kevozman1

OP, why not start off with an EDvisa and go from there? No one knows right now if the clamp down on tourist visas is here to stay.

It is all good for people to suggest the 500k baht elite card, but in a country as politically volatile as Thailand I can see why people who can easily afford this would even be wary of purchasing one.

On the priority ladder of what laws could do with being enforced a little tighter in Thailand I think harassing foreigners who are living in Thailand and supporting themselves and in most cases spending decent money should be quite low. Enforcing laws more rigidly on murder, rape, corruption, prostitution, labour abuse would be a better place to start. I only mention those because there does indeed seem to be quite a fair amount of room for improvement on those matters. After those are improved then maybe start worrying about some foreigners who are staying in the kingdom doing online work or having a long term holiday. Just my opinion of course.

I honestly do not understand the typists on this message and on thaivisa generally.

Only two of the 23 comments I read were vaguely ok with Thailand; the rest were profoundly dissatisfied and had lots of ideas how it is bad.

Can those typists tell me why, if they dislike Thailand so much, why do they have anything to do with it? Especially why want to live here? And, with every complaint about Thailand faults there are concomitantly a similar number complaining that the visa rules will not allow them to stay here.

It seems more than a little wacky strongly to complain about a place and also to complain that rules keep them from living here. Saying, "Thailand, you are a terrible place and also terrible for keeping me out of Thailand."

Usually, asserting that kind of contradiction inside the same brain is called madness. I could be wrong.

I know that venting is helpful sometimes, but venting as a way of life seems strange.

The problem you are having in understanding that, is because you try to see Thailand as if were a single person. Your assumption which causes your misunderstanding, is that because two people are Thai they both have the same feelings and goals - and in essence, that reflects a type of racism on your part. If you cannot regognize the different aspects of Thailand, and the reasons behind them, then you should not be shaming others for doing so.

Sheesh, why does everything these days you say get deemed 'racist' Is it the hip new trend? Nothing he mentioned is racist. Guess some are still watching too much CNN or FOX???

Oh the war on racism is a very popular trend in many western countries. Not so much to protect the feelings of people from certain ethnic groups but more to create an inferiority complex into the minds of certain races. Typical brainwashing and social engineering, standard shit but with a very powerful tool in television.

These young people really make me wonder where this world is heading.

Id hate to be around in another couple of generations when these little b@stards have children that have children, I mean we are talking about little pr!ckz here with no concern for anyone except themselves.

The world would be a much better place without human beings, pity a couple of super nations will need to nuke em up to eradicate this dirty filthy vile creature & damage the earth beyond repair to get rid of the human.....theres no answer here........ and to think, if only parents could stop and teach their offspring a little respect.

Sorry if this sounds bad, but were their parents arsonists?? Who bred these armholes ?? I do understand some slip under the net BUT here the kids get a free style upbringing.

I will never forget a local Thai lady saying to me if my son gets killed on his motorbike we will make another son.

This family values--right and wrong --home care love with discipline. without this you get morons-armholes-thinking they are Arnies/Rambo's.

Thai soap opera do NOT help with their angry fighting rhetoric. Kids think it's normal behavior.

Schools give you tuition, home gives you behavior correction.

When I was a kid my school inflicted discipline, as well as at home, BUT for sure my school wielded the big stick and pointed "most" in the right direction. I thank them for that............

yep, they lost it when thecuddly doo gooders. rolled in, can't cane the kids, can't smack em and don't speak harshly at em, supposed to praise the ones burning the schools down for their creative initiative.

we oughta burn the doo gooders and bring back the cane, quick smart, then call up most the parents and cane them first.

there needs to be new laws to stop red necks from breeding, about 80% of the community should be newked to stop the reproducing, so many freaks in society these days! it's the only way! short of a nuclear holocaust that is.

Most parents and a hell of a lot of schools in Thailand beat children, that can also have the affect of making the children grow up to be violent adults. Obviously methods like that can help in disciplining children but it is not as if caning children will end up with a well behaved orderly society necessarily, if only life was that simple eh?

So far in the past few months there was a crackdown of varying degrees on the following:

• 30-day visa exempt stamps
• tourist visas
• NON-ED visas
• multi NON-B visas with no work permit
• medical extensions

For the love of God I can't understand why people with multi entry NON-Os happily cheer the crackdown. Those visas are clearly not intended for permanent stay (that's what 1-year extensions for) and this is why you have to do a border run every 90 days. You are abusing the system in the same way people on back to back tourist visas did, especially if you use the multi NON-O visa to circumvent the requirement of having funds in the Thai bank.

I don't understand the shadenfreud either, but you may want to rethink your second point. Aside from it being factually flawed, if one has obtained a non-O multiple-entry visa due to marriage/family, they are in no way "abusing" anything by leaving and re-entering the country multiple times.

They are following the rules in order to be able to stay with loved ones.

You're whining.

Today's rules. If tomorrow the authorities decide you need 5 million in the bank I don't want to see you post here with your idea of fairness, right?

Indeed. Not to mention one of the charms of Thailand in the past was how chilled out the place was. The more bureaucracy infringes on tourist the more that charm declines. Your typical TV elitist will slate lower end tourists, back backers etc. But I remember meeting two backpackers who were buming about in Thailand after graduating from Imperial. They will probably be able to afford quite a few holidays thorught out their lifes.

I know my initial interest in Thailand was that of an exotic, beautiful, laid back but somewhat wild country that did not follow so many conventional laws that the west does. Just wonder if they change too much how many people will start looking at alternatives.

400 :/

I could see maybe a dozen in Bangkok being put up and a few dotted around in each other main city and resort, but 400 seems a ridiculous figure unless they are expecting a huge rise in Thais drinking coffee all of a sudden.

I am surprised this got much of a response from Thais at all. I have personally seen Thai police officers be way more physical involving much less serious incidents. If it was a western country incident I could understand the uproar with the levels of respect for human rights and disciplined police forces, especially as a confession was given, but in Thailand a bit of 'roughing up' so to speak seems to be very common with police. Not that I personally think it's the right way for a police force to operate, but it certainly seems to be the reality.

20 years old eh? I give you a week or two in Isaan before the pull of some of the larger cities and beach resorts becomes too much for you to resist.

I guess one has to be American and never visited Asia to find this amusing...

Oversensitive westerners, back to suburbansville farangland please.

Bringing back random Thai guys to your BKK pad? Risky... Anyways he could post your photos on any site that accepts uploads of nude/pornographic photos or movies, there are many tbh... I wouldn't worry too much about it unless you are very prudish as this is becoming ridiculously common with the internet and digital cameras being so mainstream in recent years.

Thailand has changed, Bangkok used to be a discrete (in the geographical sense !) city, now it's a sprawling urban region occupying a zone a couple-of-hundred miles across, and has consumed places like Ayuttaya or Pattaya, and many more people live in concrete-jungle dormitory-blocks or work in offices/factories & call it progress. Shudder ! I simply avoid the place whenever-possible !

But Thais (and other 3rd-worlders) have the right to enjoy 'progress', and will IMO eventually discover that it's not all it's cracked-up to be, give it a century & they might even come to value the quieter rural-life, like us Brits ! The current rise in cmping/cycling/domestic-tourism

So just pick the right part of Thailand to live in, to match what you're now looking-for, Samui was no-doubt excellent for a two-year-drunk on first arrival ... but now you've grown beyond that.

I enjoy life in a small (but doubled-in-size over a decade) village, with views of the mountains, and a full-service city (Chiang Mai) within 30-minutes drive. That's what suits me, at this stage of life !

Others go totally-rural & live in places like Chiang Rai or Isaan. Perhaps that's a step too far ?

My own occasional-need for bright-lights or a really-well-stocked supermarket or an island-beach are satisfied by holidays, either within Thailand or back to Auld Eng-er-laanndd, which incidentally is also no-longer the place I recall from my youth ! In particular it appears to be now inhabited by fat thick frumpy people, even by my own low standards, and I miss the stylish attractive petite smiling eye-candy everywhere, which is such a joy here ! NB ... if you don't agree, just visit a doctor/hospital, as you may have died & not yet noticed !

Perhaps, rather than changing place, the discomfort felt by the OP is due to an approaching change-in-lifestyle ? Could it perhaps be time to settle down, with some agreeable female person, and have & raise a family ?

Whatever, IMO the OP needs to get himself slightly-more organised. Immigration anywhere can be a pain, if you haven't got the right visa for your lifestyle, bills left unpaid anywhere will result in withdrawl-of-service, when you travel for a month rather than the usual week. Problem & solution identified, there.

Good luck to the OP, and feel free to vent or let-of-steam on TV, it beats joining the Pattaya (or Rotherham, or North-Devon) Flying-Club !

Thailand is not a Third World country.This idea of ranking countries into first, second and third world is a western imperialistic concept and totally irrelevant in a modern global society. Bangkok is one of the most modern cities in Asia and the world.... Drive through dreary Birmingham or any other UK city (except Central London) and compare it to Bangkok!You can't, but people like you will always view the world through an imperialistic prism....

There is only one real city in the UK Don't worry about driving through Birmingham, your original argument is Thailand not being a third world country, I am not sure about those classifications, but I have been to Isaan in the Nakhon Ratchasima and Buriram area and there did indeed seem to be high levels of poverty that I had personally not encountered before. I don't think the only factors for a countries development is that the capital city has shopping malls, high rises and lots of neon lights.

I remember not too long ago Bangkok was somewhere most tourists, the ones who even bothered to go there, spent 1-3 days before heading off to where they actually wanted to go in Thailand. In the last several years though the place is getting hyped, maybe I should give Bangkok another visit.

AS you said yourself: " This is a proper useless rant" . So why bother the rest of us ?

"Proper useless rant" ah the quality " English teachers " they have in Thailand.... Sounds like an extra out of Eastender's or some other low class British soap..... During empire nobody spoke like this and if they did a good thrashing would be had

During the empire did people also use unnecessary apostrophes? Oh how easy it is to be pedantic on a casual internet forum.

I don't remember those days of smiling and jokes at Don Muang tbh.

Sandman77 ... can I call you Sandy?

How much do you know about Thai movies?

What about the BollyWood latest Stars?

No looking up the internet now ...

Who the hell would want to know about Bollywood apart from Indians and pretentious mid 40's yoga practising white women? Complete trash it is. Thai movies can be really good though. Movies from SEA and east Asian countries are certainly worth giving a try, especially South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong and Thailand movies. I actually seem to enjoy more Asian flicks than Hollywood movies these days..

"best defensive display of the world cup".

didn't tim howard have to make more saves in a world cup match than any goalkeeper since 1966? that's not a good defensive display, that's a miracle goalkeeping performance and riding your luck.

the americans were fun to watch though and the team spirit and effort their manager got out of them was really impressive.

Agreed. The USA defense was getting wrecked in certain parts of that game.

John Higgins has been one of the most professional and well behaved snooker players I have seen in the last 20 years. He was cleared of charges for matchfixing, so that is just a moot point. He had a shitty day, acted like a brat and will be dealt with be world Snooker's governing body. No big deal.

As much as I respect snooker in regards to the skill required and sportsman like behaviour the professional element of the game is way too stuffy, old fashioned and dramas are made of minor acts. I really surprised Ronnie O'Sullivan did not stick 2 fingers up at snooker years ago and make the switch to pool. He would have made more money and be part of a scene that does not come straight out of the 19th century.

I have a little bit of sympathy for men raising families in western countries. Stay pussy whipped or else! lol

I am sorry for your personal unhappiness. I am putting together a booklet with advice for Western men to live with and marry Thai women. I will read all the messages here with great interest and use some of the wisdom herein, when I find some.

The sad situation in Thailand seems to be a Western Man, WM, comes to Thailand filled with the idea of getting himself a little brown servant who he can mold to his will. WM makes little effort to learn about the woman he has connected with and basically says "change to my expectations" because I am paying the bills. That is an untenable distribution of power in a relationship and the seeds for failure are too many to really overcome.

Your description of your Thai wife mirrors millions of Thai who do not share the Dog Eat Dog, competitive, striving world view of the WM. Yes "they" are quite content to live day to day, be surrounded by FAMILY, and set goals that are very short term (one day). These ideas are anathema to the WM who believes in his world view of "constant betterment."

My advice, worth just what you paid for it, is for you to release your captive back to her own culture because you will never get the Thai out of a Thai woman. It is so odd that WM come here because of the admirable traits of the women and then set about immediately trying to make them over into Westernized types, the very types a smart WM will be attempting to escape.

WM at the next stool are complaining they cant get a good hamburger; I say, if you want things to be "just like back home," THEN GO BACK HOME before you take on a good Thai woman and try to bend her to your ideas.

Read up on Cultural imperialism.

Being a lazy woman who is not trying her best for her children is considered part of Thai culture now? I would have thought being lazy and unproductive is more of a personal trait not exclusive or attached to any country or region around the world.

I agree about people preaching to others on the improvements/advancements in other countries, most of the time people doing so only agitate others and nothing productive comes from it. I have to say though OP your ideology seems to suggest that Thailand can learn nothing from cultural norms or ideas created/developed in the west, which is completely false. A lot of advancements and cultural norms have been shared between Europe and Asia throughout history and this trend will undoubtedly continue despite how narrow minded some people would prefer to be.

Don't care for soccer missionaries and would love to see the US lose--along with their preppie fan base.

Well, since you want to be hateful, bring on your girlie soccer team. We'll suit them up and put them up against the USA Superbowl football champions and inflict some real pain for you.

The USA World Football team is just a group of thrown-together amateurs playing against the likes of other countries professional teams, so let's see it both ways.

What sort of dope are you? "The USA Superbowl football champions?" Something doesn't ring true about the sound of that phrase. I think you're a fake American, because Americans don't talk like that, especially football fans.

What would an American say that would suit you, in a thread about World Football, when he was differentiating between World Football and American NFL championship football. Out of the context of this thread, I would just say "The Superbowl Champions."

So bring on your girlie soccer team and suit up and take on the Superbowl Champions, the way the American amateurs took on the likes of the German national football team.

What the American team is doing at the World Cup is amazing considering few Americans play soccer, and they tossed together a group of amateurs to go play.

Several of the USA team are in fact pro footballers from Germany who have dual nationality but decided to play for USA, probably thought their chances were higher of making the USA team for world cups. A good number of the USA also have played for English premiership teams, just about the strongest football league in the world. Not to mention the head coach is an absolute footballing legend in Europe, one of the finest from his generation. USA have also been involved in the football world cup since the start of competitions history.

Not such an amateur looking set up now is it? A better showing of a real underdog in the tournament would probably be Costa Rica, but admittedly USA are giving a good showing for the team they have.