Thai Hotel

It is the end of an era in Thailand. Political changes occur rapidly in SE Asia. Nowhere is that more evident than inside the Land of Smiles. In the wake of the John Karr / JonBenet Ramsey fiasco, Thailand has tightened restrictions on Tourism Visas and stymied the lives of tens of thousands of travelers. Officials claim the two are not connected.

For many years now, backpackers have flocked to Thailand. It’s tropical climate, gentle citizens, inviting beaches and ease of travel beckon youthful exuberance. Over time, many of us have matured to suitcases and still less-stylish travelers followed suit.

During these Golden Years of Thai travel visitors form 39 countries could enter the Kingdom of Thailand for thirty days without obtaining a visa before their arrival. Those staying on longer would simply make a border run, cross out of the country and return, often within minutes. Whish! Stamp! Boom! They had another thirty days.

Currently details of the new regulations are as clear as mud in an unlit cave. It appears starting October 1, 2006, travelers such as myself will be able to make a maximum of two border runs. We receive thirty days on arrival. Then, we receive thirty days each for the two reentries. After that we may not enter Thailand again for ninety days. In other words, after ninety days in, we must leave for ninety days. Whish! Stamp! Stamp! Out!

The tourism industry will suffer! From taxi drivers and guest houses, to massage schools and laundry services, the impact will be felt. I imagine a Tuk Tuk driver will look up this January and think, “Hey, where’d everybody go?” I like to believe the cumulative economic loss will be more than the Kingdom fathoms and policies will loosen again over time. I also still hang a Christmas stocking up for myself.

Alongside Thais, how are long-term travelers being affected by the changes? If you think the inconvenience to individuals is negligible, consider the following. Here are some examples.

Donald Wood - UK
“My sister and her family were to spend February in Thailand with me. They have canceled their trip. Why? Because, I’ll be out for ninety days by then.”

Kelly Laidlaw - USA
“I paid for a one month TEFL Course and two months ‘volunteer’ teacher training on Samui next year. That’s three months total. I lose days from each 30 day allotment, because I have to do my visa border runs on weekend (to not miss class). This is what I’m left with. I leap into Thailand the day before class starts and sprint for Samui. Then, I fly out the day after I finish teaching/graduate. Perhaps a prospective school can interview me in the Tuk Tuk on the way to the airport.”

Claude DeVosjoli - France
“I had many plans for my six months- sure to travel, but more. I’m always doing something. Mahout training, an expansive meditation experience, maybe I learn to cook Thai. And, there’s trekking, Muay Thai courses There’s so much to do here. Now I can do only half. Half lose my francs. It’s so hard to choose.”

Barry Anderson - Australia
“Funny thing is Burma (a.k.a. Myanmar) lost business because of the Thai regs. I wanted to hop over there bouts for a week mid-November. Can’t now. That would use up one of my precious two visa runs early. Don’t wanna torch thirteen days I figure.”

Kathy Taylor - Canada
“I sold my home to come to SE Asia for a couple years. The thinking was I would maintain a small apartment in Chiang Mai, take some classes, travel around a bit and have a place to nest and write in between. Now when I travel to other countries it will go lock, stock and barrel, along with my tourism dollars for many months.”

Alan McLawrie - UK
“I’m currently taking classes to learn to speak Thai. I’ll miss the third level now. Of course, I’ll be off in Vietnam not able to practice what I just learned anyway. Also, I volunteer at a dog rescue and will miss the pups. I’m financially independent, yet too young to meet the 50 year old requirement for a Retirement Visa here. Officials actually said this new law will stop bad people and not hurt good people. Well, if financially successful, charitable volunteers who study their culture are bad guys, send me to the front of the line.”

Anita Kroll - USA
“This change is a bit of a pickle for me. I have a three month course this spring. So, in December when my 90 is up, I have to leave Thailand for almost four months, not three. I’ll need the whole next lot of ninety days to cover my class time. The course starts in late April and I’m out in December. I wish there had been more notice before the government changed things, though in retrospect I did not have to pay in advance.”

As you see there are dozens of ways Thailand’s new policies will cause little inconveniences. But, how little are they? You see, I am Anita. I am Alan. I am Kathy, Barry, Kelly, Donald and even Claude DeVosjoli. All these issues occurred for just one peaceful gal who simply loves Thailand. What else do these issues have in common? That’s easy. They take money away (Whish!) from the Kingdom of Thailand and its citizens.

Nola L. Kelsey is the author of Bitch Unleashed: The Harsh Realities of Goin’ Country and coauthor of the scathing political satire Keeping the Masses Down. To read more of Kelsey’s work, visit her rarely up-to-date website at: http://www.nolakelsey.com

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I’ve been told I can no longer write about the coup for various magazines in Thailand. As frustrating as this is, I understand the position editors are in.

I don’t want to talk excessively about the coup and the Constitution, but there are still some elements of it that I want to explore. I’ve written a few pieces about the coup on my blog and have taken a keen interest in gaining a better understanding of what has been happening recently.

Not everyone is happy with the way events unfolded after the coup. The September 19 Network Against Coup D’etat are a group who have been expressing a very different viewpoint than we have been led to believe exists in Thailand. The Thai media has been reluctant to put forward this side of the story.

I for one am leaning towards showing my outright support for this group because they seem to represent something about the universal values of human rights and democracy.

Is it true that now we are in a state of martial law that all corruption in Thailand now ceases to exist? Certainly not, and furthermore, some are justifying the actions of the bloodless coup, as it were, by saying that it has avoided violence. Maybe so, but it has overturned democracy. Sometimes violence is a necessary side-product of democracy.

As ugly as it may be, the people need that right to be violent and to protest and stand up for what they believe in. Democracy cannot be expected to be peaceful and Eden-like at all times. Surely this much has been learnt from the past.

The fact remains that the coup leaders have the ability within their power to change the present climate any way they see fit. If the people were to rise up then this could force a situation whereby elections could be called for.

Do not think that by me speaking out against the coup that I am in favour of Thaksin. This is simply not true. Some people seem to be under the impression that the only options are “Thaksin or tanks.” Since when did this become the case? Whilst I understand that Thaksin was a very corrupt, thuggish man, he served many of his 16 million voters effectively. He acted unethically, but let me ask you once more, is a Thaksin-free Thailand now also corruption-free? Not at all.

What also concerns me is that a lot of people are quick to say how this is how Thailand does it, how this is the way that Thai democracy works. This is the exact point of view that supporters of the September 19th Network Against Coup D’etat are fighting against. Thailand has moved on a lot in recent years and the backlash of this is a large group of people who have come to understand universal values of democracy.

The main problem comes with the rural poor. When I said two weeks back about Thailand emulating Western values, I meant amongst the more privileged classes, in the larger cities, where anti-coup movements like this are a reality. The situation is, of course, different for the rural poor who do not care for Western values and only care for how they can immediately benefit from the political situation. This is why they supported Thaksin, because the benefit was very immediate.

Whilst the bigger cities rely on Western practices, on the farms it is not quite like this. This highlights the very real problem of the divide between the elite and the poor.

Furthermore, the rural masses are not interested in freedom of speech. They are only interested, to the best of my understanding, in what they can get here and now, and this comes in the form of superficial benefits. Therefore, what should be key in Thailand should be educating the millions of people who have the power to vote in what that vote actually means.

It’s a very complicated and volatile situation, and one that I often struggle to get my head around. Part of me wants the slightly romantic and unpredictable nature of democracy to be reintroduced, but then how can this democracy be ideally utilized if nobody actually understands what it means? Sometimes I think the Orwellian nightmare is the only solution.

I support the ideal behind what the September 19 Network are saying, but at the same time I am aware that this ideal is far from perfect because it is an ideal for the social elites. If there were no rural classes then fine, the power could be returned to the people more easily, but as it is it seems like the damage done by Thaksin’s educating the masses will take years to fix. Even so, however, I still believe overthrowing the 1997 constitution was not the right thing to do because of the lack of freedom of expression in place now.

The future looks very bleak.

Matt Crook is a Bangkok based writer and editor who relocated to Thailand from the UK in July 2005. His commentary on the Land of Smiles and the issues facing a 23-year-old expat can be found on his personal blog WhatisMatt.com

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Probably the most common question any foreigner living in Thailand will hear from people planning to visit the Kingdom is “When is the best time to come to Thailand“…not an easy question to answer without knowing “why” a person wants to come to Thailand.

There are basically three seasons in Thailand (though of late the cold season seems to have gone missing), the seasons are, The Hot, The Wet and The Cold. Cold being a rather subjective description though, the shots of emergency blankets being handed out in the northern provinces when it drops to a chilly 10 degrees…that’s 10 degrees Celsius. So what does each season offer.

The Hot
March to June : The hottest month is April when even the geckos stay inside and most expats look outside at lunch time and decide to not eat rather than melt on the walk to a food stall. The Hot season is beach season, if that’s your thing then this is the time to come to Thailand, guaranteed sun sun sun all day long day after day. For Trekkers you might find this to be a tad hot to go trudging up hills unless mounted on an elephant, sun stroke and dehydration are high up on the list of things to beware of. Bangkok turns into a molten vat of pollution as the winds die and the smog just hangs around choking up the oxygen. Hotels are at their most expensive during the hot season and weekends will see many of the mid range ones fully booked.

The Wet
July to November : The change over from hot to wet is the worst time to be in Thailand regardless of what you’re into. It’s Hot, it’s wet and the humidity is ruthless. You’ll be desperate to take three showers a day at a minimum…living in a shower for a month might not be a bad plan. If you can imagine living in a sauna for a month then you get the right picture of Thailand at the start of the wet season…unless you’re in Bangkok, then get in a sauna and pipe your car exhaust into the sauna to get the right idea…hmmm yummy. Then thankfully the skies really open up, the wind blows and things freshen up . Rain is pretty much a guaranteed feature on a daily basis and usually kicks off in the afternoon, sometimes lasting all night, Floods are common along with power cuts. So why come to Thailand now…the cost…. hotels are empty, tourists are away, it’s a great time to see Thailand with fewer tourists than usual and get the best prices as even the Thai people stay home at the weekends.

The Cold
December to February : Thailand freezes over, snow falls from the sky and ice-skating is the nations most popular sport…well if you watched the TV or the Thai people running around dressed in winter jackets, boots, gloves and scarves you may start to think it’s true.. in Bangkok it can drop to a bone chilling 15 degrees Celsius at night, and up north it has on occasions dropped down to 2 degrees, the south gets off much lighter and you can escape with a body warmer and a bobble hat. Thailand again is swarming with tourists who have come to take advantage of the cool weather to do see Thailand without burning up. This is the best time of the year to actually “see” Thailand, you’ll enjoy seeing the sights and touring the cities and trekking will be at its best. Again prices will be up and hotels fairly full.

So in a nutshell the best time to come to Thailand is the time that suits what you want to do, Trekkers and Tanners will have different needs, those looking for bargains will have different needs. Just add that there are occasional down pours even in the hottest parts of the year and even the wet season can be dry for a week or more…..but leave your skis at home…there will be no snow…..guaranteed.

Article can be used with permission of Chris Sanderson as long as the signature and in place links are left unchanged. Chris Sanderson is an Affiliate Marketing Manager based in Bangkok Thailand with AMWSO.com and the owner of Xaap.com.

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