Friday, September 22, 2006

Sod off Chris


That is what the Thai Government is telling all foreigners who hold a tourist visa.

From now on if the new regulations are enforced, you will only allowed to have three consecutive thirty day tourist visa’s in your passport, on the fourth try you will be not allowed back into Thailand for 90 days.

I myself through circumstances will be on my third tourist visa this time; luckily I’m in the process of getting a different style of visa. This regulation however will affect 1000’s of short to medium stay foreigners. Some cannot be bothered or cannot afford to get a different visa, so monthly have to trog all the way to a border crossing and get a new tourist visa. These people put a fair bit of income into the Thai economy, especially in Bangkok. I worked it out last night and in the last year I have spent 2.2 million baht in the Thai economy (£31000). That’s probably more than most people, but the numbers for Brits that will be affected alone is put at 2500 in Bangkok alone, so a figure of 500,000GBP is not far of the mark. Add into this citizens from US, Japan, Korea, Europe, Canada etc etc. Then that figure will soon begin to dent someone‘s pocket.

If it wasn’t for Nuch and the very impending baby, I would be soaking it up in Penang living in a more civilised country.

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