ID To Be Needed At Soi Cowboy Bars

[..]

Huh. Never can tell. A famous board member here had a similar story from years back.

 

What intersection?

 

Cheers,

SD

[gummigut]

Larry Dudley Hiibel's Supreme Court case in the US.

 

<<burp>>

[Zorro]

That is madness......someone is seriously losing the plot in the LOS.

 

I suppose thou the average Thai has been treated like this since birth so for them this is nothing new.

 

It seems that farangs are now to be treated just like the rest of the population.

[rickfarang]

Big_Kahuna, I suadum may have hinted at the answer to your question about photo copies when he wrote:

 

"A copy of the passport pages are acceptable *IF* they is stamped/certified by the immigration office -- you need the info page and the entry stamp page. Period."

 

Whether the bars will acutally let you in, that depends on the bar and when you try to go in. My guess is that few bars will stop customers at the door and demand to see ID before letting them in. Maybe some, if they really are liable to be fined, but its hard to imagine this becoming the norm.

 

I heard it said that cops spend more time at intersections busing people toward the end of the month (before payday). Don't know if there is any basis for this. Just a rumor.

[Chang_Paap]

BK

 

1) The bar are entitled to check that you are of the required age to purchase alcohol in an entertainment venue (over 20). There is no age for drinking booze, just buying, similar thread on TV with laws quoted and links to the full translated law.

 

2) The same thread quotes the law that states valid ID, local drivers licence, Thai ID or passport are the accpetable ID. Some will accept a local drivers licence, but I believe it is not one of the listed acceptable documents. The fine is what the law states or the BiB thinks it says.

 

This is the law in LOS, this, to be stating the obvious is not USA, Oz or GB where citizens have greater rights.

 

Try being a non English speaker in these countries without ID when the local cops are on a raid for anything. They may not be looking for teamoney, but you will have an uncomfortable time for a while. They will not let you take them to your hotel, you will have to make some araingements.

 

In Oz you do not even get a phone call. Ask for one and you will be told "this is not an American cop show!!"

 

Chang

[..]

I clarified this whole mess with my Cowboy contacts last night (Thais, who were at said meeting at Old Dutch). The reason is exactly as Chang stated in his point #1. The Thai gummint is looking to enfore age regulations in bars. Acceptable ID in this case, to enter a bar, is *any* unexpired government issued ID as long as it has a picture and your birth date (so your home country driver's license is fine).

 

This is an entirely separate issue to the need under Thai law to carry an ID.

 

FWIW, the fine amounts mentioned by Stick are accurate, plus a 30 day closing that I do not think he mentioned. No one has been fined yet as this is only going into effect Oct 1.

 

Cheers,

SD

[packy]

Since 9/11, There are quite a few communities in this area that will ask for an ID just for being out and about in a "certain areas" of town. I give them my Driver's license, and if they ask for a second, I give them my ACLU card. That stops the questioning. Thailand may be looking for anyone that could in the future cause trouble in the south under the guise of enforcing old laws. As a veteran and an American I have lost a lot of my civil liberties since 9/11. But that is the price we all will have to pay. I don't like it but I have to live with it until the Patriot Act runs out.

[OCgringo]

A state drivers licence as ID is good for me ,

 

But how can a thai Cop know what is real or not ?

50 states in the USA , so 50 licences just for us !

 

I wish there was some way we could pay 500 baht or so for an "official Thai" ID for visitors, I still hate to take my passport out of the hotel safe

 

OC

[Guest]

It appears that all over town police is increasingly targetting farang.

Recently i was stopped in a taxi at an unofficial road block at night near Don Muang, for being farang. The officers were extremely unfriendly, refused to speak Thai when i inquired for the reason, screamed that they are going to search me. Only after i have shown them an ID police generally does not touch, their attitude changed dramatically, and i was let go.

Having no ID whatsoever around in these times is inviting trouble. If things go wrong the least one can expect is an uncomfortable night in a cell, or to be fleeced for considerable amounts of money.

Don't expect this attitude to change soon, it will only get worse.

[Guest]

It seems like another nice little avenue for the MIB to exploit to their advantage.

 

When they are short of dough just go around to a few bars and hassle the tourists and then fine all those without acceptable id.

Exactly right.

 

Putting aside the whole question about whether there actually is such a law, there is a more fundamental problem here. Most tourists will not reasonably expect that they are required to carry their passports with them at all times. No sane tourist will carry his original passport with him when drinking in Soi Cowboy, NEP, discos or any other night time venue. The only tourists who will make copies of their passports and carry them when out at night are those who already know about this "law" (if there is one); most tourists will not know about such a law or can be expected know about such a "law". These features of such a "law" therefore really do provide "nice little avenue for the MIB to exploit to their advantage" and make a little extra money from hapless tourists.

 

This is the classic problem with laws that virtually everyone, in practice, violates or doesn't know about. Such laws create nice little avenues for the authorities to arrest and detain whoever they want; they undermine the legitimate restraints on state authority that are embodied in most modern constitutions. In countries such as Thailand, where corruption is endemic, such a "law" simply legitimizes another means for extorting money out of otherwise harmless tourists.