AgentSmith

By financial audit you mean a screenshot of your online banking statement that is easily edited in any browser? ????

Not to cause any alarm but recent reports say vaccination doesn't protect much against long covid. Vaccinated people don't get sick from covid but can still get long covid symptoms. But don't take my word for it. I'm sure you can find some info about it yourself. Will be interesting to know what long covid really is. They tend to call it post covid now. Research is probably gonna take years though. I wouldn't count on new treatments anytime soon.

You can mock the man but you'd be surprised how many western politicians don't get this simple fact. Trying to combat drugs is futile. Countries would be a lot wiser to just go with the flow and legalize and control the market as they've been doing with alcohol and tobacco since forever. Accept that many people buy and use the stuff.

Thailand is trying to be a nanny state here. It should be a pregnant woman's own responsibility and not that of the person selling the weed. There's absolutely no reason for such a law. We need to protect minors and minors only. All the other categories are adults and need to decide on their own whether or not to smoke. Regular smoking is also wholeheartedly discouraged for pregnant women but we don't see laws prohibiting selling tobacco to pregnant women do we? And how would you enforce such a law anyway? Many women don't show their pregnancy until they're half way. Sometimes even later. Sometimes they don't know themselves they're pregnant well into their pregnancy. Putting the responsibility over the health of a woman on the seller is just plain ridiculous. Typical Thai reverse logic. Oh and it's sexist too. Men can also have a number of medical reasons not to smoke but they won't take that into consideration.

Come on so you really think Indonesia is moving its capital city for fun? Floods are the real deal and they become more and more frequent. Climate change has been a thing throughout this planet's history. You can at least acknowledge that without making it political. You might even leave out the possible causes because for cities that are coping with it the most it doesn't really matter. They just need to make the proper changes so all this water doesn't have as much influence as it often does now. It's a hands-on thing really. Nothing to do with anyone's agenda.

They will never think in terms of solutions in Thailand. All they will ever do is mitigate. And it shows because as you said they don't think they need the help of the experts but with a bit of knowledge you know they do. Because about everything they do in Bangkok in terms of city construction is wrong. There's concrete everywhere even under canals meaning water has no way to reach the soil. And when a soil dries out it compresses. This has been known in The Netherlands since about the 1600s and is the reason why all groundwater levels there are artificial. This is done wrong in many parts of the world though but at least some are learning to change. When the Dutch were called into New Orleans after hurricane Katrina had hit the first thing they asked is this: if this is a water city then where is all the water? Cities have been making a habit to hide the water and tunnel it away as quickly as possible. If you want a city to stand the test of time instead of fighting the water you need to work with it. Understand how it behaves and adapt the city accordingly. Create flood planes. Remove pavement wherever possible by creating more strips of green in the streets. In Thailand every square cm of any residential area seems to be paved over, wall to wall, side to side. It's as if people don't want to live in a green setting.

Yes this was confirmed by several business owners in the area I know. But you can talk the percentage down if you're clever enough. It's not carved in stone. Though I wouldn't be surprised if most Thai owners of simple restaurants just pay whatever they ask. If this new platform becomes available here I will definitely give it a try. I wouldn't even mind paying the same prices as on food panda or Grab, knowing more money flows to the actual businesses.

That's because every Thai is automatically insured against covid treatment. But let me tell you this. You really don't want to be put in a facility for poor Thai covid patients. And you need proper insurance anyway. Unless of course if you're from a country where it seems to be the norm to start a crowdfunding project in case of steep medical costs.

That. And how many retirees pay taxes over their pensions in Thailand? They have to but most people don't and it doesn't seem to be a problem. The Thai tax department is extremely incompetent and therefor the country misses huge amounts of income. Same goes for locals of course. I know at least one Thai with a rather large business who hasn't been paying 1 baht of tax.

Well money of course by protecting a powerful industry. That's the only reason I can think of.

Not extended their contract probably.

The Thailand Pass is but a fraction of what it was so that's clearly not the case here. This is not power but merely a formality now and as such nothing but a nuisance. It will go away soon.

A preflight pcr test is just 1 hoop extra over fully vaccinated travellers. I don't think these people mind that. The biggest drawback of test&go was the uncertainty after arrival. That's gone now. Then again never can please everyone can you?

Extreme overpopulation as it has been predicted for a long time is not gonna happen. Total population is gonna hit a plateau quite soon and in the decades after we'll see a collapse in many parts of the world. Japan is at the frontline here. China's economy will slow down because of a heavily aging population. People stopped having kids there simply because it became too expensive. Russia's population is already shrinking. So will Europe's and America's soon. Other areas are behind with their curves but will eventually follow the same path. Population isn't the issue. It's legislation, habit and lack of common sense. Change can happen. Europe's already banned plastic bags in many places. In Holland I wasn't able to find a single plastic bag at any store the last time I was there. Everyone's back to using reusable bags. In KL all plastic bags I saw were biodegradable, made from corn starch. Change isn't that difficult. It just needs to pick up enough momentum.

That hardly sounds like adequate insurance for any kind of long trip. Unless you think it's normal to start a crowd funding project just to be able to return home in case something went wrong. This seems to be popular especially in certain western countries.

Many foreigners entering simply live in Thailand. I'd say that's a valid reason to take the risk. By the way, the risk is minimal these days. You're allowed to do home quarantine now if you have no or mild symptoms. And the process of entering the country is painless. It's become a pure formality. No more people in white suits at the airport, and just a regular check-in procedure at the hotel. And technically you have to stay in the room but there's no monitoring whatsoever. The ATK test result on day 5 doesn't have to be submitted any longer. This was my experience a couple days ago. If you ask me the border is wide open.

Why not?

Not sure when exactly this happened but it's not this strict anymore. I returned to Thailand last Saturday and barely noticed any covid measures. No white suits awaited us at the airport. We just had an extra document check to make sure everything was in order. A standard private hotel taxi picked me up. The check-in procedure in the hotel was standard. I just waited among all the other guests. Of course they did a nasal swab but that was that. I even went out to grab a bite at the nearest food court. Next morning the test came back negative and I went home. I had to ask for the antigen test kit for my day 5 home test. Otherwise they definitely wouldn't have given me one. And when I asked where I have to submit the result they just smiled and answered I don't have to. This article surely is a bit of a horror story but as it is now there's really nothing to worry about. My local insurance broker also informed me that people who test positive without symptoms can isolate at home now so they stopped offering their special Thai covid policy. So that's that I guess. I paid quite a bit of money to reenter the country. They don't care anymore about public health. It's just a money making machine now. In that light it makes a lot of sense they scrapped the preflight covid test. Oh and that antigen test kit the hotel gave me turns out to be incomplete. The test strip is missing. Go figure..

As a falang dare to drive your bike without a mask and people will surely take notice. At the same time road-side restaurants and markets chock-full of maskless people have been irrelevant in perception here since covid arrived. Masks till this day haven't been proven effective. The effects of social distancing on the other hand have been scientifically confirmed over and over. Yet many Asians keep ignoring the science. Same with washing hands. There's nothing against extra hygiene in general but the sars-2 virus doesn't survive on surfaces. Covid is a respiratory disease. Very unlike viruses such as influenza and cold viruses which do transmit via surfaces and make people sick via physical contact. You can pick up the flu form a contaminated doorknob but you need to inhale sars-2 to get covid. A simple fact that just keeps getting lost in the whim of the day on this continent.

"Among the young there is a strong desire to stand by Ukrainians, while older conservatives describe Russia as a longstanding friend." Sure. I totally get how a suppressed people can see a friend in a dictator. I'm sure they're also proud of having Myanmar as their neighbor. National delusion and possibly even a case or Stockholm syndrome. And a total lack of education of course. Dangerous combination.

I totally get that. I have the same feeling which is why I haven't left Thailand for over 2 years. But it's also why scrapping the pre-flight pcr test doesn't make a difference to me.

So again: what is stopping you from doing a preflight pcr test? As I said it shouldn't matter that it's not mandatory anymore in your case.

Whats stopping worried people such as yourself from doing a pre-flight PCR test? Not making it mandatory anymore shouldn't make a difference.

Swimming pools waste a lot of water. In our previous house we had a water bill of about 100 baht for 4 people. It's up tenfold since we moved to a house with a pool. The amount of water that evaporates is enormous. The reservoir has to refill with lots of water every day just to compensate for the water lost through evaporation. We're going to put a sunshade over the pool in the hopes this will drastically reduce waste. It will also keep the water cooler which is an advantage specially in the hot season.

Well indeed. Makro is originally a Dutch wholesale market. Back in The Netherlands we always needed a card just to be able to shop there and the only way to get a card was if you owned a business. Not sure if that's still the case but I think it is. That said standards in the Thai branch aren't quite the same. I've visited Thai Makro stores with rancid looking meat departments. The one in Chantaburi is a really bad (good) example of that. The food only branches seem to be better on average but put simply I'm not a fan. Also for a store of foreign origin their import section especially from Europe is very limited. I much prefer Big C, especially the extra large branches. Not that I like big supermarkets that much but out of all the cheaper box stores their international section is simply the best. Sure if you are looking for very specific stuff you're better off in Tops, Villa Market or any luxury mall. I love shopping there the most despite the prices.