Sydebolle

This might backfire big time as Somchai's agricultural business is in full swing and produces a real alternative to getting hammered with Laokao. This ganja business is of course in the political interest of the oligarch elite as stoned and hammered electorate is much easier to handle on the perpetual merry-go-round. It will also not generate more members for the Democrat Party which has been absorbed by internal hacks ever since Dr Surin, Dr Supachai and other true politicians left their stage!

The men of the cloth ...... again ????

That's the tip of the iceberg. Maybe 75% of my non-Thai friends own land through a juristic Thai company as the present law does not allow foreign ownership. If married, the non-Thai signs away all rights to the ownership of the land or the financial aspect tied up in the land. The nice thing about a juristic Thai ownership is, if you sell the property, then you dont touch the ownership of the land but the ownership of the company only. New shareholders and a new board - a few thousand Baht only. Transferring the ownership of the land costs 6.6% of the value assessed by Somchai behind the desk at the Land Department, if held more than a few years (5 or 10 years?) then the transfer tag drops to half. This, of course, if Somchai is not at the receiving end of a little brown manila envelope. And the juristic Thai set-up requires 51% Thai ownership and three shareholders. You circumvent legally by getting a lawyer to set up three Thai companies owning each other. Once everything is established through staff of the law firm, they transfer the shares to the other companies. Company A has B and C as shareholders as well, company B has A and C .... etc. You close three books at the end of the year, a worthwhile expense for controlling your land without the interference of nobody.

Good luck to the official ambassador of stone age. Luckily not all countries think the same as there is more Thai ownership overseas that aliens snatching away land from the semi divine. Srisuwan Janya is just another representative having his 15 minutes of fame; look at him, his face and his environment in the photograph - no need to comment any further. Maybe he bans non-Thais altogether from setting foot on the holy land and then he'll see a repetition of what Thailand went through the last three years. He is among the group of people keeping Thailand nicely hidden somewhere in the Neaderthal ???? Congratulations and keep up the good work!

These LAK 85'000 are official fees, just in case you dare to know. A good kind service usually results me in saying "keep the change for the coffee till". You do not need an IDP, provided you have an ASEAN driving license. So, if you have a valid Thai driving license, you're good to go in any ASEAN state, including Lao PDR. Just in case ........ Much more important is the insurance issue, make sure to buy a local insurance in either Ban Pha Kéo (Lao border post opposite Phoodoo) or then latest in Kaengsao, where the road coming from the border leads into Road 4. If you intend to travel into Laos more often, then you might want to opt for a one-year coverage; marginally more expensive but only once the paperwork. Without insurance the highway robbers in mustard green uniforms along the road might give you a hard time for bakshish .........

The mind boggles, honestly, if you can read that a police officer "is “abnormally” rich with more than one billion Baht in assets, including houses, supercars, and many others...". He was sentenced to life in prison. I would assume that the culprit might have some more cash stashed away for some donations in case of a governmental pardon anytime soon; just wait for the dust to settle ???? Jail term completed due to good behaviour; whatever you want to read into the word "good" remains the privilege of the reader .........

The meeting of the board decides to verify the land title deeds by requesting a staff member (or a department) of the company to initiate the remeasuring request with the Land Department. This is to be filed together with affidavit, work permit copy (if applicable) and power of attorney and a nominal fee of a few thousand Baht. The Land Department then will invite all adjacent parties to attend/witness the Land Department's officer(s) on a date (agreed by you and the Land Department). On the day of action, some adjacent neighbours might be there ...... or not; the finding of the Land Department is final and will be reflected in existing Land Title Deeds - if applicable ....... until someone else comes along and requests their plot to be remeasured. In all those plots I purchased I always had the Land Department remeasuring the property first upon which then a fence, entirely on my property, went up. Never ever had a problem with an "encroaching" neighbour again ....... tedious, time consuming but necessary. Once your neighbours know that they cannot fiddle around with you, then you're sorted!

Somchai, the driver, again?

Never read more bs, " Thais may face a ban in upmarket areas". The semi-divine Thais can buy now whatever they want and quite obviously are not doing it as the loose change might be missing for the "upmarket areas". Except the selected few with ....illions of cash stashed away, all the others need to finance everything, so what are you talking about? See the condominium act, offers in the "alien" section are generally more expensive than the very same apartment in the "Thai only" corner. Exception to that is, that an alien PR holder can buy in the "Thai only" corner without proof of having brought in the payment from outside Thailand. Draw-back is, that his condominium can only be sold to a fellow PR holder ........ or a Thai. The latest fart on this subject of land ownership is more wet than earlier issues but no wonder, with those dinosaurs at the helm ..........

Well, yes, the DG53 (in Nong Khai) costs for the car incl two passengers LAK 65'000, another LAK 20'000 is for a driver/passenger manifest to be completed on entry. Both obtainable and completed at the border post, which usually houses immigration and customs together. The manifest is for immigration (mustard green uniforms), the DG53 for the customs (navy blue uniforms). So in total I usually pay LAK 85'000; keep both the DG53 and the manifest which you return upon leaving the country again.

Use your 2nd passport as they will check on ID only and not on the visa ...... The EU license might be difficult, as Somchai has never seen anything like that. What definitely works is a Thai driving license, so if you have the latter then Bob is your uncle!

Get 'em all stoned. The next election is around the corner and instead of imbibing local firewaters just give them weed to grow and smoke - effect is the same but will also work, when Somchai has no money for the Laokaow ............

Let the whole real estate business go down the halligally; it will make the "Tom Yam Goong" crisis of 1997 look like a tiny poor dress rehearsal. Serves 'em right!

Give that little sweet heart a passport and let her travel to foreign lands to see, what kind of zero impact Thai real estate investors have had on the GDP of any EU country. Non-Thais will be kept out of the race as much and long as possible by the oligarch elite. The latter has been looting its mostly poorly if not completely uneducated citizen of any real estate deal. So much property and land is being passed on by inheritance, new business models (mainly agricultural) are being not understood by the 19th century farmer background. Loan sharks etc. are the answer, apart from daughters and sons plying their illicit trade in the Walking Streets of Pattaya, Hua Hin or Phuket. It is an endless circle. “In the future even though our children live in Thailand, it is in terms of… renting… with the village group headmen and the village headmen being foreigners." is not only utterly racist but shows, that Former MP Pareena Kraikupt is scared s....t; if non-Thais would be in the real estate business, her cheating and encroachment would have resulted in a proper jail sentence - if the scores are dealt among Thais only, a hug and huge "wai" is sufficient to enjoy the absolution of the fellow oligarchian establishment and in not too distant future she will be carrying on. Thailand's biggest problem is their own people but ...... as the saying goes ....... somebody voted for these people. If the electorate sold their votes, did not understand the system or have no clue about how a democracy works, remains their issues. What a joke the whole story is .......... ????

Biden might need to be reminded over the fact, that his predecessor Obama did not leave a lasting trail on his visit to the Cambodian capital. Wondering, what else will be the outcome apart from a fantastic bill of Biden's little sojourn on the expense of the American tax payer. The elder folks among us might remember much better, how John Gunther Dean left Phnom Penh like a thief just before the Khmer Rouge rolled in almost 50 years ago. Dean was haunted for the rest of his life for having been forced to a part of US gunned foreign policy, those days under Nixon/Ford and ol' buddy Kissinger ????

Wondering if crickets, Somtam Poo and other delights of the Siamese kitchen will be met with standing ovations of the dignitaries. For the big wigs from Myanmar, China and Russia - should they attend - ensure, that they will be enjoying their very last supper as Min Aung Hlain, Xi as well as Putin are high on the list of those you want to dispose of to make space for whatever else is to come as the latter is definitely better than the status quo. As to the hosts I shall keep my thoughts to myself .......... but a nicely running stomach might help yet they are used to the stuff already ????

Keep on dreaming; those China boys are sooooo much smarter than Somchai the police guy in his too small uniform, face mask, sun glasses and his particular selection of guns and motorbikes of the day ????

I had a dream. In the dream the police was running quite a few gambling dens themselves while others were closely monitored. Latter not for law enforcement but for frequent milking of contributions which enabled the police to look the other way. Interesting, what people sometimes can dream, don't you think so?

Some envelopes were too small this time?

The incidents date back to 2004, so it happened on Dr Thaksin's watch. The army reported to the government (and not the other way round as in other times). Present DPM Prawit has been pulled into the limelight of that sad stage by Dr. Thaksin as Prawit apparently ran the boot camp called Thailand back in the day. Almost 20 years ago "Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra expressed regret for the deaths, but he insisted there had been no wrongdoing by military personnel" according to Wikipedia. The difference between then and now is Zero, the story would be swept under the carpet one of the other way. None of the players, then nor present, will ever face the music and this tragic incident is just used to smear accusations around.

Wait with the continuation, I need to get my popcorn ready. You simply cannot make this stuff up, a digital nomad with 40 million Baht loose change ????

Well, the Miss can say whatever she wants. She has, arguably, a better stage in a momentary limelight but it does not mean, that she speaks for and on behalf of the official Thailand. Hence, take it for its worth ...... Her opinion is noted but will it change anything ........ honestly? She should concentrate on looking "pleetee", make as much sponsoring and money out of the deal and leave the stage quietly next year, when yet another Miss is crowned. For me interesting is, that politics have entered beauty contests meanwhile. I am also against Putin's war mongering but it does not belong into a Miss competition ????

Well, the last visa to the US was a B1 (or B2?) visa some 40 years ago, valid for ten years then but I have not been back in 35 years and have no intention to go there again. So I am at loss with your reference to a "K1" visa. My point was to sound out all options, not knowing where the lady's home town is as well as not knowing, how far it is to the next Thai consulate or the embassy in Washington DC for a new passport ????

Pawatch needs to be woken up to get the message .....

I am a dual national and know what I am talking about. If the passport office in a home province is 100kms away (i.e. in the triangle between Nong Khai, Buengkan and Sakon Nakorn), then it is a trip. The US embassy in Bangkok will have to move the visa from the invalidated expired document to the new document; if she's in luck, a consulate nearer to the home province might lend a hand. But "not my monkey, not my circus"; I for sure would at least check the alternative in the US. Ultimately she will decide how she wants to spend her vacation in her homeland .........