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dbrenn

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Posts posted by dbrenn

  1. 5 minutes ago, Lacessit said:

    That was not the case when I was attempting to get a tourist visa for my Thai GF to visit Australia. Finished up having to use an immigration lawyer.

    Please point me towards a nation, city or even local council where a contraction of the bureaucracy has occurred, IMO they'd be as rare as hen's teeth.

    I agree with that. All governments do is enact new laws, repealing very few old laws, and creating more and more rules and regulations that we all have to follow.

  2. 1 minute ago, OswaldBastable said:

    May I point out that most changes to freedom in the world today are due to COVID. Who could have possibly predicted that the freedom to leave your house (England) for leisure would ever be revoked?

    As for 'best countries for retirement', Thailand was the only country I could easily enter for my retirement, so from England it became the only country for my retirement.

    You're right, but the optimist in me hopes that Covid is temporary, and will be nothing more than a bad memory in the not too distant future. I could be wrong of course, governments having got a taste of authoritarian rule.

    • Like 1
  3. 2 hours ago, Yellowtail said:

    Lots, meaning too many to list? 

    Back to your mum maybe, she still working it?

     

    You refuted my assertion that Thailand is less free. I came back to you with draconian new rules limiting freedom of foreigners here, to the extent where vast tracts of this forum are devoted to talking about them and how onerous they are. In pointing this out, I proved you wrong.

    Now you want more examples, having already lost the argument, not contributing anything to the discussion yourself, and ignoring the example I gave. What's wrong with you?

  4. 33 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

     

    So people are no longer allowed unlimited, back-to-back tourist visas. That's arguably one "freedom" that has changed. 

     

    I know the traffic cameras have also reduced some "freedoms", any others?

     

     

     

    Lots. But I think you enjoy being under strict control, being told what to do, and what's good for you all the time. You wouldn't enjoy freedom even if it were offered to you. Now run back to your mum.

  5. 7 hours ago, Moonlover said:

    Those that were living here forever on tourist visas were flouting the rules. It isn't the rules that have changed, it's the correct enforcement of those rules that have. And rightly so IMO. If you want to come and live in Thailand, do it properly.

    Before there were never any rules limiting back to back tourist visas. You could call yourself a tourist for years on end and nobody batted an eyelid. Now there are rules. Less freedom than before for people who wanted to stay. Simples.

    • Like 2
  6. 2 minutes ago, ChrisKC said:

    I don't decry this information but it is only statistics. Would you move to the other side of the world to find that there were plenty of things you didn't like?

     

    In fact, I came to Thailand only three times before making a decision to stay (since 2003) and did many things relating to researching what life might be like.

     

    In reality, I have been fortunate that, in spite so many aspects of that research falling well short of what I imagined; the good, the bad and the ugly,  I remain happy with my decision.

     

    Won't be moving to Costa Rica or anywhere else.

     

    Better the devil I know??

    Wise words, and I'm glad you're relatively content with your lot.

    • Like 1
  7. 18 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

     

    So it's safe to assume no examples of lost freedoms in Thailand are forthcoming.

    What a strange and verbose way you have of asking a simple question.

     

    Visa rule tightening is one example. When I first arrived, people were living forever on tourist visas, now they are no longer free to do so. There are other examples, too numerous to list, some of them you might agree with, other not. 

    • Like 2
  8. Soi Ekkamai, late one night around 30 years ago. I was drunk, and riding my Honda CB1 400cc bike far too fast. Some idiot pulled out in front of me and I lost control trying to get around the back of him. I landed on my <deleted> and the bike skidded on ahead, pushing in the back of a parked taxi.

     

    Things took a bizarre twist when I was negotiating reparations with the taxi driver - a (extremely drunk and incoherent) cop pulled up on his bike and started waving his gun at the taxi driver, having taken offence at something written on a sicker on the back window of his taxi.

     

    I paid the taxi driver 2,000 Baht and left. I've no idea what happened after that.

     

    • Haha 1
  9. 8 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

     

    Covid restrictions aside, what freedoms have you lost in Thailand?

    Well, like everywhere else, the place has become more regulated and orderly, new rules appearing with better enforcement. The place felt a bit like the wild west when I first arrived, but that was a long time ago. 

     

    Thailand is still a lot freer than the west though, I'll be the first to admit - particularly regarding freedom of speech. At least it hasn't succumbed to the scourge of political correctness, yet. So long as one observes a small number of taboo subjects, you can still say what you like in Thailand.

     

    • Confused 1
  10. 7 minutes ago, rumak said:

     

    For me that answer sums it all up.    I do not disagree with those here who are finding that the "attitude"  of Thailand (mostly those in power )  has been getting more sour over time.  

     

    as dbenn might ask  ,  " WHERE  is the shangri la  for the common man nowadays ?  "

     

    As my earlier post says,  for me it has been a very long and decent run.   I can still walk around without people hurling insults ( or bullets) at me ,   I am an old guy now who can still get a young pretty to smile or laugh.............. and the cost of living is IMO  one of the best .

     

    Inflation, crime, poverty, political correctness,  exorbitant health costs,  pollution ,  freezing weather,  hundred dollar parking tickets,   snarling immigration officers,     OK ,   pick your dream country where you are going to love all things.

     

    I'll still be here...... well,  a bit further south than i am right now in CM.  

    I think as we get older we become less tolerant of discomfort and inconvenience that we thought of as adventure when we were young. We start to run out of choices too, as we age and get stuck in ruts - jobs, families, habits or whatever. That said, the freedom that we enjoyed that simply isn't there anymore, in Thailand or the west.

     

    At least we have happy memories. Today's young folk will probably be making similar observations, when they get to our age.

    • Like 1
  11. 6 minutes ago, madmen said:

    Boo hoo all these expats pretending they would be out in a heartbeat if not for the pet parrot a cat, a Buffalo, a bar girl, a wife, a lady boy blah blah, what nonsense the reality is most of you would last 5 minutes in the west and you know it. 

    Vietnam and Cambodia? Same same but different! 

    That's true - people who moan about Thailand moan when they leave and go somewhere else.

  12. 8 hours ago, PatOngo said:

    No need to apologize!....By the way, it's a Thailand forum, not a western world forum! :thumbsup: 

    I wasn't apologising. I was correcting a daft mistake that you made.

     

    You erroneously claimed that Thailand's image should be questioned because of its distribution of wealth, when wealth disparity is obviously as bad in most places, western countries included. 

    • Confused 1
    • Thanks 1
  13. 21 hours ago, Neeranam said:

    Like I said, I have my Uk passport until 2030. 

    I could always just change it back again here then. 

     

    Assuming that Thailand accepts changing back to a foreign name. Unlikely that you could be sure of that, come 2030, Thai bureaucracy being what it is. Not a big deal if you have no intention of keeping your UK passport beyond then, of course, or doing deed poll in the UK,  or wherever you're from, if such laws apply. Otherwise you could get lost in an administrative black hole between two jurisdictions. 

     

    It's why I kept my original name. 

  14. On 27/01/2021 at 5:44 PM, Neeranam said:

    Tomorrow I have to go to the Amphur to get on the Blue book of my house, as I've just become a Thai citizen.  I think it would be funny to change my name to Somchai, what do you wise fellows think? I've recently renewed my UK passport so don't need a new one until 2030. 

    If you do that you might have trouble renewing the passport of your home country, unless you become Somchai over there too by deed poll. Britain, for example, asks that you declare foreign passports before they'll renew your British one, and your name must be the same on all of them. 

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