BKKBike09

For some, that also applies to how they feel about the obsessive outdoor maskers ... although I'll grant you one can't say it's "inconsiderate" to wear a mask outdoors. Except when it's parents forcing their infant children to do it.

You're forgetting Tom's Quik ...

"better than some of the other food down there" - that, my friend, is a low bar in the Phils. For starters, chicken pagpag, anyone? Back to Carl's Jr ... went once to the curious outlet near Nana after hearing their burgers were supposed to a cut above McD, BK etc. Thought it was dire.

Perhaps it's my age, but "Young Expat" to me would be a kid, a teen or at most in early 20s. But 36?

Mine was issued on 25 December! I guess that shows Bang Bon wasn't a hot favourite with expat residents.

Emphasing "Foreigner and Thai wife flee for their lives" seems a bit heartless. How about: "Innocent young man shot dead by gun-toting maniac"

If you mean the initial Thailand knowledge test you do at SB, there are different versions of this - I think 3 or 4 sets, each of 10 questions. The questions I had were pretty straightforward, like: 1. Who is the current Interior Minister? 2. Which is Thailand's newest province? 3. How many Generals in the Army (okay, I made this up, it's not a question) Along these lines. There was only one I had no idea about which was to do with the Nationality Act about hill tribes or something like that.

Mine used to have my ID number because I had PR (and so also had name in Thai). Then last time I went to renew I forgot my household reg. So they put my police book number as ID Number ... "3/2555" .... go figure. I made an appointment months ago to change it; appointment is next week and I'm busy so I cancelled it ... next appointment not for another month, not that I care. The DLT folk at Sukhumvit 62 who change the details were very helpful, unlike their colleagues in the driving license section. I did couple of cars and couple of motorbikes in less than 2 hours. If you don't read / write Thai you'll need someone with you who does because you have to fill in a request form for each reg book to be amended. Also copies of the RG announcement, household reg and nationality certificate, one set for each vehicle. As far as I can remember, the car people however then didn't take the RG, whereas the bike people did, or something like that. And the motorbikes were cheaper than the cars for making exactly the same changes! Not that it was very expensive. 100 baht or something like that per book.

Whoa, steady on there cowboy! According to the original source article: "... life should be as normal as possible while the economy is recovering, said the public health minister adding, however, that even if COVID becomes an endemic disease, the population may still be required to wear face masks, avoid group gatherings, wash their hands often, undergo rapid antigen tests and get vaccinated to reduce the risk of severe cases." So ... basically same, same. But doubtless there'll be the usual doom-mongers who'll say we need to continue to take all possible precautions 'just in case', "think of other people" etc etc. I'm sick of it all.

"people are getting sick, hospitalized and still dying" - from a myriad of other causes as well; that's life "Money and the economy are more important, right?" - yes, after two years of this, they are "let's go!" - full steam ahead. If you're uncomfortable, you can stay at home..

I'm sure it's a question many have pondered / are pondering (myself included). It's a one-size fits all solution that however is required to entertain many variables: an 'international traveler' could be, for instance: 1. A genuine tourist visiting for two weeks sun and masked fun. 2. A businessman visiting for a week. 3. An expat resident on some form of long-stay visa returning to the Kingdom 4. An expat with PR returning to the Kingdom 5. A Thai citizen returning home. 6. Any one of the above, who will spend all their time in Bangkok. 7. Any one of the above, who will travel upcountry after arriving in Bangkok I suspect the 'authorities' - whatever that may include - will be more concerned about arrivals who are genuine short-term visitors because they won't have any contact details for them other than those provided for the TP application. As for the tracking apps, I've never downloaded it/them, and have never been asked to show them either arriving in Thailand or at a quarantine hotel (did ASQ and TP last year). My two cents: the concern is with the PCR test. They think that by forcing visitors to pay for a hotel and test on Day 5, that will induce them to do it. Could be right. However I suspect that it would be quite possible to not do the pre-paid hotel/PCR as long as you do a PCR somewhere else and send that to the hotel with an apology, and that there'd be no blowback. For instance book Day 1 in BKK and Day 5 somewhere upcountry, and then simply say 'sorry, plans changed, couldn't get to my Day 5 hotel, did a PCR at xxx instead'. Seems a bit of a waste of time and money though (like the whole ridiculous Day 5 palaver).

Yep. 28 degrees in the shade at 7 am this morning.

Being Thailand, you can probably buy a sickle at 2 am. Failing that, a giant plastic <deleted> from lower Sukhumvit might be available as an alternative to be brandished (Borat-style).

Too right. This cretin also wants to bring back state quarantine for Thai nationals! From the source article: "Ms Treechada warned that the arrangements were not conducive to curbing the spread of COVID-19 in the kingdom because she feared it would let visitors carry the disease all over the country. She also claimed that the government was unable to control the current situation. At the same time, she called for the reintroduction of state quarantine for Thai nationals residing in the kingdom who she said should not have to fund expensive hotel bills to return home." Yawn.

I think you'll find he already is. Tourism and Sports isn't exactly a plum portfolio (as opposed to Energy, Health, Transport - the ones with the big budgets and mega-projects). Is the '1944 Convention' a Buddhist or Christian era date, I wonder?

Tell me about the Ladyboys ... fascinating creatures ... don't suppose you've got any stories about them ...

"Softly, softly"?? Code for: "Unfortunately most bars and similar establishment breaking the rules have made certain 'arrangements' that mean we have to leave them alone. However, hapless street hawkers trying to make a day-to-day living have no such protection and so are easy prey".

Of course, here in Thailand, unlike, er, the rest of the World, Omicron remains a great danger: The Omicron variant is responsible for 80% of infections and the rest caused by the Delta strain. "It would not be correct to conclude that Omicron is less severe," Dr Apisamai said. (from a report in the newspaper that shall not be named). Honestly, don't these people ever get out?

Look up the company financials. https://datawarehouse.dbd.go.th Maybe the business is going under. If it goes under then the staff will get nothing. Maybe the owner(s) are trying to do the right thing by staff and keep them employed and in the SS system, even if it means cutting salaries. Or maybe they're just trying it on. 11K is risible. Would probably make more as a Grab driver. Are management also taking cuts?

The source article also included the good doctor explaining: "Besides, CCSA approved lower fees for COVID-19 tests that would take effect on March 1, he said. An antigen test kit that people will buy will be priced at 55 baht, down from 80 baht. An ATK for which the National Health Security Office will pay for service units will be priced at no more than 250 baht, down from 300 baht. The fee for an RT-PCR test by service units will be cut to 900 baht from 1,200 baht." Sooo ... the health service is paying 5 x more for ATK kits than if they just bought them at 7-11? Someone's got a nice little earner there. "Ah, but these are 'special' ATK test kits etc etc".

It says in the Thai original that the gun owned by the retired policeman (in his 70s) had been pawned to someone military, while the other gun was owned directly by someone military. It's not uncommon here for people to pawn a gun and that's how many legally registered weapons end up being used for criminal purposes. Each weapon has a permit specific to that weapon and the individual named as owner. It's illegal to have in your possession a gun that's not properly registered in your name (as an aside - e.g. foreigners who 'own' a gun but it's actually in their wife's name) so, what's a pawn shop owner, or anyone who's taken a gun from someone as collateral for a loan, to do when the registered owner can't/won't repay the loan / dies etc? They can't legally sell it because it's not in their name and they shouldn't have it in the first place. Hence these guns get sold on illicitly without, of course, the legal owner necessarily being any the wiser.

This would be the same person who has co-authored another must-read study entitled: "Transgender Kathoey and gay men using tourist-zone scenes as ‘social opportunities’ for nonheteronormative living in Thailand". Which contends "tourist-zones with nonheteronormative scenes can importantly supply new ‘social opportunities’ and resources for nonheteronormative living", presumably thanks to some elderly retirees 'enacting privilege' because of their superior wealth. Thankfully Dr Scuzzarello is herself not short of a bob or two, so she can brag about her new $200 running shoes (probably made in a Vietnamese or Indonesian factory by underpaid locals).

Judging by how many people still obsessively mask, if not double mask, in the great outdoors and in their car on their own, I doubt that. Many people remain very afraid of Covid. Also, compliance and acceptance of 'authority' is inculcated from an early age. They might not like it, but they won't do anything about it qv. look at all those protests (not) organised by people working in the tourism sector.

So at the moment it looks like the unvaccinated in the US are 100 times more likely to die from Covid than the vaccinated+boosted? 0.1 / 100,000 vs 9.74 / 100,000. Sounds terrifying. But the unvaccinated death rate is actually now lower in the US than the death rate in 2019 and 2020 from flu. Covid WAS really bad but now it isn't. CDC data in fact shows the average unvaccinated American is now, statistically, 5x more likely to die from an "unintentional injury" than from Covid. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db427.htm At this stage in the pandemic surely it's time to start comparing Covid risk to that of other disease and accidents: time to stop living in fear.