gearbox

Maybe it could be advantageous, but I can't see this happening. To the best of my knowledge no country would treat and repatriate you for free. That's where the travel insurance comes in. Surely hundreds of thousands of dollars are rare cases, and many people may take the risk of traveling without insurance...I've done this quite a few times. But it does happen, look at the gofundme threads here.

Of course you do...you won't get Thailand pass without insurance, and there is nothing to fill in about your visa status. Thailand pass doesn't care on what visa (or visa exempt) you enter. Done this twice already.

Depends what you want. The landscape is a bit boring, but there is no better place in the world to find solitude...even to the point of losing your life. See the documentary "Salt"... breathtaking scenery.

Are you in shape? Get a bicycle and cycle Singapore to London. You can do Darwin to Perth but this is tough one.

Thais don't complain about this. Pretty much nobody in Samui wears a mask outside, but I was in Songkhla a few days ago and pretty much everyone was wearing a mask outside and everyone was looking strangely at me and my mate the only two without masks. Had a feeling they were enjoying wearing masks.

Hopefully you can...the repatriation costs for serious cases can be hundreds of thousands of dollars. On top of that the hospital costs.

Not really xenophobia...the Aussie government did the same thing, even worse. Just incompetence.

Depends on the area and branch. In my area (Samui) I got packages shipped with FE recently...never seen such bad service. I got hundreds of shipments with Kerry, Thailand Post, Ninja Van, no problems. The FE mob lies they call the phone (nothing in the log), at the moment they are chasing 2 packages received and signed off by me...but I was away for 10 days, so no idea who "signed" it and where.

Depends on your age...if say you are 70 yo you do get her body. Look at it from a different angle...if you are 30 yo what would make you sleep with 70 yo grandma?

Where did you see that Australia limits the money transfers to 10k? You can transfer as much as your banks allows you as a limit per day. I thansferred more than 10k per transaction with Wise last year. They may temporarily block the transaction to check for money laundering but will go through eventually.

Hard to say anything without knowing how your super is invested. The Aussie stock market has been pretty sluggish for years. Mine is self managed and doing ok now thanks to the oil and gas.

How would you prove at the immigration counter that you have any funds in any bank at the moment of entry?

I live in Thailand on Non-O retirement extension and currently use the Atlas Travel multi-trip travel insurance which covers covid. One can get policy for 12 months and come and go to/from Thailand with the same policy. It is a proper insurance with coverage 500k USD and repatriation covered to the same amount. Before covid I was travelling often to Australia and was using my Citibank premier card complementary travel insurance which has unlimited cover.

At Koh Mad sum the eastern beaches get all the rubbish, no tourists go there and nobody cleans them. The touristy area is calm waters, no rubbish is brought by the sea. Seems like illegal money grab to me. If I claim to clean the public road outside my house should I put toll gates for the passing traffic?

Anyone been recently to Koh Mad sum? I see tours advertised which exclude "entry fee" of 50 baht? I circled before the island with a kayak and it is definitely not owned by one person or company, so who collects this fee ? It is not a national park either and all Thai beaches are public, so no one can collect a fee to land on a beach.

Koh Samui international jazz festival June 7-12: https://www.ryt9.com/en/anpi/257693 Also there is a big concert at the Global House May 6-7, my gf told me about it and a saw a huge poster. Looks like Thai only line up.

Most of the travellers have insurance bought in their home countries, can't see how this would be a moneymaker for the Thais.

Interesting...I went through covid with my gf 3 weeks ago and was expecting to build extra immunity on top of my 3 Pfizer shots. Is her second infection asymptomatic?

Driving without local licence is quite possible in Thailand too. In the last 3 years I've driven thousands of kilometres, never stopped by the police... Southern Thailand.

Why would you need insurance for asymptomatic covid cover when no testing is required? How would you know if you have covid at all?

The insurance you have when you stay long term in Thailand would be valid when coming back, this is what I used last time when entering.

One can improve the odds of not getting banged up by doing extra self testing. Last time I came to Phuket late February I did the required pre flight PCR test, then did ATK test just before going to the airport. If the ATK test was positive I would have cancelled the flight. Then on the day 5 in Phuket I did extra ATK test again, prior to the PCR test. If positive it would have given me time to check what my options were and could possibly negotiate something with the hotel. The ATK tests are just a couple of bucks, but give extended time to sort out any expected positive test issues.

Felt like very mild flu, no fever or temperature, just blocked nose and sore throat, felt tired for 2-3 days. I'm 59, in pretty good shape, got the booster in Sydney mid February, so got it approx 1.5 months after the booster. The virus was quite persistent, my ATK test at day 10 was still positive. Cycling and kayaking now, so far it seems no residual effects.

It is just a perception...the flu shots are vaccines but nobody calls them vaccines. They don't last more than a few months and most people get the flu anyway. The perception for the vaccines is that they prevent infection and transmission at a quite high percentage. I have myself a number of different vaccines and I'm fairly confident in preventing the infection in the first place.