Quote:
Originally Posted by dc_publius
Same as the crackdowns on teachers with fake degrees, poor certifications? Same as the old visa crackdownds (no unlimited reentries and border runs, much tougher to get multientry from most places, etc)? Immigration officers testing thai language students is becoming a regular occurrence at some locations/etc. Read Thai Visa and other forums and you can see how things were 5, and 10 years ago. Back then, you could skirt around a lot more rules than today, but the door is slowly closing.
I think you are painting all these Thais as clueless dolts who run around in circles chasing their own tail, and a 1000 baht bribe will get you out of anything. But reality is that they do care, things are changing, and things are also becoming expensive. The country is slowly transition from sex and backpackers to family upscale vacations. These things don't happen overnight, but they do happen with time.
I assume this is directed at me?
I agree that times are changing, but theres a difference between changing the rules and making a crackdown on the rules (suddenly decide to enforce them). They are making crackdowns on a number of different issues, and very rarely is their any longterm effect.
Immigration officers testing Thai students is kindda worrying, because there is no official rule about that and no standardized tests, so that is just at the vim of the officer, whether you qualify.
And thats just one example where the immigration officer bends the rule, for whatever reason (boredom, powertrip, hoping for a bribe, just plain dislike farang or whatever).
I DO read TV, so I´m fully aware, how the rules are changing. I try to keep up to speed at all times, since I´ll live here for the rest of my life.
I´m all in favor of Thailand trying to clean up the country, kicking out lawbreakers, troublemakers, people who work here illegally etc.
Unfortunately, when they do make a crackdown of any sort, its most often just a lot of hot air.