I am very frustrated with governments this week, and I’m not so sure we wouldn’t be better off without them.
Here is a run down.
- The border crossing with Burma where I go once per month to renew my ability to stay in Thailand has decided they have to work to hard and wants to discourage people like me. So they went and instituted their own new rule - you must prove you have 10,000 Baht ($250) in cash to get back into Thailand.
No other border crossing in Thailand does this, so it looks like they just want to be a pain in the ass. Now every criminal on the very sketchy Burma side the border knows that every foreigner is packing a year’s salary for them. Great….. - My government’s post office has started bouncing mail back to senders for no good reason.
- The Thai government has decided to change the rules on issuing Police Checks (shows that Toi has no criminal record for the visa process). Until last month I was able to pay a service here in Chiang Mai a $100 to run Toi’s paperwork down to Bangkok to get the Police Check and have it back in a week.
Now they have decided that anyone who wants one of these MUST go themselves to both apply for it and set up a second appointment weeks later to pick it up in person. That’s two additional trips to BKK about 650 miles away, and we have no days off to fit this in. - I was so happy to see that the US Embassy processed Toi’s last paperwork , waaaayyyy ahead of schedule and set Toi’s interview for Sept. 24th! Great so what’s the problem. We so clearly asked in writing that the interview not be until on or after Nov 2nd, because Toi has no days off until then and it will take 2-3 days to go to Bangkok. Should have been fine as it usually takes 8-10 weeks to process this paper work, of all the times for them to be “Efficient.”
Urrrgggggg.
