Etcetera...Etcetera....Etcetera
How much government? In the U.S. we face our government creeping into our lives...with smoking bans, seatbelt laws, wire taps, phone call surveillance.....sometimes it seems that the government is getting out of control.
Did you know that the movie, The King and I, has been banned in Thailand for almost 50 years?
No one here really cares about the ban. The Thai people love and admire their King. They feel that the movie does not show the King in a proper manner....so it was banned and out of respect, no one cares about it.
Sometimes governments make/change laws that people do care about. The new post-coup government is also trying to bring more controls to the country. First, in an attempt to reduce teenage alcohol consumption, they are trying to ban all alcohol advertising. This planned ban is very far reaching....including televised sporting events like soccer, were the TV station must digitally mask all beer signs in the stadium. They are also trying to increase the legal drinking age from 20 to 25 years old....What a terrible/horrible impact that would have on bars and restaurants.....and probably start a new underground black market...what a mess!
Since I have decided to extend my trip, I had to visit Thai Immigration to extend my original travel visa (30 days) on Monday...Since the coup, the government has changed the requirements and fee structure for tourists....making it difficult and expensive ($15/day) to stay more than 30 days....
My options...... visit the Thai immigration office once a week to re-register (think bureaucratic nightmare of long lines)...or I can travel outside the country and return, which automatically starts the travel visa back to 30 days....so I might go to Hong Kong for a weekend trip to Macau, the Las Vegas of Asia.....or maybe The Kingdom of Cambodia to walk across the border.....get my passport stamped and walk back...sounds pretty simple doesn't it?
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