Sydebolle

Maybe someone out there explains the general his job as a prime minister. He is the boss over all ministries including the interior ministry. The latter is responsible for domestic affairs like the police force. The police should, repeat S H O U L D protect people and property; in Thailand the police has many other unwritten duties. Under the police you find the immigration department. I assume that explains the mess in immigration, the corruption in the police and the over corruption in the interior ministry ......... question is only ..... W H E R E does the bucket stop?

Maybe someone out there explains the general his job as a prime minister. He is the boss over all ministries including the interior ministry. The latter is responsible for domestic affairs like the police force. The police should, repeat S H O U L D protect people and property; in Thailand the police has many other unwritten duties. Under the police you find the immigration department. I assume that explains the mess in immigration, the corruption in the police and the over corruption in the interior ministry ......... question is only ..... W H E R E does the bucket stop?

Maybe someone out there explains the general his job as a prime minister. He is the boss over all ministries including the interior ministry. The latter is responsible for domestic affairs like the police force. The police should, repeat S H O U L D protect people and property; in Thailand the police has many other unwritten duties. Under the police you find the immigration department. I assume that explains the mess in immigration, the corruption in the police and the over corruption in the interior ministry ......... question is only ..... W H E R E does the bucket stop?

....... so 80 (officially at least) face the music - lets wait and see. I - for one - feel like a complete idiot being reprimanded for a much bigger offense. I had to sign a photocopy - at the desk of an immigration officer - which I did. She made me getting a new photocopy as me fool signed with a black ballpen which I was given by the very same officer ???? Really made a difference in granting me a "re-entry permit" for THB 3'800 a pop. Thai immigration is certainly among the most complicated structures I ever came across and beats most former communist states by far. Grant visas overseas or let them in on a 30/45 days; your call. The local offices should be involved for extensions of stay, be it work, holiday or retirement related. Those seekers present a health insurance and a third party liability insurance. A yearly visa fee of nominal THB 10'000 which automatically serves as a multiple re-entry permit. Forget the 90-days joke, the TM30 procedure (which many Thai landlord flatly refuse to adhere to). This would pour billions of Baht into the state's coffers and could be managed with 10% - 15% of the present arrogant, insecure and incompetent work force gracing all those immigration offices. But then nepotism and patronizing would be no longer (or lesser) possible ..... your call!

Well, at least we know now the list of the 50 best taxpayers in the Land; all more than delighted over the wise purchase of three submarines without engines ......... Are these people for real; why does not a word refer to monopolies. In a competitive and open environment you cannot earn all that money legally - me thinks!

Pot and Kettle thingy springs to mind

Taxpayers all over Thailand are more than delighted over the good news ....... ????

It is time to get this semi-divineness out of the lesser educated Thai folks, i.e. 85%. Anything related to government, army, police, medicine or education floats 40 centimetres above ground as higher ups. Caretakers, watchmen etc. believe that they can behave like many of afore-mentioned. Society, and specially children, need to be protected from such evil p1rkcs - for good. Throw them into a slammer for years to come, communicate with fingerpointing photos and name and make them pay for their absolute misbehavior. I sometimes wonder, what all those semi-divine a"*ç%"sholes would say, if their kids or loved ones would be treated the way they treat children or (elder?) people under their "care". What a disgrace ...

Yesterday the media referred to "transferred police officers" which today seems to be not (no longer?) the case. Nobody has to "invite the tour operator and the Chinese tourist for questioning over controversial and unauthorised police escorts provided by Thai tourist and traffic police officers. The services were apparently on offer, the customer and the middleman (the tour operator) made use of the services and also paid for the services rendered. You have to fire all the police involved and, while you're at it, take the immigration officer(s) along, publish names with fingerpointing photos and then you might put the first watergate into this river offering anything between "special services" and outright corruption. Next please!

It is all in the selection of endless titles - and Thailand is faring VERY well. General Prayuth, General Prawit, Police Lieutenant Thaksin (alternatively also "fugitive") is referred to a former Prime Minister. All correct (I assume) but relevant is only the PRESENT title and all those "politicians" are no longer Generals or Police top bananas - unless it serves their purpose. The unnecessary purchase of three engine-less submarines fares slightly higher than a "misunderstanding" in the allocation of free housing but I might be wrong here too ????

Yes, the legislation clearly mentions "illegal". I've lived more than half my entire life in this country and am (not early) retired. I've seen the maidens serving Caucasians, Asians and then the majority of them serving local gentlemen in Café, Karaoke, Turkish Baths, "no hands" restaurants, Spas and not so traditional massage parlours. Due to my length of stay, can confirm that the next generation of "workers" have taken over the elder generation. So much to official; common sense prevails ???? And no, the legislation does also not suggest a nightly roll call ????

‘Fit and healthy’ = believed to have died from natural causes. If a 48 year old person dies without clear cause, there is certainly plenty to investigate - love the Thais concluding and trying to close also this file with "ripe roy"! A local diving school might have resorted to the only way to stop the successful operation of the "dirty farang" operation by ridding the market of yet another non-Thai competitor? In true Thai fashion - "nothing to investigate" ???? Interesting enough there was a website listing all suspicious death cases of non-Thais; dozens of Caucasians were listed. The site is ............ offline, surprise surprise as it could shed a less than excellent limelight onto the endeavours of the tourism geeks on governmental payrolls.

Well, the dirty farang, the stinky South Asian, the impolite rude Chinese etc. are proof enough that Thailand still believes being populated by the superior upper crust. If the endless corruptions everywhere on each and every level would be brought to a halt (wishful thinking, I know) then it would communicate a first step in the right direction. How many Thais get deported, without jail sentence of fine, from North Asian or European countries for overstay? No European country has a photocopy-phobia insisting on signing photocopies with blue ink only. Thailand's biggest problem is the attitude of their own people among themselves, among authorities and the fact, that the people must serve the government, i.e. police and army - whereas in other countries (which reached the 21st century) it works the other way round. Your call!

OK, work permit is work permit but the sheer appearance of the kitchen is clearly proof enough, that Thailand could use thousands of such Chinese cooks. I've never ever seen any kitchen in this country anywhere close to being clean as the pictoral proof above, that Chinese also have clean persons. Thai kitchens, run by Thais, usually are dungeons of dirt, sticky oil and food waste lying everywhere; the jackpot is a cat roaming the kitchen for rats or mice.

The "pot and kettle" saga again ............

Many thousands of Thais ??? It is more man HUNDREDS of thousands if not millions over the last few decades ....... but officially prostitution never existed here in Thailand, as many other things it was just "overlooked" ????

I claim nothing but you cannot identify pure tourism anymore. Immigration screens people for their ability to enter/leave Thailand which include i.e. working expats or hundreds of thousands of Thai nationals - just to name some groups showing up in the immigration database of non-tourism character!

900'000 travellers in total (in, out or in/out?) could be an AOT figure which include Thai nationals, expatriates working as well as all the transit passengers changing planes in Bangkok, i.e. coming from somewhere and continuing their journey to a third country. The domestic figure is irrelevant as some (like me) fly weekly domestically for work and I am not alone. We're talking tourism figures and some government offices blowing their own trumpet - as usual.

God help us all and Phiphat can go and close his tourism ministry, tourism authority and all other circuses under the tourism flag. See what happened to Sihanoukville and you'll see Thailands prime destinations devastated in no time. Well done, mission accomplished - unbelievable!

Chevrolet packed up and left Thailand quite some time ago. I would see "B Quik"; if they cannot fix it then they certainly know, who in town is your man! Here some details on how to find B Quik (in the compound of Robinson) in your town: บี-ควิก โรบินสัน สกลนคร (ติดปั๊มบางจากสี่แยกบ้านธาตุ), phone: 042 713 029, GPS: 17.179158 104.118426, open daily from 08h00 - 21h00 ;-). Good luck!

Phiphat and his boys at the Tourism Authority Club are having yet another light moment at the crystal ball. Border passers (Lao, Cambodian and Burmese) as well as Thai citizen do NOT complete a TM6 arrival/departure card anymore. All arrival by air, irrespective of nationality = ditto. Any idea, where these figures come from - neither airline nor immigration can have these figures?

The brethren in the big red North have gotten Prayuth over to Beijing more than once to receive instructions. So the puppet master of Thailand sits behind the Great Wall. The Saudis, well, that is another story. But as the princes of their Kingdom sort of wrote off the heist of the century dating back to 1989, everything is OK, fine and happy now. If these groups, together with South Asians, would be ranking in the class of "quality tourists" .... is yet to be seen; I for one would not vouch for any of them. The Russians, burning money as if there is no tomorrow, enjoy particularly Phuket. Rest assured that all those high spenders are gone the minute they can travel to Europe again; for the time being Thailand is an option, if you want to leave the Siberian winter behind you, as Russians cant travel to any European country - with compliments of Zelensky and Co. .............

If Prayuth would be doing anything to fight corruption he would have a conflict of interest .....

Instead of studying tourism in any Western university I might suggest that such students just keep reading, what those experts in Thailand do with their country. Epic teaching material and new stuff coming each and every day! Keep up the good work; one day you'll be surprised. And, on that note, be aware that you can do many things with money - except eating it! It's not the 300 Baht (no clue how they want to collect that at Bangkok's airports which are a mess in the arrival halls by people being slowly screened by immigration or wait 90 minutes for luggage off a domestic flight. No, it is the clear message "you tourist, you are here to be skinned alive and there is nothing you can do about it." Same with national parks, museums etc. - Well, there is something those tourists can do and that is voting with their feet! You've been warned, the writing is in huge big capital letters on the wall!

If I or anyone I care for would get attacked, I would take the case through all the courts and once I've won the case, the money would go for some charitable cause. Then the dog would be served its last supper - my treat! It is not the dog's fault but why should my loved ones suffer just because the dog's owner is a p1rck? It's time to start doing the jobs the lovely authorities and forces in this land strictly refuse or are simply too stupid/too corrupt to do!