dluek

I've been to dozens of waterfalls all over Thailand and some of them are really magnificent if you hit them at the right times of year. Some charge an entry fee and others don't; I can only think of one occasion where I felt ripped off (it was a waterfall in Ranong province, can't remember the name now, but there was no water at the time). Erawan in Kanchanaburi costs 200 baht but that's just over US $6 -- hardly a high price to pay for such a beautiful waterfall. I've been to many other excellent ones that are free and often deserted as well. Using common sense helps when it comes to safety; there are some waterfalls that are definitely not suitable for children and it's up to the parents to know when too high is too high.

My girlfriend of three years is quite traditional, and we never hold hands or otherwise show affection in public. Maybe we're exceptions to the general rule, though most of the other farang/Thai couples we're friends with act about the same as us. All of us are foreigners who've been around the culture for many years and genuinely try to respect it. But is holding hands an inconsiderate move in Thailand? No way.

For what it's worth, I wouldn't want to have a drink with you in an Irish bar either.

It's a lot worse on Silom, especially on the footpath between the MRT and BTS stations around rush hour. And the recent move by authorities to keep all parked motorbikes off the street has made it worse -- they just add to the clutter.

It's you, the journalist, that gets accredited, not the agency. The agency supplies you with a letter which allows you to begin the process of getting accredited with the Thai authorities.

Nothing or no one mentioned anything about "accreditation" during the entire time I was applying for the visa, except in the MFA's website where I believe it says something like "You must be invited to work for an accredited publication." Perhaps I'm now "accredited" in the Thai authorities' eyes, but no one ever told me that. In the case of either an individual journalist or publication, I have no idea what "accredited" means to the Thai authorities, if anything. In other words, it's not something that even needs to be thought about.

Foreign tourists are not staying away from Thailand because of scams and beach shacks -- those things are to be expected in Southeast Asia. They're staying away because the country is currently governed by a military junta, and because the visa rules have suddenly become extremely unclear.

I successfully received a Non-Imm M visa late last year (I work for a well-established independent travel website that covers Southeast Asia). The publication that sponsors you must have a corporate address somewhere... The nearest Thai embassy will contact it directly and check that it's listed as paying taxes in that country. There will need to be someone there to answer the phone, but the company I work for is based out of a house and that didn't seem to be a problem. You'll need 2 letters from that publication, one highlighting exactly what the publication does, where it's based, its circulation and things like that, and the other officially inviting / appointing you as their correspondent to be based in Thailand. They need to be signed by the company's director or managing editor -- it wouldn't be a good idea for that person to be you. You'll also need samples of your work over the past year working for that publication. I had previously freelanced for the publication while on tourist visas and was able to use some of those samples; initially I was worried that the MFA would turn around and say those samples were proof that I worked illegally in Thailand, but they didn't -- they seem to have a pretty good handle on how foreign journalists do things. Once they receive your request and check that the publication is legit, they'll call you in for an interview in Bangkok. The two women I met with were very nice; they mainly wanted to know if I'd be writing anything sensitive (i.e. about the monarchy). One of them had lived in the US for a long time and seemed very intelligent / able to tell the real journalists / travel writers from those who are just trying to make a blog to get a visa. I was told that freelancers can get the M visa, but only if a publication they write for agrees to sponsor them -- not sure on the logistics beyond that. I'd be curious to know if / how prominent indendent bloggers, like Richard Barrow, are able to get an M visa based solely on their blog.

In short, if you're legit then you probably won't have a problem (at least if things haven't changed since last December). If not, good luck. Once you get the visa you're automatically eligible for a work permit, and media personnel are a special case if they work for foreign-based companies -- you're able to leave large sections of the work permit application blank, such as tax ID #, proof of company's revenue and proof of Thai employees. If the company is based in Thailand then it's basically the same as being sponsored by any company with office in Thailand, except that you get the M rather than B visa.

I arrived to Suvarnabhumi on the morning of August 12. No problems for me (I have Non-imm M with re-entry permit), but the guy in the line next to me was getting a hard time because he had no visa and no proof of onward travel within 30 days... He appeared to be a mainland European, probably Dutch, German, Belgian or somewhere in that vicinity. I got through before his situation had been resolved, but the officer servicing him had left his desk and apparently gone to see a supervisor. Not sure what ended up happening. I've arrived many times on a 30-day stamp with no proof of onward travel and never had a problem at immigration -- could be an early sign of the new crackdown.

Not only that some Buddhists have their own holy wars, but in America some people seem to think that you can use Buddhist practices to make better soldiers:

I read somewhere that the American army want to use meditation as a means to make the soldiers more able to handle the stresses of warfare.

I fear there may be some unexpected side effects when the soldiers in their foxholes start losing their hate for the enemy and begin to see more clearly what a madness the whole thing is.

Japanese warriors used meditation to prepare for battle and become better fighters for centuries. During WW2, Zen monks were recruited by the Japanese military to help train troops. Kung <deleted>, having been invented by the forefather of Zen Buddhism, is also closely related to meditation.

My brother and I once got dropped by a taxi near Khao San Road at 5am (catching early Lomprayah bus to Ko Tao and had had quite a few drinks the night before). It was still dark. He left his backpack in the back seat. Among other things, it had iPad, kindle, headphones and passport inside. We walked to the Lomprayah office and he didn't realize he'd left it for around 20 minutes. We walked back to where we'd been dropped and the driver was standing there looking for us, holding the backpack without going through it at all. My bro gave him 1,000 baht and a hug.

This from my Japanese friend who lives in Savannakhet, Laos yesterday afternoon:

"I decided to go to the border by my motorbike, and trying to walk into Mukdahan by myself.
As a result, no problem. They say, foreingers can get in, but Lao can not."

He had earlier been told the international bus was cancelled when trying to buy a ticket at the Savannakhet bus station.

And where did Thais capture these prisoners? Give us some facts. Thanks in advance.

Thais didn't capture any prisoners during WW2, the Japanese caught them in Singapore and elsewhere and sent them to work on the transport line to Burma (aka Death Railway). Thailand was occupied by the Japanese Imperial Army during WW2, and officially allied with Japan, but very few Thais took part in either of the world wars. The article is correct in that, compared to many other parts of Asia, Thailand endured few hardships during the war. The building of the railway was by far the worst thing that happened in Thailand, but Allied POWs and forced laborers from Malaysia, India, Burma and elsewhere bore the brunt of it. Thais were basically bystanders.

When I studied US history in school, I never learned about President Roosevelt's executive order 9066 of 1942, which incarcerated innocent Japanese-Americans living on the West Coast.

For the record, when I studied US history in the '90s my teacher taught all about this.

Do whatever you can without actually putting yourself or your girlfriend in danger.

I'm an introvert and am usually lost in my thoughts, which sometimes causes me to overlook people around me. I'm really friendly if someone takes the initiative but I don't often instigate "small talk" with strangers. I do try to at least smile at people (Thais and foreigners) in my building, but even among "neighbors" many of them just look away. It's a big 35 floor condo building in Bangkok, so that's to be expected. Not sure if you're in Bangkok, but I think you'll find similar behavior in any big city - people are mentally guarded. Anyway there seem to be quite a few socially awkward foreigners here in the LOS.

under clause 2.12 In the case of performing duties in the mass media:of police order 777/2551 which has no salary or tax payment requirements only clause 2.1 has that.

Right, doesn't that mean I'm cruising through a loophole (albeit a very grey one) that that makes it so I'm not legally accountable for taxes in Thailand, particularly given the fact that no payments are made by any Thai companies / through any Thai bank accounts? The work permit allows me to my job in Thailand, but it's unlike a normal work permit situation that requires all of the info (financial capital etc.) from a Thai company. In this case, as a member of the media, I can still claim residency in the US (that's where my only bank accounts are) and so would be obligated to pay income taxes there, and not in Thailand, correct?

Thanks a lot for the help it's appreciated.

Hi all,

I was issued a Non-Imm M (media) visa in January and today received my work permit. I left the "salary" section on the work permit application blank and was not asked to fill it in. Payments for the work I do in Thailand go straight from my company's Australian account to my US account, so it never goes through Thailand. For living expenses, I withdraw money from my US account using ATMs in Thailand -- I don't currently have a Thai bank account. But I live / work in Thailand and spend the vast majority of my time here. Given this situation, I have no idea what my tax obligations are in Thailand. Any thoughts / advice would be appreciated.

Also, should I start 90 day reporting starting when I've been in the country for 90 days, or 90 days after I receive my nine-month extension (which will be roughly 90 days after I entered).

Thank you very much.

I would have put the bananas back down and politely, with a smile and in Thai, asked for the 50 baht back. If she refused, I would, still smiling, act confused and tell her that I only wanted one bushel of bananas, not two. I would have persisted to act confused, smiling, and taking up her time and bugging her when other customers came, until she just gave in. If that went on for a really long time (which it probably wouldn't) and didn't work, I'd just take an extra bushel of bananas. One thing I wouldn't do is tell the girlfriend, b/c she'd go and think of some sinister way to make the vendor lose face in a bad way.

With that said, in three years living in Thailand and many more trips before that, I've never once been refused change by a street vendor. So yeah, sounds like a case of either one bad egg vendor or one impolite buyer.

Starbucks is experiencing a PR storm in China as well after state television did a 20-minute piece on how they're ripping off the Chinese consumer. Same deal in Thailand -- the Starbucks coffee I've had here is watery and smells burnt, and it's considerably more expensive than in the US. There are so many good, comfortable coffee shops and cafes throughout the kingdom that sell quality northern Thai coffee for no more than 40 or 50 baht. Why anyone goes to Starbucks is beyond me.

STARBUNG FOREVER.

Initial story pretty unclear, but in the US if you hit anything from behind you're usually the one at fault.

"Man made tourist attraction".

Do I smell a casino?

Or maybe a 200 foot tall concrete rooster?

I'm gonna be up all night dreaming of the possibilities.

I had a heart in mouth moment last week. I took the bus from Phuket bus station to Satun and it made a stop at the checkpoint, like they all do but this time a policeman came on ( something I've personally, rarely seen )

He checked a few bags and saw me ( only foreigner on bus ) came straight to me and asked for my passport. I was shitting myself because I had overstayed. It was only two days but still I thought it was going to end bad. Luckily for me he opened it, looked at the main page and then the dates on the departure slip which said July 15th 2013 funny enough and gave it back to me. If he had a mind to check it closer he would have noticed my overstay but thank God he never.

A lucky escape indeed and will I overstay again in these risky times? No bloody way that's for sure!

I had a similar occurrence two years ago. Was driving through through the south with my girlfriend, en route to Hat Yai for a flight to KL, while on two weeks overstay (please no lectures; it was the only time I've ever done it). We were stopped at a police check point in Khuraburi... The lovely officer gave me quite a hard time, more than I've ever received from Thai police. He looked straight at the most recent visa and said, "Tourist huh? You working too?" But either he didn't look at the expiration date or thought the "use by" date was the expiration date. I thought for sure I was about to see the inside of Khuraburi jail. But no, my LOS angel must have been watching over.