Transcript of the above video: 

Look, I have actually had some feedback from viewers and people emailing to us and actually in person saying, "hey man, you're putting out a ton of videos right now!" There's a lot going on politically here in Thailand; it's got legal ramifications on top of that; it pertains to the border which has immigration ramifications, which let's get into it. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post initially and I will get to some anecdotal evidence secondarily. Thai PM seeks international crackdowns on Cambodia-based scams. Which first of all, the Thai PM is in this “hot water” - it's not hot water - she really seriously needs to be scrutinized for conduct at this point but it has ramifications along the Thai Cambodian border and she's coming along and now she is trying to “act tough” by going after scammers and things; it's making this situation fundamentally worse. It's just one more reason why she really should step aside. 

That said, for practical purposes for viewers of this channel, I think folks need to be aware of what is going on here. Quoting directly: "Foreign tourists to Thailand will be prohibited from crossing the border to nearby casinos and from taking flights to Seam Reap to visit casinos." Now I don't know exactly what the ramifications are of this. From the press what we are just hearing is it seems to be directed at Thais primarily and it's to curtail people going to the casinos. I'm not for sure if the border is closed per se or at least I was not and then I read a recent comment on our channel. Quoting directly, and thank you for the feedback; positive feedbacks about developments is very much welcome in the comments. Quoting directly: "Today the Thai PM closed land borders to tourists travelling to Cambodia for the foreseeable future." So it seems like at least for now, the border is closed to anybody. Quoting further: "Cambodian Foreign Ministry issued a warning against travel to Thailand for Cambodians yesterday. My long-time girlfriend is afraid to travel to Thailand now. Probably going to eat five or six plane tickets, we'll see. Glad we didn't use bus tickets. Bus tickets might as well be toilet paper now." So yeah, I mean it looks as though at least for the moment, the Thai Cambodian border is closed or is going to be such an onerous experience to use it that it may not be the best thing to use at the moment. Again this is based on anecdotal evidence and some not overly precisely clear coverage by the mainstream press, but for now, I think it is fair to say, look if you are thinking about doing Border Runs you may want to think of another border here in Thailand, rather than using Cambodia. 

That said, while I have got a moment here, I want to do a quick plug for our paid news service. You can email us at [email protected]. I'm doing a paid news service now where we are doing longer form videos, minimum about a half hour long. I'm doing at least two a week now. I'm getting into some deeper dives with regard to international economics, getting into some of the more political stuff, getting into stuff pertaining to expats like this with regard to Border Running etc. So if you are interested in that, if you're interested in that longer form content, [email protected]. Meanwhile, also there's our Pancake Palace which I've mentioned previously. My better half and I have opened a restaurant here in downtown Bangkok catering to folks who like American diner style food, including all-day breakfast, obviously pancakes included, but breakfast: English breakfast, American breakfast. We've got chilli, we've got buffalo wings, we've got cheeseburgers and of course breakfast anytime. So anybody who is interested in that we are downtown, Soi Anuman Rachadhon Hunan in between Silom and Surawong, very nearby Mango Tree, very nearby the Quarter Hotel. 

Back to this though. Just to sort of round it up and sort of sum it up, yeah it looks to me like at least for the foreseeable future if I was needing to do Border Runs like on for example a DTV Visa, probably Cambodia would not be top of the list. Now I do understand people are sometimes a little bit leery about using Myanmar; Laos doesn't seem to be a problem at the moment, Malaysia. Again, air Border Runs, Vietnam is also an option. You can even go down to Singapore or the Philippines; you can do sort of an air Visa/Border Run however you want to look at it. That said, for at least now, it looks like Border Running to Cambodia is not going to be let's say it as convenient as it usually is. I am really hoping this blows over sooner rather than later. I really wish the political apparatus here in Bangkok would stop making this worse because they are trying to cover themselves for basically what the PM has done in that leaked call with Hun Sen - in their call with Hun Sen, forget the leaked part - it's just, I am not going to go into that any further because it's not really relevant to this video.

But long story short, at least for I would presume the next week or two minimum, we are probably in a situation where using the Thai Cambodian border is probably not going to be the most convenient way of undertaking a Visa Run here in the Kingdom of Thailand.