WaveHunter

The beaches of Pattaya really suck due to pollution. There is so much flotsam from offshore ships and fishing vessels that winds up on our beaches here like polypropylene lines from fishing nets, discarded drink bottles, bits of plastic sheeting and food packaging, etc. Local municipality have incredibly poor street drainage and antiquated ways of dealing with sewage so much of it ends up polluting local waters. I've never seen a "resort" type setting that is so bad in my life. Even during the pandemic, it's pretty bad. People on the beach litter just as badly too. It's a shame they have so little respect for the sea. As for safety, surprisingly (here in Jomtien) there is ample lifeguard coverage and roped off safe swimming areas. There really is very little to be concerned about in regard to rip currents or "big" waves on most days. Besides, any competent ocean swimmer knows how to deal with them if they exist, and if they do not know how to escape a rip current, they have no business swimming when they are present. The sea is such an amazing recreational resource, it's just a shame that more people don't show some respect for it,

It's really ironic how they treat Faranags at BHP considering that they bill themselves as a "premiere international hospital" LOL! I've used them several times in the past for minor things like flu shots, check-ups, etc, and every single time, simply getting somebody who had even basic fluency in English was impossible. Worse, the ones who did speak English would pretend to not understand a question if it was something they preferred not to discuss (like their policy on Covid vaccinations for forangs. I have to say though that their doctors are top notch....excellent medical knowledge and skills, compassionate, and comfortably fluent in English. If there is any questions of how disliked BHP staff and administrators are by Farangs, one only needs to glance at their facebook page to see all of the negative / angry comments made by Farnags, especially back in July when BHP did not live up to their word about Covid registration. By contrast, when I finally gave up on them and went into Bangkok for my Covid vaccinations at PhyaThai for jab one, and then to MedPark for jab two (because they were willing to allow me to have it only several weeks later instead of having to wait 12 weeks), their treatment of Farangs was amazing! Very friendly and efficient, many of the staff spoke English better than a native speaker like me! And most important of all, they were good listeners! If you had a question they were willing to carefully and patiently listen to you and then respond appropriately and in an incredibly helpful way. I mean, I was truly impressed at BOTH hospitals. Definitely first-class all the way! It may be a bit of a pain having to drive into Bangkok from Pattaya, but well worth it IMO!

Good to hear they are finally getting smart about timing of second vaccination. Twelve weeks spacing was ridiculous when you looked at science-based information.

It's not a "passport"; it's just a certificate. Right now, I think the Q-policy depends entirely on the destination country in question, and could easily change from one day to the next because so much of the "official" government policies are being driven by politics rather than hard science-based logic. I think in the UK, everybody coming from Thailand must undergo mandatory Q no matter what their vaccination status is. In the US, I think it is the exact opposite at the moment. Once truly science-based logic is the rule, this whole notion of "vaccine passports" will be moot because the science-based reasoning that is fast emerging is that vaccinations are NOT going to protect populations as a whole (i.e.: herd immunity), but only the individual. So, being vaccinated is essential for the individual so that when (not if) they contact the virus, their symptoms will be minimal and probably not require hospitalization BUT the simple truth seems to be emerging that EVERYONE in the world, at some time, will contract the virus (just like the Flu or common cold)...so, proving that you are vaccinated means very little in terms of protecting the population at large.

BHP is a ridiculous hospital when it comes to their policy on Covid vaccinations IMO. Very unprofessional! While a drive into Bangkok Is a pain, it's worth it. From my experience, the professional, efficient and compassionate way that both PhyaThai and Med Park provided vaccinations to me was far superior. Things in Pattaya will probably change for the better in the future but for right now, just hire a driving service for the trip. I've always used Tom's Taxi and they are GREAT...reliable, on time, nice cars, and friendly drivers.

Actually not, on my second vax, they listed both injections but no official looking stamp and signature (that was only on the first one). As I said though, I think the important part of the second "certificate" that listed both jabs is the QR Code. It is the scan of the QR code that an Imm officer will use to determine validity of your certificate, and what the official sees on his screen will be in English, so I see no need to get the paper certificate translated at all. Of course, for peace of mind, it couldn't hurt to get the paper one stamped and officially translated...but that's gonna take a lot of legwork, I think, especially if you live outside of Bangkok.

I don't think it really matters that the hospital name is not in English because down at the bottom under remarks it says the QR code verifies the vaccination through the MOPH, and that's far more "official" than having the name of the hospital appear. Besides, I think the Imm official is far more likely to just scan the QR code and go by what he sees on the screen rather than than scrutinize the piece of paper, which anyone could easily forge, ya know? But yeah, some ham-headed Canadian Imm officer could decide to give you a hard time, so if PhyaThai can have the hospital name also appear in English, that might be a wise thing to do...or if they put an official stamp on it, which they actually did for my first jab as shown below, then you are golden ????

If you look at my certificate that I posed above it is in both Thai and English. I would assume Phyathai would provide same. Just be sure they give it to you with an official stamp and a QR code. Really, I think the QR code is all you really need since Canada Imm will probably just scan that. The cost of a quarantine stay is ridiculously high. Even in Thailand the cost of a mandatory ASQ is around 30-40000 THB for me to re-enter even as a fully vaccinated person ????

Wow, I didn't know they still make that dinosaur of a browser LOL. The only problem with your strategy though is that if you ever must purge your browser's cache, all that stuff will vanish. On Chrome I usually purge my browser data once a week just be be rid of cookies, potential malware, and errant data that could slow the browser down. And an unpurged cache will eventually degrade the browser's performance over time. I doubt that Firefox has as good of protection against malware as Chrome, and I bet it's a good bit slower than Chrome too. If I were you I'd switch to Chrome. Just a thought. ????

Better yet, just save it to your smart phone. ????

Not a card, but a certificate with a QR code. It would be nice if it was a card though. Still though, it will fold up and fit nicely into my passport just like Imm paperwork does. And, I can simply keep a copy of it on my smartphone. However, I'm not sure how important certificates or cards are going to be in the near future. Here's the reason why: There is absolutely no question that vaccines protect the individual from serious symptoms and avoiding the need for hospitalization if infected, BUT as the Delta variant proves, they do little to curb spreading the virus. Many well regarded scientists are starting to believe that everyone, regardless of vaccination status, will probably acquire the virus at some point in time (and therefore be able to spread it). Many believe that herd immunity simply can not be achieved, just as is the case with viruses associated with the Flu and the common cold. I think it's important to recognize what the vaccines are really capable of doing. Simply put, they protect the individual (not the population as a whole) from serious symptoms and complications that would result in the need for hospital care if infected, and that most vaccinated infected people will essentially be asymptomatic, but they will not, in any way, stop the spread of the virus among the population as a whole. So, from a pragmatic viewpoint, will there really be a need to prove vaccination since it is only protecting the individual, not the population as a whole? I mean, the Delta variant will not be the last mutation of the virus. The SARS-CoV-2 virus is increasingly behaving just like those associated with the Flu and the common cold, where mutations become more frequent, and we're never really rid of them; we just learn to live with them, and vaccinations are not intended to eradicate them, but rather to minimize dangerous symptoms. Just my personal opinion of course, and I am certainly not downplaying the importance and urgency for everyone to become vaccinated. I'm just saying you need to look at the scientific facts of what the vaccines are really capable of doing. Unfortunately, helping us to reach herd immunity or eradicating the virus are just not in the cards, at least not right now or in the foreseeable future.

From a science based perspective, mixed vaccines seem to be regarded positively in regard to efficacy and safety. Actually there are some well regarded scientists who think mixed vaccines might actually have higher efficacy. In fact, Thailand now has an official stance of providing AZ jabs as a second vaccination to many who received SinoVac as a first jab because it is increasingly being accepted that SinoVac does not deal as effectively with the Delta variant as most would prefer. From a more pragmatic perspective, I have heard of no substantiated cases where someone with mixed vaccines listed on their certificates have been denied entry anywhere here in Thailand or abroad, so I feel pretty confident that it should be just fine for international travel.

Yes, the second hospital gave me a certificate that listed both vaccinations. However, it did not have a stamp on it like my certificate had from my first jab. I've asked a few knowledgeable people if that matters, and the consensus is that it does not since the QR code is all that matters. Still though, I think I might ask the hospital to send me one with a stamp on it.

Just completed my online reporting and it went flawlessly (yay!). The site is still quirky I guess but they seem to have worked out most of the bugs. The best advice I ever got from somebody on this forum is to ONLY fill in the fields with a red asterisk and leave the others blank. IMPORTANT TIP: I make a screenshot of each of the two pages so that the next time I have to report online, I have a EXACT reference to what I filled in on the previous report so I can duplicate it exactly on the next report. A lot of issues that people have with online reporting is caused by entering the information in a slightly different form than they had entered previously. Even little variations like using an abbreviation or Cap letter that you didn't use previously can cause a glitch.

Even simpler is what another forum member suggested...just buy a cheap external CD-Rom drive for the one-time installation I need to do. I see them on AliExpress for very cheap.

Well the best advice I got here was simply to buy a cheap external CD-ROM drive for the one-time installation. I'm not sure why the simplest solutions sometimes just allude me LOL!

Today I joined the ranks of fully-vaccinated expats in Thailand...Yay! Even though it's still dangerous out there for fully vaccinated people, it's still a liberating feeling to know I don't have to feel like a scared hermit anymore ???? For what it's worth, I got Pfizer as my second jab after a first jab of AZ last month. I really did not want to wait until the middle of October for the 2nd AZ jab because I have international travel plans later in September. Med Park Hospital was willing to accommodate me,,,and NO, I did not lie about having gotten the previous jab. I was very frank about my concerns for waiting so long for full vaccination since I have to travel internationally by the end of September, and they were agreeable to giving me Pfizer as a 2nd jab, even though only one month has gone by since my first jab. So...the reason I'm sharing this is because 1) Medical professionals apparently do not feel that strongly that 12 weeks must go by for a second jab, and 2) If you have a compelling reason to be fully vaccinated in less than 12 weeks, they seem willing to work with you. If you are in a similar situation, and can;t get Pfizer locally in Chon Buri, the trips up to Bangkok to Med Park is not a big issue. Just don't do it on the day of a monsoon! The drive up was horrendous today...nothing like driving to drive along a motorway under 3 feet of water! ????

Perhaps but I tried to do that once before with another Application on CD-Rom and was not able to copy the files from the CD-Rom to my computer. I'm not sure why it would not work but certain folders would not copy over. Maybe I am mistaken but I think that is the whoel reason for making ISO files.

My idea was actually to just buy the cdrom and then have a computer shop convert it to ISO so I could just load it by thumb drive without the need for a cdrom player which I’ll probably never use again.

Not a bad idea...you guys are full of usieful suggestions! DELORME TOPO for North America (any version above 6.0). Also called DELORME TOPO USA

Sending you a PM Re certificate.

Good to know, but I just found out what my real issue was. I just discovered that my Adobe Lightroom has been making backups of my image library without deleting the previous ones. Since it was so incremental, I never noticed, even though it was always suspicious to me how my free space just kept shrinking over time at such a shocking rate. Now that I've deleted all but the most recent backup, I'm back to having plenty of free space. It feel so luxurious to see I have almost half of my SSD as free space again.

Does anybody know of a solid state external drive that I can use with a MacBook Pro that connects with Thunderbolt (and not just USB 3.0). I've been looking on Lazada and AliExpress and so far have not found one.

I have a technical question about buying an external solid state drive for my MacBook Pro. My MacBook Pro has: * Two Thunderbolt 2 ports (up to 20 Gbps) * Two USB 3 ports (up to 5 Gbps) I also use VMWare Fusion so that I can run "virtual windows operating systems on my MacBook Pro. My problem is that my MacBook Pro has a non-removable solid-state drive that is only 500gB capacity, and right now I am down to only 20gB of free space. Would it be possible to somehow make the external drive bootable, or in some way be able to have the VMWare Fusion & Windows operating systems running from those external drive, and not have a "speed bottleneck" from the thunderbolt connections? I mean, 20gbps sounds pretty fast to me, but I just don't know...and I especially don't know if I can make VMware Fusion work if it is located on an external drive. My other question: Does anybody know of a solid state external drive that connects with Thunderbolt (and not just USB 3.0). I've been looking on Lazada and AliExpress and so far have not found one.

What a dope I am LOL...why didn't I think of that in the first place? Thanks ????