PeterRS

. . . and what's the top line? 😵

Must be @vinapu's cousin!

We have known for weeks that the Thai Elite Visa programme is being revamped. Folllowing the company's embarrassing climbdown mid-month over its cancellation of certain longer term benefits for existing basic 5-year Elite card holders, the new rebranded programme has been been launched. The eight different types of visa have been reduced to four and allegedly the benefits are more simple and easy to understand. That may well be the case, but it all comes at a massive increase in cost. According to the blurb, the company has four main targets - frequent international visitors, Investors and Digital Nomads, Expats and Retirees. That is the first time I have noticed that retirees are a target market. The pricing of the new programmes is - 5 year GOLD visa: 900,000 baht - an increase from the existing 600,000 10 year PLATINUM VISA: 1,500,000 baht 15 year DIAMOND VISA: 2,000,000 baht 20 years or more RESERVE visa: 5,000,00 baht (by invitation only and reserved for 100 members per year) If anyone is thinking of applying for the existing Elite programmes, you should act now as you only have until September 15. The basic visa for 600,000 will give you the option of upgrading up to 15 more years at 400,000 baht provided you renew and pay prior to three months of expiry. Or you can immediately purchase 20 years for 1 million baht. There is presently no indication that any form of upgrading will be permitted under the new programmes. Wait till the 15th and you will only get 15 years for 2 million baht! I suppose the question all retirees and potential retirees have to ask is: am I better with the existing 65,000 monthly inward remittance/deposit of 800,000 reducing to 400,000 annually held untouched in a savings account route? Unquestionably the answer is yes. At least with the deposit route, you/your dependents get the money back on permanent departure from Thailand or death. On the other hand, for those with a bit of cash to splash, 20 years for 1 million baht cash out can seem worthwhile, if only because it is basically hassle free and is especially useful for those who travel regularly. The allied question, though, has to be: for how long will the annual limits for retirees continue at their present level? If Thailand Elite has raised its fees by between 50% and well over 100% and retirees are included in the target market, will be existing annual limits for retirees also be due for an increase - perhaps sooner rather than later? https://www.asiaone.com/business/thailand-privilege-card-marks-20th-anniversary-grand-revamp-unveils-new-brand-logo

I think you probably meant "when most if not all the stations were built for six carriages." (do correct me if that is incorrect). I think the MRT stations could easily accommodate seven carriages. At Lumphini MRT station I once had to wait for four jam-packed trains to pass at rush hour before I could get on the next one. There have been calls for both the Skytrain and the MRT to increase the number of carriages but to absolutely no avail. I travel mostly outside rush hour. I guess the problem for both operators is that non-rush hour traffic does not merit six carriage trains as frequently I can get a seat. Could additional carriages be added during rush hours? I assume that is technically feasible.

There is a short-termism that has affected THAI ever since it broke free of its founding partner SAS decades ago. This seems in large part due to political interference through its constantly changing Boards and Presidents - and a heavy dose of corruption. First, it had way too many varieties of aircraft, ready to purchase every new type that the manufacturers produced. The annual maintenance bill must have been huge. It's biggest mistake, though, was ploughing money into its US routes with an aircraft type that did not really make sense. To be fair, other airlines thought the A340 would be ideal for certain long-haul non-stop routes. Singapore Airlines bought them for many European routes. But once it was in production and orders placed, the international airline regulators increased the amount of time a twin-engine aircraft could be in the air without having an alternate airport nearby. Thanks to significant improvement in engine performance, ETOPS (extended-range twin-engine operations performance standard) was increased from 120 to 180 minutes. Thus, in comparison to the upcoming Boeing 777, the 4-engine A340 became significantly more expensive to operate. New York using A340s was always going to be a stretch for THAI. Even with an enlarged business class, it could not fly the route with a full load of passengers and cargo. It was a gas guzzler that rarely, if ever, made THAI any money. To service New York and LAX, TG purchased ten A340s between 2002 and 2004. Several politicians including Thaksin Shinawatra were charged by the Anti-Corruption Commission in connection with the purchase but then - not surprisingly - cleared of all charges. Even so, the A340 worked for SIA's US routes for about a decade because the aircraft layout initially only had business class seating (later changed to a large business class and smaller premium economy). It therefore charged much higher ticket prices than THAI. When SIA stopped using them, it did a deal with Boeing to resell them back to the manufacturer as part of a larger deal to purchase 777s. THAI, on the other hand, tried to sell them on the open market. No one wanted them. With clearly no sense of urgency, the aircraft sat taking up airport space for 13 years and no doubt deteriorating badly before the airline managed to sell five of them last year for the paltry sum of 350 million baht. Yet four A340s still remain unsold! In the years immediately beforehand, THAI had sold 11 smaller 737-400s for 2 billion baht. Now comes the A380 saga with more 'rotting' aircraft being put onto the market. Interestingly, while most airlines apart from Emirates had retired their A380 fleet, many of the aircraft have now been brought back into operation to meet the unexpected high demand for travel following covid. Most of these aircraft were stored away from their home base in very low humidity places like Arizona or, in the case of Cathay Pacific, in Alice Springs in Australia, and routine maintenance was undertaken. Did no one in the THAI Board or management realise the huge amount of cash they were throwing down the drain by storing their A380s without regular maintenance in the heat and humidity at BKK? Indeed, why did TG spend so much on the aircraft in the first place apart from as a vanity offering? But that's another question! I wonder what percentage of each THAI air ticket goes towards paying for THAI's mega errors?

Hercule Vinapu Poirot finds the culprit again.

I know I am technologically somewhat backward, but I haven't the faintest idea what the above post is all about! "eating up"? "Teabagging"? I guess I also need to get my eyesight checked. I thought it might get interesting when I read Foreskin instead of FOrsakeN! 🤣 I assume it's a quote from some website or news media but no site is quoted.

I wonder how you increase flights with lower airfares which adds to congestion, and yet the PM expects the AOT to reduce congestion!

The personality factor in Thai politics preceded that of Trump and Johnson and their cronies. Thaksin was seen as a saviour when first elected PM in 2001. Before then, few Thais seemed to pay much attention to politics as the same old members of the corrupt elite formed governments. I suppose the only ones not to be a part of that swamp were General Prem, although I do not know if he was as revered during his 8 years as PM as he was later in life as Chairman of the Privy Council. The other was Anand Panyarachun whom the King, having surprisingly intervened in politics folllowing massive protests against the government and a bloody army massacre, asked to form his second government in May 1992. This was met with popular approval around the country. Anand was seen as one of the few to be sincere and incorruptable. No doubt the privations suffered by so many in the country following the Asian Economic Crisis helped steer popular feeling towards a relatively new party leader who promised much. And to be fair, Thaksin did deliver policies that helped tens of millions around the country. Yet, despite the PR spin masters, he was essentially massively corrupt and deeply involved in cronyism. Even so, I can recall talking with taxi drivers in the mid-2010s who still seemed to revere Thaksin and said everything would be better once he returned to run the country. But these were members of the older generations. It is the young who seem now to be driving politics. Certainly Pita Limjaroenrat has a ton of charisma and seems not to be tainted with corruption and scandal, although his former wife did take him to court alleging he was controlling and abusive during their marriage. That case was dismissed as false by the family court. The LGBT movement will be staunchly pro his party as he has promised to introduce same-sex marriage. Will his popularity continue even though he has been denied political power? We ought to get some indication after the Rayong Constituency by-election on September 10.

I remember the days before the Skytrain and MRT when traffic was horrendous. I once read of a family from the southern part of the city driving north to Chiang Mai for Songkran. To beat the traffic, they set out at 8:00 pm the day before the eve of Songkran and were prepared to drive for 24 hours. By 08:00am the following morning they had not even reached Don Mueang. They gave up! The problem is, as the Bangkok Post article I quoted in my earlier post points out, the public transport system is extending outwards. Nothing is being done about what the developer is quoted as calling "the first and last mile." I live almost exactly a mile from an MRT station and slightly less from a bus stop. For me that is hardly a problem as I rarely have to be elsewhere in the city around rush hours. I have a car park space at my condo but I do not want a car. If I had one I would get stuck in miserably choked roads between around 07:30 and 10:00am as the narrow road leading from near the expressway to the business district is packed with cars hoping to beat traffic on the larger main roads. It would take a good 20-30 minutes to travel the 300 meters or so just to get to that road. Add in the problem of flooding during the rainy season and many experts have stated the only solution to the inner city traffic problems is either to make it much more expensive to drive private vehicles (politically impossible in my view) or substantially increase the number of roads (practically nearly impossible in my view).

Part of the blame lies squarely with the Pheu Thai government run by Thaksin's sister. One of its election promises and first acts was giving subsidies to first time car buyers. This is estimated to have added bewtween 1 million and 1.5 million new cars on to the roads, the majority in Bangkok, but with no increase in the road network. Unsurprisingly, in 2019 the navigation company TomTom ranked Bangkok as the 8th most congested city in the world and the 4th highest in Asia. One reason reducing fares is unlikely to work concerns Bangkok's limited road network. Whereas New York has a road to area ratio of 32% and even Tokyo's is 23%, Bangkok is way down in single digits at 8%. As the Bangkok Post reported in an article in October 2019 - The city's low road-to-area ratio, in particular its dearth of secondary roads, has created "superblocks": large tracts of land without access to major roads and in the case of Bangkok, without public transportation. Residents have to traverse long distances via local roads before they could access the main road. Consequently, they have to pay extra to use another form of transport (such as a taxi or motorbike taxi) or walk long distances before they can access public transportation. A real estate developer once told me: "This is the problem of the first and last mile. It is one of the main reasons why people don't use public transportation." https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/1762349 Other issues that encourage private vehicles are that unlike most cities, (1) Bangkok has very low parking fees, and (2) BMA construction regulations permit a large number of parking spaces in new commercial buildings This is unlike most other major cities which specify a much smaller maximum number of spaces.

I'm surprised you did not read the OP. He has returned to Sweden and will be departing again from Sweden. He is not doing a border run! With an onward ticket out of the country he will have no problem.

Let's not hold our breath. We have no idea if the Move Forward Party will be allowed to continue. In the 2019 General Election, another new Party Future Forward gained 81 seats, a remarkable number for a new Party. Due to political shenanigans, the Party leader was accused of violating election laws - the same tactic used to get rid of Pita Limjaroenrat, the leader of Move Forward. Naturally he was then disqualified by the elite-led Constitutional Court. This same Court ordered the Future Forward Party dissolved in February 2020. The following year 55 of the Future Forward MPs decamped to Move Forward. Will history repeat itself?

If China just opened up more to the LGBT community they would make millions already in sham marriages and many more millions of single men and women much happier.

Ten years ago 18 year-old Ratchanok Inthanon became Thailand's first World Badminton Women's Champion when she won in 2013. Tonight at this year's World Championships in Copenhagen, Thailand's 22-year old Kunlavut Vitidsarn from Bangkok, the current World No. 3, became the nation's first-ever Men's Singles World Champion. He beat another 22-year old, Japan's Kodai Naraoka, in three sets in one of the longest badminton matches I have ever seen. Some years ago, Khun Kunlavut was the World Junior Champion for three successive years. One of those he beat in the final in 2018 was the same Kodai Naraoka! He now seems certain to enjoy much more international fame and success for over the next decade. Photo: AP

Not only Japan whose population has been shrinking quite fast for well over a decade. Young Japanese are putting off marrying until much later than before and many couples are either delaying having kids or deciding not to have any. The country's allied problem is that it still does not want to open up its labour market to foreign workers. It is estimated that for population numbers to remain constant, a country's birthrate should be a minimum of 2.1 children per woman of child bearing age. Japan is now at 1.26. Singapore's population has also been shrinking quite dramatically for at least 2 decades. Last year the fertility rate dropped to an historic low of 1.04. The country's economy now depends on well over 1 million overseas workers. South Korea's population started shrinking much later in 2020. But its drop has been much more dramatic and last year stood at a world record low of 0.78. If nothing is done to change the attitude of young South Koreans, it is estimated the country could "lose" close to two-thirds of its population within just one generation. As worrying for Beijing, its four-decade policy of one child per family certainly had the desired effect of reducing its alarming population rise. But it has now joined the list of countries with worrying declines in birthrates. Equally, due to the preference of parents for boys rather than girls, it has a major population imbalance. It is estimated that some 30+ million young men will be unable to find wives. The one child poicy has now been replaced with a recommendation that couples aim to have three children! And like Japan, both China and South Korea are reluctant to open their countries up to a larger number of foreign workers. Unless they do so, the ability of the countries to look after their ageing populations will become increasingly problematic. There are many reasons for population decline, including improved personal incomes. Singapore and Japan have tried to encourage more young men and women to marry with the opening of special centres for meeting members of the opposite sex. Tax and other financial benefits are also available. But so far these do not appear to have more than token success. The major hurdle all countries have to overcome is that recent surveys have shown that more than half of young Japanese and South Korean women in in their 20s do not wish to have children. A survey in China found the percentage to be closer fo 66.6%. Asia is shrinking! https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/singapore-s-birth-rates-hit-record-low-in-2022-along-with-most-yearly-deaths-since-1960#:~:text=Official figures released by the,2021 to 35%2C605 in 2022. https://www.foreignbrief.com/analysis/population-east-asia-decline/#:~:text=EAST ASIA IS SHRINKING&text=China is only the most,children per woman is required.

Having read so much about retirement visas over several years, increasingly it seems that the bad guys continue to be the crook agents and crook Immigration officers and less crook retirees. If the government just cleaned up its own house, much of the problem could be solved without the need to increase fees in my view.

For two entries in relatively quick succession, this is important - less for Thai Immigration and more for the counter official when you check in at your departure airport. So please make sure you have evidence of a ticket out of Thailand ideally not less than 29 days after arrival (to be certain there is no confusion with night flights). Although living in Thailand, as a regular traveller I find I am increasingly asked either to show my visa or for proof of onward travel within 30 days when checking in overseas.

Unless the brown envelopes are stuffed with enough for them to avoid prison altogether 😵

If the couple only had 9 milion baht in their bank account, my guess is that a great deal more has been squirreled away and is sitting in overseas accounts.

Two interesting points from that article. First that the "younger generation is not interested in travelling abroad or applying for a passport." I find that almost impossible to believe. Walk around Honolulu and amost everyone is a young Japanese. And every younger Japanese I meet always wants to visit parts of Europe. Secondly, it does not mention flight departure times. If it is like many low cost carriers (and some of the full service carriers on the Japan routes), at least one leg will be overnight. Maybe OK for those elusive younger passengers, but I for one will not fly on a 6 to 7.5 hour overnight flight, even with that low price. I'll happily pay more for the JAL daytime economy tickets.

I always travel with two different types of ear plugs. One is made of a waxy substance which can be moulded to the shape of your ear and blocks out almost all sound. But it cannot be used on aircraft because it can trap air in the ear canal. I use them in hotels with a lot of traffic outside or noise from adjoining rooms. For flying I get the softer plugs that are usually given out in business class but can be purchased in stores like Watsons and Boots. These feel a little strange when you first put them in but I find them very effective in reducing external noises.

The Photos page in the members area has disappeared!

I wrote quite some time ago about the US political system and how the four year Presidential cycle really should be changed given the present state of the world. One President does one thing. The next reverses course and changes it. That has happened several times. Throughout his Presidency starting from his first year in office, Clinton examined ways of involving North Korea in talks in the hope of coming to some nuclear agreement. By his last year, considerable progress had been made that he even sent Madeleine Albright to Pyongyang. Earler he had established the Trilateral Co-ordination and Oversight Group along with Japan and South Korea specifically to move forward on North Korean relations. According to documents declassified in 2020, some time before her visit Albright had described Kim Jong Il as "strange, moody and hypersensitive." After meeting him in October 2000, her view had changed. Now she saw him as more "practical, pragmatic, decisive and non-ideological" than the US had earlier realised. She discussed her findings with the Japanese and South Korean leaders. President Kim agreed to use his influence with Chairman Kim to find ways of continuing to improve relations with North Korea. Clinton then wrote of his intention to remove North Korea from the list of nations supporting terrorism. George Bush soon assumed office, abandoned all talks and called out North Korea as part of an "axis of evil!" A total about turn and a total collapse of any form of co-operation. That said, I have lots of say about the poitical systems in other countries, especially my own - the UK. But this post follows on the point made about Cuba and the US.

Indeed! And has anyone yet discovered what he and Putin discussed during their 2-hour meeting in Helsinki in 2018, uniquely for a US President without any advisers present - merely an interpreter? When one reporter asked at the ensuing media conference if the Russians had interfered with the 2016 election as all Trump's intelligence agencies had claimed, Trump disagreed. According to him in front of the world's media, Putin had "just said it's not Russia. I will say this: I don't see any reason why it would be." Was Ukraine discussed? Did Trump say he'd turn a blind eye to further Russian incursions? Only the interpreters know.