sriracha john

I bought it knowing that it's quite possible that the card is no good after 5 years.

Being Thailand and the constant ebb and flow of visa issues and governmental changes, there's really no guarantee that it will even last the 5 years.

No interets in Krung Thai bank, I have saving account

As a perfect example of the wonderful consistencies in Thailand, I have a Krung Thai Bank savings account and DO receive interest.

Got a Lao visa at their embassy in Bangkok prior to going. The fee is based on your passport country of origin. Mine was B1,350.

As for the visa...since that seems to be the only real incentive, then a million baht is certainly not worth it... unless you have a million to throw away... but if you do, then perhaps an equal donation to a suitable Thai charity like any of the "Home for the Aged" places around the country would be a good gesture.

For Orion76, I don't think you're stupid to buy it. As you so succintly pointed out, you'd not be in a position to spend a mil on the card if you were... but I do support Lop's reiteration of my earlier post.

you definitely have some attitude problem ...    ...  ... 

The only thing definite is that you are making unfounded, judgemental, snide comments about someone you don't know at all in a totally unjustified manner. If I were to utilize the same reasoning trait as you, my response might come out something like:

"Yeah, I got an attitude problem with some inexperienced, unworldly, overpaid, farang, non-contributory to Thailand pseudo-teacher female talking about that which knows little about."

But since I'm not you, I will not say those things and simply state that you should keep any unnecessary personal comments to yourself.

May Peace be with you.

are you sure its Savannaket???? the consul in Savannaket are run by two very nice man, as the matter of fact they are most helpful the last time i went there to get my visa ... (and the last time was just last month) maybe its not the people that work there who have attittude problem, maybe its ...........

hahaha...yes, I'm quite certain as to where I go when I travel.

As with any government posting, personnel are subject to change and so it seems apparently that the dragon lady is there no more. That is a tremendous improvement to all who utilize the consulate as evidently she had been there for decades abusing customers. I have not been there after my initial visit as I was too turned off. If the new guys are nice, then wonderful.

btw, I find your insinuations extremely humorous... totally erroneous, but then.. that's what makes them so funny.

Watched the CEO of Thai Elite being interviewed on Channel News Asia the other day and had to laugh repeatedly. He said they have sold 500 cards since it's first offering (Toxin had predicted a 1,000,000 cards to be sold and that the Thai treasury would get a trillion baht from his innovation ). btw, many of the "500" were given away free to celebs, etc. In the very next breath, he said their goal was 10,000 cards by the end of the year. hahaha

Regarding land "ownership", the CEO repeatedly try to worm out of saying that factually the card holder does NOT own the land. I have to admit the interviewer was good and kept asking specifically who does. The answer is the Elite card company holds it for you. It then went on to babble about how the parliment was going to discuss "special legislation" that allowed Elite card holders to be exempt from the current law which bans foreign ownership of land. hahaha... yeah right, I'm holding my breath for that to happen.

As for the visa...since that seems to be the only real incentive, then a million baht is certainly not worth it... unless you have a million to throw away... but if you do, then perhaps an equal donation to a suitable Thai charity like any of the "Home for the Aged" places around the country would be a good gesture.

Bottom line, it's a Toxin scam to have foreigners pay for his populist money giveaways. There are good reasons they have fallen 999,500 cards short of their goal.

parody:  A writing in which the language and style of an author is imitated, esp. for comic effect or in ridicule.

And a top notch job of it too might I add!

I look forward to each issue.  Kudos to ya, Phil!

WISteve

I join the ranks in praising Kuhn Phil's Farang Affairs. Very, very funny stuff along with the Expat Page in the Nation. Phil is an expert at catching the crux of Thai culture in a most humorous manner. Ranks easily with the www.theonion.com which shares his parody style. Keep up the terrific writings! You are the best at what you do in Thailand.

I have to also add that it's absolutely hilarious to have to explain things to Denny.... hahahahaha

Hold on here a spot folks. If I was in a bar and drinking say Coke Cola, and in come the troops, and then they ask for my passport and I show it to them, and is totally sober and has two forked eyes, and then they ask me for a urine test, I would laugh at them and simply say " Me no Urine to donate, just did it a minute before you walked in". After that I get the heck out of there.

They still cannot do a thing. They cannot force me to give something if I am high and dry without legit cause, just because I am empty only drank Coke Cola.

That is the way I am. If I am clean, and know I am clean, I tell them tough luck charlie, better luck next time and move on out of there.

Refusing to submit to insult of your own intelligence is not a crime.

Daveyo

It would seem plausible to me that if you told Thai police that you just "went" and didn't have urine for sample testing and especially if you laughed at them while doing so, then they would simple say "fine" and proceed to prepare a catheter to forcefully insert into your urethra.

Darn it, I thought it was Vientienne that had the dragon lady as well.....possibly twins do you think?

Having been to both consulate...Savannaket is far worse.

John Kerry says he'll fight claims he lied about or exaggerated his service in Vietnam. The best way to fight such charges would be to stop calling people names and start providing some answers.

The official Navy documents provide all the proof that is necessary to dismiss the baseless Swift charges. None of the Swift guys can provide documentation to refute it. On top of all that, if they are so outraged about what happened and how things went down, why wait 35 years to start squawking? I'm ashamed to see my fellow shipmates so obviously manipulated as to be a front for a political movement, be it Republican OR Democrat. They are a disgrace to the Navy.

hey.. i guess alansparks was right...

errr..... make that alanspinks

she asked me to go in the back room and drop erm, so there i am standing up with shorts around my ankle with her kneeling in front of me with me old todger in her un gloved hand as she stared at it, now i got to admit i didnt mind this and quite enjoyed it

hey.. i guess alansparks was right... there IS more to being a pharmacist than just counting pills...

Has anyone applied for a Non B visa in savannakhet Laos? What can you tell me? And is there actually a consulate there?

Just be wary of the "dragon lady" that runs the place. In all my travels, it's the only place where I had my passport literally thrown at me when I went to pick it up. She must be well connected to her job, because she's been the subject of numerous complaints. The first time I entered the office, she was in the midst of a tirade she was levelling at some poor hapless Lao. Adds a whole new dimension to the term "customer service".

Gov Udomsak said that DPM Suwat made no commitment, but said he would discuss the matter with the departments concerned.

No doubt the Deputy Prime Minister is losing sleep agonizing over the hardships faced by foreigners from the Thai bureaucracy...

Suwat is too busy stealing gold medals from young women to be concerned about the problems faced by foreigners.

disappointing to hear NOW that passport copies were NOT acceptable (after several posts earlier that said they were).

So I guess the solution is to start carrying your passport 24/7... Just hope the embassies are braced for a large influx of replacement passport requests, either from being lost or unusuable due to wear and tear.

Is there a definitive answer as to even whether or not copies of passports are acceptable?

I guess I suppose I would HOPE that as commander in chief, he would have taken a pro-active response.

I do understand about the mixed reactions people had later on... after SEEING the tv footage or after witnessing it first hand, but Bush had JUST been informed of the attack...and didn't know if there were further attacks coming or who was involved... and to watch him sitting there and seeing how he didn't seem to know what to do next.... oh wait... yes he did.... He read a book to some youngsters. How presidential....

I saw his expression and to be honest I think most would have been dumb founded! If anyone said prior to 9/11 that someone just rammed a jumbo jet into a skyscraper you would have laffed at them and called them lunatics. Probably didn't believe it and was in shock. He acted appropriately after and that is what counts!

LOL... you can attempt to rationalize his behavior any way you want, but the fact remains that it was one of his top aides that informed him, so hopefully Bush didn't consider him a "lunatic" and hopefully Bush considered him "believeable". The point is he just sat there like a bump on a log and looked moronic doing it... and Bush's explanation that he didn't want to scare the school kids by leaving abruptly is pathetic. So he's more concerned about 20 kids being puzzled by his quick departure rather than going to deal with a national emergency of historical porportions? Kwai Bush is a moron and an embarassment to Americans, but thankfully he will finally be replaced soon.

good film, how can u call it a load of <deleted>?

Certainly opened my eyes to a few things

I agree totally. Particulaly, the dumb-founded look of Bush as he sat idly in a grade school reading class while Americans, under attack, were dying by the thousands at the WTC. Absolutely a horrendous reaction by an alledged Commander-In-Chief. Truly reflected what an imbecile he is.

Does this Toxin nonsense have an impact on tourism? If letters to the Nation like below are any indication, it certainly does.

Police-state tactics fail to impress tourists

My wife and I are in Thailand for about three weeks as tourists. On Sunday, after dinner, we wanted to have a drink at the well-known Q Bar on Sukhumvit Soi 11. Both of us and another friend could not enter the place because we didn't bring along our passports, which we kept at our hotel, the Conrad. I understand that the Interior Minister in Thailand is very eager to prevent underaged patrons from entering pubs and bars. However, all of us are around 50 (yes, 50) years old. Today I read in your newspaper that many foreigners were fined the day before at the same bar because they didn't carry their passports. I have never been in a country where middle-aged, well-behaved tourists are harassed methodically and probably for easy-money extraction like in the so-called Land of Smiles. Nowhere are tourists required to carry their passports day and night because the risk to lose them would be too high, and embassies would be very busy issuing replacement papers. My conclusion is that systematic harassment of tourists who are keeping Thailand afloat by spending billions in foreign exchange here is due either to police corruption or to a moronic policy of a blustering interior minister or both. I recommend the Prime Minister look into this matter urgently and very carefully, adjust the police-state methods applied at present and relieve some idiots from their positions. Please.

Dr Frank Sirninger

Bangkok

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/page.news....19134&usrsess=1

For the information of those that want to castrate the guy, none of the 9/11 hijackers had fake passports. I'm not opposed to punishing him, but to try and blame him for every terrorist act world-wide is a knee-jerk over-reaction. Terrorists don't seem to need fake passports to do their deeds and most fake passports are sold to wannabe immigrants.

Try getting back into the UK, US, OZ and many others after overstaying!!

The difference being those places are not actively seeking people and Thailand is. These comparisons invariably seem to come up every time some inane Thai Immigration rule/regulation is discussed. The crux of these discussions need to address the aforementioned difference to have any validity. If the rules/regulations were truly effective in keeping undesireables out... or if they truly did limit bad guys from arriving or staying in Thailand, then that would make things different and could then even be supported. The problem is that most of the rules/regulations only generate hardships or inconviences for the average person. They generate monies for the few controlling members of the government which never seems to filter down, eg. Immigration Ministry services are often abysmal despite the not-so-recent 400% increase in fees.

Bang Kwang for a little bang bang!

Is that the voice of experience speaking??

Very well said Kringle. Clear, concise, and to the point. If the foreigner's living here didn't try to avoid the regulations, and have bad attitude's, life for them would be so much easier. If one cannot hack the regulations, one can simply hop on an aircraft and head for home.

Is it possible to voice dissent or frustration over inane rules? Yes, we can tow the line or fit into the pidgeon holes of governmental control, but then... we give up democracy and justice. The major reason Thailand is suffering from Taksin-ism is that they hesitate to voice the grievances. I hope the farang community doesn't do the same, otherwise nothing changes. It IS correct to follow the rules in the interim, but it's also correct to point out to people the shortcomings and make an effort to improve the system. When was the last time immigration department solicited imput on it's rules from the foreigners they are in control of? A public forum on it's regulations is held how often? As the answer is never, can not this thaivisa forum be utilized for such purpose in addition to providing the mundane information of immigration's plethora of rules?