Sydebolle

......"police closes ...... the Queen Sirikit National Convention Center MRT station from Nov 16 to 19 for safety sake"....... Well, if the conference would be for the better of the people those "politicians" represent, then you would not need any concerns related to safety. Without closing entire Bangkok for three days (holidays paid by the private industry) and make life for those in the area miserable again; the bigwigs could have moved entire roadshow to IMPACT Exhibition and Conference Centre with absolutely no hinderance to the Thai public. But yes, then the limelight effect would have been gone and the government could not blow its own huge trumpet!

Did anyone tell Kamala Harris already, that she might have to queue like every other Tom, Dick and Harry for an extended period of time until Somchai with all his rubber-stamps has flipped through her entire passport, ask her if she is here "for the boys" (as I, male, was asked if I like Thai girls) and then stamp into a brand new page despite having plenty of space on half-used pages? How stupid of me, she does not need a passport, most likely ........

Back in the day I used to buy books from an (English) second-hand book vendor. I once asked him, what people would read these days to which he answered, that "Pattaya is not visited for reading books"; a ten-out-of-ten answer and we had a good laugh. Well, the deputy bigwig just outdid that lighter moment of long gone days with the "new Pattaya Walking Street painting is ready to impress tourists". Out with the old, in with the new; Pattaya wants to be visited for its paintings rather than for its endless choice of houses of whatever repute! You cant make up such stuff, thank you for this beauty!

My Thai teacher, bless her soul, taught me a few basics some 40 years ago. The shorter the name (first and family name) is, the more likely they are real Thai. The more syllables in a name, the more Chinese ethnic roots. Latter overran Thailand in the 20th century, last not least after China's Long March recalibration, to immigrate to Thailand where the locals had (and some even today) had no clue! If you ask me, Mongkolkit Suksintaranont's name has its fair share of syllables ....... and hence could be yet another prime representative of the latest immigrants two, three generations ago who do NOT want anyone else to spit into their soup! Dinosaurs 'r us? Even in China non-locals can buy property and have done so to the prosperity of themselves as well as to the People's Republic of China - your call!

Some old farts like me will remember a similar stint show. Remember the IMF congress in October 1991? Schools were closed so "school children could enjoy the IMF congress as well" was the official wording. This time round, photos from the front and back of the car, colour, number of doors and wheels as well as the shoe size of the owner are being required. My advice, leave town until those ever-so-important bigwigs as well as the even bigger-wigs of local government and administration had their climax. They, for sure, will be blowing their own trumpet once the dust has settled; what a farçe!

Only once those oligarchs understand, that you cannot eat money ............ The elite is afraid, that smarter aliens take over Thailand and jump-start it into 21st century. Leasehold went sour on countless Japanese and some dirty farang. A prime example was a 30-years leasehold of condominiums at the "Twin Peaks Residence" on Sukhumvit Road Soi 17. For years leasehold takers fight in the courts over the issue, that the original owner sold the building and the new owners want to take it down to make space for something even bigger. The losers are those countless leaseholders who have already vacated the premises while a few hardcore (mostly retirees, being in their 17th, 18th year of a 30-years leasehold) have sleepless nights over eviction orders. More than once served already and always kept on hold by expensive legal advice on the account of the leasehold beneficiaries ???? Such incidents lead you to the conclusion, that you might want to rent a property. This allows to leave with as little damage as possible, if the semi-divine real estate crooks are at it again!

"Pilot study on the Bangla Road in Phuket carried out by the Ministry of Tourism and Sports shows that 2 am to 3 am is the most profitable period for nightlife venues with foreign tourists only leaving their hotels at 11 pm." Interesting news indeed; Pattaya - as per the same source - is being visited for its temples, clean beaches and nature. Possibly though not at 11 pm ............ your call!

Thanks to Anutin it is noteworthy, that the quality smoked by the boys in the parliament seems to get better and better. Wondering now, what excellent ideas spring from their minds next week .............

Laws are here to be circumvented by the semi-divines .......

Well, as long as Somchai flips through my (almost) full passport, page by page, and comments that I would travel a lot .......... I hold a PR and little yellow ScotchIt stickers show where the present re-entry is. The passport is machine readable and has a chip; in Chiang Mai the fastest (from Mandalay back in the day) was 10 seconds, at Swampy they are more patient. It is ridiculous that a flight from Rangoon to Bangkok takes less time than the queue at Bangkok's immigration. But yes, Thais know better and at least you get a taste of how inefficient the bureaucracy in general works here.

Get a second and third quote from a professional electrician company. I had issues 15 years ago in Pattaya with a 50amps; some 3 x 10 metres wiring (16mm) and a transformer was quoted with THB 1.2 million by PEA Pattaya on a blank piece of paper; the final bill upon intervention at PEA in Cholburi was THB 235'000 for all incl. installation to the building. I had an external professional electric company (doing installations etc. in industrial estates) to assess infrastructure and pricing = saving was THB 900'000. Did not leave me with friends at Pattaya's PEA office though .....

Well, on a more serious note also is, that legalization takes criminality out of the equation.

Well, it is unfinished business again. The TM6 is still required if doing overland entry/exit - for non-Thais only. Hence I wonder, what they actually do with the data collected from TM6. They are not relevant to the market movements of foreign travellers to Thailand, as the majority most likely comes in by air. As I do not know, if the TM6 story applies to ASEAN citizens, it certainly covers only the real aliens ????

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 ............