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Erm, Kamala isn't a "farang ghetto". It's at least 95% Thai. How many years have you spent in Kamala to form your judgement, out of interest? Have you even been there for a single day?

Yes, Singapore want a negative PCR within 48 hours if you're transiting through there.

It's great that you've learned how to use Google ????

Kamala is a decent choice. There's a large local community that doesn't depend on tourism to survive, but there's also a nice beach and plenty of tourists and expats in normal times. From what I have read, the businesses in Kamala have weathered covid much better than some of Phuket's other towns (thanks to the large local community).

So you haven't lived in Phuket at all. Thanks for confirming what I thought. You're sounding off about a subject about which you have little or no first hand knowledge. If you'd spent any time in Thalang, Chalong or Phuket Town, you would understand that many parts of Phuket have little or nothing to do with tourism. I bet you don't even know where Thalang is.

If the PM wants to send a message on Twitter to a Hollywood star who's currently in Thailand, so what? Crowe generated some positive publicity for Thailand, Prayut responded. Which "single individuals expression" is he allowed to respond to according to your rules?

So how many years have you lived in Phuket to make that judgement? I'll let everybody reading into a secret. The majority of people who trash Phuket in every thread live in Pattaya. I'm sure in everyone's hometown, there are nice areas and bad areas. The houses in the nice areas are more expensive, but people are willing to pay more so that they don't have to meet the people living in the bad areas.

There's lots of nice places in Phuket. Patong probably wouldn't be suitable for your circumstances.

If Thailand are struggling to choose which countries to come, why not stage a FIFA-style draw to decide, with each country's name hidden inside a ball? To make it even more exciting, book your flight and hotel before the draw ????

https://asq.in.th/thailand-covid-insurance

It's worth pointing out that not every insurance policy provides asymptomatic cover for COVID. From https://asq.in.th/thailand-covid-insurance

My reading of this was that the new curfew, active until the end of October, increases opening hours until 11PM, but does not include opening bars. Yet. No reason why that can't be changed in November or December.

Excellent - you added that quickly ????

Here's a link to 3 of the Thai covid insurance companies: https://asq.in.th/thailand-covid-insurance Edit: The policies above only cover you up to the age of 75. Here's a link to a company that accepts people up to the age of 99: https://covid19.tgia.org/

If fully insured, fully vaccinated tourists with 2 negative PCR tests are allowed into Thailand, what difference does it make?

That's true to a certain extent. But foreigners double-vaccinated with Pfizer are unlikely to need hospital treatment if they get covid, and as things stand they are compelled to buy very expensive covid insurance. Most Thais do not have that kind of immunity, or $100,000 to spend on covid treatments.

Why would anyone want to come to your expensive, sanitised tourist destination? Cities like Singapore and Tokyo have higher safety standards, cleaner streets and better drivers than Thailand could ever have. Why don't you live in one of those safe, expensive cities? Not enough money, right? ????

China claim to have had 4,636 covid deaths in total, and 96,435 cases of covid since 2019. With a similar population, India have 451,220 deaths and 34,000,500 cases. If those figures are close to being accurate, China's borders are likely to stay sealed for a long time to come. https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/china/

I'm not sure how much further the THB has to climb. Thailand is an export-driven economy, and a strong baht hurts any further export growth. Since the Asian financial crash of 1997 when the baht more than halved against the dollar, the Bank of Thailand (a very competent institution) took firm control of Thailand's currency. They built up huge foreign reserves through exports and tourism, peaking at $246B in Dec 2020, and kept a tight rein on government borrowing. The pandemic has changed the BOTs approach - with no foreign currency coming in from tourism and GDP sharply falling, they have let their foreign reserves drop and they have made multiple statements asking the Thai government to borrow more money (issue government bonds) in order to stimulate Thailand's battered economy. The foreign exchange markets have reacted to government borrowing and falling foreign reserves, and the Thai baht has fallen against other currencies. As things stand, the BOT probably recognise that a weaker baht is beneficial to Thailand in the short to medium term. I'm not too concerned about the state of the major western economies, post-WW2 they have thrived despite various peaks and troughs. They have probably reached the peak of their reliance on cheap imports and overseas fossil fuels. Over the next couple of decades, home-grown fossil fuels, renewables, nuclear, and a gradual increase in domestic manufacturing will reduce their trade deficits and revive their currencies.

East Asia and ASEAN account for approximately 27m out of their 40m tourists in 2019, but I can't see China opening their borders any time soon, and the ASEAN countries are also being very cautious. Fortunately for Thailand, long-staying Western tourists spend a lot more money. Not always in hotels and shopping malls where their spending can be easily monitored, but they are what is needed to kick-start the local economy. Remove the restrictions, and they will start coming back. Time to end this childish obsession with visitor numbers, Thailand.

That's a very good point! Using the website archive.org, I've had a look to see what their predictions were in January 2019. They are quite amusing ???? Their prediction for October 2021 was 33.703 baht to the pound ???? See for yourself here: https://web.archive.org/web/20190121064321/https://poundf.co.uk/pound-to-baht-forecast-gbp-to-thb

They seem to want everyone to buy the Thai covid insurance policies.

I'd be very surprised if the requirement for a Thai covid insurance policy went away.

It was only last year that the US accused Vietnam of manipulating the dong ... https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/us-vietnam-reach-agreement-currency-treasury-2021-07-19/ But this story makes it clear that the dong is rising of its own accord.

Thanks, I'll be holding onto my dong.