JonnyF

I guess it was time for a Jewish Stocktake.

Good idea. Time to continue opening up. These silly restrictions are played. Soooo played.

The whole thing is a joke. Leaders taking private jets thousands of miles to get into huge gas guzzling motorcades to make virtue signalling speeches about making the little people make sacrifices to meet their targets by 2070 or whatever. I'd love to see the carbon footprint of this silly conference, it's beyond parody. Frankly, I'm sick of the hypocrisy. The doomsday cultists can do one as well.

Why would they want it to be profitable? Currently the well connected bleed it dry with free first class flights, well paid positions for retired Generals that do nothing and have absolutely no experience running an airline, backhanders from ridiculously overpriced purchasing contracts etc. and then every few years the tax payer pays off the massive debts that have accumulated from such malpractice. It's a vehicle to transfer money from the tax payer into the pockets of the well connected. It's serving it's purpose the way it is. As long as they can continue to repackage the tax payer funded bailouts as bankruptcy protected "restructuring" then they're good to go for a few more years.

It's definitely not what it was. But where is? Australia was always my plan B but that appears to be a complete police state now with nutters like Daniel Andrews interfering with everyone's lives. It's also not what it was when I lived there in the mid 90's. If I returned to the UK I'd enjoy it for a few months but I couldn't stay there long term. So I'll probably stick it out here and hope that somehow the Junta that is destroying the country will leave or be removed.

Most people arriving now will be Thais and expats who have been waiting to get back into the country. This will last a couple of weeks, maybe a month until most of them are back in. By that time, pictures of deserted entertainment areas, stories of being refused a beer because the restaurant isn't SHA approved etc. will have hit social media. If they're unlucky, someone will go to the press after being put into 2 weeks quarantine because they sat next to someone positive on the plane over. Covid really is the perfect storm for Thai tourism. So many Westerners came here for the relaxed entertainment venues and the flesh trade. Both are impossible with social distancing. Take those things away and you're really just left with average beaches, soi dogs, dangerous roads, overpriced goods, silly laws and double pricing/scams. Then you've got the Chinese tourists who aren't even allowed to leave China. At least immigration can stop having to quiz people "why you come Thailand too much?".

Sounds like it. Good news. Just to be sure, I will avoid Thai Airways and then I can be sure that all passengers will face the same checks upon boarding irrespective of nationality. Actually, that's one of about 10 reasons I will avoid Thai Airways. Nepotism, corruption, pricing etc.

Great news. The puritans and the virtue signallers will no doubt be wringing their hands and hiding under the bed sheets but let's face it, nobody takes them seriously anyway ????. This weekend will be my last weekend drinking bottled beer from a cheap mug. Hallelujah!!!

Lip service. Anyone who has seen the public buses, TukTuks, cement trucks etc. knows that nobody in authority here cares about emissions (except the police who use it to extort the driver for 200 Baht before sending them on their way).

It will still exist, but on a much smaller scale. It was starting already, with the likes of Oasis opening up on Cowboy, a normal style pub amongst the bars. Queens Park Plaza gone. Patpong not thriving etc. The trouble is, those in charge don't realize why so many people visit. It's for the nightlife, not to watch traditional Thai dancing or do cooking classes. They also don't see how many Issan families are indirectly supported by punters after they have left the country. As others have said, the nightlife was the only thing that Thailand really excelled at. The beaches, infrastructure, trekking etc. are all pretty average at best. Plus it's not cheap any more. Lots of alcohol free days, too many rules about smoking/drinking on the beach, the usual scams, not so many smiles. I've never been a 'final nail in the coffin' guy. But this time, I really think Thailand has jumped the shark.

Thainess. Announce first. Think later.

I'm SO glad I don't have any plans to travel in the next 6 months. I hated all the jumped up little Nazis in uniform at the airports before Covid, I can only imagine the treatment of the 'infected' now. Officials armed with their nasal swabs to ram especially hard 3 inches up the nose of anyone they don't like the look of. I wonder if they can be bothered to employ extra staff to manage all this, or will it be like the old days when there were only 2 immigration booths open (and the scowling officers manning them were in no rush) with queues all the way back to the moving walkways. Happy holidays everyone! It will all be worth it when you sit down for your first ice cold beer at your favourite restaurant.... oh wait a minute.. ????????

Interesting to see this has hit the international media. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/26/businesses-in-thailand-urge-government-to-reverse-alcohol-ban A great advert for Thai tourism ????. They really haven't got a clue.

You can put a bottle of Sangsom in a brown paper bag and drink it on a park bench for all I care. I like to have a decent, cold draught beer or a chilled glass of white wine with my meal, as do most tourists. Hiding Vodka in a bottle of mineral water and looking over my shoulder for corrupt cops before necking it on the beach is not my idea of a great holiday, even if it saves me a few quid.

Exactly. No kickbacks on a donation so the government views processing this as unpaid work. The more they get for free, the less they have to buy and hence the less money they can cream off the top of the various purchasing contracts with the likes of the CCP. Of course it would save the lives of some Thai people but nobody in government really cares about that.

Regardless of his motivation/reasoning, the conclusion he has reached is the correct one. The ban on alcohol sales in hotels/restaurants is going to heap even more pain on the tourism and hospitality sectors and those that work in it. It's time for a more nuanced approach. Being treated like a child by a tin pot third world Junta is not desirable for the "quality tourists" that Thailand wants to replace the CCP hordes. It was bad enough ordering an overpriced glass of white wine and having it arrive at the table lukewarm with a couple of ice cubes in it. Or a bottle of red that's only a couple of degrees away from being frozen solid. Being refused that bottle of wine altogether is not something that people enjoy while on holiday. Thailand needs to raise it's game, not ban everything.

That sounds like a sensible approach to get things moving. It's time to acknowledge that not everyone who enjoys a beer or a glass of wine with their meal ends up acting like a beligerent, arrogant fool spraying saliva over anyone within 5 metres. Far too sensible an approach for the clowns in charge no doubt.

Same Same.

Seems silly to buy a car solely for this reason. Why not get a small trailer for the bike and put the dog inside a dog cage on the trailer? You could get both for under 10,000 Baht, never mind 10,000 USD. Like this, but with the dog in a cage. Cover the sides of the cage with 'future board' or something if you don't want the other dogs to see the pup. Not me by the way, googled it. Although I do have a similar setup on our farm for moving things like water pumps, logs, plants etc. and it works fine as long as you keep the speeds sensible.

I guess this is an improvement for people who need to see family, do business trips etc. But I don't see many genuine tourists coming when they could go somewhere closer to home with less restrictions, where the bars and nightlife are open, and it's cheaper. I'm not really sure what Thailand has to offer at this point.

A Thai pimp blaming "Farang" for the sex culture in Thailand. How surprising. Obviously there was no prostitution in Thailand before the Vietnam war, and these white devils lured and tricked these innocent Thai damsels into giving up their body for money ????. It's never their fault, is it?

Buying land on the cheap is child's play in Thai politics. A bit like the head of a Mexican drug cartel getting a speeding ticket. The current mob have much better credentials - they have a convicted drug trafficker in their ranks, and no doubt that's the tip of the iceberg in terms of activities they've never been convicted of. The only reason that guy was convicted is that he was caught in Australia. Had he been caught in Thailand it would have all been a big misunderstanding, the lawyers and judges would be driving red plated S series Benz and it would have been brushed under the carpet.

Nice work if you can get it. Big Salary, nice pension, hobnobbing with local dignitaries, attending functions, doing sweet FA for UK citizens in Thailand whose tax pays for his lifestyle. Lovely jubbly.

Not really, when you consider that people are getting vaccinated on a fairly large scale now, and that easing restrictions has really been little more than lip service to placate the masses. The "relaxing of measures" has made very little difference to people's behaviour in real terms (a curfew that most people ignore changing from 10pm to 11pm, or malls staying open an extra hour is hardly going to make significant difference to the number of cases compared to millions of vaccinations per week). Vaccinations are causing the number of cases to decline. The easing of restrictions wouldn't have negated the positive effects of that. They should really expedite the further reduction of these restrictions to people's freedoms now.

Frankly, I couldn't give a Monkey's about the US. Their record on Covid has been lamentable but none of my concern since I am in Thailand and I am posting on a Thai forum about Thai policy of reducing doses of Covid vaccine administered in Thailand. I'm sure there's a time and a place for an angry American expat to vent his spleen about the former POTUS but I'm equally sure that this thread isn't it.