Oblomov

I was going to reply to this post but you say it all perfectly - the only thing I would add is that health services globally could manage many health conditions much better if people weren't presenting themselves for treatment with the added complications to treatment that arise in fat people. Good post buddy Good luck

Recently got back from 4 months on Koh Samui and around Phuket amongst other places. This is the devastation caused by the panicked and insane restrictions to travel sector and the auxiliary industries that are linked to it or reliant on it. Kids opening rubbish bags looking for things to sell. Starving dogs. Lamai beach was not only covered in congealed oil but filthy with rubbish. Chawaeng similarly covered in rubbish that is dumped in the closed down resorts. To stimulate any significant investment in reviving these important employment hubs for the young and those that have lost their businesses and livelihoods, all entry restrictions will have to be removed apart from the vaccination proof. Also a consistent and coherent policy that is not implemented then revoked and that is realistic. Almost all forms of all viruses are in every nation on Earth, so to pretend otherwise with these futile reactions to the normal ebb and flow of flu-type virus infection borders on state insanity. If Thailand's 'leaders' continue to use this to attempt to put a cork in student protests, or any other discontent and legitimate protest in this supposedly democratic country, then we all know where that will lead. Like many others in many other posts, there are cleaner beach destinations with more pragmatic entry protocols. It's about managing risks rationally, as we all do each time we open out eyes in the morning. Removing test prior to departure but retaining test on arrival, with the obvious risk of enforced 'treatment'/isolation/quarantine is transparently stupid and can serve only one purpose. Thailand is jammed in that uncomfortable place of not knowing whether to fully open US/UK/European style or attempt the futile China model but without the reserves China has nor the monolithic state population control organs. That equals uncertainty. People won't travel in these circumstances and who can blame them.

Well said.????

Me too on both especially the Goncharov : )

Got back from a couple of weeks there - most of us totally ignore the whole taxi thing, so the drivers can sit out in the hot sun earning zero (notwithstanding the occasional successful gouging) rather than be busy all day and night using sensible rates. They seem too stupid to understand that if they charge reasonable rates, they'll make a living and be treated politely. I booked a very nice resort hotel with sea view balconies and every time I looked down at the hotel drive-in, nearby there sat the same taxi driver who'd quoted me 800 baht for a 1.5 km fare. Having had possibly 5 friends/groups of friends visit Phuket with me or around the time of my trip (most Thais), each said the same thing about Phuket. "Never again!" It was like it the first time I went 25 years ago and nothing has changed apart from they are an even bigger deterrent to travel there.

A mass movement to end the idiocy of the outdoor mask rule. It was so nice to be in Phuket and Koh Samui and beathe the air on breezy beaches. Time for Thailand to catch up and reset to how we must move on from this, just as all with sense have been saying here for many months.

Guess I did. But then state mandated daftness is hardly unique to the Cambodians in this region. I wasn't aware Cambodia was potentially getting those sorts of numbers.

I think you're dead right - it's beyond silly as the only way forward is simply to reopen, spend the revenue wisely (that's a laugh but it would help) and accept our world as it now is, and not how we rather wistfully whish it was.

What is that supposed to tell anyone? They invite larger numbers by the resumption of Test and (sort of ) Go, then warn of 'closures' (closures of what?) if invited numbers do in fact arrive! More idiocy labelled as policy. The Chinese hordes are not here nor are they likely to be for a year at least, so what induces this latest bout of panic before the event? Either open or close ; most potential visitors doubtless care little about Thailand at this point, but for Heaven's sake be consistent and stop panicking and sending out conflicting messages, and this idiotic resort to abrupt policy changes.

Indonesia for Bali travel, it's required. Also still has punitive qurantine hence only 50 or so tourists since 'reopening.' I think the enforced hospitel thing here in Thailand is the big negative issue and in the rush to insure, little or no effort was made to cover that in most relatively worthless policies.

You're right. Of course the occasional trip that goes awry gets in the news but the overwhelming majority get round the, admitted, inconveniences and silliness. Compared to Bali, where I mostly spent winters for many years, this country is a walk in the park, although the idiocy of wearing a mask, metres from anyone, in a breezy park, persists. Though masks off when all squeezed into food halls and eateries. Go figure.

Yet they always get it 'wrong' on the side favorable to them and not say, 800 instead of 600.

We've just cancelled a trip to Koh Samed and fortunately managed to recoup all hotel booking costs - two of our group of five are Indonesian friends who do not intend to risk spending the rest of their trip in a field 'hospitel' should they return a positive test. The rest of us are equally reluctant to enter a lottery where there is no prize (been to Koh Samed possibly ten times and only visiting again due to proximity to Bangkok for a long weekend trip) but a huge disincentive to travelling there. We all know (or most of us do, with functioning brains and logical thought capability) that this thing is with us in one form or another in perpetuity, so these tourist dependent islands either close and find another way to maintain lives and livelihoods or simply open, in the way intended, to those of us who have already satisfied myriad criteria and processes to spend some time here. Being carted off to one of these facilities is a risk not worth the taking to visit any one island so either this testing stops or the potential income stops. Now we're off to Phuket instead and added a trip to Koh Samui, so though we're still spending money at resort areas, I'd imagine Koh Samed might have been more needful of some income. Thailand made the biggest 'first step' towards reopening in the region but will hobble itself if in-country restrictions and protocols are not in step with the more realistic countries. Those that travel will choose the winners by simply going to the destinations with most reasonable and sensible measures that balance the multiple factors that affect us all in our lives.

Best bit of good sense I've ever read here. I had to check that I hadn't posted that myself. If I had the good fortune to know you, I'd buy you a drink.

Having lived here on and off for 30 years it's quite plain that the vast and overwhelming majority of Thailand's youth is polite and sociable and will ensure Thailand remains the peaceful and calm society that I'd say, almost all of us are attracted by. Having lived in Brixton, Whitechapel and Camden in London, I'd take my chances with the youth of Thailand any day. The gang thing is an imported phenomenon and has much shallower roots in Thailand than almost anywhere else.

Masks on in the breezy road not in the close proximity of anyone, then masks off in a crowded food court where the sociable chat and laugh and enjoy the luxury of seeing a smile or sharing a conversation, mask on back in the street where distancing is easy and contact so minimal as to be negligible, mask off back at the home where X and Y meet Z, none of whom have a clue where either has been. X has been on a dating app and met A who had just been to... Y had had a meal with B, C, D and E who had jut come back from Phuket where they... So really, as much as the timid and frightened feel 'safe' in masks, most know they may slow a little of the transmission rate but at the cost of much that enhances many of our days. Wear them in crowded spaces if we must, but really, outdoors should be a break from them. As research gathers momentum in Europe of the extremely strong immunity conferred on those that are both vaccinated and have had this flu/cold type omicron variant, we really need get ourselves slimmer, fitter and healthier by diet and exercise, and not simply 'mask up' obediently and accept that lives livelihoods will be ruined and compromised by this in perpetuity. Heaven knows what the negative and destructive environmental impact of all this discarded 'protective' clothing will be, as that is not an area we have any wiggle room.

Mostly those that like sitting around at home and getting paid for it

Exactly - I've counted 50+ friends and acquaintances who've had it and all had extremely minor symptoms, (certainly compared to the grave and genuinely life altering and life ending illnesses that some unfortunately suffer, often more stoically) and apart from the possibly 10 or so that have significant other more serious conditions and varying degrees of obesity, none much in the way of post viral symptoms. As you rightly say, give yourself the best chance by being around the correct weight, eat a nutritious diet and exercise. Poor general health through lack of exercise, getting very fat and eating food devoid of nutrition will ensure much worse outcomes during any periods of illness.

It's just post viral symptoms common to any flu type virus and as you say, significantly more prevalent where a person can get paid whilst feeling a bit lethargic- who doesn't after work.

Add to that, despair and suicide in the young, a whole generation having disrupted education so hugely damaged longterm, the debt mountain exponentially enlarged globally (apart from china who bestowed this flu type virus on us), the tax paying base compromised so that all future spending is cut back... the list goes on. Insanity.

Fake is about right. Dishonest. Context omitted.

Or even get young Thais taugh better for the roads as they are now. It's truly sad to read of so many young Thais killed and maimed.

A minor contributing factor most likely but with various other co-morbidity factors not to mention the old gal was 86! What percentage even reach that remarkable age?

Perfectly said and add to that the significant obesity related complications and the fact that the aged would succumb to any similar flu/pneumonia or other respiratory ailment and some salient truths are shined onto to some decidedly misleading data Adults in general react better to factual data, yet reading some posts here, that's not a universal maxim.

Good! Stop right now