El Matador

I really admire the creativity of Thai authorities with their new visa rules. They never lack of new ideas.

At this point of creativity, they should ask tourists to send their holiday money directly without ever visiting the country.

It would save lots of hassles for both sides.

I don't see any scandal here.

You are supposed to have a health insurance for that.

Maybe I missed something...

Charlie Hebdo is just an excuse to attack people.

The Catholic church is mocked a lot by Charlie Hebdo too but it was attacked by that Islamist guy yesterday.

They killed hundreds of people at a concert hall in Paris in 2015. Maybe it was because the music was too loud?

And they attacked people at Ariana Grande concert in Manchester because her skirt was too offensive maybe?

I don't think autocenshorship in this context will help anything.

I can understand why Charlie Hebdo cartoons can be seen as offensive and disrepectful for foreigners. France has maybe the longest tradition of satirical cartoons in the world and French humor can be sometimes much more (maybe too?) offensive than the British one for example.

But you also have to put it in the context of French history : since the French revolution the powerful people have always been mocked in a harsh way, and France has a pretty strict law on secularism (laïcité) since 1905 putting religion in the private sphere but it has been a big battle with the Catholic church to leave them outside of politics.

Those Charlie Hebdo cartoonists are mainly arnarchist people who mock a bit everything in a harsh way but without much political purpose. They don't have a massive audience either, jokes are not always good, but they have been here for decades so they are a bit part of French history and freedom of speech without the need to represent France in its essence.

The Monthy Pytons were seen as very offensive 50 years ago. Fortunately for them they were not killed because the Church had evolved a bit since the middle Age.

At the end of the day, I think the most offensive person in the world is probably Darwin.

Thinking we are descendent of monkeys is probably the most insulting thing to holly books.

We can start to do more autocenshorship to not offend anyone but it means we are mainly giving more power to the most obscurantist people.

7 minutes ago, onebir said:

What kind of thing?

Pupils bringing their knife in the classroom (thanks god at least it is not America where you can get a gun)

An angry parent pushing the school director (a woman) on the wall for almost no reason.

Insults towards teachers are very common and very litlle punished.

The teachers are told to avoid conflicts at all cost so some young boys can take control of the classroom.

When you see how kids are peaceful in South East Asia, you can feel the contrast.

7 minutes ago, evadgib said:

A few days ago reports surfaced in UK of a man aged around 40 with a receding hairline being 'outed' by a school/parents for being passed off as a pupil. A 15 year old girl in his class raised the alarm via FB. The school claim that they had their suspicions but were powerless to act...

Crazy. I can't really blame that guy to do it if we are stupid enough to allow this kind of nonsense happening.

I must say I am impressed by all the energy they use to attract around 20 tourists.

For someone who only pays $750 in taxes, he can't complain too much about the healthcare services he's having right now.

We can't argue against the fact he knows how to make good deals.

And then there are all those articles about that American guy who is in prison because of a bad review he wrote on Trip Advisor.

Good luck to promote those golden holidays with special charters.

I am always amazed by the creativity of Thai authorities.

I wanted to see if there was a chance to go there during winter as I've been in Vietnam since the covid started. But I am not too surprised it is a dead plan.

Why they just don't keep borders closed and offer extensions to the last tourists already inside the country instead of this non sense Phuket visa?

Anyway the tourism will be dead till next spring at least. There is not much which can be done unfortunately.

Gambling on rich tourists coming by charter who would like a golden prison for 2 weeks is so stupid.

They should better keep the few left and COVID free who are already there instead of dreaming.

It feels good to be in Vietnam right now.

Thailand is not great to fight the virus but let's be honest, Western countries have been disasters against coronavirus. They don't even have enough masks for doctors in some places.

It is a bet on Thailand political future.

Not very wise. And I hope he doesn't want to travel outside ASEAN countries either.

Having a first world passport is still a huge privilege for travelers.

Only a true democratic and sovereign country like Thailand could stop the coronavirus.

Congratulations to the amazing and incredibly bright government ruling that country.

" Sovereignty " is a word often used by people who don't know what democracy is.

Hanoi and Saigon have definitly bad air quality.

I felt worse in Saigon than Bangkok, mainly because there was no BTS.

Now I get used to it because I avoid main roads and peak time. The future metro will be a big plus when it opens.

But second tier cities like Da Nang are really clean. I was pretty amazed when I went from Saigon to Da Nang. I guess Da Nang easily beats Chiang Mai.

This travel agency just released this interesting video :

So that doesn't seem too bad. They will stop issuing 3 months tourist visas, only 1 month tourist visas will be available. But you can extend them inside the country.

And she said they will still provide 3 months business visas easy to get and you can extend them with a sponsor.

Quite what I expected : more bureaucracy and more money for travel agencies and inmigration guys. But you might still be able to stay a long time in the country.

Obviously, nothing is sure at the moment.

Anyway it will happen someday. It just a matter of time.

They want to replace Western tourists with the 2 new superpowers.

There will be more many more Indian and Chinese restaurants in the next decade and more of those hideous new buildings receiving exclusively Chinese customers who only speak Chinese. And probably more Indian tourists in Pattaya.

Don't hold your breathe, it is inevitable. And Thai smiles will become rarer in the next decade.

I am very jealous of you guys.

You will be free to eat those excellent English tomatoes as an independent country.

Khao San Road for some reason is almost only for Western tourists.

But maybe better wait one month or 2 to see how things evolve.