No. Scam

This is wind-up? Clearly not a native speaker.

A truly stupid requirement even by Thai standards. For a tech-savvy country, truly bonkers!

@Andy ********

Thanks

@Andy ********

How much did you pay?

@Dianne ****

Yes, I think that it could be very helpful. For example, the instances which you mention of them preventing a detainee booking a cheap flight, I wonder if you could just say I have x amount of budget and that is it, what could/would they do? They say you have to have 20k baht for your holiday, could people not turn around and say, I only have 20k baht?

@Maxim **********

Or more importantly, they didn't get a slice of the pie so they don't care if you paid under the table or not. It's now "their table".

@Maxim **********

Do you have a name of an agent?

Did they make you take the first available flight or could you choose? Did they offer the option of flying to another country? How was the detention center?

@Reidar *********

I feel many are growing tired of Thailand's strict visa regulations now and Vietnam sounds like it is welcoming foreigners. Are rents cheap there in comparison to Thailand?