JonnyF

No chance there will be any siginificant numbers. China isn't going to jeapardize it's precious zero Covid policy by letting it's citizens come to a Covid hotbed like Thailand without very serious quarantine on return. I'm guessing minimum 3 weeks. More likely 4.

I wonder if all those Sinovac jabs administered a year ago have lost their effectiveness? I seem to recall their effectiveness is much more short lived than other well known vaccines. It wouldn't surprise me. And now people have experienced queuing up in the temple for hours in the soaring heat (followed by being sick for a few days) and are reluctant to get boosted? Maybe they should have provided decent vaccines while everyone was desperate to receive them?

Nothing about being jaded, it is absolutely related to charging a foreigner more. Many of the restaurants have 2 menus. The English menu has the higher prices. I'm surprised you don't know this, I discovered it in my first 2 weeks living there (I lived there for around 2 years between 2006-2008 before moving to BKK). Some of the owners of the places I went to regularly joked with me about how they gave me the Thai price because I was so nice and polite (for a foreigner!). Likewise markets, mom and pop shops etc. nearly always charge foreigners more unless they know you. Which is why I ended up going to Tesco for everything or giving the money to my Thai gf and letting her buy it. Add in the taxis, TukTuk mafia, motorbike repair shops etc. and you'll see there are ripoffs everywhere in Phuket. Even the gas station in Patong would put in a weird amount like 93 Baht in the scooter and then claim the tank was full but they had no change from a 100 Baht note. It became really draining dealing with the pettiness of it all. I instantly noticed the positive difference when I came to BKK.

Whilst I wouldn't go out of my way to catch it, I'm certainly not going to make huge sacrafices to avoid it. I've have enough of my time wasted with this thing, it's time to move on. If I get it, I get it. A week off work catching up on Netflix and finishing a couple of Playstation games (plus the extra future protection of having caught it) is not the worst thing in the world.

My sister was thinking about a trip to Samui later this year with her husband and 2 other couples. Just forwarded her this article. Hopefully they drop this 'test on arrival' nonsense ASAP. You're more likely to catch it here than bring it with you.

Just been informed by HR that one of my staff tested positive yesterday. I'd imagine the numbers will start to spike this week as factories etc. test their workers on their return to work. Everyone in my office is being tested at 9am ????.

Not a fan? On the plus side the 6 Thai dogs on our farm stop trespassers, fruit stealers, snakes, burglars, rats. The best thing is the villagers never stop by for a chat any more which always involves them requesting "loans". I'm guessing they would keep away grumpy forum members like you as well, which is a nice bonus. My American Pitbull Terrier has a penchant for Jinjok and Tookay and has pretty much eradicated them from our property. He's learning to catch the pigeons now. Marvelous.

Laying the seed for blaming the post Songkran spike on tourists and foreigners. Predictable but unfortunately quite effective with the largely xenophobic Thai populace.

I wouldn't be surprised to see deaths rise. The peasants unfortunate enough to have had Sinovac will have the effectiveness worn off by now and I doubt people will be queuing up for 4 hours in the heat of an Issan temple to be injected with something that makes you sick for 3 days again. Anutin's chickens may be coming home to roost.

That will be sure to protect you after a day of maximum exposure amongst the crowds. Stay safe everyone. Look after your families and loved ones.

Great to see numbers dropping. Time to follow the UK’s lead (again!) and open up. It’s over. Endemic. Move on.

Exactly. Guys seeking out these attributes in their hookers need to take a good long look at themselves and wonder why. There have been a few busts lately where underage girls have been found in the bars. Soi 7 in Bangkok for example. I hope the online scene isn't circumventing these checks.

4ft tall, 38 kgs with a Hello Kitty backpack? Can you hear yourself? Celebrating the child-like qualities in your call girls. Wow.

That's possible. It's also possible these issues could occur for the elderly Thai people in the title of this thread. Fortunately I am under 50 with no major health issues and I have shook off 95% of the side effects. I don't believe it's fair to label elderly people with genuine concerns about taking a third dose of a largely untested vaccine "irresponsible". 3 months ago young people were being pressured to take the vaccine to "save Grannie". Now Grannie is being labelled irresponsible. That's disingenuous in my opinion.

Maybe it's Will Smith?

Well that's up to them isn't it. Their body, their choice. My Pfizer booster gave me a lot of issues for about 8 weeks and frankly if I could go back in time I would have stuck with the 2 x AZ I had. Omicron is probably the best booster available now.

You're in Thailand now buddy. If you want Woke or are easily butthurt, maybe not the best place ????.

That will buff out ????. From the translation it sounds like maybe the accelerator stuck so the driver applied the handbrake. Car still in gear and trying to accelerate with the handbrake on? Sounds like a recipe for heat, friction and a fire. Maybe turning the engine off would have been prudent?

Rolls Royce is owned by Zee Germunz (BMW).

But the Australian politicians weren't going to acquire fabulous personal wealth from the deal so they were happy to walk away. Plus they got to irriate the hell out of Macron, and who could resist that? No way Thai politicians (or should I say Generals) are going to walk away from this deal. They wouldn't care if the subs have engines from a 30 year old Honda wave as long as they collect the coin that such a deal generates for them and their cronies. It's not like they're going to use the subs anyway, the water is too shallow. I predict a solution will be found with the CCP and the Thai Generals will acquire yet more incredible, generational wealth from this deal.

The Academy ; Hey Will, the Oscars audience is down so we want you to ruin the best night of your career and overshadow your Oscar win by slapping another black guy on stage. We're going to get someone to insult your wife about her medical condition in front of millions of people and then you can bitchslap him. Everyone is going to criticize you, it's going to be a really bad look for the black community and you'll be reminded for weeks about your cheating wife's ways, your disfunctional family and your celebrity privilige. Your wife will be labelled a manipulative narcissist. People will call you a fake, call for the award to be cancelled, you'll have to resign from the academy with a grovelling apology and your career will no doubt suffer as a result. Will ; Sounds like a great idea. No such thing as bad publicity right. Seriously, how anyone can think this is fake is beyond me. Are people that oblivious to what is fake and what is real?

I don't believe anything this "government" says. No Coup, I won't be PM, it will only be for 6 months, free and fair elections, covid figures, Cannabis legality. The list goes on. Bunch of charlatans.

Yes it actually happened. She had an affair with her son's friend August Alsina and then admitted it and basically blamed it on him on a show called "Red Table Talk", watched by millions. So understandably he has some pent up anger issues having been humiliated and cucked in front of the nation. However, slapping a comedian at The Oscars probably wasn't the smartest way to try to regain his pride and masculinity. If I was him I would have dumped her and got a smokin' hot chick in her 20's instead. One with a full head of hair and a huge rack. But each to their own.

Yeah I prefer the motorbike section as well ????.

I wonder what would have happened if one of the waiters serving the celebs had invaded the stage and done that? Would he have been allowed to simply continue on with his night's work? No charges? Nah, he'd have been thrown to the ground, roughed up and thrown in the back of a police car pronto. Makes a mockery of all this white privilige nonsense. The true privilige in America comes with wealth and celebrity and last night's events proved that. Good to see that Smith apologized. He's clearly on the edge mentally due to his dysfunctional family situation and hopefully he gets some help. It's amazing how he's ended up a cuckold like that. Sad stuff. As for the "I'd have done the same thing, good on him" remarks, you have to look at the context. If someone said that to a stranger in a pub then yes you could understand the reaction. But you're watching a comedy skit at an awards ceremony. The presenters make fun of the attendees every year. It's part of the show, you know what you're getting into. If you're mentally too fragile to take a few jibes in that context, stay at home. It seems Smith's ego is too big to stay home, and too fragile to attend.