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Tourist Visa - Any Recent Experience ?


gobbledonk

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Was there ever a policy in Thailand of refusing people entry at the border for excessive hair length as in Singapore and Malaysia?

 

 

 

 

I missed this question. I remember the Thai government in the mid 1980s added a financial ability catch to enter the country. You had to have something like 10,000 baht on you when you crossed the border on the train from Malaysia or no visa stamp. (10,000 back then was about like 30,000 now.) I crossed the border by train around that time and no one said a word to me. But if you looked like a "hippy", the Immig police would ask to see your money. It was hilarious watching the world travellers (no backpackers in the pre-Joe Cummings days) getting together to pool their money. They would go to Immigration one at a time, displaying their mixture of dollars, sterling, ringit and who knows what. The immig cops must have realised it was the same pile of money, but they didn't say anything. :)

 

 

There were complaints in Chiang Mai about the same time over the douchebag hippies who would roam around the city wearing only they undershorts! The Bangkok Post sometimes ran pix of them. Chiang Mai municipality finally announced that anyone improperly dressed in public would be arrested.

 

I don't remember Singpaore turning anyone back at the border, but "long-haired hippies" would be directed to a barber if the wanted to enter they country. They'd have to submit to their first hair cut in maybe 2 or 3 years.

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Simple enough, take passport, go to Kasikorn, open account, no questions asked.

 

BB

 

Yup - we had an extensive thread on this a few years back, and Kasikorn loomed large as the best option for those of us without WPs. Whatever BS 'rules' the others have used to prevent Farang from opening accounts would seem to be entirely of their own making. Whether or not some Farang would *want* a large chunk of money in a Thai bank is a subject for another thread.

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I don't remember Singpaore turning anyone back at the border, but "long-haired hippies" would be directed to a barber if the wanted to enter they country. They'd have to submit to their first hair cut in maybe 2 or 3 years.

 

I think the Singaporeans refused entry to the Beatles, but I cant remember if that was because of their hair or the 15 kilos of drugs they had in their bags. The story goes that the Customs officials had a special stamp for 'Suspected Hippy In Transit' - modern youth would consider it a badge of honour to have 'SHIT' stamped in their passports ;)

 

As bizarre as Sillypore is, you have to hand it Uncle Lee - to take a tropical slum and turn it into the envy of the region in less than 30 years is incredible. No doubt 'democracy' had to suffer along the way, but I've often wondered how Oz would have gone under a similarly benevolent dictator. Our politicians simply dont have 10-year plans when they know they will have to fight for their seats within 3 years of being elected.

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