boomerangutang
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Posts posted by boomerangutang
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2 hours ago, StevieAus said:
You really must learn to read the post before you reply I never said I didn't check I said I have never had a problem
Anyhow you win the prize for having the most problems
Goodbye
I'm seeking solutions to stickler issues. I also also give advice which may help others avoid problems. You seem to be just sitting back and saying, "''never had a problem."
It's akin to a person who has an allergy and is seeking assistance. Another person says, "I don't have an allergy like that, so you're just making problems for yourself."
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52 minutes ago, StevieAus said:
Never had a problem
I assume you're saying you've never had a problem with Thai Imm. That's great for you.
I have probably dealt with Thai Imm more than you, and over the past 20 yrs, there have been times when I've caught them making mistakes. Usually, those mistakes are unwitting (and fixed right away), but sometimes the mistakes are conscious. I could get into detail, if you want.
I have also dealt with Thai lawyers who have made mistakes, but that's another topic.
All in all, it's always good to check your new passport rubber stamps as soon as they're given. If you trust Thai Imm officials to such an extent - to never check or question what they do or say, .....then you have a different modus operandi than I, and problems could ensue.
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45 minutes ago, StevieAus said:
Never had a problem
Good for you. Are you saying you never had a problem trying to get a VIP 'day-pass' or you never tried getting one, or....?
I'm saying the VIP pass was available most of the time (except when Thai gov't had conniption fits about something a Burmese official said) ....up until about 5 yrs ago. I realize I said '7 yrs ago' in an earlier post, but I think it was closer to 5.
It's been a problem for many farang, ....except Chinese tourists who are given waivers by Thai Imm. I know first hand, as I've spoken with many farang who are annoyed with Thai Imm changing its policy. The only 2 reasons Thai officials have given for constricting the policy are:
>>> Why you go shopping in Tachilek? We have same in Mae Sai. and,
>>> Bangkok says so (and of course, officials outside of Bkk can never question decisions made in Bkk).
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3 hours ago, StevieAus said:
I did say over the last SEVEN years or so meaning nearly SEVEN years and have never had any problem with the Immigration people on either side or elsewhere in Thailand.
I have found that if you treat them courteously and friendly lt helps and again my visits are not for the purpose of avoiding having to obtain a retirement extension or other means to reside in Thailand.
It was about 7 years ago that the VIP option was terminated by Thai authorities (Burmese authorities were cool, either way).
Added note: It behooves farang to look at their rubber stamps (in their passport/entry card) on the Thai side when entering Thailand. Should do it immediately after getting stamped. More than once, I've found mistakes re; the date on the rubber stamp. Most recently; 3 days ago.
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13 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:
A re-entry permit can be applied for at a immigration office. The fee for a single is 1000 baht.
Some of the major border crossing have re-entry permit desks.
thanks for the info.
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2 minutes ago, StevieAus said:
I have used that crossing many times over the last seven years or so
I have a Retirement Extension and multi rentry permit and have to formally leave and return Each time I have had to pay for a day visa on the Myanamar side
I have never been offered any day option alternative and never seen it offered to any other non Thais using this crossing of which there are many.
The only people who seem to avoid using their passports are the Thais who get a day pass by getting their ID card which seems to be incorporated into a form at the local District Office ( this is what my Thai wife does)
Let me guess: you've been doing those crossings in the past few years.
If you had been doing those crossings several years ago, there was a 'VIP pass' option which I called a 'day-pass' on and off. I say 'on and off' because it was sporadic, though most of the time it was an available option by the Thai side.
For their part, the Burmese side was always accommodating - regardless of other factors. In other words, while Thai officials would change their regulations week to week, (depending on which way the wind blows, how they were feeling, whether they were offended by something a Burmese general said a week earlier) ....the Burmese officials were cool-headed.
Another difference between Thai and Burmese officials, on each side of the border....
Thais seem to hide in their kiosks. They cocoon themselves behind papered/tinted windows and behind computer screens, so as to have as little eye contact as possible with travelers. In contrast, on the Burmese side, it's like the traveler is dealing with real people. You can see their faces, they have facial expressions, there's sometimes some banter/joking with travelers. On the Thai side, going and coming, it's like the traveler is dealing with robotrons, each with a fixed expression of boredom.
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23 hours ago, ubonjoe said:
They could of gotten re-entry permits for the permit to stay they got from their visas to make a trip out of the country.
Where do they get those re-entry permits? .....at the place/time when they first get their visas - in their home country? .....or at the Thai side of a border crossing? .....or ?
I'm not being a smart-alec, but am asking sincerely.
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3 hours ago, duanebigsby said:
Give it a rest. You obviously know all the answers and nothing the resident expert Ubonjoe can say will satisfy you. None of the Thai alphabet are "reversed" or "seen through a mirror" What utter nonsense.
I didn't say I had all the answers. Are you saying I do?
I respect Ubonjoe's knowledge of the byzantine world of Thai Imm rules, though the rules change from place to place, and are administered according the subjective whims of whichever official is manning the kiosk at any given time.
I could cite over a dozen examples of how Thai Imm rules have been mutable, from my own experiences. The 3 Indians is a case in point. That day, when I accompanied the Indians, the four of us went to two different places where there were uniformed Thai Imm officials, and not one official put forth an option which would accommodate our needs.
It was as if the Thai officials, after taking a look at the dark skin of the Indians (from southernmost India), decided not to offer any options. In typical Thai style, the officials kept up their mantra "mai dai, mai dai, mai dai." while waving their hands and avoiding eye contact.
Are Thais color-conscious? Is water wet?
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1 hour ago, ubonjoe said:
Those from India can get a 15 day visa on arrival and the Mae Sai crossing can issue them.
The 3 Indians had formal visas issued (from Thai Consulate?) prior to when they arrived in Bkk. Apparently they were allowed one entry only, so they couldn't leave the kingdom for a side trip.
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1 minute ago, ubonjoe said:
A visa on arrival was available for them but the immigration officer was able to see that it was not a viable option for them since they apparently had a permit to stay longer than than the 15 days a visa on arrival would allow.
If that's true (and I don't doubt your knowledge on these topics), then Thai Imm rules are even more convoluted and screwed-up than I thought. It's like trying to read Thai, when a random quarter of the letters are reversed, and a quarter are seen through a mirror.
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4 hours ago, ubonjoe said:
If you go through departure immigration procedures you need a valid visa or re-entry permit for re-entry to the country unless you want to get a 30 day visa exempt entry.
At one time it was possible to leave and re-enter the country without going through immigration if you got a border pass to enter Myanmar but I think that is no longer available.
It seems immigration did your friends a favor by not allowing them to leave the country. If they had done the crossing they would of only been able to get a 15 day visa on arrival after paying a 2000 baht fee fore it.
Not quite. Your closing sentence doesn't reflect the reality of the situation. Thai Imm officials left no option for the 3 Indians. Nada. Zilch.
In your other part of the post, you refer to 'border pass.' You may be referring to what existed for years, up until about 6 years ago: a VIP pass. That was convenient, and win-win for all involved. On the Thai side, they charge just Bt.100, and there were zero stamps in a person's passport. It was good for one day - not overnight. I called it 'a day pass.'
It was great, but like many great things, Thai authorities snuffed it out. Their reason (as told to me by an Imm officer) "Why you go Burma buy things? You can buy same same in Thailand."
Actually, the VIP still exists, somewhat. It's allowed for large Chinese groups if they have a licensed Thai guide (....who knows less about the border town than I, ...but that's a different story). Only Chinese in groups. No one else. Thai racial profiling/bias.
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I was also going to mention Chung King mansion. It's a giant building with about 8 elevators (yes, I'm a yank).
It's walking distance from the cross-bay ferry on the Kowloon/Tsim Tsam Shui side. Ask anyone.
The ground floor is like walking into a Star Wars movie - the first one, where Luke walks into the bar with all the aliens. People from every ethnic group on the planet.
There are dozens of guest houses to choose from, all on upper floors. All are cramped, but cheap. The type of room with a single bed, and about five inches along one side between bed and cardboard-thin wall. There are also some good and cheap places to eat, in there.
I particularly enjoyed the time I was on the ground floor, and a Bengali merchant was on the phones. I use the plural, because he had a phone on each ear, and was having two conversations concurrently, shouting in both mouthpieces (older style phones). It was like a Saturday Night Live sketch. Imagine a very big John Belushi Indian man shouting red-faced sweaty, ....you get the picture.
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I realize that most farang who seek to cross that border, don't need a formal re-entry (1,000 baht) provision. But how about farang who are on real visas? (not visa-on-arrival with 1 or zero departures) ....or farang who are on single entry 60-day visas. Sorry if this sounds convoluted, but
A. I don't know all the jargon, and
B. Thai Imm authorities make the rules so byzantine, it's not easy to wade through them.
I've been across that border many times with no problems, but am not asking about myself, because I have a multi-entry provision.
Instead I'm asking about other farang (friends) from Europe and N.America. Note: I went with three Indian friends, all of whom had formal visas (obtained before entering Thailand), and they were not allowed to cross the Tachilek border, even for a day of visiting - because they only had a one-entry (to Thailand) provision, which they already used when entering Thailand prior. Thai Imm authorities offered the Indians no options to remedy their situation. Note: all 3 Indians were well-dressed executives at Toyota (I mention that because Thai authorities are always looking at a person's appearance and social status).
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Songkran should last 1 day. Second best: 2 or 3 days. Up here in Chiang Rai, it lasts over a week. The Thai gov't always adds vacation days - in order to gain favor with the public. ....tho it's not so popular with the unheard of hundreds (thousands?) who wind up getting injured or killed and their loved ones.
It's a bit similar with restaurants in Thailand - and what none of them do:
For restaurants: Let the people who want loud music, get loud music / let those who want relative quiet, get solace. In other words: position loudspeakers to face a 'loud section' of the restaurant.
Let the people who want to get splashed get designated splash areas / let those who want relative peace, stay dry. Instead: Songkran has become several days of drenching for Everyone.
If Thais had Easter in their cultural heritage, they would pervert it to where every Thai was throwing colored eggs at every other Thai (for a week) - causing injuries and deaths in the hundreds. The soundtrack would be endless hilarious laughter.
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16 minutes ago, mok199 said:thais lack of genuine respect for their own country..
I tend to agree, though it's hard to gauge respect.
Lots of Thais do admire and respect their country - and it's natural for people to have that sort of provincial allegiance, no matter where they're brought up.
A Thai women friend in her 60's mentioned hiking long distances across Thailand with her kids and grandkids. She said it with a twinkle in her eye, as if Thailand was quaint villages, wildlife, farmers singing in their fields, etc. That's a Thailand which (partly) existed many decades ago. The harsh reality is: Thailand is fast changing toward US/Europe/China type modernity, and that runaway growth isn't quaint or pretty.
That's why, when I take a break, I go to parts of Burma, which still have a modicum of quaintness - no shopping malls, and people actually mill around in the evenings and talk/mingle/gossip with each other. On the Thai side of the border in a Town the same size, the streets are nearly empty in the evenings. Thais are sitting alone staring at screens; handheld devices or TVs/computers.
There are practically no wild mammals other than rats or bats in Thailand - outside of a rare few in one or two small protected parks. Thais want a wholesome landscape with some parks and wildlife, but moneyed interests are scraping rural areas at frantic speeds. Parks and and natural spaces, for Thais, are way down on their list of priorities.
My adopted town of Chiang Rai is doubling in size every 7 years or so. If you were to look from 5 miles above, you'd see a thick brown ring around the city (used to be a town) which is getting wider each year. That brown is exposed clay from earth moving machines. Same is happening in nearly every town/city in Thailand.
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>>> lots of noise, lots of barking dogs
>>> crappy, mega-selfish drivers
>>> trash nearly everywhere
>>> giant chasm between rich and poor
>>> justice system which pampers rich and scapegoats poor
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Few people know this, but there are some rai belonging to Thailand on the north side of the Mae Sai river.
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some observations: I'm writing this from a hotel in Tachilek. river is v. muddy - more than the usual muddy. My guess; there's a lot of earth-moving up-river. earth moving all around Tachilek - similar to Chiang Rai. much of that are rich Chinese who want an escape valve if China goes thru major calamity, as it does every few decades (famine, civil war, buried under pollution, int'l war, banking crisis, or....).
If the bosses at Tachilek had any care for the environment, they would consider building a promenade along the river, and one or two parks. Again, it's similar to Chiang Rai in that way.
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No farang dying in Chiang Rai in 5 months ?! That's a pretty good sign. Live long, dudes.
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Since first visiting Thailand nearly 40 years ago, I've heard many stories of Thai wives taking advantage of joint accounts (with farang husbands or bf's) in their pursuit of money. Couples break up, and it's rarely amicable.
Excerpt from the song, "Devil in his Heart"
(later changed to 'Devil in her Heart' by the Beatles)
'Don't take chances with your romances, so important to you.....'
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If anyone wants to go hiking in Tachilek, let me know. I know some nice 2 hour hikes.
West of Tachilek are trails which meander thru the hills, with no houses, wires, fences, noise, roads, ....just one hill tribe village.
North of town, there are some pleasant hike trails.
It differs a bit from Thailand - which is more modern, noisy, and built-up.
Also; there's a possible float-down-a-river, starting in the town of Tukay (5 miles north of Tachilek). I haven't done it yet, but it looks plausible. Am planning to do some research. One idea is to fasten 4 or 6 truck innertubes together with a plywood deck. If you don't hear from me in weeks, I may be fish-food in some Burmese river.
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4 hours ago, baboon said:
Some good candidates on that list and one great one. But ladies and gentlemen, ask yourselves who YOU would trust when that phone rings at 2AM with a global emergency...?
You mean when Porntip calls me at 2 am with special needs? How did you know about her?
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Feature article in most recent National Geographic (online edition):
It's about a troubling trend happening in NE Burma (primarily Shan State). An increasing # of elephants are being killed for their skin. Those damned Chinese again - driving the market for animals parts. Chinese are contributing more, en masse, to the extinction of great wild beasts, than the rest of the world combined - and I include bush meat eaters in Africa.
news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/11/wildlife-watch-asian-elephant-skin-poaching-myanmar/
There are some vendors in Tachilek who sell wild animal body parts. Here's what I suggest: when you see a display of such things, confront the vendor. Also: take photos, and post them online. That's what I did in 1999, when I saw tiger skins hanging at vendor booths Tachilek. 3 months later, the skins weren't displayed. Were they all sold? Were they hidden, and only shown to buyers clandestinely? We don't know. But public pressure may have some, albeit small, effect. ....though it's hard to counter the power of money coming from rich Chinese.
Note: normally, large male elephants were killed for their tusks. That still happens. However, with the current craze for elephant skin, ....all elephants, including females and babies, are killed. Disgusting.
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Sorry if this is redundant, but Jay Briel passed away in April this year. He was in his 70's. He moved from Florida and Puerto Rico to reside in Pattaya for about 2 yrs. That was too crazy, so he moved up here to Chiang Rai about 8 yrs ago, when I met him and we became best buddies.
Jay loved his fast motorbikes. He was one of the first people in the US to open a 'fitness club' (in Miami) and met Arnie Swarzenegger when Arnie first came to the US. Jay kept fit, and had a lot of Thai girlfriends. He loved golf, but he lost an eye in a golfing accident. He was one of the coolest guys I've had the pleasure of knowing. Rather like a cross between Steve McQueen and Clint Eastwood. He and I traveled around northern Thailand together. Every moment was memorable.
Methods or ways to reduce pollution in Thailand/SEA
in General Topics
Posted
Sorry if this sounds simplistic: but it starts with awareness.
Teachers/parents should teach their children about environmental husbandry.
So much more could be done in Thailand and neighboring countries.
If there was a report card for humanity, on the topic of environmental husbandry, I rate us an E. It would be an F, except for the relative small % of humans who are doing tangibly helpful things.