US Embassy Bangkok Calls For Americans To STEP Up

[emilyb]

So it's up to you. If you want to go the corner coffee shop and wait for the daily news to see if you're under attack, be my guest. If you want more immediate feedback from your government on how you can help it help you...

I've been here through a coup and an airport seizure and there's been literally zero help. They're fine for adding pages to your passport and what not, and it's nice having friends bring you stuff from the PX, but if the country goes to Hell one day I can't imagine what the US embassy is going to do for us other than issue a belated travel advisory to stay off the streets, which is all it ever does. That's fine, you know where you stand as an American, but the thing is that I can't see how registering with them is going to change their m.o. Are those of you who are registered or plan to register expecting some increased level of service beyond travel advisories and the typical consular services? I doubt it.

[jfchandler]

I'm not going to engage on the political debate on this subject...

But if anyone actually completed or updated their info on the STEP site, at the end, you'd see the following advisory notice:

PURPOSE: To notify U.S. citizens in the event of a disaster, emergency or other crisis, and for evacuation coordination, the information solicited on this form may be made available as a routine use to appropriate agencies whether federal, state, local, or foreign, to assist the Department in the evacuation or provision of emergency service to U.S. citizens, or for law enforcement purposes. The information is also made available to private U.S. citizens, known as wardens, designated by U.S. embassies to assist in communicating with the American community in an emergency.

[Tomtomtom69]

You Americans who are complaining about the cost of passports, extra pages added to your passport should consider yourselves lucky.

Firstly, American passports only cost $125? That's cheap! Admittedly you guys have fewer pages to use than most other countries nationals, but Australians pay more than A$200 for a 32 page passport now, and something like A$330 for a 64 page frequent traveller passport and with the favorable exchange rate on the part of the Australian Dollar, the 64 page passport costs something like US$350!!! Only a few years ago it was A$222 for a 64 page passport (around US$150-180 depending on the exchange rate back then) and look at how much these prices have increased in just over 5 years! Also, Australian and European passports from most countries there (there may be exceptions that I don't know about) do not allow extra pages to be added to a passport. A new passport must be applied for instead, so consider yourselves lucky that you have the option of adding extra pages!

[Tomtomtom69]

I agree with Buckaroobazai and feel sorry to hear about deerpig's experiences in China. Admittedly, China was not as open and had far fewer foreigners in 2001 than now. Now they buy more cars than Americans, whereas back in 2001 the few people that had them usually had drivers, while now they generally drive themselves. I don't know what deerpig did, but it must have been something quite terrible in order for his experiences to be as bad as he mentioned. I don't believe that you would normally encounter that sort of behavior in China because Chinese people know that the consequences for commiting any sort of violent act towards a foreigner are quite draconian. Also, in an extreme case, it is not impossible to encounter the same kind of situation here in Thailand; I have heard of plenty of stories where business disputes between foreigners and Thais have produced such results.

In any case, it's sad that you weren't able to trust the American embassy for help. A better plan would have been to get as much support from locals and other foreigners as you could have during your time there such that if the worst happens, you can trust them to help you. Anyway, without commenting further on what must have been a horrible ordeal for you, I'm surprised at the poor reception you received from the American embassy.