ReindeerF posted:Came to post this, got caught in the debate and forgot! So, what are the options, now? Are multiple-entry visas difficult to obtain if you want to hang out for a couple of months before seeking an educational visa or something?
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May 10, 2014 11:34
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| # ? Jun 9, 2024 20:31 |
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Your first multi-entry tourist visa in your home country (and really any multi in your home country) is a cakewalk. Regionally, they're still handing them out last I heard, but I haven't looked into it in a while. Historically, Vientiane and Savannakhet have been the most reliable for ongoing multis. Phnom Penh comes and goes. Penang will give you a couple, but can be stingy afterward. KL is similar. Supposedly they're dicks about it (as they should be, of course) in HK and Singapore. Still, this is all based off rumor. The one thing ThaiVisa is good for are the updated reports on who is issuing. Check their list. If you're coming from outside the immediate region and want to stay long-term, though, it's easy. Just get a multi back home and fiddle with the extension stuff and you're good for the better part of a year after which you can find a longer-term option. ReindeerF fucked around with this message at 12:02 on May 10, 2014 |
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May 10, 2014 11:58
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Yeah, it's all pretty crazy. Thai immigration in general has gotten stricter on the long-termers without a visa, and regional consulates have gotten stingier as well in the past year. Laos is still pretty reliable for tourist visas, though I did hear a story of a woman recently who was denied a double-entry tourist visa because she didn't have a bank statement on hand, which is technically a requirement but almost always overlooked. She wasn't a backpacker, either, so it's just one of those things that can happen. The weird thing about this crackdown is that say you finish a single-entry tourist visa but decide you want another month in the country. You're an Australian, so you get 15 days at each crossing. Well, tough poo poo. You can only cross once after your visa finishes now before you have to get another visa. We'll have to see how it plays out in the next few weeks. lovely thing for me is my visa is up, I have a couple land crossings that I've done and I have a flight for a trip to Cambodia on June 14. I'm wondering if they'll give me one more stamp... This is aimed at several groups of people -- mostly Filipinos and Russians in Bangkok and southern Thailand -- but there's also rumors of crackdowns on English schools, etc. Up north there's a decent amount of foreigners working on tourist visas, some for security reasons. You have a lot of NGOs whose work, politically speaking relative to the Burmese government and local Thai authorities, has kept them from registering in Thailand. Looks like they'll be figuring out education visas.
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May 10, 2014 13:34
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I talked to a friend today who went to Laos for a non-B and despite he and everyone else in the group having all their paperwork in order, the Embassy denied everyone Non-B visas and gave them a tourist instead. When I asked him why he said it has to do with the red shirts. I do not know enough about the politics to know if that's true or not.
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May 10, 2014 17:17
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kenner116 posted:My favorite part of Halong Bay was motorscootering around Cat Ba island. I did this same thing back in 2009 and it was definitely one of the highlights of my trip. If you time it right you get the whole island to yourself with similar scenery as the bay.
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May 10, 2014 17:21
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Chair Huxtable posted:I talked to a friend today who went to Laos for a non-B and despite he and everyone else in the group having all their paperwork in order, the Embassy denied everyone Non-B visas and gave them a tourist instead. When I asked him why he said it has to do with the red shirts. I do not know enough about the politics to know if that's true or not. Weird. Can you convert a tourist visa to non-B in country at least? I know a girl who spent mine months in Thailand as a tourist recently and when she flew back this year to continue she was questioned at the airport for 30 minutes. She works online for a Spanish company and travels so it's one of those gray areas, but they nearly didn't let her in. Seems like things are stricter in general but it's not clear why.
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May 11, 2014 06:30
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Domestic concern over the ASEAN deal spilling over, that's my guess. This stuff isn't about stopping you, it's about stopping the million Vietnamese, Burmese, Cambodian and Laos waitresses, factory workers, maids and so on as a signal to those countries. I may be way off, but that's my take. Anytime you cross the border at a non-standard crossing you'll find like bus/van loads of these nationalities doing a runner to go back to work at Noi's restaurant in Bangkok for half the minimum wage. You can convert a tourist visa into a Non-Imm (whatever) in Thailand, but most people will tell you that you can't. It helps to have a fixer who is connected at Immigration because the default answer is, "No" in most cases. I've done it, however, and with like 2 days left on my stay - they can issue whatever length extension they want by fiat at Immigration, it's just that they typically only issue 7 days here or there. Mine was like 21 or something, I forget. Years ago. Anyway, if you can spare the $200-300 for a fixer to handle that stuff and you have a connection that's a good fixer then it goes much smoother, but in reality everything short of the non-BOI work permit is pretty straightforward as long as you have time and follow the rules. Non-BOI work permits are a legit hassle and they love to send you back 3-4 times for all kinds of made up infractions (my favorite being the photos-in-the-office stuff). ReindeerF fucked around with this message at 16:50 on May 11, 2014 |
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May 11, 2014 16:47
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Photos in the office?
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May 11, 2014 16:58
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Yes. It's my favorite piece of Thai work permit trivia. To process your work permit, before which you cannot work legally, they require a number of photos of you in the office. If you submit photos of you in the office, they'll often send you back to take more. More of what? "Must show you work with Thai people in office." In summary, the officials issuing the work permit require photos of you working illegally to process your work permit. Thairony knows no boundaries. EDIT: When not using fixers, I have had two work permit applications sent back for another round on two separate occasions for exactly this reason when the secretary or someone tried to handle it.
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May 11, 2014 17:03
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We should probably drop a note in here about the goings on in Bangkok. As part of the Final^8 Push, Gamnan Suthep has ordered his minions to occupy spots all around town to gently caress up traffic, which includes a number of arteries and also some very important ones for tourists like the Don Muang Expressway. As of today your taxi driver will know to avoid these areas, but more pop up every day, so if you need to fly out make sure to give yourself an extra hour or so just to be safe.
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May 11, 2014 17:08
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Meanwhile, in Canada, we're really upset about the problem leaf-blowers present in terms of noise pollution and fossil-fuel burning. (But mostly the noise pollution.) Sigh.
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May 11, 2014 23:09
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ReindeerF posted:We should probably drop a note in here about the goings on in Bangkok. As part of the Final^8 Push, Gamnan Suthep has ordered his minions to occupy spots all around town to gently caress up traffic, which includes a number of arteries and also some very important ones for tourists like the Don Muang Expressway. As of today your taxi driver will know to avoid these areas, but more pop up every day, so if you need to fly out make sure to give yourself an extra hour or so just to be safe. So now that the Thaksin conspiracy has been removed from the prime minister's office, what exactly is his goal? They still can't win at an election and whoever replaces Yingluk will probably go after his rear end...
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May 11, 2014 23:13
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Cheesemaster200 posted:So now that the Thaksin conspiracy has been removed from the prime minister's office, what exactly is his goal? They still can't win at an election and whoever replaces Yingluk will probably go after his rear end... The guy replacing Yingluk worked for Thaksin. That conspiracy is never gonna die.
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May 12, 2014 02:56
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Nailed it right on the head, there. Nobody is going after Thaksin.
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May 12, 2014 03:09
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No, I mean Suthep. He isn't going to force anything which could see himself in power, so why does he continue to push? It will only result in agitating the people in power in the end.
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May 12, 2014 03:30
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Cheesemaster200 posted:No, I mean Suthep. He isn't going to force anything which could see himself in power, so why does he continue to push? It will only result in agitating the people in power in the end. Once a certain inevitable event happens, Thaksin will come back unless Suthep and his crew get the upper hand now. And when Thaksin does come back there will be hell to pay.
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May 12, 2014 03:49
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Anyone keen for beers in Bangkok this weekend? I'm staying at Siam Square.
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May 12, 2014 04:16
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Finch! posted:Anyone keen for beers in Bangkok this weekend? I'm staying at Siam Square. Yeah I might be down on Friday. Will let you know when it gets closer. Gail Wynand posted:Because it's literally a life and death struggle for Suthep and many of his backers. Interesting, didn't know this. How does the inevitable event mean that charges against Thaksin are dropped? Something do with who follows after?
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May 12, 2014 04:38
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I don't land in Bangkok until something like 10pm on Friday :/
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May 12, 2014 04:46
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MothraAttack posted:Interesting, didn't know this. How does the inevitable event mean that charges against Thaksin are dropped? Something do with who follows after?
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May 12, 2014 04:46
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Finch! posted:I don't land in Bangkok until something like 10pm on Friday :/ OK, let's see if Saturday might work. I'm pretty sure if we get just one more then we'd have a Goon meet on our hands.
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May 12, 2014 05:17
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I might be available.
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May 12, 2014 05:31
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MothraAttack posted:OK, let's see if Saturday might work. I'm pretty sure if we get just one more then we'd have a Goon meet on our hands.
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May 12, 2014 06:09
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I can do Saturday. I'm leaving on Tuesday evening.
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May 12, 2014 07:33
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ReindeerF posted:Gold Bay Leaves on Saturday anyone? It's on. Daddy's gotta get his cheese fix.
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May 12, 2014 14:19
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6o5NweFWjAw
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May 13, 2014 02:13
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Ha the last time I was in Bangkok I got in touch with some of my old Thai friends. When I showed up to see them there were, of course, about a dozen miscellaneous siblings and friends in the vicinity and we literally ended up going to Sizzler.
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May 13, 2014 03:31
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Welp, just got fleeced $150 for some minor scratches my scooter received while parked.
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May 13, 2014 07:26
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Not renting a scooter was the first thing I read when planning a trip to Thailand a couple of years ago for exactly that reason.
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May 13, 2014 08:16
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Wilhelm posted:Welp, just got fleeced $150 for some minor scratches my scooter received while parked. I drove into a ditch in Phangan. It'll probably set me back a few thousand baht. The drive from Thong Sala to Haad Rin is loving hazardous. One of the guys working at the hotel crashed his bike on it just the other night. Pulled a Russian guy out of the bush just a couple of nights ago too. If anyone is going to the full moon party, I'd advise just paying 100baht for a taxi. gently caress driving back hammered.
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May 13, 2014 10:56
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Driving a two-wheeled vehicle on a hilly island with bad roads in the developing world is not, yeah, something to add to your bucket list.
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May 13, 2014 11:03
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Anyway, back to foodchat - Gold Bay Leaves is here: https://goo.gl/maps/nX7fd Take the BTS to Punnawithi station, just West of Sukhumvit 101/1. Come down and either walk the 10 minutes East to 101/1 or grab a moto taxi for about 2-3 minutes. Once you enter Soi 101/1, the restaurant is now about 100m down on the right. Used to be on the left, but he moved across the street. If you haven't been, you can't miss it. It's a shophouse with tables on the street, but the chef is always visible in his streetside kitchen with the big white hat and coat on. What time on Saturday? 19:00? 20:00? earlier? Later?
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May 13, 2014 11:16
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Burma is bullshit, WiFi everywhere, the internet isn't even censored, there's not even very much rubble in the street. Jokes of course, it's great (including this internet cafe that has a sign above the computer telling you how to access a proxy). Food is a bit hit and miss and the prices are just all over the place. The people are nice though. And milk. MILK. My travel buddies say things like "it's so great to be here before it gets ruined by tourism". Am I being an up-myself dickhead by thinking that's a pretty pretentious thing to say?
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May 13, 2014 12:42
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duckmaster posted:My travel buddies say things like "it's so great to be here before it gets ruined by tourism". Am I being an up-myself dickhead by thinking that's a pretty pretentious thing to say? No, you're not. I remember once sitting in Bangkok listening to a backpacker complain about how Thailand and Cambodia are so "over." In Laos, it seems, you will go for days without seeing another white person. What I wanted to do was slap him and tell him to get the crap off the banana pancake trail if that's what he's looking for. What I did was sigh to myself.
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May 13, 2014 13:04
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They also don't have any idea of the political situation (which, granted, has improved considerably) or history but I've bitten my tongue on that one. Every idiot and his dog in Cambodia could bang on for hours about how evil the Khmer Rouge were but you've never heard of the Burmese Junta unless you've tried to find out about it so they assume "it can't have been that bad". I tried to educate one of them today on how the military has displaced massive numbers of people from non-Burmese minorities and has regularly put them into forced labour an exposed them to rape, murder etc, not to mention the political prisoners and the civilian government which appears to just be the old government in suits rather than uniforms. She seemed to get some of it (ok I haven't bitten my tongue on that at all!). Nice place though and lots of people wanted their photos taken with us today in the park. I felt like a movie star.
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May 13, 2014 13:15
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Chair Huxtable posted:No, you're not. I remember once sitting in Bangkok listening to a backpacker complain about how Thailand and Cambodia are so "over." In Laos, it seems, you will go for days without seeing another white person. What I wanted to do was slap him and tell him to get the crap off the banana pancake trail if that's what he's looking for. What I did was sigh to myself.
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May 13, 2014 14:12
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This is a long shot, but I'm trying to book domestic flights within the Philippines with Cebu Pacific or Philippines Airlines, either is fine. Both websites complain that only English characters in names are allowed, and I have a foreign character (ø) in my surname. Does anyone have experience booking flights and using substitute characters? Typically we use either 'oe' or 'o instead of 'ø'.
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May 13, 2014 15:00
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That'll be an interesting answer. I doubt it'll matter, but it'll be interesting. I once saw an Irisih guy get refused from pulling money out from his card at the bank because his passport had his name in Gaelic and his credit card was in English. That's an extreme example, but it was pretty entertaining to watch.
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May 13, 2014 15:12
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Just put o so it's closer graphically. My case is probably easier, but I use i and A instead of í and Á and I never had a problem.
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May 13, 2014 15:34
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| # ? Jun 9, 2024 20:31 |
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Yeah the Burmese military has to be the shittiest current one in ASEAN, hands down. Be sure you look out for those goofy "TATMADAW [Burmese army] WE LOVE YOU" signs that are still around. And are there travelers seriously unaware of the country's troubled past? Not to mention there are literal ghettoes for Muslims in the west.
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May 13, 2014 16:00
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