Tuesday, May 25

Riverboats and Immigration Woes

As you can maybe guess from that headline, the first part of my day on Monday was more fun than the second part...

Inspired by my trip on the canal taxi, I decided to take an express boat up the Chao Phraya river on Monday morning.

I considered going to Nonthaburi, which is almost at the end of the route and is technically, I think, a separate city from Bangkok, though they are becoming one. Willy told us there’s a big wet market there and that the river boats wouldn’t be crowded because of Pandemic Times. 

But I figured the trip might take a long time and it didn’t sound that fun making a big journey like that by myself, so instead I decided to head to the Wang Lang market, which we visited on our last trip to Bangkok. I figured I could pick up some pandan and fresh fruit, at least.

Also, "large open-air market with many snacks" is one of the most appealing descriptions ever

I walked the mile or so to the BTS, took that to Sathorn Pier, and then boarded an express boat. It was lovely. The boat was pretty empty, and it was cool along the river. It’s just so relaxing to sit and watch the city pass by, and eventually get away from the shadows of skyscrapers.

View from inside the boat

View of the Wat Arun temple

View of the boat after de-boarding

When I arrived at the market, I realized it was almost all prepared foods and retail shops. There were some produce stalls, but this was definitely not the place to find the ever-elusive pandan. 

I also remembered why I haven’t been doing that many solo adventures. I tend to leave early in the morning, before it’s too hot, but things are often still just opening up around 9-10am. It’s too early for lunch, and there just isn’t that much to do, especially when most places with seating are still closed. Eventually, I got a Thai iced tea at a Cafe Amazon where I could sit down and cool off. I peered at the stuff for sale at the market. I wandered down to a different dock and saw a temple and a large statue of a monk.

I also saw this pretty restaurant built in the old Thai style (or maybe it was just old?)

And then I made my way back to Sathorn, after first waiting an unsatisfying 40 minutes at the pier before the boat appeared. But I got a seat by myself and the return trip was just as lovely.

And then I started getting replies to some texts I'd sent earlier in the day, and things got a lot less fun. (You can skip to the end if you don't wanna read about the intricacies of navigating the Thai visa process. I wouldn't blame you. I wish I didn't have to know all this stuff).

So. I am supposed to go to my school tomorrow to get a second visa extension (since I can’t get a work permit until I get an affidavit from the US embassy and they can’t see me until June 24). But the school texted me, asking me if I have a TM30 form. I learned about this form the first time I went to Immigration with the school—it's something your landlord has to submit after you’ve moved into a new location (if you're a foreigner). When my school asked about it the first time I went to Immigration, I told them I’d get one when I move into a new place on May 30 and they said that was fine.

Since it was on my list of things to keep an eye on, I had actually texted Plair earlier this morning, to make sure the landlord at our new place was going to file this form, and she said she’d take care of it herself to make sure it got done in time.

But when TCS texted me, asking if I had the form, I went ahead and texted Evan, our current landlord, just to see if he had filed it for us (and to check in about a deposit we paid). I got this text back:

I was super thrown by it. Evan has been very laidback in all our interactions and this suddenly seemed so defensive. And I mean, you know me—if there was a form I thought I had to fill out or I task I knew had to do with Immigration, I would have done it.

Evan HAD talked to me and Roman about a form we'd have to submit when we first signed the lease, but we both thought it was related to our work permit—meaning, it was something we didn’t have to do until we got jobs and were filing for the Non B Visa. And after that initial conversation, Evan never checked in about it again! No, like, Hey, have you guys gone to Immigration yet? or anything. Or we would have done it! I mean, it’s the tone more than anything that bothers me.

Well, no. What bothers me is that my school is saying I may need the TM30 form to get the visa extension tomorrow. And even though my current visa is valid though June 11, the Thai Government is at the moment only offering the Covid extension through May 28.

I contacted Plair, who is filing the TM30 for our new place, and asked if there was any way it could be filed early (Evan, in a slightly less defensive follow-up text, mentioned it could be). She said it could not be filed early, but suggested I take the lease agreement and booking confirmation forms with me to Immigration tomorrow.

So I am going to go to Immigration with someone from the school tomorrow, as planned. They basically said we should give it a shot. I am hoping that the forms I bring will be sufficient to get the Visa extension. I am afraid that there will be some monstrous fine for not having done the TM30 form and/or I will be turned away without an extension.

If that happens, I can of course continue to stay here legally until June 11. And I imagine the Covid extension will be renewed. Apparently the Thai government has been slow to communicate about these issues throughout the pandemic—they will wait until the day the visa extension program expires to officially renew it, or even wait a day or two after that to make the announcement.

If I do get rejected, hopefully I can go in after May 30 with my TM30 in hand and get the Covid extension. Which hopefully will have been renewed.

It's all so damn stressful! I know, at least, that this kind of thing is typical. I went to a 12-step meeting yesterday and we spent like fifteen minutes after the meeting talking about which Immigration Office to go to for which Visa concern, and the various Immigration issues we were all currently mired in.

But, you know. My Good Girl tendencies mean I have a hard time with doing anything potentially not within the rules (even accidentally) because I'll just DIE of shame if it feels like I'm IN TROUBLE. And I don't particularly like uncertainty or, you know, conflict.

I feel uncomfortable about the conversation with Evan. I am trying to be compassionate. Obviously, he thought he had communicated to us about the TM30 stuff, and I totally get that. He might have even said, you have to file a TM30, but we were so new that we didn't understand what that meant at the time. Clearly, we all just didn't communicate very well around this issue.

But his defensiveness makes me feel both uncomfortable. and defensive myself.

Still. Maybe he feels guilty. Maybe he had totally forgotten about this form and it freaked him out when I brought it up. Maybe he felt accused. Maybe he's worried about the consequences—from what I've read, the form is the landlord's responsibility, and they can get in trouble for not filing it. Maybe there's some additional communication failure happening in our text exchange. Maybe I am failing to properly grasp his chilly Slavic humor.

I suppose it doesn't really matter. He is just a human being having his own experiences. I don't really take it that personally, but I do run into him in the alley constantly, and I feel awkward about it.

So. I end this post with some uncertainty. Hopefully I will have good news to report soon! In the meantime, lets just close things out with an official photo of Teacher Roman.

What a cutie.