Peterbilt

15 minutes ago, DaRoadrunner said:

Of course Thailand currently has a love affair with the Chinese tourist. Never mind, we must have tourist revenue.... and risk dying as a consequence. What price tourism?

Thats exactly the Chinese way to do it.
They will be accepting the death of ????? people just to keep the tourist Baht rolling in.

21 hours ago, TimBKK said:

What places are on your list, if you don't mind saying?

I will get my pension in Euros (AKA: Mickey Mouse currency, thanks to Mr. Draghi), this means that I have to retire in the Eurozone, so southern Spain and also the Canary Islands are the most possible retirement spots. My only concern is that those {deleted} eco facists gain the same power in Spain as they already have in my country.

2 hours ago, Brer said:

You should only try between 4.00am and 6.00am.

 

You can TRY.
But you should be able to run, run very fast.....
At that time there's no more traffic slowing down those "pedal to metal" maniacs, so Somchai tries out what he can squeeze out of his Isuzu pickup.
You should also listen if you hear a motorbike engine screaming at high revs because that bike will be where you try cross the road in a second and may hit you. Happened more then once in Patts.

18 hours ago, FritsSikkink said:

If they have a decent pension or saved money, yes

Well, I will have both, but I never even thought about retiring in Thailand.
Retiring date will be Jan 31st in 2025, so just 5 years left.
But thanks to the developments in my home country I'm already looking for a place to go in 2025.
But Thailand (and the rest of Asia) is not on the list.

On 1/22/2020 at 3:34 PM, Traubert said:

Safe in the bars. All you get there is earache off all the ex-seals, CIA, FBI, Delta Force, Chicago Police etc.

Never met one of those. But I did meet plenty of wealthy real estate agents, leading bank managers and an abundance of CEOs....
The latter often discussing business strategies while sitting at those concrete table and having a bottle of LEO from the nearest 7/11..... ????

1 hour ago, Khun Paul said:

Expensive, poor customer service, useless staff, any more ??

 

Add almost unedible food, cheap drinks and bad lounges in BKK.
Unfortunately TG is the only carrier that flies nonstop from FRA to BKK.
Yes, there's also Lufthansa, but they have a 2-2-2 abreast in their business class (thats why I call it premium eco). I insist on a single seat when flying intercontinental, so LH isn't an option for me despite much better catering and service (compared with TG, not other airlines!)

1 hour ago, petermik said:

Simply untrue....T.A.T figures confirm tourism is on the increase with big spending Indians arriving in their droves   

Correct. This can ONLY be fake news news. Where is that anti fake news authority when you need it??

1 hour ago, BritManToo said:

AirBnB were reporting a 74% vacancy rate for their properties in Phuket earlier this week.

Good news. I remember that one BM here blamed AirBnB for the low occupancy of Phuket hotels.

1 hour ago, Mavideol said:

before commenting on the Baht being to strong she had to blame something else...they don't learn fast enough, last week end or early January something must have happen and the USD/Baht reached 30.36 but 1-2 hours late it went down to the same trend of low 30's, Chinese will not come because the Yuan/Renminbi is at 4.37 baht it used to be around 5 baht, economy in China not doing well, Chinese will travel to cheaper/better places, Thai government will have to lear the hard way

Possible scapegoats:
- Volcanic eruption (affects air traffic) on Luzon Island / Philippines
- Global warming
- Good old brexit
- US/China trade war

Four options to choose from, I'm sure one will fit the TATs needs.


Anyway, the new year started with good news about the tourism crisis in Thailand and those good news keep on coming.

6 hours ago, Beggar said:

About 10 years ago they planned a Monorail for Pattaya already. If I remember correctly we also had public busses and bus stations for them. Do they still exist? 

Yes, thats true. I don't remember the actual routes, but those buses came in red, yellow and green colour, each colour for a specific route. When I was in Pattaya (I was and I am there only for vacation) those buses were almost empty. A few of those bus stops still exist, at least on Beach Rd.

METV = Multiple Entry Tourist Visa

35 minutes ago, Straight8 said:

How exactly is it well known other than if you're a member of TV or know someone on TV???

 

Is it displayed when you purchase a ticket to Thailand - No, Is it mentioned on your Visa application form - No, Is it stated as a pre-requisite on your TM6 form when entering the country - No again.

 

So unless you frequent these forums or know someone who does, how the <deleted> are you meant to know this BS?

 

Wouldn't it at least make sense to have this requirement stated on your Tourist visa application form???

 

At least the embassy at Berlin adds a small note to the visa that the amount of 20,000 BHT or equivalent in foreign currency has to be available in CASH when entering Thailand.

You wrote, that the IO told him that he gets rejected because "he stayed Thailand too mutt".
So, how long did he stay in Thailand during his previous trip?

1 hour ago, TroyC said:

Just landed at DMK a couple of hours ago. The queue for immigration was very short, took only 20 minutes to wait. In the last 12 months i have had one VE, 2 tourist visas, and entered today on an METV. Did not even get questioned by the IO, was bricking myself after reading all the recent comments regarding DMK, but it actually felt more relaxed today than my last entry thru Swampy.

Would be nice to know where the 2 SETV and the METV had been issued. May be there's a connection between the country where the TVs have been issued and the chances of denial at DMK or BKK.

56 minutes ago, Penefattore said:

but holy crap , if I don't know how much is "too long"  how can I plot my trip back to Thailand ? This uncertainty has potential devastating consequences as many previous visitors are scared to come back

Absolutely. I'm one of them. Cut down the number of trips for this year from 4 to 2.
Next year? Uncertain if I visit Thailand. I'd like to have a vacation there and spend a few 100,000 Baht doing so, but I have to fear to be treated like a criminal by some IOs just because of a few stamps in the passport.

31 minutes ago, onera1961 said:

The same way you plan your trip when visiting other countries. Just ignore Thailand and think you're going to Japan, Singapore, or Hong Kong. How r u going to plan your trip?

Sent from my JKM-LX2 using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app
 

I don't know the visa regulations of the countries you mentioned, but before I plan another vacation in the same country again, I will surely check if my plans are according to those countries laws.
But if you look for a time limit there simply is none in Thailand. It would be pretty easy for an embassy to deny a back to back visa application or for the immigration denying an extension of visa exempt / tourist visa if the applicant has already spend the maximum allowed time in the country.
But thats logical western thinking which does not fill any pockets......

6 minutes ago, david555 said:

could avoid all those lost money etc. by taking the most simple visa …. much cheaper and no risk to be refused entry , why never thought about that ? 

Thats correct. I just prepared the paperwork for the SETV application, will bring it to the post office on Thursday.
If I get the SETV its a better chance to make it into Thailand, if the application gets declined there's always the option for cancellation.

16 minutes ago, BritTim said:

My gut feel is that you would be OK entering with an actual tourist visa with that history. Entering visa exempt would be risky. The immigration official is going to get the notification that you have 5+ visa exempt entries since around the middle of 2015 which qualifies you for enhanced scrutiny. There seems plenty of evidence that you are denied entry visa exempt much more readily than when using a visa.

 

Absolute security would be flying to, say, Vientiane, entering by land, and taking a domestic flight from, say, Udon Thani (less than an hour from the Thai border after entering from Vientiane). That is obviously a real hassle.

Thanks for your opinion. Flying to another place than BKK would mean cancelling the flight. In this case I would not go through all that hassle with entering by land and then using a sh*tty domestic airline to go to BKK / DMK.
It seems more wise to me to cancel the upcoming trip (and also the one planned for later this year), forget about the cancellation fee for the flight, the loss of the deposit for the rental condo and also the loss of my suitcase with clothes stored in that condo building. That would all add up to about 2,500 Euros, which is not so much more than a last minute oneway ticket back home.
But in the case of the cancellation I will be staying safe at home and and won't be treated like s*it by some IOs.
Time to really intensify my search for alternatives to Thailand.

After reading this thread I got a bit nervous about my upcoming trip in May this year.
I'd like to stay 24 days on visa exemption.
The problem may be the history that the Immigrations database will bring up:
2015: 103 days in Thailand, 4 trips in total, 3 on VE and 1 on SETV
2016: 76 days in Thailand, 3 trips in total, 2 on VE and 1 on SETV
2017: 74 days in Thailand, 3 trips in total, 2 on VE and 1 on SETV
2018: 88 days in Thailand, 3 trips in total, 1 on VE and 2 on SETV
No back to back visa / VE, no overstay, no extension of VE/SETV, all SETV issued by an Thai embassy in Europe.
Left Thailand on December 1st, 2018.
There's also an unused SETV sticking in my passport. I wanted to fly to Thailand by February 28th, but Thai Airways did mess it up completely, so I had to cancel.

Male, white, 58, will be flying in business class with Finnair and using the BFS Premium Service.
May it be a good idea to have a fully flexible ticket back home in the pocket, just in case that the IO has a bad day or not yet reached his rejection quota?