Long-Stay Tourist Visa "The Reality"

[JDJD]

Let me put in my 2 baht. Take it with a grain of salt and an open mind.

 

Heads of state and all health agencies are well aware that this is going to be a huge problem for the foreseeable future. I’m talking 1-2-5 years. Possibly our entire lifetimes. Again. Heads of state are well aware of the implications of curing a virus related illness or maintaining a vaccine that is capable of mutating beyond control. I can find report after report stating the same as well as a simple googling of  “fastest vaccine”, will show that vaccines for HIV, Ebola, SARS, Influenza, Polio, Herpes et al. can take an entire lifetime. We can all hope it is just a state related weapon and that particular state already has the cure. We would all be in their hands now. Conspiracy theories aside. There are very few places on earth that can claim the title to being virus free. Thailand is one.

 

The quoted 1200 people monthly is just enough to give pre-screened permission to uber wealthy people from neighboring Asian countries. How many applicants will there be from the EU, Australia, USA, Russia? Plenty! What you must be supposing is that there will be a lottery if you can even make the requirements. Good luck with that. First come first serve? Yeah right!?! Charter flights suggest Asian countries. The 1200 will be filled from the heads of those particular states with access. These spots, most likely, are already filled. Back to my initial prognosis for a moment. Soon, 6 months - 1 year, people will be looking to go to a country without the virus because it will be either out of control or simply not letting up in many countries. What Thailand is doing is trying to let in people that can buy up all the bankrupt hotels, businesses and properties for pennies on the dollar. These 1200 per month will get the grand tour of Thailand and can purchase just about whatever they want at a 30-60% discount of what it was just 1 year ago. The 9 months gives them enough time to negotiate and work out all the details. Package up condo projects. Even whole chunks of Bangkok and Phuket. Sold off to the highest bidder. All the while maintaining the prestige of being the only destination in the industrialized world that is Corona free.

 

Whether the Thai economy is booming or not really doesn’t matter. The worse it is the better for the 1% investors. The entire world is currently on the same trajectory. Invest in a horrible economy in a state that has out of control Corona or invest in a country where there is no Corona. I’m talking business investment for the next 10-20-30 years. These are the investors that will be invited. Whether Thailand is able to contain the virus outside its borders for a year or more is still to be seen.

 

With little exposure to Corona, the still, yet to come, “First wave”, could hit Thailand harder because people simply have not been exposed. Possibly the climate, genetics, diet, nutrition and prayers for Thailand are not conducive for the virus to take hold. We can all hope. There were a whole lot of coughs and sniffles in my neighborhood in April and May. Now I hardly hear any. Who knows without adequate testing and so far I have not seen much of that. At the same time, why test if people are not dying. Makes sense to me. Antibodies and hospitalization are different things.

 

To wrap it all up. Again, take my opinion with a grain of salt. To be selected as part of the 1% 1200 per month that are going to spend an average of $1,000 USD per day you will be enormously lucky. How many people from California, New York, Florida, London, Sydney, Moscow, will immediately sign up and meet the requirements? Probably more than a million. I believe the lucky few have already been pre-screened and are from neighboring Asian countries. The 1% have paid there dues to their respective consulates and are just waiting for the chartered flight to be approved. Salivating at the opportunity to heavily invest in Thailand. It’s kinda’ like McDonalds vs Halliburton. You could make tons of money catering to lower income people buying Mac after Mac, or you could get a huge payment from someone purchasing 10 oil fields. You might make more money from the Big Mac’s (Regular tourists, expats ***Under normal conditions***), but so many more people will take a bite out of that burger before you get the royalties. The room I rent, the Som Tam I buy, the motorbike I rent, the air conditioning bill, Thai wife, beer, massage, cell phone, bus ticket, key money I spend goes through 1,200 hands before it gets to the top. This way the 1,200 lucky few can hand it directly to the people that really need it.  Those at the top. Read that last part carefully. The money we as “Regular tourists/expats/retirees” spend in this Corona climate DOES NOT MATTER AT ALL. It must go through 1,200 hands before it gets to the top. That is what it is all about.

 

Bless Thailand. ฉันรักทุกคนเพื่อนและครอบครัวที่นี่ในประเทศไทย I’m glad to be here on a TV amnesty. I’m thankful I am able to stay here because of an agent. I don’t even think we have them in the USA. Please be warned. (My opinion) As soon as there are 1,200 people per month entering Thailand, there will be Corona again. Unless the process is crazy strict and unbelievably effective it is inevitable. I’m talking tracking wristbands, bar code tattoos on your wrist (joking), the whole nine. Forget “home” quarantine. Forget visit from family while on quarantine, forget flights from America, EU or OZ, just forget it. Pipe dreams. False positives, false negatives, actual cases of Corona during quarantine. What a mess. Hence the governments reluctance. I don’t blame them. We are in a bubble of paradise with not enough money to go around. The next 19 months are sure to be interesting. Songkran 2022!! See you there! Can’t wait!!!!!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 17, 2020 by JDJD

[wobblyjohn]

If you managed to see David Attenborough Extinction program you would know it's not state manufactured (as I thought too) but a virus that can occur in live animals and jumped between species and is perhaps the first of many to come as we live on a more overpopulated planet and come into contact with animal's in wet markets 

If you can watch BBC Iplayer is on there