If Thailand only offered me a 15 day visa after a long haul flight I can assure it that my money will be spent in a country that had more respect for me. Thailands administration should realise that with all this pussy footing around and messing with the system is it is not the country it was and because of that it is daily becoming less attractive to the world around it and people who are considering visiting. Every country in the world has a record of it’s criminals and every airline provides information on the people who book flights with them so all Thailand has to do is correlate that info with info that upon request could be supplied by police around the world and organisations such as Interpol to keep out the criminal elements long before they even get on a plane. Yes this will require serious organisation and agreements but at least those of us who are simply honest non criminal travellers will be able to get on with enjoying the country we visit without being treated as criminals from the outset of the visit, and really would the info collection and implementation be any more burdensome than the bureaucratic bungling that is going on under the present system. At the end of the day all we good honest non criminals want todo is come to Thailand for a holiday and to enjoy the food and culture without having to jump through hoops, run the risk of being interrogated by a grumpy IO who has not read the rules that he / she should be working from and therein interpreting them in ways that are incorrect, and on top of that having to give my fingerprints and a mug shot for what??? I have never been FORCED to give my prints or a mug shot in my own country nor at any other time in any other country in my long life, so a simple request to my home country will immediately flag up if I am a criminal or not, and as I am not, proceeding into the country should be easy and simple taking no more than a few minutes. Sadly the respect for a person who works hard to save money to visit a country and spend that money is long gone.
