A heartfelt 'Thank you' to your honorary consul in Chiang Mai,  Ben Svasti Thomson.  https://www.facebook.com/BritHonConCM 

 

He's worked tirelessly with local authorities, hospitals and other organizations to arrange and manage vaccinations for expats, and not just British expats, providing daily updates and information on the groups who can get shots and at which location(s).   

 

His posts on various expat Facebook groups are always helpful, accurate and to the point, and doesn't get discouraged by the inevitable nonsense that comes his way from a loud minority in the expat community, whenever the topic is covid or vaccines.  Also considering that being an honorary consul is essentially a voluntary job. 

 

So thank you, he's a star.  To the entire expat community in the North. ❤️ 

You are lucky, we have no one like that batting for us in the central provinces. ☹️

I second the thanks to Ben and the others he works with to help the Expat community get lined up to get the vaccines. It was through his intervention that I received an appointment for September 1. Registered at expatvac on August 2 but that never resulted in any action after being sent notice of successful registration.

Well said. He is obviously proud to represent his country, and to go above and beyond in his duties. As someone else here already said, he puts the actual failing Embassy in BKK in the shade. 

23 hours ago, Chris.B said:

You are lucky, we have no one like that batting for us in the central provinces. ☹️

Why not ?

On 8/26/2021 at 11:15 AM, WinnieTheKhwai said:

Also considering that being an honorary consul is essentially a voluntary job. 

Yes indeed and I must also offer sincere thanks to him for helping to organize (pre-covid) the Royal British Legion's Remembrance Day Service at the Foreign Cemetery in Chiang Mai. 

On 8/26/2021 at 12:28 PM, Chris.B said:

You are lucky, we have no one like that batting for us in the central provinces. ☹️

Or the N/E

7 hours ago, wwest5829 said:

I second the thanks to Ben and the others he works with to help the Expat community get lined up to get the vaccines. It was through his intervention that I received an appointment for September 1. Registered at expatvac on August 2 but that never resulted in any action after being sent notice of successful registration.

I was delighted to get a call from Ben. Ironically the last we spoke the subject was Ebola! (2014) I reminded him of this conversation, and told him about some

80+ year-old virologist friends and their activities, such as this:

 

Still active teaching and creating vaccines to this day!