Anythingleft?

Is it possible that the investors are noticing the public is becoming ever more scrutinizing of the larger projects, and the lack of deadlines met together with cost explosions and begging bowls are becoming harder to account for

Just possible that the easy money days and the rampant bleeding of the initial money pots is becoming slightly more difficult and challenging or troublesome to deal with without public interest and outcry...........

It's just a platform for people to air their views, nobody cares what is said on here

It was a forgone conclusion, sad but that is the reality of being in Thailand. Yes it happens in many other countries also but for the most part the people on here live in Thailand so it has the most relevance of how the Thais conduct their business that ultimately can, and sometimes will, affect the ones that live here.....

On 7/19/2020 at 11:25 PM, unheard said:

I was responding to a prior poster who's just booked an ASQ hotel for August the 11th.

The problem with that is the schedule of the August repatriation flights has not been announced yet (should be at the end of the month).

So how's that going to work if there are no repatriation flights for him on that date?

His hotel booking must start on the date of arrival.

Flight is through Addis Ababa with Ethiopian on 10th/11 Aug

All the arrangements being done through an agent as my company is dealing with this on my behalf, agents do have a habit of booking tickets to get the money without any confirmed details though as they just want the bookings regardless of the travel details or restrictions

I'm sure that when the embassy checks all the details they will come back with firm dates. To complete the questionnaire you have to specify arrival dates and flight details on the forms for them to be processed, these I assume are just dummy flight details for that very purpose and the hotel will be reorganized on acceptance of the COE (if that gets approved)

The whole thing is a bit of a debacle, now I just wait until I get word of the approval or rejection

Paperwork went to the UK embassy on Monday, no idea of the time frame for replies......

Depends on the links available from the exit in Pattaya to make it any use at all, relying on the taxi mafia in Pattaya from the terminal will make the use a taxi direct from Suvarnabhumi even more desirable

At least you can get a fairly standard rate there or pre-book a service

Just dont see the link being a huge benefit with the already improved roads and the additional hassle of getting to and from the terminal at Pattaya end. Day trippers possibly but not people hauling luggage around......

Movenpick Bangkok has just accepted a booking for myself on the 11th August so they are available......

50 minutes ago, khunPer said:

Kindly disagree, it's a question of market demand.

 

The regulations on the island was that no building construction could be higher than the coconut palms, today it's changed to 12 meters. That seemed to be kept. The island was also later divided into zones with different regulations – some says six meters high, one floor only, and not over x square meters (think it's 70 square meters without checking) – depending of the distance from the beachfront/seafront; if long enough back inland larger constructions are allowed.

 

If there is a demand then things moves faster, and even a brown envelope might be a part of it. It also happens other places than Samui, and Thailand, over-development happens all over the World. The more tourists coming, the higher a demand. We have experienced years where everything was fully booked; not only available accommodation, but also airplanes, catamaran ferries, bus tickets, and train tickets. People that needed to fly home from Bangkok, and haven't booked the ticket up there in advance, realized that they needed to leave the island two-three days before, and change between numerous local busses with night stop en route to get up to Bangkok. By that time that was a problem to complain about. The result was bigger catamaran ferries, and bigger airplanes and more departures; and of course building more high-end resorts.

 

If no demand, no "greed". Who would invest millions of baht, and billions of baht into something with no demand, no customers; for example building an airport?

 

If Samui had been kept little more secret by the first backpackers, the island might still be an underdeveloped coconut plantagen, and some fishing boats; and with no interest at all from the mass tourism, as the island was underdeveloped...

 

Some of us don't complain, we still find Samui attractive, and a much better placed now when developed beyond muddy dirt roads, generator electric power; and no supply of anything, but the most essential daily needs.

 

It's impossible to live in the past, unless you find an isolate time-pocket in a secret place. There are however a few more inhabited islands in the archipelago around Samui, so perhaps another new "paradise" is available – perhaps check Koh Phaluai – but then please keep it little more secret...????

 

The first line of the original sentence "if farangs didn't overpopulate" how could they manage to overpopulate any area if the planning restrictions in place had been upheld from the outset? 

This suggests to me, as the restrictions were apparently not flouted, that all construction is within the correct scope for the area. So how is it overpopulated?? or is it that the regulations have kept changing and adapting to allow the greed and business to flourish?

One sentence contradicts the other.........

Where will all the ill gotten gains go when they are recovered and collected???..............

On 7/17/2020 at 4:19 PM, khunPer said:

Well, if farangs didn't overpopulate Samui from the beginning – and even wrote about the "paradise" island in a German travel magazine – Samui would not have been spoiled; no development would have been necessary, not even basic beachfront huts for backpackers. 

 

And all us arriving to paradise later – because so many talked so positive about it, and even wrote articles in magazines – would not have added more development by building our own houses, at leased or company-owned land, on an already over-developed island.

 

So to sum up how I understand what you are saying: Samui was spoiled by it's first generation of travellers!

 

Could even be that some of those are now among those complaining about over-development... 

????

They are the regulations which everybody knows were flouted and ignored in the scheme to get rich

You can't really twist that back on the people that were allowed to buy, visit and develop, it lies entirely on the lack of governance and greed............

2 hours ago, DrJack54 said:

What is the process for booking/finding hotel. Guessing you need contact each hotel separately of can you go on waiting list? 

BTW good luck. Seems horrific process

ps. I just now read in news forum that the ambassador from Estonia was refused entry into booked accommodation and taken to one of the registered quarantine hotels. 

Wondered why that happened.

Only list is the one available on the ASQ website and just phone or email....

Currently undergoing this process now, from where I am located in Africa getting all of the paperwork in line at the right time is a practical nightmare

Covid tests etc are difficult to arrange and the ASQ are coming back as all full for the time being

Extracting the requirements from the embassies was a painful experience on its own

Thinking it may be a while before I get back at least, people in other locations will surely find it easier to arrange all of the requirements so good luck to all that are going through this at the moment.........................

40 minutes ago, Pedrogaz said:

I hope tourism will never come back in the form that it took. The volume of toursists grew 3-4 fold from 2009 to 2019, but the share of GDP only doubled. What this means is that the revenue from tourism had a relative decline....ie each tourist generated less in real revenue. We need to go back to quality tourism instead of the riff-raff that have been coming for a cheap <deleted>.

 

They should ban these bus tours that Chinese, Indians and Koreans use. They should introduce some transparent planning laws in Phuket, Pattaya, Bangkok, CM etc and stop overcrowding with poorly built cheap hotels. Start knocking down all the <deleted> hotels and building some quality. Lets move away from sex tourists, backpackers, bus tours and the like let's get a better class of tourist that appreciates a nice clean environment, places where sh!T from the sewers doesn't flood into the streets when it rains, somewhere where you can get a taxi at a fair price etc etc.

Good luck with cutting the head off the golden goose with the limitation of mass package tours for the countries you mention

This has been raised numerous times for the zero dollar industry, you really believe there is zero dollars for the people who process, operate and licence the tour industry market??

The industry of tourism is driven by the government and it provides exactly the type of tourist that they want, what they don't appear to want are residential western nation tourists.............

Both the person and the concept are a joke

Problem is now that some fringes of the population actually believes that people like this are capable of doing the job........

There could be a lot more to this than meets the eye, it's a perfect opportunity to clear the decks without breaking a sweat or get any outside interference as they are not technically doing anything wrong (are they?) It only affects tourists and retirees, nobody with a "right" to live or be here

From a moral viewpoint, well that's a different argument............

Just love to see the buzz words in all of these ventures, smart farming, that in itself leads me to think that they are already doomed......

1 hour ago, Skallywag said:

Main reason I do not drive.  Spent 44 years working for retirement.  Now that I made it to retirement, am not willing to take the risk.  You will never catch me on the back of a motorsai driven by some unknown yaba user or Lao khao drinker either.    Buses for long trips, songthaew locally, bicycle, or walk.   I have gone places in a private car with friends also of course, which is a risk yet it is in frequent

No it's not

No two medical centers are the same though here and all come up with their own variations on an already set medical format, you just have to go with the flow........