wordchild

he has gone! if true its the best news (for Thailand) that i heard for a long time. Much as i cant stand the PM this guy was pure poison.

Last i heard they were having issues with the Thai SEC for giving illegal (in Thailand) financial advice. Have they closed down their Bangkok operation?

pools in Hua Hin can reopen from today,

looks like the orders have finally filtered through; our pool reopened this morning.

Then why not get the swimming pools open! We have the ridiculous situation where pools in Bangkok, Pattaya etc are allowed to open but not yet in Hua Hin

it is especially crazy that Bangkok pools are open yet remain closed in Hua Hin! I believe that the pools will reopen here but there is some delay while the provincial government work out what the rules will be. At least that is my understanding.

yes thats what i just heard from our condo office; they now say pool likely to be open but they need to clear usage rules, so cannot confirm yet. good news for my kids! (if true)

i think they are genuinely not sure what the local rules are, and with things changing every hour or so, who can blame them. last time they opened the pool up when they heard other condos/hotels had opened, probably be the same this time

will they allow pools to open in Hua Hin tomorrow? I know pools in Bangkok can open , however our condo (in HH) just told us they think its not allowed here.

it wont take long for these regulations to unravel, i suspect restaurants will revert to some sort of self declaration system eg sign the bit of paper to confirm your vaccination status or something along those lines. Also , why are they keeping the pools closed?

headlines appearing now on Bloomberg. Thai Govt to relax some restrictions from 1st sept, limited restaurant dine in allowed, staff need to be fully vaccinated, (no mention of customers needing to be vaccinated) interprovincial travel restrictions lifted to an extent (still needs to be essential). malls allowed to open . Curfew to remain.

another drop in numbers today (17165) helps their argument

good point; also its likely that the strength of the banks today is mainly down to some helpful action from the Bank of Thailand. Nevertheless i think there is better background sentiment (in the market) at least partly due to a feeling that the worst of the covid figures maybe behind us.

well the Thai stock market seems to believe that things are getting better, market is pretty strong today (plus 1%) with the banks notably strong, Bangkok Bank and Kasikorn both up 5%

there is a large K bank on Petkasem just past the Night Market soi (on the left if heading north) and opposite the Esso station

i use Bangkok Bank app for QR payments from time to time, not noticed any issue so far. I am not Thai

I would also recommend Dr Macbook; great service and fair pricing.

last i saw you are supposed to quarantine unless you had been fully vaccinated with Sinovac or had one dose of Astra. But that was before the deep red designation. In any event no idea how this is being enforced.

i would be one of those who believe that ,in general, shares will be a better investment than property or certainly bonds. You can buy a whole range of quality companies in places like the UK, Australia, Singapore, HK (or even Thailand!) that likely as a group would offer a reasonably secure and growing income. The key thing is to limit your exposure to any one company , sector or country. As others have suggested income focused ETF,s are a great way to spread your risk. If you really want property exposure then consider Singapore Reits; 1) pretty good income returns 4/5% up 2) no hassle having to manage the property yourself, and you can spread your risk and avoid lost income from voids etc 3)variety of property types and country/currency exposures to choose from eg Office, Industrial, Logistics , retail, with exposure to a range of different countries. 4)mature and well regulated REIT market in Singapore. Singapore maybe a safer place to have your money than Thailand, but if you cant move your funds there then you can open an international broking account with one of the leading Thai brokers which effectively also gets your funds out of Thailand.

This goes to the heart of the matter. The British Consular Team's position would be completely understandable in the context of a vaccine roll-out (in Thailand) that was logistically challenged but was ,nevertheless and overall, being handled equitably and transparently , by the host country. This is simply not the case here. In Thailand the clear, and overtly stated, priorities for vaccination, are Thai people, other racial groups can come later. Such a racially based policy, in an emergency situation such as this, ought to run counter to many of the values that the UK holds itself (and other nations) too. I would have expected the UK to be making a more forthright (and a more public challenge) to the Thai Govt on behalf of UK citizens here.

i am not sure that would solve the problem,sadly. The problems in this country seem to go very very deep. new owners , new trainers ,new jockeys all likely needed!