ftpjtm

I'm looking at flights from New York to BKK and Kuwait Airlines is offering the best price, saving $600 on the trip vs the next best option (for 2 persons Business Class). I've never flown with them and wondering if it would be a mistake. One issue is there is a 9 hour layover in Kuwait Airport. I hear it's in turmoil due to construction. I wouldn't mind getting a hotel except I saw a video where it took more than an hour to get through security to enter the airport. Does anyone have recent experience with travel via Kuwait? Am I better off spending an extra $600 to do it via Finnair?

The obvious solution is to continue calling bars "restaurants". This confuses COVID, keeping it at bay.

Ditto

Enough that Thai media sources, including aseannow.com, are so terrified of the prospect of being on the receiving end of one that they refuse to name suspects in news stories. And while slip and fall suits and ambulance chaser lawyers are proliferous in the US, injured persons receiving compensation is more justifiable than protecting the reputation of a business that caused harm to clients. I remember when the elevator in a high rise hotel in Pattaya failed, presumably due lack of maintenance, and fell seven stories with passengers on board. The story was widely reported but not one media source dared mention the name of the hotel. In the US lawyers probably would have worked to get excessive compensation of the victims, while the Thai system worked to protect the corporate owners from bad publicity. In this particular case the US system would have been more fair.

Not weird at all. I guess you missed my point that it's inaccurate to call the US the litigation champion when Thailand's different laws, rules and regulations make it a more litigious nation than the US in some lawsuit categories.

While the US is certainly a highly litigious nation, Thailand has it beat in several ways. I've never seen a US news report fail to mention the name of a restaurant or hotel or other business involved in a controversy for fear of a defamation lawsuit. I've never heard of a US business bring a lawsuit against a patron for posting a negative review. And the US has nothing similar to Thailand’s 112 laws that can land political opponents in jail for speaking out against those in power.

I'm sure it's not at all related to this decision, but CP Group spent 100 million to build a surgical mask facility in April 2020.

Not enough hand picked Senators involved in the vote?

⌚????????

I hope Prayut doesn't waste any of his precious time and wisdom speaking with the Vice President and holds out until granted time with the President himself. Thailand's leaders would likely remain neutral too.

Over the Songkran holidays we had more than a dozen Thai relatives pass our way as they traveled the country. At some point over the course of 3 weeks pretty much every one of them failed an ATK test (my wife bought a few dozen on Lazada). The first diligently reported it, and was locked in quarantine for 10 days in spite of pleas to be released to home confinement, having nothing worse than a running nose. No one else bothered reporting their mild symptoms.

To this American, Prime Burger makes a fantastic burger which is better than most I've had in the States.

Prime Burger is pricey but great. All the beef is Australian so seems "trustworthy" to me...

Maybe now that the Chinese are locked at home, others will come?

The situation today is more complicated than the situation during WW2 when Thai PM Phibun signed a very popular armistice with Japan which was ignored by much of Thailand's overseas delegations? I don't think so.

As someone who has planned their retirement future reasonably well, there are still good financial reasons to live abroad during retirement. My US home costs 30,000 baht per month just to sit idle, paying property tax, insurance, and maintaining utility connections. My Thai house costs about 100 baht per month to sit idle. It's a huge financial boon to free yourself from the cost of living in the west, and use the cash saved to live a better lifestyle in Thailand or somewhere similar.

Only a guess, but seeing that he's fluent in Thai he likely submitted the letter in both Thai and English. English language publications would have republished the English version and vice versa.

I'd rather not answer due to the threat of a defamation lawsuit.

Don't forget Thailand's mentors to the north.

When we arrived at 9am on Thai Pass we were taken to the test site prior to hotel. Our results were in early enough that we were able to go home to spend the night. But yes, we needed to book and pay for the room we used for only a "short time" quarantine, and were required to stay in the room until the results were in.

My wife had a similar situation 1.5 years ago, fell on her shoulder and had terrible pain. We went to Bangkok Hospital Pattaya and if I remember correctly she had a consult with an orthopedic surgeon, x-ray, cortisone shot and physio for about 12,000. It helped for a few weeks, after while she enquired about a second cortisone shot, which you can't get so soon after the first and they recommend an MRI. I believe that was 15,000 including consults through which they determined that she had a detached rotator cuff. Better hope you don't have that, because the orthoscopic reattachment surgery costs 300,000. The wife brought the MRI results and Dr reports to the US (where the surgeon was very impressed with Bangkok Hospital's professionalism) and had the surgery done there, as it was covered by insurance.

When I relocated to Thailand I assured family and friends that Thailand had excellent medical treatment, and any service available in the US was available here. When the wife and I flew back to the US in April 2021 to avail ourselves of easily available COVID vaccines, which the Thai government was busily blocking private hospitals from obtaining, they all had a laugh.

My favorite, here in Pattaya, is that bar girls can sit next to you, but can't dance on the bar polls. Because being 1M away from you on bar polls spreads COVID, but sitting next to you doesn't spread COVID.

With my fairly extensive experiences dealing with both private hospitals and Customs authorities in Thailand, I have far more respect for the integrity of private hospitals. Apparently you've had a different set of experiences. Quotes from the linked articles below. Maybe it's just me, but I don't think the Thai government's actions exhibit much concern for Thai citizens who were clamoring for vaccines. "Despite promises made by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha, government hurdles and red-tape have made it impossible for private hospitals to acquire vaccines on their own despite having the agency and connections to make it happen. Prayut promised in a nationally-televised address to set up a committee to help the private sector bring in vaccines to supplement the government’s effort. However, that in the two-weeks since Prime Minister Prayut made the statement there has been no change on the ground and private hospitals are still frustrated by the lack of government communication and agency on the matter. “At the moment, it is impossible for the private sector to bring in vaccines due to the government’s inaction,” said Dr Suwadee Puntpanich. Another hospital administrator at the Bangkok Dust Medical Centre said that Suwadee’s experience was shared by all other private hospital groups. “We know the market and have the contacts to make the vaccine imports happen but they can’t sell to us without a government go-ahead,” she said. “The prime minister has said that he wants private sector help but so far there has been zero communication from the Centre for COVID-19 Situation Administration or the health ministry.” “There is no timeline for when we can bring in vaccines because we simply don’t know when the government will reply to our requests,” she said. https://www.thaienquirer.com/26891/exclusive-government-inaction-blocking-private-hospital-vaccine-purchase-despite-prayut-promise/ "The Ministry of Foreign Affairs appears to have scuttled an offered donation of 3 million doses of Moderna vaccine from a government agency in Poland to a hospital in Thailand, citing the need to conduct the deal through an “appropriate” diplomatic channel. The MFA’s effort to block the shipment of the mRNA vaccines to Thailand was revealed in an internal document published by Than Setthakit newspaper on Monday." https://www.khaosodenglish.com/news/crimecourtscalamity/2021/10/25/mfa-blocks-polands-moderna-donation-to-thai-hospital/

So I have to decide who to believe on this issue; - Private hospitals, who as a block are arguably one of the most respected institutions in Thailand, or; - The government, who are so disliked and distrusted by the Thai public that they can only cling to power by re-writing the constitution giving themselves a hand picked block of friendly votes, AND outlawing rival political parties. Yes, I emphatically believe that in the middle of the worst pandemic in our lifetimes, the Thai government should have expedited import licenses for any vaccines available to Thai citizens.