boomerangutang
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Posts posted by boomerangutang
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went with a friend recently. He forgot to bring his exit card. Imm official wouldn't let him cross the bridge. I went across the road, on the Thai side, to get a blank card for him to fill out. Two Imm officers individually questioned me and didn't want me to do what I was doing, but each relented and let me pass. Friend filled out the exit card. We all knew it might not work because of not having an official exit stamp. After a few tense minutes, it worked.
Moral to this story (and other similar glitches, where Imm authorities first say "no can go" or "no can do" and within minutes, relent) is this:
Don't be too easily thwarted by Imm officials. Just because they order something, doesn't always mean it's carved in stone. Sometimes, some perserverance will win the day.
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I just read the 2nd paragraph of the OP.
The yellow 'tabian ban' house registration for farang, always has a Thai name behind it, as far as I know. It works ok for me, but not every time. I've had some resistance from Thai bureaucrats and have had arguments with them - which I usually win, when they back down and see what's fair.
Thai bureaucracy is quite subjective. Rules are made by higher-ups, but its often up to the bureaucrat sitting across from you, to administer them however he/she sees fit. Often that's predicated on the person they're dealing with - their appearance, demeanor, whether they're with a respectable-looking Thai person. I much prefer an objective fair-minded administering of rules, ....but I choose to reside in Thailand, so I have to try and go with the flow.
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I have a Thai drivers license which is v. convenient for many things - particularly in lieu of carrying around my passport. This is the 1st I've heard of a Thai ID card. More details, please.
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13 minutes ago, Clown Fish said:
Hi, As the boarder seems to accept 30 day extensions, Is anyone looking to share the cost of transport to the boarder. I found out a mini van costs 3900 bath for a full van or 3500 for 1 person. I need to go on the before the 29th. Let me know if anyone is interested.
You bring up a good point. One thing that Thai Imm bosses do, unwittingly (do they do anything wittingly?) .....is add to pollution, gridlock, wear & tear on vehicles, and massive wastes of time for those trying to stay legal in Thailand.
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I cross the Mae Sae / Tachilek bridge - probably more often than any other farang. However, I do it with a multi-entry annual add-on to my 1 year Thai visa. For that reason, I'm probably not best positioned to comment on the OP.
Considering Mae Sai Imm officials are subjective, the rules aren't always clear or evenly administered. For example, they'll tell you that no day-only VIP passes are allowed for farang. Yet they allow groups of Chinese to cross over for day visits - though the group must be accompanied by a licensed Thai guide.
I did hear from a farang recently who said they do now allow a renewal for what I call visa-on-arrival (the free 30-day thing a person gets when entering Thailand by air or whatever). Even so, it's dicey. Some Imm officials may allow it up to the 30th day of the visa, whereas others may only allow it up to the 15th day (which was their policy until recently, claiming 'no more border runs') .
Sorry I can't be clearer, but it's like trying to see coral and fishes in a muddy stream. Thai Imm can't figure how to make things easy and clear. Just yesterday, I renewed my 1 year visa. It was almost comical how many hoops the Imm officials have to jump through (and therefore make the farang jump through). The official must have stamped 35 papers and 3 full pages of my passport. He had about a dozen different rubber stamps on his desk. Ridiculous. It looks so 3rd world.
The sage bosses in Bangkok must be trying to make things as convoluted as humanly possible. Why? A process that should take 5 minutes, winds up taking between 2 hours and 5 days. Last year I had a glitch, and it took me 4 months to clear it up. I jest not.
In contrast, the DMV (vehicle registration process) in Chiang Rai has improved markedly. Whereas in years past it was hours of BS. Now, they've streamlined it down to minutes. Perhaps the people running DMV should tell Imm bosses how to streamline.
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I used to do visa runs to Vientanne. It was ok. The earlier Thai Imm office there was small and always crammed with hot sweaty people, myself included. The one good thing was: there was an English-speaking Thai who would go around the room, assisting people - before they went to the window. There should be a helpful person like that at every bureaucratic establishment. He/she would halve the hassles and time entailed. At least half the people in the room are missing some little something - and having a friendly bureaucrat agent would ease the process. At the least, it would preclude many people going two or three times to the window, ....each time having to return to the back of the queue.
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I see a name I don't care for, and don't see several names of posters I like. ....so; no vote from me.
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Several times, I've met parents of prospective Thai g.f.'s. I've vowed not to do it again. To me, it's a waste of time. We sit around for long periods of time, being polite. Sorry folks, I've got other things I'd rather be doing. For most of you guys reading this, you're probably thinking the requirement (to franternize with her parents) is worth it. Good for you, I guess. Maybe you'll grow out of that perception.
That's part of the reason I'm single. I don't mind being single. Thais don't understand that concept. They think everyone who is not a devout monk or nun, must go crazy if they're not tight with a lover.
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Hi Brian, you're probably familiar enough with blogs to know that some of the folks will throw typed zingers to and fro - and not to take it with too many grains of salt. Welcome, from Chiang Rai.
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Yes, but the Ice Bear cult can't be better than Bob! I believe in Bob, and Bob-dammit if I'm going to allow any other icon to take His place. I don't know the required beliefs for being an Ice Bearist, but I'm sure they're inferior to belief in Bob.
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Pianoman, who started this thread, is conspicuously silent. Did his wife change cults? Did she join a nudist colony in Sweden and burn all her clothes? Or maybe she got an accounting degree and will spend the next 40 years in a windowless room staring at a calculator - as millions of Thai women do, each work day.
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1 hour ago, jobsworth said:
the fundamental questions are who are you, where did you come from and where are you going to. most religions supply the answers to most of these questions and so are accepted by most people. the truth is much deeper than that and most people don't want to know.
Yes those are some fundamental questions which are worthwhile asking and trying to answer.
Answers can be found via science and nature. Religious answers are steeped in metaphysics, fairy tales and hocus pocus.
For example, religions can't fathom that life sprung from interactions of organic molecules. Most of who a human is, is water and bacteria. All our organs, including brain/bone/blood/urine/bile/testosterone, etc, are collectives of specialized cells. Religions and cults want us to believe there is some other force, variously called 'ether' 'god' 'prajna' or 'life force' or 'holy spirit' which infuses and propels all the processes. Not so. Life is collections of molecules, ....same for viruses, bacteria, blood, fungi, and for complex organisms like slugs, cacti and humans.
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Thais (and many other nationalities) are hamstrung when it comes to choosing what philosophy to embrace. There are some indelible givens that all Thai children are required to believe throughout their lives:
>>> ghosts,
>>> fear of dark,
>>> reincarnation,
>>> a person's mind waves can affect another person's,
>>> mind waves can affect physical things,
>>> elders are inherently wiser than youngsters,
>>> people are superior to all other species,
>>> some places are infused with spiritual energy, and others aren't,
>>> planets have profound and tangible effects upon people and events on earth,
>>> tossing little sticks on the ground can have profound effects on what ensues,
>>> some people can predict the future, beyond the obvious (Bkk will flood, for example),
>>> money is God.
It takes a whale of perception to get over those humps. Good luck.
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1 hour ago, Kwasaki said:
What cult would it be that the persons wife you know has joined.
The only ones l know of are different fortune teller types and the picture card stuff.
Don't really think they would be called cult's though.
Are Christianity, Scientology, Buddhism, Abrahamism, Hinduism, Voodooism, Islam, Metaphysics, Mormonism ....not cults?
They all are based on fairy tales. They all seek hand-outs. They're all tax-exempt. They all skew science or, at best, glom onto scientific studies when they can't avoid it. Cults and religions are never at the vanguard of scientific discovery. All their beliefs are based on fables and/or things that can't be scientifically verified in double-blind tests.
All believe in reincarnation, yet there is not one bit of science backing up reincarnation. They're all built on pillars of hocus pocus. Magicians, at least, admit their tricks are tricks. Religionists, want everyone to believe their tricks are substantiated by brain waves. All the human brains in the world couldn't move a matchstick 5 mm in a scientific test.
It's customary for religionists to say Atheists don't believe in anything, but that's not true. We believe in science and nature, ......what's real.
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Thais are as easily sucked into cultish thinking as any other group of people. It's a human proclivity to be drawn to believing silly notions. Kids do it with fairy tales, and that's not odd. But adults keep the ball rolling, and their fairy tales are more elaborate and expensive. It usually causes loss of money and tarnished personal relationships.
That's part of the reason I stay single. I don't want to be burdened with a spouse who has weird allegiances. It's a drain of money, time, and mental facilities. .....and it usually serves two primary purposes:
>>> giving the cult worshiper something to focus on which makes that person feel involved/significant, and
>>> building up the ego and bank account of the person being worshiped.
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I was in Makro a few days ago. Besides the loud insipid tape loop broadcast over the stores PA system, there was a particularly loud 6 second tape loop in the bread section. It was coming from a horn-blower used to yell at crowds. It was sitting on the floor. I went to turn it off. It had 4 buttons. The first one I pressed gave a repeating emergency beep staccato sound. The 2nd button turned it off.
Yesterday, I went to buy something. the saleslady started screeching loudly. I happened to be standing 2 feet in front of her mouth. I winced, put my fingers in my ears, and told her as nice as I could that she didn't need to yell. I think she understood, as she commenced to just talking very loudly instead of screeching in my face. She had no animosity towards me, it's just an Asian thing to sometimes bellow or yell at farang, ....thinking it will help them understand something better.
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Noise pollution has been a major issue for me also. nearly 20 yrs residing in northern Thailand, and visiting here for a third of a century, it's pervasive. It's also rude, but Thais don't know its rude. I've gone to talk to police, to village headman, Thai friends, .....all of them just grin uncomfortably and shrug their shoulders. If there are any laws against offensive noise, they're not enforced. A just drove a friend to the airport to permanently return to his farang country. His #1 beef: excessive noise. I'm also planning to leave, but have some things to sell first.
It's particularly annoying to musicians like myself, because we're more sensitive to sound than the average person. I sometimes wonder how a top notch musician like Stevie Wonder would handle Thailand. I wouldn't doubt he would be compelled to leave within hours. My mom might not mind, but she was 90% deaf in her old age.
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US friend recently went to Tchlk border with me. On Thai side, officials wouldn't let him leave Thailand. He was 28th day in 30 day visa-on-arrival (from Suwanboom, no prior extentions). He couldn't accompany me to the Tchlk market to shop for stuff. Instead, he had to return to C.Rai and got hit with Bt.1,900 for a 30-day extension. Great way for Thai gov't to make money. For something that used to be free for decades (border crossings), now they get Bt.1,900 a pop. ....and day-passes are still not possible except for Chinese in groups. The only reason I can find is (as told to me by a Thai border official); "Why you go Burma spend money? You can buy same same in Mae Sai."
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On 9/15/2016 at 6:46 AM, sceadugenga said:
Regarding Myanmar/evisa, I just got back yesterday from 4 days in Mandalay after flying from Chiang Mai.
Passed through immigration quickly and without problem, very little official interaction.
About the only problem we had was that we arrived with no local money, the exchange (at 5pm with an international flight arriving) was closed and both airport ATMs were off line.
Taxis would only accept kyat or USD and when we got to the hotel on promise of payment on arrival the hotel reception would only change USD or Euros.
Fortunately there was an operating ATM in the street by the hotel that produced kyats but I hate to think of the rate we would have got.
The good news is: you were an instant millionaire .....with kyat.
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5 hours ago, Maestro said:
It is not legal for an immigration officer to stop a foreigner from leaving Thailand unless there is an arrest warrant out for the foreigner.
It is legal for an immigration officer to deny a foreigner entry into Thailand for specific reasons.
There is no legal requirement for an immigration officer to inform a foreigner upon his departure from Thailand that he will not be allowed entry into Thailand at the same border post on the same day or within a short period, but it is not illegal for the immigration officer to give the foreigner this advance information.
Thanks for that. Yet it proves what a gordian knot Thai Imm weaves. The whole mess of lumpy gravy could be cleared up if clear-thinking (and non-paranoid, non-xenophobic) people were in charge of making and enforcing the rules.
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8 hours ago, ubonjoe said:
Nothing new. It has been reported several times that Mae Sai will not allow a crossing unless you have a valid Thai visa for re-entry to the country. No crossings are allowed for a new visa exempt entry (it is not a visa on arrival).
Mae Sot has the same rule. Ranong is the only crossing to Myanmar that allows it.
So Ranong allows reasonable departure and re-entry, but other crossings don't. You are confirming how inconsistent Thai Imm laws are and how subjectively they're enforced.
7 hours ago, billd766 said:AFAIK when you leave Thailand, and unless you do have a re-entry permit, then your current visa is cancelled. Once you leave Thailand for Laos, Burma etc you are in no mans land. If the Immigration officers on the other side won't let you in and you have to return to Thailand you actually have NO visa and therefore become an illegal.
It does not matter if you are on day 1, 5, 10 or 29 of your visa. What your American friend should have done is paid the 1,900 baht at an Immigration office in Thailand and save all the grief that he went through and bought a re-entry permit at the same time.
Thailand is merely enforcing the rules that have been around for years and ignored by so many tourists and Immigration staff until recently.
Your friend got a 30 day on arrival entry and presumably wanted to extend it by a further 30 day by doing a border run.
It may have been easier to have applied for a 60 day SETV back in the USA to begin with.
The number of days do matter. I've found from trial and error that if a farang (who doesn't look bedragled and/or has an attractive hi-so Thai person with him/her) can leave up to the 15th day of a 30-day visa-on-arrival - and get a 2 week stay. I did it 11 months ago. If I had done it after the 15th day, I would have been subject to the same subjective & unfair rigamarole as my friend experienced the other day.
Just because ding dongs make ridiculous rules in Bkk, doesn't mean we have to do double back flips to try to justify them. Similarly, just because the Imm rules are subjectively meted out, doesn't mean the brown-nosers among us have to smile and try to justify it all. Show some spine. If you see BS, call it BS. I do. Several times, I've called Thai officials on their BS, and more often than not I prevail. It happened the other day when 3 (count 'em; 1,2,3) uniformed male border guards stood and put their hands out toward me as I approached the border crossing, in the "STOP" mudra - and all 3 told me I couldn't go across the border into Burma. If I was a meek ass-kisser like so many on T.Visa, I would have simply turned around in defeat. I didn't. I contested their BS. They continued to tell me I couldn't cross. I stood my ground. One looked at my passport and realized that I could actually cross. They all lost face. One accompanied me to the window and told the Imm official inside what a dick I was, in Thai language, thinking I didn't understand. I was 100% gentlemanly before during and after the mini-incident.
I've long given up on Thai Imm officials being able to make fair rules. But at least they should fairly enforce the gordian knot rules that they're handed from Bkk. That's all I ask.
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I went with American friend to northernmost Thai border with Burma; Mae Sai/Tachilek. Thai Imm officials wouldn't let him leave Thailand. He was at the 29th day of a 30-day visa-on-arrival from coming in at Suwanboom, Bkk. He had no renewals. Is that legal for Thai imm to forbid a person with a legal visa to leave the country? He was compelled to go to a Thai Imm office 2 days later and pay Bt.1,900 for a 30-day extension.
Stories like this will get around, and will inhibit visitors from coming to visit Thailand. Thai Imm keeps tightening the screws, and Thailand will be the worse for it. The Imm Dept makes Bt.1,900 baht for each farang they cheat, but they will be losing millions of baht when travelers bypass Thailand to visit countries which are fair-minded, .....countries which honor their visa parameters. 30 days = 30 days. ....but not in Thailand. ....not when there are some baht to be made by twisting the rules.
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23 minutes ago, Mahseer said:
Incorrect. As I stated in #1114 above as of 01 September e visa are good for 3 land border crossing including Tachilek.
If that's true, I stand corrected. Thanks. Good to know.
Mae Sai/Tachilek Border Info
in Chiang Rai
Posted
I was in Tachilek several days ago. the entire top of a small apartment building was burning. Lots of black smoke. What were they storing in there - bales of hay? It seemed like half the town was watching it, early morning, as I was also. about 30 to 40 minutes later, Thai fire-fighting trucks came over the bridge from Mae Sai (to join Burmese trucks already there), but it was mostly for show, as the fire was smoldering by that time. Still, nice to know neighbors are willing to help each other.