sjaak327

1 hour ago, connda said:

At that point the vast majority of the population will have anti-bodies within a few weeks and then the cases drop to negligible and perhaps we get back to normal again. 

Yeah, that will work, antibodies seem to be pretty useless  know several people who got infected with the same variant twice in a few months. The natural immunity crowd still haven't gotten the message.

7 hours ago, KhaoYai said:

 

Prey tell how those with 'half a brain' could easily handle that?

That is obvious, we seem to be going in circles, by not booking any onward travel until you are sure you test negative. Why is everything so difficult these days ?

4 hours ago, KhaoYai said:

You're missing my point - as have several other posters.  Pre-covid, thousands of travellers will have visited Thailand for the first time - far less will do so at the moment but a good proportion of them are still likely be first timers with no knowledge of Thai ways. You have to take your 'connected to Thailand' hat off and put yourself in their shoes.

 

I met a group of first time German tourists on my last trip - they were very disappointed.

 

I would guess that the majority of real tourists will definitely not be staying in Bangkok but will be moving on as soon as they are allowed. Are they not entitled to believe the official flyer that states 6 hours?  In all honesty, as a first timer sitting in your home, planning your holiday, would you expect your stay in quarantine to be more than double the stated time or would you book your onward travel based on an official statement?

 

Most people here don't seem to be able to see this as a genuine tourist would.

 

As for your statement that you have never had a problem 'booking on the fly' - remember that Thailand has tradtionally attracted a high number of backpackers, budget tourists and students on gap years.  These people often use buses to get around - it can be extremely difficcult to book a bus or a sleeper train around Songkran.  Even with domestic flights, if you leave it until the last minute, you're either going to be out of luck or have to pay a much higher price.

You keep missing the point that travel as existed pre-covid is not back, there are currently additional hurdles, one of which is a one day quarantine in a sha hotel awaiting the test results. Waiting a bit longer is not the end of the world, what happens if the test is positive could potentially be financially devastating and this is what prevent travellers from going to Thailand. It is not the test, nor waiting time, which is easily handled by anyone with half a brain. It is the potential of being sent to some hospital that is what keeps people away. And in typical Thai fashion, even the touted change to ATK in May does not addtess this issue. Your complaint about test turnout time is laugable compared to the potential consequences of testing positive.

3 hours ago, KhaoYai said:

Well no, it wasn't but people do book onward travel - I am refering to normal tourists remember and they are staying for a sert amount of time. What else can they do?  I booked my onward travel in advance and I got the last room available at my chosed hotel - believe it or not, some areas of Thailand are very busy with domestic tourism, especially at weekends.  If you don't know a country, its neither sensible nor cost effective to book travel on the hoof.

 

Why would anyone who knows nothing about Thailand think that they should ignore a written instruction that test 'the hospital partner MUST report the results within 6 hours'?

Booking onward travel on the fly has always worked just fine for me, even around Songkran. To me booling ahead makes no sense and loses flexibility. This is Thailand, yes test results MIGHT come back within 6 hours (mine within 4.5 hours) and sometimes take considerably longer. Do not travel to Thailand if you expect them to adhere to a promise, go elsewhere. 

17 hours ago, KhaoYai said:

???? I don't understand where you're coming from.  The test I'm refering to is the test you do on arrival in Thailand under the Test & Go scheme.  You do of course (at the moment) have to provide a negative test before you fly.  There is always a chance that anyone can test positive and their proposed holiday be wrecked - if nobody was going to take that chance, there would be no tourism at all.

 

I don't see how that relates to my post though.

It relates to your remark about timely test turnout time and booking onward travel. If the test is positive  you won't travel anywhere but the hospital or a quarantine hotel. Surely this was obvious...

On 4/7/2022 at 8:52 PM, spidermike007 said:

No, tourists will not accept all that nonsense. And that is why they are not coming, nor do they plan to come. Likely under 100,000 a month, in real numbers.

 

And those developers around Sukhumvit are going to lose a fortune. 

Those are condos, not geared towards tourists. 

On 4/4/2022 at 8:53 PM, KhaoYai said:

So how long is one night? 6, 8, 10 hours? Or the 13 hours I waited? The flyer says the 'Hospital Partner must report the result within 6 hours' - am I to ignore that? I don't how long a night is at your house but in mine it certainly isn't 13 hours. 

 

Travellers are required to book one night in a hotel and they must wait in their room for the result. What if you arrive after midnight? Does that mean you have to book the next night?

 

Test & Go has been running since November and its become widely accepted that you are free to go as soon as your results are in. Last time I stayed at that hotel, I arrived in the afternoon and was in a bar having a drink with a mate by 8.30pm.  The only difference was that the hotel has changed the 'Hospital Partner' and I suspect they did that in order to make more profit.

 

The Thai government issues rules, puts them in the Royal Gazette but it seems, forgets to instruct the hotels on the content of such rules - the hotel had never seen the 6 hour stipulation. Likewise on my previous visit, nobody told me where I could get my Day 7 PCR and on this trip I was simply handed an ATK with no instructions whatsoever.  Does the Thailand Pass approval give instructions on what to do next? Is there a list of testing sites on the MorChana App? That is, assuming you can get the damned thing to work in the first place.

 

Having connections to Thailand and reading this forum throughout the pandemic, I had a rough idea where to find a hospital that could accommodate the Day 7 PCR and I knew what to to with the ATK this time.............how many tourists would know those things? The whole Test & Go thing is a cock up and has been from the start. The only thing the Thai government is good at is turning what should be a quite simple process into a minefield.

 

People on holiday don't want to be spending hours trying to get information and they should be able to rely on the times given for their test results.  Remember, a great many tourists don't stay in Bangkok, they head off for other provinces or the islands. Are they not enitled to rely on the information given and book any onward travel accordingly?

 

Should they, possibly never having been to Thailand before, know that its likley their PCR test will take double the time stipulated?  My hotel told me when I arrived that it would be 12 hours - I showed them the flyer that stipulated 6 hours and they had some form of discussion about it - I don't know the outcome as I had to go for my test. I did tell them though, that I expected my results within 6 hours and I checked with them every hour after that.

 

Just try putting yourself in a tourist's shoes for a moment and forget what you have gleaned from this site. Most genuine tourists will never have heard of Asean Now.

 

The whole of Asia is slowly re-opening - if Thailand wants to regain its share of the tourist market, its going to have to get its ducks in a row.  I suspect that as with so many things - everything will change now and any forward thinking country will find it fairly easy to deprive Thailand of a fair proportion of the market.

 

They talk of attracting wealthy tourists - they couldn't even run a school trip.

Whilst I do agree with some of the points you are making, tourists making advance bookings, without knowing the test results aren't very bright. There is still some chance that your advance booking will not be enjoyed because you test positive. 

People should adapt and not whinge about being unable to make advanced bookings, that's a fact of life under test and go, because you won't be released so to speak if the test does not return negative. An easily understood concept. 

1 hour ago, OneMoreFarang said:

I guess then you should go for holiday in a first world country. Or maybe stay at home in the first world.

I only wonder why you considered at all to visit a third world country. Did you expect any better in Thailand?

We can always hope that service levels increase over time. Was it a surprise they haven't gone up in the 2,5 years i couldn't or wouldn't go, no. 

But if Thailand wants to succesfully re-open for mass tourism, this Test and Go program needs to be vastly improved. 

The most shocking wss the low number of people waiting for processing at immigration at 12.15 pm  almost no people where there. Not a good sign to say the least.

1 hour ago, robblok said:

Look its quite simple, normal does not exist anymore. We are still in a recovering phase. Things are not back to normal. Anyone traveling should understand this and I think most people do understand this. 

 

If you booked solo travel and they pick you up in a group you got all the rights to complain agree 100%.

They did pick me up solo, but went from Bkk airport to Rama 4 and back to lat krabang to test and back to bkk  just because of sheer incompetence of the driver, nothing to do with pandemic, some things actually never change here..

37 minutes ago, kno77 said:

Belgium doesn't follow this advice. So no tourists from that list get into Belgium. Germany decided to block all Japanese and Korean tourists because these countries block German tourists. A bit confusing because the list is an advice not a decisive action from all EU member states. 

Well.. unless they re-introduced the border checks they have been running from end of march until half of may, whatever tourists arrive in any of the member states technically could enter Belgium as well via the land borders. A lot of this is politics or so it seems. 

1 hour ago, vinny41 said:

Tourists will only come when they know that they can come on a certain date and leave on a certain date, at the moment that is not possible anywhere in the world.

How many of the hard core TVF members that refused to wear a mask under any circumstances would be willing to wear a mask and pratice social distancing in return for no quarantine I think you will find the hard core  no mask will still continue with their stance of no mask.

As for Europe my understanding is there over 1 million people in lockdown at the moment in a number of different regions

Curfews are taking place in Turkey and Serbia. uk lockdown leicester

How many TVF members are prepared to accept a 2nd lockdown for 4 or more months in returned for no quarantine 

Well, I would certainly be prepared to wear a mask, in fact in Germany, a mask is mandatory, not only in public transportation, but also in shops, Belgium is going the same way. I do not think it is a matter of being prepared, it is mandatory, no discussion. 

There might certainly be a few countries in lockdown in Europe, but I was talking about the EU, and as far as I know all the lockdown there have come to an end. 

And travel to the EU is allowed, as long as you come from a low risk country, a list that Thailand currently is part of. 

It is easy for him to say, he still has a job... Of course judging from his remarks, I believe he is making connections that aren't there. The US for instance, didn't flare back up because of foreign tourists, but because the various state and federal governments have utterly failed to contain the virus in the first place. Foreign tourists are not the cause of the spike there.

It is pretty easy, considering the fact that the whole tourism industry is on it's back in Thailand, it certainly is worth the risk. Hoping that "domestic tourism" is going to make up for the huge losses is a pipe dream, never going to happen. In case he hasn't noticed, there are a few million Thais that are out of a job, and continue to be jobless, unless tourism is allowed to restart again. It is pretty simple, the EU is allowing certain tourists in at the moment, and that is what Thailand should do as well, tourists from "low risk countries" and with social distancing already in place, the risk of a massive resurgence is tiny. In fact the EU has 're-opened" since about six to seven weeks already and there are no sign of significant spikes in number of cases. It can be done, and in my view it should be done, six more months without tourists is something that will hurt the Thai economy as a whole, or in this case, the cure could be well worse than the disease. But I understand, it is easy for him to say, he still has a salary. 

1 minute ago, JensenZ said:

They think that opening up will facilitate an influx of tourists? Where will they come from?

Nobody says an influx will come, however logic has it that something is always higher than zero. 

1 hour ago, Ronaldd said:

Repeat after me, COVID19 came from Wuhan China. They could have kept it within its borders , but they made the designation to infect the world. I agree with you about Trump. As far as Biden he called Trump a racist for closing the border. If Biden was President their would be 500,000 dead and rising fast. We would not be having this conversation if it was not for the Wuhan Virus, better known as Covid19. Believe what you want but those are the facts

there is absolutely no proof whatsoever for your claim, in fact countries like Germany, that have never initiated a useless travel ban from one country only, has done way way better than the us. In such a way that the US  has more than three times more deaths per 1 million then Germany. It is pretty certain that with Biden as president the number of deaths in the US would be far lower than they are now. Probably less than 50.000. Keep drinking the cool aid, the figures point a completely different picture,,,

12 minutes ago, Srikcir said:

A defense might be made that under Thai laws, he is not a convicted criminal. Clearly, the Thai Constitution applies the Thai rule of law to Thai citizens. What crimes he committed with time served outside of Thailand under another nation's rule of law should be "beyond the pale." 

Oh the irony. I would have thought that being a criminal under Thai law does not really carry much weight. But a convicted crimial under a true justice system should carry quite a bit of more weight ????

7 hours ago, Chelseafan said:

no MP or minister can serve office if they have a criminal record

 

Am I missing the bleedin obvious here ? Why is he still an MP? How did he get to be an MP in the first place.

 

 

Good question, answer is that the law just applies to the opposition... Is it just me, or did they drag their feet with this case, as we already knew this a long time ago. Apparently there is a difference in prosecution speed between the opposition and the coalition partners as well....

39 minutes ago, Ronaldd said:

The 40,000 were American citizens trapped in Wuhan. Between Jan 1 and Jan 31 400,000  Chinese flew into America from China. Trump started the travel ban Jan 31 and was called a racist by Dementia Joe Biden for doing it. Why did China ban all domestic flights in and out of Wuhan? Why did China Allow international flights OUT of Wuhan and most went to America ? Not to hard to figure out what the Chinese were doing . Infecting the world, especially the USA. They knew it would destroy the number #1 economy in the world. At the expense of the rest of the world

The "number one economy of the world" has been brought down by it's own idiotic president, who did nothing when it mattered. Stop blaming the Chinese for the incompetence of Donald Trump. Repeat after me, in April when the weather gets warmer, the disease will magically disappear. 116.000 deaths and counting. You can call Joe biden whatever you want, but he cannot possibly do worse than Trump, a disgrace nothing more and nothing less. 

1 minute ago, Ronaldd said:

China has lied the whole time about Covid 19. They intentionally unleashed Covid19 on the world while banning Their own Domestic flights from Wuhan. From Jan 1 to Jan 31 400,000 Chinese flew into America. Thank God Trump was smart enough to shut the borders down . Biden called him a Racist for that. 

And look how it helped. In typical Trump fashion, he neglected not only a futher 40.000 Chinese that entered the country after the "ban" but he forgot about all the other countries. As is very clear from the evidence, flight bans don't work. and certainly not limited flight bans. That's exactly why this being picky who can enter the country is not going to provide additional security. Enforcing social distancing all over the country will be much more effective, and would economically be much less disastrous.