bkkcanuck8

30 minutes ago, ThailandRyan said:

Yet the Hotels like Marriot, Aetas, SO Bangkok, and a few other large ones have been shut now here in Bangkok for most of 2020, and this year as well.  Nothing like an empty hotel with hundred's of rooms, restaurants and all staff laid off.  Why build new ones, or why build new condos, the answer is they either have money to burn in order to take a write-off or they really expect SE Asia and Thailand to grow in tourism more than it did before.  I think it will take many, many years to recover, and these locations will sit unused or still un-opened.

I know when I did long-stay at Mayfair, Bangkok - Marriott Executive Apartments (Mayfair on Langsuan) -- the hotel was Marriott but was not owned by Marriott.  It was owned by Thais (land owned by Thai, building owned by Thai) but was basically a Marriott franchisee.  I have no idea if this is done by region or specific building (i.e. one building different franchisee in Bangkok than another)... but I could see it being a bunch of different developers/franchisee investors and not the Hotel chain itself (I suspect the Hotel chain will end up making money regardless of whether a hotel is viable). 

44 minutes ago, KannikaP said:

If me & the Mrs are staying, do we get TWO keys?

 

And that is an AVERAGE of 246 keys? per hotel.    Really?

All the locations highlighted in the map were tourist areas.  I suspect this is tracking the major hotel chains / hotel chain franchisees that build the big hotels -- not your regional ones that create the small boutique hotels.   The one that use to be close to where I lived (in Canada), Chelsea hotel was 26 floors 1500+ rooms.  So lets say in an average 12 floor hotel you might have 500 rooms.

25 minutes ago, RotBenz8888 said:

Oh dear, when did the fatal mutation in the Thai gene pool happen?

 

So, are you implying that all Thais look alike? ????

3 hours ago, ezzra said:

When big country like Thailand need to ask the help a tiny country Like Bhutan, if i were a Thai, i would have buried my head in shame that we have come that far and low...

My first thought on hearing this was... thanks Bhutan... my second thought I will censor...

19 hours ago, dogfish180 said:

"Spread is slowing"....."Reach its peak soon"......... Call me thick, but if it's slowing, didn't it already peak then? ???? This guy has the mental capacity of a child.

I think for this one - you can assume he meant the acceleration of the spread is slowing down... one of the graphs that are used is a logarithmic graph. 

On 8/16/2021 at 11:25 AM, WhiteBuffaloATM said:

impossible to see all 70 million here as “priority” ! 

priorities dont work that way…….check dictionary definition…..

Of course priorities work that way.... the one that is top priority is has 1 as a priority.... the one that is 70 million on the list... has 70,000,000 as the priority... but that does not mean that 70,000,000 is not a priority... just that there are 69,999,999 who have  slightly higher priority ????

1 minute ago, steven100 said:

so are you saying it's a farang far up or a thai one .. ?     lol

If they are taking responsibility for this and trying to resolve it... (admission of loss of face)... then obviously it is not the one registering that was at fault.

On 8/14/2021 at 12:06 PM, mommysboy said:

Why would they want to check it?   Other than perhaps to confirm you are not Thai.  Think too mut!

 

 

It looks like you were the one that was wrong about the visa being validated before the reservation would be accepted by MoF.  However it looks as though some processing them may have incorrectly excluded those on a non-immigrant visa for the purposes of retirement. 

1 hour ago, Mutt Daeng said:

Me too

According to Richard Barrow, this reject for being on a retirement visa is an known issue and MoF are aware of it and working to resolve it.   I suspect some who were doing the verification got confused about permanent residency and non-immigrant visa for the purpose of retirement and invalidated it wrongly.   This does clear up the fact that I was absolutely correct about the process and that they would be validating the visa before passing it on to MoPH. 

3 minutes ago, SantiSuk said:

Just got my confirmation too. Same time same place same vax. Booked via thailandintervac.com on 5-Aug. At least I assume it is an intervac response not an expatvac 2-Aug one. Date is right, time not quite the one I selected, so will have to stay over the night before.

Well, if you get the earliest appointment -- if you are one of the people that starts camping out at 3am to get a queue number... you will only have 7 hours in the queue ????

1 hour ago, ukrules said:

But what about this ?

 

 

He is not allowed to ban it, but he has the right to correct it if it is wrong (as long as he does not use threat of penalty).

5 minutes ago, Almer said:

Is this from the Expat. Consular registration

Scroll up half way and someone posted a Tweet from Sangrat Tanee that Chiang Mai & Khon Kaen can expect to be contacted starting next week.  Since he is MoF - it would be a yes.

2 hours ago, Saltire said:

Expatvac registrants starting to roll out in the larger provinces.

 

His reply yeterday to me about my province stated it is likely only the top 20 provinces will issue appointments at local venues, and if you are in a lesser province you may be asked to go too a nearby province. He said it will be left to the doctors.

 

With less then 200 registrants in my province, why not just send 200 to the main hospital and send out invites - province done in one day, or less, but unfortunately I am, after all this time, likely to be invited to Bangkok, which I have been avoiding ike the plague (pun intended).

 

Sad to read 3 posts that have wrong recipient data in the emails.

 

Yay Khon Kaen.... after that they can stop for a while if they want ????

1 hour ago, cyril sneer said:

If people are wanting the vaccine for travel purposes then going home to get it is actually the best option. You’ll be provided with an NHS QR with proof of a genuine vaccine.

 

UK is now allowing home quarantine so that should reduce the cost by 2 grand. 

 

Not sure how long it will take for Thailand to come up with a system to show their vaccines are genuine, and then the country you’re travelling to to approve it.
 

Years I would say.

If you are traveling, you can request a certificate of immunization which I believe will state exactly what you have been immunized with (have to have a ticket first). 

As far as proving what they gave you, the government is the final authority on that. 

If the UK wants to do a serology test to see if you have antibodies in your system from immunization, they can do that on their own.

2 hours ago, sucit said:

Then why do countries that did not lock down at all havedrastic drops in numbers of cases? Can you answer that? 
 

The answer is the drastic drops are everywhere, lockdowns or no lockdowns, because the virus moves through the populations at this point no matter what you do. 
 

For the life of me I can’t help but just tell you all how you cannot see how obvious so much of this is. For example, Thailand’s borders are closed. Thailand is infected with covid! It makes zero sense to leave the borders closed, that is very detrimental to the country. It’s not as if we have 14 cases here or something controllable. How is this not blatantly obvious? 

Which country, which days and what was the vaccination rate -- each country is different. 

In the UK July 19th was the end of the lock-down... it was also also when the vaccination rate hit just around 70% for 2 doses, more for one dose (on top of those that were not vaccinated but had covid - aka hard vaccinations - and the UK had a lot of those).   It would likely take something like 7 to 10 days to really start into the process of antibodies, so as the days go on more people should be somewhat protected from that day on.   The new cases were higher than they were now starting at between Jul 13th -> July 22, but from that point on the new cases per day from Jul 23 to now somewhat constant and it is still higher than it was from around Jan 24th to July 11th or so.   Thailand has no near that percentage receiving the first dose, let alone the 2nd... and likely won't be close to reaching it until sometime early next year at the earliest (Thailand also has far fewer that were immunized the hard way). 

The UK also blocked export of the vaccine early on -- even though other countries ordered some of that earlier... which is why all countries should exclude UK Pharmaceutical industry from any free trade agreements (and if they are part of it now - remove it)... as UK has shown that they are treating it as a national security dependent company and countries should react accordingly.

49 minutes ago, sandhurstmolonski said:

He is spot on , it's now well versed 

LOCKDOWNS DONT WORK , and cases don't matter , we are pumping out massive numbers here , the only way forward is high levels of vaccination .

But this lockdown nonsense is just that , it hinders active updated immunes and it destroys lives , nothing has changed here other than testing , it's time to be logical and cease all lockdown BS immediately .

Get on with life , get vaccinated , a functional immune required , but we cannot carry on like this , it's doesn't work and we tried prior .

 

Singapore model , cases not matter , vaccinations above 80 % over time , get on with life . Well said doctor .

Thailand tried lock-downs prior and they worked, China did as well and they worked, Korea has in the past and it worked (they are loosening up a bit now that they have a high vaccination rate).   If you stop reduce the contact between people to nominal, they have a very hard time transmitting the virus (it does not magically jump across long distances -- it is transmitted person to person).  If you have a dark-red zone - you lock it down, you then lock-it down district by district, muban by muban at a very granular level.  You test as many people as you can test as often as you can and quarantine infected households until they are clear...  You track and trace all contacts of those infected.  If you are really competent, those infected have limited contacts to infect another...  the cases rapidly drop to a nominal number, as a muban caseload drops to zero, you open it up.  As a district case-load drops to zero you remove it from lock-down.  In a month or two you will reduce the caseload across a dark-red zone to manageable levels where comprehensive and ongoing testing as well as tracking and tracing keeps it manageable.  If you are competent, you don't get to the point of having dark-red zones in the first place.  Then society can return to some sort of normalcy and start recovering.  You let it run wild like a forest fire and you will end up having people running for the hills.   If you had a 'fully vaccinated' population it also makes it more resistant and harder to transmit in the general population.  Simply put, if the controls were applied quickly and efficiently - a full lockdown of a city should not be necessary.  Incompetence in control and you end up in a mess which is what Thailand did the second time around.... Full vaccination in Thailand right now is a pipe-dream though because the government has been utterly incompetent and acquiring vaccines - the worst in the region for doing so....

Chulalongkorn is the top Thai University and ranks reasonably well international (not the top internationally but far far from the bottom).   The vaccine technology being used is also not new.  I don't doubt that Thailand has enough experience to develop a vaccine locally, I will wait to see how the testing phases turn out... but by then I am hoping I will not be looking for a vaccine shot.

10 minutes ago, Stargrazer9889 said:

I just hope that everyone who wants to get vaccinated, will be vaccinated soon. I also hope that

what ever vaccine they are given is accepted for them to be able to travel where ever they want to

as well.   Some countries are not accepting certain vaccines as being good enough.  Being vaccinated and surviving COVID if you

get it, is better than not being vaccinated and dying of COVID, don't you think?

Geezer

Dying of COVID is not my worst fear, it is the long COVID symptoms (i.e. neurological damage)....  if I die, I won't be complaining.

3 minutes ago, mommysboy said:

Why would they want to check it?   Other than perhaps to confirm you are not Thai.  Think too mut!

 

 

I have a sneaking suspicion that the expatvac through MoF was suppose to be different expat only registration as part of an unofficial agreement with the US ambassador (just a guess) [though once it is transferred to MoPH to administer it likely will be exactly the same for everyone].  If you read the site and the announcement it specifically lists a subset of foreigners in Thailand that are eligible for this registration [non-immigrant visas, permanent residence card, work permits along with diplomats and international organizations (my guess that means NGOs) - or foreigners with social security numbers... ].   Specifically excluded from the site were tourists (long term or otherwise) with the expectation that they would have to go home to be immunized (after all they are just tourists - no need wasting vaccine on people that can get them in a country with more supply)....   this exclusion was not an accident as it would have been easier to say foreign nationals in Thailand.

6 hours ago, billd766 said:

I registered on 1st August and I have just checked all my 3 email sites plus the spam folder in each one but nothing about vaccination dates yet.

The list was just handed over to MoPH a few days ago, you have to wait now on whatever processes, regulations etc. that they have.

1 hour ago, sucit said:

Your question is completely nonsensical. 
 

Thailand has increased restrictions, and cases have gone up. Have they not? 
 

Recently UK eased restrictions, and cases went down. 
 

The point here isn’t so much that easing lockdowns reduced infections, but the actual point is, it just doesn’t matter. People are making up the reasons for decreases in infections as they see fit. Humans are human, and people will cross closed borders, people will put on dirty masks, people will come home after shopping and infect loved ones (who wears masks with no contact at home?). Covid infection curves follow very similar patterns and taper off in similar ways. It has little to nothing to do with restrictions. 

 

I realize you will never get it, but lockdowns will be shown to have a net negative impact in the end, with little to no impact on the long term number of infections. 
 

The only question you need to be asking is to yourself, and the question is why you think lockdowns work. 

In China, the virus was out of control.  Strict controls reduced the outbreak to almost nothing and returned the country to a state of almost normalcy considering what the rest of the world would go through.  When the virus first started getting out of control in Thailand, Thailand implemented similar controls recommended by China's experience and the country became a safe haven for a year and the country returned to a state of almost normalcy compared to the rest of the world.   These controls do cause pain though, and the government a year later was averse to taking the same hard decisions and let the virus get out of control and as a result the economic pain is greater over a longer period of time.

8 minutes ago, smedly said:

sorry but I do not agree, you are over thinking this 

 

they won't be checking anything - why should they 

 

we gave our DOB - copy passport, they are not looking for people submitting fake doccuments - it is a simple registration for a vaccine - your passport is your Id - nothing more

The signup does not apply to all immigration status... no option for tourist visa, or visa waiver only for 'expats' here on one of the other visas (like Non-Imm O and work permit related ones).  When they ask for copies of your passport and visa pages, it usually means they plan to check it...  if not, why would they ask for that?  They would just ask for your passport number (like other sights do - as your ID).

2 minutes ago, steven100 said:

so the  Expatvac  registration  process resulted in a load of hogwash  ?    

 

was it fake  ?

did they do it so that other embassies (the US in particular)  would see thailand giving donated Pfizer to expats ??

 

 

I do not think it is fake, but the admin process expectations here were completely without foundation.  What did the website ask for when you logged in?  The normal details and then medical certificate from hospital from preconditions... but also your passport details with your visa page, photo page etc.  This was submitted to MoF.   After they verify this data it has to be transferred to MoPH.  That means they have to probably manually review every record that was submitted, take the passport data and then compare it to the immigration system and mark it verified or not.  This data then has to be transferred to the MoPH (which another indicated happened in the last few days - my guess - that Aug. 11th date mentioned).  The MoPH then has to go through and verify the medical certificates and import it into their system and prioritize the cases... once approved this data has to be referred to IT that would be responsible for electronically sending out appointments to you, me and everyone else and provide a way for you to confirm in 24 hours.  This process also takes time and is not immediate.  If we are lucky the first batch of people (60+ and pre-existing conditions) will start receiving appointments later on this week.