my opinion

Keep dreaming You honestly think that with all hassle they are giving people for using ED visas to live here they will actually just let everyone stay here on 1 yr tourist visas for 3k baht...lol.

Not only is Phuket covered with filthy garbage everywhere right now, the air quality is also horrendous in the evenings when the locals decide to burn as much of the trash that is laying around as they can.

Yesterday evening I drove on a motorbike from Kata to Phuket Town and back. My eyes and throat were burning like crazy from the continual cloud of toxic smoke that I passed through as soon as I left my soi. This morning I feel like I smoked a pack of cigs last night, and I quit smoking a few yrs ago.

There is a major problem with infastructure on the island at the moment. For example, the soi I live on in Kata, there is no garbage pickup. Several condo developents, apartment buildings, houses, and a semi-permament burmese work camp are all forced to drive around looking for random trash piles to dump their garbage in. Much of that I would assume ends up being burned. No amount of money will convince the local garbage collectors to service our soi.

The greedy people in control of the island are driving Phuket down as quickly as they can.

As mentioned earlier be careful riding between Patong and Karon beach at night.

And why is that?

When I was working in Phuket my boss (American) told me that riders between Patong and Karon could be targets for robbery. Little to no lighting and windy roads so riders slow down (or should slow down)

Yes, a long time ago there were some problems on some of the coastal roads. Main problems for a while were the road from Patong to Kamala and Kata to Nai Harn, not Patong to Karon. And that really was a while ago, no problems at all for quite some time now (except that the road between Patong and Karon is not too good with quite a few potholes).

It wasn't that long ago that at least two motorbikes with tourists were kicked down with the victims stabbed and robbed on the Kata beach road. Maybe six months ago. There are quite a few bag snatchings and robberies on the Karon beach road, even during the day, although usually in the low season when there aren't so many people around. Keep in mind, many of the incidences won't make the local paper.

The Patong to Karon has always been dangerous late at night, these days are no different, although not as bad as the Kata to Nai Harn road, which is even worse. Personally I wouldn't go that way much after dark on a slow motorbike. Much safer to go the long way through Chalong. They will usually get their victims on the long uphills when the little motorbikes can't go very fast.

It is impossible to tell when a gang of meth-addicted youth will come over from Phuket town for a robbery spree.

A few years ago I saw them dumping it directly into the ocean at Kalim beach, just north of Patong. It was early in the morning. Brown waste spewing out of the truck into the ocean where people like to gather and eat from the food carts at sunset.

There was just an article in the newspaper the other day saying that 40+ countries can now get an Indian visa online. I think Ireland was one of them. The article I saw was brief, but said you apply online, wait 4-5 days, then can pick up the visa on arrival. Definately worth looking into.

Your visa remains valid, even if you no longer study. So there is no need to get a tourist visa, you can come back on the ED-visa.

So are you recommending he lie to immigration? Aren't ED visa holders required to attend class X amount of hrs per week?

If I were staying here on a ED visa I would be more than a little stressed out about getting back into Thailand, especially after reading the horror story that was posted this morning by the French guy.

OP, I think you have the right idea. A tourist visa sounds good for your needs and is the honest way to do it. You should have no problem getting one in your home country. Much less stress on the way back to Thailand too. I can't imagine sitting on a long-distance flight, hoping to enter on a ED visa at the moment.

I was in the Patong office for a visa extension on thursday Oct 16. No extra charge and very quick service. Good work PW and Phuket Gazette! (and everybody else who spoke up about this issue)

This is the photo I mentioned. Was in the Nation in this article -

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Police-use-superimposition-technique-used-to-ident-30243922.html

maybe the shorts aren't dark blue. can't tell from the b&w photo, but they are def not the light colored shorts seen in other images.

This cctv image is really strange it looks like the person is covering up there clothing with another article of clothing or the shorts are too big.

There is another image that I recall seeing (in Thai media I'm pretty sure) of a suspect standing outside a minimart wearing dark navy blue cargo shorts...same shaggy haired, skinny asian guy that keeps popping up.

Thought it was on Khaosod, but now when I click on the links to Koh Tao murder articles from a few days ago they won't load.

is Thailand-Malaysia border the worst border where they are corrupt ?. I've never had Thai immigration is corrupt've only experienced at the Cambodia immigration are very very very corrupt. now i know this

In Phuket they are also pretty bad, both at the airport and in town at the immigration office(Patong office as well).

Haven't been up there in a while, but if they got rid of those somtam/bbq places with the mat seating, I guess I won't have any reason to make the trip from down south anymore.

They were always a nice place to enjoy an afternoon at the beach.

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By the way, anyone know the hours for Immigration Patong?

For sure they open 10.00. Think close at 15.00. Plus an hour lunch break 12.00 -13.00

When I was there last month, they took lunch from 12.00-14.00.

OP, can you tell me what airline flies Phuket to Phnom Penh - direct?

It's been a while since I checked, but I have always had to go via Bangkok on my way to Phnom Penh. That doesn't put me through Phuket Airport Immigration - it puts me through Immigration in Bangkok.

I have just run that route through a flight search engine and it didn't reveal any direct flights.

I would be interested to know who you flew with.

Bangkok Airways. I've done this route at least a dozen times and always go through immigration in phuket on the way out, but get stamped back in at the small immigration area in the transit area of the BKK airport on the way back.

Very good service with bangkokair on this route btw. If flights are running late they have staff meet you when land in bkk and whisk you off the the next flight asap.

Bags are checked all the way through both ways. After you add up all the extra B.S. that air asia adds on it costs about the same and is a much smoother experience.

What was the 500 baht demand for and did you get an official receipt?

I don't know what the 500 baht was for. No receipt.

I wasn't about to argue with them either. Especially not with what has been going on lately at the phuket airport since the coup.

And what about the 50-100 baht stamp out tax? Maybe you got the vip service at this moring.

We didn't get hit up for the 50-100 baht "tax". Immigration was busy, but it only took us about 15 min to get through to the counter. We did see staff directing families with children to the express lane. Don't know if they paid extra or not. It seemed like the staff were just being helpful to them, but who knows with the news of late.