Capella

When I were a lad, all we had to eat for a whole year was a bag of gravel. Worked 200 hours a week down the mill, so we did.

Pat krapao with a fried egg on top is heaven sent. One of the world's best lunch dishes.

The first English teaching job I had in Thailand paid 80 Baht per hour. That was back in 1989 though.

Mine too - some nights out I'll never forget on that stuff.

Driving on acid? No way I could imagine doing that.

Given the sheer volume of applications, and that mine was approved over a weekend, I think that it must be the case that the process is highly automated. No need to OCR the reservations as the name of the hotel and dates chosen from a drop down list. Probably nobody looks at the reservation itself, and it's simply forwarded to the hotel along with the name and dates for the hotel to authenticate, which then advances the workflow automatically. The vaccination part of the application contains a separate section to upload enlarged QR codes from the vaccination certificate for faster (probably automated) processing. It's probably important here to ensure that the QR codes on these enlargements are clear, and not blurred as can sometimes happen with enlarged jpeg images. I did this by zooming into the original Australian pdf vaccine certificate until the QR codes filled the screen, then snipped the QR code and converted it into a high quality jpeg where all the tiny squares were perfectly visible. In Australia you only get one certificate for both vaccinations so I used the same QR code in both sections of the application form. Illegible QR codes likely require human intervention, showing down the process.

Applied T&G Friday 4th Feb, got the approval Sunday 6th Feb. Surprised that they are working on the weekend, or maybe an automated workflow once the hotel approves. I used same hotel for both PCR test days.

From here: https://ourworldindata.org/energy/country/thailand - scroll down and you'll see Thailand's energy mix - the numbers I quoted are for 2020, i.e. recently. You'll see that coal and oil make up almost two thirds of Thailand's power generation, something I was surprised to see. Many countries import and export electricity - for example, Britain buys (mainly nuclear generated) electricity from France to make up it's domestic capacity shortfall for appearing green and demolishing nuclear and coal fired power stations - wind turbines only work when ther is wind, and in the winter there sometimes isn't any. Similarly, the west buys goods that it used to make that are now made in China using dirty heavy industry - the west having closed down most of its own heavy industry. All in all, a rearrangement of smokestacks around the world.

Natural gas only accounts for only a third of Thailand's power generation, the remaining two thirds coming from dirty old coal and oil. Scrubbers in power stations can remove soot, NOx and other pollutants, just as catalytic converters do in vehicles, but they don't remove greenhouse gases like CO2 - which natural gas, coal and oil all emit into the atmosphere when burned. Electrified trains use an awful lot of power, several Megawatts of it, so losses in transmission lines, cost of building them, etc, would make any pollution gains insignificant when compared with other ways of reducing pollution. Not sure about modern Chinese locomotives being dirty either - I too always equate Chinese technology with shoddy quality and dirt, but it really is advancing rapidly. They export around the world, which means that they're likely lifting their game rapidly in that regard, having to confirm to international standards on exhaust emissions.

Natural gas is touted as green, but it isn't. It's a fossil fuel hydrocarbon that emits CO2 when it burns. The only advantage is that it doesn't emit soot and other particles in the same way coal and oil do, although scrubbing of exhaust mitigates this. Hydro power only makes up less than 3% of Thailand’s energy mix, so it's insignificant. No nuclear power stations have been commissioned yet. Back to my original point, electrifying Thailand's rail network would have no benefit on pollution.

In Thailand, all electric trains would do is shift the pollution to a power station. Thailand generates 97% of its electricity using fossil fuels - oil, coal and gas.

You sound really snobbish and patronising. I think more to the point is that Isaaners don't trust the government.

Don't be so ridiculous. I've had all the jabs, wear masks, etc, high immunity (according to the CDC) because I've had covid. If people are scared of catching covid, they're welcome to stay at home.

I'd say three things: I've had both the vaccine and covid itself so I've got more chance of getting struck by lightning than ending up in hospital; I can afford expensive hospitals; I'm Thai so have healthcare anyway. Next question?

Agreed - looking at the mess some western countries are in, and how the culture has changed for the worse, Thailand is not all that bad. But some people just like complaining ????

How long will the applications take to process?

Is there a list of hotels in Samut Prakan that support Test & Go?

Quick question: If I want to book my own SHA++ hotel, and testing, where do I book the testing? The old sandbox system had an approved testing provider that accepted online bookings.

N95 masks of course offer more protection against nasties like Covid and also PM2.5, but they're too expensive for your average Thai. Who would pay for them?

Aside from it's availability, The TP site doesn't do security either, as it's been hacked - I just got an almost authentic looking email asking me to 'modify my information'. It redirects to a site that asks users to click a 'modify' button that would instead download a file - a malware script. When going to the TP site now, there is a popup warning against the malware download. It's all a bit slack, along with my email address, the hackers will now have a copy of my passport, hotel arrangements, etc.

That's tough. What about people who are too old to get health insurance but have enough money to look after themselves? Leaving Thailand is one way for them.

I'll give it just a few more weeks before they scrap the whole system (or simplify ot substantially) and open up like everywhere else is doing.

That's completely fabricated and untrue. Covid admissions to hospitals here in NSW are accounting for only around 15% capacity, even following a peak infection period when 100,000 plus were catching it daily. The number of deaths, while very regrettable, is a tiny fraction of infections Australia wide 1.85 million infections versus 3,536 deaths. A death rate of 0.19%, the majority of whom are very old or have comorbidities. Lock yourself down if you're worried about catching it, but for most (including myself), Omicron is no worse than a cold. It's unrealistic to blame business for opening up, because we do actually need an economy to pay the taxes that fund your free healthcare and other government benefits. The money has to come from somewhere. Perhaps you should isolate if you're worried. This will soon be over.

Thailand doesn't seem to want tourists anymore.

Yes, that one. Sadly, Omicron does kill a very small fraction (do the maths) of those it infects, particularly those who are very old indeed or have comorbidities. Omicron has already infected around a fifth of the entire population here (perhaps more because not all are reported), so the chance of a healthy person succumbing to it really is very small indeed. Lockdowns are now completely futile (if that's what you're suggesting, Dan), and that's why one country after another is opening up. Or do you have any better ideas?