Trvlr55

at least what she says now is correct. Being banned from politics is a political death sentence; but that was the point!

One could just stand on sky-walk over Asok and Sukhumvit and film the huge amount of motorcycles on zebra crossings, and then take sky-walk to next intersection. Easy money for 30 minutes work.

Removing PCR test pre-flight was just a gimmick. Going to ATK or arrival is a good 1st step. However counties need to stop worrying about people that are actually sick, and not those with no symptoms or a mild cold... Really there is zero need to quarantine people for these conditions. Late last year, Cambodia stopped reporting "or worrying about" these types of cases, and only report those hospitalized. This is the way forward. Covid is endemic, no real reason to wait for some arbitrary point that is 100 percent guaranteed to happen within months.

If you are from a country that has QR code for vaccine, and everything is submitted "perfectly" can be very fast; however even then depending on how busy their computer program/server is; if overloaded, overflow will be dumped into a manual que process, then it's going to take quite a while, many times more than the quoted time. If you are from US or other places where there is no QR code for vaccine, you're automatically put into the manual que. My 1st submission late Nov last year, 10 days, then rejected. 2nd submission was around 8 or 9 days I recall, and even then had to contact the embassy on their FB page to get it prioritized. a few days is really pushing it, but you might get lucky.

PCR test on arrival is switching to ATK next month, so the one day SHA hotel requirements will also go away. Before that, mostly will depend on level of hotel you choose as your SHA stay, PCR costs are fairly standard.

Agreed, would not recommend. Additionally taking a check is no different that carrying cash as far as the 10k cash reporting, or it can be seized. This is for US, not certain other countries reporting requirements, but would suspect they'd be same or very similar. Travelers leaving or entering the U.S. are required to report negotiable monetary instruments (i.e. currency or endorsed checks) valued more than $10,000 on a "Report of International Transportation of Currency or Monetary Instruments" FinCEN Form 105. The requirement to report currency on a FinCEN 105 does not apply to imports of gold bullion. You can obtain the form at www.fincen.gov or request one from the CBP Officer if required. Failure to declare currency in amounts more than $10,000 can result in its seizure. Another thing I recently discovered: if a couple takes 10k or more, it's not as simple as splitting it up, so each person has less that 10K, they count it as a combined sum; they do look for this a lot more than in the past, due to various schemes of global money laundering. Don't even have to be married, only traveling together.

Departures from US, they will always ask for onward ticket, if not found on your itinerary, and will deny if you do not have. I spent $70USD for onward ticket to PP, and that was accepted. I flew in before Christmas, and IO on arrival insisted to see my hotel "after ASQ" before approving.

It looks like an N95 Covid mask

Removal of pre-flight PCR had no effect. Changing day 5 from mini-quarantine PCR test to ATK makes a huge difference. They really need go to ATK only on arrival, but now that summer if quickly approaching arrival numbers are historically low. They've missing out for yet another high season already. Even on ATK on arrival, positives should be MAX of 5 day quarantine; Omicron is completely different that previous variants, however the "science" used has not kept up with current conditions.

XE is yet another variant of Omicron, not a completely separate variant. Will be yet another variant of sore throats, mild colds. Continuing to live in fear for Covid is just living in the past. Omicron due to it's high infection rate has overtaken all other variants, but to anyone vaccinated, is not a threat; that's been established for some time now. https://abcnews.go.com/Health/covid-19-variant-xe-identified-experts-alarmed/story?id=83862042 The variant, known as XE, is a combination of the original BA.1 omicron variant and its subvariant BA.2. This type of combination is known as a "recombinant" variant. Public health experts say that recombinant variants are very common and often crop up and disappear on their own. "Right now, there's really no public health concern," said Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist and chief innovation officer at Boston Children's Hospital and an ABC News contributor. "Recombinant variants happen over and over. In fact, the reason that this is the XE variant recombinant is that we've had XA, XB, XC, XD already, and none of those have turned out to be any real concern."

It is not that complex. Ukraine is a sovereign country. Russia attacks them with no provocation. Russia is slaughtering men, women and children with impunity. War crimes en mass. If Putin successfully conquers Ukraine, there is a long list of other countries that will follow that same fate.

When I flew back to US late Feb, ATK certificate was very briefly looked at when checking in to Bangkok Airport, but after that never asked again. US immigration was not interested at all.

Yes that's how it worked for me. I did not get request to upload for over 2 weeks after day 5. and you can not manually upload without the link. Color does change to green once upload a negative test. Also is quite helpful when requested to show recent test results. You will never find a Thai that will admit they don't know what something is, so they smile and say "very good thanks! "

One is fine, having a backup copy just for peace of mind can be a good thing. Probably spend over an hour in Japan with a lady who kept wanting to find reasons I could be denied, so had to keep telling her she was looking at wrong program, and at end my 1st copy was not in the best of order, so reverted to 2nd copy for IMM in Bangkok.

Exactly right! It also does not mean to keep on wearing masks and other restrictions, but lifting restrictions and getting life back to some sort of norm. Endemic means ranking it similar to the flu, pneumonia among others. So many people don't wear N95 masks and/or wear them improperly, so is really a joke, and outdoors is pretty much useless, as is wearing them on motorcycles with no helmets. If restrictions are not lifted soon there will be no economy left to go back to. Apparently this is OK for some, but for the vast majority of the population is a very bleak irreversible future, with many already experiencing quite difficult times. The current variants are to vax'd people of little consequence. Those that are unvax'd at this point, is their preference. The whole point of the vaccines was to reduce the possibility of serious sickness, and death, not a 100 percent solution. Cold like symptoms or a scratchy throat is no reason to keep the world locked down any further.

doubt that service is available. https://www.unionpayintl.com/en/ they do have contact/help desk setup for inquiries. however to me appears more of another service to allow some Chinese credit cards to be accepted at ATM's overseas, not for moving money between cards.

Yes I had ATK and was just fine. US has never had PCR testing requirements.

pretty much fake news here. there is no correlation. New variants are very weak "assuming vaccinated population". In Thailand anyone who wants to be vaccinated can already be fully vaccinated, and they're not going to be hospitalized. They'll get a cold. maybe a sore throat, or many no symptoms. If someone requires a test to tell them they are sick... how sick are they really? Those who choose not to be vaccinated are accepting the risk for themselves. Let's not have a 3rd year of useless shutdowns, and masses of people not able to make a livable wage.

Did not see it mentioned here so far, but entry back into Thailand, you will be required to go through the Thaipass process; you can't just fly back to Thailand without it. Although this maybe changes within the coming months, this is the situation now.

Curfew? That ended sometime ago. Bars have to close 11PM, but general curfew's not been around for some time now.

It is not just about education. Until enforcement of rules of the road "in general" are enforced, nothing will improve. Education alone will do nothing for the millions of already licensed drivers in Thailand. After the cop that ran over the doctor, I've not seen so far that he has been charged... Amazing! For this accident, one would think there is some camera footage of this event, and hopefully they've looked at it. In Bangkok, there is a police mini-station at every major intersection, however 24x7 the zebra crossings are "always" filled with motorcycles waiting for the light to turn green. Zero enforcement. These crossing are right there, not way down the street, but nothing ever happens. In the middle of the day, in heavy traffic, I observed 2 RTP on one motorcycle, right on Sukhumvit, do a T-turn right into traffic, because they missed their turnoff to one of the Soi's. What was the big rush? They almost missed the event: 25-30 RTP descending on some very small street vendors; they almost missed the photo events! A week earlier, I observed one rather hefty RTP leave one of the police mini-stations, also right on Sukhumvit, and go blasting down the middle of the sidewalk down to the next side road, with a lot of pedestrians present, as if it was something he did everyday. Then again, it probably is.

As other's have said, not much they can really do. the one exception I could think of: on Facebook, everyday I see many people complain they've been denied Thaipass, and generally it comes down to the fact they don't really bother to actually read the requirements.... i.e. they upload something from say 'Agoda' for their hotel, which was only reserved not fully paid, and also have not paid for their PCR tests, instead of having contacted the hotel, been send the officially required confirmation letter, after having paid up front for everything, then wondering why they've been shot down multiple times "I sent the same exact documents twice, and was denied both times!!! OMG what do I do now!!.... for some; again "assuming" and agent is actually going to verify that all submitted documents are the correct ones, before uploading, then an agent could be a good idea. Another good one is how can I upload my required 72 hours pre-flight PCR test results when I am applying 20 days before my flight!! OMG what do I do now!! It is a lot more complicated that it should be, but if you read the FAQ carefully, and understand what they are asking for at each step, it's not that hard really.

Thanks, that's the answer I was looking for. Saw this was being "looked at" quite a while ago, year or more. article seems to say it was ready for applications.

All the information is out there actually. If one tests positive, ASSUMING you are actually sick, send to a hospital all is good and insurance will cover it, everything, probably not! now for those who have no symptoms, or a headache/mild cold, etc, then that person goes to a hospitel... a hotel basically where they are isolated in a hotel room for up to 10 days. They are not LEGALLY SICK. No private insurance company is going to cover something like this which is a government man-dated quarantine. People can angry on forums and Facebook, rage and complain, but this is NOT what insurance is for. ANY insurance policy will have a list of benefits, and overages. Staying in a hotel, is not part of ANY insurance policy. There are places like Aruba, where a 30 day stay costs me around 30 or $35 USD total, early last year. that is private insurance label, but is completely underwritten by Aruba's government where they do pay for everything., however that is not is available in Thailand. There they actually realize that tourism accounts for 95% of all jobs. The latest decree was cleverly worded to say something like. The traveler WILL INSURE that the insurance they purchase will completely cover everything, and if not the TRAVELER is responsible for all costs not covered.. IF they actually wanted insurance companies to cover everything they would have said "insurance companies" and NOT the traveler! And of course they would not be able to regulate any foreign insurance companies. However if they made this policy, then Covid insurance would be 10X or 20X what is currently quoted. Traveling ANYWHERE there is test of arrival, is a financial risk. Private insurance companies are "for profit" companies, and paying unlimited hotel bills, many that are 4 and 5 stars, food, etc, would bankrupt many insurance companies at the current level of quarantines, and at the current insurance rates. Again this is why the burden was put on the Traveler, and not the insurance companies.

says that the company on the included link will summarize the requirements however going to that link is all about signing up for different types of insurance, no information about these new programs. Is there any real information about how these programs works specifically? thanks!