Shaunduhpostman

Maybe in 10 years or so his health will fail and Thailand will have someone else at the helm, but really its all moot if thats what it takes to remove him. Really Thai people are wiser than westerners who think elections have any relevance any more, just let the figure heads  rot and condemn themselves by allowing them to carry on, democracy rah rah, yeah! And according to the Pentagon and the US NAvy, last week,the aliens are here anyway, so your true overlords have arrived, no worries! Game over!

19 minutes ago, pollyog said:

Having just scoured many Thai government websites etc it would appear that an NonO and a NonO-A visa are the same thing if either has been subsequently used to obtain an extension of stay, so all of us long-term farangs must have the health cover for our next renewal as far as I can tell.  

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.

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."

52 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

That's why domestic ACH transfers thru BKKB NY to Thailand basically are going to die...  But wire transfers from the U.S. to BKKB NY and onward to Thailand are going to continue without any changes at all.

Thanks for input T.G. John, helps a bit. I did call one of the brokerage houses a few hours ago and ask. They were as clueless as I was. They were like, "There's no reason what we've been doing before wouldn't work. No idea why they would send you a letter. Don't worry about it. But you will have to try it as the ultimate test, no guarentee what worked before will work anymore, but it should."

I don't know if they are ACH transfers or not from my broker to BKKB New York. Though seems I recall being uncomfortable that an operator I was talking to about doing  a transfer was calling what i wanted to do a wire transfer. The reason being that half the time the brokerage won't send me money I've requested because they say they won't do an international wire transfer. Seems i recall they said, "No, even just sending the money from the brokerage house to BKKB New York is a wire transfer, it doesn't have to be international to be called that." They have been happy with the loophole of sending money to BKKB New York, mostly, but seems like it is a grey zone to them whether that constitutes an international wire or not and some staff refuse to do it.

I just received today the very same letter posted earlier in this thread. I read it 4 or 5 times trying to glean whether there was anything I wasn't understanding because what they seemed to calling new rules or a new procedure or format (whatever they mean by that)  did not seem in any way different from what my broker has been doing all along.

They say that the new format requires that the name of the recipient, his BBK account number and Bangkok Bank's New York Branch routing number be given. OK...so..., how else is the broker supposed  to get the money to me if they don't have that information? Seems very square one basics just to do the transfer. Makes me feel that there is something I am supposed understand that isn't stated directly. I hesitate to just leave it at, that we're already doing what they want. it doesn't make sense to me, seems they want me to take some action that I haven't taken already in the past. That they wouldn't come out and say specifically and clearly what they want from me would be par for the course in Thailand, so you are left wondering what are they really trying to tell me.

Do they mean that I have to ask my broker to submit a special form to the National Automated Clearing House Association with the info they have stated the NCHA needs?

No doubt those cheap air refreshenizers available in grape, cherry, fruit punch and sugared pine are no less damaging to your health. Seems to me I remember having been to restaurants where they had cartridges of chemically smelling room refreshener rigged up to the misters on fans turreting back and forth making sure you and your food smell like some kind of cheap perfumy candy. Seems that many Thais feel that food in general smells bad, my wife seems unduly bothered by the smell of my and her own meals. So, perhaps the heavy incense keeps the owner, staff and many of the customers happier.  I'd probably take incense over the chemical room reshreshants, nothing refreshing at all about them, they smell like bug spray if you ask me so I can't imagine they are healthier than Thai incense. I'd order take out if the food were that good, so much more relaxing to eat at home than 90% of the restaurants anyway, no hassles with being ignored when you want to pay, when you'd like to see a menu, when you'd like to order, and like you say there is no awareness and/or concern with people's health and safety so its just better to get your food and get out of their/harm's way.

Any excuse will do, banks just don't want to return your money. Had it happen to me with one of my Thai banks. Same thing as this guy, I went out of my way to go into the bank and get the all clear before going to Singapore and also take some cash out just in case. Try to use the atm in Singapore and nope...no can do. Luckily, my room was prepaid for and I had enough cash to get by, but still...if you have to carry cash, it mostly defeats the purpose, does it not? What if you don't want to have any cash stolen? For me it is not a problem, I used to even go so far as to pack a dummy wallet with nothing of value in it  to lure people in the wrong direction. Even had the dummy wallet stolen once, so maybe it worked. People can find smaller less scary targets than myself to mug. But,  when I went back to the bank to get an explanation they said, "Oh...well...that's because you are using an old card with a magnetic strip. Those cards are very poor security." And I said, "Oh, so I should just have to sleep on the street or whatever because your own cards don't pass your own security standards? Brilliant. How about if I use another bank as my main bank. How secure is that in terms of keeping 'your' money out of someone else's hands, ie another bank? You guys are geniuses." Now that I use another bank as my primary bank, specifically because my old bank  assured me that I could use my card to get money in Sinagpore and turned around the very next day and denied me access and weren't answering the phones because it was a Sunday, I still go in to let my new bank know I'll be using the card abroad, and are there any new restrictions or anything I should know. There is always a  hassle with that, some clerks are not happy to consider what I am asking suggests, and you know what happens when you do that in Thailand,  that I would even suggest there might be a problem, or there is incomprehension, or just not listening to the question the usual in Thailand when dealing with any complications.

That said, its not only banks, it seems more and more services, be it simply a website that uses the technique of just denying you access a few times before giving it to you after a prolonged tick the boxes of photos that show traffic lights hassle. Its is very clear in some cases which photos have traffic lights and which don't. But you will be told "no thats incorrect, try again." More Orwellianian, right is wrong and wrong is right, freedom is slavery and slavery is freedom. This is how we are being trained.

More and more you hear about or even experience the situation where the hotel  room you have paid for via any of these online room booking services flat out refuses to honor the paid for booking. You can read many stories about it on Trip Advisor and other online travel sites . One Singapore hotel told me that I had to show them the actual email on a mobile device with the actual email with all the pretty graphics, otherwise sorry, we do not accept your simply reading off the correct booking number. I asked them, "OK, then, do you have a room being held for a person with my name for tonight and the booking number is correct?" Surprisingly they admitted that "yes, we do. And yes that number is correct" Oh my god, what possibly could the problem be then, I thought. How completely mind blowingly ridiculous.  So I asked, "Do you have a problem with my ID or something?" "No, it looks fine." "Did you recieve payment for the room?" "No we did not." "Well, why not? The booking service I used took my money." "Oh yeah, they are so bad! Why you use those things anyway. "Well you use them apparently, I could ask you the same thing. Shall we call them and ask them where your money is for my room?" Then suddenly it was, "OK, sir. The room key deposit is 50 dollars." I gave them their 50 dollars deposit and that was the end of it. So what if I hadn't said that I was prepared to call the online booking service? Oh well, in that case, you're just stupid then, so you don't deserve to have the room you paid for. Its becoming that kind of world and there is nothing in the media about it, we are too under seige by Russian hackers stealing the election from Hillary after she stole it from Bernie for that to matter.

Richard Dolan's intelligent and immensely informed two volume history (clocking in at nearly 2,000 pages of cases and discussion) of the much documented US military, government and intelligence agencies' cover up is a good place to start for anyone who thinks perhaps there is something to ufo's.

But if you don't have the time or interest this is Dolan giving you a few of the stronger cases and arguments for the existence of a coverup  10 minutes:

Also, this is next video is a document of probably the most compelling assemblage of witness testimony in existence on the topic of ufos given to the US Press in 2001. Steven Greer invited an international group of witnesses from government, military, cutting edge physics, science and research, air traffic, radar operators, pilots, NASA insiders, nuclear weapons facilities workers, the US moon missions to give public testimony on their experience with ufos to the US press. Most of which was not reported. This two hour video is not even half of it. There is a whole book of the transcripts called Disclosure that does provide all the testimony and much of it is on Greer's Youtube channel under his witness testimony videos.

This is Greer's statement about the conference:

"On Wednesday, May 9th, 2001, over twenty military, intelligence, government, corporate and scientific witnesses came forward at the National Press Club in Washington, DC to establish the reality of UFOs or extraterrestrial vehicles, extraterrestrial life forms, and resulting advanced energy and propulsion technologies. The weight of this first-hand testimony, along with supporting government documentation and other evidence, will establish without any doubt the reality of these phenomena."

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.

An old song that I just made up sung to the tune of Purple Haze by Jimi Hendrix,

That brown haze was all in my lungs

I can't do nothin (about it baby...) so I'll chew some gum

Actin funny and I sure know why

someone just sprayed mollasses right into my eyes!

That Brown haze is all around

don't know if the tourist arrivals is up or down

Are we happy or in misery

whatever it is that gogo girl put a spell on me!

Help me baby!

Help me baby!

Help me, yeah, yeah...

oh.... brown haze

I think I'm goin outta my mind!

...brown haze....

The reporter's and the newspaper's sense of what the problem with air is in the north, that it smells bad, is the complaint you usually hear from Thais. I am not trying to Thai bash here but just give some constructive criticism and insight.

To me, every time I hear that, that "oh the air smells so bad,"  just says to me, right there, that that particularly common comment is an indcator of much of the whole problem, the sense that it is as trivial as air simply smelling bad for a few minutes. Yes, it is cultural, Thai culture has a way of being very vocal about bad smelling people and klongs, etc. but to me that seems to be the problem, the tendency to see air pollution as just something that is an annoyance and not much else. We don't put sanctions on people and fine people for farting, so why should we we punish people for burning things and particularly when there is no garbage collection service or any public dumps or recycling so that garbage has to be burned among all the other things that are burned and which emit smoke. You can hardly blame people for burning down entire forests if burning things is A-OK and by necessity has to be as there is no support for farmers to deal with their crops otherwise and no alternative for many rural people whom the Thai governments will not provide waste collection or even dumping sites. So, seems that the problem has a lot to do with lack of public awareness about what air pollution and smoke does, that It is not an issue that is solved by putting a bunch of chemical air refresheners that smell like artificial cherry and grape up all over town or running some mollases spraying drones a few times a year. That burning garbage is not a solution to waste disposal. Last year the Prime Minister was out there saying that businesses will now have to get rid of their own waste on site which seems to be a way of saying, burn your garbage don't expect govt services to come and collect it.

Just for starters, as to what exactly it means when we say air pollution is unhealthy, WHO says that for every 10 point notch up in air quality index you have a 1-3% (or thereabouts) death rate increase from cancer and heart disease. So at aqi 150 where much of say Isaan is much of the year, 15% of the people will die from air pollution and countless others will suffer serious impairment to their life quality, cancer, chronic life long respiratory illness. So that's 300,000 people in this area alone and lets shave off 100,000 because air pollution is not at a high enough level everyday. Though in some areas of Isaan, which are not monitored the smoke is thick and chokingly bad for several hours when all the people burn trash and others stuff in unison as they are won't to do. 

Even diabetes risk increase and hormonal disorders have been been linked to smoke inhalation, not to mention that not only the lungs but the entire body is exposed to pollution via the blood stream which carries the particles throughout the body. The WHO who is rather light on health disorders because they are kept on a leash by the global industries/polluters they ultimately serve has much info with an extensive page on air pollution.

https://www.who.int/airpollution/en/

Let your English speaking Thai friends and family know about it next time you hear the "oh...smells so bad." complaint. There are many really excellent colorful posters for download with good info graphics that are very informative in quick short  sound bite style. Good for English teachers to help their Thai students become more aware and improve their English to boot.

To quote Metallica from their song "Enter Sandman":

"Exit: light. Enter: night...Were off to never never land."

55 minutes ago, owenm said:

I'm surprised that the health authorities and hospitals haven't released any figures yet on premature deaths and respiratory admissions over the past month due to the toxic air up north.. 

 

It wouldn't surprise many if attributed deaths were quite high particularly for the vulnerable groups, elderly, young children and those with chronic health issues.. As well as the effects on normal healthy citizens breathing this toxic air 24/7.. 

A few years back, there were reports in the news of there being so many people with serious respiratory issues due to smoke from the burnings that the hospitals couldn't deal with the load, 20,000 cases of people having to be hospitalized in the north alone I think it was.

20 years ago this would be believable enough to cause some jaws to drop, obviously Thailand has seen the end of the road for this kind of thing sometime ago, maybe that's the point. But make the air hostesses pasty white, chubby, with push up bras and bad nose jobs buried in their phones and petulantly demanding, "You want in-flight meal?! You give me tip or not give you! 300 baht!" and Korean and Chinese translations in the ad and someone as credulous as myself may have fallen for it.

Thaivisa, please, you really are tempting fate with this one, or worse even risking giving the good people at the ministry ideas should any of them happen to read this.

Free speech is more often than not permitted. Kinda weird if people have to look to Uncle Donny to give them permission. I thought being right wing was all about being tough and independent of government. As a side note, I find it hard to swallow that Uncle Donny genuinely would stick up for free speech, that he would say stick up for people who wanted to present the facts on the background of the situation in Venezuela, in contradiction to the bald faced lies that the MAduro election was illegitimate and that opposition was locked out etc to take one example, or say the many decades long history of US disallowing democratically elected "leftist" governments, even bombing their central governments to kill whole cabinets and prime ministers, or god forbid, even questioning or discussing the 9/11 events and the compromised rights of privacy and the radically boosted powers and rights of corporations and intelligence agencies from that followed in the wake of those events. Not much allowance in this world for say freedom of speech and critique of Trump's choice to lead the regime change in Venezuela, the already convicted war criminal Eliot Abrams. Seems to me he would just as soon label people who wanted to talk about those topics a national security threat if push came to shove, if they became too well presented, publicised too many uncomfortable facts, were omni-present, and popular and began organizing real political platforms around campuses that meant actually something other than "Why can't I use the N word?" or whatever the problem right wing students have that they can't talk about. Groups that created a real opposition with platforms that might say something along the lines of: "The CIA, NSA need to be drastically curtailed, the meddling of these agencies and the war they have waged on their own people for decades is not worth the so-called security they claim to provide, the events of 9/11 need a thorough investigation, the war criminals who duped with the complicity of the media the entirety of NATO into a war for oil on false premises need to face international war crimes trials and if found guilty punished. The corruption of the US political system needs to be rolled back with no corporate contributions allowed and drastic penalties and effective monitoring of government organizations and their funding activities. People's privacy must be respected and must not be used a means to fund a new world economy based on data mining people's privacy, an economy that benefits almost exclusively hidden operators with no public oversight. That until these serious flaws are addressed there can never even be so much as a hope for democracy and there will never again be healthy economies or ecosystems." No, people who deal with exposing all that, the Julan Assanges and Chelsea Manning's etc are criminals for dealing in such realities, yet Trump and the media he is supported by do better at their game of creating pinko hobgoblin leftists and socialists out of thin air. Most of the meaningful critiques and positions of the day are either ignored, derided, or when push comes to shove called out as security threats. Clearly Trump and his ilk disallow much free speech and have no right to talk about and put on this ludicrous mummery about protecting students' freedom of speech. It is rather tiresome and nauseating this kind of disengenuous badly done hoaxing.

Old news if you watch the global air pollution reports. Not only that, stations in the Chiangmai Mai area 2weeks ago, day after day were reporting Aqi in the 500's until they were switched off. No matter. I was drinking and chatting with a long time Hong Kong and Tokyo ex-Patrick and he already knows it's not possible to be worse than those places, he's ready to plonk down for a big house to retire and relax in. it's the problem with everything these days, enough people are in denial of reality so things get exponentially worse everywhere, It's an affront to most people's pride to admit that anything is wrong with anything.

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.

15 minutes ago, JaiLai said:

<deleted> are you on about?


Sent from my iPhone using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

Thanks for enriching contribution to our forum sir! Enjoy your day, krap!

Back in the 90's, I had many excellent flights between Korea and Los Angeles and Korea, Taiwan and Thailand. I remember having pretty nice wine and comfortable seats and being able to watch, on one trans-pacific flight, Men in Black  which, for a Hollywood movie, was at least semi-interesting. I was impressed and would have continued flying Thai but other air carriers badly undercut their rates offering better value.  But just two years ago coming to and from Nepal on a specially priced 10,000 baht round tripper was literally bullied and abused by staff for little to no reason. On one leg of the journey, I had momentarily lost my passport, it had somehow fallen out of my pocket, and as it eventually transpired, had gotten under the seat and been inexplicably moved under some kind of metal plate they had mounted in which barely enough space for the passport to get under had been left. So after five minutes of rummaging around, the flight attendant asked me what i was doing. I said my passport seemed to have fallen out of my pocket, that I had taken a look at it when I had just got to my seat and that it must be around somewhere, and without even the slightest offer to help she quite brusquely said, "I'm sorry about that sir, but please sit down. Why you worried anyway, you can just get another passport when we get to Thailand." Completely ridiculous and inconsiderate solution and I said calmly that I didn't think immigration would like it too much if i were to arrive without my passport could you just give me a minute, I'm sure the passport is right here and she took offense to the perceived criticism, "Why you say that!? You just tell them you lost your passport on the plane, it is just an accident, a mistake, of course they understand that? Why you think something so bad about Thai police  like that?" And I probably unwisely sassed her right back, "Come on lady who are you kidding?" And she went on her way doing her rounds. I sat down and the Nepalese guy sitting next to me began helping me and he was the one who miraculously found it under the aforementioned metal plate using his flashlight to be able to find it. It took quite awhile to extricate it using a pen to get under the plate and push  the passport out from under and again she didn't care. "Sir, I already asked you to sit down! You are blocking the aisle. If passengers want to use restroom, they cannot get by. You need to get into your seat." I replied, "well, what do you think? That I won't get out of their way?" It meant nothing that not only had I found my passport but it was under their metal plate that was a feature of the seat they had assigned me to at the absolute back of the plane in the very last row and that I need 30 seconds or so to solve the issue.  Again she wouldn't  even so much as listen to what I was saying let alone offer to help. She probably didn't like my fashion sense or the shape of my nose or whatever and thus didn't deserve minimal help or concern. There was no turbulence or even a fasten your seat belt sign on either making it a clear necessity that one be seated. It was just raw naked passive aggression. And when I got off the plane, surprise, surprise, I was apprehended by airport security, searched and when they found nothing incriminating told "Sorry, na, but my co-worker here (a guy) thinks you're a sexy man and just wanted to get to know you better," and off they went snickering and high fiving on down the hall and into the distance.    I would guess the air hostess set the search up. I have never been searched before or since coming off of a flight. And further to all this, rather incredibly, on the flight out the male flight attendant referred to me as "madame." When he did it a second time, I asked, "Why are you referring to me as madame? Am I clearly not a male? You know that the English word madame is used to refer to women, right?" He just gave me a long look and said, "Yes, madame." It makes me laugh to think about now but was quite humiliating at the time. The thoroughly enjoyable ting tong retired Japanese ex-Zen monk bloke who wore one of those Bell bicycle helmets making himself look like some kind of Kabuki actor sitting next to me was also incredulous, "Yeah, he calling you a lady! Why he do that?! Haha...oh...And you have the beard and moustache!Thai people...they really crazy, isn't they! Haha!" Tangential to all this, I asked the ex-Zen monk why he was wearing a bicycle helmet and he said "I like ride the bicycle! Haha! And anyway, I think maybe they will crash this plane! Haha! Safety! Safety! You should always wear crash helmet when you walking or in home! In Thailand and Nepal have many things fall on your head! Haha! Nepal has many earthquake!" I told him I had to admit but he was a wiser man than most for wearing a Bell helmet everywhere and why did he stop being a Zen monk?" "Haha! I'd rather drink beer! And ride bicycle! Haha!" I said sincerely impressed, "Oh wow. That is actually quite profound. I think you must have achieved liberation. Congratulations! And how very fortunate to be sitting next to you! Maybe that's your path, eh?" "Of course! Haha! Its my path! Haha!" And then the flight attendant continued with whatever game he was playing and made a point to refer to me as madame two more times, once when there was no need particularly to even speak to me. "can I get you another drink madame?!" I wasn't drinking anything, The guy was actively provoking me just for his own amusement. I would guess I wouldn't be the first passenger Thai Air staff have gone out of there way to mess with, so in addition to sometimes extortionate ticket costs and now a less generous baggage allowance because they want to cut corners rather than fix their problems, I for one have to consider how I will also be mistreated because I don't follow their unspoken regulations about hair length, fashion choices  and body size, nose length and degree of pointedness or who ever knows what their issue with me was I'm perfectly well behaved, bathed and manicured. Perhaps they also need to specify perhaps printed out on a poster with explanatory diagrams and posted at the check in counter, that ones appearance if not meeting certain specifications ie, that one not be over 6 foot 3 and weigh less than 250 lbs, that ones nose not protrude further than 3/8's of an inch from the extrapolated plane of one's face and the maker of one's eyeglasses not be a sponser of Thai Air that one  will not be eligible for basic respect and courtesy from cabin staff without a 10% upgrade fee, they new "basic courtesy" add on.