Guderian

I must have missed the "Embassy letter phase" entirely then, as I didn't need one ten years ago when I transferred my visa stamps and I didn't need one this time either. I wonder why certain Pattaya agents are still demanding it, if it hasn't been issued since June?

Apparently, Thailand has signed up to the 1998 Rome Statute but it has never been ratified. That may have something to do with the possibility of certain prominent Thai politicians being held culpable by the ICC for major crimes on Thai soil. Just fishing for ideas here, but maybe the Tak Bai massacre under one Thaksin Shinawatra may have something to do with that. Plus the 2,000 or more extrajudicial killings of suspected drug dealers under the government headed by, let me see now, who was it? Oh yes, Thaksin Shinawatra.

If they get so scared of one person being shot in a random incident, it'll be interesting to see what happens the next time a passenger boat carrying Chinese tourists sinks in calm weather, lol.

I came back with my new UK passport last week and the next day went to Immigration in Jomtien to get the stamps transferred. As you know this will be an overnight job, it's best to drop it off near the close of play to avoid the queues. I did that last Thursday and was told to pick it up on Monday afternoon, which I did. All fine, everything transferred and in order, and no fee. Also, no mention at any stage about an 'embassy letter' or anything else along those lines. I find that interesting, as I'd phoned an agent before I left for the UK in August and they were adamant that you HAVE to have the embassy letter, even for a passport obtained while you are in the UK, she claimed that she'd transferred stamps into four new passports just that week and they'd all had to have the embassy letter, no exceptions. Clearly, this agent doesn't know what she's talking about in this instance, which may not be surprising as she mostly does driving licence renewals. Anyway, the following currently applies in Jomtien Immigration: there is no need for any embassy letter or confirmation to transfer the visa stamps from your old passport to a new one, at least not for a passport issued while you are back in the UK. A passport received by post while you are still in Thailand may be a different matter, I have no way of knowing.

Yes, this is the composite rainfall radar picture at 12:30. Hardly alarming, is it?

Yeah, and I arrived there at 6:30 on Thursday evening and the arrivals hall was almost deserted, through Immigration within 5 minutes.

If the pain is caused by inflammation, diclofenac tablets (readily available and very cheap in any pharmacy) should help, especially if taken as soon as the pain starts. Take a maximum of three 50 mg tablets in a day, preferably with food. If they have no effect then it's probably not inflammation that's causing the pain.

Given that it took them the best part of a decade just to develop a 90-day reporting app that works reasonably well, any poor Thai desperate for their 10,000 Baht digital wallet is likely to have a lot longer to wait than they think.

Comes with a free Thai TIN so you can enjoy the privilege of paying Thai taxes on your income and savings while you are in Thailand!

Does this mean that for TM30 and 90-day reports they have their own ticketing system and you don't need to go to the 'First Queue' desk?

I just bought some items from a German company and they shipped them to the UK using DHL (their choice, not mine). Not only did it take 3 weeks, but DHL messed up the customs declaration saying the goods were worth three times their actual value, so now I'm spending my days compiling paperwork to try and reclaim the excesss VAT charged. I wouldn't use DHL if they were the last courier service on the planet!

The idiot should be targeting the Gini coefficient, not some ridiculous fantasy of becoming a European country in short order.

Look on the bright side. If they were to be stupid enough to go through with this state-sanctioned theft (i.e. taxing your taxed income twice in the case of remitting savings) then it provides a perfect excuse to relocate to Cambodia or the Philippines. In the latter case, there'll be an added benefit for us Brits as our state pension will be indexed there, unlike in Thailand where it's permanently frozen.

I used a shop on Thepprasit last year to get some new curtains made for the two windows in the master bedroom in my house. They have completely light-blocking material now so you don't need the separate layer of sun-block plastic. The downside of that is the choice of designs is a bit limited. Because the security bars on the windows in my gaff are on the inside (retractable, so I only use them when I'm away), they had to make pelmets to go over the top of the new curtains. They work well and look great. I also got them to do some repairs and replace a curtain rail elsewhere in the house, and shift one of the old curtains from the bedroom into the storeroom. Total cost was 14K Baht, which I was quite happy with. The lady in charge speaks excellent English and is very helpful. The shop is nothing much to look at, and is located on the south (Jomtien) side of Thepprasit, not too far from the Tong Ma aquarium shop. If you are on the south side, roughly opposite the road to the Kaan Theatre, and walk towards Sukhumvit, you'll soon see the shop.

Yeah, somebody should explain that to the cook in Frankie's Italian restaurant in Jomtien. I had a pizza there with fresh artichoke on it and it was inedible. Instead of peeling the artichoke to get at the tender interior they'd just sliced it up and stuck the whole thing, woody exterior and all, onto the pizza.

The PRS Hotel gym on Soi 17/Soi Regional Land looks out on the street with a lot of traffic passing. It's air-conditioned but only in the evenings. I haven't been there for years but it used to charge 3,000 Baht a month for membership. There's also a small swimming pool. Sounds like it ticks all your boxes.

It's so damnably selfish of the Chinese and Japanese to put their own national economic and financial situation ahead of the well-being of Thailand's tourism industry, lol!

Well, let's be honest, if you were hated by around a third of the population, and stuck in prison with, at least so far, no sign of a get out of jail free card being issued, you'd probably be feeling a bit stressed and fatigued too!

I've never really understood why so many Americans decide to settle in Thailand, when the country itself has plenty of pleasant, sunny areas, as well as some nice overseas territories. And if you really want some exoticism, what's wrong with the neighbouring countries like Costa Rica, Panama, the Caribbean islands, Colombia nowadays, or, as we're now seeing apparently, Mexico? Many Americans seem to speak some Spanish, which would make integration easier, whereas how many of them speak any Thai before they move here? (And how many of them can speak it reasonably well after a decade or two?) So why exactly do the older denizens of the Land of the Free seem to like the Land of Scams and Lies so much?

So no actual physical punishment was involved, just some exercises? The photo showing a cane is just a red herring. A hundred squat jumps is bit excessive for a child, but most people who injured themselves doing strenuous exercise would simply stop, finding themselves unable to continue as it would be too painful. I have a feeling we're only getting part of the story here.

High time they closed down all the erotic, sex-related venues on Third Road and relocated them somewhere away from innocent members of the public, like LK Metro, lol.

Great, so now the Kuwaitis in Pattaya will be disturbing everyone with their night races for three months instead of just one, lol.

I'm surprised that Thailand wasn't invited to the BRICS conference in South Africa, the way things are going here the country would be right at home with the likes of Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and new member Ali Khameini.

This legal site mentions the letter from the UK embassy, but it only refers to passports renewed while you are still in Thailand, I don;ts ee anything on there about getting a new passport when you're in the UK. https://www.siam-legal.com/UK_Visa/british-embassy-thailand.php Transferring your Thai visa after renewing your British passport If you renewed your British Passport (or it was lost, stolen, or damaged and you have replaced it), you will need a letter to move your Thai visa from your old passport into your new one at the Immigration Bureau. If you renewed your passport at VFS Bangkok, you will be given a blank letter when you receive your new passport. If you have not been given a copy of this letter, you may send your name and Thai address via web form and the embassy will post a copy to you.

That's odd and a bit out of date, as it's asking for a copy of the TM6 which no longer exists. So if the embassy letter isn't available, which it won't be, then it should still be fine. Right, lol? But what's the bit about "Copy of visa stamp in your passport (if it available)"? Surely, that's the whole purpose of the form, to transfer the stamp, so how can the visa stamp not be available? :scratches head: