wensiensheng

Since the choices were: - less cases, - the same amount of cases, - more cases, I would say that he made the right choice. Whatever modeling algorithm he is using will likely be spot on.

Exiting dual carriageways from the fast lane is fine? You must be joking. Having a build up of cars spilling back into the fast lane, or worse, articulated lorries blocking both lanes of both carriage ways whilst they execute a u turn, is an exercise in madness. Caused by poor road infrastructure that forces the practice to take place. road signage? So poor it’s worthless. road markings? Often non existent. the weight and speed of traffic in general far exceeds the quality of the road infrastructure.

The Swiss “tourist” actually lives in Thailand and is well known locally as a keen cyclist. The taxi (according to the yellow taxi identification sticker on the side) apparently went too fast over the crest of a hill, lost control as a result of water on the road coming from a washing machine station by the roadside, crossed onto the wrong side of the road and simply smashed into the oncoming motorbike. He never stood a chance and the motorbike was barely recognizable as such. Not helping the motor cyclists cause were the 3ft concrete posts newly installed by the government along the roadside only days before, but the car impact just crushed the motorbike anyway. The car ended up on its side on the grass verge on the opposite side of the road. unfortunately I was at the spot a few minutes after the impact.

Because a small percentage of those infected will need to be hospitalized/die and because of the speed of transmissibility, it will all happen in a short space of time, thereby overwhelming hospitals. A small percentage of a large number is still a big absolute number. is there hysteria? I see a sense of inevitability and “here we go again” mindset, hysteria, not so much

One can only hope that the Thai authorities are watching what is happening in S Africa and the UK and as a matter of urgency are setting up a booster campaign for more or less immediate roll out. Or, are they following their delta strategy of claiming it’s under control, until it isn’t, and only then scrambling to get some vaccines into arms? there is also the matter of exactly what boosters will be required. People who had two AZ or two Pfizer are in a fairly clear cut situation but, those who had 2 sinovac may, or may not, have had a booster already. Do they need another? And those who had the unique mix and match of sinovac and AZ are another category for which there will be little to no data available outside of Thailand because no other government afaik, followed that particular mix and match combination. all is pretty quiet on the omicron front in Thailand and it’s a time for urgent and immediate action, not being lulled into a false sense of security. It’s time to get just a little bit ahead of the curve.

On the roads near me the authorities are busy making the roads even more dangerous. They have started to put a series of 1 meter high concrete posts down the grass verges on the road side. If you get a lunatic coming at you on the wrong side of the dividing line, there’s now nowhere to go. And motorbikes that plough into the grass verges on a fairly regular basis for one reason or another, will now hit concrete posts. and the purpose of these posts is what exactly?

I find it a stretch to believe this. Ability to afford a personal vehicle strikes me as the main reason for using public transport and if I decide to avoid using it due to Covid concerns, a motorbike might be a more likely transport candidate. bangkok might be a special case of using public transport whilst being able to afford a car but I don’t see there being enough in that category to be a big boost to saws. this strikes me as a statement of demand that is intended to stimulate the demand itself, so an intended self fulfilling prophecy

Sounds like a tourist visa in a fancy wrapping to me. So all hype and no substance.

1st in Asia? So above Singapore, Japan, S Korea? the survey is a joke

But not while on their plane? Or in the airport?

Probably something along the lines of: ”omicron will eventually come here, if it’s not already here, and the list of things that we are currently doing in preparation for a general community outbreak of omicron is: (insert list). Meantime we are in constant contact with the scientific community worldwide in order that we know asap what the exact ramifications of omicron are in terms of vaccine escape, severity of illness etc. rest assured, if further vaccinations are necessary to combat omicron, Thailand will obtain and deliver into arms, the necessary vaccine at the earliest opportunity. please do not panic, your government will do all that is necessary to protect you. It is up to you to protect yourself by taking advantage of the vaccines currently available to you.”

It doesn’t matter if there is or is not community transmission this week. The point is that it will eventually come, just as it did with alpha, delta and beta. The important thing is to make preparations for when it does arrive, if it hasn’t done so already.

Well I would have to take issue with your comment that new car sales are skyrocketing. Anecdotally the sales people I know in the industry say they are suffering quite badly. I’m not sure what official car sales numbers are, but I’d be surprised if they are sky rocketing. but I take your point that not all are broke and anyone with money can get things with some nice discounts.

I think they were referring to the victim, although it is poorly worded

Aside from the insane bail decision, no mention of the son being arrested in relation to this latest killing? According to the press report he was there with the father and involved to the extent of telling witnesses what to do.

How can he or anyone else know at this point, that there will be no effect on thai tourism? Data has yet to be analyzed by scientists and conclusions reached on the key questions. clearly the jury is still out.

Possibly, although you were replying to my post, so whether you choose to quote me or not is immaterial.

I can’t really see the point of tracking down people as far back as 15 November. If they were positive when they arrived, many would be over it by now and in any case would have started community transmission if they were positive. Test and trace would be impossible even if Phuket was doing that, which they most certainly are not. Up to this month I didn’t know any one who tested positive, in the last 10 days 5 people living in my street have tested positive from three households. Zero attempt by the authorities to test and trace. Two isolated at home because they did their own atk tests, three sent to quarantine hotel.

Originally who said over 60. Later they changed it to unvaccinated over 60.

The information you give from the website is interesting. It suggests that results of the survey may be skewed upward in terms of English proficiency because the large masses who don’t want to learn English, would not form part of the survey. in terms of westerners learning Thai, this thread is about the proficiency of Thai’s speaking English. If you want to talk about westerners speaking Thai, start a new thread as it’s a different subject.

I’m thinking of visiting Singapore for a week. The question I had about the pass is how long the health insurance has to be valid. I mean, I live in Thailand on a retirement visa and will use a re entry permit for traveling in and out, so does the health insurance have to be for a year, until my 1 year visa expires, 90 days, or some other arbitrary time period? if anyone has any information on that I would be very interested to know.

I think you are missing the point of my anecdote. I was referencing the endemic ripping off of tourists in Thailand. Of course there are fixed price shops to buy ice creams, I had a ton of the stuff in my freezer that I bought from Macro.

Who said I was happy? I paid it as a sort joke, proof of the type of scams going on type thing. I’m not happy the guy thinks I would be such a sucker to pay such an inflated price and I made sure in a joking way that he knew, that I knew, he was ripping me off. and you are missing the whole point of the story. Ripping off tourists is endemic in Thailand from a humble ice cream seller, to big companies to government and everything in between. THATS the point. it’s the case in other countries of course, prices are higher in tourist areas, higher in tourist season etc. the difference is that everybody pays those prices if in a tourist area and in tourist season AND there is usually some semblance of government action to protect tourists from price gouging to the extent that the tourist might not come back. I see no such action from the Thai government. but I take your point. If the tourist is happy with his “bargain”, then fine. But what happens with those tourists who get gouged and aren’t happy? Might they not come back?

Coming off a beach in Phuket the other day an ice cream vendor on a motorcy sidecar type thing, charged me 30 baht for an ice cream. My girlfriend bought the exact same thing from the exact same guy at the exact same place the previous day for 10 baht. Only difference is that she is thai. i paid the 30 baht just for the joke of it, but it sums up how tourists get cheated all the way up and down the line. Always have done.

I follow your logic. Where it falls down is when the cops allow those same people they just fined, to continue on their way still helmetless, without licence ( therefore no insurance) and without passport. can you explain that?