tomacht8

... with all the fuss surrounding the quasi-legalisation of cannabis in Thailand, people might wrongly assume that they can use cannabis .... There's a problem. In many media worldwide there was the headline: Thailand legalizes cannabis. In the future there will be tourists who enjoy smoking their joint on the beach and then catched by BIBs who will collect money from them as usual. There are certainly not many tourists who are familiar with all this overly complicated, legal fine print. The trend of those in government to make simple matters more and more super complicated, continues. Be it the legalization of cannabis, Thai passport, residence registrations, workpermits or visa regulations.

So true. If they would drive at least 100 Km/h then. On the highways, it's mostly the totally overloaded pickup trucks that permanently block the right lane. Or the regional farmers with their ancient cars that are incapable of driving which, at 70 km/h, sometimes put themselves in the fast lane kilometers before the planned U-turn. The whole thing then at night without rear light illumination.

I'm always for maximum possible individual freedom, but driving a car is where the fun stops. No car and/or motorcycle license without at least 20 hours driving lessons with a driving instructor. Many drivers here do not even know the simplest traffic rules.

If it's too hot for you in the kitchen, you'd better get out.

Right. This only works with bribes to the BIB. Ultimately, longer opening hours are not legal and bar owners risk their license. Such unworldly closing times only open the doors to blackmail, although the population wants to be able to celebrate unhindered.

"However, these business operators must .... close at midnight." But that's not "night life". These are regulations for kindergartens and not for adults. As if a busy bar at 2am posed a higher risk than the same bar at 10pm. What puritanical nonsense.

The European holiday season (mid-June to late September) has been largely missed by the hesitant Thai government amateurs. A friend, family with 1 child booked 3 weeks Greece in April for the beginning of September. Another friend, family with 2 children booked Turkey all inclusive for 3 weeks in early May for July. Both friends are usually Thailand fans. Due to the loss of Russian tourists, there are currently very cheap holiday packages for Turkey. If Thailand had managed in time to attract an additional 500,000 European holidaymakers for the summer season and each spend 50,000 baht: that would have been 25,000,000,000 baht. Money that may could have been generated by faster, bolder and clearer entry policies.

The naivety of the government is unbelievable. The belief that tourism and the economy can just be turned on again with a few new regulations more or less, like a light switch, is illusory. C19 measures, Putin's war in Europe, inflation, recession, China's border closure, etc. all result in the fact that the general data for vacation trips to Thailand are extremely bad. The government acts as if they are able to trigger an economic boom with their pompous announcements. The reality is rather that there is still a long dry way ahead for the countrys economy.

True. Immigration got the same marriage certificate from me 20 times, over 100 passport copies and countless family photos in their archives. In other countries, you register your home address once, and you only report your new address if you move house. In Thailand, every 90 days you reports immigration the same address and that nothing has changed. This is only an artificial job creation measure for the civil servants. Inefficient bureaucracy costs everyone unnecessarily valuable time and money. In addition, they are crazy for collecting personal data with inadequate data security, poorly programmed applications, authorities that are not networked, a lack of digitalization, and form requirements that are not uniform nationwide. These shortcomings apply unfortunately to many authorities and institutions here.

Was fun, but closed too early.

Yesterday fullmoon party was rainy. Around 6000- 7000 people. Estimate 50% foreigner's and 50% Thais. Closing time was early, not until sunrise. Today most Thais travel home. Ferry's quit full.

I thought nightlife (discos and gogos) were closed much longer. Since April 2020?

Being neutral only helps the aggressor, never the victims. Tolerating war raids by superpowers on smaller countries through "neutrality" is the wrong approach. And which country sent its invasion army here is clear. Russia is bombing all of Ukraine with its rockets with the aim of destroying the country. There must be no tolerance or neutrality for warmongers and war criminals.

It is at least a relief and also a cost saving. The risk of an expensive forced quarantine is also abolished. But I would like more informative details. What about a married couple (both vaccinated 3 times) with a 11-year-old unvaccinated child?

Well, that was 8 years of government without any future visions for the country. Better education, better prospects for young people, land reform, aging society and better care for the elderly, strengthening of democratic control institutions, fighting corruption, more efficient administrative processes, "fairer" judiciary, environmental protection, overfishing, better sewage and waste management, police reform, more critical discussions, more unity and compromises, better data protection and consumer rights, higher income for the masses, fairer distribution of income, more transparency in government contracts, less xenophobia, government and private debt problems, ....... Just to name a few areas. Unfortunately i don't see any significant improvements in these areas, quite the opposite.

Good news. Every hurdle that is removed is a step in the right direction.

China will not change its tough entry quarantine rules that have been in force for a long time, anytime soon. Will there be Chinese tourists who will then accept 2 weeks of forced quarantine at the point of entry + 1 week of controlled home quarantine for a 7-10 day trip to Thailand? Also, the state forced quarantine accommodations in China are not cozy 5 star hotels that you can choose from. The 3 covit tests before entry plus 2-3 after entry are not cheap either. That someone does this voluntarily - 1 week vacation and 3 weeks in prison - is highly unlikely.

People want to travel – and they like to do so by plane. In Europe, the bike tour to the neighboring town was the highlight of 2021 - for 2022 it could be a little more lavish. The travel industry in Europe is surprised by the high demand. Holiday flyers can hardly keep up with the booking requests. Eurowings starts on Sunday with an A380 daily from Frankfurt to Mallorca. And even 4 flights a day would be possible, but they don't have the crews at the moment. If Thailand wants this summer any slice of the european pie, they would have to lift all travel restrictions by May 1 at the latest. Mid June to late September is the big holiday season in Europe and people are booking now (April, May) for it. With a Hesitant - Maybe - Flip Flop - Unclear- Complicated - Travelpolitics you don't get any planes full.

...expects at least 8 million. They have 444000 in 3 month already. If they want get 7,55 millions more in 2022 they have to do some big changes. Abolish all travel restrictions, open all nightlife entertainment, allow happiness again and give everybody who arrives with a passport a 3 month stamp without paperwork would give them higher visitor numbers. The hope that some super rich VIP tourists bring in the big money and employment for millions of thais in the tourism sector, is only a pipe dream.

The formula is simple: The fewer restrictions and hurdles, the more tourists. But what bothers me the most is the general carelessness in how personal data is handled here. Data (passport copies, e-mail addresses, telephone numbers, credit card numbers, bank details, health data, etc.) are collected double and triple in Thailand like crazy. Whether: Visa authorities, immigration, Ministry of Health, hotels, airlines, telephone companies, banks, BTS, driver's license office, health insurance companies, supermarkets, online mail order companies, landlords, etc. all store personal data. But how it is about data security is another matter. Unfortunately, that their servers can be hacked and the data then goes into dark channels, or the data is sold, happens too often here. And the Thaipass is a wonderful example of a data hack, how you can get an eMail - Trojanvirus onto your computer if you're not careful. For me that is the main reason to abolish the Thaipass System.

Tourist Arrivales in Thailand 230,497 in Dec 2021 133,903 in Jan 2022 152,954 in Feb 2022 The March figures for 2022 have not yet been published. I suspect that these have fallen significantly again due to the Russian war. If Thailand continues in 2022 with these fearful mini-steps towards normalization in the tourism sector, they will only have 2-3 million tourist arrivals in 2022. The complicated bureaucratic procedure and the financial risk completely stifles the desire to travel. And this applies not only to holiday tourism but also to business trips and medical tourism. Many countries only require proof of vaccination for entry, which is checked by the airline at the check-in counter or a pre-flight C19 test for unvaccinated people. And that was it. Thailand loses billions in tourism revenue to its complicated system, which provides almost no benefit in terms of mitigating the C19 spread.

So after 44 Years some authorities come and dispute the land ownership. And then laws are passed afterwards that subsequently lead to the loss of land ownership? Politically motivated state expropriation. Investors beware.

If they don't make it easier very quickly, it can happen that the few airlines that still fly to Thailand will stop their flights or reduce them even more. If Thailand continues to hold up the entry hurdles, there will be no volume and the airlines can no longer afford to fly with almost empty planes to Thailand.

Executives from the channel met with Yevgeny Tomikhin, the Russian ambassador to Thailand, on Tuesday evening and they agreed to provide Russian news about the war in Ukraine that is based on “facts” because there is “fake news” in international media. Isn't the word: war forbidden in Russian propaganda? Could mean 15 years in prison. Facts are rare in Russia State Media.

In my country there are a lot of restrictions on keeping so-called dangerous dogs. In addition to a ban on keeping certain breeds, breed-specific restrictions on keeping are possible. In terms of the owner, this can mean, for example, that they are of legal age, that they have a certificate of good conduct or that they are required to take a specialist test (colloquially known as a dog handler’s license). When it comes to keeping the dog, other special regulations such as a leash requirement, a muzzle requirement, a chip requirement, insurance requirements, a permit requirement, the requirement to sterilize the dog, the requirement to securely fence off the property on which the dog is kept, or passing a character test for dogs may be prescribed.