Callmeishmael

Well, Monday came and went with no more positive tests. However, the kids and the Thai teachers are not very good and social distancing. We will see how the tests turn out next Monday!

You forgot the Graduate Degree, the proof in x-amount of income, and whatever other nonsense that they can dream up to make this unusable for any real digital nomad.

If you have a PhD and experience in teaching and have some published research papers, most Thai universities would snap you up right away, regardless of your age. Universities are rated on the percent of their faculty with PhDs and the number of papers published. If you can make those numbers look better, you will be a real prize for them!

It was already changing to be more Chinese - Thai style. Fewer open bars with cute, brown Isaan girls, more discreet closed buildings with 'white' northern girls that appeal to Asian tastes. Also, as Chewit pointed out, prostitution is moving online, rather than have to go to a bar and talk to a bunch of old men, the girls will just check their phones once in a while to see if they have any new customers.

My school has been doing a phased reopening, with different grades showing up every few days. All of the students and teachers have to do weekly ATK tests and submit them online every Sunday night or Monday morning. One of the moms thought that two lines was negative and brought her daughter the school! The school nurse noticed the results while going through the pictures of the results and the girl was quickly isolated and her mom was called to pick her up. With hundreds of students being tested I will not be surprised to see some more positive tests on Monday!

Politician/gangster/businessman is a surprisingly common job description in Thailand!

Can you spot the Chinese in this picture?

I see only one small door toward the stern of the boat. How long will it take people to exit and enter the ferry?

If they will supply vaccines other than A-Z or SInovac, I'm sure that people will take them. If they push the marginally effective Sinovac or A-Z with it's reputation for side-effects, people will continue to be reluctant to get Vacc'd. Also, are vaccines even available outside of the big cities?

Here in Bangkok a friend's mother died of covid and his father spent a couple of weeks in the hospital. Another friend's mother was on a ventilator for a few weeks, but slowly recovered. A couple of foreign friend also got sick with covid, one (a half-Thai with a Thai passport) went to a field hospital with his wife and 3 kids. The other one didn't tell anyone, just self-isolated in his room until he recovered.

I got a message from my school a couple of days ago: Any teacher that got 2 Sinovac OR Sinopharm shots should get a 3rd booster shot of a different vaccine before coming back to school. It seems that even Thai-Chinese school owners don't trust either of the Chinese vaccines!

A quick, informal survey of my P4 - P6 students showed that about at least 1/4 of them lived in the same house as their grandparents. Before opening the schools should be asking how many of the students grandparents have been vaccinated? Given the governments priorities unless those grandparents are in the military or work for a company that is owned be some high-so person, I would be surprised if they were all jabbed.

I've got a different problem. Back in June & July I signed up for Expatvac for over 60s and got two Sinovac shots (there were no AZ shots available when I was finally was able to make an appointment). Now, my school has informed me that we will be opening in-person classes on 7 December and any teachers who go Sinovac or Sinopharm shots will need a 3rd booster of any other kind of vaccine! I know that many people are still awaiting their first or second shot, does anyone have a suggestion as to how foreigner can get a AZ or Pfizer booster in Bangkok?

Judging from the pictures in his tweet, proof of vaccination is needed to enter the building. If you don't have that it looks like you just have to fill out an extra form.

The criteria for reopening is limited class sizes - no more than 25 students per class - and the students are supposed to sit 1.5 meters apart. Most International and some private schools already have smaller class sizes than that and can easily find rooms that are big enough. Most government school have 35 to 50 students per class and smaller rooms. Until these criteria are relaxed, the government schools simply cannot open.

^the printscreen button and paste into Paint will work in windows.

How long will Lisa and Andrea have to stay in ASQ hotels? Will they have to pay for their own virus tests? AND... What will happen to them if they happen to test positive! ????

I went out to dinner for the first time in months last night. Of course no beer was served.... but the tea was nice and cold with a good foamy head! ????

I would be very surprised if they learned any lessons at all! We will see what happens when the floodwaters come.

If you are looking for decent Mexican (and no, I wouldn't call Taco Bell decent or even Mexican!) you should try Que Pasa, up near Nicha Tani.

“If you consider all key indicators, you will realize that Bangkok has nothing to worry about,” said Dr. Sutat Weesakul, director of the Hydro-Informatics Institute." After reading that I think we can be quite confident that the exact opposite will happen! ????

Back in 2011 the government assured everyone that "central Bangkok" will not flood. However, the exact boundaries of central Bangkok were never clearly defined. Finally someone came up with a good definition: "If your feet are wet, you are not in central Bangkok!".

2 Sinovac shots. No reaction to the first shot and just a painless rash for the second shot.

The MOE arranged vaccinations for Thai teachers a few months ago. Foreign teachers were not included in the scheme, even if their school submitted their names. The real question is parents and grandparents. Despite masks and hand-washing kids are little disease vectors and many Thais live in multiple-generation families. Have all of the grandparents been vaccinated? The last time I checked the percent of over-60s who had been vaccinated was lagging far behind the percent of the general population that had been vaccinated.

My wife and I went to Immigration yesterday to get another annual extension for my "Thai Wife" visa. It took us 7 hours to get everything done! While we were waiting I was chatting with another foreigner and we both casually mentioned corruption and agents during our conversation. My wife thought that we were exaggerating, but after talking to an agent who was in line near us, she not only found out we were right, but had a price list for various types of visas! I do everything by the book, but I would swear that Immigration deliberately makes things difficult for us, so that we will be pushed into using an agent!