Polar Bear

I couldn't care less who does or doesn't get visa-free access anywhere. Country X can put whatever restrictions they want on visas, but if they do, citizens from Country X can't pout and whine about how unfair it is when they have similar restrictions imposed on them. If that baffles you, I'm sorry, but I don't think I can explain it in any simpler terms.

It's reciprocal. Thai tourists can go to China and Russia without a visa. (For China, it's due to start March 1st, but Thailand implemented it faster.) If you want visa-free access to Thailand, start pressuring your own government to give Thais visa-free access to your country.

You can put cat fencing on top of your fence. (It's lightweight netting, angled inwards to stop them climbing over). But it's likely to trap other things in your yard as well, especially because it only stops cats getting out, not getting in. Other than that, nothing is going to stop an outdoor cat from wandering. They will take a collar off, and they quickly learn that recorded barks are nothing to worry about.

I wasn't impressed with the dental clinic in Bumrungrad or the one in Medpark, I can't speak to the others. But I would recommend Dental Hospital Bangkok. It's near Habito Mall at Sukhumvit 77. http://www.dentalhospitalbangkok.com/ It's definitely not the cheapest in town, but it was cheaper than Bumrungrad (the work wasn't comparable at MedPark, so I'm not sure about that.) But the service and quality of work was excellent. That was for a replacement crown and a root canal.

If they are making 2 stops and both orders are from FoodPanda, it tells you in the app, and you don't see their route until they have finished the first drop and are headed to you. But if they pick up a second order from Grab or Robin Hood, you don't get a warning, and you can see where they are. I'd guess that they aren't supposed to do that, but it does seem to happen reasonably often.

Thanks for confirming this.

That would be my guess, that it would just potentially be less effective, but there could be other issues. Yellow Fever vaccine has a higher rate of adverse effects in people over 60, and some variants of the flu vaccine increase stroke risk in over-85s. But as Qdenga hasn't been tested in over 60s yet, the best you will find is anecdotal evidence.

It was from Mahidol, but the site seems to be down at the moment, so I can't get the link. I'll try to remember to post it later. This is an older paper, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.virol.2004.08.003 But it's going to depend what you are looking for and where you look. India has its own genotypes of all strains, and there are really nasty variants of DENV 1 and DENV 2 circulating there at the moment. DENV 4 doesn't generally circulate in Brazil, but they have sporadic outbreaks which usually results in a short epidemic. The last one I know of was about 10 years ago, but there may have been more recent ones because I don't particularly follow the literature from Brazil, so that might be out of date.

It was launched commercially last year, but it's been in large-stage trials (around 30,000 people) for over 5 years. It was developed here in Thailand at Maihdol.

DENV 1, 2, 3, and 4 are active in Thailand. The fifth strain was only recently identified and is not routinely tested for, so we don't know how prevalent it is anywhere. DENV 1 used to be the most common in Thailand, followed by DENV 2, then it switched, and DENV 2 became dominant. DENV 4 is usually the least common everywhere, but it is also potentially the most serious and the one most likely to cause hemorrhagic fever in a subsequent infection. Also, for unknown reasons, people seem to be more susceptible to DENV 4 after having had a previous infection of another strain. DENV 4 is still the least common strain in Thailand, but it's rising and fast, and Bangkok is considered to be one of the highest-risk locations for it globally. There are at least 3 different genotypes of DENV 4 circulating in Bangkok.

Qdenga is authorised in the EU for people who are seropositive or seronegative, but it's not recommended for seronegative tourists because they don't need it, not because of safety concerns. This is because the risk profile is very different in the EU. For (most) people, the first Dengue infection is mild. Many people don't even know they had it. I've given the breakdown on this before, but if you live in Thailand, you can expect to catch Dengue roughly once every 10 years. If you were born here, you are likely to be on your second or third infection by the time you are in your mid-20s. So if you live here long term, even if you have never had Dengue before, statistically, it's highly likely that you are going to get it eventually, and probably more than once. Someone living in, say, Germany is not going to catch Dengue locally. If they visit Thailand once a year, every year, staying for a month every time, they could expect to catch Dengue once every 100 years. They would have to be extremely unlucky or wildly reckless with bite prevention hygiene to catch it twice. Since the vaccination is primarily helpful for preventing the potentially very serious effects of a subsequent infection, it's going to be of limited use to them. Of course, the flip side of that is that if they are a regular visitor, they might not know they are seropositive if they have been infected, but it was mild. So then they would be recommended to get vaccinated, but as they are never likely to be tested, they won't know they need it. Unless they catch again, in which case they might find out the hard way. Qdenga is not licensed for over 60s because it hasn't been tested, but it isn't contraindicated. You may well find a private clinic willing to do it, if both sides are happy to accept the potential risk. It's not a decision that should be taken likely, but if you have had 2 infections already, it would certainly be worth speaking to a doctor about your own personal risk profile.

I can't use Krungthai with Surfshark. I wonder what the difference is?

As already suggested, Ibis is usually pet-friendly. If you want something more upmarket, Anantasila in Hua Hin and Rabbit Resort in Pattaya are both nice.

Are you connecting through wifi on a router that has a VPN? Because if it's just on your phone, you should be able to toggle it. (I have several Samsung devices with VPNs, and they all toggle.) If you think it might be the router, try connecting to the app via mobile data instead. (I can't access either of my Thai accounts or my UK accounts if I have a VPN on.)

It depends on when they were born and how your daughter got her citizenship. https://www.gov.uk/apply-citizenship-british-parent

Good luck finding an NHS dentist who's still taking patients on in the UK.

There's no 6-month requirement when a Brit is returning to the UK, as long as it's a direct flight. If you have a connection, different rules might apply in the transit country.

Pretty sure I didn't. I got a message about it expiring. For the second year, that was fine since they were at basically the same time, but the first time, when I had to wait to renew, I think I'd have seen it. But I will watch out this year and see if anything comes through.

Maybe it doesn't show until after it's been renewed? I just looked again, and mine says it started in March 2022, but it was actually 2021, so that's from the 1st renewal, not from when I first registered it. I'll see what happens this year.

Yes, except we paid 1,790 THB to renew (you can see the price in 'My Package'), but we've renewed it twice now, so it was probably just cheaper when we first bought it.

I have this package, and AIS insisted that it couldn't be renewed. The option appeared in the app about 1 month after it expired (so I didn't have a package for about a month and just had to pay.) My husband got the renew option about 1 week after expiry. I don't know why it was different. We just had to top up the general credit in the app, and then we could renew using that balance. Since the first renewal, we've been able to renew immediately when the package expired. I've never had a text message or notification about renewal. I can top up in the app. If you go to the packages tab, but DON'T click on My Packages. Scroll to the top where it tells you your balance, and there should be a top-up button next to it. If that doesn't work, you can probably top up through your Thai bank account to your phone number.

As no-one else seems to be offering anything helpful... I haven't been through the process for Thailand, but I've done it for other countries, and yes, it was exactly as you describe. I've never been asked for transcripts anywhere. That's more of an American thing. Not all British universities even provide them. But if you've been told you need them, you probably do. In which case, you will need to have every page certified. Most places seem to accept the basic Disclosure and Barring Service certificate now. Some still want an ACRO certificate, but if you are working with kids, I'd think an ICPC would be OK, too. If it's anything like other aspects of Thai immigration, the exact details will be extremely vague and largely at the whim of whoever deals with your paperwork on the day,

Do you mean the QR code for the video training? If so, you complete the video training, and at the end, you can download the QR code, which is linked to your results, to confirm you did it. You just show it to the people at DLT. You don't have to do anything with it yourself.

What type of QR code? What are you trying to do with it? Are you trying to go to a webpage, pay for something, download an app, etc.?

We've used 5-year licences in the UK multiple times without an issue. We usually book through Drivalia because it's convenient for us. The only thing to watch out for is that you have to have held a licence for a year, so if it's been renewed recently, take a copy of your old one with you to show you've held the licence longer than that. Having said that, they told me to take a copy of my old licence and then they never asked for it, so maybe it doesn't matter.