n8sail

My boss has been trying dozens of times to get through. I'm here in Thailand, just successfully registered for him from here. Chrome browser in Incognito mode, no add blockers etc. And using AIS phone as a hotspot. I did not put extra spaces on passport number. No API errors. Big pitfall is max filesize. 2mb max!!! And of course no PDF, but not a big deal. But if your file is over 2mb, which EVERY smartphone camera on the planet produces larger than 2mb photos by default, it will just sit there after you click upload. No warning, no message, no nothing. AND... NO CONFIRMATION NUMBER? Literally, just a box, with an 'OK' button and it kicks you back to the landing page again. This was marginally easier than COE, which I did 2 months ago. But still a royal pain... Now the waiting begins. He's flying on 7th... tik tok tik tok....

You can buy BTC ETH and two others directly in your paypal account now, so if you have an account there, it is incredibly easy to do. Not as flexible as other online wallets, though.

You are apparently Nobody's friend... since we should trust Nobody, does that mean we can trust you? ???? ????

Good luck finding a 7/11 that is open EVER in Patong! Okay, that's not really true, but the 3 7-11s and 2 Family Marts within walking distance of the very nice hotel I sandboxed at in the middle of Patong 10 days ago were ALL closed permanently. No curfew, at least not any enforced. I sat drinking with a just-off-duty police officer (Still in uniform) and his wife outside their bar on Bangla Rd until 4am one night. No issues walking back to the hotel. ???? TIT!

Supposedly the 'Thailand Plus' app could monitor movements, but when I got out of the sandbox a week ago, it still didn't work, nor did I have it installed. The 'Morchana' (Doctors Win!) App, required to be installed on arrival, supposedly could as well. But I just force closed it every day after scanning the QR code. No one seemed any-the-wiser. In fact, for about 5 days, the hotel's scanning phone did not even work! This is at an expensive, 4-star, name-brand resort in the middle of Patong. TIT! From what I could tell, you could have several friends over to "watch a movie" and no one would care... Just don't make your own movie! ????

I just left phuket sandbox today, and when I arrived 2 weeks ago, they said Thailand Plus does not work and made me install Mor Chana. Only time anyone has ever asked to see Mor Chana is when doing scan check-in at hotel each morning. I drove off via vehicle this morning and they didn't check it at the Phuket checkpoint or the Phangnga one either. Just papers and papers and papers as mentioned above. They gotta make sure you paid your money... App has no money involved, hence no interest would be my guess. Mor Chana screws my phone up also. Maps app goes crazy sometimes. One hint on Android is you can go to settings/apps and force close it. Just open right before you check in to hotel each day.

MG EP Battery - 8 Years or 160,000km warranty. Pack is modular, you can just change one small brick of the battery if a cell goes bad (Unlike Tesla). As a lithium chemistry battery declines in performance, they can be used for other things before complete tear-down and recycle, or disposal. There are already companies re-using/re-purposing large lithium batteries for 'Power Walls' (Tesla's stupid marketing term for a battery in your house). The performance needed for these types of storage is FAR less than a vehicle.... and can extend the useful life of a battery cell by many years. Home-based batteries also help to solve the problem of grid-overloading if everyone in an area has an electric car... distributed power is the way of the future. But... dinosaurs will be dinosaurs. Keep burning them up! I am going to be supremely <deleted> off if there is no true 95 octane benzene left when I retire and want to have a joyride in my V-8 muscle car or mid engine sports car, making amazing sounds, because of idiots needlessly burning rotten dinosaurs for every day usage. There is a time and place for ICE engines... large remote construction equipment, access to remote areas, boats needing high speed/power, sports cars, aeroplanes... everyday commuting is NOT one of them any more. Grow TF up people.

My MG EP, after beating the <deleted> out of it for 15 minutes, hitting the rev limiter multiple times on the AC Motor (15,000 RPM! Yes that renders a very high speed of travel, but we have the roads in this area to support that, if you know where the cameras are), then stopping and checking everything under the hood and the battery with infrared thermometer.... Hottest temp seen: 56 Centigrade! You'd be seeing temperatures in excess of boiling throughout the engine bay of an ICE car if driven the same way, and exhaust manifold temps multiple times those temperatures. The AC compressor motor which cools cabin, motor and most importantly battery pack of the MG EP is sizeable... like that of a large van. Could it blow up? I'm sure... but I'd say less likely than a benzene-powered, under-maintained POS ICE car here in Thailand. If you want safety in a car, drive a diesel. You can drop a lit match into a barrel of diesel and it will literally just snuff out. What boggles my mind are the legal 'bomb cars' fueled by LPG, LNG etc driven around here. THOSE are completely insane IMHO. I'll take my BEV any day over those!

5555 not a bad idea. Of course she's had 2 SinoPharm jabs AND a Pfizer booster... to my single J&J, so I think she'll call me out on it. Can't win if you don't play though, I should give it a go!

According to the government, the population in Phuket IS quite vaccinated! Albeit with 2nd tier vaccines... but they do work, much better than nothing, that's for sure. Where did I say I'm an epidemiologist? Am I not allowed to express my somewhat informed opinion on why venues that are open to the outside air should be allowed to operate normally as they do in nearly EVERY first world country? Any air space with 6 air changes per hour or more is VERY low risk. US CDC, signed off by Fauci himself, has in fact stated this. How many air changes per hour are there in an outdoor bar?? Fomite transmission is pretty much NOT a factor... that's been well-proven. So even touching the same 'coffee' (beer) mug is ridiculously low chance of causing an infection: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/more/science-and-research/surface-transmission.html "Quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA) studies have been conducted to understand and characterize the relative risk of SARS-CoV-2 fomite transmission and evaluate the need for and effectiveness of prevention measures to reduce risk. Findings of these studies suggest that the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection via the fomite transmission route is low, and generally less than 1 in 10,000, which means that each contact with a contaminated surface has less than a 1 in 10,000 chance of causing an infection 7, 8, 9."

I was at Bangla Rd last night. I'm not a tourist, I work elsewhere in LoS. Needed to go home, work pays for all the hoop-jumping. Before I arrived, whilst doing said hoop-jumping (getting very good at it now!) I never would have recommend coming here for just fun. Inane process. Now we're here. It's a ghost-town of course. But, the resort I'm in costs less than 1/3 what it did before, service is impeccable as there's NO ONE HERE, and the beach is the most beautiful I've ever seen in the last 13 years. Bangla Rd was VERY fun last night! I mean, I REALLY, REALLY wish the Missus was not with me. Mongers heaven. Even non-mongers would have loved it... Less than 10% of places are open, but those that are, holy smokes are they crowded! I, for one, admire and respect the massive middle finger being hoisted towards government inanity by the Patong bar scene. It is these types of crowds and activities that we're supposed to fear due to COVID risks. All are open-air. If COVID truly is so risky for us vaccinated sheeple, there should be DOZENS of foreigner cases in the next 2 weeks after what I saw last night. Something tells me we are not going to see that. Open the Gee Dee place up!!!! Give people something to live for! Thais of all walks of life deserve their lives back!

Fantastic! Moving from the nice quiet beach we've been at for our first week in the Scambox to walking distance from Bangla tomorrow. This looks like a hell of a lot more fun than sitting behind closed metal roll-up doors where I normally live in Thailand to have a beer! To be noted, the quiet beach we're at now has establishments where alcohol is available, right in the open, and I've seen police drive by, no questions, no one's afraid. I suspect even the local BiB are getting tired of this total BS. It has been a really, really nice experience. Pool villa at less than 1/3 what it used to cost pre-covid! Have the resort to ourselves. These are all outdoor places, literally almost zero risk of contracting COVID with the nice Southwest Monsoon rains, wind and humid air. Insanity that we can't drink this way truly legally.

Back in May I bought an MG EP in Thailand. 8000+km so far, and it's a fantastic vehicle so far. Fast, VERY CHEAP to run. I charge at our condo parking off a standard 3-pin outlet. I drive 90-120km per week day, it's about 80-100 baht per day paying the stupidly expensive 7 baht/unit electricity at the condo. if I had a house with 4.5 baht/unit electricity at my car park, it would be massively cheaper. With 380km (300 real world from what I've seen) range, I can go to work and back twice and still have range to spare. There is a 40kw charger across the street from me, 20% to 80% charge in less than 40mins while I eat food. Don't see the point of wires. This 50.3kw battery pack is pretty damned efficient, has 8 year warranty, and they can replace just one portion of the pack at a time if cells go bad (unlike a stupid Tesla) Car was 988,000 baht. Cheaper than a done-up Civic. To be noted, I still have a Ford Ranger for long trips and moving stuff around, but it stays parked most of the time nowadays. The EV is just way too fun to drive in comparison. Blowing away 'Wan Boys' and 'Isaan Ferarris' at stop lights is just WAY too fun.

I just got my COE for the Phuket Scambox approved Monday this week from the New York City Thai Consulate. On submitting my application (On what would have been a late Saturday night in Thailand time), I received a response within an hour via email asking for a signed letter guaranteeing that I had stayed in the USA for at least 21 days. I had no idea this existed and thank goodness I had purchased flights that gave us literally exactly 21 full days in the US. Anyways, wish this had been made known clearly before, I guess shame on me for missing something in the fine print, though I researched all this very carefully before departing. Thank goodness we just happened to meet the 21 day minimum.

I thought the same thing, and as we're attempting to enter the Phukked-up Scam-box in September, this is good news. So I looked it up. Bangkok Airways HKT direct to USM is $62 on 16th of September. ~2000 baht is a VERY good deal. I've been in Thailand 8 years and still never made it to Samui because every time I check, UTP (my local airport) to USM is usually 8-10k baht round trip! Stupid prices for a 1hr flight!

This one got me yesterday. My Thai GF figured it out... her job in Thailand is government liaison officer for a large power plant, and she has to take care of 48 separate government permits, some of which use the same 'file upload system' as the COE site. Thai Gov't must have a contract with whatever company that provides this web interface or something. So far no complaints about the USA CDC vaccine 'certificate' which shows nothing other than my name, the date and type and batch number of the injection. They did insist I send a personally signed letter guaranteeing that I had spent at least 21 days in the USA after departing Thailand... lucky for me as that is exactly the length of our stay here. Never heard of that requirement before. TIT....

As I understand, asymptomatic COVID is not required to be covered.... however, if you get tested positive and they shackle you up and throw you in a COVID prison "Hospitel", and it is asymptomatic, you will be paying out of your pocket as many of the policies don't cover you if you're asymptomatic (and why should they??) Girlfriend and I are going through this now, just completed my application yesterday. Flew to USA 17th Aug (and immediately went to a GROCERY STORE and got vaccinated for free, my choice of either Pfizer, Moderna or J&J! ???? ), flying back on 7th Sept. New York Thai Consulate replied back immediately yesterday after submitting my application demanding a signed letter guaranteeing that I had been in the USA at least 21 days. That was a surprise, never heard of any requirement to be in the USA for at least 21 days before going back... Lucky for me, we just happened to be here exactly 21 full days! My insurance premium for the remaining 273 days on my BOI Non-B 2-year multi-entry visa/work permit was 28,450 baht through AXA Thailand. The expense and relative difficulty for this trip is pretty mind-boggling. The only reason I'm willing to go through this is because I work in Thailand, there is literally no way I would consider doing this on my own dime. Much respect to those of you who are just going for fun/visit your sweetheart etc. Now to survive Hurricane Henri (Luckily now a tropical storm 'only')!! ????????

US literally doesn't ask you do do anything, no questions asked about vaccines, tests or anything! No quarantine in Rhode Island. Kinda crazy actually. Only need to wear a mask if you're unvaccinated and inside a public place. We did get RT-PCR tests in Pattaya before departure, literally only looked at once when checking in at the Emirates counter at Swampy. For 2 week hotel jail quarantine I'm referring to coming back to Thailand.

Astra takes many weeks to be fully vaccinated. J&J takes 2 weeks. For Tax reasons I can only spend a month in the USA every year. So, one J&J, wait 2 weeks while taking care of things at home, then fly back to work and 'enjoy' Phuket on the way there. Astra in Thailand and my trip home is delayed for months! (Thanks Loong Tuu!) J&J is slightly better than AZ as well... depending on how you look at it. In the end, statistics are statistics... what matters is your own genome and phenotype and how all that works together to accept/reject these experimental vaccines.

Did you read the part about I really wanted to go home and not sit in hotel jail for 2 weeks? I have a house in the USA that needs attention. I have nieces and nephew that barely know who I am. I live in Thailand for work, I'm not there for fun (though for sure it used to be very fun as well!) I totally agree about not fully tested, the experimental vaccines definitely freak me out even though I'm not an anti-vaxxer. But for my current goals, my personal risk assessment is that it's worth it. Knowing my luck the sandbox will be cancelled in the next week or two and I'll end up locked in a hotel room with the missus, no beer, <deleted> food AND having gone through the 'risk' of untested vaccination. Note that J&J has not been kind to me. I haven't felt this sick in years. Almost 36 hours now... hopefully today start feeling better.

To each their own. I haven't been home for 2 years, stuck in now hell-hole Thailand since end of 2019. I'm a very healthy 42 year old with literally no chance for a decent vaccine (still waiting on response for the donated Pfizer I registered for. At least tell me NO, you can't have it!) I don't consider Astra to be decent, was offered one shot of this already, and also will take months to get a 2nd dose where I would be allowed to go home, visit family and come back to work without having to sit in hotel jail for 14-15 days. Flying home now was the best option for me. Company paid business class, was able to stay away from others for the full 30+ hour trip in business lounges and separated seats on the flight (Emirates). Boarding the aircraft in Dubai was the most risky part, everyone bunching together to get on the flight and no organization from the staff. Other than that it was VERY easy to socially distance.

Jeffr2, have you tried to get back into the Phuket Sandbox, or at least applied for COE with the CDC card from Walgreens? I literally just yesterday flew into Rhode Island from Thailand, got my Jannsen one-and-done vaccine at Stop and Shop about 5 hours after landing. They would only give me the CDC card (Can buy these on Facebook in the USA for $5, and just make a fake one. Ridiculous!) Planning to go to Sandbox around 19th September, well past 2 weeks. Regarding your travels to France, the pharmacist mentioned that one of his customers was not able to enter France with his CDC card, and had to jump through a bunch of hoops to get the Rhode Island Dept. of Health official form apparently. Would much appreciate reporting back on your experiences!

Bangkok plates are literally meaningless. My girlfriend is from Rayong, works there, has a house there etc... Have Bangkok plates on her car. I have one car with Chonburi plates and another with Rayong plates.

Sitting in Swampy right now, just arrived by private car. A good friend of ours drove us from Na Jomtien to here, no need for any permits or anything, certainly no checkpoints. Just drive there. Trucking news here makes it sound like the country is completely locked down... It is decidedly NOT.

Girlfriend and I had RT-PCR test done at Pattaya Memorial Hospital yesterday morning. Picking up the hopefully negative results on the way to Swampy this evening, flying BKK-DXB-BOS at 1am. Emirates website says they demand RT-PCR test within 72hrs prior to leaving Thailand. On another website I saw that USA also needed it, and on yet another website I saw that Antigen test is actually suitable for entrance to USA. So RT-PCR it was. Haven't heard anything about a clinic at Swampy for pre-boarding test. 3500 baht each at Pattaya Memorial. BKK Pattaya is 3800 reportedly. Memorial was easy peasy. Parked car, walked 8m across a quiet street, sat outside away from everyone while they did paperwork etc. Downside was they make you go BEFORE the actual test, in-person, to register. That could be because we've never been to that hospital before, though, not sure. Seems ridiculous you can't register online or phone call though, given the situation here. TIT....