My better half is from Sukhothai and we often visit her family home so I am well known in the village. Today, Mrs CM got a call from her mother who said that the police had been around asking all kinds of questions about me and my better half. They stressed that purpose of the checks was so that they could identify all farangs who visit the area following the murder of a Japanese tourist there some months ago. It seems that in the event of another crime involving a farang they want to know who the local farangs are etc.

This sounded like an odd story and even more odd that the BIB could actually be doing something potentially useful. Anyone else had anything similar happen recently? Just curious to know if this is a Sukhothai thing, national or indeed something else entirely.

And before the smart comments fly, no, I have no reason to fear the police and haven't done anything remotely wrong apart from get fined for speeding last year.

I think I read in BangkokPost this morning , a large amount of farang ( asian ) are black mailing hotels and restaurants , telling them they will go to police because some stolen items ( wallet / camera ) !

That was in Sukohthai, perhaps they bit under stress