brommers

The forecasters of a huge Chinese influx are simply whistling in the dark. With airfares 3 times the price in 2019, unemployment at record highs, a property market collapse that has ruined hundreds of thousands of investors and the continually concealed truth about Covid there is only a slight chance that PRC arrivals will surge. An AP report on the Chinese return to travel showed that nowhere in the world is experiencing the hoped for return of large numbers. Tourism is a distant number 3 in urban Chinese priorities and most plan domestic travel. So the bullish reports will soon be hidden away by more reports of disappointment.

Nothing unusual here. Most countries such as UK, US, S Africa, EU etc have similar restrictions.

Considering that there are only a handful of flights per day from the PRC and the fact that direct flights only started a few days ago there are probably no more that 3 or 4 thousand Chinese people in Chiang Mai. So spotting a Chinese visitor is rather like looking for hen's teeth. By the way how does one spot such a person?

In theory they spend when here, in practice they are spending in Chinese owned businesses with Thai nominees and the only benefit to this country is to low paid Thai employees. All their profits go back to the Chinese owners. My partner has already instructed the security staff to deter Chinese from the business premises because they are cheapskates, argue about the bills and hunt in packs that block seating for decent tourists. They are not the only regional tourists who are not wanted but the certainly are the worst.

People can quote all the regulations they can find but the reality is the Germain issue. Chiang Mai satellite Immigration office at Central Festival is today saying that if someone leaves the province, to visit Pattaya for example, and returns to the same address in CM Province a few days later the person HAS to do a TM 30 report. So in this city at least we are back to the dark days of Jackboot Junta policies courtesy of the so-called Prime Minister who kisses the hands of his Chinese chums who visit for a few days but treats longer term bigger spending resident farangs like criminals.

It beggars belief that situations such as this can occur in enterprises financed by taxpayer money. And yet no one is surprised because these parastatals are run in a totally incompetent manner and that is the norm. Thailand likes to style itself as an emerging economy and not a third world one but it employs civil servants who could not run a market stall to handle billions of baht. No wonder the country is mired in corruption. There are no checks on rampant mismanagement and the ordinary tax payer is being conned.

Anutin has stated that Thailand will not be acquiring the bivalent because the current ones are "good enough"! In actuality the bivalent vaccines are little better than the originals because they were developed for the Delta variant and we are now on the umpteenth iteration of Omicron, so they offer little more than a marginal improvement against severity not infection. The virus is still a potent reason for vigilance and sensible behaviour but sadly living with Covid has turned into complacency for many.

If you buy anything from Dyson get ready for ludicrous delays in getting replacement parts. I am currently waiting, so far 21 weeks, for what is nothing more than a piece of moulded plastic. Other parts take between 9 and 16 weeks. Dyson are expensive to buy and rendered useless by these unacceptable delays from their official service agents in Thailand.

Yes novacova the whole place is closed and along with it the establishments to which you refer. Covid has wreaked havoc in many ways in the country and here up country in the much neglected provinces. You will find many shophouse businesses have gone and numerous tourism businesses too. The festive season has been quite busy but the destruction over 3 years will not be repaired for many years.

Pack your bags. To live in a "foreign place" requires flexibility, acceptance of differences, realisation that change happens and an embracing of inevitability. You seem to find it difficult to find that what you thought was reality is in fact not the case, because it was never the case. Perhaps you should return to your place of origin and embrace it once again. Chiang Mai over the past years has remained a home to me because it is vibrantly changing for the better, not fossilised.

We all know what is going on and that events over the next few days could easily lead to a cancellation no matter what TAT says today. Any cancellations are regrettable but not surprising and will not affect the international tourism sector.

Ha ha, they have been reading the latest polling results which clearly show Anutin as a no-hoper for PM and the party as a distant minority vote getter. Who would want the egos of Anutin and this guy in any form of coalition!

Interesting that they refer to alcohol as a drug. Isn't the chaos around marijuana a clear indication that the government and the MOPH has no idea what it is doing! I suppose I am staying the obvious, sorry.

Is it coincidental that the little billionaire is wearing a jacket covered in dollar signs?!

Google Maps will tell you all you want to know about CM Saloon!

Chiang Mai Janitorial Supplies certainly stocks Zebra as well as other brands. Located on route 11 Superhighway frontage road, past Makro going out of town. You can find it on Google Maps.

They can make any forecast they want to because they are not accountable and there are no accurate counting mechanisms. The dream world that is TAT has no value to anyone in the tourism industry because they have zero credibility. On the ground the picture is very different to the breathless optimism of TAT, it remains a hard slog to make a few baht and tourists are not pouring into anywhere but a small number of resort cities. The Chinese will not be arriving next year because the virus is exploding all over the country and their health system cannot cope. So visions of a prosperous 2023 are little more than a pipe dream.

This is the man who was ranting about kicking dirty farangs out of this country. Now he wants to hug and kiss them while he has his hand in their pockets. He is a totally contemptuous example of life.

I find it so amusing that Americans think they are pizza connoisseurs. Just remember where it originated and also remember that Domino's lasted in Italy for only a short time and withdrew after losing a fortune. The best pizza around here is at Pizza Plus in Doi Saket. I have Manhattan friends who always go there when the need a pie and swear it is better than back home.

Flu vaccines are updated annually to ensure they cover the latest variants. Your May jab should be good until you return to Oz.

I can vouch for the guy in Meechok Plaza, upstairs above the bookshop opposit Bangkok Bank. He repaired a Samsung tablet that Samsung said would cost 6000 baht. He fixed it using new parts for 600 baht and the problem was not what Samsung told me! Highly recommend him for his integrity. Also there is an Asus service centre inside Future Electronics on the frontage road between Theppanya Hospital & Central Festival. Easy to miss, on the left past Jia Tong Heng Chinese restaurant, where there is a sign showing brands like Philips, Panasonic, etc.

Lmfao. Another photocall leading to absolutely nothing. If he was serious he would need to establish a clean police force specially trained to hunt these criminals and then back them up with a special protection force to keep the police alive! Then he would need a whole special court of untainted staff with their own protection service. and finally he would need 20 years of non stop work to catch the existing criminals let alone the new ones who move in to fill the voids left by those arrested. Ain't gonna happen!

Tip of the iceberg!

The drink driving argument is a total nonsense. Has anyone seen large numbers of vehicles driving after midnight? Not where I live in a tourist area. It is just a scare tactic by those wanting a nanny society. Anyhow my partner who owns a prominent tourist related nighttime venue will not remain open past midnight because staff need to get home and to sleep at a decent hour after an 8 hour day of dealing with customers. Employees have a life too!

Loads of it on the shelves at Rimping Meechok, bought some 2 days ago. The local Trukey Brand orange label is a decent analogue of the real thing, much better that Kikkoman or others. And yes, this is the Chiang Mai forum so all you who post useless replies for Pattaya and stores that we don't have here just wake up and switch on your brains.