surfinglife

Strangely enough, this summer, the Spanish were offering tourists an official - police copy of their passport so they can carry that and avoid having the real one stolen. I didn't check on the cost and don't know if the service is still available.

Perhaps it would be nice if the RTP could offer that?

Also make it about credit card size so it fits in the pocket easily?

It is law in many countries that visitors must carry their passport at all times.

If carrying your actual passport,wrap it in something waterproof because it only needs a little wetting to render the passport useless!

Then you are into the additional waste of time and extra cost of an emergency passport, a replacement once you get home etc.

A royal pain in the bum!

I once forgot that my passport was in my shorts pocket and went for a dip in the sea....after a little rinse and drying in the sun it was as good as new and works to this day. So maybe not bombproof but certainly waterproof

"...federal government had low tolerance of criminal behaviour by non-citizens."The citizens however, whose ancestors arrived in Australia after commiting crimes in a far-away country, are free to continue the family tradition. It's in the genes apparently.

It's happened to me several times but always with credit cards. The last one was skimmed in Pattaya and used a week later to buy gas and Nike Air shoes in New Jersey by some redneck truckie

Wind does not blow that hard back home ,how big was the boat

Oh really? I remember windsurfing in Mission Bay in 40 knots. Many times.

Street bike to me means riding in town, right? And riding a motorcycle in town is like riding a pushbike and you would not wear a full face heavy helmet on your bicycle, would you? I have two helmets: one for town (half helmet) and a proper full helmet which I bought in New Zealand for the open road cruising.

Why offer A grades to B-booty? A grades should be given only to A-grade booty!

2 billion baht.....at 200 baht average bribe for no license or riding 4 up that's 10 million bikes!!

Whats the name of the restaurant on Thappraya road after the traffic lights coming down from the hill towards Jomtien just at the corner when the road turns down towards the beach? I think the name is Daddy or something, owned by an old Gay guy. Excellent breakfast, many different styles to choose from. I don't know if it is still there as I have not been there for 2 years or so.

Papa's.Closed down.

Quran (9:5) ...."kill the idolaters wherever you find them and take them prisoners, and beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them..."

The idolators...that would be us non-Muslims and there is an open season with Allah's blessing apparently

Rubbish............A tourist visa can buy a car............

The key word here is Visa. with one you can buy a car. Without one (30 day visa exempt entry) you will have troubles.

If sh&*%g and golf are NOT your main hobbies than Penang is perfect. For golf and sh&*%g enthusiasts there is no place like Pattaya

I would like to know which countries you mention as more and more countries are developing secure Biometric data bases, which include finger prints, Iris recognition and facial photos.eg Australia & New Zealand have biometric data embedded in their passportand look below what India has and is doing - so shouldn't Thailand be doing the sameIndia's national ID program called Aadhaar is the largest biometric database of the world. It is a biometrics-based digital identity, instantly verifiable online at the point of service (PoS), at anytime, anywhere, in a paperless way. Currently it has 500 million people (5 billion fingerprints, 1 billion iris image, 500 million face photo) with 6 peta byte of data. It will reach 1.25 billion people in few years, 15 PB of data and over 200 trillion biometric matches per day.[10][11]It is designed to enable government agencies to deliver retail public service securely based on biometric data (fingerprint, iris scan and face photo), along with demographic data (name, age, gender, address, parent/ spouse name, mobile phone number) of a person. The data is transmitted in encrypted form over internet for authentication, aiming to free it from limitations of physical presence of a person at a given place. Thus is can be used for casting vote from anywhere, availing social security benefits from anywhere e.g. PDS ration form any shop etc

In India it makes perfect sense with every second bloke called Singh...

Time to learn some Thai. It's a relatively easy language.

It's actually one of the most difficult to learn for a Westerner.

To be competely fluent and speak without an accent - probably true. To be able to say and understand just about anything it is definitely one of the easiest to learn. So I really don't have any symathy for people who have their ED visas pulled for lack of effort. If you a going to cheat on a visa, at least cheat with some style instead of mai kao jai

My question is: how does a guy who has obviously never worked in his life ( would YOU employ him?) own 1kg of gold?

Nothing....

Go to any visa agent in Pattaya and they will do all the legwork for you within one week for about 20k. No need for you to travel to BKK or visit immigration.

There is no oil in Somalia so not worth sending troops to kill those mad dogs

Development? Is that what they call this corruption-driven effort to cover every remaining green rai in Pattaya with concrete? A few short years ago I had exotic birds flying outside my balcony on Pratumnak Hill, now all I see is cranes and multi-storey monstrosities unfinished for years. Development? Really?

DON'T!!!!!

Well, OP, what should someone do with their wealth? To me, if you got it, flaunt it. Chicks dig it.

A small penis syndrome?

Well, OP, what should someone do with their wealth? To me, if you got it, flaunt it. Chicks dig it.

A small penis syndrome?

The Russians were not too shocked....like another day in Moscow where most people buy their licenses just like they do in LOS.

Mr. WALID from Australia....