Snig27

I think it's dropping fairly quickly but it depends on the area. You can walk from a mostly unmasked area into the next street and it's 80%. Public transport around 90% but nobody seems to particularly care any more if you are unmasked. No looks of horror and fear of instant death from Thais on the BTS as there was six months back.

Thank god the robots are all wearing masks to prevent this.

Thai military is not particularly good at the actual combat bit history shows.

There are probably fewer countries in the world where the US hasn't interfered over the years than the ones they have, but in every case they've done so for a bigger geopolitical reason be it the Cold War or control of energy resources or an attempt to remove a government deemed unfriendly to US commercial interests. None of these are in play right now here, and, indeed, the Prayut regime has allowed the US to construct major China listening posts in both Chiang Mai and Bangkok. The military regime has bent over backwards to make the US happy and the US is very happy. BrianB/TonyC does what he does because he's a shameless paid grifter, and these clowns likely are too, but the great mass of the people who buy into this CIA conspiracy theory here are just poorly educated nitwits who accept utter nonsense like this uncritically. The US has just offered the Thai military advanced F-16s and F-15s - new ones unlike the ancient secondhand stuff they currently have in their hangers - so they are hardly conspiring against them. There is no advantage strategically for the US to push a MFP government aside from a desire to see a working democracy (and the US has always been somewhat self-servingly selective in advancing that desire).

Oh dear. The textbook definition of the village idiot. This election has drawn them out.

Both operate under the wing of the big two. There were 134 brewers at the recent Bangkok beer festival and none can get licenses to sell beyond their premises. Have you thought about offering your legal expertise to some of these?

They are not banning it, they are regulating it per multiple statements and Pita's words just yesterday confirming that currently licenced sellers have nothing to worry about.

Doctor YouTube, I have a disease ... Every time you type something here it is enabled by science, every time you get in a plane or a care, it is enabled by science, every time you get a cold beer from your fridge and so on forever. But you take your medical science from YouTube and Twitter nutters?

If they won't roll over then methods of making them roll over need to be considered. They are an illegitimate force in an illegitimate government that the the people have said in no uncertain manner need to go. More, according to reports rank and file military overwhelmingly voted for MFW. Pita just needs to stand his ground. They won't be able to stop him unless they want hundreds of thousands outside Parliament refusing to move. These scumbags are done and once they are gone some sort of commision needs to be set up to look into the fiscal activities of each while they were drawing their illegitimate salaries.

Pretty much. MFP have said they just want to tidy up the law and have backed down from Recriminalising this now. PT have gone very quiet on it. It brings money into Thailand and most Thais, once you leave the old self-righteous krones don’t seem to care. 10 months of this haven’t caused any major problems and the fiscal benefits are obvious.

Where I live in central Bangkok there are many, many shops openly trading and doing decent business. The cops have closed down literally none in the past nine months. They are are all licensed and display the license and seem to be operating without any issue. I don’t smoke it but as I’m a local I chat with the owners of a couple of these now and then. They are fully approved and pay taxes etc. They have been inspected by a variety of government agencies and continue to be. The government has deemed them legit.

You’ve obviously never been to central Bangkok. Vans or dispensaries have operated outside or very close to Police stations for most of the 11 months it’s been legal. People don’t blatantly smoke it in the street but the cops turn a blind eye if they do so discreetly. But pleased you have found an article on Tourist dot org.

A vastly bigger one.

Experience the world over has shown that volunteer militaries are vastly better at doing their job. Your position that Thailand, a country whose current military has yet to win a war against anyone aside from unarmed civilians, is capable of something more is possibly best described as quaint. The military in Thailand is oversized, bloated, over funded and largely operates as an illegal state within a state, one that has caused this nation immense historical harm and continues to do so. These kids are used as slave fodder for this monolith and for many their lives are destroyed (or worse) by this pointless experience. The army needs to be downsized and brought firmly under civilian control if this country is to have any future in the changing 21st Century. It will happen but removing conscription is central to that process.

It doesn't matter. THEY get to decide, not you and a bunch of mates who don't like the democratic processes.

Agreed, and his complaints are about as relevant as handful of old expats demanding in an English language forum that PT and MFP be disbanded because they don't agree with the way Thai voters seem to be voting. The main opposition parties may not have the tanks and guns but they are overwhelmingly better educated, have better communications and a grasp of how the connected world works in 2023. And if they have allies in business beyond Thailand perhaps that will help this country with its vast and growing income and life gaps/inequity, largely stagnant economy and massive needless overspending on the military. They literally couldn't do any worse despite the conspiracy theories. The junta has failed Thailand spectacularly, somebody else needs to be given a chance.

I've been to every country in SEA except Philippines and Myanmar in recent months and Thailand is the only one where masks are worn by so many. That said, if someone wants to wear one, fine, but it goes both ways and glares and looks of terror when others chose not to need to stop.

I was in Japan when the mask advice was lifted and for the first few days they were still pretty much universal but that soon changed and after 8 days or so trains in non rush hour were 50/50. Same in the streets. Still higher than pre COVID but dropping quickly.

It is not. There is no state religion. Once you correct that, the rest of the post is irrelevant. What is relevant is that this is only one of a number of restrictions that exist to protect the two massive brewing companies. It is about the elite protecting the elite to the detriment of the country.

It really depends where in the city you are. I'm around the top end of Ekkamai and it's around 50% now. Arriving back from a week in Vietnam though, it's still a shock. It's around 20% there now, at least where I was in Saigon and the Delta.

Have you thought about offering up this ‘evidence’ to science. They’ve been looking this link for close to a century and failed to find it. And you have…

Those are boutique fruits, but standard fruits from the local stores are very cheap as are many foodstuffs.

And yet it is fine for large Thai corporations with connections to the government to pump vast amounts of poisonous air across the borders continuously.

Meanwhile I was almost killed on a crossing yesterday by a speeding car that didn't stop for the red. The cop watching quickly went back to his Facebook.

I hate to tell you this, but Prayut has been in power for 9 years now and none of these advances had anything to do with his closeted mind. But Thaksin, Thaksin…….