Hard truths about travelling to Thailand, right now

[Neeranam]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

Sure locals, who have been living inside this Siamese Bubble for 6 or so months, will also have to manage their own prevention with potential new cases coming into the country. The recent complacency will have to be replaced with a new vigilance.

Obviouslywritten by a foreigner with a Colonial attitude. 

Time you accepted that many of us don't want tourists at the moment. 

[ezzra]

And on the other hand you have all those TAT and other related industries bosses and government official who just can't sit there throw their hand and the air and blame the Covid thingy, they get paid to "do something" pandemic or not to save the situation and business and going broke and people unemployed, so they have resorted to use of  ridiculous tactics of forcibly bring tourists in comes rain or shine and no matter what the cost is and how futile it looks...

[A Los for words]

Does anyone else think COVID-19 has already been through, done it's business and moved on? I have friends, strong, fit and healthy, who were sick in December with many of the symptoms. 

As for tourism, while this is a disaster, prolonged by selfish, greedy and misinformed policies, there has probably never been a better time to be a foreigner with leisure time in Thailand. There is nothing we can do about the situation but we can spend our money enjoying this beautiful country and support some of the businesses and people who rely on it.

[hotchilli]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

To call this ‘tourism’ is a misnomer. The dribble of high spenders, people prepared to fill out all the paperwork and pay for the pleasure of coming to Thailand, will do nothing for Thailand’s broader tourism industry and re-open the 1000s of shuttered hotels. 1000s of other businesses, connected to the Thai tourism juggernaut, remain in tatters.

The same could be said for many countries all over the world, some with a correct balance of commerce will be doing ok, those like Thailand who have become heavily dependent on tourism are going to suffer.

This pandemic is a re-set for world travel, not just tourism, businesses are also going to suffer as freedom of movement is going to be impacted for the next couple of years at least.

Tourism is going to be domestic orientated mostly, every country is going to keep a tight reign on immigration and border control, welcome to the new normal.

This has and will continue to impact the world order for a very long time and freedom of travel has changed.

 

 

[Jeffr2]

18 minutes ago, apetryxx said:

Grumpy is echoing just what I’ve been saying since all of this hysteria over the WuFlu started. It’s much more about control than about your health. This all makes about as much sense as roaring down the highway on a scooter going against traffic with no helmet but wearing a mask to ward off Covid! It’s a world gone mad.

Seriously?  Every (credible) medical expert is warning us of the dangers.  Over 1 million have died and millions more will be suffering potentially life long consequences due to this virus.  I doubt those who have lost loved ones would agree with your analysis.

 

But yes, roaring down the highway on a scooter going against traffic is equal to not wearing a mask in places the virus is raging.

[bbbbooboo]

Simple solution really. Go somewhere else. Vietnam springs to mind.

[sandyf]

15 minutes ago, apetryxx said:

This all makes about as much sense as roaring down the highway on a scooter going against traffic with no helmet but wearing a mask to ward off Covid! It’s a world gone mad.

The only thing that is mad is people continually trying to relate a medical condition to a cultural/personality trait.

The former will very often be resolved by science but the latter will never be resolved by those with a similar trait, something you have to live with.

We will all be pushing up daisies before international pressure and the younger generations bring about significant change.

[Mr Meeseeks]

37 minutes ago, nobodysfriend said:

----> "Compared with HIV, SARS-CoV-2 is changing much more slowly as it spreads. But one mutation stood out to Korber. It was in the gene encoding the spike protein, which helps virus particles to penetrate cells. Korber saw the mutation appearing again and again in samples from people with COVID-19. At the 614th amino-acid position of the spike protein, the amino acid aspartate (D, in biochemical shorthand) was regularly being replaced by glycine (G) because of a copying fault that altered a single nucleotide in the virus’s 29,903-letter RNA code. Virologists were calling it the D614G mutation.

In April, Korber, Montefiori and others warned in a preprint posted to the bioRxiv server that “D614G is increasing in frequency at an alarming rate”¹. It had rapidly become the dominant SARS-CoV-2 lineage in Europe and had then taken hold in the United States, Canada and Australia. D614G represented a “more transmissible form of SARS-CoV-2”, the paper declared, one that had emerged as a product of natural selection. " < ---

 

It seems that this D614G strain is not the one that was present in Thailand . It is much more contagious . If it arrives here , the rate of infections will increase .

 

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02544-6

Precisely the reason the borders should not be opened until more studies are done and a vaccine available.

 

Sorry tourism, you're copping the hit on this one. Taking one for the wider economic team.

[VBF]

1 hour ago, jaiyen said:

Before thinking about all the visa problems and where to stay, where to go etc.  There is a bigger problem.    THERE ARE NO PLANES !!!!!!!

Other way around!  There are no aircraft flying at present because the airlines know they cannot fly to Thailand - borders closed. 

If the borders opened, the airlines are ready to commence.

Already discussed on this very forum many times - go and search.

[Mr Meeseeks]

30 minutes ago, Neeranam said:

Obviouslywritten by a foreigner with a Colonial attitude. 

Time you accepted that many of us don't want tourists at the moment. 

Indeed.

 

I would suggest that the vast majority of Thais and expats do not want foreigners here at this present time.

[brewsterbudgen]

20 minutes ago, bbbbooboo said:

Simple solution really. Go somewhere else. Vietnam springs to mind.

Vietnam has similar restrictions.

[whiteman]

I would suggest that the vast majority of Thais and expats do not want foreigners here at this present time.

 

I am one of many that agree with the above. This Virous has giving many good resets to life in Thailand. I know many are suffering but life makes one have to adjust to things and move on. Or dig a hole in the ground and jump in and pull the dirt over your heads and wait for a sunnier day.

 

[dogfish180]

1 hour ago, Jeffr2 said:

Covid isn't rife here.  If it was, we'd be seeing pics of overloaded hospitals.  I've been in several recently, they're pretty much empty.  Sad some think it's a bluff.  It's not.

There's no overloaded hospitals in the UK or US either! Because virtually nobody needs hospital treatment!

[spidermike007]

At some stage, hopefully sooner rather than later, the Thai government will have to re-open its borders and find a way to ‘manage’ the Covid-19 situation rather than remain in a travel bubble of its own making. The longer the government doesn’t re-open to something akin to general tourism, the harder it will be to re-boot the former Thai tourism powerhouse.

 

Very accurate statement. The longer they wait, the harder it will be to restore the industry. People have short memories. Thailand was already being forgotten by millions, before Covid, due to a dozen reasons. Now? Too many alternatives. This administration continues to see Thailand as the COTU (center of the universe). Say it ain't so! No humility seem to be getting learned as of now. 

 

So, we have about 3 trillion baht missing from the economy, minus the little bit of domestic travel going on. 20%! Millions of jobs. How long will that vacuum remain? Will the army develop some guts, courage, creativity and stop the panic mongering? It is unlikely. And what about the people? They are not really a consideration. If you are not rich or connected, you do not factor in. Woe is the average Thai, who worked in tourism. 

 

My prediction, is that when Covid is dead and gone, it will be a very slow recovery. It will take many years. And even ten years from now, I doubt if Thailand will see 20 million tourists a year. The longer they wait, the harder they fall. 

[Jeffr2]

8 minutes ago, dogfish180 said:

There's no overloaded hospitals in the UK or US either! Because virtually nobody needs hospital treatment!

Where do you get your news from?  Obviously, what ever the source, it's not good.

 

https://www.channel3000.com/covid-patients-filling-wisconsin-hospitals-as-virus-surges/

 

COVID-19 patients are filling Wisconsin hospitals, forcing doctors to transfer patients to other facilities and build waiting lists as the disease surges across the state.

 

Hospitals in Green Bay, Wausau and the Fox Valley are being overwhelmed, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

 

Officials at Bellin Hospital in Green Bay say their facility is at 94% capacity.

[Jeffr2]

33 minutes ago, VBF said:

Other way around!  There are no aircraft flying at present because the airlines know they cannot fly to Thailand - borders closed. 

If the borders opened, the airlines are ready to commence.

Already discussed on this very forum many times - go and search.

Planes land here pretty much every day.  I've had many friends come and go over the past few months.

[Jeffr2]

11 minutes ago, dogfish180 said:

There's no overloaded hospitals in the UK or US either! Because virtually nobody needs hospital treatment!

https://www.grandforksherald.com/newsmd/coronavirus/6678134-North-Dakota-hospitals-near-capacity-amid-ongoing-COVID-19-surge

[PGSan]

5 hours ago, Kadilo said:

They need to find a way of managing the Virus

i doubt that a Virus can be managed by anyone, can it?  So you will have difficulty identifying any They for such as task.

[Donga]

8 minutes ago, whiteman said:

I would suggest that the vast majority of Thais and expats do not want foreigners here at this present time.

 

I am one of many that agree with the above. This Virous has giving many good resets to life in Thailand. I know many are suffering but life makes one have to adjust to things and move on. Or dig a hole in the ground and jump in and pull the dirt over your heads and wait for a sunnier day.

 

Fear is powerful, especially when the media thrives on it.

Covid-19 has been well managed in other countries, not just Thailand. There is no justification anymore to deny visitors from countries like Thailand, just like you can travel between provinces, but with added testing.

If you recognise how many people are suffering, please look at the data, not the headlines and you can tell which countries have managed to bring Covid- 19 to it's knees. https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

Digging a hole won't help anyone, good grief. Time to get real and revive tourism to some degree.

[moe666]

4 hours ago, Grumpy John said:

I read the other day 38 have died this year because of dengue fever with 60.000 effected.  Many thousands die on the roads each year and little is done to curb that.  The flu takes many many people each year.  People die from diabetes, cancer, lung disease, suicide.  So,  to those in power and to us normal people death is an everyday thing, it happens everyday for whatever reason yet the Wuhan China virus is being treated differently.  Why?  Is it a power game?  Prayuths much loved emergency decrees seem to be coming every month on a regular basis now.  Honestly I am finding it hard to understand how they can destroy the economy and effect many millions when only 59 have died.

Even if you have a car wreck and you ae killed it doesn't go to your home and infect your family and possible kill a few who where at home and nothing to do with the wreck. As usual apples to oranges. 

[PGSan]

5 hours ago, Justgrazing said:

They are looking down the barrel now as we enter the last quarter and need to get real to ways of managing C V

More “They” and “managing a Virus“.    Please explain both of these terms.

[rumak]

5 hours ago, Kadilo said:

Hellelujah. At last, a well constructed sensible article that summarises exactly where Thailand is at this time. 
 

Let’s hope it gets read by the right people who are making some of these these ridiculous decisions and common sense will take over not just for the sake of those wanting to return, but for the good of the Thai people who will be the ones who will ultimately suffer as a result of it. 

EXACTLY !!   Just use that article as a preface to ANY  of the daily "schemes"  blabbered out to us by the usual sources.

[BritManToo]

15 minutes ago, Jeffr2 said:

Where do you get your news from?  Obviously, what ever the source, it's not good.

https://www.channel3000.com/covid-patients-filling-wisconsin-hospitals-as-virus-surges/

COVID-19 patients are filling Wisconsin hospitals, forcing doctors to transfer patients to other facilities and build waiting lists as the disease surges across the state.

Hospitals in Green Bay, Wausau and the Fox Valley are being overwhelmed, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

Officials at Bellin Hospital in Green Bay say their facility is at 94% capacity.

I thought US hospitals were there to make money?

Surely they're happy their beds are full, and don't particularly care what they are treating, as long as they get paid.

Edited October 6, 2020 by BritManToo

[CLW]

Send the letter to the leaders of this country!

[watso63]

Well that was a waste of time. Lots of wishful thinking and drivel. Holiday somewhere else until the Thai authorities decide what's best for their citizen's and country.

[Jeffr2]

3 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

I thought US hospitals were there to make money?

Surely they're happy their beds are full, and don't particularly care what they are treating, as long as they get paid.

You don't seem to know much about care providers.  Nor the consequences of a full hospital in treating others in need.  Lots of care providers have died.  Not a good thing.

[Artisi]

32 minutes ago, dogfish180 said:

There's no overloaded hospitals in the UK or US either! Because virtually nobody needs hospital treatment!

Expecting those being treated for severe cases of CV19 and those on life support in ICU, so yes - virtually nobody needs hospital treatment. 

[BritManToo]

Just now, Jeffr2 said:

You don't seem to know much about care providers.  Nor the consequences of a full hospital in treating others in need.  Lots of care providers have died.  Not a good thing.

'Care providers' ...... are we talking employees or the companies that own the hospitals?

As long as the employee deaths don't cut into the corporate profits, why would they care?

[Artisi]

4 minutes ago, watso63 said:

Well that was a waste of time. Lots of wishful thinking and drivel. Holiday somewhere else until the Thai authorities decide what's best for their citizen's and country.

That sounds like a big ask????

[Jeffr2]

1 minute ago, BritManToo said:

'Care providers' ...... are we talking employees or the companies that own the hospitals?

As long as the employee deaths don't cut into the corporate profits, why would they care?

They're not in it just for money.  Profits are important, but they do care about others.  One reason you get into that profession.  Many hospitals are run by medical professionals.  Not just business people.