Walker88

It seems odd, then again not so odd, that folks who meet twice-vaxxed and recently negative Covid 'tourists' at Suvarnabhumi are in full hazmat gear, or that restaurants in Pattaya cannot serve alcohol, but folks can gather around a hibachi, sans masks, pawing the same food with the chopsticks they use to deliver the moo ka ta fare to their mouths. Apparently Covid does not like moo ka ta.

More or less connected to this....the requirement that restaurants have an SHA cert in order to serve alcohol.... Speaking with a few restaurants, it seems this came as a surprise, and the website where one could apply was unreachable for a few days because of heavy traffic. Some almost completely filled out the onerous application, then were bumped from the site, forcing them to go back to square one. Venues must send a few dozen photos of their place, including the various signs asking for social distancing, instructing folks how to wash their hands, photos of the temp gauge, photos of all the containers of hand gel, etc. Venues also had to relate how they 'teach' customers about the need for all the Covid mitigation measures, as if the customers had been on the moon for the last 2 years and hadn't yet heard of Covid. Some people who successfully completed the form were called and told to do it again another day, because the health ministry lacked the staff to look over all the applications, and some were likely to get lost. When finally and irrevocably completed, applicants got a message saying the certificate of SHA approval would come anywhere from within a few weeks to a few months, but simply filing the application---and showing the "Done!" message to cops if needed---would give them authority to sell alcohol until 9PM. Quite the process, which seems to be being created on the fly...and there are flies in the ointment.

If 2424 is 'almost' 2500, it might as well be almost 7000. Heck, let it be almost 30,000. With 890 being Thai nationals, however, one could go the other direction and say 1534 is nearly just 1500, or nearly 1000, or nearly zero. The airlines, who cancelled 80% of their gates at Suvarnabhumi for the Oct-Apr period, seem to have a more realistic view of things. Money and the bottom line tend to do that.

Last Friday I walked passed Nana and saw a delivery truck and crew unloading cases of beer and bringing it into a first floor agogo restaurant. I don't know if any venues there actually have a restaurant license, as most operate as 'bars' and 'entertainment' with appropriate licenses for those. businesses. Bars on/off Soi 7 plan to open tonight, save for the few owned by people above, beside and inside the law (which have been open for the duration).

I'm not sure Thai Airways was ever profitable---at least using GAAP---so returning to what never was is a tall order, especially in a post-Covid world. There's a fine line between optimism and delusion, perhaps, but this one is easy to see.

Thailand seems to have a wildly over-inflated view of its attractiveness as a destination, both for tourism and business. Other regional nations, if they step up, can help disabuse Thailand of that notion. On the plus side for Thailand, its western neighbor blew it when they had their own coup. Tourism and FDI had been soaring in Myanmar. Now, except for China back on path to making Myanmar a vassal state and 'renegade province', both tourism and FDI are dead for the foreseeable future. Vietnam, pre-Covid, was becoming a new 'must see' destination, and Vietnam has also begun to lure, successfully, FDI from Japan and other countries that had been dedicated to Thailand. The cuisine is also a match for Thai, as it's a mix of both indigenous Vietnamese and French. As one who has undergone the onerous (and expensive) visa process for a Non-B investor stamp, I cannot imagine other countries make it more difficult and unpleasant to 'allow' Thailand to accept your investment capital. 100+ pages of silly documents, agent fees, plus the blatant demands for 'tributes' are off-putting. Before the Myanmar coup, I thought a good tag line to lure foreign tourists might have been: "Come to Myanmar; We Actually Like You!". The country is (was) welcoming, interesting, has places like Bagan that dwarf anything Thailand has, has a range of cuisine that borrows from Thailand, China and India (ethnic Kachin fare is delightful), still has pristine beaches, sites with history of interest to Western visitors (WWII), and even snow capped 4000 meter mountains up near Putao. Even shopping is superior, as Myanmar can match any of Thailand's 'local crafts', but also has minimal import taxes so the well healed can shop at Louis Vuitton or Prada or Armani and pay a price similar to home. For those who care, wine prices are maybe 10% above what one would pay in Italy or France, vs 100%+ difference in Thailand. Back to Thailand.....being met at Suvarnabhumi by hazmat-clad officials and workers, despite travelers being double vaxxed and recipients of a negative PCR test within the last 72 hours, is not going to scream "Welcome!" to the average tourist. Property owners and spouses/significant others, or single males hoping to meet a string of temporarily significant others, maybe, but not the typical tourist, and certainly not the HNW 'quality' tourists TAT and the govt claim to seek. If I had to pen one sentence that epitomizes Thailand's vision of tourism, it is: "We want your money, but not YOU"

If I remember that novel correctly, didn't Miss Have-a-Scam rent jet skis in Pattaya?

97% of males who enter Thailand come with the intent of bedding a young Thai woman....and the other 3% are liars. Holier-than-though suits never fit properly...not on foreigners and not on Thais themselves (Thai males mongering at a rate that exceeds all other nations). Mia noi is not a word borrowed from farangs.

Perhaps a tourist or two---quality tourists, by the way---should arrive in full hazmat gear and start spraying disinfectant on the Thai officials and "welcoming committee", then say, "Sorry, but I KNOW I'm clean, but I just can't be too careful with all of you people".

My bad. Sometimes I forget that as a foreigner, I was born with Original Sin. Born bad.

The officials and workers in the hazmat suits, greeting people who have had a negative Covid test within the last 72 hours, then finish work, go to a packed market on the way home wearing only a mask, and joining a crowd of thousands who may or may not have ever been tested. It seems.....oddly inconsistent.

For those restauranteurs foolishly operating under the assumption that time is linear, this announcement---coming as it did AFTER venues opened for the day and believed they could serve alcohol---may well have come as a surprise. Venues were already serving when this announcement came out on Monday, 1 November. A senior LE official, in a press release, threatened to bring harsh action against eateries selling demon alcohol without the 'previously unknown requirement' of having an SHA cert. I was sitting in a venue, albeit without a fermented libation, and the staff---upon hearing this 'previously unknown requirement'---was working hard trying to access the thailandsha.com website. The site was being overrun by venues trying to avoid the heretofore mentioned 'harsh actions' and get this SHA cert, so the pages and forms would not load. One wonders if any 'harsh actions' were taken simply owing to the inability to access the official government site, plus venues being totally unaware such a requirement had been mandated (which it wasn't until AFTER the fact). The rollout of this relaxation of restrictions was handled---how should I say---less than smoothly.

I'm curious about overcoming cultural differences. I'm not inexperienced, having lived in many countries, but some cultural gaps are easier to bridge than others. For example, I am not a 'believer', so myths and superstitions kind of grate on my logical mind, and deeply held belief in myth or superstition is like running fingernails on a chalkboard. The pedant in me just needs to speak up, and it's all I can do (as one or two Mods here might already know) to refrain from causing offense. Being a curious sort, I also tend to have many interests, and find joy in discussing topics with people who also have many interests. I have yet to meet a Thai woman whose interests go much beyond the Three Fs (and sometimes 4 Fs, though I cannot write that 4th word here for fear of censorship). The 3 Fs are family, Facebook and food. While at least 2 out of 3 can be interesting, they are not enough to carry a day of conversation, much less an extended relationship. Ennui is going to set in........on both sides, no doubt. Now I'm sure there must be well-read and accomplished Thai women who could run circles around my knowledge, but I have yet to meet the right one----and that despite being sinfully rich and drop dead han sum (there's some hyperbole back there <---------) Kudos to those who have found the scratch to sate their itch....perhaps if I commit to continued and endless 'research', I will find the Holy Grail of marital bliss.

This seems to be a universal problem at the moment, and it adds additional irritations to anyone living in Thailand. The good news for Americans is that it is much faster to renew a US Passport in Thailand than if one was in the US. I have been told in the US it is now about 6 months, while renewing by mail in Thailand (via the Embassy, who has a stash of blank passports on hand), it takes two weeks. Because I travel a lot, my passports fill up in a 2-3 years, and the Embassy no longer installs new pages. Fill it up and one must renew. Renewal requires submitting the old passport, and therein lies a problem. For two weeks I had all kinds of hassles at banks trying to access my accounts. "Original passport only!" I was told in the three banks where I have accounts. Copies of the data page were insufficient. No other ID was acceptable, not even a Thai Work Permit (which I am required to have as a business owner/investor even though I do not work). Trying to explain what 'filled pages' in a passport means to folks who never traveled outside Thailand falls on deaf ears. Passports are the quintessential Farang ID, not something one would use for the unknown activity of international travel. Being calm and reserved---per the instructions foreigners are always given regarding the local culture (when Thais do occasionally fly off the handle with each other)---was getting me nowhere. All it got was polite smiles and a repeat of "Original passport only". Raising my voice a little, though at lesser decibels that standing behind a jet engine, eventually did the trick, albeit with the branch manager at one bank. It helps to have a deep voice, similar to James Earle Jones and Paul Robeson. Anyway, the lesson is....plan ahead as much as possible, and still expect to meet some irritations.

Rules are made to be broken confusing. At 8:59PM you order a nice Brunello di Montalcino. At 9:00 on the dot the wait staff takes it away? Also, other than major chains, I've never seen a restaurant with an SHA+ cert. Photocopy machines will be busy today. Restaurants in Bangkok served throughout the restricted period, Little will change, though staff might come around to all the tables at 9:00 and replace the bottles, mugs and wine glasses with coffee cups. And finally, damn that pesky virus for working on the clock and coming out at 9PM.

You are incorrect. Mutation is a numbers game. There is always a possibility of a mutation every time a virus replicates. The unvaccinated do have a higher viral load (the latest research proves this, contrary to earlier beliefs), so they are host for more possible mutations, besides being more likely to suffer serious symptoms from whatever variant they caught. In any single replication, the odds of a mutation are equal. It doesn't matter if the host is vaxxed or not. PROBABILITY increases with the number of replications, and the unvaxxed are likely to be host to a greater number of replications. Vaccinated people have an immune system better able to stop the virus from replicating, which is very different from mutating. The more replications, the greater the chance of a mutation. Also, the more replications, the greater the chance the host will suffer symptoms, because the body's immune system is stressed beyond its ability to cope.

I read somewhere they've also added Atlantis to the mix. But Martians still remain an absolute "NO!". Standards must be maintained for the benefit of all.

The bad news is Lisa of Blackpink can't make it. The good news is she's been replaced by Elvis and Jimi Hendrix.

And Bob Dylan said, "When you ain't got nothing, you got nothing to lose...."

Unless I'm mistaken, it seems most readers missed your point..... YOU, as a farang, are a danger to her due to Covid, whereas a Thai person using the same gloves all day, both to squeeze juice and take money, isn't any threat to her...because the juice vendor is Thai. That about right? I was in a large gym, and because I do a real workout (heavy breathing), I had my mask down a bit after a good set on the bench, far away from other folks. Some phuffy Thai (who rides a bicycle machine at the pace of a 90-year old going to market, then playing games on his phone between his every ten minute 'set') walked across the gym and told me to pull the mask back up. He passed several Thai people in the gym without masks at all, but said nothing to them. (The gym operators do not mandate masks)

Sounds like dozens of families and groups of friends out for a little moo ka ta, all hovered over the hibachi, chopsticks touching as they jockey for position over grilled shrimp and pork, or poached chicken.... ....but that sort of activity is perfectly acceptable, so long as there's no alcohol.

Will this change anything? The only thing I can see that will change is that restaurants in shopping malls will again serve alcohol. Virtually every BKK restaurant not located in a shopping mall has been serving alcohol all along. The glasses might change, but not the libation. Maybe a second thing could be that Pattaya residents will head to BKK, where they can openly enjoy a libation with their meal, though Patts seems to have its share of scofflaws. Oh, this bears repeating, as some seem to be missing it: Restaurants have "Restaurant" Licenses. Bars have "Bar" licenses. Bars are supposed to remain closed, even if they serve food, because their LICENSE says "Bar". (Oddly, there is one agogo in Patpong that occupies a venue that was once a restaurant, and the new owner inherited the 'Restaurant" license, so he should be able to open and serve alcohol from Monday, with plenty of scantily-clad, non-dancing servers. As for whether this will entice new tourists to come....unlikely. Everyone knew, or at least suspected, that 1 Nov would be the day to relax alcohol restrictions. Also, if airlines have given back 80% of their allotted slots at Suvarnabhumi for the Oct-April'22 period, bookings are likely to be at a minimum. The ones who long planned to come will come, but that's about it. It is highly likely the average visitor is going to be a single male, as such folks have specific reasons for wanting to come, are willing to jump through the various hoops, and as single travelers are less likely to be caught up in a 'proximity' infection and forced into 14 days self-paid quarantine. All are maybe not quite the 'quality' tourist the govt was hoping to attract, but beggars can't be choosers.

Inspired by the alliteration in the headline of an earlier article this week, I submit: Cops Kill Covid Cacophony at Cowboy's Kazy Kozy Cocktail Caberet Capturing Carousing Caucasian Culprits

Kabul is more fun. Don't underestimate just how fetching a full-body abaiya can be. It is said a woman is at her sexiest when she leaves something to the imagination. In Kabul, women leave EVERYTHING to the imagination.

Was in the process of typing when you did a better job of clearing this up. Kazy Kozy has been open for a while, though I personally never visited there during the lockdown.