Immigration Office Hell

It was the annual immersion into the torture chamber, the dread annual visa renewal.  We had copied and re-copied the required documents and more, rounded up statements from the bank and from the US Embassy, etc., but the Immigration Office always hits us with one more unannounced requirement – and this year it was two new ones.  Bureaucracy is a major stressor, but they are smart to play loops of “Mr. Bean” on the office’s TV monitor; his humor is universal (Thais love him) and doesn’t require language or sound; Mr. Bean’s agonies when waiting in a long queue (as all of us sitting in Immigration are doing) is spot on. 

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I decided while in queue that – if I live through this day of wrath and tears – when I got home I would promptly get wasted on the strongest Thai beer I could find:  Chang Classic!  Ahh!  A giant mug full of ice cubes and Chang! 

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It is a pain to get out into the boonies where the Immigration Office is located, and hard to get taxi service.  We tip the driver very well because he must wait a long time.  Everybody likes Tuk, and so the driver enjoyed a good conversation with her on route and back. 

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There are new buildings going up everywhere, even in the boonies, as greater-Bangkok quickly continues to spread outward.  Condominiums, malls, homes – there is construction everywhere.  (I hope there is not another real estate bubble expanding toward a burst, such as the one that started here in Thailand in 1997 and took down much of Southeast and East Asian economies.) 

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I admit that I do enjoy seeing the countryside, the rice paddies, etc.  We can still see the dirty high-water marks of the terrible flood of late-2011, over knee-high and everywhere.  I am still astounded at the immense area that was flooded.  It is amazing.  One thing I’ve noticed when going on outings like this is that while people are generally rebounding from the floods, rebuilding, there are a few species of trees that were killed by the floods.  Not many trees, but of a certain type.  I will assume, since the 2011 floods were the worst in over 50 years, that these trees were planted since then and are of a kind that is not used to being flooded – hence they die. 

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We are home safe, with major visa headaches a year away.  Now if it would only rain hard and relieve this horrendous heat. 

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-Zenwind. 

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