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Shaunduhpostman
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Posts posted by Shaunduhpostman
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Looks like marriage visa applicants will skate by for now, I see that an O-A visa is a retirement visa and an O visa is a marriage visa. If Ubon Joe or anyone can confirm that O visa holders will not have to worry about the insurance requirement.
I'm all for being repsonsible and having the ability to cover, but of course the main problem is grappling with deliberately unclear rules and other rules set to benefit the insurance companies and stiff people out of their money and the disconnects between immigration and embassies issuing visas, and the inevitable bunglings because its new rules and procedures and oh sorry sir have to go back your country its the mistake. Or going to the bank to get the policy and "Sorry no have."
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As I always mention in the why-the folk-is-wine-so-folkin'-expensive-in-Thailand threads, you can get something probably half of you would like better than Jacobs Creek at most TESCOs. They still have a real grape wine in several varieties, Shiraz, Cabernet, Merlot, Chardonnay that sells for 345 baht a 750 ml bottle. I forget the name, but it is only available at TESCO and has a Kangaroo on the bottle. Its rather shockingly good for 345 baht which is what I bought it for last week at TESCO in Khon Kaen. Unfortunately, the TESCO in Roi Et nearer my home does not sell it, they stopped carrying it and just about all but a few brands of fake fruit wine. That may be the situation at many TESCOs but there are some that have the kangaroo wine, much better than Jacobs Creek which I find a bit vinegary and boringly one dimensional, a borderline rip off for what, must be 600 baht by now. Another option if you are in Isaan is to go over to Laos and drink plenty of wine which is nearly normal price. I like going over to Savanakhet there are some decent wine shops there and some decent accommodation if you know where to stay. Also, in Bangkok I recently discovered a restaurant near Soi Cowboy called Barcelona Gaudi Restaurant. They have reasonably priced carafes of Spanish wines in some amount of variety. Their website does not list the prices but I had some unforgettably good wine there and the Catalan food also is excellent value and everything I have ordered from tapas and soups to Catalan style canneloni were just delicious. The food menu is quite large, a real education in Catalan food and Spanish wine.
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Agreed that it's probably just part of their job to check things, but I have been wondering about the IO's on the way out since one guy back in September at Don Muang questioned me about what I was doing in leaving the country every 3 months on a multi non-O and coming back as opposed to what he seemed to feel I should be doing, renewing my stay at internal immigration.
When I handed the officer my passport, he rifled through my passport impatiently back and forth shaking his head. "Many, many visa....Why you don't do in Thailand?" Rather than complain about the state of things regarding immigration too much I mentioned the main reason I do that is that for Kalasin you must go all the way to Nakorn Phanom immigration, much closer Khon Kaen does not handle our area, its closer to go to Laos and I said also its very clear what I should do also if I want to continue my stay in Thailand by leaving every 3 months on a multi non-o. I did not want to drone on and on about their own lengthy list of requirements which are ridiculous, mainly that even if i did go through the gauntlet at Nakorn Phanom I would still be faced with having to travel up to Nakorn Phanom to file the 90 day reporting which makes the whole rigamarole of an internal renewal stamp completely pointless. The officer was polite enough about it but still didn't seem to get it or believe me that Nakorn Phanom is actually further and with no direct transpo service from Roi Et whereas to Mukdahan/Laos transpo exists in my area and he laughed and said, "OK, you can do, but why go out all the time, no need, no need! Go to Laos too far, go to Cambodia very far away." He stamped me out but then asked my wife about it as well.
The guy was reasonable about it enough, but just the fact that he is questioning me about what he admitted himself is allowed by immigration as though it were odd and almost not acceptable makes me uncomfortable.
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23 minutes ago, Briggsy said:
That is arrest. The OP was just denied entry. I am confident his personal items were not taken. (He was online!) He was just not allowed to pass Immigration and would have had his passport temporarily taken away.
It is all in Thai. So only Thais and Laos can read it.
Yes, but, that was my point that it will potentially cause the guy problems at friendlier Thai land border crossings. Agreed it won't effect going to other countries.
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Additionally nasty is the fact that they have written the untrue comment about insufficient funds in his passport. Until the guy gets a new passport other immigration officers may see this comment and not be well disposed towards other legitimate entries in the future. If the mentality were towards fairness, I'd suggest that the OP try again at a border crossing to show he has sufficient funds and say there was a mistake at Don Muang and could he please have the entry deleted and signed in his passport. It might be worth giving it a go anyway, especially if the officer the OP meets at a land crossing seems helpful, intelligent and non-xenophobic/embittered/hostile etc. I have met such officers, even at Don Muang, so may be worth a try-.
Its all a worry, even for people such as myself who have been here for years on marriage visas, in theory at least, immigration can do a no questions asked denial of entry. They set precedents for this kind of thing by not even checking a guy's details and denying entry on incorrect assessments. But in the end that is culture here, it is acceptable to be nearly completely oblivious to details, to rules. Up-to-you/me is the real rule. And I have no problem with that other than I don't like it, it is their country and their karma if they want to treat visitors, foreigners and their own citizenry this way. It is negative and destructive to Thailand and there are many good Thai people who would also disapprove of this kind of treatment and have been through similar things with bureaucrats and officials. Nakiat chung loei! But as far this case, the rub is that embassies and consulates are unwilling to even suggest that a visa is only one thing, is only really a kind of an application for entry into the country, not a ticket. For those of us who stay here and travel here frequently there is no excuse for not knowing that, but in all fairness Thai consulates and embassies should have warnings or disclaimers or even say an information sheet explaining how to be a successful entrant into the country, especially for people who are relatively new to all of this. Unfortunately, if they were honest in such an info sheet we'd find items like, "Stay out of the sun and apply skin whitening creams for at least a month prior to entry. Immigration officers often have a bias against against brown and tan skin tones." Even omitting such items, admitting there is a significant rate of people flying all the way out to Thailand only to be turned away held in detention would no doubt set them up for criticism and negative publicity abroad of course, so they ain't goin there. So we all have to pay our money and spend time in a hassle for visas and pretend it lets us into the country. It would make an interesting documentary to interview embassy chiefs of staff about cases such as the OP's and ask them what they think about it and what they think people are paying thousands of baht for and queueing and waiting days for, that don't they feel any responsibility to publicly call out immigration for creating problems for their clientel, ie, paying visa applicants?
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19 hours ago, xylophone said:
Would be interested in your feedback...…...
Be glad to post it right here on this thread, Mr. Xylophone.
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Alrighty then, I'll have to keep an eye peeled next time I'm in a decent wine section for the Gran Monte wines. Hopefully they are below 700 baht.
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On 10/16/2018 at 9:28 AM, Dumbastheycome said:
Not sure if this topic is still alive but I came across an item that contains some very interesting information.
Seems like it is not only the consumers are being rorted by the applied assumption that wine is an eliteist beverage that the rich can pay for.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/marlborough-express/business/rural/7265344/Making-quality-wine-in-tropics
Haven't heard of Gran Monte wine, if indeed that is the name of the wine this family produces. Anyone know the name of the wines they make, would be interested to try them.
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I think I am developing a new pet peeve
13 minutes ago, xylophone said:Just ad a closer look at these Shaun and I was right...………..their wines priced at around 399 baht pb have fruit juice added and it states that on the back label, whereas those priced around 600 baht and up do not, and different description on the back label.
Cunning stunt if you ask me!!!!!!
Ugh...I think I can safely say that at this point I have developed a new pet peeve: fruit wines mixed with grape. In a few weeks tho' I'l be in Bangkok before going to Indonesia for my annual break from Thailand. I am looking forward to getting a few bottles of good value real wine to enjoy in my hotel room. Can you recommend good shops for wine in Bangkok? I have always gone to Villa but seeing as you are so keen on wine you might have some better suggestions, especially with regard to sales or better prices and/or selection in general.
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On 8/26/2018 at 11:09 AM, xylophone said:As I have posted a few times before, I have bought and can still buy Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot for about 308 baht a bottle – – real wine and a good everyday drinker.
This particular supplier only supplies the restaurant and hotel trade, so I got in with a friend of mine who is in that business and I order some wine through him on occasion and when these specials come up, I am in there like a robber's dog.
Such opportunities are out there if you make the effort to seek them out and capitalize upon them, and I am now doing that with three distributors and will never have to buy an expensive wine here again, even though I do have another source from whence I can buy some very good top-class Australian, French and SA wines at much reduced prices, for the occasional treat.
Not boasting but just stating that there are options available to everyone whereby one does not have to buy crap, or pay a lot of money for a very average underrated drinker.
No, its not boasting, actually it is a heads up that it is difficult but actually possible to drink wine at sort of semi-reasonable cost. I guess you must really like other aspects of life in Thailand otherwise I don't know why you would bother with this place Xylophone. If I am not mistaken Vietnam is good if you like wine, Vietnamese like it and respect it. Buying wine shouldn't be work. I would think you could have a much better wine drinkers life over there. But of course Thailand may have other aspects that make it worth your while if for nothing other than a good place to carve out a wine sellers niche, particualrly if you know how to source it at reasonable prices. When I was in Jakarta working for a year, many Jakartans who enjoy their wine, or back then they did, got around a similar outrageous wine tax by creating wine cooperatives. Wine was considered the worst kind of alcohol by the Quaran or other Islamic protocols, so seeing as Indonesia has been leaning more to fundamentalist end, people are shying away from wine probably. Anyway, there were these clubs that you'd join and get wine at OK but still more expensive prices than you would in any wine producing country. An Indonesian co-worker of mine offered to get me bottles at what was the price for wine in Thailand, way cheaper than noraml prices in Jakarta. I just felt that, no, better not start, next thing I know I'd be paying 50 dollars a bottle for 5 dollar wine because Johannes was not around when I needed a bottle. I settled into a routine with Bali Starck which is a very nice beer brewed in Bali by a German ex-pat, Bali Starck, they made a dunkel and a wheat beer then and now have a few others, probably one of the top beers in Asia and for not much more than a Singha. Anyway, that might be a way for people to go here, do a wine club and buy wine wholesale at cost.
I'm just now realizing what may be up with the surging wine prices and the virtual non-availability in Isan. The fact that this very nice Gallo Chardonnay I enjoyed last night which cost 457 baht and yet is listed as a 45 baht wine by the manufacturer on their website says it all. Thats four five, forty five baht suggested retail price and certainly available for less at most supermarkets in the U.S. I figure that wine could easily be available to all for 80-90 baht here if it weren't for all the loads of taxation and gouging by middlemen. For the buzz alone it surpasses beer singha and at speculative 90 baht a pop in Thailand thats cheaper than two large bottles of beer singha and coupled with how it was actually fantastically nice, then we can see how the Thai alcohol industry has a problem if not for the tax on wine.
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4 hours ago, CanuckThai said:
I was at an Italian restaurant for lunch in Khao Yai last week, 300 baht (plus tax and 10% grat surcharge) for a glass of generic red house wine (fruit or grape who knows)....
300 for a glass, yes, I believe it. Sorry to say that but thats what things have come to. But I was referring to .75 liter bottles of "Rolling" at 300 baht as too good to be true.
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3 hours ago, xylophone said:
They have a range of wines...…...some are real wine and the cheaper ones here are mixed with fruit juice.
Really doesn't matter though, if you like it.
Charles Strong is also a fruit wine and I have tasted it and it is ok. Seen it for 299 baht in Tesco Lotus
Yes, I was able to find the Charles Strong bottle I had and check it, you're right. Perhaps you're right about Rolling as well. I definitely thought, this is too good too cheap to be right. Though they don't exactly talk up the fact that some of their wines are actually mixed pseudo-grape wines, it doesn't seem likely you can get real wine for 300 baht in Thailand or some god forsaken place like Roi Et. So many of the fruit wines had this almost standard looking indicator on the lower right corners of labels, so I was looking for that, not finding it and thinking I had real wine. Now I see that we have to read the entirety of the fine print to find whether a wine is grape wine or not. What a life in 2018. Dionysus/Bacchus probably has a special place in hell for people like me who don't take drinking seriously enough to read the fine print and then drink fake grape wine. Haha...
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Rolling appears to be a legit wine, as in made with grape juice. Given the list prices listed on this site, 300 baht is a great deal. Makro was also selling Hoegaarden wheat beer for 250 (Now back up at 280, still cheaper than most places) for a large bottle which is also 80 baht cheaper than everywhere else. :
https://www.cumuluswines.com.au/range/rolling/
I'm not sure Rolling would be getting any attention from what appear to be serious wine reveiwers if they were an imitation wine:
http://australianwinejournal.blogspot.com/2010/05/rolling-shiraz-2008.html
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2 minutes ago, xylophone said:
I think that's "Rolling" or "Chasing Clouds" and I believe it is wine mixed with fruit juice...…..stated on the back label on the top with wine description.
Yep, Rolling...thanks. Pretty sure its real wine tho, maybe I'm mistaken. I just checked to see if I couldn't find the empties and double check, but haven't bought the stuff in two weeks so no empties around anymore.
Makro has another cheapish one called Charles Strong that tastes better to me, but I think its back up around the 400 mark, 399, actually I think.
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Makro Roi Et has the best deal I've seen in Thailand on regular non-fruit juice wine. 70 baht cheaper than World Wines was, no longer being sold by TESCO. 300 baht for 75 cl's or either a generic red or white from Australia, don't remember the name its got an 18th century looking painting of a lady riding a bicycle. Slightly strange taste, tolerable, as though there's been vitamin tablets added to the wine, goes away after the first glass. I'm happy with it, but as seemingly all things I find in supermarkets here that I really like they end up being a one off and are never sold by the supermarket again. I have a theory that if things sell too well they won't re-order because its too much of a pain to keep re-ordering.
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I too have had the problem twice at Don Meuang, not at Suvarbhumi or Laos border. It is a practice I have long kept, to check the stamp immeditaely afterwards. What I wonder is why is it suddenly an issue, never had the problem before. You don't want to be asking immigration to do anything for you either, they might have a bad reaction to your asking to have the 30 day entry changed to 90 days. Some officers get upset if you hand them your passport open to your data page, so you are already treading on eggshells.
Good suggestion by Overherebc that you mention you'd like 90 days as you hand them your passport, perhaps that will help solve the problem. It seems it is a thing in Thailand that people run around assuming what it is you want or that what you want is not important at all, so best to mention you want 90 days from the get go.
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Being concerned about anything is generally not encouraged or valued, so that is where it starts and ends. That attitude developed for perhaps good reasons, so I am not bashing Thailand and I like the attitude as much as it drives me nuts at times. For the most part Thai institutions care little about the health and welfare of their own, patriotism and xenophobia are an easy substitute so caring about tourists is a non-starter. If you stay here long enough, you'll see the problems in these areas are ubiquitous, its not just about boat safety or common sense about not venturing 2 kilometers inside of a cave or all of the issues connected to tourism. People here are allowed and not generally criticized for doing things that fly in the face of cause and effect or even harm others who are uninvolved. Thinking ahead is seemingly discouraged as well, a whole book could be written on what goes on here and why and what could be done if anything.
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I wonder what they mean by street fighting. Fighting in the street? Really? Who would do that? You'd get run over by a car before you got into much fighting in the street.
If there were sidewalks in most places then ok, sidewalk fighting, but is that relevant, theres no scope for that kind of thing usually.
Or how about a fight in a parking lot, is that a street fight? Or out of sight in a parking garage?
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4 minutes ago, darrendsd said:
They don't offend me, they are just rubbish
"Tourism is not that important to the economy period"
Really??
The 2014 total is estimated to have accounted for 19.3 percent (2.3 trillion baht) of Thailand's GDP
And that was 4 years ago, just a quick search will probably reveal it is more now, i'm sure I read a while ago it is around 22-25 % now
If you really think that tourism is not important to Thailand and that Thailand can afford to lose 20-25 % of it's GDP you must live on another planet, no country in the world can afford to lose 20-25 % of it's GDP no matter where it comes from
Tourism IS important to Thailand, very important, the % it generates of it's GDP prove this
Those figures seem to me to be a bit on the higher side compared to what I have seen, where are they from? At any rate there is such a variation in how much it accounts for the economy I'm not sure it matters. If they are actually as high as you say here then OK I'll give you that that it is important to theh economy. Seems to me I have seen it as 8-13% at best from non-Thai sources. Thats what I based my remark on. I don't think you can go by what the TAT says or other government entities, obviously they may have a stake in the figures being as high as possible.
Thanks all the same then Darren. I appreciate this kind of reply as opposed to your initial one.
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49 minutes ago, lkv said:
It is important, about 13% of the GDP. Numbers go down, the people on top get sleepless nights. Seriously.
True, but they only liked our money anyways. Most of the smiles are not real. This is not new. But there is an anti foreigner vibe coming from the current administration. All people read in the newspapers every week or see on Thai TV nowadays are negative examples of arrests, raids, crimes and so on.
They want tourists, but obviously the more money they have the better. See the TAT commercials for the luxury HK market, Elite visas and so on.
I agree with all of your comments. If I am not mistaken 13% is at the upper end of the estimates I seem to have re-called seeing.
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34 minutes ago, darrendsd said:
Apart from your first paragraph probably the biggest load of rubbish I have read on this forum and considering the amount there is that is saying something
No it isn't saying anything other than you don't like what I and many others have to say on TV. Who cares, Darren. Who cares what is rubbish to you and what isn't. If you have a different perspective on topic then by all means share it, that is what a good post is about not simply lashing out at people's opinions that personally offend you or what ever the problem is.
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Just sayin, but Penang has never been a good place to get a visa. I nearly didn't get my visa for work back in the 90's there.
Another thing is that trying to go by the book and do things in the most secure way weirdly backfires in Thailand. Thais fly by the seat of their pants without complaint, so they probably don't get why anyone would go to the trouble of getting a visa, probably looks suspect to them like you are looking to be putting on airs once you arrive, flashing your tourist visa in the halls of influence and what not, which is ironic since they are the ones offering a visa, so why would they offer something that only dodgy people will take. And like others have noted, they can just as easily deny you entry if you have a visa as they can with the visa exempt stamp.
They don't want to give tourist visas any more either, for the most part. One month is all they want to allow with the visa exempt stamp, and its been that way for about 6-7 years. You can also convert a tourist visa into a non-B, so there is probably some irrational assumptions that you are coming to Thailand to try and work, god forbid. Again, its their rule that you have to have the tourist visa, yet if you play by that rule its like, "Ah ha! Gotchya! You dirty rat!"
Tourism is not that important to the economy period. We can get stuffed and to be fair the amount of stress we cause the locals just by being here, most of them in Bangkok and Pattaya anyway despise us, you have to wonder if the benefit they get is worth it. BAngkok Thais for sure mostly would rather never see another foreigner as long as they live. Though I often fantasize about Thailand just trying it on, just walling the country off and see how they like it. They should do it I think. No tourists, no foreigners here at all except very high level business and diplomatic people, the rest of you out! Thats what the people with power and influence want they should just do it.
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The wine to be had in Laos of course is without the tax we have here. It may get down to that, more excursions to Laos just to spend a weekend drinking nice wine.
There's a shop in the old downtown Savanakhet area that has a good selection of wines from most of the world's wine producers tho with an emphasis on French wines. I do enjoy that aspect of my yearly non-O run, getting a nice bottle for about half of what it would be here and enjoying it by the Mekong.
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13 minutes ago, xylophone said:
You are right Shaun...…..no fruit juice added and a bit of a swigger, but at least it is wine!
That's all I ask, a weekly swigging. I prefer it to Jacobs Creek actually...you really wonder tho if the price gouge on the TESCO World Wines is just around the corner.
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Mandatory health insurance for foreigners aged over 50 in Thailand - why it may not affect you
in Thailand News
Posted
I have the same worry, that there will be some kind of conflation of the two visa types, though I don' think it would happen via the way you are suggesting. The ask for proof of insurance would be happening at the embassies issuing visas and I can't imagine that the embassies would have info from immigration about whether we have used a plain O visa to get an extension of stay. Typically, Thai govt branches don't cooperate much. What seems strange to me is that they don't just ask all long term stayers to get insurance, why the focus on retirees? Seems there would be more money in charging for insurance from people below 50. My guess is that very soon, without missing a beat, they'll just throw the non-O long termers in with the retirees. I suppose it is better to just put all this on the back burner till we get reports back of what is happening to people when applying at embassies. Not too nice to have to go all the way to some embassy not knowing anymore what will be required, but rather Thailand in modus operandi as usual.