Krapow Posted July 20, 2020 Share Posted July 20, 2020 44 minutes ago, Butch said: I was thinking June / July as well. Good call. The problem is at this point in time, I'm reluctant to book or consider booking anything at all. Yea, i normally book as far ahead as i can, save loads. But this time i'm like you, also reluctant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcfc2007 Posted July 20, 2020 Share Posted July 20, 2020 (edited) 6 hours ago, Butch said: I just read an article in "The Nation" about this, although the protests are relatively small, they are springing up around the Country. My Thai politics isn't really up to much, but this isn't the same as the Yellow / Red shirts from a few years ago is it?. We're now pushing into late July / August, I honestly can't see flights starting anytime soon, apart from the current repatriation ones of course. Some have mentioned October, but I reckon that will involve jumping through some fairly small and tight hoops. The GDP of Thailand is going to take a bit of a hiding this year, no doubt. No wonder people are getting edgy. Yes and No. They have ditched the coloured shirts, but those former yellow shirt protesters support Prayuth and the government (many of whom were army generals at the time of the red shirt uprising in 2010), whilst the red shirts support the anti-establishment protesters. What's different this time, is that these protesters have been very public in their attacks on a certain establishment figure, if you catch my drift. They ought to be careful what they wish for, the current army general is a loose cannon, and a bit of a nutter. Sadly this is only going to end one way, in more bloodshed, maybe not now, but in the coming years. Edited July 20, 2020 by dcfc2007 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evil Penevil Posted July 21, 2020 Share Posted July 21, 2020 BERNAMA is a Malaysian government-owned news agency. My bold highlight. Evil Thailand grants visa extensions for foreigners BANGKOK, July 21 -- Thailand today approved automatic visa extension for foreigners stranded in the kingdom following travel restrictions, to September 26. Deputy Government Spokeswoman, Traisuree Taisaranakul, said a cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister General Prayuth Chan o-cha today approved the third automatic visa extension. “The mandatory 90-day reporting for foreigners residing in Thailand is also suspended,” she said at a press conference here today. To contain the COVID-19 outbreak, Thailand declared a state of emergency since March 26. It has temporarily closed its borders and banned entry to foreigners, except diplomats and work permit holders. And from April 4, Thailand extended the ban to include all international passenger flights. Since then, foreigners stranded in Thailand flocked to immigration offices nationwide to seek visa extension. To curb COVID-19 outbreak and avoid mass gathering at immigration offices in the kingdom, the Thai government has granted automatic visa extensions from April 8. Meanwhile, Thailand has reported five new COVID-19 cases – all Thai nationals who returned from abroad, and zero fatalities over the last 24 hours, bringing the tally to 3,255 with 58 fatalities. --BERNAMA 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tko Posted July 21, 2020 Share Posted July 21, 2020 I've been doing my 90 day reports online anyway. They're approved immediately and I won't have to worry that I'm not up to date when the amnesties end. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Evil Penevil Posted July 21, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted July 21, 2020 (edited) I'm posting this article because it's typical for the type of mainstream news people in the U.S. are reading about the COVID-19 pandemic in Thailand. It's from It's also a good photo essay. Evil By Hannah Beech Photographs by Adam Dean July 16, 2020 BANGKOK — No one knows exactly why Thailand has been spared. Is it the social distancing embedded in Thai culture — the habit of greeting others with a wai, a prayer-like motion, rather than a full embrace — that has prevented the runaway transmission of the coronavirus here? Did Thailand’s early adoption of face masks, combined with a robust health care system, blunt the virus’s impact? Was it the outdoor lifestyle of many Thais, or their relatively low rates of pre-existing conditions? Is there a genetic component in which the immune systems of Thais and others in the Mekong River region are more resistant to the coronavirus? Or is it some alchemy of all these factors that has insulated this country of 70 million people? Police officers in Bangkok patrolling a checkpoint on one of the city’s busiest streets after a nationwide curfew was put into effect. Thais were quick to adopt wearing face masks early in the pandemic and maintain social distancing when using public transportation. A nearly empty flight from Bangkok to Phuket, Thailand, on March 30. Construction workers, a group largely made up of migrant workers, returned to their dormitories in Bangkok in April. Thailand’s low rate of infection appears to be shared by other countries in the Mekong River basin. Vietnam has not recorded a single death and has logged about three months without a case of community transmission. Myanmar has confirmed 336 cases of the virus, Cambodia 166 and Laos just 19. Yunnan, the southwestern Chinese province through which the Mekong flows before meandering to Southeast Asia, had fewer than 190 cases. None are active now. “I don’t think it is about immunity or genetics alone,” said Dr. Taweesin Visanuyothin, the Covid-19 spokesman for Thailand’s Ministry of Public Health. “It has to do with culture. Thai people do not have body contact when we greet each other.” “This is how the countries in the Mekong region greet each other as well,” Dr. Taweesin added. The authorities spraying travelers with disinfectant in Phuket, a popular vacation spot, in March. Disinfecting a market before it reopened in Bangkok, in May. Drive-through testing at a hospital in Bangkok, in March. Workers making cloth face masks at a factory owned by Wacoal, an underwear manufacturer, in Bangkok, in April. It didn’t always look so upbeat. In January, Thailand confirmed the world’s first case of the coronavirus outside of China — in a tourist from Wuhan, the central Chinese city where the outbreak is believed to have begun. Another wave of infections was set off by people arriving from Japan, Europe and the United States. A Thai boxing event turned into a super-spreader event. But after a lockdown was enforced in March, shuttering businesses and schools, domestic transmissions subsided. All of Thailand’s recent cases have been among people who arrived from overseas. Dr. Wiput Phoolcharoen, a public health expert at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok who is researching an outbreak of the coronavirus in Pattani in southern Thailand, noted that more than 90 percent of those who tested positive there were asymptomatic, much higher than normal. “What we are studying now is the immune system,” he said. Dr. Wiput said Thais and other people from this part of Southeast Asia were more susceptible to certain serious cases of dengue fever, a mosquito-borne virus, than those from other continents. “If our immune systems against dengue are so bad, why can’t our immune system against Covid be better?” he asked. Students at Sawasdee Wittaya Primary School learning about washing hands after schools reopened this month. Registering to receive financial aid from the government in Bangkok, in May. The closed Apple Store at Icon Siam, one of Thailand’s most upmarket and largest shopping malls, in March. Homeless people lining up at a food distribution center in Bangkok, in April. Though Thailand’s hospitals have not been overwhelmed by coronavirus patients, the country’s tourism-dependent economy has been battered. In April, Thailand banned almost all incoming flights, amid the tightening lockdown. Holidaymakers stopped coming to Bangkok, once the world’s most visited city. The Thai tourism and sports ministry estimates that 60 percent of hospitality businesses could close by the end of the year. The International Monetary Fund predicts the Thai economy will shrink by at least 6.5 percent this year. More than eight million Thais may lose their jobs or income in 2020, the World Bank has said, in a nation already cleaved by a yawning gap between rich and poor. Thai households have some of the highest debt loads in Asia, and the most desperate have lined up at Buddhist temples for handouts of rice. After a promised disbursement of emergency government funds was bogged down in bureaucracy, a woman swallowed rat poison outside of a government building. She survived, but suicides are up in Thailand. Covid Thailand Aid, a charity set up in the wake of the pandemic, has been inundated by pleas from Thais with only a dollar or two left in their bank accounts, said Natalie Narkprasert, one of the group’s founders. A park in Bangkok on May 3, after the city began easing restrictions. Protective screens at street food stalls in Bangkok, in May. Thai boxing gyms were allowed to re-open on June 1. A salon after re-opening in Bangkok, in May. The country’s large population of migrant workers, many from neighboring Myanmar and Cambodia, is also hurting. While some people managed to make it home before the borders closed, others are stuck in Thailand with no wages from their jobs as hotel cleaners, kitchen hands and food stall operators. “Now is when people want more help because it’s been so long and it’s not going to get better,” Ms. Natalie said. A sense of normalcy has recently returned to Thailand. Schools have reopened with children wearing face masks and studying at spaced-out desks. And in early July, the first holiday weekend in months — Thai New Year festivities were canceled in April — prompted an uptick in domestic tourism. This week, an Egyptian military pilot was confirmed to have tested positive for the coronavirus, after he breached quarantine and visited shopping centers in a Thai beach town. Some schools in the area are now closed again. Two activists who protested the government’s handling of the quarantine violation were arrested on Wednesday for contravening Thailand’s emergency decree. Questions are also being raised about why migrant workers who were deported from Thailand arrived home and immediately tested positive for the disease, despite not being included in the official Thai count of coronavirus cases. Thailand’s testing rates remain relatively low. “With the disease still looming,” said Dr. Taweesin, the health ministry spokesman, “we have to keep our guard up.” A popular entertainment street, just before curfew, was closed down due to a localized coronavirus outbreak, in Patong, Phuket, in March. Muktita Suhartono contributed reporting. Edited July 21, 2020 by Evil Penevil 9 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fygjam Posted July 21, 2020 Share Posted July 21, 2020 (edited) ^^^^^ But they're mostly wearing masks. Don't they know they're just sheeples giving away their freedom. And, of course, masks don't work anyway. Edited July 21, 2020 by fygjam 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krapow Posted July 21, 2020 Share Posted July 21, 2020 Aye, you'd wonder at that wouldn't you. Thailand, Vietnam, South Korea etc, places like that who are good at wearing the masks, understand the benefit of it. Them then getting a handle on the virus far, far better than say the likes of the US. Obviously just a coincidence. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Evil Penevil Posted July 22, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted July 22, 2020 Two of my favorites: 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thai Spice Posted July 22, 2020 Share Posted July 22, 2020 You got to love this stuff..... So, they have millions of unemployed, and people begging for food, but they gonna bring in 100k foreign workers from Cambodia, Burma, Laos ? And of course as their future employers is not going to pay for a "standard" quarantine, they'll have a light one. 4 person per room ... https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/1955703/thousands-of-foreigners-to-be-allowed-entry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toy Boy Posted July 23, 2020 Share Posted July 23, 2020 6 hours ago, Thai Spice said: You got to love this stuff..... So, they have millions of unemployed, and people begging for food, but they gonna bring in 100k foreign workers from Cambodia, Burma, Laos ? And of course as their future employers is not going to pay for a "standard" quarantine, they'll have a light one. 4 person per room ... https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/1955703/thousands-of-foreigners-to-be-allowed-entry These migrant workers in the construction industry mostly work on new condos and hotels in the tourist areas. There were too many of these things sprouting up even before the pandemic, who in their right mind would want to build more of them now? The Thai government is already in a deep hole but it seems it wants to keep on digging, lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thai Spice Posted July 23, 2020 Share Posted July 23, 2020 4 hours ago, Toy Boy said: These migrant workers in the construction industry mostly work on new condos and hotels in the tourist areas. There were too many of these things sprouting up even before the pandemic, who in their right mind would want to build more of them now? The Thai government is already in a deep hole but it seems it wants to keep on digging, lol. Worst is the government encourages it.... instead of trying to get their own citizens fill these jobs. But hey, thats another subject, and probably a taboo one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steelers4Life Posted July 23, 2020 Share Posted July 23, 2020 Don't know how reliable the source, but if some of the claims made in this article are true, they are depressing atm. Thailand’s tourist magnets deserted and desperate Deserted Tourist Magnets Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcfc2007 Posted July 24, 2020 Share Posted July 24, 2020 10 hours ago, Steelers4Life said: Don't know how reliable the source, but if some of the claims made in this article are true, they are depressing atm. Thailand’s tourist magnets deserted and desperate Deserted Tourist Magnets The islands including Samui and Phuket seem to have been much worse affected. Maybe Bangkok and Pattaya are fareing slightly better due to having larger expat communities. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Smooth Posted July 24, 2020 Share Posted July 24, 2020 12 hours ago, Steelers4Life said: Don't know how reliable the source, but if some of the claims made in this article are true, they are depressing atm. Thailand’s tourist magnets deserted and desperate Deserted Tourist Magnets A very harsh and depressing read. I just wonder what the suicide rate is and how many deaths by other health reasons have happened in the time that Covid made it's presence felt in Thailand. Seems the cure is worse than the disease itself. Nearly 70 million and a microscopic number who have died. A typical holiday weekend might see more death on Thai roadways. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivan the terrible Posted July 24, 2020 Share Posted July 24, 2020 (edited) On 7/22/2020 at 1:09 AM, Krapow said: Aye, you'd wonder at that wouldn't you. Thailand, Vietnam, South Korea etc, places like that who are good at wearing the masks, understand the benefit of it. Them then getting a handle on the virus far, far better than say the likes of the US. Obviously just a coincidence. Uk 4th after Belgium , San Marino and Andorra in terms deaths per million population...better analogy would be "the likes of the UK" Usa 11th https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ Edited July 24, 2020 by Ivan the terrible Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jambo Posted July 24, 2020 Share Posted July 24, 2020 On 7/21/2020 at 9:39 PM, tko said: I've been doing my 90 day reports online anyway. They're approved immediately and I won't have to worry that I'm not up to date when the amnesties end. Me too as I am now a believer! 😛 Halleluja. Done it twice now and neither time were they approved immediately. The second time managed to get the software to go through at the first attempt but 3 days for approval to be confirmed which is neither here or there. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcfc2007 Posted July 24, 2020 Share Posted July 24, 2020 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jambo Posted July 24, 2020 Share Posted July 24, 2020 1 hour ago, Mr. Smooth said: A very harsh and depressing read. I just wonder what the suicide rate is and how many deaths by other health reasons have happened in the time that Covid made it's presence felt in Thailand. Seems the cure is worse than the disease itself. Nearly 70 million and a microscopic number who have died. A typical holiday weekend might see more death on Thai roadways. I think that the weekend the alcohol ban was lifted that is exactly what happened. More total deaths on the road than the total deaths from Covid19. When I am up in Mae Sot we all have to wear a mask to enter the shopping centers and even 7-Elevens. However, outside of going shopping virtually nobody wears a mask any more due to the fact that the province only ever had two cases (both visitors from Pattaya) and none since March. My recent visit to Bangsaray/Pattaya I saw no social distancing in Bars and absolutely nobody wearing a mask inside. It was confirmed that the BiB in Walking Street were making on the spot "fines" of 1,000 baht to non-wearers. I found that out AFTER I had nodded to plod sitting on his motorbike across the entrance to WS and he must have appreciated the gesture as I passed sans mask. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evil Penevil Posted July 24, 2020 Share Posted July 24, 2020 More details on the latest (and final?) visa extension. Evil 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcfc2007 Posted July 24, 2020 Share Posted July 24, 2020 1 hour ago, Evil Penevil said: More details on the latest (and final?) visa extension. Evil Well if they are saying that you must have a medical reason to stay, or a supporting letter from the embassy, you would certainly imagine it is the last extension of the visa amnesty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evil Penevil Posted July 24, 2020 Share Posted July 24, 2020 (edited) 32 minutes ago, dcfc2007 said: Well if they are saying that you must have a medical reason to stay, or a supporting letter from the embassy, you would certainly imagine it is the last extension of the visa amnesty. It certainly appears to be the INTENTION of the Thai authorities to make this the last COVID-related extension for those on short-stay visas. However, the authorities could always revise their decision again if circumstances make it too difficult to administer. I doubt many tourists are still "trapped" in Thailand because of flight restrictions. Some are, to be sure, but not many. The majority with expired visas are staying because they want to be in LOS. Whether they will make plans to leave Thailand of their own accord in the next two months remains to be seen. What will happen if hundreds of "hangers-on" flood the immigration offices on Sept. 25th? Evil Edited July 24, 2020 by Evil Penevil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcfc2007 Posted July 24, 2020 Share Posted July 24, 2020 12 minutes ago, Evil Penevil said: It certainly appears to be the INTENTION of the Thai authorities to make this the last COVID-related extension for those on short-stay visas. However, the authorities could always revise their decision again if circumstances make it too difficult to administer. I doubt many tourists are still "trapped" in Thailand because of flight restrictions. Some are, to be sure, but not many. The majority with expired visas are staying because they want to be in LOS. Whether they will make plans to leave Thailand of their own accord in the next two months remains to be seen. What will happen if hundreds of "hangers-on" flood the immigration offices on Sept. 25th? Evil If you read the first part of the announcement, it says 'prepare for departing' and gives a couple of scenarios in which they will give 30 day extensions. They have been charitable enough, the majority of those still there are just exploiting a loophole, the Thais aren't stupid, they know that. Anybody that thinks they can turn up on the 25th of September and say that they can't get a flight home might be in for a shock. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nightcrawler Posted July 24, 2020 Share Posted July 24, 2020 Just a question for those who know more about immigration than I do........ Will expats who are staying in Thailand who are married to Thais and have children etc be affected in any way as a result of recent changes? Will it affect them if the chose to go home and then return, apart from the obvious quarantine rules on re entry that currently apply ? Is any of this seen as a way of reducing the number of expats, retirees etc? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcfc2007 Posted July 24, 2020 Share Posted July 24, 2020 36 minutes ago, Nightcrawler said: Just a question for those who know more about immigration than I do........ Will expats who are staying in Thailand who are married to Thais and have children etc be affected in any way as a result of recent changes? Will it affect them if the chose to go home and then return, apart from the obvious quarantine rules on re entry that currently apply ? Is any of this seen as a way of reducing the number of expats, retirees etc? I can't see how it would. Those on long term visas can stay provided they meet the same requirements they have always needed to meet. It will be a bollocks for those guys like the offshore workers who fly in and out every other month. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jambo Posted July 25, 2020 Share Posted July 25, 2020 10 hours ago, dcfc2007 said: I can't see how it would. Those on long term visas can stay provided they meet the same requirements they have always needed to meet. It will be a bollocks for those guys like the offshore workers who fly in and out every other month. It will make a big difference to me if I wish to visit my family in the UK under the current returning requirements. The only plus is that having a Thai wife I have a definite right to return. The downsides are not inconsiderable: 1. On return I will have to pay 40 - 60K for my two week quarantine in one of their designated hotels. That is more than my last return BA flight. 2. I will need to obtain a "fit to fly" certificate from a Doctor within a couple of days of flying. That will not be easy in the UK although I suppose possible if one can get one on a "Private" basis at a price. 3. A Covid19 insurance certificate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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