sbf

Yes but if trade is slow some drivers will take an obvious foreigner by an extended route. This padding of the journey is dishonest behavior and surely should be challenged, or at least commented on. However for 10 baht personally I would let it slide. Happened to me once when I took a taxi from Edinburgh train station. I was living and working in the city at that time and was going back to my house. The driver really took a very long and indirect route doubling the fare over the norm for that journey. Probably doesn’t happen so much these days with the map apps on phones.

I would presume there is more risk of new and dangerous variants coming from abroad than domestically requiring extra vigilance

I was not born in this country and I will never be a Thai citizen like most who comment here. However I have lived here and been deeply involved with Thailand for decades. My wife is a citizen of this country as are my children . Are you suggesting I cannot have an opinion on any matters at all in the country of my immediate loved ones where I live and work and I am pretty sure I will die. Can I opine about military coups and dictatorships or street violence? How about the state of the road that runs past our house or the poorly equipped local school or hospital?or should I limit myself to just opining on the weather or not even that? And where does your call for respect start and stop? And to whom should I give this respect to? Should I show respect to the corrupt official who hinders his own countries economic progress so he can line his own pockets or to the bent copper pushing for a monthly contribution from our family business? I call this place home as the rest of my family do and I think we should all be able to talk and comment on all aspects of life here freely. I encourage my children to do just this. I firmly believe in good citizenship and making a positive contribution to the country I live in, but I do not believe in blind obedience to those in power. Whether recognized or not immigrants have made and I am sure will continue to make a positive contribution to Thailand. It is not for any of us to judge our own contribution to our adopted homeland but I would like to think that in some small way my contribution has been positive.

Not quite, more one set of rules for international arrivals and one set for domestic arrivals.

They had no run out of Pfizer 1st shots last Monday, as I got it there. 2nd shot 27 th

Check for latest updates before you go, but as of yesterday and until September 14th I believe you need a negative PCR or Rapid Antigen test - you can get this done just before the checkpoint at the Phuket Gateway - 500baht, I did one there yesterday Also vaccination either ( 1 dose if AZ, Pfizer or 2 doses if Sonovac or Sinopharm + 14 days for both) And proof of Phuket residency - so In your passport a nitification of address in Phuket, unless you are a sandboxer returning for your flight out.

Well I tried to get a rapid antigen test on Phuket yesterday. None available at my local public hospital, told there that the situation was the same at all hospitals across the island and to come back tomorrow. Finally got one done out at the Chat Chai checkpoint.

In my experience some foreigners on Phuket need to serve a three month period before they are eligible to register for vaccination. I know I am one of them. I do my visa extension in another province, but have a house on Phuket and family at school here. I split my time equally between the two provinces. With the shutting down of domestic flights I have now been in Phuket for around 2 months. Thought I might as well use my time constructively and get vaccinated during this period, and went through the online process with PhuketWIn. Heard nothing back and went online a couple of weeks after first registering. A notice saying my registration could not be completed appeared and it went on to say that I needed to contact Immigration as there was a problem that could only be resolved there. I had registered my Phuket address a few years ago with Phuket immigration, so I went in to see what they wanted me to do. They informed me they had no record of my address registration, even though their own receipt of notification of address was stapled into the back of my passport along with that of the province where I do my extension. They further advised transferring my address registration to Phuket, which I did after a couple of further visits as I had to gather the house documents required which took a little doing. A couple of weeks after changing address I went onto Phuket Win website and saw the same message. Went back to Immigration, was told that there was a 3 month period of residence required before I would be eligible. That would mean I could not get a Phuket Win appointment until at least October. This was never explained to me on my previous Immigration visit. On probing it turns out that this is because they want to stop people coming to Phuket just to get a vaccination. This I could understand if it was early in the roll out. However most foreigners in my province of extension are now vaccinated with at least one dose. When I pointed this out they just said sorry these are the rules. So now I am about to make the journey from Phuket to get vaccinated in Bangkok. Will receive second dose 3 weeks later and will return to the family at that stage, as long as they have not toughened the entry requirements between times - always a possibility.

As above with addition of - until the 14 th September

The 90% figure is somewhat heartening. It reflects what I hear talking to Thai friends, family and employees. Most voice concern about the direction of travel of many of the key metrics of governmental competence here. They talk of an education system which is not fit for purpose and getting worse, something which is confirmed by Thailands fall in world educational standings over the last few decades. They see corruption getting worse, even though it was a key promise of the junta when they seized power that this issue would be addressed. Again this seems to be confirmed by international surveys. They talk about the increasing gap between rich and poor, again something well documented in international reports and not just for Thailand. However there is also a knowledge that the 10% whose interests this government largely represents and promotes will pull every trick in the book to stay in power. Disenfranchising opposition parties, rigging the political system in their favor, and on and on. Given that most people value a peaceable life and the great difficulty many have just making ends meet, in combination with the pretty compliant nature of many people here, for me it is hard to judge what will happen going forwards.

Almost no domestic flights, certainly none from Bangkok to Phuket, leaving Sarasin as the main potential entry point for Domestic tourists. At the checkpoint for the last few weeks you have needed proof of Phuket residency to be allowed in. Thais with ID's from other provinces are not generally allowed in. The entry vaccination requirements means most Thai's are not eligible to enter given that most of the population are not yet vaccinated.

The corruption epidemic in Thailand has been strengthening for many years. Click on max at the top of the graph linked to get data going back to 1995 https://tradingeconomics.com/thailand/corruption-rank Here is a particular armed forces related one. Seems there was officially no corruption found. The wikipedia link gives just a basic outline, worth having a dig around if you are interested and live outside Thailand or have a VPN. Access to the more in depth info not easy to get within country. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajabhakti_Park

I tell the truth which is I want the vaccination as soon as I can get it. I am in the 60+ age group but in reasonable health with no underlying health issues. I seldom have the chance to mix with other expats, so almost entirely I am talking with Thai's about this matter. When I detail my quest to be vaccinated and the impediments I have come up against ( the latest being province of domicile for immigration purposes being different from province I am locked down in - as in 1600km apart). I explain that all Thai nationals living in my home country of my age group whether permanent residents, long or short term visa holders or even overstayers / illegal immigrants have been able to be vaccinated with a good quality vaccine for free for many months if they wish it. I also explain that I am very much hoping to receive a vaccine which would enable me to travel abroad as I have three grown children dispersed around the globe and that I really worry about being in the situation of needing to travel to see one of them in case of an emergency but not being able to quickly or easily get to them through lack of vaccination or having a vaccine which is not accepted internationally for travel. I go on to say that I would be more than happy to cover the expense of the vaccination and save the burden falling on Thai taxpayers ( even though we pay substantial amounts of tax to the Thai treasury and we employ many workers directly, and indirectly through the supply chain literally thousands ). I then say that sadly that option is not yet open to me for any of the three vaccines of choice allowing me freedom to travel which I desire. The response is interesting. I cannot recall a single person who has not said one or a combination of these 3 things. Thailand is too corrupt - there is a general feeling amongst people that vaccines are being milked by those who can. In addition the people see the wealthy and connected getting vaccinated and they also see that the elderly, the poor and the vulnerable not being vaccinated. Even well educated middle class coup supporting friends have expressed embarrassment and dismay at what they perceive as corruption in the most important public health issue that Thailand has faced in a generation Do not take Sinovac - there is a huge mistrust of this but strangely not really any other vaccines. So it is an anti-Sinovac rather than an anti-vax sentiment. I am not sure where this has come from, rumor or popular press. Few can offer any scientific argument so I am pretty sure their opinion is not based on reading the latest papers and journals evaluating efficacy. Overwhelmingly to the point where I can only recall one person who did not say this, they say that change in those in power is needed. Most everyone expresses this in terms of political masters but a few go further. I first came to Thailand in 1982. I have never in that 40 years heard so much resentment expressed against the government of the day.

Does anyone know if there is a publicly accessible breakdown of cases on Phuket by nationality? One of my staff was told by an officer at the Chat Chai checkpoint at Sarasin Bridge that the outbreak was mostly amongst Burmese immigrant laborers. This seems a little strange to me as the island has required vaccination and / or a test to enter since around Songkran.

Most of us have a notification of address stapled into the back of our passports. I assume that would be accepted for entry to Phuket if indeed the notification was for a Phuket address. But confirmation of this with Immigration is necessary. I am possibly going up near Chat Chai checkpoint tomorrow, I will try to check.

Many thanks and apologies my bad, I entered Thai nationals wanted by the country of Thailand, and got nothing. I see if you enter Thai nationals without searching for any country specifically wanting them you get your list. But does that mean that all the Thai nationals who are wanted are wanted by other countries forces rather than Thai police forces?

Thats interesting link but I think the search facility on the linked site is not working. I searched for which Thailand nationals the Thai police had put a red notice out for and there were none. Did I do something wrong?

Can't speak for Australia but no lock downs in NZ currently and hasn't been a national lockdown since early 2020 when the pandemic first arrived. There have been one or two regional ones but all some time ago. No significant community spread for some time and deaths still less than 30 in a population of 5 million. The NZ government has said that they will have the entire adult population who want to be vaccinated jabbed by this years end. You can track progress against target at the below link, they are ahead of target and vaccine delivery seems to be running with the vaccination schedule. They changed tack with the all Pfizer rollout this week by increasing the time between 1st and 2nd jabs from 3 to 6 weeks. This was after scientific evidence of more optimized efficacy was shown by doing this. I guess they also would like to get as many people with first injection as possible whilst there is no community transmission, given the difficulties Australia is having at present. https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/diseases-and-conditions/covid-19-novel-coronavirus/covid-19-data-and-statistics/covid-19-vaccine-data

In all fairness he and or his wife could have inherited land and other wealth from parents or other relatives which would be included in their declared assets. Also his wife may have some well paid position in industry or government. The facts as laid out really are not much use at all.

I think it is probably reasonably close to correct. From my group of Thai family and friends here including some who live on Phuket, the only fully vaccinated I know are all young ( < 40 years old ) and they are all government employees. I could completely understand this if they were medics and other front line workers such as teachers, immigration officers and so on, but they are not. It would be interesting to see a breakdown of vaccination by socio-economic class, occupation and so on. Is that data available anywhere?

Is anyone interested in this area? I had a look through the OP's for a few pages and did a search but did not bring anything up on the forum. As someone who has been around farming and especially organic production for many years, this seems to be an approach which has a lot of merit, and from the scientific evidence coming forwards it looks as if there may be an opportunity if this approach was widely adoption to mitigate some of the worst effects of increasing carbon dioxide levels whilst producing high quality food and other agricultural products in a profitable manner. There seems to be little work going on in Thailand either practically or academically at present, but I would love to stand corrected on this if anyone has any input. For those not familiar with the basic principles of regenerative agriculture they are little or no soil disturbance maximise plant diversity maintaining living plant cover at all times low artificial chemical pesticide and fertiliser inputs and integrate livestock if at all possible Farms following all these principles are being measured as increasing organic matter levels in the soil up to 0.5% a year. Hence the interest from climate change researchers. Drawing down carbon from the atmosphere and locking it into soils is a very cheap and effective way to reduce carbon dioxide levels. For those who wish to pursue this area further, there is already quite a lot of information available. Some is coming from academia in the form of scientific papers, others from practical farmers. Here is the list of some of the more accessible information starting with farmers and moving to the more academic research. Good general introductions Living Soil Film https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntJouJhLM48 Soil Carbon Coalition https://soilcarboncoalition.org/regenerative-secret-film/ Carbon Cowboys https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGvVli0OTrQ Some farmers applying these techniques Gabe Brown - practical farmer with a very clear manner of describing the benefits of these principles on his farm https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUmIdq0D6-A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfTZ0rnowcc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkoCY4E0Fj4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvQGEtLtIpc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yPjoh9YJMk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxIyKfWf9kU Book Dirt to Soil, One Families Journey into Regenerative Agriculture Joel Salatin another articulate farmer from USA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsbDXQBuwPg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z75A_JMBx4&t=69s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBZgANtcXm8&t=2721s He has also authored several books but I have not read any yet Charles Massey an Australian farmer and researcher, with a fairly recently published book on the subject https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Et8YKBivhaE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vQW8Tl_KLc Book Call of the Reed Warbler Savory Institute Alan Savory is a Zimbabwean farmer whose principles of rotational grazing are being followed by many of the regenerative farmers who have livestock https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpTHi7O66pI&t=2s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMjKcCfBtfI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVxLQtSqvbQ Books Holistic Management Holistic Management : A New Framework Dr Christine Jones This woman is my heroine, she has done some amazing research, and has some great presentations of this work on her website and in various youtube clips website https://www.amazingcarbon.com https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3_w_Gp1mLM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8_i1EzR5U8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW_5eLhKNTY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xZ7nfC7BQk&t=469s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYRpFqUlK78 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuM2tnX-KJI Jena University just to show that Europe while lagging in some ways is also doing some interesting research in the area http://www.the-jena-experiment.de https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=5&v=j3SvG2nBCTM&feature=emb_logo Rodale Institute this highly reputable and long established institute has been working on low chemical input, no-till, cover crop systems for a long time. We built one of their no-till roller crimpers a couple of years ago for use in our farming activities Organic no-till https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkMB5meXMGg Dr Ray Archuleta soil scientist extension officer from US who has been working in the field for many years https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fwv-HJnGHMA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uMPuF5oCPA Dr David Montgomery A geologist by training Dr Montgomery has a great take on the whole field. I highly recommend his books as well written and informative especially Growing a Revolution https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ej4nler3FiY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HwlqR1YnNk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-8mCXxsR3M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZ22IV2tDvs Books Growing a Revolution The Hidden Half of Nature Dirt Dr David Johnson This guy has done some really interesting research into the microbial benefits of compost, developed an interesting composting system. Being a microbiologist by training he has a very interesting take on things and produces the evidence to prove his points. We have built three of his style of compost heaps but the first will not mature for up to another 6 months. I am not quite sure on timing as his work in Arizona suggest 1 year as optimal, perhaps with the constant heat here in Thailand we can reduce this somewhat. Our first one is 6 months old. https://media.csuchico.edu/media/Soil+MicrobesA+Their+Powerful+Influence+in+Agroecosytems/0_ltz0ea1h https://holisticmanagement.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Quivira_Johnson1.pdf https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmj611RfBgs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuW42tFC4Ss https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=164&v=18FVVYKU9gs&feature=emb_logo Thailand - and finally a Thai twist on things, this is the only work I could find being done here. https://www.asean-agrifood.org/farmers-in-central-thailand-turn-to-alternative-crops-to-sustain-soil-health-after-harvest/ I would love to hear from others interested in this area. I hope that this OP sparks some discussion and maybe gives a few evenings of interest to some on the forum inclined to follow the links