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24
News Forum - Thai police admit extorting money from Taiwanese actress
It's ASEAN. Corruption is endemic. Only Singapore and perhaps Brunei are transparent. I was a victim of it lately and lost my Bourban bought at KLIA2. I travelled on a late AirAsia flight and arrived DM International around 7:30ish. I planned a later flight because I wanted to avoid the menacing Chinese tourists who have absolutely no sense of order and queues. Immediately, at the immigration counter, a middleaged immigration lady "flagged me" down and consulted her colleagues. I queried them, "why, why, why,..." I even allowed them to understand that I travelled as an ASEAN national and our ASEANAship shouldn't be questioned. She was just belligerent and asked to go to another section to be interviewed. Complying, I sat there which seemed like hours, and they sent a young man to interview me. He thought I don't understand Thai mixed with his broken English that I don't understand, and suddenly, boom!, he said the BOSS wanted me to pay a charge of 2,000 Baht. Then, I did a trick and informed that I'd have 1,000 Baht with me. Suddenly, he responded, "mai bpen rai, I'd ask my boss"!!! Oh he returned in a nifty, and said, "1,000 Baht is fine with my boss"! Then I said, "fine, however, I needed to take a photograph of the transaction." Then everything fall apart on his end, he became rather nervous and unconvinced. As I whipped out my phone to film the event, he stopped me. Then suddenly he said, "don't make this anymore difficult, I negotiate again with my boss." He returned pretty quick as well, and brought me to a counter to have my Passport chopped and signed without any issues. He even acknowledged a "khop khun khrap, courteously". I left the immigration to collect my bags at the bag carousel, and forgotten to retrieve the Jim Beam, after an unnerving episode. I kept thinking about the predicaments between the corruption harassment and my own predicament, and I concluded that corruption is a cooperation amongst a group of individuals who may have ground work done up to target certain people at a certain time. They won't do it when there's a crowd. -
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News Forum - Police bust Belarusian man in Phuket for allegedly stealing cash and crypto from Russians
They have the same brain as their leader. They think they can bully anyone. Hope the go inside for a while. -
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News Forum - Woman accuses police of seizing her car for personal use
It seems as if the back story is that the car was seized from a suspected drug dealer. Assets are often seized and only returned when the owner can prove the asset was not bought from the proceeds of crime. She cannot do this or prove that she paid for the car so the car remains impounded at the cop shop who will, of course, use it and deny using it. -
24
News Forum - Thai police admit extorting money from Taiwanese actress
This is next level of shameless behaviour from RTP -
6
Staying Thailand with TR. How long is too long ?
I did. But the clearing the border control was far from smooth. And my experience is perhaps of little reference value to you and people from other nationalities. As a frequent visitor of Thailand I have been keeping track of of the news among the Chinese community there. Before I flew to Bangkok from London in the beginning of Dec. last year, I learned from them that because Thailand is cracking down on the Chinese who works in semi-illgal industries (In Chinese 灰产 or grey industry) in Thailand, they became more strict on issueing ED visas , and crack down on the retirement visas of the people who bribes the officials to get the visa without depositing the money required in a Thai bank (most Chinse people do that, because even if most of them have the funds in China, China's control on currency exchange and outflow became insane these years and it is just impossible to move the 80,000 Baht fund from China to Thailand legally for individuals), and at border control they question and invesigate the every Chinese national, no matter leaving or entering, just like criminals (provided that they don't pay and go through the "priority entry service" that I later will explain). Some frequent Chinese visitors are also regarded abusing the tourist visa or VOA and taken into custody. They are not allowed to go to other coutries where they have residency or other kinds of visa and be deported to China and be forced to pay the very expensive ticket. My trip was already planned but I definitely didn't want to end up like that. Fortunately (or shall I use this word?), the corrupt Thai border officials and the "resourceful" Chinese agents who collude with them have always been advertising a "priority entry service" to the Chinese customers -- with a small fee of 4,000 baht, they would guarantee your entry, with no investigation at all and extreme hospitality from the happy immigration staff, provided that you don't have overstay and other criminal records in Thailand. I contacted an agent used the service and it was almost as described. I was shocked at how welcoming and humble that a Thai immigration could look in front of me. Oh just except that with that humble and smiling face, the gentleman kindly asked me for an additional 5,000 on top of that 4,000, saying "it's an extraodinary time for the Chinese" and "you have visited too often"; "please understand". Well I fully understood that despite his humble and smiling face, he has all the power and I am but a fish on his chopping board, but I did not easily agreed to pay that and started bargaining with the official like a typical Thai person would do when they received a fine or something. Finally I we agreed on the total price of 7,500. Of course I have to pay another 2,200 for my VOA. It should be 2,000 but they just charged 200 more. I was greeted by other immigration staff like a king. However, this period of Thailand's de-facto sanction on Chinese visitors ended by the end of last year. By the time I traveled back to the UK in January there was no longer additional questions and requests of seeing all kinds of documents at the Thai departure immigration control, even if I am Chinese. I heard from other Chinese people that when they enter Thailand they were also no additional investigation. Despite that I travelled to Thailand a bit often and stayed a bit long in 2022, I am an honest tourist and went to thailand to enjoy the beaches, food and local culture, and I did not stay as long as many border runners. In 2020 and most of 2021 (until December) I did not go to Thailand at all due to Covid. I consider myself unlucky to travel to Thailand during this "extradinary period of time" and my experience has little reference value to people from other countries. That said, what I can say for sure is that 4000 baht "priority entry service" is still there. It is mainly advertised and operated by the Chinese agents, but the service is not only restricted to Chinese citizens. As long as a person doesn't have overstay records and other criminal records in Thailand, they can use the service for 4000 baht or so. I would strongly advise against using this, for reasons that I don't need to explain. I will not use this service ever again in the future.
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