General Reports

[Phordphan]

HCMC Vietnam does have Hot Toc hair salons, some of which offer BJs. They're scattered around town and not easy to find or recognize. The sex scene is not foreigner friendly, plenty of hassle and frustration even for those who know their way around Vietnam and speak a few words of their awful language, let alone a hapless first-time traveler. Service is not nearly as good or consistent as in Thailand, and you will get ripped off by all and sundry if you're not street-smart and familiar with the local prices (sometimes even if you are). On the positive side, Vietnamese working girls are way better looking than in Thailand and you can get cheaper service if you are sharp and know what the locals pay and where they go. Vietnam is never relaxing nor a gentle introduction to mongering in Asia.

Very well said, sir! Yes, regardless of the commodity, if you don't know your prices the VN will screw you into the ground before you know what hit you. And, no doubt, the VN ladies are better looking overall, and FAR tighter than anybody I ever met in Thailand.

[Fooolishman]

Are there any porn sites in Thailand not block? Tried to access Porn Hub recently but it was blocked.

Thanks,

FM

[Wolvenvacht]

She always had her current passport tucked under layers of clothing with her emergency credit card / money so it was not easily accessible and a deterrent to pickpockets and robbers.

Given the kind of activities us forum-members are likely to participate in, hiding something under layers of clothing probably isn't the best idea.

[Mumbai Guy]

There are millions of tourists visiting the country every year. Most of them buy a local sim. Do you really think the government of any country including the USA has the money, manpower and reason to go into the details of each and every sim??

It is absolutely impossible to monitor each and every foreigner traveling in the country. And in any case you are going to use the sim for mongering purpose only. Unless you intend to do any illegal activities, I don't see any reason to hide your identity. And I feel that in today's world it is not possible to hide your true identity.

So why do it??

They can correlate most of your aliases and data by stuff like IP address, browser fingerprint, 3rd party cookies and such. So, it's fair to assume if they ever type any of your identifies, that your real name and full past activity comes up. Further on, they can correlate it with your contacts (from Facebook, e-mails and phone contact). Sky is the limit, and we should assume we're completely naked with regards to any online activity. Maybe none of that is illegal now, but 20 years later?

It is impossible to predict where the future will take us and what sort of trouble we might eventually end up in.

[Yujin]

What about having a pic on the phone? Be much easier kinda like how some people have boarding pass on their phone to scan.

I don't have a good scanner, but I did take a photo of my passport and e-mailed it to myself. That, however, is the absolute last option if I needed to replace a lost or stolen passport. I would never use it as primary identification.

I have never heard of anyone using or anyone accepting an image of a passport as identification. With photoshop and other imaging software, that's too easily forged.

I would also NEVER EVER handover an unlocked cellular phone to someone that I did not know and trust. When you scan your boarding pass at the airport, your phone never leaves your possession. With an image of your passport on your phone, law enforcement or whomever will ask you for your phone so that they can better examine the image. Once your unlocked phone leaves your possession, everything on it is accessible and fair game so you better not have anything incriminating on it. Remember, there is nothing so trivial and insignificant on your cell phone that can't be totally blown out of proportion or out of context by an overzealous cop or authority..

[GoodEnough]

I also carry my US Passport Card with me. I've never had to use it overseas so I don't know if it's acceptable identification.

I too always carry my Passport Card and it works fine as an official ID.

GE.

[Dynolas]

What about having a pic on the phone? Be much easier kinda like how some people have boarding pass on their phone to scan.

As a US Passport holder, I always bring my most recent expired passport with me whenever I travel overseas in case my most current one is lost or stolen. If I'm just wandering around, I carry my expired passport and leave my current one at my hotel.

I've been doing this since I read a book about a woman who bicycled from Mongolia through China to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). At every village she bicycled through, the military or police and every lodging clerk would ask for her passport. She always had her current passport tucked under layers of clothing with her emergency credit card / money so it was not easily accessible and a deterrent to pickpockets and robbers. To abide by any request for a passport, she always showed her expired passport and she was never challenged for her current one. The hole punched in her expired passport never raised any concerns.

Since then I've used my expired US Passport at military / police security check points in Ecuador and Mexico. I've also used it in Thailand at a currency exchange booth and to rent a wind surf board. In all these instances, I had no challenges to my expired passport.

I raised this same recommendation on the Colombia forum a few years ago and some guy admonished me for it. He said it was "illegal" to carry and present an expired passport when asked by an official. Perhaps that's the case in Colombia for a Colombian or the guy thought that this was for some nefarious act.

Like an expired driver's license, you can't drive with it, but you can still use it as identification. It's up to whomever is asking to accept it as valid identification. Likewise, you can't use an expired passport to travel, but the US government does consider it proof of your USA Citizenship. In fact, if your passport is ever lost or stolen while overseas, it expedites a replacement if you have your expired passport available.

Of course, there are those who believe a photocopy of your passport is more than sufficient. It might be; but it will be at the discretion of whomever is asking. If you're a police officer, a soldier, a money exchanger, or a store clerk, if you're given the choice, would you prefer a photocopy or an expired passport (and you can't read English so you can't tell it's expired) as identification?

If you've got to carry your current passport with you, at least keep your expired one at your hotel.

I also carry my US Passport Card with me. I've never had to use it overseas so I don't know if it's acceptable identification.

[Fooolishman]

Laundry: Highway Robbery.

The hotels and even some to the laundry shops charge a lot of money to do laundry per piece. I bought new shirts at one third over the amount they wanted to charge me instead of getting my laundry done through them.

What do you do for laundry in farangland?

The is a baht laundry on Soi 4. If you walk away from Sukumvit on the Nana hotel side of the Soi, past Hillary bar about 30 meter, you will see several laundries, The second one is best. They also have 2 or 3 computers for 1 Bht per minute.

[Yujin]

Since everyone should carry a photocopy of his passport instead of the real thing anyway

As a US Passport holder, I always bring my most recent expired passport with me whenever I travel overseas in case my most current one is lost or stolen. If I'm just wandering around, I carry my expired passport and leave my current one at my hotel.

I've been doing this since I read a book about a woman who bicycled from Mongolia through China to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). At every village she bicycled through, the military or police and every lodging clerk would ask for her passport. She always had her current passport tucked under layers of clothing with her emergency credit card / money so it was not easily accessible and a deterrent to pickpockets and robbers. To abide by any request for a passport, she always showed her expired passport and she was never challenged for her current one. The hole punched in her expired passport never raised any concerns.

Since then I've used my expired US Passport at military / police security check points in Ecuador and Mexico. I've also used it in Thailand at a currency exchange booth and to rent a wind surf board. In all these instances, I had no challenges to my expired passport.

I raised this same recommendation on the Colombia forum a few years ago and some guy admonished me for it. He said it was "illegal" to carry and present an expired passport when asked by an official. Perhaps that's the case in Colombia for a Colombian or the guy thought that this was for some nefarious act.

Like an expired driver's license, you can't drive with it, but you can still use it as identification. It's up to whomever is asking to accept it as valid identification. Likewise, you can't use an expired passport to travel, but the US government does consider it proof of your USA Citizenship. In fact, if your passport is ever lost or stolen while overseas, it expedites a replacement if you have your expired passport available.

http://travel.state.gov/content/passports/english/passports/FAQs.html

I'm renewing my passport. Do I get the old one back?

Yes, we will return the old, cancelled passport to you. It may be sent separately from your new passport. It is a good idea to keep your old passport in a safe place as it is considered proof of your U.S. citizenship.

Of course, there are those who believe a photocopy of your passport is more than sufficient. It might be; but it will be at the discretion of whomever is asking. If you're a police officer, a soldier, a money exchanger, or a store clerk, if you're given the choice, would you prefer a photocopy or an expired passport (and you can't read English so you can't tell it's expired) as identification?

If you've got to carry your current passport with you, at least keep your expired one at your hotel.

I also carry my US Passport Card with me. I've never had to use it overseas so I don't know if it's acceptable identification.

[Robert Long]

For the paranoids among us:

The only way to avoid that risk, is to buy a new sim card at the 7/11, using a fake ID.

Since everyone should carry a photocopy of his passport instead of the real thing anyway, it is a cinch to fabricate a fake copy, which will pass scrutiny at the 7/11.

Some care is required, however, because the machine readable numbers at the bottom will identify the original owner, even if the name is changed.

I suggest borrowing your 90 year old grandmother's passport and just changing the name (fake) and your picture (real). And don't forget the birthday!

So your going to break the laws of a foreign country that you are visiting for what reason? So that your ID is not associated with a sim card? Whats the point? You just arrived and used your PP to enter, there are cameras everwhere, you need ID to check into a hotel. It's like everyone in the government knows you are there, but you will break their laws to hide your identity for a sim card.

Lets move on to more realistic subjects.

RL.

[Daddy San]

20 years or 2 years!
--snip--!

For the paranoids among us:

The only way to avoid that risk, is to buy a new sim card at the 7/11, using a fake ID.

Since everyone should carry a photocopy of his passport instead of the real thing anyway, it is a cinch to fabricate a fake copy, which will pass scrutiny at the 7/11.

Some care is required, however, because the machine readable numbers at the bottom will identify the original owner, even if the name is changed.

I suggest borrowing your 90 year old grandmother's passport and just changing the name (fake) and your picture (real). And don't forget the birthday!

[Jean Sean]

.. it's fair to assume if they ever type any of your identifies, that your real name and full past activity comes up. Further on, they can correlate it with your contacts (from Facebook, e-mails and phone contact). Sky is the limit, and we should assume we're completely naked with regards to any online activity. Maybe none of that is illegal now, but 20 years later?

20 years or 2 years!

A hypothetical scenario: In the slipstream of a country's royal crisis (the Regent passed away) it's totalitarian leaders want to justify a "moral rising af the country" by targeting prostitution and narcotics.

A random overworked FL has bought ice on a regular basis, and is now connected to a case of drug dealing under investigation. A random farang, let's call him Mr. Wolfskin, has had several tel calls to the poor girl. The military police like urgent results, traces this number to Mr. Wolfskin, a foreigner with lots of calls from the mobile network's antennas close to places of "immoral activities" and ice dealers. Bingo.

Nothing illegal yet. Had it been a Western democracy. But in this thought up country the police takes the innocent faring into custody while "investigating a drug ring with foreign relations". Now, I don't want to be taken into custody in this thought up country, even for driving a bike with no headlights on!

[Crocodilexp]

Unless they type "Crocodilexp" in the search field of the form, your data remains sleeping in the database.

They can correlate most of your aliases and data by stuff like IP address, browser fingerprint, 3rd party cookies and such. So, it's fair to assume if they ever type any of your identifies, that your real name and full past activity comes up. Further on, they can correlate it with your contacts (from Facebook, e-mails and phone contact). Sky is the limit, and we should assume we're completely naked with regards to any online activity. Maybe none of that is illegal now, but 20 years later?

It is impossible to predict where the future will take us and what sort of trouble we might eventually end up in.

[Jean Sean]

I'm a (very) old hand at IT and data processing, so it does not come as a surprise to me.

Indeed, but it means you must first come into their sights. For the time being there will still be human intervention to ask the system to find your data. Unless they type "Crocodilexp" in the search field of the form, your data remains sleeping in the database.

If one can believe the stories we read in the newspapers, the governments have already trouble doing something simple as linking the databases from different departments together, so compiling and combining the data from all the mobile telephone operators together and linking that to some other databases they may already have, might perhaps never even happen.

It will take an "Osama Bin Laden" case to get them to make a real effort.

Data retrieval and data mining from big data pools is almost standard enterprise software nowadays, and usually outsourced to multinational public service vendors with huge expertise. Getting the big data there may still be an issue in Thailand, but don't underestimate the precision of these data queries.

You still have to come into their sight, true, but that's where we fail, we usually don't care until we're suddenly into sight, for reasons that couldn't be predicted, eg sudden changes of a political climate! Go figure!

The combination of big data and unclear legal grounds, eg public services that are prone to corruption is a potential bombshell. Again, go figure.

[Wolvenvacht]

My dream is to travel to that country, indulge in the local talent and go home, without any trouble or issues with any locals or authority. I want to go as under the radar as possible and of course, be as safe as possible.

Prostitution is not illegal in Thailand, so the authorities will not bother you here and the locals get a nice income out of it and therefore will not cause any trouble provided you are nice to them.

And really, in Thailand nobody cares about whether you stay under the radar or not.

Bangkok will be your best bet: either pick up a girl for LT in a club or bar or go straight to one of the many BJ-bars and negotiate an out-call.