Guderian

He'd do better to recognise the important contribution made to keeping parts of Thailand's economy and some of its people afloat during the pandemic by the many expats already living here, supporting their Thai families and the Thai people who do jobs for them, and spending their money here in locally-owned businesses, rather than in hotels owned by multinational chains or on zero dollar tours. How about it, Prayut, make a list of all the foreigners who've stayed here and helped the country over the last 18 months and offer them permanent residency and the right to own one rai of land for residential purposes. It would cost the government nothing but would earn you a great deal of gratitude and respect, as well as potentially encouraging many more foreigners to move to Thailand.

Of course, when you want reliable statistics on tourist arrivals the Dept. of Disease Control is the obvious place to ask [rolleyes]. Just like when I want to know about, say, the number of dengue fever cases then the people in the know about that will all be at TAT, lol.

It was like that in late September when I went to Phyathai2 hospital for my second AZ shot, just a result of easing many of the restrictions, nothing to do with tourists. Completely different from mid-July when I went there for the first shot, though, with the restrictions still very much in place then the place was like a ghost town.

Same idea as the SMART Immigration police, it just means they get an expensive BMW to drive around in. I'm sure the cops think that's pretty smart, lol.

I'd hope they're also testing any staff that came into contact with the vector. It's not only the dirty foreigners who carry the virus, much as they're reluctant to admit it, lol.

Admitting this amounts to a small loss of face, which must mean there is a really big problem, lol!

With forecasts of UK inflation predicting it breaching 5% CPI next year, and averaging 4% over the year (add another 1% - 2% to get RPI, the 'real' inflation that most people feel), the Bank's lost a huge amount of its inflation-fighting credibility after its Governor dropped some very open hints that the rate would be raised yesterday and it wasn't. Even he didn't vote for a change, so what was he playing at? Does his elbow know what his ass is doing any more? Expect to see a run on Sterling in the coming months, which will make inflation even worse, and the BoE will have to hike rates more sharply and to higher levels to get the situation under control than if they'd voted for a mere 15-basis point increase yesterday. Together with the antics going on in politics now, it seems that the country is being run by clowns and amateurs. How many people are aware that the UK went belly-up to Macron and gave them an extra 95 fishing permits to sort out the scallop trawler fiasco, in spite of all the tough guy talk? Actually, clowns and amateurs is being too kind, morons and incompetents is closer to the truth.

I'm still confused. Does "health insurance" in this sentence, for Non-O holders wishing to travel back to Thailand, nothing to do with OA, mean the $50K Covid insurance needed for the Thailand pass, or is there another new requirement for them to also have a certain level of general medical insurance as well?

At the moment it's busy transforming itself into a boring bar-free and fun-free destination, is that the long-term plan?

Sure, but if Indonesia and Russia, two of the most corrupt countries on the planet, can sign it then you'd think Thailand would have felt very much at home with this agreement, lol. The green activist groups need to start a social media campaign advising people that Thailand has refused to sign the pact and will continue exploiting its endangered forests, and asking them to consider again if they really want to go to such a selfish place for their holidays. Add the 2065 net zero target for a country that has a highet average GDP per head than mighty China, and the place should be looking quite unattractive to environmentally concerned people.

I saw my dermatologist in BHP last week and she mentioned that boosters will be given after six months. The exact mechanics of how they will be offered and who they will be offered to will presumably remain a mystery until nearer the date. The inventor of the AZ vaccine has said that its beneficial effects wear off more slowly than those of the mRNA vaccines, so she didn't see why anyone who's had two AZ doses (apart from those in special needs groups like the immunocompromised) would need a booster yet, and the British programme is around six months ahead of the Thai one. By the middle of next year, I should imagine that you'll be able to buy just about any vaccine you want here, so I wouldn't sweat it. There are also negatives to being over-vaccinated, remember.

And that's after yesterday's story about how not a single foreign visitor had booked to go to Chiang Mai. :shakeshead:

Meanwhile, in other news, all three of the foreign tourists who have booked to stay in Pattaya this month are still being told that they must book a two-week stay in an ASQ hotel...

Yeah, but who will suffer most from the surge, will it be unvaccinated Thais catching the virus from fully-vaccinated foreign tourists, or perhaps (and more likely) it might be the large, unvaccinated part of Thai society that will come off the worst? Only 43% have been fully-vaccinated to date, but no doubt you'll remember this government target, repeated time and time again... Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha detailed in a statement ..... the country is to receive 105.5 million doses, exceeding an initial target of 100 million, which will allow for the vaccination of 50 million people or 70 percent of the population. https://thainews.prd.go.th/en/news/detail/TCATG210618164011739

The people running the Thai asylum must be deeply conflicted. They evidently hate alcohol with a passion, yet they are dependent for their livelihood on tourists who love it. Perhaps they should be true to their hearts and simply give up trying to attract all those fun-loving but beer- and wine-swilling Western tourists, declare Sharia law and focus on bringing in millions of serious and sober visitors from the Middle East. مرحبًا بكم في تايلاند ، الموت للكحول

Just to put the prices here in context (e.g. the 3,800 Baht mentioned at BHP, which sounds expensive at first), my brother back in the UK is currently on a cruise to the Caribbean. When he gets back home in just over a week he has to have a PCR test done on day 2. He's booked that at a local place, though there don't seem to be all that many offering the service, and the cheapest he could find it was £99, or around 4,500 Baht. So I'd say anything here that's under 4,000 Baht is a fair price.

But do you have helium at home? Air-filled balloons just don't float, lol.

Pattaya-2-U will build you a desktop or laptop to your own specifications, and offers free lifetime follow-up care. Very competitive prices, and the boss speaks good English. They're a well-known firm that's been in business since before I arrived here 17 years ago, so they're obviously doing something right. I'm very happy with their service and products, anyway. They're in a street behind TukCom, just Google their name to find the exact location.

Sorry to hear about your loss. The Thais are not very resposible dog owners, so they can't usually be bothered to get their dogs neutered (plus it will probably cost money), and if they've got a bitch then sooner or later she'll end up preggers and sprog a litter of pups (though the father's breed may remain a moot question, lol). They're usually happy to give these away to a good home (or even to a not-so-good home if they're desperate). Ask around, or ask a Thai person you know (like a neighbour, or a motorbike taxi driver) to find out who's got pups they don't want and take it from there. The GF was given this one two years ago, half Shih Tzu and half Chihuahua, and she's a gorgeous little animal, she would have cost a fortune back in the UK but was free here in Pattaya.

The fact is that every foreigner arriving here will be running the risk of having to pay for their own 10-day or 2-week state quarantine (so around 50K Baht at the minimum, as well as a ruined holiday) if they happen to test positive after arrival in Thailand, as their insurance policy is very unlikely to cover that cost. That inconvenient fact alone should be enough to deter most sensible people looking for a break in the sun from coming, never mind the other awkward fact that just about everything is still closed.

Talk about wishful thinking! There, there, Pipat, Santa will bring you a nice rich foreign tourist for Christmas, I'm sure of it.

The seawater's certainly cleaner than it was pre-Covid, but it'll never match the islands. When the swimming pools were closed I was swimming in the sea at Jomtien Beach most days and you could make out the sand ripples in the sea bed in six feet of water, though only when it was calm and the waves weren't disturbing the sediment. One thing I had never realised before was that the sea becomes infested with jellyfish during the rainy season. I got stung a number of times in the area I liked to swim (the giant, buoyed-off area between Wat Bun and Chaiyapruek), and gave up there. I found that Dongtan Beach had less of a problem, though the jellyfish are still there. I'm not sure when they clear off again, presumably when the wet weather ends and the cools eason starts, but the Pattaya jellyfish season is certainly not something you see mentioned in the TAT brochures, and there are no warning signs that I've seen.

I ordered my Butterball Christmas turkey from a small shop in Pattaya that specialises in farang foods way back in mid-September already. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the global supply chain problems don't gobble it up, lol!

I'm sure I recall them saying the same thing about the first case of the Delta variant, what seems like a lifetime ago.

This government is the country's own worst enemy, why would anyone spend good money trying to wade through such a poorly-designed morass of petty rules and regulations, just to come to a place where everything's still closed?