Gaccha

Correct. It is an astonishing and absolutely exasperating change. A real setback, reminding me of the pre-online days. The people hit the hardest will be those leaving Thailand around 2 to 4 times a year.

I think you are exactly right. Unless they are connected up to the airports, they could no longer track us. Obviously, the logical thing would be to get connected with the airport immigration system. But that would require time and effort on their side. Much easier and cheaper for them is to place the workload onto all of us. But ultimately they also lose in that regard, because there is now a huge increase in the number of people at the A1 counter at Bangkok Immigration. I can recall going and finding only 10 or 15 people ahead of me in the lines before COVID. When I went this week there were over 350 people in front of me (and I tried to time my trip to avoid the crowds). By 7 pm you could see the staff snapping. They made everyone remaining stand up in a line to try and rush through the process. There were two staff on the lines simply badgering each "customer" to put down a name for their apartment (they seemed obsessed with this issue). Forcing us to stand up in a long line reminded me of the dark days during the floods of 2011 when we got to experience the immigration offices where the "Three Nationalities" (Burmese/ Lao/ Cambodian) are made to go; they are treated like cattle made to stand in long lines for hours on end. The Thai Immigration staff treat them with contempt.

It's interesting that they have started to give reasons in the rejection emails. The rejection I received simply made no sense because it was based on an entirely new policy which I had not heard anyone else speak about (that Bangkok immigration now requires an in-person application after every travel abroad). What they need to do is include a part in the application for us to explain some anomaly or provide extra information.

Big News The policy at Bangkok Immigration has changed. I checked with the Immigration Officer today. Every fresh entry to the country requires an in-person visit. Online has now become impossible. To anybody who travels 2 or 3 times a year using a re-entry permit, this is a major inconvenience. It is unprecedented. The Officer said they were receiving complaints about this new policy every day.

I think Sheryl recommends the BIDC. Another decent, cheap alternative is the St Louis.

I understand that the 90 days starts over again but that has never been a problem for well over 7 or 8 years. Is the new Bangkok policy really now that every single time I make a quick trip abroad, 90 days later I am going to have to waste a day at the immigration office? I am in disbelief. This is absolutely enraging.

Has Bangkok immigration changed their rules on re-entering the country for the 90 days? I have re-entered on a visa extension via a re-entry permit from a quick trip abroad. They rejected my online application twice, and the second time even gave a reason: This never used to be the case. I've come and gone many times over many years without having to make a physical journey to Chaengwattana.

That is a steroid (readily available in Thailand) and a local anaesthetic (easy to get). So if the OP is motivated to act then he could go and get a couple of creams today to sort himself out.

Is there a link to download your Excel sheet on prices? It really looks impressive. Thanks.

You were literally on the phone with the people who could answer your question.... Obviously, the thing to do is enter into the dispute mechanism of Lazada. Every single time I have disputed in order I have always won. And that includes times when no item arrived in the package. There is an enormous advantage in paying in advance. For those who are not tech savvy it does feel like paying on delivery is the best way to go. But it simply isn't the case. Had you paid in advance, your case would be much stronger with Lazada. Part of the reason for this is because Lazada are able to give a trust rating to you; people who are highly trusted will automatically receive a refund. I know this because they sent me an email telling me they did this with my refund request. A seller disputed my refund request I sent the package back to them, and as soon as the package was scanned at the post office the refund was made. The seller was forced to comply. If you have paid in advance they can rule out lots of scams which are completely endemic to ordering online. This massively favours you.

Let us know please if things have progressed!

In 2013, the Thai police listed the top 10 crime hotspots. It created quite a buzz: 1. Soi Lat Phrao 101 2. Soi Lat Phrao 107 3. Soi Sukhumvit 105 4. Soi Phaholyothin 52 5. Soi Suphaphong 6. Soi On Nut 7. Soi Chalermprakiat 14 8. Victory Monument 9. Sanam Luang 10. Ramintra Market Many can be explained by being areas of deprivation, others for their exciting nightlife, and others for being deserted at night.

From many years of working as a lawyer, I found that the key is in the details. Details, details and more details. The details reveal your intentions, whether they are innocent or criminal in nature. I'm no expert on Thai law, but there seem to be several possible criminal acts here, including money laundering and an attempt at extortion. The question is would a reasonable person believe that the act of moving a large sum of money for the benefit of somebody they barely know have a criminal aim? I think they would. Would your various further actions be the actions of a person with innocent intent or a person with criminal intent? The vagueness of your story and your explanations, remind me of criminals in court trying to evade the facts. As the other learned commentators have pointed out, your story sucks. Whether the prosecution will succeed against you, will simply depend on little details that we don't have, and that I'm sure you don't want to provide. Many of the extremely annoying banking rules that waste hours and hours of our time, are because of money launderers. It is estimated that about 20% of all money in circulation is dirty money. It's a huge problem. These people deserve the greatest punishment.

As usual, the 'silent majority' reactionary boomers are out in full force. Magic mushrooms were legal and obtainable in many countries around the World until the early 2000s. In England, they were legal in a wet state, and in Japan they were legal in a dry state. In Tokyo, at the famous neon-lit pedestrian crossing, there used to be a large store only selling magic mushrooms. The obvious benefits and remarkable lack of drawbacks makes them a true no-brainer. They have been so successful for treatment of depression in research experiments that they were fast-tracked to legalisation.

Totally agree. My engagement with the site is down 90%, although I imagine most people don't arrive via the RSS feed, so it's a very low priority for them.

@george Please don't forget to bring back/recreate this feed. My interaction with this forum is far lower quality without it. That feed gives instant updates on every page that I can drop in on. Thanks.

Never fill in any of the fields which are not required. Leave them blank.

Out of curiosity, I visited the Tak Bai district police station about 10 years back. They had a wall of random objects like desks, chairs mixed in with barbed wire, covering the front area of the station. But otherwise, there was nothing strange about the village. The only police officer I saw was jovially chatting to locals at a nearby crossroads. Should you be interested, I can recommend the astonishingly beautiful beach nearby.

One of the many remarkable and stupid things during the Covid crisis was the total failure of the governments to tell us to stay fit and strong. Not only was it extremely obvious to the attentive during the Covid pandemic that the healthy were the least likely to suffer, but the mass panic actually caused many people to give up exercise out of anxiety of the pandemic. I can recall seeing a newspaper headline stating some remarkable percentage of British women simply quit exercise. If you looked at the infamous categories of risk, almost all were related to failures to look after their bodies. One factor held in common by most of the risk categories was being overweight. Only the risk factors of pregnancy and old age were truly out of the patients' control. To make matters worse the governments actually introduced restrictions on visiting parks or going outside, making it very difficult to exercise. It really was stupidity built upon stupidity. Government policy controlled by public anxiety and paranoia is never the best way to govern. I hope they have all learnt from it.

This is definitely not the case at Bangkok Immigration. I have done online after returning from abroad. It might be the official means if you are entering on a new visa. But if entering on a visa extension, and very probably entering on a multiple entry visa, then it'll get accepted by the system. The system on this issue is linked at Bangkok Immigration.

Doing this in Bangkok will result in an automatic rejection. Samut Prakan Immigration clearly have decided to follow their own path.

I second this. The only way I look at AseanNow is through the general feed. And now it's gone.

I asked this exact question on the forum 4 months ago. It is shocking how ambiguous the list is that they provide. I can tell you with absolute certainty that they do allow a mobile phone.

This suggests you have a very high BMI. You wouldn't believe how many illnesses and problems can arise from simply being overweight. Lose the weight. Get your BMI down to 22 or 23. Eat one meal a day. Only eat in a 8 hour period. 16 hours with no food. No snacks and only drinks with no milk or water (black coffee or ginger or good ol' water) during the 16 hour fast. You'll rapidly lose weight and start to feel great. You won't feel hunger after around the first 14 hours; your body will rapidly adapt. Your bank manager will be happy with the food cost savings. But your doctor will be over the moon.

"Nice country you've got there. Would be a shame if it got suffocated by pollution'