Phuket: "Graveyard Patong" - where even the 7-Eleven is shut

[ChipButty]

3 hours ago, Youlike said:

I feel so sorry for the tuktuk drivers who charged us 200 baht for a 200 meter ride...????

 

 

I feel sorry for you cant walk 200 meters

[camble]

On a positive note, Savoey Seafood restaurant are offering a 10% covid discount, despite little competition. 

[DFPhuket]

The construction mess on Patong beach road is related to the burying of all of the overhead electric and cable lines. The entire road from the hill at the south to the roundabout at the north has been dug up and the underground pipes, which will hold all of the cables, appear to now all be laid. The next step will be to actually take down all of the cables. 

 

When they did the same cable burying in Phuket Town they resurfaced the road when they were finished so I assume they will do the same thing on the beach road. 

[Megasin1]

Oh dear, if I cant get my morning egg, cheese & ham toastie then I'm definitely not willing to go through 15 days quarantine ????

[natway09]

Obviously the places catering simply for tourists are hurting, 

Same in Bangkok.but the "local bars & restaurants" are still full of locals.

hence Phuket doing better than Patong.

As to 7/11's...... bound to be closures everywhere partly due to CP Groups greed in always being at saturation levels

[vandeventer]

I live about 150km north of Chiang Mai and most of the shops are open but no people in them. I eat at this one small shop 2 times a week and the lady owner gives me a big hug every time I go there as I am her only customer. She is just so nice and her food is so good. It's such a shame. 

[hotchilli]

6 hours ago, ChipButty said:

Where I live I think the 7/11's are just about hanging in there, when I go in none of them are busy, I go in 2 or 3 different ones, upto now 2 family marts have closed shop and stripped all the fitting out.

Where I live there's a 9 day market within the temple grounds for Loy Krathong

2pm this afternoon it was pretty much full, 5pm onwards it will be heaving.

Also good to see was on each entrance a well organised team taking temperature checks and you're given a sticker, if you weren't wearing a mask you were given one and told to wear it.

 

[spidermike007]

If you wanted to venture to an island destination, they are all devastated by this shutdown. Was recently in Samui. 85% of the hotels were closed. Most restaurants, alot of bars, shops and other businesses were closed, many permanently. Granted, there are some great hotel bargains right now. But, that environment is fairly depressing, seeing so much hardship. So, even without quarantine, not a big attraction. With quarantine, and the half dozen other hoops they are asking prospective tourists to jump through? 

 

I predict less than 300,000 tourists in 2021. The industry is dying a fast death. 
 
So, the lame authorities here need to wrap their minds around that. Tourists would be coming to a hugely diminished destination. Free quarantine? Might be a good place to start. If you are serious, make some sacrifices, you incompetents. And if not, the entire administration should just admit you they are defeated, do the right thing and resign, and let some competent and talented people take over. 

 

A good place to start, with the sacrifices, would be the submarines. Give them up. What are you going to do with them anyway? Who will pilot them? No subs for 60 years, and all of a sudden you have the expertise to pilot and maintain them? Hello.
 
Show the people you care.  22 billion is the official number. But, since the first one is already up to 13 billion, the numbers simply do not add up. As usual. 45-50 billion baht is probably more realistic. Not including maintenance and repairs. 
 

If Thailand had a qualified health minister, and a slightly intelligent tourism minister, they would stop this nonsense, and realize no tourism program requiring quarantine will ever work. Period. 
 
The Thai army. Moving Thailand backwards, and inflicting untold pain on it's people. Time to go, guys. The people need competency, and they are speaking loudly now. 
 
Do you care one iota about the people? Just be honest, for once, and admit that you don't. 

 

It is great that the Thais are stepping up, taking advantage of great deals, and supporting the tourism industry. It helps, no doubt. But, it is only a portion of what the hotels, restaurants, and other businesses need. The industry is hurting, big time. 

[0815]

5 hours ago, BritManToo said:

Where i live near MaeJo University (12Km from Chiang Mai moat), everywhere is open as normal.

In the evenings all the restaurants are packed with students and young people. 

The shops and high street are busy, lots of traffic on the roads.

The old folk still meet for a drink and a chat on the village green at sunset.

 

If I didn't have to wear a mask to enter the bank/7-11/Tesco I'd not know anything was different.

 

As for Phuket, yeah I'd be up for a holiday there every 2-3 months from Chiang Mai, but the flight prices are prohibitive. AirAsia keeps sending me 990bht special offer internal flights emails, but whenever I look the cheap flights are non-existent.

How clever to compare Mae Jo (where 90% of people on the streets in evenings are students of the MJU) with tourist places ...

[sambum]

2 hours ago, Makoshark said:

I spent one month in Rawai. It’s nice with no farang but then again farang don’t go there. Family mart open. 7 open   Restaurants open.   

 

Its up to the remaining farang to tip 2-3x more to help the locals

 

i go 4x a year.  Love the place.  Quiet 

"It’s nice with no farang but then again farang don’t go there." Bit of an obvious statement?

"Its up to the remaining farang to tip 2-3x more to help the locals" So if there are "no farang", where do the remaining ones come from?

 

Great attitude! And next you'll be blaming "dirty unwashed farang" for causing it all in the first place!

 

Edited November 2, 2020 by sambum

[Audragon]

Phuket Walking Street Market was very busy last night, with lots of food stalls, shops and craft stands doing good business. Mostly locals I suspect, and it was Loi Krathong, but nice to see some activity in the old city. I am visiting from CM  and most museums and many stores and shopping malls are open, but doing a quiet trade. 

[ChaiyaTH]

6 hours ago, BritManToo said:

As for Phuket, yeah I'd be up for a holiday there every 2-3 months from Chiang Mai, but the flight prices are prohibitive. AirAsia keeps sending me 990bht special offer internal flights emails, but whenever I look the cheap flights are non-existent.

Yeah noticed the same and actually the only reason I did not travel down there already a few times since COVID. I know many who would go if flights weren't that expensive, even before COVID, it was cheaper to fly to KL or VN.

[Skeptic7]

[from the home of CC]

better than a literal graveyard..

[Helmet Grunter]

In Lamai, on Koh Samui about 7, 7-Elevens have shutdown, probably never to open again, has no one ever heard of the term "over provision" When the pandemic is over Thailand and especially the islands will rebalanced, the farang dead wood has gone already, maybe people need to realise that you don't really need 30 7 Elevens is a small area and a couple of hundred bars on one Soi, what may come of this is a bit quality instead of quantity ????

[Tropposurfer]

8 hours ago, Somtamnication said:

One less 7-11 is not major news. However, I understand the spirit of the story. Sad days head, not yet finished with this covid thing.

Yes John it’s a ghost. Sad n nothing gunna change soon I fear. 

[Hoppyone]

7 hours ago, ChipButty said:

Where I live I think the 7/11's are just about hanging in there, when I go in none of them are busy, I go in 2 or 3 different ones, upto now 2 family marts have closed shop and stripped all the fitting out.

Business as usual in villages across Thailand mainly big tourist areas are the sufferers

[3NUMBAS]

endless schadenfreude and no future in sight .all downhill

[Harry Fingerling]

Say goodnight Gracie.

[Caldera]

Same in Pattaya, I've seen several boarded up 7/11s, McDonald's and Starbucks there. None in Bangkok, on the other hand.

[GreasyFingers]

9 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Same sort of thread on the Samui, Pattaya and Chiang Mai subforums.

However it's only to be expected when apparently no tourists are coming and only local Thai tourists. Can't expect long stay expats to be picking up the slack.

I'd like to see some threads about Thai communities to see if they are having the same problems. I can't see Lamphun being a "ghost" town as hardly any farangs lived there and I never saw farang tourists.

I'd expect life to be much as it was before corona.

We are a Thai tourist area and the high season started earlier than usual because of the previous restrictions with people wanting to get out of Bangkok and up into the mountains. A popular resort near us would be averaging 2-3 busloads every day (normally that would only be on weekends). At times they are catering for 200 people a night (the wife supplies them with some vegetables)

[Thaiophil]

The 36 STV Chinese tourists will pick up the slack ????

Edited November 2, 2020 by Thaiophil

[sekmet]

An excellent opportunity to reinvest in infrastructure upgrades. It would keep people employed and make things so much nicer for when the tourists come back.

[Jaggg88]

10 hours ago, NCC1701A said:

many business have closed including both 7 eleven and family mart right here at Asok BTS Sukhumvet area.

 

 the other night there were five customers in Billboard GoGo and 37 dancers, 18 of them going around and around on the carousel with not much chance of getting off. pun intended.

 

a little known economic indicator that I use. 

 

 

 

 

In there purely for research purposes ???? A nasty job but hats off to you for making the effort. ????

[Freigeist365]

"Massaaat sir, massaaaat!", it rang through the sad and lifeless alley. And she knew, this was the end of it all... (to be continued)

[Freigeist365]

2 hours ago, Harry Fingerling said:

Say goodnight Gracie.

Good night, Harry! ????

[SiSePuede419]

Isn't it sad that everywhere in Thailand looks almost identical to the top photo in this article?

 

Concrete and overhead wires, peeling paint, etc.

 

At least in America, different places look different.

 

Capitola, California looks different than Santa Barbara, California.

 

Santa Fe, New Mexico looks different than Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.

 

I'm thinking about putting up my own road sign at the turnoff to my wife's parents house, because I keep missing the turn BECAUSE IT ALL LOOKS THE SAME. ????

[yogavnture]

if im the first tourist back in town will i be target of crime.  people have no money

[A1Str8]

That's amazing. Phuket once again became quiet and peaceful. I am going.

[kiwikeith]

17 hours ago, ChipButty said:

Phuket town is doing ok, We spent 3 days in Nakorn Si business as usual over there we've also been to Trang, Trang itself was ok but not the beach areas they were dead.

Quite simple, let the European people who live in Thailand back, in now stop extortion by Thai owned insurance companies, which by the way, the government has passed laws for which allows them to invoke, sadly, conditions on age and forbids other overseas companies insurance to stand in Thailand. 

 

Then the quarantine extortion and now the plastic GPS wrist bands they probably bought from HUAWEI for 500 BHT and will require you to pay 5000 BHT for before you can get through immigration 

 

Sadly the return of people that own homes has become extortion. 

And the STV is being extorted by the same means 

And the powers that be are writing this into Law. 

They are actually writing Thailand into economic suicide. 

If it gets much worse for the people with millions of BHT locked in Thailand then possibly political pressure from the peoples embassies may happen in the near future.