So I hear that the new thai government has made thailand undesirable.
Heard that discos are closing at 1am, can some1 confirm this?

[QUOTE=Slappz;28548051][QUOTE=AcesWon;28529825]Now I'm looking into taking a Thai language course. As long as I attend classes, learn the language well enough to pass the final test/QUOTE]
I may be mistaken on that from outdated information.

A partial copy/paste from a UK consulate:

If you are entering the Kingdom of Thailand without a valid visa there is a concession which allows you to do so providing that the following conditions are ALL fulfilled.

1. Your Passport is on a list of passports approved for this purpose. It is likely to be but please check if you are in doubt.

2. Your visit to the Kingdom of Thailand is for tourism purposes only.

3. You hold a confirmed air ticket to leave the Kingdom within 30 days direct from a Thai airport. Please note that you must travel by air and travel from an an airport outside of Thailand does not count.

(The "Please note that you must travel by air and travel from an an airport outside of Thailand does not count." may cause a problem if I'm just flying to a neighboring country.
emphasis added).

This has been the rule for many years and nothing has changed in this regard. The only thing that has changed is that these rules are going to be applied more strictly than in the past. This means that you will not be allowed into the Kingdom of Thailand without a valid visa unless you can fulfil all of the above conditions.

--

Enforcement may be iffy, but a flight from Thailand to Cambodia or Laos within the 30-day exemption should or might cover all the requirements. Right, or am I missing something?

Maybe that's one of the reasons I like poker so much -- I can focus on the game and winning instead of worrying about unknowns. At least math and instinct play a part in the game.

dont worry about new rules or thai "crackdowns" before you actually seem them enforced.

you have always needed a ticket out of thailand if you come without a visa (when most western countries get 30 days visa exemption). the airline MIGHT ask for the ticket, you MIGHT get pass that just saying you have a ticket/you will get visa on arrival (which is not a tourist visa or the visa exemption but the airline staff may not know this and let you go) or some other bs

aceswon,

yes that flight is enough for you to have

I just got a 60 day tourist visa in Phnom Penh about 2 weeks ago, did not have flight out of Thailand. Was not asked for it.

Yes, have always been the rule. The problem is, that just 10 days ago or so, embassies/consulates were "officially" requested to actually start enforcing the rules. Whether that´s gonna happen, I dont know, of course.

People should just be aware that they might encounter more problems than previously.

[QUOTE=AcesWon;28563276][QUOTE=Slappz;28548051] Dont think theres a test as such. They claim they will start checking whether students attend school, but lets see.

You may run in to an immigration officer that decides to test whether you have learned anything, but thats just his own little powertrip.

He might just be curious. Being an immigration officer is boring as **** and seeing how well the farang can speak Thai would be a nice diversion from the repetitive bureaucratic BS.

you have to be confusing something here. embassies/consulates have nothing to do with the visa exemption. you dont have to visit an embassy to get into thailand without a visa and get 30 days

and as for the tourist visa you are talking about: we will see if anything actually happens

Well, occasionally, they like to make up their own rules. Perhaps hoping for some tea-money.

No, I´m not confusing anything, but might not have made myself clear.
In order to get a tourist visa you have always had to show a ticket out of the country, however, often that rule was not enforced. But it is this rule they have now been instructed to enforce vigorously. Whether that´ll happen, no idea.

gotcha. you just confused me since the post you quoted had me talking about visa exemption and then you start talking about embassies

Hey guys, I read the whole thread and there was not much info about Thailand visa issues, can someone please explain to me how visas work?

ya, you read the whole thread.

Ah yeah, see what you mean.
But even so, even to use the visa excempt you have always had to have a ticket out AFAIK, it has just never been enforced.

But they may start enforcing that as well, based on a statement from Phuket Airport Immigration, where they said they would "use common sense" to decide whether to let people enter the kingdom or not, if they did not have a ticket out.

But again, how and if that will be enforced, we dont know.

All in all, it´s probably just some guy in Bangkok, who wanted to feel like a bigshot by making a "big" statement like this. Normally these crackdowns wear off in a week or so

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.

Anyway, arriving in BKK on the 9th!!!

Now I just hope I don't get screwed on AirAsia luggage fees. (I check in 1 bag, have 1 carry on, and also a motorcycle helmet)

Not clueless, just lazy and greedy.

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.

im on my third year of student visa, at the end of the second year i had to go to some thai officefor a test. It was basically me chatting with a women for 5 minutes with her saying ooh you speak thai very good, and im decent but really not that good.

That's the whole point of the test. If you just signed up for some random school that doesn't even require you to show up - the way it used to be - you would clearly fail this easy test and then things would be up in the air. (small brible, big bribe, or worse.)

Hard to clean up when corruption is so tolerated/the norm. Have to clean up from within first.

I gotta move to BKK, CM, or Phuket real soon.

Is the internet really that bad? It seems there's so many grinders in Thailand now , how could the internet really be that awful if this is the case....

Am I going to have a hard time cashing out? Bank account really a sure thing if I go there soon with just a passport?


Thanks.

who said internet is awful?

kinda relative term anyway

It's only awful if you try to download big files, or even worse - upload big files. If you do any development work/VNC/things like that, you gotta shop around for good plans and they cost the same or more as in the West.

But for poker you don't need much at all, unless you 50 table. I mean, I can play poker on my craptastic 2G plugin here in rural India if I don't open up too many tables. And this is in a country where their major cities still have regular brownouts! Thailand is head and shoulders better. Most people just stress over a non-issue.

Most of the complaints stem from people staying in hotel rooms and getting weak signal in their room or sharing their connection with waaaay too many people. By this standard, you could say Internet sucks in NYC and London also.

I see. Well I do 12-16 table sometimes , so I definitely want a strong connection. But it did sound overblown.

Seems like most people don't have a problem getting a bank account.. should I expect the same?

why does it suck to download? I got the 9mbit 3bb nowadays and i can download well seeded torrents 1MB/s. uploading is slow though but i dont care about that

poker doesnt take that much bandwidht anyway. i can play 16 tables with no problems with either the 3bb adsl or AIS 3G stick (that i use now as backup)

and yea obv "internet sucks" when you are using some crappy wifi in some guest house shared by 50 ppl

yes

You can 30 table pokerstars on a CATA CDMA in Samui, no problem.