Trip Hop

Might have been shot even earlier as I passed through about 10 days ago and there was no longer any sign of the testers? Perhaps someone local can confirm? You’ve got to laugh at the amount and type of PPE they wear though? Mind you there were quite a few travelers dressed exactly the same at the airport on the way home?

As stated I think it depends who you are with when it comes to travel insurance? My bill at the Bangkok Samui some years ago was a shade over £500, so was settled direct as described. The experience was not the best though as despite them having the policy and the insurance agent’s confirmation that they would pay, until the money was in the bank, I was made to feel like a criminal and even tailed by a security guard every time that I went outside for a smoke. Because of this I just went to one of the local hospitals for my follow up jabs. Excellent treatment at the Bangkok Samui but their attitude just stank!

Not always. My experience is that decent insurance will have a threshold of say £500, up to which you settle yourself and claim back. If over this, it’s normally settled direct with the hospital via local agents that they have around the world? However, I emphasize the word “decent”!

My preference is the Aerox but too big for her and lacks the practicality of the flat step through floor that’s good for bags. The Click 150i is a good bike and easier to park in town.

I’ve just been through the process and bought one for the G/F to use on short trips instead of her pick-up and for me to use whilst I’m out here. As someone who’s ridden bikes on and off road for over 45 years and can rebuild engines, my advice if you’re planning to keep it a while would always be to buy new, preferably cash if you can because finance deals here are not that inviting? Second hand prices are also extremely high here compared to the west and I’ve seen some shops asking silly money for what is basically a high mileage ex-rental bike? Plenty of these often pose as private sellers but if you click on their other items for sale on websites such as BahtSold, they somehow have a fleet of bikes? The majority of Thais by nature are somewhat adverse to maintenance and have the attitude that if it’s not broke why worry? Therefore you don’t really know what you’re buying and the same applies for auctions if you don’t know what you’re doing? If you’re not too big physically and can get the 3 of you on a Click, I’d go for the 150i model which has the same power as the old PCX? As other posters have said, maintenance is cheap here, so keep it serviced when due and keep the receipts or get the book stamped? Honda engines are one of the toughest in the world so if you follow this, the bike will last you a long time. Additionally, if it’s looked after maintenance wise, if ever you want to sell, you shouldn’t have any problems and will get a decent price back?

I wonder who they would try to blame if Thailand had its own mutation? Most probably keep quiet until they allow it to transmit outside then blame them?

The extra cost was neither here nor there for me due to not having a holiday for 2 years. However as you say, the ball ache of having to schedule it all and the stress of waiting for your results will put a lot of people off coming. I was lucky that there was a lab within 30 minutes of work and I could slip away for an hour but not all people can do this, so it could be another day off their holiday entitlement? I’m aware of certain companies in the UK developing their own type of Covid pass app combined with high accuracy LFTs. This might be the way forward if it was to be accepted by the authorities and airlines around the world as the test could be taken say before going to the airport and your status immediately uploaded to the app prior to check-in?

Give it up FF$, you’re not even there, living it on a daily basis but somehow you talk as if you’re an expert? You haven’t got a clue of the reality of it all full stop and are only commenting based on what you can find on the internet to make yourself sound interesting? The words clueless and clown come in mind?

The UK uses mainly the LAMP test and LFTs for general mass screening as PCR takes too long and is too expensive. This has been the case for obout 12 months now. If you try to book a PCR, the first thing that they ask you is as to whether you have any symptoms? If you have no symptoms they’ll refuse you a PCR and tell you to do a few LFTs first and if you test positive on these, only then will they give you a PCR to confirm. The only general exception to this is if your doctor or hospital requests a PCR prior to an appointment? I have plenty of experience of the booking system due to my father being in ill health and requiring regular visits to the doctor. Also, despite working continually throughout this pandemic on a series of large high profile civil engineering projects with associated large workforces in both England & Wales, not once has myself or anyone I worked with, been asked to attend mass screening despite cases occurring within the workforce? This is because generally they only carry out mass screening locally in areas that are experiencing high numbers of a new mutation. This is my experience and assessment of the testing in the UK over the last 2 years. Unless you live there yourself and can tell me different?

Yep, there are a lot of bars closed, some even with signs up saying that it’s because of Covid?

Drove past Treetown in Pattaya last night and the mobile testing station wasn’t even there? Didn’t notice any bars open in the complex either but wasn’t paying too much attention?

And do something with the forced hospital isolation if found positive?

Depends on the manufacturer but there are some good ones out there? There’s also a lot of bad ones too!

I agree that for liability purposes, labs may be reluctant to do the tests with a more realistic CT threshold. However your comments regarding the correlation of a positive PCR and the subsequent onset of symptoms are a bit baffling? Excepting Thailand’s entry requirements, where in the world are people being given a PCR test before having symptoms? It’s normally the other way around, you get the symptoms and you go for a PCR to confirm? Unless they’re paranoid or a hypochondriac, why on earth would people clog up their countries’ state medical/testing facilities if you you have no symptoms?

A crass unsupported statement if ever I heard one? How do you know that it wasn’t brought in by migrant workers or returning Thais? Remember at one point returning Thai nationals didn’t even require a PCR prior to flying? It could even have been brought in by one of them at the top returning from one of their overseas jollies? Nobody can say accurately as to how it was brought in!

The one that I stayed in the other week was SHA+Plus so most probably qualified for test and go too?

PCR tests have been known for a long time to be over sensitive, especially if used for screening if someone is infectious. It’s due to the fact that the PCR amplifies the sample and therefore can pick up minute traces of the virus possibly from an infection several weeks before. In Europe, they normally use a maximum CT (amplification) of 32. However in Thailand they use a minimum of 40 and upon checking my test and go paperwork, they actually ran one of my samples at a CT of 45. This possibly accounting for the number of people that have tested negative before departure but positive upon arrival in Thailand? it is generally accepted these days that if they have to increase the CT of the PCR to above 28 in order to get a positive result, whilst you still have traces of the virus in your body, you are no longer considered infectious.

Your understanding of Cq (or equivalent CT) values is somewhat incorrect. The Cq<25 is just as important if not actually more important than Cq>25<30, as it identifies higher viral load and therefore more infectious. I agree that there a lot of poor performing tests out there but there are also some very excellent ones. The UK made and CE marked Avacta AffiDX test has been independently verified to have a sensitivity of 100% at CT<27 and 98.3% at CT<28 with a specificity of 99%. The infectious range generally being acknowledged to be CT<27-28. There are also other UK made tests that whilst not as good as the AffiDX, are not that far behind? https://avacta.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Brochure-Type-00901-SC2-Product-Specification-Sheet-v3-ID-33989.pdf

I met an interesting bar owner in the states once. She paid her way through college and onto becoming a lawyer by stripping/dancing. She later bought the very same bar that she worked in but changed it into a more general roadhouse. She even got up on the tables once to give us a bit of a show before happily dropping us off at our condo at the end of the night.

I have a few friends who are over for 6 weeks. Through general chat the other day, it became apparent that their expected spending was to be in excess of 350,000 baht each. However, if Prayut and Anutin were to meet them, at face they would dismiss them as not being quality tourists? Makes you think though, as yourself, with all the continuing changes and forced hospital isolation risks, as to how many similar high spending tourists have either chosen to stay home or go elsewhere?

It depends on the airline and whether you are flying direct or have a transit in another country whereby you’ll have to comply with their rules too? I’m flying back to the UK via Singapore and whilst the UK no longer requires any sort of pre-flight test if you’re double vaccinated, Singapore requires an antigen test from a clinic or hospital along with the associated paperwork in English. If any readers can recommend a clinic in the Pattaya area that can do this, I’d be most appreciative? I don’t really want to go to a hospital for obvious reasons and if for some reason I was positive, I have the facilities to isolate at home.

On a lighter note

I totally agree

It appears that the UK has assessed the threat level of Omicron and how fast it spreads, acknowledged that it’s in and there’s very little that they can do unless they go into a full lockdown, which the government and a lot of the people don’t want because of all the financial implications to businesses and curbs to individuals freedom. Therefore they have made the call to get on with it with a few restrictions as long as it doesn’t overwhelm the country. Whether it is the right call is yet to be seen but even if Thailand was to close its borders, at some point it will get in as per the last outbreak via legal/illegal migrant workers and outbreaks will occur. Therefore whilst I appreciate the need to protect the people, I somewhat feel that all Thailand is doing is delaying the inevitable as this will not stop until everyone has been infected to a certain degree and some form of herd immunity is achieved. In the meantime a lot of the people are suffering due to the state of the tourist industry which I can’t see recovering for a long time due the continual rule changes and forced hospital quarantine if you are found to be positive? Therefore I feel this current cycle of bars opening/bars closing is going to be here for quite a while yet, until Thailand is ready to take that big step? I do feel though that they would most probably be in a far better position to possibly take that step if the current administration had acknowledged the seriousness of the virus 2 years ago, possibly joined Co-Vax and got their vaccination program underway far earlier with decent vaccines?

Lateral flow test. More commonly known as an antigen or ATK in Thailand.