Oberkommando

Visa rules aren't crazy if you apply for a one year visa in your home country.

If you're feeling flush and don't want to fly home to do it then about 23,000 baht to a visa firm in BKK will courier the passport back to the UK and get you a 1 year visa while you smile all the way to the border

That's illegal.

According to Thai law you have to be in the country the visa is issued in at the time the visa is issued.

The former owner of Thaivisa; Lars, I think his name was, was busted by Immigration for sending foreigners' passports out of Thailand for visas. To Brisbane Consulate I believe. He used to have an office on mid-Sukhumvit until about 2000.

Not true, You must have legally exited Thailand. There is no Thai law stating you must be in the country where you apply, only that you are not in Thailand !

regards

Freddie

Incorrect.

"Nationals of certain countries are required to apply for a visa only at the Thai Embassy or Consulate-General in their home/residence country or at the designated Thai Embassy."

http://www.mfa.go.th/web/2482.php?id=2489

Careful, you'll get arrested in England these days for expressing such sentiment.

Allah U Akbar!

Samut Sakhon Residents Oppose Planned Red-Shirt Rally

Villagers in Samut Sakhon Province have filed a petition opposing a massive rally scheduled for Saturday by the red-shirt group.

More than 200 villagers in Samut Sakhon Province gathered at City Hall to protest against the planned rally by the red-shirt Democratic Alliance against Dictatorship, or DAAD, in Muang District scheduled for Saturday.

The group also filed a petition with the provincial governor, asking that it be forwarded to Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.

The villagers say they do not want to see conflict among people in the province. They said the large number of workers in the area from outside the province may lead to clashes that will be difficult for security officers to maintain peace and order.

Samut Sakhon locals also expressed concern that residents on both sides of the political conflict may turn on each other, as in Bangkok's Nang Lerng community last week, resulting in loss of life and property damage.

The Samut Sakhon Governor said the rally can be held if conducted lawfully.

- TOC / 2009-04-23

I have a factory there and in my experience the vast majority are sympathetic to the red-shirt cause.

Poor people, factory workers, Issan and Burmese mostly.

Betchya that 99% of you don't move from Thailand because of this. And that is why the banks are doing this: Cause they know your addictions to the 'attractions' of Thailand will mean you stay here.

The tourism market collapsing? Hardly. People on holiday expect this kind of stuff as a matter of course these days.

Good thing for Thailand overall, bringing more FX, not less.

Ever the apologist eh Samran?

Banks make billions on investments and literally gamble with customer's money. But that isn't enough apparently, they have to get their claws into foreigners' pockets, the majority who will be tourists and use the ATM on a daily basis.

In addition, the majority of foreigners already pay overseas ATM charges and currency conversion charges courtesy of their own banks so these additional charges just to use a simple electronic machine of which the Thai bank is being paid for already are ludicrous.

There's no excuse for 150thb. It's a blatant rip-off.

I just don't frequent any venue that implements such a policy including the litter strewn and unimpressive National Parks.

So, dual pricing doesn't bother me. However the little things all mount up; 150thb ATM charges for foreign bank cards, dual pricing, scams with collusion and knowledge of the authorities, bill padding, visa extension fees, etc, etc, etc.

Thankfully, there are plenty of other more deserving and friendly countries in this region that haven't yet succumbed to total greed where I prefer to spend my tourist dollar.

This should be in the news section just because it affects so many people who might be caught without warning.

Not going to do much good hiding away in the jobs, economy section even though it has relevance here.

Squareface saw an opening for "Dictator" since Charles Taylor was ousted.... Can't blame a guy for trying right? Blood Diamond for everyone!

He's not got the qualifications to be a dictator. He's not a military general for starters.*

Nicaragua...Liberia...Ivory Coast... Thaksin is racking up an impressive list of highly-desirable travel destinations lately.

No more or less desirable than Thailand for a successful businessman.

*See Thailand's recent history.

Of course the Red movement will be back, but any kind of armed struggle is just silly and stupid and counterproductive.

Counterproductive to the aims of those who seek to stall democratic progress in Thailand.

A violent struggle will be the eventual consequence of military interference in 21st Century Thai politics.

Cause and effect.

The last thing Thailand needs is an urban vs rural civil war.

I agree. The other Civil War raging in the South of the country doesn't seem to be any closer to a conclusion either.

i think an irish pub in good location will do the trick

Great for laundering money.

Bangkok bank have started charging the B150 as of today.

Suspicious that they won't release details of how he actually died.

Either they just don't know because of their usual incompetence or they are covering something up.

Is anyone else getting tired of every newsclip thread getting derailed by thaksin-haters? Did he f your wife or something?

Forget it. It's some kind of club, they just make joke between themselves, post the kind of pictures that make you laugh when you were 13 ...

After a while you get use to it, don't even pay attention anymore

It's the constant spin and bare-faced lies that annoy me.

The baht is just stable and there's no reason for it not to be.

Except the nose-diving economy and the fact they are using currency reserves to prop it up.

No foreign loans for them now though after their status was downgraded last week.

Wonder what the plan will be now? Another border skirmish with Cambodia perhaps?

Up this morning i would have said yes.

But after being fined 1000 Baht for dropping a cig butt down a drain this moring near soi 22 .

I must say no

The same cop then went on to fine 2 of a group of 6 tourists for dropping a 7-11 recipt next to the bin.

colino

PS Yes i know he was up holding the litter law but what away to win friends in the present climate.

Have they never heard about 1 person tells 10 others if they have a bad experiance

I thought those guys next to the Queen's Park entrance weren't really Police and had no Jurisdiction?

They are basically Security guards for the park but act like they are real Police.

Problem is a lot of foreigners just don't know they have been or are being scammed. That's why the prominent ones aimed at foreigners are so successful (gem scam, Erawan Shrine scam etc, etc, etc).

Ignorance is bliss, for some. The sting comes later however.

25 years in Thailand and I don't trust any Thais.

Served me well in my time.

And when I say I don't trust that doesn't imply dishonesty only, [OP does not trust Thais to] do a job or finish a task properly either.

The sources said Thaksin had been given an Interpol "red notice", which is recognised in a number of countries and serves as the legal basis for provisional arrest. A red notice is intended to help police identify or locate Thaksin, with a view to his arrest and extradition.

An Interpol Red Notice is not an international arrest warrant.

These Interpol 'Red Notices' represent only a tiny fraction of the number of red notices issued by Interpol.

The persons concerned are wanted by national jurisdictions (or the International Criminal Tribunals, where appropriate) and Interpol's role is to assist the national police forces in identifying or locating those persons with a view to their arrest and extradition.

These red notices allow the warrant to be circulated worldwide with the request that the wanted person be arrested with a view to extradition.

http://www.interpol.int/Public/Wanted/Default.asp

Funny, I can't find anything on the Interpol website about Thaksin.

Did he mention the amount of tea-money required so that the cases can be dropped and the suspects set free?

The Thai Government asked Interpol to arrest Thaksin, that's all. Anyone can ask Interpol to arrest anyone. Whether Interpol actually does it, that's an entirely different thing. And it looks like they won't join the Thai circus this time.

Interpol are more interested in the wanted criminals hiding out in Thailand!

Bottom line is they certainly don't want us emigrating here and staying permanently.

There are quotas of something like 100 per nation for permanent residency per annum to Thailand and lower ratios for citizenship.

I wouldn't be so sure that all banks will be charging 150 Baht for a withdrawel using a foreign atm card. SCB has no mention of this on their wbsite.

Barry

It was agreed by the Thai Banker's Association members.

https://www.thanachartbank.co.th/CDS/THANAC...tm032009_en.pdf

To be fair, the "backpackers are scum" policy is primarily a Thaksin/TRT/PPP policy. Not sure what the current government's policy is, but since Thaksin has managed to f*** up Thailand so badly, I'd say they will take anybody they can get, and gladly.

To be fair, the Thaksin administration also took Thailand's tourism industry through the Bird Flu crisis and the Tsunami crisis and handled both pretty well all things considered.

Thailand needs to address the serious problem of the political situation urgently before dreaming of becoming a viable tourism destination again.

Incidentally I see they have announced a 150thb charge per transaction for foreign bank cards using Thai bank ATMs to be implemented later this month.

Way to reel in the tourists Thailand!

what is going relatively unnoticed is that there is going to be a bog standard train link as well, which will connect directly to both the underground and the skytrain.

How can it possibly connect directly to other lines when the airport link is overhead powered and the MRT and BTS powered by a third rail?

Or do you mean connected directly by a footbridge and escalators?

Under 400 deaths nation wide for 64 million people is statistically low

Over a few days? What nonsense.

The UK has around 1000 deaths per annum and there's far more cars on the roads there.

But that said the numbers are not the high if compared to

Labor Day or 4th of July weekends in USA.

But there are millions more people and millions upon millions more vehicles in the USA.

Don't forget the Thai statistics do not include all deaths, only certain fatalities are counted.

Chuan personally get a Billion Baht from the Burmese junta, did he?

No, but he was just as friendly as the TRT were towards the Junta in Burma and possibly more so.

A familiar tune...

Letter to Thailand Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai

Human Rights Watch is deeply concerned by reports today that the Thai government has refused permission to the International Trade Union movement to hold a conference on "Democracy for Burma" in Bangkok, scheduled for May 24-26, 1999.

In March 1998, police attempted to restrict the participation of about one hundred international human rights advocates in a five-day seminar on East Timor in Bangkok, saying the foreign participants would violate Thai law if they spoke out against Indonesia. This time, the ban appears to have been linked to the European Union-ASEAN summit, with Burma in attendance, that is scheduled to take place in Bangkok at the same time as the cancelled trade union meeting. In addition to cancelling the meeting, the Thai authorities also refused to grant an entry visa to Dr. Sein Win of the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB).

These actions run contrary to Foreign Minister Surin's position that ASEAN members should be free to criticize actions of other countries in the region. They also call into question Thailand's stated commitment to the internationally recognized rights of free association, assembly, and expression.

Under your leadership, Thailand has implemented major democratic reforms, sending a message to the region that fundamental freedoms in Thailand were being strengthened. The ban on the "democracy for Burma" conference sends a very different signal.

Sincerely,

Sidney Jones

Executive Director (Human Rights Watch)

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Thailand should be considered incapable of holding the ASEAN summit at the moment and it should be moved to another safer and more reliable country.