Spock

Can't imagine a worse punishment than being 80 in a Thai jail.

Just another example of Thai wowserism in a different form, trying to pretend their lives are based on the best of safety concerns, the same mentality that has closed down tourism as soon as it was reopened through overreacting to a relatively mild if contagious virus variant. I would certainly not get the test. If the Thais on the board and in the condo are too stupid or blind to reality as to think another test on top of 2 already taken is necessary, just let them do their worst. Thailand is a country currently going nowhere fast.

You are 100% right. People have to be able to book a holiday with a fair degree of certainty that the tables are not going to be turned on them. Even Australia, the most cautious country in the world, is not panicking over Omicron. Sure there are lots of cases and it's highly infectious, but hospital admissions and deaths have not been greatly affected and there is no need to lose the confidence of prospective tourists by once again changing their mind. The Thai government should make a decision and stick with it. We have to learn to live with the virus because it is not going away. If the population is vaccinated, life should be able to proceed as normal.

I would like to believe I am not racist, and when it comes to judging people on an individual basis, I believe I am not. However, there are certain countries in which practices and behaviours exist that I consider unacceptable, and sometimes morally reprehensible. As a result, I dislike that country and by implication, perhaps many people in those countries who practice those behaviours or habits. As a dog lover, I abhor the capture and killing on a large scale of dogs in at least 3 countries, often in a very cruel manner. The more affluent and civilised the country purports to be, the more critical I am of this practice and the government approved proliferation of these killings. Similarly, there are several countries whose political stance against minorities and their neighbours I consider to be unacceptable. I don't wish to be anymore specific. I am prepared to judge people from these countries on these merits, but I guess the countries themselves are not on my itinerary as places I intend to visit. I also cannot recall a country I have visited in which its citizens didn't hold negative views of ethnic or minority groups or other countries. It would be really nice if we could all believe that people of all creeds and colours are equal and have the same right to automatic respect. On a country's basis, my respect has to be earned. On a personal basis, I judge people as they come.

These short term rooms were, I assume, to offer you temporary relief from the heat and exhaustion after devoting hours to the inspection of temples, ruins or other historical or cultural displays. Once refreshed, I imagine you moved on to the next town to avail yourself of its cultural offerings. Yes those indeed were days to be savoured by the discerning Thai tourist.

Is that you, Dr Sarayuth Bunchaiphanichwattana?

For me, 3040B is an expensive hotel. Maybe not so for the hiso foreigners who have money to burn on accommodation.

There are actually lots of very wowserish Thai people, largely among the middle class, particularly noticeable to me when I rented in the vast Lumpini apartment building complex in Rangsit where no alcohol was available at the 2 7/11 stores on site. It's not a country in which I am keen to spend time anymore.

Cambodia is where I am now heading. I don't trust the Thais. Lived there for 6 years and now find it conservative and puritanical as well as poorly governed. For some years now Cambodia has provided a more relaxed and friendly environment in which to stay or live than Thailand.

There would want to be. 6000 baht is absurd.

You are probably at Bangkok Patana or somewhere similar which would have had an online program for all and collected fees throughout. No way such a school would fold.

As an Australian citizen stuck in the safety cocoon in which this country envelops its citizens, I would happily be in any other country which doesn't prevent its own citizens travelling OS, or boasts the longest locked down city, the most punitive traffic fines available and the most restrictive speed limits in the world. You may value the priority placed on attempting to ensure that people's safety is the only priority in life worth pursuing, but the flip side is a dull and bland society which is currently revealing to discerning citizens just how an obsession with safety to the detriment of anything else can be stultifyingly boring and restrictive.

Generally people move to these developing countries because they are more liberal and offer more freedom than their own. Having said that with Thailand's high infection rate, the country probably should have been in a long lockdown with restaurants and bars closed. It's when alcohol is banned through shops that the ban becomes really draconian. I am sure this happened last year when Thailand locked down. I enjoy a drink at home every night and I certainly would not consider moving to a country that banned alcohol at all points of sale.

Thailand's inability to get on the vaccine bandwagon is a disgrace. These ridiculous tourists schemes have simply been a sideshow to detract from the bleeding obvious, that the government has been totally inept at securing vaccines for its own people, while its neighbour, Cambodia, has immunized 99% of the population of Phnom Penh and a large proportion of its population. I am hoping now to go to Cambodia instead of Thailand in December for an extended stay.

The cost of feeding a prisoner I read about 10 years ago - less than $1.50 a day. I have a goof Thai friend doing time and have visited on numerous occasions as well as regularly correspond. I have a fairly good understand what life inside is like.

70% are drug related

Doesn't cost the taxpayer much to keep anyone in a Thai jail and it also a much worse punishment than death.

That wasn't my point, but carry on regardless.

If you are vaccinated it is an attitude you can afford to hold. Unfortunately Thailand is a long way off being vaccinated to the point they can open the floodgates to let the virus in.