Yesterday, Richard Barrow, a popular British blogger who has been living and working in Thailand for decades, says he had a surprise visit from the immigration bureau in regards to the renewal of his visa. Kapook reported the incident on their page saying that many Thai people admire the work he does for Thailand as a tourism and expat influencer. Richard bemoaned on his Facebook page that “things didn’t look good” for an extension of his visa to stay in Thailand. “Bangkok Immigration came to inspect my workplace. They were here for 3 hours. Looks like they will not extend […]

The thorny issue of dual pricing has raised its ugly head again, this time with the current offerings for hotels as Thailand slowly winds up its tourism industry again. Tourism and Sports Ministry, Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn, is asking hotels to offer “fair packages to expats and resident foreigners, and avoid price discrimination”. He said that there are 2 million foreign residents who would be able to travel domestically at this stage and contribute to a local revival of tourism before the borders are re-opened for general tourism. The ministry suggested that expats should be encouraged to travel domestically instead of heading out […]

Now that Pattaya’s infamous Walking Street is open to traffic along with parking for the first time in many, many years, what’s next? Thai officials and the local constabulary have long had a love-hate relationship with the red light district. It has attracted tourists but perhaps to the tourists the bosses in Bangkok were hoping for. It was a hive of lawless rents, sub-leases, sub-sub-leases and graft. Whilst police turned a blind eye to much of the illegal activities along the strip, they were happy to profit from kick-backs, “security” and tea money. Now the Pattaya Mayor Sonthaya Khunplume says the […]