Sydebolle

Call Dr T, I remember he went on an official government trip as prime minister and sold the Indian hosts some of his private satellite channels. Apart from that there was zero outcome of that state visit 😉

Well, the boys in brown will not be excited over legalizing casino, gambling etc. as it will slim the little brown envelopes drastically. In essence it is the same with alcohol-ban hours, bar opening hours and the non-existing prostitution subject.

The underlying bomb ticking away is on the "xenophobia" timer ...... Thais should be VERY, VERY, VERY careful on this subject - many of those "dirty farang" (as so called by a Thai minister all over the media) had it and are leaving to less racist shores ......

So this is not from the horse's mouth then?

Who is the beneficiary of this xenophobic man hunt, seriously?

They play with fire - xenophobia is very common in Thailand, rooted in an inferiority complex and will - with absolute guarantee - backfire big time one day! Of course there are non-Thais being non-desirable, criminals, crooks, cheaters. But treat them with your existing tools like filing a police complaint, taking it to court, get a verdict handed down and the culprits reprimanded, if applicable. Nobody talks of all those tortured children by relatives, family or teachers at school, nobody talks about the tremendous cheating and short changing of the lesser educated by the upper crust. So keep your shirts on and follow the constitution which says that "everybody is same". Well, I sometimes have the feeling, that some are "samer" than others in Thailand .......... same, same, but different?

Overnight stay is nonsense and not required. Yet the pricing is very very cheap and would scare me. Maybe you get it from the horse's mouth and check with www.rutnin.com ; seven floors of a top medical hospital dedicated to only one organ - the human eye. Yes, you would have to travel to Bangkok but trust me, that's nothing compared to a damaged eye sight for the rest of your life!

In line with how the semi divine treat the nasty Swiss in Phuket I would assume, that the "service fee dispute" shall result in an official apology on all Thai TV channels, a hefty fine and an extradition to the home province with a life-long ban returning to Phuket. Flower baskets for the foreign service seekers and a handshake by the Thai foreign minister to the respective ambassadors of the foreigners nationalities ......... "service fee dispute" of a worker in a trade, which is illegal to start with - really made my day, thank you 😉

I sometimes wonder, what kind of excellent weed some people seem to smoke. 21 days of alcohol-free zoned Songkran, I beg your pardon! "The government's "World Songkran Festival" from 1 to 21 April is divided into three phases: preparation, festival days, and post-festival." The reality reads more like this: the division into three phases reads "get plenty of booze 24/7 despite no-alcohol-sale-hours anywhere except the supermarkets, get hammered and completely drunk during the festival days and the post-festival serves to clear up the mother-of-all-hangovers due to the extremely high quality of the local firewaters". I am open to everything and wonder, if this year's "festivities" would be any different to what I saw over the last four decades. Well, the duration is a novelty; from three to 21 days; wondering how many alien will pick up the idea for holiday alternatives and how many locals can afford three weeks of partying ........

That's all <deleted>; I've had a FCD account with Bangkok Bank for 20+ years - albeit with their head office on Silom Road in Bangkok. You transfer foreign exchange onto your FCD account. Latter can, if you wish, be added to your Bualuang iBanking (internet banking, but works only on the desktop version, not on their smartphone app!). Withdrawing money works as follows. If you withdraw THB = you need to convert (sell) foreign currency (it happens real time during banking hours only) and subsequently you can withdraw THB from your THB-acount with the same bank (not essentially the same branch/city though) Foreign Currency = they will take the required foreign currency from your FCD account, convert it into THB and subsequently buy foreign currency again prior to give you foreign currency. This gives them the exchange profit twice, once when selling Forex into THB and then again from THB back into Forex. For obvious reasons I never did that. More on the official website; alternatively call Bangkok Bank's head office, phone 1333, and get connected to the foreign exchange division; they are fluent in English and know their onions 😉 https://www.bangkokbank.com/en/Business-Banking/Manage-My-Business/Operating-Accounts/Foreign-Currency-Deposit-Account Should all this fail, vote with your feet and go elsewhere, Siam Commercial Bank as well as Kasikorn Bank offer such banking for sure; it boils down to the clerk behind the counter. On that note; heard scary stories of foreigners who wanted to open a bank account with Bangkok Bank and were literally forced to buy an insurance coverage - which the customers actually never wanted. Some remained stubborn and did not fall for the trick; most of them though bought an insurance. Reason behind is, that Bangkok Bank expanded into the insurance business ....... welcome to Thailand!

Anyone remember the "Magnolia" hotel at the Mabprachan Lake east of Pattaya? This place was run by cadets in navy uniform for years and the owner was, co-incidentially, a bigwig in the ...... yes, the navy. Too many private businesses are run with the free-of-charge-manpower of the defense forces, be it army or police and, unlike the private industry, those labourers cannot resign nor complain!

Depending on the envelopes, the grass gets greener on the other side of the fence 😉 No surprises here, Thais screw Thais, in the past, now and will carry on doing so in the future - as long as there is nobody bringing all this to a screeching halt! The alien have to shut up and are not allowed to say a word and the semi-divines don't care as their meagre education level does not allow them to understand, how Thailand is getting cleaned out by some culprits in high places, for generations already!

The SSO got established in September 1990, prior to that we had a private fund set-up by one of those finance companies recommended for protected provident funds, which went belly-up in 1998. The latter was a write-off due to the bureaucratic maze of taking anyone to the cleaners here with the Thai courts. Millions went down the toilet - for good ....... The SSO is another governmental monster and impossible to fight with. I lost ten years of contributions due to their inefficiency - to stay polite. Irrespective of amount (and yes, luckily I do not depend on this money) it is still scandalous as, what happened to me is - for sure - happening to others.

As I cannot find staff for my upmarket restaurant with salaries between 18K-30K per month I am more than happy to welcome any other nationality, race or religion willing to work; presently I am short of ten positions and the Thais seem to be too lazy to work for money these days - me thinks 😉

Reminds me of a Thai Red Cross excursion 1987; they leased an aircraft of Thai Airways (TH) to fly to Chiang Rai to visit HM's mother to hand over some donated aid and flew back the next day. The entire trip incl. leasing the airplane etc. was paid for by the Thai Red Cross. This, in turn, resulted in me never ever to donate anything anymore to such organizations as it cannot be, that donations are burnt with school excursions of board members and their spouses, families and friends. Hence I am sure that all participants of this trip to Pattani paid their share of the trip as the Thai taxpayers has no interest in covering such expenses 😉

Surprise, surprise, what a co-incident indeed ........

Regarding the ..... "visa revocation, he has to wait for the final judgement from the court." I did not read anything about that regarding that other Swiss fellow in Phuket and the "beach staircase saga". Seeing the officers and the vehicle, in which the accused is being driven away, recalls "murderers in the first degree culprits"; the only thing missing would be shackles. Honestly, of some 10,000+ Swiss residing in Thailand and another +/- 250,000+ Swiss tourists a year, these few fellows (always provided they are guilty as charged) are the exception to the rule. By percentage they rank far behind the hosts here and this makes me wonder, what kind of smokescreen is all this. The media frenzy, the overflowing news channels about the dirty farang in general (as so declared by a minister to H.M. the Royal Government of Thailand) and the crazy Swiss in particular will backfire big time as nobody in their right minds tries to stop this xenophobia. Racism has always been a problem here but over the recent past, some are pouring lots of oil into ever bigger growing fire. What has Thailand become over the last few decades - how sad indeed 😞

Well, well, another can of worms opened - it seems. I've worked here since 1985 and changed jobs in 2000 with six weeks of vacation in between in Europe. Arrived back (on the same permanent resident permit), got a new work permit and retired finally in 2018 when I turned 60. I had not claimed any Social Security Insurance until last year (as in my home country one retires with 65 and not 60) and went to see the office. Nice and competent officers everywhere but: - my birth year was noted ten years older, instead of 2501 they had 2491 as my birth year - they could trace only membership contributions back to 2000; the entire time frame from 1985 - 2000 was not to be found. As the Thai law stipulates, that employers have to keep their records ten years, I lost 15 out of 33 years of contributions. I, myself, had no paperwork to support my 15 years of contributions and the pay slips from those days were not "proof" enough. - my Thai ID number never changed but the SSI assumed, that my absence and change of work permit in 2000 is "to blame" and that the SSI might have parked the old contributions "somewhere". - I could have taken it to higher levels but got legal advice to forget about it as it would take years to come and expenses, which might wipe out what I eventually could get refunded. Was it the usual "mai pen rai" sloppiness for which Thailand is so well known for, did anyone deviate my earlier contributions, did my contributions end with the temple collection box? We shall never find out but it is obvious, that the SSI has an "accounting" system of its own as my contributions did not disappear into thin (Bangkok) air, I would assume?

It boils down to convenience and my wife and I love the absolute independence on a day-to-day basis. We like the place = we stay on, if we had it = we move on. The paperwork is done once and if you're organized, it boils down to a few photocopies. The South of Laos though is the most "civilized" part with roads and public transport. With a total number of four you might really opt for a minivan with driver, allows a swig or two of the excellent Beerlao Green (new stuff, worthwhile trying) for lunch. Your own vehicle is of more interest in the North and Northeast of the country, where the roads are seriously damaged - some of them to a status of destruction. Public transport, if available, sucks, overloaded unserviced busses racing through the provinces as if there is no tomorrow ..... I am getting too old for such "experiences" and hence use my 4WD truck, half the speed and absolute independence. Bon voyage through the South of Laos - yet another wonderful part of planet Earth, be it the Bolaven plateau upto Attapeu or the Southern-most provinces bordering Khonphapeng waterfalls ......

Noted, but here we talk about linguistic manners, politeness - without resorting to all that political correctness BS. Thailand needs foreigners as tourists, investors and high skilled labour contributions - unlike the UK. And, as a non-native English speaker, I always understood "alien" as those little green men from Mars with antennas and suction cups at the end of their three fingered/-toed arms and legs ......... whatever, but by all means not "human" 😉

Well, well, next week they will pick another nationality among the dirty farang and alien group. How can anything spiral out of common sense in a most ballistic way over one or two sickoes; given all the other really big issues this country has and should have addressed LONG time ago. Take those culprits to court, deal with them according to the (good) Thai law but get on; don't smokescreen and instigate even more xenophobic racism under which all those white skinned non-Thais suffer on a daily basis. In the past it was just the usual rip-off financially or getting short changed legally or by "not understanding culture"; now it moves towards slash and burn, bomb 'em and keep bashing and bashing. At the end - no winners

Do it and leave - you can always come back .........

Maybe not a bad idea, after sweet talking the Aussies and the dirty farang in Europe, after letting two isolated cases of Swiss culprits going completely ballistic to the level or xenophobic racism of the finest order. My irrelevant concern would be the enclosed reading which, of course, is much less important than bashing on the Swiss as a nation and a historic ally of Thailand for literally centuries ...... It might require standing onto some huge toes of the bigwigs of oligarch eliterian Thai business tycoonism though ..... wonder, if he has the guts or creeps back under the big stone of Thailand's Game of Power .........

No prostitution, no corruption - nothing but highly educated semi-divines ........... how nice is that!