AMFWolfie

Why would I/We need "Have written/electronic confirmation of hotel bookings in Thailand" If I am simply going home or is this just another way of saying you still have to do a days quarantine while you get the result of a Covid test on Arrival... So actually not done away with quarantine completely after all.

8 hours ago, SoilSpoil said:

Quite some government hospitals I've been to (Chiang Rai for example) have a rather medieval feeling to them with stretchers with dying people in the hallways, and whole families camping in tents outside, waiting for the bad news moment. This is just my own observation, mind you. Healthcare is only topnotch here, if you can afford it. 

 

How about the Burmese labourers in Samut Sakon, who had Covid? Barbed wired factories. 

Tend to agree, seems half sensible if you are paying top dollar but as I've done both when I had a work permit, the government hospital are not that bad. Yes some give the impression they are somewhat dated but unlike our NHS which seems to spend money on equipment and no, not the essential stuff, I mean beds, trollies. stretchers, the sort of stuff that looks dated in a Thai hospital yet it's still fully functional. With UK budgets if the NHS department doesn't spend all their money, then its decided its not needed and reduced the following year which is why the companies that supply hospitals and theatres in the UK still say with an NHS contract its a license to print money!! Not criticizing the NHS just its infrastructure run very much ,like local government and would not survive if a

private company carried on the same way.. apologies slightly off track here but Thai hospitals, private or government are pretty well run by anyone's standards..

On 10/14/2021 at 8:18 AM, JustAnotherHun said:

UK, Germany and, yes!, China are three of them afaik

UK and USA is NOT one of the 10 but because of the large number of vaccines they will be added to the list.

I think as in the UK, there is a massive difference in going to the pub for a beer with, or meeting some mates enjoying social interaction/bantering or going to a club  with the sole intention of getting wasted, meeting members of the opposite sex and parting to the early hours. Possibly do less of the latter the older we get but the risks of contracting colds, flu or Covid will be far less in an outside open bar than an enclosed club with sealed aircon. That's proven fact not guesswork so surely a soft opening as they did in the UK would be the way forward. Easy to monitor and regulate and to be fair, would satisfy a very large majority or ex-pats and tourists alike especially if it meant there was more likelihood of everything remaining open until Covid was under control enough to open the night clubs...

One of the biggest concerns to most of the bar owners still forced to pay the draconian Key money upfront just so they can open the bar, only to find it all shutdown again in a month or two..

6 hours ago, Fujionrye said:

What does reopen mean?

 

What about for those people who live in a "Sandbox" area. When can we expect to avoid all these hotels and quarantine at home like the UK?

15 hours ago, asiasurfer said:

Another piece of nonsense. By the time I had scrolled down to the last message of thIs page, I forgot what the actual slogan is... 

Not the slogan we need to worry about, its the continuous plugging of Phuket that makes me think there must be loads of government officials with investments or interest in Phuket. What about all the other provinces that heavily rely on tourism and surely before anyone starts to get interested in returning to Thailand as a serious holiday maker, Thailand needs to put its house in order and open International travel and open the nightlife with alcohol. Very few people following what's occurring in Thailand will be enticed to go there until the reports start filtering through stating everything is back to normal. A single island known for its scams and corruption simply wont cut it apart from an odd desperate few

16 hours ago, worgeordie said:

Next it will be just giving people a look at a vial .....job done.

I received my Astrazeneca jab a few weeks ago , i was expecting

some kind of reaction ,  nothing at all, I did not even feel the needle

go in, no mark on my arm, I am wondering if it even happened ,????????

 

Authorities have also decided to administer separate shots of Sinovac's vaccine followed by that of AstraZeneca, a technique yet to be adopted elsewhere.  ... trial and error ????

regards worgeordie

Not sure whether to say you were one of the lucky ones but wife and I had mine in the UK, May and 2nd dose July. Felt both of the injections and didn't feel too clever the next day on both occasions which almost without exception, was the case with everyone else I spoke to who had the Astra Zeneca vaccine, felt <deleted> for 24-36 hours after. Let hope it was the genuine article not a placebo!! 

7 hours ago, smedly said:

define open ?  what exactly is open when pretty much everything is shut 

 

I wasn't being serious, in saying that - fully vaccinated foreign tourists are not the threat, the threat is within Thailand - their vaccine rollout and the vaccines used - plus the level of testing 

 

Why would western foreign tourists come here when basically everything is shut and they run the risk of getting a local infection - Chinese tourists are different, they get bused around to specific spots from specific hotels they don't get or seem to want a western type holiday experience - sandbox 101 ....................it fits like a glove 

 

I have had 3 friends message me recently about coming here because they heard Thailand was "open" 1st Oct - I told them nothing is open 1st Oct you are better off where you are for now

Agreed. Keep hearing everything is going to open, the sandbox success etc but still no proper International flights and still very little open. Was hoping to fly back to my house in Thailand in November but just cant see it happening no matter how much would like to..

20 hours ago, samtam said:

Plans and hopes. Thoughts and prayers.

Maybe I missed it but with very little open to support these tourists, what would be the point of coming!! Can sit on a beach in any hot country like Antigua which I believe is fully open. Much the same for returning ex-pats like myself. Fortunate to have a home in the UK with the wife who would dearly love to come home to Thailand but what would we do when we get there with nothing open. Need to sort the country and resident population out first without worrying to much about tourists...

3 hours ago, mtls2005 said:

 

Thanks perfesser, not condescending at all. ????

 

It is black and white: The thai regime feels the need to administer boosters to all with sinovac 2X, and the regime will stop using sinovac as of November.

 

And when you're trying to convince a population that vaccinations are safe and effective, there are only two outcomes. So not complex at all.

 

 

And if I recall the suggestion is to use AZ as a 2nd dose to everyone who has a first dose of Sinovac to give it some chance of increasing the effectiveness above 50%!! Have heard stories of people having had two shots of Sinovac and a few month later not finding any of the anti-bodies provided by this vaccine in the body. This points to the effectiveness not lasting but then again this came from Thai social media groups so read into it as you will..

On 8/28/2021 at 4:40 PM, DrJack54 said:

What's more is that previous "good days" were ~ 550k.

Then what?...... get serious and crank it up to ~916k

Absolute nonsense. 

AND...since the rollout commenced in February2021!! I think not. The only vaccinated then were the rich, influential and powerful. This is a typical Thai publicity stunt although I would love it  if it was the truth and could be substantiated with facts like which vaccine, how they keeping it cold in the vaccination area which incidentally doesn't appear to be being advertised anywhere to get nearly a million people through their doors...

4 hours ago, Dmaxdan said:

Being a ex-copper, he is going to have to watch his back with the other inmates once his lengthy prison sentence starts.

 

So this police chief or whatever he was drove a Lamborghini and lived way above his means and no one thought it suspicious or a bit odd!! being on the take for years and will never see the inside of a prison cell. He's out the country already and you probably wont hear about it again. The drug dealer offer 1 million but he wanted 2 million and was determined to get it...funny its all over Thai social media with the actual unedited video but not the news on here...

6 hours ago, nkg said:

 

Yes, that's about right. Using your figures:

 

1,000,000,000 / 15,000 / 39

= 1,709 baht/day per person

 

$51/day. That's not a huge amount of money to spend on holiday, surely, when you include the cost of your hotel?

 

I suppose if you booked the cheapest SHA+ hotel on the island, and spent 14 days in your room eating Mama noodles and drinking lao khao, you might be able to spend less than 1,000 baht a day ...

Agreed.. £50 a day would be about right for most Brits and would not be unreasonable and that's without the hotel. My concern is, if a returning ex-pat trying to get back to Pattaya as an example, what would you do when you get home with everything closed. Sure you have the weather which is fast disintegrating in the UK albeit promises of good weather end of August but, with everywhere on lockdown, very little to do once back and with little sign of a vaccination rollout despite vague, unrealistic promises its going to happen, I'm not sure how long the success of the Sandbox scheme is going to work. Would love to see genuine figures of how many "tourists" are actually going to Phuket  for a holiday and then returning home and how many are transit returning ex-pats.

4 hours ago, Robs5ct said:

does the sandbox come to a stop now ? lol

 

Been told it all comes to a stop in 7 days but nothing on here or in local news so will see how accurate "sources" are. Never really understood how it could work for any length of time with only a small percentage of the islanders vaccinated for such a short time. If, as the government said they would do and vaccinate the 70,000 islanders starting back in February so all would have had both doses by 1st July, it stood a really good chance of working especially as everyone going to Phuket had to be double dosed AND a negative PCR test, there was little risk of Covid getting in and out of control which it obviously has. As it turns out they let in people from Pattaya and surrounding areas with no vaccinations as well as "workers" from outside also not vaccinated and probably not tested!! Greed simply took over again and now its failed miserably

15 hours ago, riclag said:

Originally I thought the sandbox was a good idea but the Govt screwed it up by not taking "enough precautions " ,construction workers testing positive and bad mitigation standards. Now with some vaccers being infected due to the Dvirus and being Quarantined ,I believe the experiment has run its course ! IMOP !

Not vaccinating the entire island, this was a forgone conclusion. How short-sighted or was it the overwhelming greed to open up Phuket for the business controlled/owned by government officials who pushed for this to happen... I wonder....

4 hours ago, ThailandRyan said:

What the ?  Why ?  Of course they still have sinovac to use, how stupid of me to think otherwise.

That could prove to be a problem for anyone wanting to return to the UK. Just announced from Monday anyone double vaccinated with MDA or FDA approved covid vaccination's will not have to self isolate for 10 days. Chinese and Russian not approved so will effect anyone who's had a mixture of the two I would think!!

Not seen any press release about the right to actually own land/property in a foreigners name so who in their right mind would invest $1 million in Thailand.  Unless I've missed something and they expect the investment to be in some other arena.. delusional and getting fed up with reading the same old nonsense as if its important headlines!!

2 hours ago, khunPer said:

Many rich people from my home country would be overwhelmed with happiness to pay only 35 percent income tax, but those that intended to move out for tax reasons have probably already done so, and pay even less income tax...????

Maybe I'm missing something here. Surely income tax is only paid on actual income generated in Thailand. How will this effect wealthy retirees or anyone they are looking to attract that is not actually working in Thailand??

Would really like to see some interesting information and reporting on actually how Phuket is doing! i.e. what are the infections, how many from the new tourists, if any, how many arriving from other parts of Thailand although I was under the impression no one could go to Phuket unless they had both vaccinations and a negative Covid test!! That said I have friends in Pattaya recon they are going because everything is open and back to normal as was Koh Samet. I know for a fact they have not been vaccinated so whats the idea/restrictions with that then???

20 hours ago, Mavideol said:

to much stupidity that I was running out of words ... and they can't get the vaccination done, one has to wonder what their priorities are 555  ROFL

The only space exploration this lot are doing is barking at the moon!! Just their way of doing away with any future barriers, Just in case there is some barking company out there that wants to invest in some dodgy enterprise regarding rockets and space travel in the future!! Wont even waste my breath on the commenting on the vaccine rollout..