Transcript of the above video: 

If you are watching this video, this is kind of a new format for me a little bit. Now there are those that may sort of believe it or not, but I do actually have a producer that has helped me with these videos over the years and I very much appreciate his assistance but for some of the more topical stuff, I am kind of playing with this new format, bear with me. I do understand that the sound is not quite as good as we are usually used to in making these videos so if you will bear with me, I'm kind of working on it but for topical stuff that just sort of comes up, I am hoping to basically be able to quickly make something, get it out there and just kind of move along. That said, expect to continue to see our regular videos. Again, I am just playing with this format just a little bit kind of to see how it is going to play. Again we're going to try to improve the sound quality moving forward, but I very much appreciate anybody that is watching these videos and any comments as far as the format or anything in terms of the new style of the format; you're kind of seeing the studio here from the back end. So it's kind of weird for me to be doing it like this. I've done all the videos up to this point with the exception of a couple of times I was sick, in the same style and I'm going to continue to do that but I'm going to try something a little different as time moves on. We may even get into streaming on here; not quite sure. As you have seen, I have kind of dabbled and played around with different things in terms of Internet content and I'll continue to do that, but we also want to continue to put out timely information that is of some interest to expats, just people generally here in Thailand. 

That said, I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, that is bangkokpost.com, I'll put a link in the description below. In our other videos where we cite it and my producer and I were able to actually put up the exact excerpts on screen, we haven't really done that in the past, but I'll go ahead and put a link up so you can directly go over there. Again bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Illegal Austrian tour guide arrested on Koh Pang-ngan. Quoting directly: "Surathani: An Austrian man has been arrested for allegedly working as a tour guide on Koh Pang-ngan in this Southern province. During questioning Gunther," (and he is only noted with that name) "admitted to running an illegal tour guide service charging each client 2,000 baht. He had been providing the services for 2 years." Quoting further: "The Austrian faces charges of working without a permit and illegally operating as a tour guide. In Thailand, a number of jobs including tour guides are restricted to Thai citizens only." And then in a graphic in the Bangkok Post, they put this up as well: 

“For Thai hands only: Below is a list of 25+ occupations that are strictly prohibited for foreigners:” They have got things like: Wood carving, driving motor vehicles (sort of inland transportation, that is always the one I sort of note), auctioning, ( sorry my eyesight is not so good anymore) polishing of diamonds and things, hair cutting, cloth weaving, mat weaving, mulberry paper making, lacquer ware making, making Thai musical instruments, Niello ware, gold ornaments, bronze ware making, making Thai dolls, alms bowl making, making silk products by hand, making Buddha images, paper or cloth umbrella making, brokerage or agency work." That is one that I see foreigners a lot trying to skirt around and play a lot of word games with, and again it says "except in international trade or investment." Well what does that exactly mean? But you'll see a lot of folks here in Thailand especially in the real estate sector; again it says brokerage and agency work and real estate is already a prohibited occupation, as we have discussed in other videos. Quoting further here: "Thai massage, cigarette rolling by hand, being a tour guide or operating sightseeing tours." Yeah again, Tour guide is considered a major Thai occupation. This is something they very much take very, very seriously. "Peddling goods," so that's like working on the street, street vending sort of thing, “manual type setting of Thai characters, silk reeling and twisting by hand." Another one, "clerical and secretarial work" and then finally "legal services or services in the legal proceedings". And then it goes into, there are some exceptions for arbitration, that's international arbitration, as I've discussed in other videos. Yeah, legal work is specifically prohibited here in Thailand from foreign nationals despite what any of them say and all of the sort of word games and things that get played with regard to that. That being said, I think it's worth noting because I see a lot of folks coming in here now and they are, quite honestly a lot of them seem to be okay with sort of flouting Thai rules on this stuff. It's worth noting that the Thais take these things seriously and protection of restricted occupations in Thailand is something that I don't see them ever changing from a policy standpoint. 

So those who are looking to come to Thailand, and live here especially and work here, it's a good idea to get into strict work compliance so that you don't run into these problems. I expect that the person involved there will probably have some real issues, possibly even be detained in Immigration and possibly even be blacklisted and deported. Again, it is not a foregone conclusion, it remains to be seen after due process, but if we see further news on this matter, I will certainly be keeping people updated on the situation as it evolves.