Power of Farang! Celebrity English teacher claims improvements on the way at Suvarnabhumi

[plwch]

Hands up all those with "Permanent Residency".
 

[Magenta408]

I don't like this header and the wording. The 'baldy' seems to think his rant will make a difference. It will not. Customs Officers have a difficult job at hand; dealing with numerous incoming passengers and some of very dubious motives for entering the country. These are difficult times everywhere and "farang power" does not carry much weight in my humble opinion. To promote tourism, intelligent people listen and promote tourism in the best manner possible. 

 

Edited July 29, 2019 by Magenta408

[damascase]

50 minutes ago, Magenta408 said:

I don't like this header and the wording. The 'baldy' seems to think his rant will make a difference. It will not. Customs Officers have a difficult job at hand; dealing with numerous incoming passengers and some of very dubious motives for entering the country. These are difficult times everywhere and "farang power" does not carry much weight in my humble opinion. To promote tourism, intelligent people listen and promote tourism in the best manner possible. 

 

Customs officers have absolutely nothing to do with this.

[wisperone]

I think that was a typo error. Mr. Biggs wasn't called into immigration, it was emigration that invited him in for a little chat. All's well that ends well????

[Denim]

8 hours ago, webfact said:

"We are very aware of the situation."

 

Yea, looks like it.

[JemJem]

Well, of course, time will tell if there will be improvements.

 

I have been quite lucky till now at Suvarnabhumi. Only once, I waited for a really long time (it was around 45-50 minutes, I think) at the Immigration queue. I think the second longest time was just under 30 minutes. On average, I would say that my waiting time till now has been around 15-20 minutes.

Edited July 29, 2019 by JemJem

[emptypockets]

Who the hell is this guy? Famous? Another bald headed farang. Dime a dozen here. Even the wife asks me why. I cannot answer. Why??

[timendres]

12 hours ago, webfact said:

" "All's Well That Ends Well" - airport 'kerfuffle' leads to positive exchange, possible improvements at immigration". 

Emphasis on possible. He can stop sweating now.

[hotchilli]

18 hours ago, webfact said:

He said that he met Pol Col Choengron Rimpadee, the deputy commander of immigration who explained the situation.

Explains the change in tune !!

[Fex Bluse]

6 hours ago, emptypockets said:

Who the hell is this guy? Famous? Another bald headed farang. Dime a dozen here. Even the wife asks me why. I cannot answer. Why??

I have nothing against him. Don't know him personally. But I do try to support fellow farang whenever possible. We only have each other. 

 

He is so popular primarily because he speaks Thai and has tried at least publicly to assimilate to Thai culture. 

 

Almost no farang do this at all (and I don't blame them). So the Thais really love it. You know, a farang 'wai-ing' and other such Thai custom. 

[emptypockets]

14 hours ago, plwch said:

Hands up all those with "Permanent Residency".
 

We all do.....just not in Thailand.

[emptypockets]

27 minutes ago, Fex Bluse said:

I have nothing against him. Don't know him personally. But I do try to support fellow farang whenever possible. We only have each other. 

 

He is so popular primarily because he speaks Thai and has tried at least publicly to assimilate to Thai culture. 

 

Almost no farang do this at all (and I don't blame them). So the Thais really love it. You know, a farang 'wai-ing' and other such Thai custom. 

Fellow farang? 555

That old myth again. It simply does not exist except in the minds of some TVF posters. A lot of comments on here about people getting ripped off more by the 'fellow farang' than Thai people.

He may be popular in your world. 99.99% of people in Thailand have never heard of him. Me included.

[simon43]

99.99% of people in Thailand have never heard of him. Me included.

 

Perhaps not you, but I would hazard a guess that most (yes MOST) Thai people have heard of him and seen him speaking Thai on the TV news programmes.  He's a very popular teacher.

[emptypockets]

6 minutes ago, simon43 said:

 

 

 

Perhaps not you, but I would hazard a guess that most (yes MOST) Thai people have heard of him and seen him speaking Thai on the TV news programmes.  He's a very popular teacher.

You are entitled to your guess.

But you would be wrong.

Popular teacher amongst who? Maybe amongst the tiny farang population here. Not amongst Thai people I can assure you. Quick survey of wife, family and friends. Nobody has heard of him.

[Sonhia]

Simple fix, stop the boring P.R BS, get immigration officers to man all the booths, increase the holding area, supply much more and better ventilated cool air plus free drinking water and seating for those with difficulties standing for such long periods of time!  If Thai want to give a good first impression and stop loosing face, they should consider looking after their guests with much better facilities, respecting the fact that visitors made the effort to visit Thailand, spending a lot of money plus time to get to Thailand, and in many cases travelled for many many hours, which is very taxing on the body especially on the elderly, sick and young. Show respect and stop treating visitors as CATTLE, as though they are indebted to Thailand!! Thailand is not the only place to visit on this planet! Tourism is very important plus a major life-line to Thailand, visitiors are very important, but the continuing disrespect shown toward foreigners plus the biting of the hands that feeds, will simply fuel the continuing fall in tourism.

 

If you visit a restaurant and received bad customer service, would you consider recommending or visiting that restaurant again? I for one would not!

[canopus1969]

17 hours ago, buanmeerugsaa said:

How do non-permanent residents (such as elderly retirees) go about doing that?

Who does one speak to?

Are there automated gates at airports other than Cobra Swamp ... such as Chiang Mai?

Sorry I only use Swampy when entering Thailand.

Ask Immigration about using them, I had to complete a form initially

[bluesofa]

10 minutes ago, emptypockets said:

You are entitled to your guess.

But you would be wrong.

Popular teacher amongst who? Maybe amongst the tiny farang population here. Not amongst Thai people I can assure you. Quick survey of wife, family and friends. Nobody has heard of him.

I suppose it's down to what they watch on TV. He isn't in any soap operas. He was on Channel 3 teaching English.

If you read the newspapers, he has a weekly column in the newspaper we can't mention.

I seem to remember the Ministry of Culture gave him an award for excellence using the Thai language. He was the first ferang to receive the award.

[legend49]

He claimed that the number of officers would be increased from 800 to 1,000 and there would be 12% more counters in use. 

 

Total BS. Anyone can claim that's the Thai way. Doing it is different that is sustainable, more than 2 weeks.

[fusion58]

On 7/29/2019 at 12:30 PM, webfact said:

A well-known Australian living in Thailand who complained about the long queues to get into Thailand has said that improvements are on the way. 

Sometimes a simple "attitude adjustment" can work wonders. ????

[lamyai3]

22 hours ago, emptypockets said:

You are entitled to your guess.

But you would be wrong.

Popular teacher amongst who? Maybe amongst the tiny farang population here. Not amongst Thai people I can assure you. Quick survey of wife, family and friends. Nobody has heard of him.

Try another survey of your wife and her friends - how many famous expat farangs can they name, period? Famous solely for their activities within Thailand that is - you'll probably struggle to produce any kind of list at all. Hollywood celebs and people famous internationally who've had some sort of past association with Thailand don't count.

 

Andrew Biggs is widely known here for his TV stuff in the 90's and his long standing articles in the Bangkok Post. As a columnist he's a decent and witty writer, but his style is gently sardonic - he's not a social justice warrior and doesn't pretend to be one. Backing down on this issue was inevitable due to his injudicious description of the airport as "hell".... but he did at least raise a discussion about the long queues in the first place, and then cooperated with the Thais towards a face saving way out. Sounds to me like he knows how to navigate the culture, recognised he'd overstepped the bounds a bit, and after taking some heat tried to make the best of it with a public correction. 

[drbeach]

7 hours ago, lamyai3 said:

Try another survey of your wife and her friends - how many famous expat farangs can they name, period? Famous solely for their activities within Thailand that is - you'll probably struggle to produce any kind of list at all. Hollywood celebs and people famous internationally who've had some sort of past association with Thailand don't count.

 

Andrew Biggs is widely known here for his TV stuff in the 90's and his long standing articles in the Bangkok Post. As a columnist he's a decent and witty writer, but his style is gently sardonic - he's not a social justice warrior and doesn't pretend to be one. Backing down on this issue was inevitable due to his injudicious description of the airport as "hell".... but he did at least raise a discussion about the long queues in the first place, and then cooperated with the Thais towards a face saving way out. Sounds to me like he knows how to navigate the culture, recognised he'd overstepped the bounds a bit, and after taking some heat tried to make the best of it with a public correction.  

Well he's right and educated Thais complain about such things just as much as he does (and the rest of us do) and still nothing gets done. I know this because I am fluent in Thai like Andrew is and read comments made by Thais on FB and YouTube. Maybe he went a bit too far calling the place "hell" even I would have probably chosen a bit more of a subtle term. As much as I dislike long immigration queues at Suvarnabhumi, I've experienced a lot worse so would never use that term to describe the place. Either way, he managed to get somewhere on this issue. Social media is the way of doing it.

[drbeach]

On 7/29/2019 at 12:35 PM, Dcheech said:

Good job Mr Biggs. Suck it up, get humble and do some Public Relations, 'shill' work for Immigration. That has to help with your VISA status. And no more of those unscripted outbursts ok. Heh.

He has a permanent residency visa so he doesn't have any issues with visas like the rest of us do. Come to think of it, after 3 decades in the Kingdom, why has he never applied for citizenship?

[Isaanbiker]

On 7/29/2019 at 3:39 PM, BobBKK said:

He's the Mr. Biggs of the classic U-Turn (nothing to do with the Immigration 'attitude adjustment'). Well done Mr. Biggs your visa/status is safe.

 Super Farang Mario has finally understood that Kryptonite is everywhere.