Sydebolle

Both require a professional set-up in cyber world; the 90-days notification is significantly easier to set-up and run compared to the (confidential) management of biometric data. They cannot, to this day, get a flawlessly 90-days-website running so a collapse on a much more sophisticated programme is quite obviously a much more difficult task to master. That was my point!

Tell all those goons in the government, be it from the Tourism Minister down to the Tourism Authority of Thailand and all other countless, pretty useless, agencies burning taxpayers money by the billions the basics: You cannot have your cake and eat it! If you have too many of too undesired then you might have to go back to the school bench and try to understand, that all those tourism promotional efforts were only focussed on "number of heads". 40 years ago you had a fraction of tourists on a completely higher level, better educated and financially much more independent. You can generate money either by price or by volume; you've chosen volume and are now stuck with the outcome. Regretfully you can hardly reverse this while Thailand remains a sparkling example of how to ruin an excellent slice of high quality tourism and change it for the problems you have literally everywhere now. No quality tourist wants do deal with cheapies of hordes of loud Southasians or equally undesirable Chinese avalanches overrunning literally anything everywhere all the time. You're welcome; stop moaning and work on solutions .......

And what problem do you have with this; to what extend does this affect you? I just stated experiences with a very few selected members of the chosen people from the promised land. As I deal for and with the majority I am not prepared for all sort of funny deviations from a normal restaurant operation 8-) You cannot be everybody's darling - my point!

Surprised? Really? They cannot get the 90-days reporting website running easy, smooth and reliable. The 500 - 1000 websites of all those immigration offices all over Thailand have all the following in common; most of them are 95% in Thai, some of them 100% - wondering who really needs to visit the immigration? The form downloads work in 50% of the cases, no details on how many copies of which form by which immigration office as that depends on the mood of the station chief. Try to find a phone number, correct location and/or opening times - in English - and some of those sites are outdated by seven years. Go back, declutter the entire immigration system to what is really required and you'll manage without all this bureaucratic nonsense which cannot be wrapped up by electronic assistance. Apart from photographs and fingerprints; what other biometric information is necessary which is not on the machine-readable two lines in most passports of this planet?

40 years ago I read in the meanwhile defunct evening publication "Bangkok World", that those visa-runners numbered 450,000 and they did dutifully monthly trips to mostly Cambodia or Malaysia. The average spending was THB 18,300/month (USD 800 at the then fixed exchange rate of THB 22.90/USD) per visa-runner/month. Once the immigration was beefed up and multiplied in bureaucracy and (many) ignorant and arrogant officers, some new rules were introduced and the visa-runners ......... never returned. Staying with the 1985 figures, 450,000 times a yearly expenditure of THB 220,00 resulted in a staggering THB 99 billion - at the CPI of 1985. This money has been missing in the Thai economy ever since. The "quality tourism" of the late 80s with fairly well-to-do Westerners got unprofessionally replaced by avalanches of Russians, then Chinese and Southasians to a proportion of +/- 40 million visitors (if that figure is correct?) and it can be only assumed, that less is more and if they would have kept working on the upper crust of tourism (like i.e. Europe and North America), Thailand would have a very profitable sustainable tourism industry (and its income) whereby the (today missing staff) would have been able to handle the traffic. In short, Thailand headed steadily downwards since I came and the bottom is not in sight yet. Clear is, that the economy is coughing and the tourism deteriorated. An unknown percentage of Thais have never heard of paying taxes and the income on luxury taxes and excise income, apart from VAT is not sufficient to cover the spending spree of the recent governments; first and foremost the gentlemen in arms. Chinese submarines without engines do not attract tourists nor is it beneficial for exports - me thinks 😉

Except supermarkets and malls ........ nobody else cares about that particular restriction and hence it is obsolete. Lifting the restriction will be to the benefit of those presently restricted only. The buyer gets the stuff whenever (s)he wants, it is the seller(s) who pay taxes, collect VAT etc. who suffer presently. Yet another big joke in the interpretation and execution of yet another circumvented Thai law!

Experience, simple as that! If it says Italian food it is very obvious, that this operator cannot offer kosher food. Had a previous experience with another chosen gentleman who ordered a vegetable soup called "Minestrone". For taste this soup contains a little bit of minced pork. His dining partner mentioned that during eating the "excellent soup" (comment by the guest). Subsequently he spat out whatever he had in his mouth and refused to pay for the soup as he would have never ordered it, if he would have known that it contained minced pork. To avoid a lifelong argument I did not charge the guest and added in the menu the reference of "contains minced pork". If you have such tight religious diet then you either stay at home or dine only in "certified" restaurants which, in turn, charge a fortune as kosher is difficult if not almost impossible to get and also means extensive adjustments in the kitchen (different pans etc.). Your call!

The Kosher crowd is pure headache while they do not eat in special kosher restaurants since "the food there is too expensive" - your call! And no, never had any issues with any other food preference with any of the thousands of guests we had 😉

Customer service is an attitude and not a department; hence we would have cooked them either pasta or pizza. They asked if we could cook kosher and no, pork and or seafood were not mentioned. As a food professional I know what kosher, halal and other cooking rules there are. I am not "spitting" anything but in my entire life never ever had such a confrontation. Then of course the whole story about kosher and halal food dates back hundreds of years where refrigeration was not possible. Seafood and pork meat go off first, specially in the geographical area from where these religions originate from. Back then all this made sense, today it is nothing but yet another religious brainwashing. We had other Jewish customers who asked for non-pork dishes, of which we had plenty and never had an issue. It is predominantly the younger spoilt generation which, in their arrogance, try to be special by asking for kosher food in an Italian restaurant. Ever tried to get a pizza in a Japanese Tepanyaki outlet? No? Would you ask for pizza? No? Because it is clearly NOT a pizza shop and an Italian restaurant is clearly not a kosher eatery. Kosher cooking means much more than no pork/seafood; different kitchens, cooking ware, never cook meat with milk/cheese/cream etc. This is only to correct your wrong assumptions and your ill-gotten expectations of what these kids wanted! You may now kiss the ring!

Usually it works the other way round where the husband is the "cornuto"; if all such stories would be published, the internet would have exploded decades ago. What makes it so special when a British block apparently (unproven) cleaned out his Thai spouse. You want a (long) list of acquaintances where husbands and boyfriends got cleaned out nicely for much more money and assets than this poor child of Lalaland? My advice to her is to take it up with the competent courts of Thailand and try to take him to the cleaners - good luck!

Reading all this administrative bureaucratic carp I seriously wonder, why people still come to Thailand. This racism is endless and there is no light at the end of the tunnel. Does anyone seriously think that a money-laundry operation would go down this medieval way while hundreds of thousands of non-Thais in the land just need a financial tool to manage their finances? If they are forced to resort to 10K at 250 Baht fee ......... Thailand might lose its welcome - all non-Thais moved once in their life already and hence might do it anytime again - be warned!

What a joke all this is. Thais trust only other government sources - for good reason seeing how their own people turn and bend literally anything anywhere. To provide proof of income/pension, the semi-divine Thai authorities will have to deal with the paperwork they get from the pension paying authority in faraway lands which might come in English, French, Spanish, Italian, Greek, Mongolian or Bhutanese - for all I care. Can you imagine what it would take to get the same crowd of Thai experts to plough through all that paperwork on their ill-gotten idea of taxing retirees on their entire income worldwide ....... without the local diplomatic mission of the applicant rubber-stamping the paperwork? And that does not include the countless, differently worded double taxation treaties. Good luck to all those goons at the Thai immigration - or maybe it is just yet another doing away à la mode de "mai pen rai"?

Always in the news, the chosen people from the promised land. Had an Italian restaurant for 15 years in the outskirts of Pattaya, open 5pm to 10mp. At 10.20pm four Israelis come in, one of them could speak English. Asked if they could have some dinner and I referred to "pasta and pizze" only - if they hurry with ordering - as the main kitchens (Thai and Western) were in the daily cleaning process. It took them 10 minutes leafing through the menu until the English-speaking lady asked, if we cook kosher. I said, that this is an Italian restaurant with pork and seafood, sometimes cooked with cream and hence tref (non-kosher). Next question was, if I would know what kosher food is all about to with I replied that they better hurry up with their order. The lady, after conferring with her traveling mates, asked again for kosher dishes and that's when I said, that the sign board clearly said Italian food and not kosher food. For kosher food they would have to go to a kosher restaurant in town. What is the name, they asked to which I replied "King David". Their answer to that was "far too expensive". At 10.40pm finally they wanted a vegetarian pizza (for four!) yet the kitchen staff had gone by then. They got angry, stood up and left without paying for their soft drinks they had. From that day on I kindly requested every guest asking for kosher food to leave the premises to avoid yet another rude and impolite confrontation with some spoilt tourists younger than my own kids.

This can be stopped within 48 hours for good. So question is, why is nothing done? Those burning rice and sugar cane fields are the very same people who vote for the succession of all those corrupt governments this country has been suffering from. Every one and then the army takes its turn at the trough before "returning" Thailand back to a democratic constitutional monarchy. If any government would have done something to prevent the burning of fields, the uneducated electorate in Northeastern and Northern Thailand would have voted for anything BUT the government, which fined them for burning the field. From where I come from it is called a "conflict of interest"; the recent municipality elections two days ago dished out 100 Baht per vote. So, apart from getting paid for their vote/voice they are also left in peace to try to make their ends meet. If a tomato farmer gets THB 3 - 6.50/kg, which he has to grow, harvest, sort and place in buyer-supplied plastic crates along the road while the customer pays anything between THB 35 - 85 per kilogramme, it might shed some light on where the problem is and where the money goes. Given the fact, that 7/11, Lotus's, Makro and Siam Food Services are owned by the same elitarian oligarch - go figure. Only a proper thorough deep spring cleaning, starting from the very top, might bring results; a 21st century education system would have to be put into place and then even it will take two generations to see any endeavour carrying fruit. By then Thailand has ridiculed herself out of world competition and will repeat, what the Philippines went through between 1980 - 2020. The writing is on the wall, with big capital red letters on a yellow background - for visibility!

Senator Amat Ayuken has my backing. It will not eliminate drug related crimes completely but you'll deal only with - definitely shrinking - unknown numbers. Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia serve as good samples.

Knives out - get popcorn and park yourself into your Laz-y-boy; the show is about to start anytime soon .......

Nobody got it; these new rules serve only one single purpose - to line the pockets of the goons in brown uniforms. Of course Somchai and friends ignore literally any paragraph in the traffic rule stipulations 😉 You may now kiss the ring!

Does anyone, really, believe this avalanche of good news with the zero-dollar-tourism? I do not see Chinese tourists in a medium, forget about top quality tourism level; rude, impolite, loud, selfish and zero manners to anything else but themselves. Good luck with that, once that flood of Chinese cheapies is over (and you can take that to the bank) you will sober up and wonder, what the f*)k has happened and where did all the other better quality tourists go. The latter, once lost, will never return and look elsewhere - mark my words!

a) from the picture neither race nor nationality is clear b) quite obviously a zero-educated culprit c) such posts only fan the racism as most Thais equalize "foreign" with "Farang" d) given the 40 million tourists (a doubtful statement by TAT) a year, such incidents are the exception and not the rule Get the fellow - who most likely has left the country already - to clean up the mess himself by mopping the floor, risking missing his flight and trust me, no more trolls and racist statements while the idi*ot will never ever find it a good idea to unzip and relieve himself only a few (hundred?) metres from an urinal inside the airport building

Well, truth being told, I felt more than once to just drive ahead. Late last year, from Nong Khai to Bangkok, I got stopped no less than six times. In addition to (Thai) driving license and checking if road tax sticker was valid, in two cases they wanted to see my passport, in one case they wanted to see my work permit, in one case they wanted to see the car papers (I keep a laminated copy of the registration - in my name) which initially was rejected but got settled by my insistence as there is no law to carry the original car registration on the vehicle. Bottomline is, that you feel caught by highway robbery gangs with face masks, sun shades, impolite Thai shouting ...... and, in many cases, open to "tips"! This does, however, not excuse the behavior of those five non-Thais yet less could be more. And, if you really want to bring discipline onto Thai roads, then take all those drivers out who drive without helmet, without driving license, expired road tax, intoxicated or in a vehicle clearly no longer roadworthy - me thinks.

Based on what are the accused "believed to be Russian nationals"? Given the total number of visitors from a particular country - here Russia - does not automatically mean, that all Russians are croo*ks. How does the "Russian percentage" compare to the "Thai percentage" of cheaters, law breakers and outright criminals? The visa exemption facilitates travelers but has no impact on the "quality" as the costs are literally identical - except the hustle on compiling, submitting and waiting for a visa against a sometimes steep fee. Latter is more relevant to family travels; a family of five with five visa fees might consider that a decision-making point.

This cannot be, someone here is lying through their teeth. Corruption in Thai penitentiaries? Impossible, just look up the files inmates like Yubamrung or Shinawatra where the top crust of society served their detention exactly like all the other culprits.

It is called advance payments - unless you know your client well, that is the modus operandi - specially in Thailand 😉

Fake news for sure; unless: a) the Italian was a ladyboy and a professional snatcher b) the Indian wore gold necklaces, rings and bracelets of solid gold worth millions of Baht c) the whole incident took place after 2am, when the Indian decided to go for a walk You may now kiss the ring!

Keep up the good work - keep up bashing foreigners and foreigners only. Having said that, take those culprits to court; specially if registration plate number etc. is known/photographed. The rent-a-bike-shop will know the customer and if not, take the shop owners to responsibility. Having said that, I see every few metres Thai citizen openly breaching each and every law there is. Driving on the wrong side of the road, crossing intersections when red, no helmet or four, five and six people on a bike - the list is endless. Bottomline is that the absolute ignorance marred with arrogance is not only a "foreign drivers syndrome" but explains Thailand in quite a wrapped-up way that laws are here to be circumvented at all costs. So stop bashing on foreigners only and take all those drivers into custody, irrespective of race, nationality etc. - me thinks!