aussienam

I do believe that a decent percentage of tourism to Thailand was by single guys ('single' termed loosely) seeking a holiday with sex. Ever since the US turned places like Pattaya into an R&R spot for soldiers in the Vietnam conflict, sex tourism blossomed. Without the sex tourists Thailand's tourism industry was still probably significant. Personally I have no sympathy for the many thousands of Thai prostitutes who chose that life and now face facts of life of actual hard work. Arguments that these women (and other gender) had no choice is a rubbish excuse. There are millions of women working in normal industries who are in exactly the same situation as most Thai prostitutes (have a kid, abandoned by the father, etc). Yes pay is low. They predominantly have tight knit family networks so support each other. Thai prostitutes too often have scammed and ruined men, were (and still are) sponsored, with very lucrative monthly incomes by idiotic foreigners who pay more than they really need, but give very little in return (other than sexual services - rest of the time playing on their phones and not lifting a finger, whilst developing a very unhealthy and unhelpful narcissistic sense of entitlement - many turning into fat, unattractive snobs - Westernized). Thai men utilize prostitutes as they have for hundreds of years or more. But they don't treat these women like princesses that foreigner men often do (white knight syndrome). Bring it on! Decimate the red light areas of Thailand such as Pattaya and transform them into whatever Thailand wants. I couldn't care less. Maybe forcing the women into functional humans with more aspirations than scoring it rich by riding thousands of men day and night, and restoring some dignity. Farang tourists seeking a sexual release will travel elsewhere. Farangs who reside in Thailand for the convenient pay for sex culture, will move to another country or even address their sex addictions!!!!

Are people coming in on OA, O and other non-tourist visas getting counted as tourists? And of those actual tourists arriving, how many had pre-booked on the hope that the entertainment and alcohol serving establishments would all be up and running by December? It's going to be a very very dry and boring holiday for many traveling anywhere other than the very few places allowing serving of alcohol. The only option for many will be a 7-11 bought bottle of alcohol in your hotel room or taking the risk of arrest and fines and drinking in one of the covertly operated bars/restaurants.

The information regarding certain vaccines not being recognized in many countries has been published and reported on for many months now. I would be surprised if Thai citizens were not already aware of this and those who wanted to travel therefore held off to get Astra Zeneca or Pfizer. Unfortunately, many had no choice but the Chinese made vaccines. There are countries that recognize Sinovac and it seems that there is an increasing trend to accept it. Interestingly China has made it very difficult to allow travellers to enter China without their Chinese made vaccines (obviously a Chinese CCP tantrum face saving tactic, as the data is well and truly in that their vaccines are not as efficacious as Western and Russian vaccines).

People can speculate why Thai officials seem to only spot check incoming foreigners for funds- based on appearances of destitution/poverty, etc. But the law clearly states you need that 20,000 Baht or equivalent in cash. Around $1000 Aussie dollars. I carry just that amount or have 20,000 Thai Baht stuffed in an envelope ready for the return trip. I can get a far better exchange rate with Transfer Wise online exchange than any transfer booth in Thailand, so for those with a Thai bank account, it may be much wiser to transfer the rest of your funds that way and just keep that minimum cash requirement for immigration. Withdrawing from an ATM at an airport firstly attracts pretty poor exchange rates from overseas banks and secondly there are posts from the past of stories from foreigners refused to be allowed to use ATMs when they have been found to be short of funds, and refused entry. So don't rely on that theory IMO. Yes, you may have gotten away with it for years, but immigration have been known to be fickle. But ... up to you!!!

I agree customers would know there is a risk of getting caught and face around 20,000 Baht donation, but unless they have psychic abilities and can read minds, are master sleuths, then to think that most would be able to determine if they had been caught by police, due to an inside arrangement with a bar owner, or someone else somehow connected to the bar/establishment is a very big stretch. If the scam was done properly, the owner would appear dumbfounded, shocked etc, and the police would not let on with the arrangement. Easy to pull that off. I think one would have to be quite naive to think that this does not occur. Of course if the scam was not pulled off the right way and someone saw a police nodding to someone or saying something, etc then yes a punter would guess something was awry.

"The most common problems also included entering the wrong email address, resulting in the failed delivery of the QR Code. TPN media notes that, overall, the Thai government did not say that there was any blame or fault on their end for the delay of QR codes, but blamed nearly the entire issue on user error." Wow! So, according to this media report, the Thai government is blaming most applicants for being too incompetent to complete the online application! That's a lot of incompetent people! Must be a foreigner thing - many "stupid farangs". This is ridiculous. If there is such a high failure rate, accompanied by scores of complaints online, then obviously there are serious programming flaws, and poor design issues. Externalising blame is only for a face- saving exercise IMO. Let's all be serious here - an application system requiring uploading of documents should always have the ability to accept a variety of file formats. A competent programmer could easily do this. To only allow .jpeg format? Wow! PDF format is arguably the most commonly used format for documents. It has been used now for decades!! Use of jpeg image files for photographic evidence, but both file formats should be allowed regardless. And other formats should be allowed as well. Government recipients surely have the relevant software installed on their computers to open various file formats to check the contents. To expect people to have to convert their PDF and other file formatted documents to jpeg format only, has and is causing much angst and stress to the many regular and non-tech savvy people who have never had to use file conversion software. There are freeware (free downloadable versions with no need to register for a 'trial version'), but many who are not savvy, will inevitably end up paying for expensive software conversion programs online to try to convert their documents. Google search engine results will always fill their front page results with advertisers and web links to companies who charge high prices for their software. Only savvy will scroll to find free versions. Retirees and other older non-computer savvy generations will inevitably be ripped off again this way. Added stress to the whole process all because of a .jpeg requirement!! Sad and very disappointing.

True, it amazes me why there are expats here who love to let everyone know how wealthy they are. It's all chest beating, ego pumping, attention seeking from narcissist w*****s.

Not all the raids are publicized. I know of a few now that never got mention by media. Those arrested were eventually persuaded to pay anywhere from 5000 THB (owner knows right people) to 20,000 THB each. Some of those premises are back to serving alcohol in clandestine fashion. I have also heard of one bar owner who convinced her customers that the BIB would not raid her bar due to her connections. Lo and behold, the BIB arrived later and fined everyone with rumors the bar owner got a cut of the takings (this last one may or may not be true, but the cynic in me is thinking it may be true). Maybe other bars do this too and pretend it was just bad luck to their arrested customers, but get to have another form of profit taking on the side. Hence these customers are being set up by the owners. You have to think, if the bar has been busted, who would keep serving and selling alcohol to customers - the cat is out of the bag so to speak. Very suspicious if it continued IMO. Scumbag owners and hoodwinked customers.

Exactly. Hence why so many Thais absolutely hate a lot of foreigners - and I don't blame many of them when faced with this stereotyped 'whoremongerer farang' who just sees Thailand and Thai women as his source of sex meat. The cash flashing, self entitled, selfish, patronizing, degrading, superiority complex-filled low moralled sociopaths.

Sounds like a boring holiday for people to come to Thailand when no bars, clubs etc open. Part of the holiday experience is relaxing, having a few drinks and enjoying the atmosphere. A huge demographic just won't come. Families, non-drinkers and others wishing for sight-seeing tours etc may come, which I suppose is a start. But I doubt many will. When will the government relax and open up the nightlife? We surely must be heading towards 70%+ vaccination targets soon?

Because they are considered expendable and easily replaceable underclass cheap labour in this woefully degrading class tier wealth-poverty system. Their deaths are not uncommon and will not make news headlines. The wealthy elite can sit smug in their condos looking out at their views in ignorant bliss of those who may have perished. Rinse and repeat all over South East Asia and other third world countries.

Thought provoking topic. Live within your means is always the general rule. Your thoughts on shifting to spending exuberance and generous 'bell ringing' will depend on your economic situation. Many of us on low-tiered strict budget income streams literally cannot afford to ring bells, buy show-off cars and bikes and eat at expensive restaurants. Wealthy expats can and live great lives here, make lots of friends as a result, get the prettiest gold digging women, and have the latest and greatest material items to display and gloat to others. Pattaya is full of 'show ponies' wanting to advertise how great they are because they are rich (not all wealthy of course behave like this). Ringing the bell can be a great ego boost for them as they display their virtuousness and generosity and win admiration by others (they think). Others like the poor of us have to skulk in the corners hoping this attention caused won't then result in a setback in our budget as we feel morally inclined to reciprocate a bell-ring round of drinks to random strangers who don't give a damn about you in reality. Then a week or two or three of only 50 baht noodle soup as a result.

I agree. 400,000 Baht is too low considering what the hospitals charge farangs. And yes, the 40,000 baht out-patient cover is just a cash-cow excuse to force us to have to take out a ridiculously insane two insurance policies, that overlap each other with the same cover. Agents, insurers and government a win-win there.

Fair call. True. Add to the list. Plenty of scumbag farangs here with criminal pasts and ongoing criminality enjoying the fruits of their crimes here. Plenty have boasted to me in drunken rants how clever they were. I Don't feel sorry if scum are caught.

I've ran into a few farang overstaying knuckleheads who just live with an attitude of dismissiveness and denial. Delaying the inevitable unless they can sort it out somehow. Digging deeper, I discover they are hopelessly lost, pathetic souls, desperately not wanting to face reality of going back to their homes. Add alcoholism and other substance abuses as well as some form of mental disorder and that generally fits the profile. Is quite sad actually as they would have to be always checking over their shoulder.

Maybe that Thai K-pop superstar set to get a nice portion of the 200,000,000 THB performance fee for her NYE show may be able to save one of the downtrodden. Wishful thinking of course.

I wonder when all is said and done and everything opens again, all these long-time alcoholic expats will emerge free of the demon drink and sexual addictions (other than the desperate 7-11 daily takeaway drinkers). May be quite a few less terminally ill patrons adverse to temptation sporting flitting bellies and fuller bank balances.

Agreed. To change to another country at a whim for many is expensive and often financially unachievable. Those of us on the lower-economic scale have far less options. Thailand was the pick of a few places thought about mainly based on cost of living. It can be a one-way commitment for many, rightly or wrongly, even foolishly, it is the truth. Plenty burn their bridges to get here. Once here, life's problems fester. And the perhaps idyllic vision of what Thailand should be like hits hard when reality bites. I don't love Thailand, but I don't hate it either. Wealthier people have a far better ability to change their situation if it does not suit them, hence they can be happier.

Thank you. I do believe the vaccine helped reduce the severity of my COVID infection. That is based off the list and severity of symptoms for unvaccinated compared to those who have been. There is plenty of data now to compare the two that I have read up on. I do believe the scientists have developed something effective, albeit not perfect. I got the virus from a shop I attended where the staff were at the time unknowingly infected. I was alerted and the time period for incubation and subsequent symptom development made it likely it was the source. The airborne studies of the COVID virus show it does not remain active for too long out of a host. Unless in a confined space, the parts-per-million of COVID virus antigens will quickly dissipate to make it very unlikely to remain active long enough to find another host and it will soon become inactive.

When the place opens the virus will spread. More humans congregating in close proximity means it's guaranteed. Vaccination rates have hit/will hit the acceptable limit by opening. Those who didn't want the vaccine then up to them. It is inevitable that everyone will get COVID. I got infected with it (vaccinated as well) and it hit me hard in the lungs. Glad I had the vaccines to mitigate the symptoms and possibly save my life. It's not like a regular flu. But, we need to accept to live with the gift from Wuhan virus. If the government keep closing things back down because of outbreaks, they are just delaying the inevitable. And with most people vaccinated it means those vaccinated are much less likely to need hospitalisation and overwhelming hospital capacities. Keeping the bars perpetually closed is also blatantly unfair, when there are certain premises being allowed to run, that lots of people know about, where those owners are making many thousands of Baht profits a day and everyone else getting nothing, going broke and suicidal from financial stress, or being fined and jailed if they try to do the same.

I have the COVID expat insurance (plus I had to get a visa to comply with the retirement visa insurance - overlapped cover and useless, waste of money but had no choice) so I could get back to Thailand. Covered if hospitalised for COVID. I got the vaccines. Later I got infected with COVID. My symptoms not severe enough to be hospitalised (although getting close a few times - it really hits your lungs - thankfully I don't smoke or I would have had big problems), so home isolation for 14 days in a totally unsuitable premise that is a total sweat box and no community support. My insurance would not cover me for Hospitel (Hospital supported Hotel) cover, only for hospital admission. I do not believe you will find any insurance covers Hospitel cover. It is out of pocket. The hospital dealing with me told me they could arrange for me to be re-accommodated into a Hospitel if I wanted to. I cannot afford that luxury at farang prices. So I just sit here convalescing in home isolation.

This type of article projects an attitude of snobbery and wealth-shaming of people surviving on lower-income tiers. Words to the effect, "we don't want your type here", "you're not welcome here", unless you show the money. Doesn't make you feel like wanting to come and spend here IMO.

If we are going to speculate on what happened, then another theory could be that the armed intruder believed the girlfriend (accused person's wife) had stolen the money and he believed it was in the house. That would go towards a possible motive for the robbery.

Never rely solely on a confession if it can be helped. In a court hearing the defence may argue it was a forced confession, etc and there is the risk of it being ruled out as evidence. It is always prudent to get statements and other evidence. Happens in Western courts (signed confessions ruled inadmissible).

To be fair there are similar cases like this around the world, including Western countries. Police may opt to charge an accused in absence of evidence of reasonable self-defence, found by further investigations and let the courts work out the truth. Further evidence of self defence may arise from completed forensic evidence coupled with the accused person's and witnesses versions of events if they corroborate. It seems based only on this media report (which often can misquote or be absent of the full evidence at hand), that the accused person's account of events fell short of justifiable self-defence. The police didn't buy his version of events (Was it 'overkill' - pun intended, or was there bad blood between these two? Something the police know more about?). Defence argument - Even if the accused continued to assault the now deceased person beyond what was reasonably neccessay - i.e. when there was no longer determined to be an imminent threat, there is the argument of subjectiveness and what the accused person's frame of mind was versus an objective standpoint. I dare say as a wild guess, the accused had adrenaline surging through his system, his perception of threat was still highly elevated beyond the danger having ceased, he was in shock, extreme anger, blind rage, protective, etc. These are often good defence arguments leading to an overturning of a conviction, or at least to mitigate intent and help to reduce the period of incarceration/freedom. Or it could go the other way. I don't believe this is a targeted xenophobia-based arrest (I hope). Just my opinion.