Bangkok Barry

When did any world leader set foot in Thailand? Why would they?

There's the problem. Does anyone think that the government actually cares about the less well-off?

About 200 years ago this kind of thing used to happen in the Wild West of the USA. On a more serious note, it's a warning that we should never argue with a shopkeeper in Thailand because he might be tooled up. What a great country the Land of Smiles is.

No-one actually cares what Thailand thinks. It makes no difference to anyone, anywhere.

Please enlighten us. What is actually going on? Most of us see one country trying to take over another and killing and bombing innocent citizens going about their life. You, it seems, have a better insight. Or think you do.

Pandora's box was opened long ago and it is impossible to close it now. The guns are there and no amount of 'amnesty' or new laws or 'crackdowns' can change that. The guns are out there, and border 'controls' are a joke. And, as the article says, media in the form of tv dramas plays a major part in the public perception of there being a need for guns. In fact, every Thai drama should be taken off the air for showing violence of all kinds being a normal way to resolve disputes, with a gun or not. Let them show the results of the Me First, brain-dead driving instead. There are countries that have curbed the ownership and use of guns after massacres have occurred, but in those countries people have a sense of responsibility and respect for the law, neither of which exist in Thailand for numerous reasons (poor education, a useless police force, corruption in every aspect of Thai society etc). So nothing in Thailand will change. It never does.

I raised this earlier within another post, but didn't receive any responses as it was 'hidden'. So I'll try again. I have a marriage extension which must be renewed on 23rd November. However, I need to go to Dubai on 18th December, returning on the 25th. It appears that I would not be able to get a re-entry permit as my return to Thailand would almost certainly be beyond the under consideration date (23rd December?). However, I was thinking of visiting my local immigration office in Kalasin and suggesting that an easy solution might be to give my report back date as 25th December instead of the expected 23rd, a date I could use on the re-entry permit I'd need. Secondly, the situation is further complicated by the fact that I may need to go back to Dubai in mid-February for around two weeks. If in November I applied for a 60 day extension to 'visit' my wife rather than apply for my annual extension, that would expire in mid-January, and my new application made then for a one-year marriage extension would not be approved before mid-February when I might be away again. I was wondering if a possible solution to that might be for me to enter on 25th December with no visa/extension and then apply before at the end of 60 days (?) for a new annual extension. I would be back at the beginning of March well before my under consideration date. Any advice would be welcome, which I might use to politely suggest as a solution to immigration if need be.

We are all aware that kids who are far too young to be able to control a motorcycle, let alone legally be driving it, are a common sight on Thai roads. Many of them will die, often before they even reach their teen years, but no-one seems to care. The police rarely do anything to stop them, but even more baffling is why their parents allow them on the road? I was prompted to write now because two kids were nearly killed right outside my house today. The driver looked about seven and his passenger maybe four. What alerted it to me was the sound of horns and air brakes, and there was a large lorry pulled right across the two-lane road after he had taken evasive action - action that left the lorry inches from a pickup that had been pulling out onto the road. The kids then roared off down the road, on the wrong side with the driver not even looking at the road as he preferred to stare at me for the first 100 metres. I doubt they'll live until the weekend, but no-one cares. Someone gave them the keys and happily sent them off to a possible death. Why? Of course, the kids may not have been sent out by parents as so many parents don't actually raise their own kids, but dump them on elderly grandparents who probably struggle to look after themselves, let alone a boisterous kid. Still, it's their kids, their culture, their problem, so why should we care if they don't? But what happens if someone dies by crashing into your car, or mine?