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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?

On 6/3/2022 at 4:27 PM, webfact said:

Covid-19 infections could reach ten thousand within 5 days after entertainment venues reopen, Public Health Minister estimates

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

26 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Why are many of us in Thailand?

Because we can be happy boys. Play with the girls, get drunk, have fun, and no stupid feminists who ruin the day.

Another reason is that the law enforcement is underdeveloped. Riding too fast, without helmet, with too loud bikes, it mostly not a big problem.

 

Personally I am not a fan of Harleys. But l like good sounding engines and I understand when guys with little bikes makes their bikes louder to feel like the big guys with the big bikes.

 

Come on, live and let live. Enjoy one of the places on earth where we can still have a lot of fun with not too many restrictions. For guys who love laws and rules maybe Singapore is a better place to live.

 

 

Ditto 

4 hours ago, lopburi3 said:

But how many such lawsuits are made?  A handful at most - a fraction of the slip and fall suits of our motherland.

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.

8 minutes ago, Mac Mickmanus said:

It sounds like the USA and Thailand have different laws, rules and regulations.

   How weird is that ?

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.

14 hours ago, lopburi3 said:

This must be a joke if you are talking legal lawyer shysters.  The USA has that title now and forever.  Thailand does not even come close.

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. 

22 hours ago, webfact said:

following the recent drop in daily infections

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. 

9 hours ago, Jingthing said:

Being American I have very specific biases as to what makes a very good or gourmet burger and I'm not even close to a burger fanatic. The source of the meat is only one aspect of many. 

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

8 hours ago, Jingthing said:

Just what I was thinking before I read your post. I'd prefer FIVE GUYS but I haven't eaten at the Shack and it sounds pretty good. As things stand, living in Pattaya, I don't really eat burgers. Won't go to the McDs or BK and don't really trust the "premium" local places. But I would try Shack although I see for now Bangkok only. 

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

18 hours ago, webfact said:

Today, though, all sorts of troubles are coming into the region and they are more complicated and difficult to handle

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.

3 hours ago, Hanuman2547 said:

As Mr. Heinecke is a Thai citizen, I wonder why he didn't submit his letter to the PM in Thai?

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. 

8 hours ago, webfact said:

This makes one wonder why such incidents in Thailand are so ubiquitous? Why so many women, who fall victim to rape, are still afraid to report to the police? Why is it so difficult to hold these well-respected public figures accountable for their wrongdoing?

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

1 hour ago, John Drake said:

I don't follow all these changes that closely. But don't you still need the Thai Pass, and doesn't that require reserving a hotel room overnight? I guess you can pass the hotel. But the money is still gone, right?

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.

1 hour ago, sandyf said:

I see it now, you are having a laugh.

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. 

1 hour ago, sandyf said:

Do you really believe that ANY government has concern for citizens that choose private over the government facilities.

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/

7 hours ago, sandyf said:

Who do you think provided the info to the media, the government or the private hospitals.

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. 

8 hours ago, sandyf said:

Do you you really think that under the circumstances the government would have gone out of their way to expedite an import licence for the private hospitals

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.