Elkski

sickening  country to often for me. 

9 hours ago, colinneil said:

So the financial experts say only 8 million tourists next year, hang on a minute T.A.T. says there will be 11 million Chinese tourists, so who is correct?

Clearly they never got their heads together before making their respective announcements.

Both numbers coming out the <deleted>.  There needs to be a few hundred thousand guinea pigs then demand may accelerate but the Chinese will be looking at social media trip reports more than ever.    Amd the odds of a virus outbreak that hits the e brake on things is very high INHO. 

All this downtime hasTAT been looking at the things Thailand needs to work on.  Any tourist operator training been taking place?  And changes to laws making penalties  more harsh for treating tourists poorly. 

My list.

Some campaign  warning taxis  no pick up complaints 3 times will be jail time and permanent ban. 

Hit a person  in a crosswalk and mandatory year in jail.  

Jet ski scams equals jail time.

Dual restaurant pricing and we close you down for a week.

Police in Thailand won't take  payments ever if they ask please get badge number and call 8311 for reward. 

Please expand on what I'm missing

The real sad thing is many of the masses will see this headline and feel good about the current government.  

Yes its so  disappointing to see Net drag marks, reef fragments, net pieces snagged on broken off reef pieces in the sand flats near dive sites in Thailand.   Thailand dosnt understand that protected dive sanctuaries from fishing  will bring  in serious divers.   But I'm sure they prefer Chinese  cattle boat groups who don't know any better.  In the Caribbean a cattle boat has 20 divers. In Thailand they have 50 and inundate the reefs with snorkelers.     

Govonorof utah had press conference today.  His daughter and granddaughter have lost sense of taste and smell for months.  Granddaughter is losing weight because she is noxious.   And there are reports of heart and lung damage.  Numbers  in my state ar record levels as well as America.    Its not over.  Cold weather has arrived and they say this will be real  bad.  

YEs I am familiar with the dumbing down of many mega brewery beers and old enough to have tasted real gold can  Coors of the 60's as i grew up 15 miles from the Brewery ,and dads and uncles let the kids have a sip. Plus a sip as we fetched them a refill.

I drink for the taste. at least I think so.  Changover is the worst beer ever. Singha is bearable. Hennie is Thailand sure tastes like a dumbed down version from the 80's as that was my main beer.  I am now into the hoppy samplings under 5%.  I will occasionally enjoy a 8-10% IPA but I think the perfect ratio of malt to hops occurs at 6.5%   1 10% bomber as we call the 22 oz bottles will put me down for the evening.  

I am quite the experienced brewer myself with lots of brewery time if you include college short tours on Friday straight to the sampling bar for the first 2 free drinks of the evening at the Coors lab as we called it.  Just ask for the short tour.  I have a 4 liter all grain brew system including oxygen.  I was offered a job in a local micro brewery that went bigger.  The beer selection in my state has improved drastically in the last 20 years and I drank to much  and had a beer belly with up to 4 beers on tap.

I was not really talking about import beers and taxes in the OP.  But why would a local produced beer like  Leo, Singha, or Chang cost more than an equal beer in the USA?  I did find a small store that imported some great beers like Stone and such but a 12 oz bottle was 8-10USD  a 22oz import great beer was 800 baht or 20USD.  to think 1 bomber beer cost more than a average Thai salary shows the gap between rich and poor in Thailand. The profit on each bottle of Thai produced swill must be double that of USA breweries. 

But a soil bearing test will only  test the tip layer.  The op said this is fill 17 ,years ago. We don't know how deep the fill is.  What the underlying soil is. Do we really trust  words that it was compacted?  How throughly if so.   Does time compact well enough.  I dont think a backhoe can install piles correctly.  Max  of it weight.   Need a proper pile driving machine.   Clay does swell and contract.  Good luck.  

2 hours ago, donnacha said:

I understand what you are saying but these people are not being released directly into the general population. They are subject to quarantine protocols from the moment they land in Thailand. Their interactions with Thai citizens are minimal and protected. No one is letting them walk freely. There is zero need to send them back home. Sick people are not a problem unless they are making other people sick.

This is how modern medicine deals with highly-infectious diseases. If quarantine is executed correctly, upon passing their last test and leaving the hotel, those people are less risky than the average Thai citizen. This is regardless of whether they come from a country with a high or a low number of infections.
 

 

Yes, I have read the news.

It is important to understand the situation without overreacting, to try to see things clearly.

For example, the economic problem is not due to the virus but due to our attempt to control it by locking down the entire population rather than properly shielding the vulnerable. The main thing that will be remembered about this period is how the governments got it all upside down, and put almost no thought into how we could protect the groups that we already knew would be vulnerable. An astonishing number of the early deaths were in care homes, a completely avoidable tragedy.

 

Money spent by foreigners in Thailand is far bigger than just the tourism industry. In underpins businesses and families all over the kingdom, including the parts of the country that the elites never think about.

The idealism and passion of the students gave these protests their form, but the desperation and hunger caused by destroying the real, on-the-ground economy will give them their teeth. In Egypt, after all the lofty speeches about freedom from dictatorship, the main factor behind the 2011 revolution was that the price of cooking oil had doubled.

Far from shutting out most countries, the Thai government should fix whatever holes have emerged in their quarantine procedures and, then, open the country up to anyone willing to risk a flight and to pay top dollar to be locked up and treated like a leper for 15 nights.

 

Ok I will try to follow your thoughts.  How about I allow you to describe a safe protocol for what should occur now that this French woman was positive. Lets focus on what to do with the other customers that just arrived at the same ASQ, those that were 1 day away from leaving, what about all the workers, someone  changed this woman's sheets during her stay, (probably within 3 days of her leaving)  and someone cleaned it after she checked out.  

Do we make some customers stay another 14 days? Do we ask all the employees to self quarantine at home like the CDC in USA says should occur at a workplace positive case?  Who all should be contacted and traced and tested? What if this becomes a regular occurrence at many ASQ's?   What happens when a few ASQ workers test positive? What happens if a few die?

5 hours ago, Sydebolle said:

Simple, you're not in the US, where Thai mangoes, orchids and Somtam cost manifold compared to Thailand. 

Comparing mangos  and orchids to beer is crazy.   Why is Leo or Singha more than bud light?   Profiteering with a government sanctioned monopoly.   

10 hours ago, webfact said:

Now they were pressing the government to offer long stay privileges for those who invest 5 million baht in property so that they could get visas of one year duration renewable five times. 

 

Those who invested 10 million baht would be able to stay twice as long, according to the plans. 

My first thought was who knows when our last 5 years are.  Divide any condo purchase price by 5 yesrs and just rent.  Who buys something with an unknown end circumstance?   Thai rules change so much there is no trust at all.  Its looking like there is going to be social unrest or a new government.  Chinese  already here and in control are ready to move all there relatives in.   If you lived in China how desperate would you be to get out.   Just the other day they caught Chinese trying to smuggle millions in cash across the border.  Spidermike has lost his way even.   My man!!

Yes come  to thailand and buy condo, you can use it for 5 years.   Then we kick you out.   

All you guys retired in Thailand who think your so protected and you  ridicule those who use different visas or worry about the future. One day soon they  may come for you.  You better have a plan  B. 

10 c can feel so great.  With low humidity and sun it is the perfect outdoor recreation or work temperature.    

Good tourist  draw.  Let me at em. I would pay to kill them.    Modern air rifles with  video cameras on the scope to document they ran  free and soon  these dogs would be a worthy quarry.   No loose dogs at all.  If a dog is off leash no collar with rabbies tags its fair game. 

Can have contests that move  from city to city. 

Let's hope this mauling and past ones get picked up in the news internationally.    

I can't imagine the input costs being so much greater in Thailand than in the US. 

Labor is surely lower. 

I think energy is similar. 

Hops?  

Barley?

I dont drink  Bud light or Cooks light but they are only 24 baht a can  At 31.2 baht/$.  Keystone only 21 baht. 

Decent small brewery beers that are quite tasty  are 9$ for 6 or 51 baht.   Real good microbrews maybe 75 baht per bottle.   Given the wage difference how can yiur average thai afford to drink any beer ????? I am currently enjoying some completion from a local brewery  Epic on the session  IPA.  On sale  Only 13$/12 it's quite hoppy  and  only 5%.  Reg proce was 17$ . This  good session IPA beer from midwest came into the market @ 16$/12.    All day IPA.  It is really good for hop lovers.  Granted some of you gents want high point for the buzz but I prefer having 1-2 without impairment.  I call them lawnmower beers.  Can mow without cutting foot off.  

Oh dude I ate the food and feel fine this article is bs.   Well pesticides don't usually have an instant effect.    I knew a school  director  who would not let me eat watermelon.   She knew a watermelon farmer who told her not to eat any in Thailand because him and  most  farmers use so many pesticides even injecting  red dye inside. 

Once again, people post on a thread without reading the relevant information first.  

The quote in the OP is the actual writings of a missionary  in the 19 th century not fiction.    Imaginary friend?  Haha.    What kind of mind would post that?  Its ok  im used to it on TV.  How many  farang think their opinion  is revered or even  seriously  considered initially  as a norm?   I don't think I am superior in everything  to every thai.  I am one who watches things with a keen eye.  I see craftsmen who do great jobs.  Like a man caulking  around a  large shop window on Suk.  I stopped to admire his work and inspected it with a very critical eye and gave him my thumbs up approval because it was utter perfection.  I know I could not achieve this even though I am quite skilled at things like this myself.  But I have also seen countless cases of paint dripped on the tile floor or cement because they didn't even consider protecting any surfaces other than what they were tasked with painting.  One time  I saw 5 or 6 men trying to load a piece of heavy manufacturing machinery into the back of a truck.   I signaled my girlfriend to stop so that I could watch them across the street. After a few minutes we sat down on a nearby bus stop bench and watched them for 15 or 20 minutes more.  I was trying to help them with body English and mind control from across the street but it didn't help. My girlfriend said it was a very bad idea to go suggest how to do it. But I decided to walk across the street and see if I could help. At  1st I just acted like an extra pair of hands to help them lift this blocky  machine that was real bottom  heavy.  Its just physics and seemedccommon sense to me but maybe my schooling helped?  When there ideas seemed to be all tried I  saw my opening and suggested we flip it over and lean the heavy  base on the truck bed..  we could flip it easy enough any which  way but with the light end up in a high bed truck we couldn't lift the heavy  end .   It was easy for me to see if we layed the 2 planks on the bed like a ramp and 1st flip the machine on to its light top with some dunnage  underneath we could  lean the heavy and in on the bed and we may be able to lift up the light end and push it up the ramp.  Actually within a couple feet the heavy end on the beam  helped us lift the light end and it slid into the truck so easy everybody yelled in happiness. But  no one was more grateful than the property  owner who no doubt had plans to  get all the dirty equipment and oil off her floor  to make way for a new cleaner  business.  

I'm sure most people who have spent any time in Thailand have experienced  this more than  once. I didn't see this in Vietnam. In fact my 7 days checking in on a house building crew impressed me each day.   Utter efficiency and skill  with primitive  tools.    

How does Thailand have enough beds to quarantine  1200 additional people arriving each day? 1200 x 14 is like  17,000 in quarantine 

Interesting.  An American accountant buddy of mine some 35 years ago said "you  pay for it! Or you pay for it!

If its not clear, he was talking about  a gal who worked at a men's club or a wife.  

Tell the man to  do her terms on a week, or two basis as a trial run for both.