gearbox

These signs are put in paces where are not very visible. The hotels should do more - warning the customers when checking in, but for many reasons they won't do it. Creating too much noise about jellyfishes scares the tourists, to some extent Australia doesn't make too much noise about the jellyfishes in the North too. I was there around 2 months ago, and the net was already in place. I didn't put too much thinking about it, and swam more than 1km outside the net, probably around 100m further outside it. I guess I was lucky...and there were a lot of people including children in the shallow waters outside the net. No other beach in Phangan had a net, it is either only Haad Rin where the encounter is possible, or they just don't have resources to put it in more places. They better do something to address the problem, otherwise there would be ongoing issues - nobody wants to fly thousands of km to swim in a net.

Quite likely not....probably foreigners living there. There are quite a few "enlightened thinkers" living around Sri Thanu, and many are anti vaxxers believing that a few yoga asanas, detox therapy, or an hour of meditation are better than any vaccine.

I don't know how safe it would be, but otherwise good news for the fully vaccinated returnees planning to go back after October. Hopefully no CoE and quarantine at all.

Samui, which is almost as vaccinated as Phuket, has so far more than 400 cases, one death (not vaccinated), and I think at the moment no people in intensive care. Not big number of cases as a sample but still some indication whether the vaccines work or not.

That sounds terrible. I expect the chaotic scenes from the evacuations in Afghanistan to be repeated soon by the expats here...one advice, don't hang on the landing gear, it retracts.

I wouldn't worry too much about the travel to EU. For most of the countries a recent PCR test is enough to enter, as long as Thailand still remains orange. For quite a few airlines flying to/from Thailand the PCR test is mandatory to board the plane, the vaccination status doesn't matter. I entered Europe not vaccinated, only with a PCR test (which Etihad required anyway), and got my first Pfizer shot there. The vax certificates are mostly valid for 180 days after 14 days from the second jab, so if you want to go back to Thailand and travel again to Europe your certificate may expire by then. If you don't plan to get 2 shots in Europe it would be better to get a booster there, and get the same booster back in Thailand to get a certificate with a longer validity. For example 1 X AZ booster in Europe, and a few months later 1 X AZ booster in Thailand and get an AZ certificate. It is probably better to jab with something widely available in Thailand like AZ. I went not vaccinated to get Pfizer jabs from scratch, as the chance of Australia approving 2 X Sinovac jabs are remote at the moment, and I need to go back when the country opens. I hope to enter Australia before the certificate expires and get a booster Pfizer there.

Cambodia has 15 times less deaths and the cases are trending down. Over there 47% are fully vaccinated. It looks like it may be able to reopen sooner than Thailand without making too much noise about it.

I don't think there is a written requirement to provide cover for asymptomatic cases. When I was in ASQ in January a few people were tested asymptomatic and their insurance didn't cover it, they had to pay themselves.

Look here: https://www.aainsure.net/COVID-100000-usd-insurance.html I'm flying back in November with reentry permit and would need approx 8 months covid cover, thinking of getting the ACS Globe Traveller....is there anyone who have used this one? It doesn't cover asymptomatic cases, but I have 1 year cover with Roojai, this would be enough for a field hospital ???? On the plus side it can cover way more than 100K USD and not only covid....the other illnesses didn't disappear magically overnight.

That is possible but not proven. And 2 X Sinovac + AZ offers the best protection - possible, but not proven. The antibody count is one of the factors determining immunity, among others. The US FDA does not currently recommend using antibody tests to determine level of immunity: https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/safety-communications/antibody-testing-not-currently-recommended-assess-immunity-after-covid-19-vaccination-fda-safety Recommendations for Health Care Providers At this time, do not interpret the results of qualitative, semi-quantitative, or quantitative SARS-CoV-2 antibody tests as an indication of a specific level of immunity or protection from SARS-CoV-2 infection after the person has received a COVID-19 vaccination. While a positive antibody test can indicate an immune response has occurred (seroconversion), and failure to detect such a response may suggest a lack of immune response, more research is needed. One interesting thing is the lack of info about people who had covid twice. From the charts I've seen, their antibody levels are quite below compared to the vaccinated people, yet there is not much data about them getting covid again. I would assume that if it was quite frequent headlines would appear here and there. Currently EU accepts covid digital certificates for people who have been sick less than 180 days ago, so presumably after that period they can get sick again...but do they? I was looking for all-encompassing test to determine my immunity level, there is none at the moment. This is especially important for people with auto immune diseases. However for immunisations like Hep B the surface antibody test has been accepted to determine immunity for long time. Hopefully FDA would have more info soon.

The question is what Thailand would gain if it cancels the sandboxes and the reopening. Absolutely nothing. Would it stop or reduce the current covid wave - no. The burden is on the fully vaccinated foreigners arriving in the country, where they could be put in a hospital for 2 weeks even without any symptoms.

That's about right, I didn't count the passengers when I flew out, but there were no more than 7-8 of us. Interestingly they crammed all of us at the back of the plane, and didn't allow people to sit far from each other. Half of the foreigners removed their masks and talked all the way to BKK.

https://www.unicef.org/bulgaria/en/stories/unicef-hails-bhutans-successful-completion-full-covid-19-vaccinations-90-population There were many doses donated from the EU countries. In EU pretty much nobody wants AZ, they have better vaccines to choose, and they are getting rid of the old AZ stock which is nearing its expiry date. Hopefully Bhutan stored them properly, including Thailand it would be 3 countries stopover from the factory before they get administered.

It depends on the Dell model. The Dell XPS series are regarded as the best all round laptops available, but are pricey. Here is one available at Powerbuy, 44k baht after 25% discount ???? https://www.powerbuy.co.th/en/dell-notbook-dell-xps13-9370-w56795604thw10_slbag-243421 Many of the digital nomads and other people moving a lot around have them.

Lenovo laptops are generally good, but it depends on the model. I have 4 Lenovo laptops at the moment - 2 X Thinkpads, `1 Lenovo Legion 5 and 1 cheap Lenovo Ideapad. The Ideapad was a cheap one - we bought it for my gf's business from Powerbuy for 12k baht, and it failed after 2 years. The rest are working perfectly..but they would cost 30k plus baht when bought new.

7 days in Baan Hin Sai resort 10-17 October comes on Priceline as $219 SGD or around 5000 baht...but I'm not sure from there on how the PCR tests are booked. Maybe the OP can email the hotel and ask whether he can book via Agoda or other booking company and pay the PCR tests and the transfer separately. Better food can be ordered via Foodpanda, they deliver COD.

Go to the Phuket Sandbox, there are way cheaper hotels there, and then move to Samui. Also if you plan to come November/December, the weather in Phuket is better. In theory from 1st of October there would be entry for vaccinated without any quarantine requirements, but it is doubtful whether it would happen.

You should be alarmed...it means that particular username/password combo is compromised and widely known. If they guess for example that you have a Shopee account they would have been able to log in as you. You can check your Shopee user name in how many breaches was involved here: https://haveibeenpwned.com/ Unfortunately it doesn't show the exact web sites compromised, as often these are combined and aggregated, and then sold on the back market. You should try to figure out where you have used this username/password, then go to these sites and change the password with an unique password. For best results use a password manager, and let the manager to generate unique machine passwords for you for each site, these are currently unbreakable.

No they don't..their rules for entry are quite simple. Not as simple as the pre-covid times, but there is no CoE and so on. In order Thailand to match their requirements it needs to reopen in a way as stated before...it was 1st of October. Planning myself to visit Greece next month.

I won't be surprised if it opens late December. By October at least 80% of the people in Samui should be fully vaccinated, this should be enough to fully reopen without quarantine.

Leaving aside the health benefits the Sinovac + AZ combination won't save you from the dreaded expensive hotel quarantine in countries like UK and Australia (when it opens). Also it is not clear what is the booster strategy for this combo...if it is a mRNA vaccine it would be quite a cocktail????

The commissions may play a role but the main thing is that you order with the Chinese and they deliver. I'm pretty sure the government would order 12 mil Moderna shots instead of Sinovac if they are going to be here in a month. In fact I'm very surprised how a relatively small and obscure company like Sinovac is able to fulfill orders so quickly, but the customers have to wait for months for orders with big pharma giants like Pfizer. It could be also that countries like Thailand are tossed at the back of the queue all the time.

The US is less than 99% but still very low....this is the data pre-delta per state: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/08/10/us/covid-breakthrough-infections-vaccines.html As it looks like the vaccines fade with time, the percentages probably would increase, but maybe not too much. The Nathon hospital in Samui reported that there have been no symptomatic cases among the vaccinated people in the latest wave there.

500 tourists in Samui can hardly make any difference. At this time in terms of covid requirements Thailand just can't compete with places like Turkey, which aims for 25 million tourists this year. However the northern hemisphere winter is coming in 2-3 months, and warm places like Samui will become far more desirable. The vaccination in Europe and key Asian markets like Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Japan is progressing, so if they drop the quarantine requirements for vaccinated it will be a lot more busier from December onward. No Chinese or Australians probably until March next year.

You don't need to make expensive calls...I was on the phone with Bankwest a few weeks ago and paid $1.06 AUD for 25 minutes call with Skype. I use Skype cards to load my account, they sell them in Woolies and Coles from time to time with 50% off, and the credit once loaded does not expire.