YaiJung

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.

The girl's name was Ning and she was from Nahkorn Si Thammarat. Happened not long after the first Tiger opened. Complete BS setup. They ran that Canadian out of the country. Although he was no angel. I remember seeing him fly completely off the handle acting like a major prick over a parking spot, threatening violence like he was some kind of dangerous big shot or something.

Those were the good old days. Could drive down bangla and park a motorbike right outside the nightclubs without a problem. Taksin coming into office was the beginning of the end.

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.

A few days ago my gf and I were flying out of Phuket, heading to Cambodia for a holiday to visit some friends and maybe get another thai visa(depending on if the government decides to let me continue spending my money in Thailand).

My gf of 3 yr was flying out of the country for the first time and thus had a fresh passport. DIrectly after stamping her out, an immigration officer pulled both of us into the an office and had her fill out a form of some sort, seemed to be about human trafficking or something. Then they took our photo together and demanded 500 baht.

Everything seemed above board until they asked for the money. Now, it was early in the morning and I was barely awake, plus not thrilled to be flying, stressed about my visa situation, etc, so I wasn't at the top of my game. So we just paid and then boarded the plane. Only after did I realize that we were probably just ripped off for 500 baht by the immigration officers(not the end of the world, but still...who likes getting ripped off?).

I have traveled the same route HKT-PNH several times in the past with an ex-gf, although the last time was about 8 yrs ago. We were never asked for any money or any special forms to sign.

Looking back, we were for sure easy targets that morning. Tired, stressed, not thrilled about flying in general, etc.

Is this some kind of new procedure to prevent human trafficking or were we scammed by petty, thieving, predatory immigration officers?

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I'm just in the process of applying for a visa for India. As I live in the South, it will take me 3 (THREE) flights to Bangkok, to finally get the visa.

Just the normal crazy Indian bullsh***.

My passport will be in Bangkok for approx. 8 days (without me). 

So, my question to the Immigration officers is: How can I please apply for a visa without breaking the law?

 

 

Indian Embassy have to make do with seeing and photocoying your passport .... they have no right to hold on to your passport.

They also have a natural right to not stick a visa in a passport unless they are given the original.

 

The Indian Embassy does not keep your passport while you wait the 5 business days.  You apply, then bring your passport back on the pick-up day, dropping it off in the morning and picking it up in the afternoon with the visa attached.  You will only be without your passport for about 2-3 hrs for one day and you will have a receipt from the Indian Embassy. 

My extended family arrived at phuket airport in the last two days and paid $5 per adult for the fast lane. They said the slow lane was a nightmare. Now I understand.

The main people they are helpful to is the Thai Immigration staff. Now they no longer need to learn english nor try to explain the rules.

I would be very careful when relying on the volunteers when it comes to correct paperwork. Last time I asked them about transfering a visa extension to a new passport, the guy gave me very wrong advice that would have voided my visa and cost me a lot of time and money. He was very sure that he was correct too. Luckily I had prior experience with the visa transfer(about 10 yrs earlier though) and decided to verify with Thai staff anyway. The expat volunteer was basicly trying to send me out the door with wrong info.

I guess if it makes them satisfied to be doing the Thais jobs for them, for free, then good for them. I can think of about a zillion other things I'd rather do with my time though.

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On the other hand, this being Thailand, I very much doubt they are doing it for free. They probably get easy long-term visas, but will never admit it, especially here on TV. That is one way to stay here I guess.

Definately the horrible traffic. It is getting to the point that I don't want to leave the soi anymore and that is no way to live. I have near-death experiences everytime I go anywhere.

The other annoyance is the constant burning of trash/air pollution. The locals have always been burning trash, but now the population is so large that it is becoming much more noticable.

It seems to me that not just Phuket, but most of SEA is headed this way. Just way too many people.

They have one now on Soi Sai Yuan in rawai. The place is always empty when I drive by. I doubt it will be there for long.

The one on the bypass road was a hangout for cops, several were killed there one day in a drive-by-shooting. Place seemed to go downhill after that.

Food was tasty, but portions way too small for me.