candide

They are surely not the most beautiful girls in the world. It's just that we farangs are in a position to choose the most pretty ones. Plenty is Thai girls have short legs and are too stocky, and it gets worse when they get older. Girls are more pretty in some regions of China (ex Chongqing) or Europe (ex. Estonia). However what makes them real gems is the attitude and kindness. Of course, material (financial) issues matter a lot to them. But once these material and financial issues are settled/agreed, they are usually real angels. Years after years, I always marvelled at it, whether I was staying with a girlfriend or just spending a short-time with a working girl.

That's what they all tell me! ????

From a Thai perspective, it makes sense to allow test & go again. Omicron is already diffusing in the country (likely much more than what official statistics are showing). An influx of vaccinated and PCR-tested foreigners will not have a noticeable effect on the pandemic in Thailand. However, from a tourists' perspective, it would be stupid to come to Thailand. Even if not tested positive on arrival, there will be a real risk to be infected by locals for those arriving in the midst of the Omicron wave, get a positive test after 6 days, and be incarcerated during two weeks. Taking this factor into consideration, it may be paradoxally wiser to quarantine during one week in order to make sure one will not be contaminated by locals, rather than risk a two weeks incarceration in an hospital or equivalent.

Of course, marijuana is not completely harmless, in particular in case of excessive or unreasonable (ex. while driving, while attending courses...) use. Having said that a regular and not excessive use is much harmless than alcohol or cigarettes. When the weed is good, It's not necessary to smoke many joints. To match the effect of one or two joints every night, one has to drink several pints of beer/glasses of wine, etc... which may induce overweight, diabete, etc....and even cancer. One or two joints/night won't induce much harm. Of course, if you smoke joints all day long, it may be different, but still less dangerous than drinking all day long or smoking two packs of cigarette every day. Not to mention the fact that, contrary to alcohol, it occurs very rarely that excessive weed users get involved in stupid fights, or beat their wife when they are back home.

I wonder what they feed the crocs with? Porcs eat anything so it's cheap to rise them. I don't think you can feed crocs with potatoes peels.

One remaining hope is that the Omicron wave started earlier in Western countries and will likely end earlier than in Thailand. So farangs may not be seen as a threat.

And as usual, they have been very effective! ????

We all know why and also according to which criteria it will be selected. ????

Right. People often forget that there is usually a lag of at least two weeks between infection and death. So it's pointless to compare the number of cases and the number of deaths at the same date.

I am not saying the guy is as corrupt as Thaksin, I am saying that both have been convicted for the same reason: because they dared to challenge the domination of the amart. Even if Thaksin had not been corrupt, he would have been convicted in the same way as the new guy. If Thaksin had not challenged the domination of the amart while being corrupt, he would not have been convicted. Just as Prayut, Prawit, Suthep and the others will never be convicted, the people involved in the Rolls Royce corruption case will never be convicted, the people involved in the fake bomb detector will never be convicted, etc.... (Additionally SOME of the charges against Thaksin and Yingluck have been made up, but that's not the main point)

Prayut is just a puppet. As about Move Forward, if people vote for it, its leaders will be accused of corruption or anything convenient, just like Thaksin. Actually it already happened to the predecessor of move forward. On top of it, they are not skilled enough to shake the system. Thaksin was able to do it, that's why they got rid of him. Not because he was corrupt (he was, but not more than the other politicians in Thailand).

Not to mention the fact that Thai people are now significantly infected by Omicron and are outnumbering foreign travellers by large. Infection risk by foreign travellers is neglectible compared to the risk of being infected by locals.

Then the issue is how it may be applied by each hospital. There's no guaranty they will not keep you if they wish to cash your money.

BTW, anyone knows a source where I could find the official Covid deaths count for Thailand month by month? I would like to make a comparison for the whole year sequence.

Be aware that for vaccinated people, ATK tests may show positive only on third day after symptoms. That's what happened to me and I read a bit about it, it seems to be common for vaccinated people who react even to a small quantity of virus, while ATK tests need a certain quantity of virus to be present in the body to be effective.

And a bit cheaper than international hospitals. Making appointments online shortens a bit the process as you can enter information such as passport number online. I was there Friday and it was obviously not overcrowded, as there are currently no many air travellers in Bangkok. The process was quick.

Meanwhile, raw deaths count all causes now available for December. I have no time yet to analyse the full year but December 2021 is around 5000 deaths higher than 2020. https://ourworldindata.org/excess-mortality-covid

I guess that's related Update: The Chonburi Governor released a new order late last night just before midnight specifically for food and beverage businesses, especially those that sell alcohol in Pattaya, Nongprue, and Banglamung. Similar to the order we posted yesterday, the following things must take place: 1. All staff, including musicians, performers, entertainers, etc must take a rapid antigen Covid19 test daily. 2. All customers, regardless of the size of the venue and regardless of the customers vaccination or recovery status, must take a Covid-19 antigen test within 72 hours of the current time period to dine-in. The venue can arrange for on site testing or accept qualified test results. 3. If a venue is unwilling or unable to meet the first two points they must shut immediately until/if restrictions are eased. There is NO expiration date, the order is until further notice. https://thepattayanews.com/2022/01/02/chonburi-governor-releases-late-night-updated-orders-around-covid-19-and-food-and-beverage-establishments/

3. To start with, there should be a legitimate parliament and government, resulting from free and fair elections, which is not the case now. This is exactly what the opposition's is trying to get by playing this quorum game: get free and fair elections.

One of the reason for not publishing numbers, may be they seem now to do a lot of rapid tests. For example, at Treetown in Pattaya, there is a medical team every night with loudspeakers, asking people to get a free rapid test. It seemed that most of people getting tested were Thai (at least when I walked by), which would not be surprising as tourists don't want to be locked up in hospitals.

And the only reliable number is the arrivals, as they are all PCR tested.

AXA is a large international (French) company so I guess they have effective risk assessment and management procedures.

I think you are right. There have been only few cases from people arriving in Thailand with the mandatory insurance for Thailand Pass or COE, so it cannot be the main cause of loss. However, which ones will be refused payment? Hmmmm...

What about overloaded gravy trains.....

I am not medical doctor s o I may be wrong, but my layman assumption is that it may take time to produce enough antigens to be detected, as it is an antigen test.