khunjeff

The OP is in quarantine, not Sandbox, so it's against the law for him to leave his room, let alone go swimming.

Yes, the last few times I entered Thailand the TM6 wasn't stapled into the passport, but then CW stapled it when I went in for my extension ????

What they want to see is an update to the bankbook on the day of application to show that you haven't emptied your account. For most banks that requires a transaction of some kind, but I understand that Bangkok Bank will add a new line in the book with the current date even if there's been no change, and that seems to be fine with most immigration officers (at least at CW). As others have noted, CW will accept a bank letter issued within seven days prior to the application, and the amount shown on that letter does not have to agree with the final figure from the same-day bankbook update - mine generally doesn't, and I've never had any problem with that. It's pretty obvious that that figure is equal to the balance from the letter, plus or minus the new deposit/withdrawal. And yes, I understand that the requirement for the bankbook update is ludicrous. Apparently their fear is that you withdrew all your money as soon as you got the letter, but they don't seem to "get" that you could just as easily withdraw it all immediately after updating your book, or right after getting your extension. They'll never have absolute "proof" of anything, only "evidence".

"Merchants traditionally offer Fukubukuro in the run-up to New Year, filling them with random items and selling at a discount of 50 percent or more. The mystery bags are usually launched as a promotional gimmick to attract customers to stores, but are also a way of clearing end-of-year stock." When I've bought these overseas, the concept was always that the contents would be worth at least as much as you paid, with a small percentage containing something really good - the "mystery" aspect is that you don't know what you'll get, or whether it's something you have any desire for. Some of what I got was cool or fun and some was useless to me, but the "value" (in terms of regular sales price) was always more than I had paid. This seems to be the part that's absent from the Thai mystery boxes, which do sound a lot more like a lottery or raffle in concept.

If I worked on inspections at the airport, I would feel rather offended that he thought it was necessary to "order" me to do my job... I haven't read anywhere that doing multiple ATKs in one day makes any sense.

I've had several items repaired or replaced under warranty here - even a webcam from a tiny shop at Pantip Plaza - so perhaps it just depends on the individual company or store. Whether it's always worth the effort is another question, I guess.

I'm having the same issue. For the last year and a half or so I paid my True bill every month through their app using my foreign credit card, with no problems. Last month and this month, it gives me an error message telling me to "try again later". When I contacted True, they first told me that my card doesn't have 3D verification, and I said yes it does, and it's worked at least 18 times in a row on your site prior to this. Then they said oh, the Omise payment gateway (probably what you were referring to) is having trouble with US credit cards. But then I paid my DTAC bill online, with the same US card, going through the Omise gateway... So I don't think they actually have any idea what's going on, and since it's already been going on for over a month, it doesn't appear that they're terribly interested in trying to figure it out. The final kicker in all this is that I then tried to use their payment kiosk - which I used to use all the time - and discovered that it now won't let you pay a bill unless you insert a Thai ID card or get an OTP on a True cell number. This is probably tied to the fact that they're pushing services for their wallet on the same machine, but there certainly isn't any legal requirement to verify identity just to collect payment for services that have already been rendered. I finally went to a True Shop, where the employee inserted his own Thai ID so I could pay my bill ????

That's been my experience as well, and many companies are even fairly lax about the proof of purchase date. I had an iron stop working within the warranty period, and the call center just asked when I bought it without requiring any evidence. I paid a few hundred baht for them to pick up the old one and bring a new one (not worth actually fixing it, not surprisingly) so I wouldn't have to go to their repair center in the suburbs.

But not BTS and ARL? Which is fine, but only available to people with local bank accounts. This new system (if it really happens, as opposed to being vaporware like every other transit payment improvement announced with great fanfare over the years) could actually be very useful to tourists and other visitors as well.

No idea what the TAT's white whale of "quality tourism" has to do with any of this - just enforce the laws instead of talking about it. Thailand's "image" is irrelevant. The US will look at what they are actually doing. All of the recent stories on human trafficking brag about how many victims were arrested, which is the exact opposite of worldwide best practices in the treatment of victims. Never a good idea to speak about what was or was not "well received" by other people. Just do things properly and don't try to characterize how others are receiving your "progress". At least he's honest in saying that the reason he's doing this is to improve Thailand's ranking, not because trafficking is evil or destructive.

Note that there is no expedite fee when applying overseas - and no need for one, since passports issued to Americans abroad are printed expeditiously and typically sent to the applicant within 2-3 weeks.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me six times, well...

Every year for as long as I can remember the ministry suddenly jumps into action at this time of year to start preaching about the evils of poor quality Christmas hampers - it seems to be the one thing that snaps them to attention.

A "Thai" expression from China... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kill_the_chicken_to_scare_the_monkey

The actual NOTAM (which, incidentally, stands for Notice to Airmen, not Notice to Air Missions...) doesn't appear on the websites of the CAAT or Aerothai, but some access requires registration and a username and password, so maybe it's there but hidden. This seems to be yet another in a long series of pandemic-related publicity grabs by CAAT, since it appears to be entirely for public consumption and not for actual use by airlines. CAAT's Facebook post on the subject is about the most "official" information they've released to the masses, and it essentially says nothing other than recapping the recent news about TP and then finishing with "In this regard, CAAT has urged all airlines to inspect, scrutinize, and strictly monitor documents. including requiring the airline to notify passengers to strictly comply with such revised measures" - which is just useless blather. https://www.caat.or.th/th/archives/62138

The airlines are responsible for the check-in procedure at departing airports. The have to abide by any criteria that the destination country ask for. The very valid point that @smedlywas making is that essentially nothing has changed as far as the airlines are concerned: if you have a valid QR code from Thailand Pass (and contrary to what another poster implied, the code can easily be verified by anyone with a smartphone, no special app or software required), you can enter. The fact that Thailand has halted issuance of future Thailand Passes under Test & Go is irrelevant to a carrier looking at one that has already been issued.

All of yesterday's announcements said that there would be no cost for the second test, though of course it's entirely possible that they might end up backpedaling on that - if they can even figure out where and how thousands of people spread across the entire country can show up to be tested.

It's been reported that the budget for this project - which is essentially just a portal page with links to other sites - is just under 50 million baht, so you're probably right. Most of those are unavailable or impractical for actual tourists (i.e., people here on holiday for two weeks, not those who spend 11 months of every year here with a house and local family). Contactless bank cards are fine, but most merchants other than the very largest either don't have terminals that support tap-and-go, or don't realize that they do. This new website is not being developed or run by immigration. If you're talking about traveling from Thailand to the US and back again, there's no minimum time you need to spend there - your time in Thailand prior to the trip counts as part of the 21 days. "If I am travelling out of Thailand to stay in listed countries / territories for the duration of less than 21 days, am I eligible for the Test and Go scheme? - Yes. However, please make sure that you do not stay in non-listed countries / territories during your travel after leaving and before re-entering Thailand (except for Transit purpose); otherwise you will be ineligible for the Test and Go scheme." https://consular.mfa.go.th/th/content/thailand-pass-faqs-2

So I guess that stamp isn't such a guarantee of quality after all...

I don't believe either of these things. If they indeed found that "over 50% of investors" have crypto holdings, I suspect they're using a very narrow definition of "investor" that was chosen to lead to that result. (Later in the article it refers to "active investors", which again can mean almost anything.) As for the idea that crypto buyers are focused on changing the financial system, that's just laughable. Yes, there is a small but vocal percentage of buyers who are true believers in upending the system and sticking it to the man, but the vast majority have bought for one reason only, which is that they saw prices going up and wanted to grab a piece of that action. Period.

Not sure why the "owners' profiles" would have any effect on the price of their property, but this is Thailand...

The concern wasn't about Covid in Thailand, it was about a member of the traveling press testing positive - meaning many other people in the party, who generally all travel on the same plane, were also exposed. The report isn't clear, but it would seem that either the US side, the Thais, or both, didn't want to risk bringing potentially Covid-positive officials to high level meetings in Thailand.

Thailand Pass applications are all adjudicated in Bangkok, not by embassies and consulates, which is part of what the OP is talking about. With the COE, there was a specific local office one could contact in case of problems, and one could quickly correct any issue or missing document. With TP, there are theoretically a number of channels for seeking assistance, but most people have found that the "24/7” phones aren't answered, and emails and Facebook messages aren't acknowledged or responded to. And if an application is rejected - sometimes after a week or more - it can't be corrected, but has to be started again from scratch. Yes, I know, everyone who had their application approved in seconds will say that the system is perfect and that the fault must be with the user. But it's clear that there's an enormous (and rather baffling) degree of randomness in the process that's causing a lot of anxiety for people. My own application was approved in less than a day and a half, which was perfectly fine, but friends with virtually identical documents were desperately contacting every help line they could find when they still didn't have approval after more than a week. As usual in Thailand, many of the problems with TP were self-inflicted: rushing out a product without proper testing, and very poor management of expectations. MFA committed the cardinal sin of PR, which is over-promising and then under-delivering. TP applications will be approved in 1-3 days! (Later changed to 3-5 days, then 5-7 days, then 7 working days...) TP can be used to prove vaccination status at venues in Thailand! TP will eliminate the need to fill in arrival cards! All Test & Go PCR tests will have results in under 6 hours! If they had been more honest at the beginning, travelers might have been more forgiving of the problems that inevitably arose.

You're correct that the "RT" doesn't mean rapid, but there is nothing inherently rapid or non-rapid about the test - there are versions available (usually for a very high price) that take less than an hour that are perfectly acceptable. When I had one done in a private hospital in Bangkok as a requirement for surgery, it was in their interest to do it quickly, and the result came in under two hours. That's what they say, but a fair percentage of folks get near-instant approval, and many others - as you noted - go well beyond the 7 days with no answer. That might not be a big deal if they knew the Pass would be approved, but when it's denied after waiting over a week, the traveler has a big problem. Just to clarify, any insurance that meets the requirements is acceptable. I used my regular US medical insurance - I just asked the company for a letter summarizing the benefits and submitted that. The type of ticket needed for entry depends on the type of visa (or visa exemption) you have, and how strict your airline is at check-in (immigration itself virtually never asks to see an onward ticket) - it has no bearing on Thailand Pass. (Just for clarification, an actual round trip ticket is never required, but an onward ticket out of Thailand - to any destination - may be.) As noted above, rapid RT-PCR tests are fine. The issue is that many people see the word "rapid" and only think of Rapid Antigen Tests, which aren't fine for entry to Thailand. As Sheryl noted, and many others can attest, that definitely isn't true. No calculations or knowledge of time zones is needed. As Sheryl and others have noted, the 72 hours relates to the scheduled departure time of the FIRST flight of your journey, even if that's a short hop domestic flight. I agree that printing everything is much more sensible than trying to hand your phone back and forth to multiple people, but I can't see any reason for more than one copy - no one retains any documents, they just examine them and check them off on a list. You're right, this is totally dependent on the transit airport. Reports I've heard from Tokyo and Helsinki were very similar to yours, but when I went through Singapore Changi there were NO document checks at all - just show up at the gate with a boarding pass and get on the plane. Some of this may also depend on whether the final flight is on the same airline as the initial flight - a carrier probably wants to double check the work done by a code share partner, but may trust the inspection done by its own personnel at the origin airport. They may be recording the seat number for tracing purposes, but actually immigration had been asking incoming passengers for their boarding pass for several years prior to Covid - so this isn't a new thing. As Sheryl mentioned, this (surprisingly) isn't true at all. Mor Chana isn't a Thailand Pass app at all - it was around for a long time prior to the introduction of Thailand Pass as one of many apps designed for scanning QR codes when entering and exiting buildings and other places. Your experience was also definitely not typical in terms of how interested your hotel was in making you install and use it. Although it's technically still required, and I had installed it prior to departing the US, I was never asked about it at either the airport or my hotel - this seems to be the norm for most arrivals. (incidentally, the scanning of the TP QR code never works - I entered all my info manually.) Despite what the government and hotels keep telling people, Mor Chana does not have, and has never had, any upload functionality. Since the briefest look at the app would confirm that, I don't understand why they keep pretending otherwise and confusing the poor travelers who think they're missing something. Agreed. Contrary to what some folks keep claiming, masks are worn everywhere, by pretty much everyone. The only groups who consistently don't wear them are white male foreigners (who seemingly don't notice that literally everyone around them is masked), and very poor homeless and crazy people (no surprise there). Photos of people at restaurants without masks kind of miss the point - OF COURSE everyone takes off their masks to eat and drink. If someone wants to argue that the existence of unmasked restaurant patrons is a reason to do away with mask mandates, well, go ahead, but it's not very convincing. (As for vented masks, I believe - please correct me if I'm wrong - that they were only banned for use on board domestic flights, not for general use when out and about.)

"Sathan borigan" ('service place') refers to any establishment where "service girls" are available. That could mean nightclubs, bars, karaoke, barbershops, etc, in addition to massage parlors.