Tourism plunges 22 per cent

[Sturbuc]

When foreigners come to Thailand they are charged far less than Thais lodging in Europe. Foreigners are paid far more than Thais, in general. One would think foreigners would enjoy their position of relative economic power instead of whinging and insulting the local population. There are about 220 countries in the world and all of them have pros and cons of travelling and lodging in them. Either go or don't go, but go with a smile, please. You look ugly when you complain.

1. i do look ugly anyway, but i don't like to be cheated! Have to work for my money.

2. you should not forget the real purchase power in relation to the absolute numbers.

3. double pricing isn't very common in the most parts of Europe (regarding the private sector)

THINK!

[cyborg22]

Whether I like it or not, Thais will always be charged more for most things in farang countries than farangs will be charged for similar things in Thailand. It's not up to me. What is up to me is the maintenance of my spiritual condition. With the right attitude, one can be very happy in Thailand; with the wrong attitude, one can be quite miserable.

Sukeroku

That is a product of the cost of living in any given country and nothing to do with being scammed.

And we are so fortunate that we can take advantage of the cost of living differences due to the gratiousness of the Thais allowing us to live here. Unfortunately, very few Thais are afforded the same priveleges in our home countries. Let your gratitude roar, brothers!

I find that very hard to understand.

In reality thai people have more priveledges in the uk than vice versa.

[DumbFalang]

Good luck to you sir. I hope they aren't disadvantaged by Thailand's substandard, second rate education system.

The education system is the MAIN reason we chose to stay here. My kids are fortunate enough to go to private schools and I firmly believe that I could not get the same level of education for ten times the money in the UK, Australia or US. My girls are treated with a great amount of respect at school and that rubs off on them in a very positive way.

They are fluent in English and Thai, and are well on their way to adding Japanese to their list of languages. Their cousins back in the UK speak slang and, erm, rhyming slang. My kids recently had 4 years schooling in Australia where my two half Thai step sons hung out with the black kids. They were told that in Australia you are either black or white, so as they were definately not white - off they went to the black gang. We experienced Xenophobia on a scale that even the most hard line Thai immigration officer could not hope to dish out.

I have to admit though, my kids have nowhere near the knowledge of drugs that their cousins in the UK have.

You could do what all the Thais with money do and send them abroad to the UK, Australia or the US though.

Been there, done that. I'll pass on that one Thanks

[henryalleman]

Maybe the whiners and complainers should widen their horizon an live or visit some others places than pattaya, soi cowboy, Nana, Patpong, and other expat or tourist hot spots, because that gentlemen(?) is not the real Thailand.

Not all of the "whiners" or "complainers" are sex-tourists or sexpats.

And prostitution, including the very prominent areas that service foreigners such as the areas you mention, are certainly part of the real Thailand, and many real Thais work there.

You can't just pretend the parts of Thailand you don't like are not really part of this country, because they very much are.

I never implied that there was no prostitution besides the expat and tourist hot spots I mentioned. Prostitution and all kind of massage parlors are an part of daily life in Thailand. Personally I don't know any medium sized town in Thailand without numerous massage parlors, karaoke bars or nightclubs. Even in the Chaeng Wattana area where I live there are more than 50 of such establishments, all frequented by Thai, you almost see no foreigner there.

And if you know Thailand as I do you will be agreed that the ambiance and atmosphere is very different than the places I mentioned before.

[Sturbuc]

huskerpr, agree with your comments, I also think the Bank scam of 150 baht for using ATM machines is keeping tourists away. It's been well publicised and is an unnecessary expense for someone on a couple of weeks vacation.

...

Thais have to pay when they withdraw money from an ATM overseas, so why should a farang be the exception when withdrawing from a Thai bank ? Thais get charged 100 baht in most countries, at least most countries I have been to anyway. I never seen the 150 baht ATM issue on BBC/CNN/ABC.. this was not even regarded as news.

You've got it, dude.

Very common to be charged 1 time. But now they charge me 2 times! Check your accout report and you'll find out there's a fee for using the foreign ATM as ever:

27.04.2009 THB 20150,00 Rate 46,706510

- AT 24.04.09 15.18 BANGKOK BANK THA EC-GA CARD

[b]FEE EUR 5,99[/b] EUR -437,41

The Big Scam is there's no chance to get some money back as long as there's NO Receipt for the additional fee!

That last figure is that not what your countries bank has charged you? Not a thai bank.

Well; not really sure WHO get's this fee but it's not my bank. If I'm picking up money within the group i'm free of charge. According to what i've read here, it ought to be the foreign bank (or the clearing site).

[jimjel]

I have been in Thailand for 3 years on a OA retirement visa. For me the answer is simple, when my visa expires in Oct of this year I will not renew it. I will take my marbles and go play somehere else and spend my 40K USD where it is appreciated. It is really very simple, if you don't like where you are, its time to move on.

JJ

[balo]

I was very surprised to see how many people it was inside MBK today , it was actually a big crowd of people , most of them tourists.

3 weeks ago it was dead.

Maybe a good sign ?

[cyborg22]

Well; not really sure WHO get's this fee but it's not my bank. If I'm picking up money within the group i'm free of charge. According to what i've read here, it ought to be the foreign bank (or the clearing site).

If it was a Thai bank it would show you were charged in Baht not Euro,

So it is a farang bank that charged you.

[minxwhale]

I really don't think there were more than 11 million tourists 48 years ago in Thailand. Or 47, or 37, or 27, or 17 or even 7 years ago. What a crock of sh#t piece of journalism.

You are right. I call BULL**** on that too.

[minxwhale]

huskerpr, agree with your comments, I also think the Bank scam of 150 baht for using ATM machines is keeping tourists away. It's been well publicised and is an unnecessary expense for someone on a couple of weeks vacation.

...

Thais have to pay when they withdraw money from an ATM overseas, so why should a farang be the exception when withdrawing from a Thai bank ? Thais get charged 100 baht in most countries, at least most countries I have been to anyway. I never seen the 150 baht ATM issue on BBC/CNN/ABC.. this was not even regarded as news.

You've got it, dude.

Very common to be charged 1 time. But now they charge me 2 times! Check your accout report and you'll find out there's a fee for using the foreign ATM as ever:

27.04.2009 THB 20150,00 Rate 46,706510

- AT 24.04.09 15.18 BANGKOK BANK THA EC-GA CARD

FEE EUR 5,99 EUR -437,41

The Big Scam is there's no chance to get some money back as long as there's NO Receipt for the additional fee!

I have found the solution to this problem. It's only Thai banks charging this. Find a foreign bank like Citibank, Standard Charter, UBS or HSBC ATM. None of them are on the screw the foreigner bandwagon.

Since this fee was charged, I've gone to all of the four aforementioned banks and have never been charged.

[henryalleman]

The scams, the sex trade, the corruption, political upheavals, the double pricing are nothing new and have been around seemingly forever. None of these ever mattered much to the vast majority of the ex-pats who post here nor to the vast majority of the tourists who kept on coming. The problem is that a relatively small group of organized criminals within the financial sector infiltrated the highest levels of the US government, scammed the world, took a lot of money for themselves, and then caused a significant contraction of the money available to everyone else. It is the resulting global recession/depression that has caused the large downturn in tourism, and not any of these trivial pet peeves that ex-pats have been griping about ad nauseum for decades.

correctomundo as the Fonz always said in Happy days

[sukeroku]

I have been in Thailand for 3 years on a OA retirement visa. For me the answer is simple, when my visa expires in Oct of this year I will not renew it. I will take my marbles and go play somehere else and spend my 40K USD where it is appreciated. It is really very simple, if you don't like where you are, its time to move on.

JJ

Fantastic attitude! Set your sails in the wind! Don't sit in port complaining! You are an inspiration, I salute you!

[bunuel]

As a veteran international travel writer, I can safely predict that it will take a lot longer than 6 months to undo the damage done by all the bad publicity the Land of Smiles has gotten in the last year - and, even worse, the bad word-of-mouth from travel industry professionals who no longer consider Thailand a reliable partner after the airport occupation, which had to be unique by any international standards. The fact that those responsible were not only allowed to do it, but now appear to be getting away with this very serious crime is causing Thailand to become a travel industry bete noir. The Foreign Minister and his cronies have succeeded in killing the fatted calf

Tourism hit 49-year low

BANGKOK: -- The tourism industry has hit a 49-year low and is expected to plunge by 22 per cent this year, according to the Tourism Council of Thailand.

Besides the global economic crisis, the country's continuing political turmoil had contributed to the sharp decline in tourism, Tourism Council of Thailand chairman Kongkit Hiranyakij said on Thursday.

The expected number of tourist arrivals had been reduced from 14.1 million to 11, he said.

The A(H1N1) flu outbreak could make tourism contract by three to four per cent, causing the country to lose up to 200 billion baht of tourism revenue this year, he said.

Last year, Thailand gained 540 billion baht in tourism revenue.

"If the government can solve its political problems and is able to host the Asean meetings successfully, tourism should be revived by the end of this year or the beginning of 2010," Mr Kongkit predicted.

However, he said Thai tourists would help generate 430 billion baht in revenue this year.

-- Bangkok Post 2009-07-23

[Sturbuc]

Well; not really sure WHO get's this fee but it's not my bank. If I'm picking up money within the group i'm free of charge. According to what i've read here, it ought to be the foreign bank (or the clearing site).

If it was a Thai bank it would show you were charged in Baht not Euro,

So it is a farang bank that charged you.

Very clever. As my account currency is EUR, finally ALL amounts are in EUR.

But nevertheless i'll try to find out.

[SteveH]

Whether I like it or not, Thais will always be charged more for most things in farang countries than farangs will be charged for similar things in Thailand. It's not up to me. What is up to me is the maintenance of my spiritual condition. With the right attitude, one can be very happy in Thailand; with the wrong attitude, one can be quite miserable.

Sukeroku

That is a product of the cost of living in any given country and nothing to do with being scammed.

And we are so fortunate that we can take advantage of the cost of living differences due to the gratiousness of the Thais allowing us to live here. Unfortunately, very few Thais are afforded the same priveleges in our home countries. Let your gratitude roar, brothers!

I,m sorry but you appear to have a very low opinion of and bigoted view of Europe and Europeans, but these awful Europeans will let Thai's married to their citizens live in their spouses country, buy property, work and earn the same as other citizens of that country, charge them the same prices as everyone else whether from that country or any other country, in the case of my country (England) they can get free health care, would be housed by the local authority if they fell on bad times and were homeless, how can you talk of the same priveleges afforded to Thais ? I don't know if you think all Europeans are rich but if you haven't lived here you wouldn't believe how much it costs to live in Europe.

As I said before Thailand is a relatively good value holiday destination, but there is a whole world out there, Thailand needs to earn it's place as a favourite destination for Europeans.

and

[moe666]

I love thaivisa. In 1960 there were very few American GI's on R and R since there was no Vietnam War. A few advisors in Vietnam but the war didn't get going until 1964 when the Gulf of Tonkin fiasco was played up by the Johnson adminstration to go all out.

I really don't think there is a pronlem for a tourist getting a 60 day visa from the Thai embassy before leaving on the trip. As always if you have multiply tourist visa there is a good chance you are not a tourist.

[johnwills]

For the record, number of tourist visas issued by the Royal Thai Consulate in Hull (UK) between 01 Jan and 30 Jun 2009 are up by 17% on the same period in 2009.

Figures for July 2009 so far indicate they will be up by 15% on July 2008.

Royal Thai Consulate, Hull, UK

23 Jul 2009

post =2890846

I think the reason why the figures are up at the consulate in Hull is that people found out what a great job these guys do there. Look forward to getting my new visa from Hull next month, keep up the great work.

[animatic]

sarcasm is supposed to be the lowest form of wit, But it's fun isn't it?

In the late 1800's Oscar Wilde used the phrase

" Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit"

Of course Oscar could be scathing and witty at the same time.

Those that can master sarcasm may be quite sharp when they are blunt.

While others may only thrash about,

like beating yesterdays moldering turbot against a hitching post.

Sarcasm is said to be a low form of humour as its intent is generally to get laughs at someone else's expense.

The pointed humour may not be funny to the victim, but its funny to those who understand the barb...

This is because sarcasm is a form of humour that is known to require the highest functions of our brains.

Areas of the brain that decipher sarcasm and irony also process language, recognise emotions and help understand social cues.

Sarcasm is related to our ability to understand other people's mental state so it's not just a linguistic form,

it's also related to social cognition.

David Buley, Seaforth

Recent research at the University of Haifa claims that sarcasm is a complex high order skill

needing an ability to understand other peoples state of mind and emotions.

Its low because it targets chiefly the sensitive, inarticulate, unsophisticated and powerless.

Paul Roberts, Lake Cathie

Let's add it ALSO can target the persistently wrong headed insisting that black is white,

and up is down, regardless of all evidence. Or just the ignored obviousness of a fallacy.

"Reasoning that fails to establish its conclusion because of deficiencies in form or wording.

Formal fallacies are types of deductive argument that instantiate an invalid inference pattern."

Informal fallacy; includes

"Argumentum ad hominem :attacking the arguer instead of his argument"

"Equivocation, which consists of arguing from a premise in which a term is used in one sense

to a conclusion in which the term is used in another sense."

"False cause, which consists of arguing from the premise that one event precedes another

to the conclusion that the first event is the cause of the second.

Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit only to those who have never mastered the art,

and those who always fall victim to it.

Adam Pemberton, Sylvania

I see sarcasm as a way to point out the absurdities in an argument or position.

By stating the inverse and showing it's absurdity of logic.

[cyborg22]

I have found the solution to this problem. It's only Thai banks charging this. Find a foreign bank like Citibank, Standard Charter, UBS or HSBC ATM. None of them are on the screw the foreigner bandwagon.

Since this fee was charged, I've gone to all of the four aforementioned banks and have never been charged.

For a start hsbc do charge a fee for foriegn withdrawal, So do the likes of yorkshire bank/barclays/nat west/loyds to name many others, Including nation wide who have just recently introduced the charge.

As i said before a Thai bank charge will be shown in Baht not Euro.

[ericthai]

Before you start making claims you should make sure you know what you are saying.

1) Cut 30 day Tourist Visa to 15 days. (this is for entry, not visa and only at land crossing)

2) Raise the prices on visas (what??? they made the tourist visa free..)

3) Cut down, or cut out, visa runs for longer stays. (this was abuse by people not following the rules)

4) Blatantly have two-tier pricing for farang and Thai (it happens in other countries too..don't like don't go there)

5) Have people walking down the street with their families, including children, being accosted to buy sex merchandise. (the govt does not promote this)

6) Have motorbike "gangs" that deliberately target farang on motorbikes, especially at night, to beat & rob. (give me a break on this and the rest of your comments)

7) Have women proposition men on the beach for sex, and when they refuse, the "boys" move in to beat & rob him.

8) Raise the price of rooms in hotels to outrageous levels, while cutting the services down to practically nothing.

9) Besiege people from the moment they clear customs at the airport with "taxi pimps" who try to steer you to their taxis that refuse to turn on the meters, and will even tell you that the hotel you are booked into burned down last night, but they will take you to another one just as good, but have it turn out to be worse, but cost you more.

10) Have blatant scams in the airport that accuse people of stealing, and then forcing them to pay huge sums to be "cleared" of the charges and let go.

And this doesn't even include all the political B.S. that goes on.

Oh, Yeah, Thailand, you're really encouraging the tourists - to go someplace else!

[Asianatic]

Most of the news coming out of Thailand at the moment is BAD news ,young boy drowns in Pattaya fun park ,woman arrested for stealing beer mat, king power fiasco at the airport .

now much of it is actually the fault of the tourist ,such as the woman was drunk and abused the police but the papers do not report it that way ,now the Danish govt are warning tourist of scams and corrupt police in the airport .

The tourists are few and far between here in Pattaya and if they think its all going to be O K in 4 months ,well then collectivly they are burying their head in the sand and talking out of their a-ses.

Yeah, tourism will increase by the end of the year - that's for sure. In the west we are setting up fake western villages complete with saloons to attract tourists. Where in the world can tourists experience a real gunfight ?

Phuket has so much to offer for the tourist !

[Busy]

Nothing positive at all to say.

I guess most of you guys have been here for a while?

The first two weeks is great when you com to Thailand even the first couple of months even a year if you are traveling from place to place. And you really do see the Thai smile.

But when you settle in one place and people get to know your face you don’t see the smiles any more.

I kind of realized that Thai people only smile when you are handing over money.

We moan and screw, but why are we still here?

I guess we must be scared of what’s out there as for when we first came to Thailand we only herd good things.

[animatic]

Whether I like it or not, Thais will always be charged more for most things in farang countries than farangs will be charged for similar things in Thailand. It's not up to me. What is up to me is the maintenance of my spiritual condition. With the right attitude, one can be very happy in Thailand; with the wrong attitude, one can be quite miserable.

Sukeroku

That is a product of the cost of living in any given country and nothing to do with being scammed.

And we are so fortunate that we can take advantage of the cost of living differences due to the gratiousness of the Thais allowing us to live here. Unfortunately, very few Thais are afforded the same priveleges in our home countries. Let your gratitude roar, brothers!

It has nothing to do with privileges at all.

No one affords anyone the cost of a lb of Sugar,

it is what a lb of sugar costs to make, transport and store.

in a given location. Some locations have easier requirements for such.

It is purely the effect of economics and partly weather patterns.

Costs in general are higher where you MUST pay for heat.

In general all costs are higher where staple products are harder to import

and bring to market. This is no conspiracy against Asians or Thais specifically.

It is JUST economic realities.

One thing you never grasp is the many foreigners come here,

BECAUSE THEY DON'T MAKE ENOUGH MONEY TO HAVE A GOOD VACATION AT HOME...

Not because the make so much money they want to lord it over the locals.

There are also in Europe many people making what a Thai might think of as a huge paycheck,

YET at home this persons STANDARD OF LIVING is quite similar to a struggling Thai's,

they just must pay MUCH MORE to be at the same level of struggling.

If you went to France and demanded to pay the same as you pay here for a lb of sugar,

the seller would be LOSING money. As opposed to charging extra, like too many places here,

because you believe the person is richer than you, and foreign, and so MUST mistreat

Thais back at home because they charge the cost of buying something there to a Thais,

same as everyone else there.

I have seen Thais were I come from for 35 years.

Many were doing quite well. But many leave because

they can't stand the cold, not because Americans don't

let them in and give them special privileges.

They get the same shake most people get.

More Thais leave from snow than anything I know of.

Edited July 23, 2009 by animatic

[looping]

Unbelievably I've read a couple of PRO-THAKSIN comments!!!?? I MEAN REALLY UN-F######-BELIEVABLE. He SO doesn't care about Thailand AT ALL. Grrrrrrrrrr, makes me so angry. Oh hang on...yeah; "yai yen yen, mai ben rlai"...that's better, now I'm thinking like a Thai!

Sounds like someone has been drinking Sondhi's right wing elitist drivel...

Right on man! Cos Thaksin isn't elitist at all, he cares for the people, not himself at all, he just wants to help the poor ...HAHAHAHAHA...!

sarcasm is supposed to be the lowest form of wit, But it's fun isn't it?

Oh yes, especially after a hard day at the office, just what the doctor ordered! On a serious note I just can't believe that anyone on this forum (who can read and write English) actually still supports Thaksin in any way, really I just can't believe it unless...maybe...no just not possible. But then...he's rich...and he can help us become rich too, he said so, and I believe him... he seems like an honest guy...he's just a victim :D back to reality...when he was in power this post would have to have been deleted to preserve the very existance of this website, some people have such short memories! blah blah blah chok dii cap, off to bed!

[Sturbuc]

I have found the solution to this problem. It's only Thai banks charging this. Find a foreign bank like Citibank, Standard Charter, UBS or HSBC ATM. None of them are on the screw the foreigner bandwagon.

Since this fee was charged, I've gone to all of the four aforementioned banks and have never been charged.

For a start hsbc do charge a fee for foriegn withdrawal, So do the likes of yorkshire bank/barclays/nat west/loyds to name many others, Including nation wide who have just recently introduced the charge.

As i said before a Thai bank charge will be shown in Baht not Euro.

Well, i'll quit this discussion for now because it seems to be bound to nowhere. Just to say now i'm charged twice by the same system!

THINK

Edited July 23, 2009 by Sturbuc

[CrossBones]

huskerpr, agree with your comments, I also think the Bank scam of 150 baht for using ATM machines is keeping tourists away. It's been well publicised and is an unnecessary expense for someone on a couple of weeks vacation.

Also, whatever the rights and wrongs of the British couple scammed at King Power fiasco, the fact is they both belonged to the section of clientele that the TAT is aiming at, and most people sadly DO believe what they read in the papers.

When times are hard, people are much more inclined to do some research before spending a large amount of their income on a holiday, and almost all of the recent news about Thailand is extremely negative.

On arrival, there are reports of tourists being scammed by taxis.

Wherever a tourist goes, he is expected to pay double the price when sightseeing.

The police have a worldwide reputation, of being at best unreliable, and at worst, similar to the mafia.

Hotels also practice double pricing, and I've seen several reports on here of them increasing their charges, due to a lack of customers.

Finally on leaving Thailand, a tourist has to negotiate their way through being possibly accused of theft at King Power, and being incarcerated while Tony negotiates their release.

Why would anyone, who's never been to Thailand, want to come?

Why bother to go on and on about all this. We all know about this, but posting it here is a waste of time.

Someone should step up and file complaints to the government or TAT or something on behalf of expats and tourists. Its not such a crazy idea. The government departments and offices within each department are so badly organised they dont even know what problems they are having.. how are they going to understand our problems?

George should have a useful links section on here with names of offices to write suggestions and complaints to...

Hopefully this should stop people whining in the forums so much - its really a waste of time, no offence intended ive done it too!

[CrossBones]

How on earth Mr Kongkit can expect Thai folks to spend 430 Billion baht, based on the above figures, frankly beggars belief. Apart from trips organised by the local temple, (where the folks on holiday stay in a temple, not a hotel), this is the first holiday any member of my wife's family has been on, apart from those I paid for.

You've just answered your own question.

OOOh you're very quick, and catty too!

I should have phrased it better.

The only holidays my wifes' family have been on, were 9 years ago, which cost a total of around 5000 Baht, for three days, and one trip to Singapore for my mother-in-law, as a treat, for my visa run, a couple of years ago. I do not expect to be paying for any more holidays in the future, so I won't be contributing to Mr Kongkits wild economic fantasy.

You are of course welcome to contribute to the "holiday for WeeGB's Thai family" fund, - cheques payable to Bank Of Nigeria.

I think youll find the Thais spend a LOT of money when on holiday - you wont find many Thais staying in fan rooms and if you go to top resorts, especially spas - mostly Thai tourists there

[capt_canada42]

I really don't think the tourism decrease can be attributed to the polical unrest and swine flu. Maybe to a small degree, but not to an all time low. I think this government needs to look at several items.

The exchange rate for the baht is horrible

The prices for lodging and services is becoming outrageous. $100 a night for hotels in Thailand. Please

Thai Air is probably one of the highest priced airlines going in th world right now.

ANd then there is the problem of gaining a visa, dual entry, just not conducive to the tourist.

As a farang married to a Thai lady, the fact that they are making it harder for us to buy property or transferring money just to support our wives and children has alot to do with why go to Thailand? They have made a very unappealing place to come to.

The Thai governement needs to wake up and smell the coffee, there are places such as Vietname to visit that are just as nice and far less expensive same with the Philippines. Thailand is pricing and governing themselves out of the tourism market.

I hope someone from the government is listening.

I hope someone from the government is listening. Man that is just to funny !!!!

[Frankster]

I believe it was one million tourists back in 1981 ............ 49 year low ???

[henryalleman]

Whether I like it or not, Thais will always be charged more for most things in farang countries than farangs will be charged for similar things in Thailand. It's not up to me. What is up to me is the maintenance of my spiritual condition. With the right attitude, one can be very happy in Thailand; with the wrong attitude, one can be quite miserable.

Sukeroku

That is a product of the cost of living in any given country and nothing to do with being scammed.

And we are so fortunate that we can take advantage of the cost of living differences due to the gratiousness of the Thais allowing us to live here. Unfortunately, very few Thais are afforded the same priveleges in our home countries. Let your gratitude roar, brothers!

I,m sorry but you appear to have a very low opinion of and bigoted view of Europe and Europeans, but these awful Europeans will let Thai's married to their citizens live in their spouses country, buy property, work and earn the same as other citizens of that country, charge them the same prices as everyone else whether from that country or any other country, in the case of my country (England) they can get free health care, would be housed by the local authority if they fell on bad times and were homeless, how can you talk of the same priveleges afforded to Thais ? I don't know if you think all Europeans are rich but if you haven't lived here you wouldn't believe how much it costs to live in Europe.

As I said before Thailand is a relatively good value holiday destination, but there is a whole world out there, Thailand needs to earn it's place as a favourite destination for Europeans.

and

And in the EU they can even vote for the local elections after 5 years living. Their children can get go to government schools even high school, a thing that Thailand even deny to his own tribal people and the many Burmese living and working legally in Thailand,and even attend a government school is not possible for foreigners.

My wife arranged that an Burmese girl could go to school, but they told my wife that even she was allowed in school, she will never get any certificate or diploma.

Any European political party who like to put the Thai rules for foreigners in their program would be banned out of political life accused of racism.

Sometimes I did wish my own government had the same courage as Thailand it would have saved us from many of the social problems we are facing now in Europe.