mikebell

Bang Saen has fewer policemen even than Pattaya. The whole town is lawless every weekend.

My money was on the monkey who harvested them.

Euphemism meaning; what's the easiest, most rewarding path to take?

Typical Thai non-logic; make things difficult for the 5% who have proper, well earned licences from their own country whilst ignoring the 95% Thais without one or who have bought theirs.

Some cracking imagery. More applause; keep 'em coming.

Spelling correction in my post - 'stationery' = paper goods. I meant 'stationary' = not moving. I was not moving when two helmetless tearaways ploughed into me at a U-turn doing 90kph. The police adjudged it was my fault for crossing a major road even though I had completed the manoeuvre.

So much bickering and nit-picking. It is a story; literature. Some of it may be real; some/all fictitious. Quit carping over whether it's been raining or not; whether there's football on TV. Enjoy or ignore. The writer has a distinctive voice, a decent stock of images and his stories are often topical.

Because the police don't. It's always the farang's fault even when he's stationery.

Warning to the long suffering clients of The Ambassador Hotel Na Jomtien. Yet again this vast white elephant has shut its doors to the only people who use it; clients of the Sports Facilities. I have been a regular customer for over 15 years, first as a Squash player and latterly as a table tennis player, yet I experience disgraceful service seemingly on a monthly basis. Despite assiduously filling in our contact details of email/telephone numbers we are often denied service for a variety of lies without notice. 'Gym closed for refurbishment for two days' - it re-opened over two weeks later with not a trace of anything new! The most common fault is in the A/C system which works or doesn't depending on who's on reception. One manager confessed that the 'hotel' cannot afford to run the A/C as it was too expensive. It is an unguarded secret that the site is earmarked for Thailand's first casino. Thus they have no interest in penny-ante clients paying 600 baht a week whilst employing two redundant people to stare at their phones all day. Until Thailand understands the Service Industry; brand building, they will continue to lose tourists to Vietnam.

A perfect time to introduce TDAC. Keep It Simple Stupid - Vietnam's recipe for success.

Yesterday Sattahip police were practicing robbing banks; now the Armed forces are preparing for disasters. What do they know? Will Sattahip become a safe centre envied by the rest of Thailand?

So the driver fled the scene but returned voluntarily once police had detained him? His offer to compensate the victim's family presumably is dependent on his insurance which may decide not to pay out. His willingness to accept responsibility (eventually) is admirable!

I filled them in on on the return plane every year of my family trips home. Then Thai Immigration decided they were unnecessary for some years; then they decided they were and came up with TDAC. Was the country overrun with criminals after TM6 and before TDAC? The point I am trying to make, amid my incompetence, is surely there should be a go-around for long-term expats whose particulars are held annually in triplicate on paper (and often used to print other documents on by officers trying to save paper.)

Thank you for your continued support. I am a belt & braces man and the thought of waiting till I got to the airport would have been totally abhorrent to me. It may have resulted in my arrest by Malaga police for causing a public disturbance! I have now two numbers to play with: my retirement 'visa' number valid till next May; and my multi-re-entry permit number also valid till then. I did a dummy run & printed out all the data I thought I would need to satisfy TDAC. Apparently I missed something.

Practice makes perfect.

Adding to the myth that Pattaya is a safe and friendly place to bring the family.

Pattaya Plod's arrest record just went up by 100%.

I have a phone which is smarter than me - I don't know how to do screenshots and/or even find them again; I needed my TGF's phone to photo everything. The TDAC is predicated on the fact that everyone has access to the internet. I do not have a plan that allows me access to satellites anywhere in the world; I am reliant on a hotel's wi-fi which in my case was infuriatingly slow and may well have contributed to my impatience.

Amid the plethora of false starts, I cannot remember at what point I tried inserting the visa number. I kept getting the 'Insufficient Data' message almost every time I sought to move on to the next page. My experience is sufficient to deter my daughter/S-i-L from T/Land; we're going to meet up in Vietnam.

How much police time was wasted on this offence only for no charges to be brought? Having witnessed the apocryphal story of three straws per bottle of water, I am willing to bet this was merely a renegotiation tactic by the three punters. Hopefully there photos will be sent to the local newspaper in their own country.

'visa # NOT required!!!' I did not get past the 1st page till I had answered this! As I said there will be many who smugly reply about how stupid I must be. Presumably you are a lot younger than 82; have a modern phone/computer access (hi-speed?) and are not an ex-pat. Once you got the reply you were obviously sufficiently tech-savvy to save it without the need for a 2nd phone. I am suggesting that in the world I inhabit, there are dinosaurs like me who armed with a multiple re-entry permit and 20 years of data already collected by Thai Immigration (I have seen pages of this stuff on my records on a computer in a Pattaya Immigration office,) I question the need for TDAC in some cases.

The article is all about Internal flights presumably competing for the ever vanishing Pattaya farang who has passed the dope test by filling in a TDAC form.

It saves on the paperwork. They've been doing it for years and it reappears every four months or so.

Was it a Police Taxi cab?

I know I face criticism from those more blessed/smart than I. Before I went on holiday to Spain, I did a dry run and photographed & printed it out. Then I attempted the real thing! It took at least 30 attempts to progress not helped by doing it on my phone with the hotel's slow internet. The site is not kind towards ex-pats. All these years of being carefully to avoid using the 'Retirement Visa' phrase, I now find TDAC asking for my 'Visa number'. I had to check and for the 1st time in 20 years, the number had been printed in pen and legibly. Then came more false starts over my (Thai) telephone number - 'Insufficient Data' times 10. In the end I made up an English one and moved forward. Many have said it's a piece of cake to fill it in; I disagree - I was lucky enough to have my TGF with me to photo my eventual success. When I got to Malaga airport yesterday for the return journey, the authorities asked for it (As I don't have a satellite phone package and relied on her 'Gallery' photo! They've not got it quite sorted as they also asked for my companion's Digital card & I pointed out as a Thai, she did not need one. (Meanwhile Vietnam tourism keeps it simple to visit whilst Thailand's numbers are circling the plughole.)