Post: #51

£20k? got damn son. I spend £500 a month in bkk :O

Post: #52

£20k? cot damn son. I spend £500 a month in bkk .

Post: #53

(07-29-2014 01:04 AM)El Chinito loco Wrote:  

(07-28-2014 11:28 AM)CrashBangWallop Wrote:  It's a good question; here goes.

Accommodation @ approx £70 per night x 90 days = £6300
Car hire @£20 per day x 90 days = £1800
MT 1-on-1s 3 per day @ £20 x 75 days = approx £5000

That's £13k right there.

£7k/3 months for food, going out etc is only £80 per day, or 4000bht.

Easily done.

You overpaid big time.

A good condo can be rented for around $1k U.S. a month through airbnb

There's no reason to rent a car on Phuket it's still a fairly small island. For the amount you spent on daily car rental i'm pretty sure you could have found a private part time driver willing to shuttle you around for far cheaper.

4,000 baht a day for just food is pretty steep unless you mean to say that included misc expenses too. Even with drinks and stuff that's still a lot per day.

With all due respect I didn't want to stay in a condo

I'm too old to be pissing about on motorbikes and like the freedom of a decent car. Phuket was my home for those three months and I can afford it, so why not?

Yeah I meant misc expenses too; it's real easy to just burn through money anywhere…Phuket is no different.

Different strokes and all that!

Post: #54

Hey guys lets keep posts on this thread related to visas.

Post: #55

Anyone here ever received the educational (ED) visa?

Post: #56

Holiday in Thailand could end for expats

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/feature...20783.html

Check out the photo in the article to see what tourist in Thailand look like.

Quote:Bangkok, Thailand - For decades, hundreds of thousands of home-weary expats have lived in Bangkok or in the palm-lined beach resorts dotted along the Gulf of Thailand.

Drawn to the country by its tropical weather, laidback hospitality and cut-rate comforts, most have made Thailand their home after completing the correct immigration paperwork.

However, others have easily dodged lax visa enforcement, itself another reason Thailand has remained so attractive.

"There are between half a million and one million foreigners living in Thailand, maybe more. No one actually knows," said George Anderssen, the Swedish CEO of Thaivisa.com, a website used by expats to exchange tips on visas and other topics related to life in Thailand.

But following the coup in late May, the new military government issued warnings that it will soon start to clampdown on immigration offenders, raising fears among many that their expat lifestyle in Thailand could soon come to an abrupt end.

"The crackdown is meant for those foreign visitors who abuse the visa exemption scheme for working illegally in Thailand," according to a recent explanation issued by the Thai Embassy in Canberra, Australia.

The warnings issued in July to foreigners who have overstayed by more than 90 days, states they would be banned from Thailand for between one and ten years, although no start date has been announced. From August 12, visitors arriving at Thai airports may be denied entry if immigration officers suspect they are living in the country on short-term visas, according to another notice.

'Desperate people'

Although Thailand has warned of similar crackdowns in the past, most have come and gone as quickly as successive Thai governments, amid a cycle of coups and elections in the past decade.

If you can't declare you are a tourist you may not be allowed in.

- Immigration official

But recent forced deportations of undocumented migrant workers from neighbouring Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos, as well as a campaign against grey industries including unlicensed taxis and street vendors, suggests the military government means business, said Rex Baay, an immigration consultant at Siam Legal International.

"This time I think they are kind of serious about visas," he said. "Every day we receive telephone enquiries from desperate people."

Nationals of 48 countries including the UK, US, and Australia have been able to enter the country for up to 30 days with a visa-exemption stamp or 60 days extendable for another 30 days with a visa from a Thai embassy overseas.

By simply leaving and entering Thailand on so-called 'visa runs', many have lived for years in Thai cities including the popular beach resorts of Phuket and Pattaya.

Then, last month, border immigration officials began to deny re-entry to people believed to be exploiting the system, particularly at crossings in the south with Malaysia. Although enforcement has reportedly remained more relaxed on Thailand's eastern border with Cambodia and particularly at northern crossings with Laos, immigration officials have warned that the policy will apply everywhere starting next month.

"If you can't declare you are a tourist you may not be allowed in," said an immigration official in Tak province, which shares a border with Myanmar.

"We urge people to get the right visa," said the official, who requested anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media.

Thousands of foreigners living legally in Thailand are able to apply for work visas through their employers, or retirement visas if they are over 50 years old and can prove they have adequate finances. Others, particularly men, can live in the country on marriage visas.

Ghost schools

Education visas, which provided a more legitimate long-term option for expats, have become a target of the recent crackdown due to the large numbers of ghost schools in Thailand that provide the necessary paperwork without offering any classes. The military government has reportedly ordered schools across the country to ask for signed declarations from foreign students who must now promise they will attend classes.

For people who fit into none of these categories, question marks remain. A semi-retired UK national in his 40s who asked not to be identified said he has visited Thailand a dozen times since he closed a telecommunications consultancy in Europe two years ago. Although a visa-exemption on arrival worked in the past, he said he is reluctant to fly back to Thailand in case he is refused entry.

"I will not be stranded by the visa crackdown as I have my own home outside of Thailand, but it will force me to change my plans," he said.

He had to cancel plans for a $6,000 medical operation and switch to a hospital in Singapore.

Economic threat

Thailand's travel industry represents 20 percent of the country's total economic output. Thailand's medical tourism industry accounts for about 40 percent of the global market. Anything that restricts the free movement of foreigners into and out of the country is likely to impact Thailand's economy.

Last year, Bangkok was ranked the world's most visited city with nearly 16 million people travelling to the Thai capital, ahead of London and Paris, according to Global Destination Cities Index.


Cambodian immigrants flee Thailand
But more than six months of protests leading up to the May 22 coup - and the military takeover itself - have reduced the number of arrivals this year.

Ten percent fewer foreigners travelled to Thailand in May compared to the same month in 2013, according to Ministry of Tourism figures.

The visa crackdown expects to depress these figures further: Foreigners living in Thailand illegally on short-term visas have typically marked themselves as tourists on arrival cards, causing artificial inflation of the numbers on tourism data.

How immigration rules will be enforced still isn't clear.

Airlines contacted by Al Jazeera, including the national carrier Thai Airways and budget operators Nok Air and AirAsia, said the government has so far not asked them to vet passengers before they board, raising the possibility some could be turned away after landing.

"The immigration Bureau will be taking the lead on this initiative," said Piyasuda Archasantisuk, a Bangkok-based spokesman for AirAsia. "Our normal procedure is to conduct a basic document check prior to the passenger's departure."

With stricter enforcement not due until later in August, the number of people leaving the country remains low but could increase, said Thaivisa.com's Anderssen. Some have headed to neighbouring Cambodia but most want to stay, he added.

"Many of these people have been in Thailand for years," he said. "For them, there simply is nowhere else."

Post: #57

Sounds like a lot of scare mongering in the that article.

(07-30-2014 01:25 AM)svenski7 Wrote:  Anyone here ever received the educational (ED) visa?

a lot of my buddies have got one, they seem to be easy to get.

Post: #58

Quote:The military has told the Immigration Bureau to be flexible with "visa runners", junta chief General Prayuth Chan-ocha said Friday.
The runners can register with the bureau, which will find a sustainable resolution to the problem, he said in his weekly televised programme last night.

Foreigners had been exploiting tourist visas and visas on arrival by illegally working in the country, mostly as English teachers.

When their visa was about the expire, they entered a neighbouring country to apply for a tourist visa and returned to the Kingdom to illegally work again.

The authorities responded by tightening the rules by not re-issuing visas to the runners and they faced deportation.

Prayuth said the change of the visa system concerning visa runners had considerably affected certain groups such as English teachers and academics.

"So, this is an ongoing problem that needs to be resolved, as it can lead to a shortage of English teachers and guides," he said during his weekly TV programme.

source

With over 40,000 English Schools and a majority of those employees working without a work visa these new laws started to see an exodus of teachers from Thailand. Only a couple weeks after instituting the new visa laws the government is admitting these new visa laws will not work and be detrimental to Thailand. So at the moment it appears foreigners will be able to remain in Thailand on tourist visas as long as they continue to extend them by making border runs.

Post: #59

Us TEFL dirtbags are safe

For now...

Post: #60

I walked by the Thai Embassy in Cairo today and there was a listing of visa types and fees on the notice board.

They had a three-year multiple entry visa listed for $400. Anyone ever hear of this? Not sure if "multiple entry" means unlimited coming and going.

Seems like a good deal if you could come and go for three years.

Post: #61

(09-22-2014 09:20 AM)Sp5 Wrote:  I walked by the Thai Embassy in Cairo today and there was a listing of visa types and fees on the notice board.

They had a three-year multiple entry visa listed for $400. Anyone ever hear of this? Not sure if "multiple entry" means unlimited coming and going.

Seems like a good deal if you could come and go for three years.

Never heard of it, sounds like they worded it wrong.

Post: #62

What a terrible idea!


http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/se...ds-ministe

Quote:Thailand tourists may be issued with identification wristbands, minister says
Proposed scheme would help track drunk or lost visitors, as industry reacts to murder of two British backpackers.

Identification wristbands may be distributed to tourists in Thailand, the country’s tourism minister says.

Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul said she had approached hotels over the idea of handing out wristbands to help identify tourists who get lost or into trouble.

“When tourists check in to a hotel they will be given a wristband with a serial number that matches their ID and shows the contact details of the resort they are staying in, so that if they’re out partying late and, for example, get drunk or lost, they can be easily assisted,” Kobkarn said.

“The next step would be some sort of electronic tracking device but this has not yet been discussed in detail.”

She said a “buddy system”, pairing tourists with a local minder at tourist destinations, was also being discussed.

The murder of two British backpackers raised fresh concerns over tourist safety in Thailand this month.

The bodies of Hannah Witheridge, 23, and David Miller, 24, were found on a beach on the southern island of Koh Tao on 15 September.

Postmortem examinations by Thailand’s forensics department showed Witheridge died from severe head wounds and Miller died from drowning and blows to the head.

Almost three weeks after the murder police are no closer to an arrest as frustration mounts over the lack of a breakthrough.

Kobkarn admitted the wristband idea had already met some resistance.

“Most people welcome the idea but some hotels are concerned that tourists may not want to wear the wristbands.”

Limiting party hours on some of Thailand’s islands and imposing restrictions over where beach parties could be held were also being considered, said Kobkarn. The idea is unlikely to go down well with hoards of young backbackers who travel to Thailand each year.

Authorities have expressed concern over the murders’ impact on tourism, which accounts for nearly 10% of Thailand’s GDP.

The industry has yet to recover from a slump in visitors due to months of street protests that left nearly 30 people dead earlier this year. Thailand is still under martial law after the coup on 22 May.

Tourism arrivals in Thailand fell 11.9% in August from a year earlier after a 10.9% drop in July.

Post: #63

For being so concerned about their image, Thailand sure does like to embarrass itself on the international stage repeatedly.

Post: #64

Lol... complete idiots. So if the backpackers were wearing the ID bracelets I guess they would of never been murdered. Same as the Russian in Phuket raped by the Thai guy.

Post: #65

Read through this thread and my head is spinning. Having never been to Thailand or have to deal with visas my brain is shutting down.

Stumbled across a site that seems to summarise it pretty well. Seems to be updated for 2014 new rules too. Different sections also cover the different visas and costs etc.

Thai Visas

Thai Tourist Visa

The Tourist Visa section broke things down pretty well for me. Check it out.

J.

Post: #66

Maybe they could invest in some police that are capable of something else besides walking around looking for a bribe opportunities

Post: #67

Didn't see this thread originally.

Sounds like this might be beneficial to me going to teach there ($) as I have a bachelors and I know a guy who runs a school there.

Post: #68

I was walking through Koh Tao one night in the midst of all this nonsense. I kept hearing about a police presence but never saw a single cop.

I was grabbing some street food and walking back to my bungalow and when I passed the 7-11 I saw about 30-40 cops in the parking lot. I had no idea they were police at first; the overall impression was more of a tailgate party than a law enforcement meeting. These guys were really yucking it up. Presumably they were only there to stage this reenactment of the murder.

It might as well have been a frat meeting.

We can all agree that cops worldwide tend to be corrupt, highly flawed, etc...but it seems to me in the weeks after a murder on a small island you'd expect to see a stable police force making a presence. I've seen Mexican cops and Federalis in Playa del Carmen armed with M-16s and body armor...whether or not that makes you feel more or less safe is up to you but at least they're there. I didn't see a single cop on patrol or a single checkpoint in Koh Tao.

Post: #69

(10-05-2014 01:26 AM)Veloce Wrote:  I had no idea they were police at first; the overall impression was more of a tailgate party than a law enforcement meeting. These guys were really yucking it up. Presumably they were only there to stage this reenactment of the murder.

It might as well have been a frat meeting.

Have you done any reading on Thai culture?

Beyond All Seas

"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe.
To be your own man is a hard business. If you try it, you'll be lonely often, and sometimes
frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself." - Kipling

Post: #70

Thai cultural lesson #1

Thai people pretend to care or sometimes not at all.

Post: #71

(10-05-2014 03:51 AM)Beyond Borders Wrote:  

(10-05-2014 01:26 AM)Veloce Wrote:  I had no idea they were police at first; the overall impression was more of a tailgate party than a law enforcement meeting. These guys were really yucking it up. Presumably they were only there to stage this reenactment of the murder.

It might as well have been a frat meeting.

Have you done any reading on Thai culture?

Yeah it's always one thing to read stories about it on the forum and another to see it in front of your face

Post: #72

I am a long-term visa runner in Thailand; the law will prohibit back-to-back running WITHOUT A VISA. They want to prevent people from abusing the 30-day stamp and not paying the visa fees. Nothing prevents you from doing back to back entries using a 2-month tourist visa, if you have the proper visa of course. When your 3 entries run out, go to a Thai embassy in a neighboring countrie, get a new 3-entry tourist visa, and rinse and repeat.

Post: #73

Looks like it was just a flash in the pan, no new reports of people being rejected. After tourism feel by 10% (guessing more after the Koh Tao deaths), the powers haven't yet enforced this.

Post: #74

(10-05-2014 10:48 PM)Veloce Wrote:  

(10-05-2014 03:51 AM)Beyond Borders Wrote:  

(10-05-2014 01:26 AM)Veloce Wrote:  I had no idea they were police at first; the overall impression was more of a tailgate party than a law enforcement meeting. These guys were really yucking it up. Presumably they were only there to stage this reenactment of the murder.

It might as well have been a frat meeting.

Have you done any reading on Thai culture?

Yeah it's always one thing to read stories about it on the forum and another to see it in front of your face

The forum is not a good place to do your reading if you want to understand Thai culture. I'm talking about actually understanding why you saw what you saw - not just observing it and letting it frustrate and puzzle you. Reading a scholarly book or two on the local culture is a fantastic accompaniment to any new country and will give you revelations and insights you'd rarely come up with on your own, connecting a lot of dots for you. To me, trying to understand different perceptions and expressions of the human experience is one of the best parts about travel. Why leave home if not to try on a different paradigm other than those you already have?

What you were seeing wasn't so much ineptitude and corruption as it was an expression of the Thai "jai yen yen" attitude (not to say that ineptitude and corruption aren't closely intertwined with this cultural aspect). Everything is meant to be fun in Thai culture - being too serious is frowned upon, even when doing something as seemingly-grim to an outsider as re-enactment of a murder scene. It doesn't take reading a cultural book to come across the concept of jai yen, but it helps give you a more thorough concept of just how deeply-rooted it is in every single interaction you have in the country.

At the very least, the front and back of guide books like Lonely Planet are a half-decent primer. I don't recommend reading much else in those books, but the front and back give essential break-downs of basic cultural principles, scams, and other nuts and bolts of the country. Ironically, many travelers never give these sections a read. And again, a more thorough reading on the topic than this goes a long, long way.

On another note, many long-termers live in the country for years, if not decade, without ever trying to understand (understand, not just be aware of) what they're dealing with. They get jaded and bitter because of this and have a real negative perception of locals, some of which is understandable and some of which is more a reflection of their own presence in the country. These guys are the easiest to meet as a tourist, too, so it's easy for it to rub off on you pretty fast as well.

Thailand is a really easy place to live long-term and yet remain within a Western reality, which is probably the reason guys like this are so common there.

Anyhow, sorry to drag the thread off topic.

Beyond All Seas

"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe.
To be your own man is a hard business. If you try it, you'll be lonely often, and sometimes
frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself." - Kipling

Post: #75

(10-06-2014 02:17 AM)Beyond Borders Wrote:  clip

Insightful post, and I see a lot of what you're talking about.

Without derailing this thread further I can honestly say I would not move here.