TallGuyJohninBKK

I had a dental cleaning appointment recently at a private hospital in BKK. What they wanted prior to the appointment was either: a. show them proof of full/two dose COVID vaccination, or b. do an ATK test the day of the appointment just prior, and have a negative result. I'm fully vaccinated and will receive my booster this week. But when I thought about it, the hospital's option regarding requiring proof of prior vaccination really doesn't make much sense as a means of preventing the spread of COVID. Because months prior vaccination (especially with the Chinese or AZ vaccines so common here) apparently aren't doing much these days in preventing infections that can be spread to others -- even though they do help in preventing serious illness and death.

In the case of your friends, do you know, once they were hospitalized, did they end up in private rooms or shared rooms/wards with other positive COVID cases?

In that case above, the woman who tested positive but asymptomatic upon arrival was required to do hotel quarantine -- but was not sent to a hospital. When it comes to asymptomatic positive tests here, the issue of simply being required to undergo extended hotel quarantine vs being sent to a hospital to serve out the same quarantine seems to be VERY unclear.

Then you'd have to include a lot of other countries, including the U.S., on your "complete failure" list, since the U.S. with 61% at present has a lower fully vaccinated rate (shown by the dark green bars below) than Thailand and its 64% rate. https://ourworldindata.org/covid-vaccinations

And not surprisingly, no social distancing occurring here, and hardly a mask to be seen..... Some folks have absolutely zero sense of social responsibility.

Well, I'd probably be a bit more measured in my criticism here... No one really knew earlier in the year that the various vaccines would, varying by the different types, have such relatively steep drop offs in preventing infections once people were 3, 4, 6 months out -- even though the mRNA vaccines still did better over time in preventing hospitalizations and deaths. It was interesting to see in the latest vax charts from the government that they actually are doing more 3rd dose shots per day right now than they are 2nd dose shots. Which kinda suggests they've run up against a segment of the population that simply don't want to get vaccinated with what's being offered for varying reasons. From the chart @anchadian posted above:

Looks like the government is going to miss their original self-stated goal of getting 70% of the population or 50 million people fully (two shots) vaccinated by the end of 2021. This is the latest chart update from the government posted today showing the fully vaccinated share at 46 million people / 64% (I added the red box highlighting those stats): https://www.facebook.com/informationcovid19/photos/a.106455480972785/475778407373822/?type=3 After a very slow start to their vaccinations campaign, I'll give them some credit for upping their game as the year progressed. Unfortunately, they ended up putting much of their early vaccine efforts into non-mRNA vaccines that simply didn't protect as well as the mRNA versions, which were very late to arrive in TH.

The wife and I hadn't gone away from home in BKK for any travel since late 2019, shortly before COVID began... So we were getting a bit stir crazy... We made plans for our short year-end HH trip before Omicron really became a thing, and kept our plans despite its recent emergence. I was glad to be able to do a quick get-away now, for I fear the case numbers and related grief is only likely to get worse here in TH in the weeks and months ahead. We were both fully vaxed, wore good quality N95 masks throughout our trip except when in our room or out eating, stayed away from indoor settings as much as possible, and when we were eating, kept a good distance away from others as much a possible.

Here's the latest/current details for the Swampy-HH bus service: The bus does not stop along the way going either direction. And the only thing provided on the trip is a single bottle of water. Though the bus itself is VIP class, very comfortable, well air conditioned and has plenty of leg room and seats that can recline.

As mentioned above, the Swampy to HH bus service does offer a follow-on van service from the bus station direct to local hotels for a 100 or 150 baht extra fee. That van service can be booked online as part of the bus ticket, paid for direct at the Swampy bus counter, or paid for upon arrival at the HH bus station. However, a bit to our surprise, it turns out they DO NOT offer the same kind of van pickup service for return trips -- taking you from your HH area hotel to the HH airport bus station. That part, you'll have to arrange on your own, although the bus station staff did refer us to a van driver who provided us the return trip from our hotel back to the bus station.

Just an odds and ends note on the perils, big and small, of domestic travel in Thailand right now. Big - at the long-established, large hotel we stayed in Hua Hin this past week, out of an abundance of caution, I called the day before our arrival to double check just what exact documents they would want to see upon check-in. I was a bit worried they might mistakenly class me as some kind of international incoming tourist. They didn't, but they still had a big surprise nonetheless. Although there is no government policy to do this that I'm aware of, the hotel where we stayed required all incoming guests -- farang and Thai -- to show proof of COVID vaccination -- though there was absolutely no mention of this anywhere in the advance reservation process via Agoda. At first, I thought it might just apply to me. But no, they wanted the same proof for my Thai wife as well. Fortunately, both of us had previously been doubled vaxed by the government here, so we didn't get caught out. And it wasn't just us in some kind of oddball deal. As we were waiting to check out yesterday, I caught the front desk staff making the same vaccination proof demand of other couples who were trying to check in. Earlier during our stay, I was checking with a couple other hotels in HH where we might want to stay on some future visit, and none of them said they had that same kind of vaccination requirement for guests. But still, in today's times, for a domestic tourist, it probably pays to be on the safe side and check ahead of time to be safe. Small -- despite the government and tourist industry promises of lots of tourists coming, the hotel where we stayed -- and several others we checked with -- had cancelled their normal buffet breakfasts that can be part of the room rate, and instead replaced the buffets with paltry single set plate meals, due to a lack of guests. In our case, our hotel gave us a choice of Asian (a bowl of rice soup) or Western (2 eggs, 2 slices toast and 2 sausages), along with coffee/tea and juice.) Not exactly what we were expecting, and had we known in advance, never would have booked the room category that included "breakfast" for an extra charge.

Came thru Suvarnabhumi last night on a return from a domestic travel trip. Never seen it so dead as last night about 7:30 p.m., both on the arrivals and departures levels. Went down to the outbound taxi queue area on the ground floor, and literally there was not a single person waiting in the queue when we arrived there.

It depends on the particular bank. Some, such as BKKB, will just do a passbook only print update that they call a *balance forward" transaction wirhout any depisit or w/d that reflects that current day. In the case of my Krungsri account for Immigration, they wont do that kind of update either by their tellers or passbook update machines. So for Krugari, the day of, I w/d 100b from their ATM, then deposit it back via their CDM, and then print update my passbook, which keeps the resulting account balance unchanged.

CW's policy is to accept bank deposit letters dated up to 1 week prior to yr visit. The letter does NOT have to be dated the same day of yr visit. BUT, what does have to be done the same day as yr visit is some update to yr bank account passbook, either by a balance update or some deposit or w/d and then printed bank book update done the day of yr visit.

CW's policy is to accept bank deposit letters dated up to 1 week prior to yr visit. The letter does NOT have to be dated the same day of yr visit. BUT, what does have to be done the same day as yr visit is some update to yr bank account passbook, either by a balance update or some deposit or w/d and then printed bank book update done the day of yr visit.

That's the same kind of thing I'm seeing \ experiencing being "on the ground" here right now. Visited two other HH hotels in the Market Village Mall area yesterday to scope out for potential future stays. Both said they had all kinds of room types available right now. Meanwhile, yesterday, our downtown hotel looked a bit busier after looking dead over Christmas weekend. A Thai group of some sort with everyone wearing the same color/ style T-shirts. So I asked the front desk last night, would they change to have a regular buffet breakfast avail in the morning instead of the crappy (and unadvertised) set plate western eggs and toast or Asian rice soup choices they been doing since our arrival last week (due to lack of guests...) Answer: they would be having a buffet breakfast finally just for today / Tues,, then back to set plate offerings again for Weds and Thurs... That pretty much tells the story.

The wife and I have been staying in downtown HH since before Christmas, including this past weekend. It's VERY quiet out and around, and our good sized hotel appears to be mostly empty,,, to the point they've cancelled their normal buffet breakfast and are serving set plates in a mostly empty dining room instead. Maybe upcoming NY will be different, but I didn't see any sign of it for the past Christmas weekend. And other local hotel prices I've been checking for just days ahead are showing big discounts on offer.

You can also book and pay for the Swampy to HH or return bus trip via their website in advance, and obtain your travel certificate in advance, thus not having to worry about availability on any given day. There is an extra convenience charge, I believe, of 50 baht or so per person. https://rrcticket.com/customer/Webhome You can also book and pay for their add-on (I believe) van drop off service to various hotels in the area, with the pricing running usually 100 to 150 baht per person.

Just some weirdness re the mobile phone operator vaccine websites to register for 3rd dose booster shots.... Tonight, I tried each of the three of them -- DTAC, AIS and True, as follows: https://app.dtac.co.th/vaccine/index-en.html The DTAC site seems to say its booster shot registrations for those who've had various combinations of prior doses are only for those who had them at the Bang Sue vaccination center. But notwithstanding that, using my DTAC mobile number, I was able to successfully register and get an early Jan. appointment for a 3rd dose Pfizer shot there, even though my prior to AZ doses were at a private hospital and not Bang Sue. So...this text below (the 2nd paragraph) on the DTAC registration website is apparently in error in that regard: -------------------------------------------------- https://www.ais.th/vaccinesforthais/ When I tried the AIS site using my AIS mobile number, I got an error message in TH language saying the service was fully booked and not available. ---------------------------------------- https://vaccine.trueid.net/ When I tried the True Move H website, I got an error message saying if I wanted to register, I needed to do it via a True mobile number or other True account log-in.

The Asiatique vax operation is listed as available via the various TH mobile operator vaccine reg websites (which serve as a front-end system for the MoPH's vax program). Vaxes being done there would be via the MoPH, just the same as via Bang Sue.

About getting the Pfizer booster at Asiatique on top of two prior AZ doses.... Did you just do a walk-in, and they accepted that? Or did you register and book an appointment there thru one of the various websites? Thanks!

I was going to ask, if anyone had had any actual success in going out to MTT in person in an attempt to get them to fix, even on just an individual one person basis, their system's bogus mis-reporting of recent retirement extension recipients as being on overstay, and thus (falsely) ineligible for being able to do 90-day reporting online. I tried calling to the Immigration telephone hotline number, and got a rep who said he didn't have access to the Immigration computer system and couldn't even look up the particulars of my extensions grants, etc etc. It was pointless and futile, as any attempts to remedy actual problems with BKK CW/MTT often are.

I mailed mine at the beginning of Dec. via EMS, and also have not received any mailed receipt thus far. For some reason, the return mail response times for 90-day reports seem to generally have gotten longer in recent months than they have been in the past.

There's two DIFFERENT things being discussed and sometimes confused here... 1. is the DAILY ATM card withdrawal limit that typically can be set to quite high amounts with the various Thai banks, either in person at the branch or via their apps or online banking. But that's an adjustable DAILY limit that applies per 24 hour period, no matter how many transactions have occurred during that day's cycle. 2. Entirely separate from that are the maximum PER WITHDRAWAL limits set by the various banks for their ATM machines. The largest PER WITHDRAWAL amounts for general Thai ATMs that I'm aware of are 30,000 baht for Krungsri/Ayudhya and what used to be TMB Bank. Bangkok Bank (last time I checked) and some others have max 25K per withdrawals, others may vary. Although, regarding SCB, I have seen them rolling out some new fangled styles of ATMs at least in some areas of BKK that claim to allow single withdrawals of up to 200,000 baht (200 1,000 baht bills). But I'd imagine those are not very commonly found still. The OP seemed to be asking more about the PER WITHDRAWAL limit for ATM withdrawals. There's no way to increase the maximum PER WITHDRAWAL amounts that the various Thai banks have set for their own ATMs.... But you can increase the maximum DAILY limit of all withdrawals as mentioned above.

The latest guidelines appear to indicate recipients of dual Pfizer vaccines are supposed to wait six months after their second shot. So in Thailand, I don't think any sizable population of double Pfizer folks have reached the 6 months after point thus far. That's what happens when you get a better/more effective vaccine than the dual AZ doses, which used to have a 6 months after standard for boosters here, that now has been moved up by the government to only 3 months after the second dose. Because, studies were showing that the dual AZ doses were having waning protections from Delta that dropped faster and lower than the dual Pfizer doses that only got rolled out in Thailand after the first wave of dual AZ doses had occurred.