newnative

They rarely tout 'fully-vaccinated' since that figure is so embarrassingly low. So, 50% would likely be first jab only.

14 pages of posts from mostly plugged-in people on things Thailand--and mostly trying to figure out what the travel requirements are now and what they will be Nov. 1. If we're struggling to make sense of it all, imagine what the typical tourist is going through trying to figure things out. I expect quite a few are giving up and selecting a tourist destination that already has very simple requirements firmly in place--and has had them in place for some time. A trip to Thailand would be a major event for most typical tourists--and something that would be planned months in advance--hard to do that with Thailand's ever-changing and complicated requirements. The KISS (keep it simple, stupid) poster had it spot on. Or just KIS since Thailand seems to love 3-letter acronyms.

What's to not understand. Couldn't be simpler. You said discounts for locals is, I quote, 'largely a Thai thing'. It's not. The examples I gave were all discounts for locals so not 'consequently wrong'.

Yes, they are.

Had to chuckle a bit at your post. I'm an American and whenever I bought a new car in the US the sales guy would usually just make a copy of my drivers license and then throw me the keys to take my own test drive, alone. "Give it a spin and take your time". Fast forward to Thailand and our Honda CR-V sales experience was much like yours. I was shocked that we could not even take a test drive. I told my Thai partner, hey we are spending more for a new car than we have ever spent in our lives, don't you want to at least test drive it? No, I don't need to and they don't want us to. In reality, I don't think they were too happy about us even SITTING in the car. The sales girl seemed to wince when we touched the door handles, opened the doors, and got in. You would think it was her personal car. And, no, I don't think we were allowed to turn anything on, either. Partner didn't seem to mind as much as I did; we wanted the CR-V and that's what we got. Been very satisfied with the car and it perfectly fits our needs but the sales experience could use some work. Had the CX-8 been available when we bought we might have considered that, too. We wanted the third row of seats and the CX-5 didn't have them.

What's to 'Eh?'. This has already been discussed to death. Discounts for locals is not 'largely a Thai thing', as you claim. If you go camping in a state park in Pennsylvania, in the US, PA residents pay one charge and non-residents pay a higher charge. That's dual pricing. In Virginia, and many other states, local state residents pay less to go to a state college than non-local residents. And, foreign students pay even more. That's triple pricing. Seniors often get discount prices--even though many are well-off. More dual pricing. Often local amusements and attractions will have a local price and a non-local price. Disney World in Florida, for example, has a discount pass for Florida residents. Dual pricing. In America, if you go to a concert at a college or university, the students likely got a student discount on their tickets. Non-students usually pay more. Dual pricing. Several other posters have given examples of dual pricing in countries other than Thailand. It's not 'largely a Thai thing'.

Total lack of imagination with this rather awkward slogan; must have taken all of 5 minutes to come up with it. Let's see what red tape they get rid of.

I'm not going to lose any sleep worrying about a developer 'gobbling up' rooms to get a majority. I do agree that the vote to dissolve a condo project should not be unanimous, but rather 75 or 80%. These days you'd be hard pressed to get 100% to agree on what day of the week it is.

How much will rent, water, electricity, phone, etc. run you monthly in Oz? I'm not Australian so I have no idea but usually keeping a roof over your head is your biggest monthly expense and it is very cheap to do that in Pattaya, especially with the low rents these days. What would 10,000 baht get you in Oz for a rental at a beach city? I imagine some of the other things on your list--smoking, travel, cinema, boyfriend/girlfriend, etc. would also cost as much or more in Oz--and probably also things like eating out. I know, as an American, that if I were on a very tight budget in Thailand and having to live frugally due to only a small pension I would be in even worse shape trying to do that in the US.

'...discount for locals...' is quite common in the US and certainly not '...largely a Thai thing...'.

Ok, opinions. My partner and I live in Pattaya but we have a bkk getaway condo. In my opinion you do not need to spend 8-10 MB for a bkk condo close to the subway. In early 2020 we paid 6MB for a fully-furnished 52 sqm condo on the 37th floor of a very nice condo project just a 2 minute walk to the Phetchaburi MRT. I think we got a good buy--and good buys are out there. The condo project was finished in 2013 and has about all the amenities you could want, as well as very ample garage parking. At around 500 units, it's not too big or too small. I would avoid new mega projects with the majority of the units studios and small 1 bedrooms of 25 to 35sqm. These projects lend themselves to becoming magnets for short-term illegal daily renters. My project has no studios; the smallest unit in my project is 42sqm and most are 48 to around 100 sqm. Slightly older projects can offer good value and larger room sizes. If it is a higher-end project it is likely to be maintained decently; a project with some years on it should also offer clues as to how it is being maintained. These projects might also have a better ratio of owner-occupied units. My final opinion is regarding condo shuttles. The first bkk condo we bought was 900 meters from the MRT. Far, but the project would have a shuttle. (It was a new project we bought off-plan.) Project finishes, we move in and, indeed, there was a shuttle. But, almost always the shuttle schedule did not correspond to our schedule--it was geared to residents going to work in the morning and coming home in the evening. When we were ready to go out the shuttle was not running and when we got back we would have to wait at the MRT station for the next run--which was often a long wait. We didn't like trying to match our schedule, usually unsuccessfully, to the shuttle schedule. We sold that condo--at a small profit--and bought as close to the station as we could get on our budget. An added plus to this location for us is the relatively short walk to the Airport Link.

My partner and I noticed this construction fence has gone up, as well. Seems to be a quite large piece of property with an old low-rise hotel and some shops on it. Definitely a prime location and it will be interesting to see what is built on it. This part of Pattaya, already one of the most desirable areas of the city with Dusit, Holiday Inn, Amari, Northshore and others, really jumped up a few notches more when T21 and Grand Centre Point 1 arrived. Grand Centre Point 2 and Akara will only add to that, as did Mytt Hotel and the new Amari Suites. As I've said before, it's interesting to note that all this new, nice development is about as far from Walking Street as you can get and still be on or near Pattaya Beach.

We have the current CR-V AWD model and have not had to change the tires every year. We just changed the tires this week for the first time after having the car for 3 years.

My partner and I have a CR-V and love it. We have the current model type. It is very comfortable, good acceleration, very stable, easy in and out, not too big and not too small. We love that it easily swallows up anything we buy--usually with room to spare. The rear doors open very wide. Great for trips--we had a very nice driving trip to Phuket and have driven it several times to CM--where we loaded it up with treasures we found. Have not had any problems. We will likely buy the next generation when it comes out.

Thank you! I thought his post was ludicrous, as well.

I agree. It was nice to have the views out the windows--my partner and I always tried to snag a window table. Now the ugly parking garage will be blocking them. Pity the ugly eyesore fronts so prominently on North Pattaya Road and wasn't tucked away on the side street.

I don't think Pattaya was getting 35 million tourists a year. pre-covid. Various figures are bandied about. The mayor says Pattaya had 15 million visitors in 2019. Mastercard says around 9 million plus--that might be international visitors. One other source I can't remember said 19 million. I think the 15 million and 19 million estimates would be both international and domestic visitors.

Pretty simple lessons to be learned. There will be no tourists until there is no quarantine anywhere and all those 3 letter hoops are canned--starting with COE and SHA.

Feet must be very sore from kicking that can down the road since 2017.

Just a reminder that the majority of the visitors to Pattaya in 2019 did not fly 'half-way around the world' to visit. They took shorter plane rides from China, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Korea, Japan, and other Asian countries. And, a large number, domestic visitors, took no plane ride at all. It will be interesting to see how things go once Thailand and Pattaya fully open up.

With apologies to Yogi Berra, if nobody's coming anyway why not make it easy for them? Have just one requirement: fully vaccinated.

Phuket was not really 'open'. Few came because the requirements were both too many and too difficult. Few will come to the rest of Thailand either until there is no quarantine and no curfew anywhere and the only requirement is to be fully vaccinated.

Yes.

Lake Mabprachan (also a reservoir) in the northern part of the Darkside has added a very nice paved walking and biking trail that runs along the lake. In addition to the park already there, they are currently improving another area near Flowerland that highlights a large pond. Lots more parking is being added with new lighting and the road is also being improved. Very popular on weekends and in the evenings with both Thais and expats.

I think a lot of the tours spend 3 or 4 days in Bangkok and a couple of days in Pattaya, with one of the Pattaya days often being a boat trip.