KhaoNiaw

Laos citizens are stamped out of Thailand and then stamped back in. They currently get 45 days (though I think it's still scheduled to revert back to 30) and there are no limits on the number of entries they can make per year. This makes it easy for those who don't have the MOU visa and work permit to stay continuously in Thailand. I'd imagine it's quite easy to do it under their own steam. But most in Bangkok use a van service, which picks them up at home and does the return journey for 900 baht. They don't pay any Cambodian border fee.

That could depend on how they received their Thai ID in the first place? I think a lot of the ongoing crackdown stems from Chinese illegally receiving a Thai ID. Are there ways that Thai citizenship once acquired could be forfeited for criminal behaviour? Though presumably there should be due process in that case?

นกเอี้ยง is Thai for the myna, the 'nok eyoung' ('iang' maybe as an alternative spelling). นกกาเหว่า is the koel, 'nok gaawao' (the Thai name coming from its call).

It was Aaron Hotel. Just mid-low range I guess. I contacted them directly through email as coming out of Covid it wasn't really clear from the booking sites which places were operating. They only asked for my details and never asked for any ID from my girlfriend. She talked to the reception staff a few times and nothing was said at all. We had a couple of nights and then a bigger room for her daughter and mother to stay too. Mostly younger Vietnamese there at the time. Just asked her and she says nothing to worry about in Vientiane.

I stayed in a hotel in Vientiane with my Lao girlfriend last year without any issues. She also said this would not be possible in her home province.

Pheu Thai to back Prawit as PM? I'm sure he'd be grateful for their support.

That wasn't my experience. My email reminder from the previous 90-day report was of course out of sync with the new entry. Just ignored the email and did it according to the entry date. That was approved without problem (Bangkok). Which also reset the email by the way.

The Chinese have always bought that stuff. It's all the back and muscle relief pads and things like that. Before Covid, 7/11 near me was always full of Chinese tourists that had just got off the tour bus at the hotel, all straight in there and buying up all that stuff and the balm.

It was a woman.

Pretty sure that's what will happen and then quietly dropped altogether. The Thai version of the instructions seems much more like "may be tested" than "will be tested".

I see new university graduates applying for jobs every year. They always send English-language resumes to apply for jobs advertised in English. They also don't just show up at companies without being asked to attend interviews. In the past my daughter has found that it may be several months after submitting an application before a company actually contacts her. No acknowledgement that they have received the application and then out of the blue four or five months later an invitation to interview.

Would be good to have one that stays on topic though. Just news and real information relating to the entry requirements and not arguing about vaccines or Covid numbers.

I don't know the ins and outs but in a previous job part of my remuneration was a housing allowance which wasn't taxed.

This Facebook page gives up-to-date lists of the pubs and temple fairs where Carabao are playing about a week to 10 days ahead: https://www.facebook.com/Carabao.Rayong

I'd go with jak's post above. If it's similar to the original picture it's a tree shrew. Loads of them around our condo in the middle of Bangkok. See them in the trees, running along the walls and the power wires but they also come down and forage on some of the grassy areas. The squirrels have much bushier tails than tree shrews and grow bigger. We've got some really nice looking squirrels around too, my favourites being a dark grey and white and one that's quite a deep red with white patches.

If you really want to help her instead of an agent, you need to talk to her employer so that you can put the paperwork together. A lot of employers don't have the time or want to know all the details and that's why it's much easier for them to go through an agent. Many of them will then take the cost of this out of the employees wages, though ones I know would do this over a period of months. Even though Lao is very similar to Thai, it seems a bit odd to me that you say her Thai is excellent. Most Laos I know that have just arrived don't have much confidence when using Thai at first, especially in more official situations. So would you be able to help out with that at immigration, especially questions about documents, paperwork etc.? You say she seems mentally exhausted but trying to go through the immigration process on her own could be much more stressful than leaving it to an agent to handle.

That's been known since the first reports. That's why there were so many board and why the ship was making the journey.

Several of the tellers are from Isan at my local Kasikorn branch in Bangkok (and not Chinese Isanites).

Apparently 6-7000 'volunteers' came through a Chinese foundation. So they're setting up an investigation into the misuse of volunteer visas up to last year or earlier this year I think they said on the news. Which sounds like up to the period people on here started reporting it was no longer a possibility.

Note that the MOT record goes straight into the system and you can pay your tax online once you've done it. The DLT send the tax disc out to you by registered mail with a tracking number. Online tax renewal didn't use to be available for vehicles over 7 years but it works really well now.

There are not actually many options for getting into the business here. It's pretty much a closed shop between a few big companies. This could be the only chance she's going to get. So of course you need to do your due diligence and go through the terms of the contract, but GMM have done this hundreds of times before and I'd guess are not likely to be to pulling something that isn't standard in the industry. Unless they see really special potential, you probably won't have much negotiation room. Don't expect too much because they're just signing potential, maybe even the look or how they think they can present her as much as her singing talent.

Unfortunately the young boy's body was found in a stream just a few metres from home.

It says locals have reported a van driving around the sub-district suspiciously. They need to find one who actually saw it and can describe it and say what was suspicious about it, where the registration was from etc. No direct connection to the missing child. Any other children missing to suggest that there's a gang of childnappers around?

But nobody actually saw a van at the time? These rumours about the vans have been around for years. I remember the Mirror group, who are active in searching for missing persons, tried to follow this up in Isan. But they never found anyone who had seen the vans themselves or whose child had been abducted. It was always someone in the next village. Children can go missing of course but until they can pinpoint the kidnappers or the van, they might be better off searching thoroughly in the local area around the home?

It's not really though, is it? Those are the ones going to New Zealand and UK. Plenty of middle class Thais can afford to travel in Asia. Might not be your ordinary labouring types but Thais don't have to be 'rich' for a few days in Japan.