alphonse

In many ways, yes! But not in matters connected with road traffic, be it driving or vehical maintenance. Too many people die because of the 'old ways' when it comes to travel.

Are you sure the hair issue is covid related? Get it checked out?

I thought that the only interesting (and valid?) figure there was that tourism had been 18% of GDP. As that is the just official record .... agencies, visitor sites, hotels etc. one wonders just what that figure would be if all the grey stuff was included. The total amount of baht all those bar girls were not declaring for starters. 30% and more in reality?

Didn't the soldiers ban them a few years back? They had been marvellous fun for some, including myself. Mostly slightly p-ssed, but never really drunk .... and I don't think I speak for just myself. The drug peddlers spoilt it somewhat in the latter years.

And, furthermore, I shall continue wearing one, when in confined public places, if I am back in the UK during the flu season and that particular virus is rampant. How come it took mankind so many decades to realise basic facts about the spread of germs?

True. In the grand scheme of things it's small-fry. Canterbury, near my UK home, was getting this amount per annum pre-pandemic. London alone 30m. An admission of defeat and the nonsense of Thai-pass.

Tourists. As usual, first thought how much they will spend. I suppose this is to be expected, especially in these difficult times, but do they all have to make it so obvious. It's not difficult to get the wrong impression ... "just dump your funds at the airport and catch the next plane back from where you came." ???? Perhaps they would present a more attractive option if they demonstrated, and publicised, a desire to prevent tourists being ripped off from the moment they step into the first taxi away from Swampy and attended to some of the intrusive rules which range from the absurd ones surrounding the purchase of alcohol to the need to constantly report your whereabouts if you stay in other than a hotel and similar, and onto the need to carry your passport at all times. I could go on. I half expect there to be some little guy at the airport looking each tourist up and down and assessing how much they will spend, before writing it in his notebook, which is then sent daily to the authorities.

Thailand likes complication. This military lot love it more than ever. Playing at government. Lurching around with legislation.

Useful that. I was quoted £110 by the nearest "chemist" to me who did them, which is 5 miles away. I assume the Heathrow ones are carried out before departure and give quick results.

Precisely, getting a pre-flight test is not difficult in the UK (although costly @ £100+) and is hardly the deterrent that is presented by the remaining demands for Thai Pass.

I get the fact that a person testing positive upon arrival becomes a cash cow for the hospital he is sent too, but I don't get why the current measures constitute a money-making 'scam' for the country. Surely, and in the bigger picture, the loss of potential medical tourism income alone, and caused by the current measures, to say nothing of losses to the general economy, far outweigh the revenue collected from PCR testing or a few hundred or so visitors forced to pay hospital bills for their Covid related stay.

A tourist is a tourist, they all bring much needed foreign currency into a country (any country.) Backpackers, families, sex tourists, wealthy. Thailand currently needs all they can get. Inflation means there is less disposable income. It will get worse not better. By the time Thailand opens up without hurdles there will be even less money around. Europe, possibly most open despite high levels of omicron, is the best bet for now, but nor for long.

Perhaps the company is in danger of going under. Just saying.

Apparently it was because there were not enough First/Business class travellers to make it viable. The income from Economy class passengers for long haul flights just cover expenses. Profit is from the amount collected from those turning left. The 'pay more' passengers on BA to Bkk flights are notoriously thin on the ground.

A "god-damned head cold" wouldn't have put a neighbour of mine, who suffers from asthma, into an intensive care unit. He is very ill, and his family are up the wall with worry (he is 46.) He has been assessed as an Omicron victim. Trying to minimise this pandemic is blatant selfishness. Others have to be considered as well. Our own well-constructed views, based upon our own self-centred needs should not obscure the real facts.

Well. I need a vaccination certificate from the UK for a starter. Why didn't they?

Says he who is three-quarters of a page into reading a thread clearly about the virus. Actually, he might be right, let's just stick our heads in the sand, ignore a potentially deadly disease and carry on having fun. We're not in having to live in the poorer parts of Africa, India, South America, S.E. Asia after all. Let them get on with it. I'm alright Jack.

December 4th aye? I'm guessing that December 5th. might just be the beginning of a Buddha holiday. I wouldn't know, but it would seem typical.

In some way or another it might give them an excuse for dropping the Thai Pass altogether without losing face. They are probably looking for such now after the widespread critcism and generally low-intake of genuine tourists that has resulted. Whether it be a concentration on just more testing or the adoption of a less messy/precarious way of presenting documentation or whether they revert back to stricter measures, who knows with this lot? They exist detached from reality, instead they are more content to pursue their own little agenda based upon all things Thai, their own well-being and their own prejudices.

Why is it only ugly people who say that it is vain to look after your appearance? Hair dye for men is very advanced these days. I'll bet the majority of p-isstakers wouldn't recognise a dyed bonce on a fifty years old sat next to him in a bar if they saw one. Those ancient, black and far too obvious concoctions (like Anutin's now) were ridiculous. Do you reckon Old Joe Biden has had a facelift then? So few sags and wrinkles for his age, imo.

The anti-alcohol lobby within this government of the inadequate seem relentless in their pursuit of prohibition within the shores of the Land of Smiles. Like the famed King Canute himself, they seem intent on fighting the great tide of this evil. They ignore the taxation of the product and their need for the proceeds, they ignore the thousands of jobs in the industry that they will be unable to replace, they ignore the role the evil brew pays in encouraging the tourism their country needs. They dream of a Shagri-La of sobriety, whilst being unable to grasp the consequences of prohibition, the black market, the crime, the Mafia. Massive exaggeration of course, but even the tip-toing towards restriction, their current approach, will result in some of the consequences mentioned above. Also, Canute sat on that beach to disprove those who considered he had control of the tide. Did that Old Potato Face once receive a hefty punch from a drunken taxi driver after he insisted that the meter be turned on? One has to ponder the source of such ingrained prejudices, after all. Oh! I do still miss an occasional late night of sippery besides one of those caravan bars.

Let's not exaggerate. News feeds in the UK (Beeb, Guniard, Sky etc.) state only that it could be 40% less effective against vaccines. The last South African variant was heralded in the same scary manner. It turned out that it was unable to compete with the Delta as it was weaker and has subsequently disappeared. Too early for such doomsday predictions. The most doomsday factor about SARS 2 Covid 19 is that it seems slower than many other viruses (eg. SARS 1) at burning its self out.

Good to hear that you had no problems. Like the Canadian chap, I am holding back until later in December when snagging should be complete at least. Perhaps the whole <deleted> show will have even been dropped as I cannot see many casual tourists bothering to come to grips with the requirements. I don't think that it's 'mountains out of molehills' though. Anything that requires digital application, timing, ongoing expense and officialdom is bound to incur a degree of stress. Things should fall into place, but we all get slightly anxious, should they not. Thai officialdom is renowned for its clumsy, fussy and unclear online application processes. They seem oblivious to this though, so pile on the pettiness. I've still to discover if you still need your passport number on the vaccination certificate, and if so how I can overcome this, as it is not included on the official (very) UK document. One further example of the 'fussy' mentioned above. There is sufficient personal information on the document as to not make such cross-referencing necessary.

Or the tragedy of all those thousands now jobless and needing to scrape through.