An hour ago I received my CoE from the London Embassy. It has taken longer to arrive than I expected but shows 'No less than 7 days'.
What has been widely touted has indeed come to pass. Whoopee!
An hour ago I received my CoE from the London Embassy. It has taken longer to arrive than I expected but shows 'No less than 7 days'.
What has been widely touted has indeed come to pass. Whoopee!
Brad the Impala (October 1st, 2021), goji (September 30th, 2021), Oliver2 (October 1st, 2021)
Congratulations ! I hope you have a good trip. When are you going ? Are you doing solitary or Phuket sandbox ?Originally Posted by billyhouston
Secondly, how long did it take to get the COE ? In December 2020, my COE took approximately 10 hours, including part 1 and 2. Useful to know if it is not so efficient now.
It took 6 working days and I suspected that the delay was due to their having some idea about the coming changes. Everything had been very quick until this final stage.
I'm doing 'solitary' and fortunately my hotel reservation was cancelable up to the day before arrival. This permitted the length of stay to be altered. Living in the boonies there are no direct flights, so I fly via Paris. Anything to avoid Heathrow. Mid October and then north to Chiang Mai and home!
christianpfc (September 30th, 2021), Dodger (September 30th, 2021), goji (September 30th, 2021), TaoR (October 1st, 2021)
Congrats on your plans coming to life.
When they say "no less than 7 days", what exactly does that mean. Are they referring to quarantine time?
Welcome Home!
New quarantine information
"No less than ..." has been around for a long time. The first reduction from 14 to 10 or 7 days lasted only a few weeks before it was revoked, and in the above post it says "The quarantine period will be determined by the Health Control officers upon arriving in Thailand". The only thing that is guaranteed is that you will spend no less than 7 days in quarantine, and if day of arrival is day 0, and you can check out after day 7, that makes 9 days / 8 nights.
Dodger (October 2nd, 2021)
It would seem better for most people to serve their quarantine period with the freedom of the whole of Phuket rather than locked in solitary in a hotel room elsewhere in Thailand.
christianpfc (October 1st, 2021)
There are complications with that. Firstly you have to fly direct to Phuket. Not always possible.
Then, if for example, you are going to Pattaya you have all the hassle of flying and moving back to U Tapau or Bangkok. A full day wasted
Finally when your time comes to return, say to the UK, you will have to sort out your return flight as your outward flight was direct to Phuket. You may even have to buy another ticket.
christianpfc (October 1st, 2021)
Complications aside, this is a good stepping stone. It clearly shows that those profiteering from the ASQ scam are not going to be able to keep their gravy train running much longer.
They have argued that 14 days to 7 days is the magic ticket to get mass tourism back - some of them might even believe it. I think we all know that the only magic ticket is the complete removal of all restrictions on the tourist industry.
What next? The Thai government will doubtless be watching the airfare booking data to see how much effect this change has. I'm not certain they'll be convinced it isn't working in time to remove all quarantine in time for Nov 1st, but as we approach Dec 1st it should be screaming from the rafters that there is only one solution.
It will also be apparent that Covid case numbers in most tourist source nations are tumbling into the dust at that time.
The only potential issue is if case numbers take off in Thailand again. Whereas in Europe, most people have probably had the bug now (many blissfully unaware) Thailand's initial lockdown worked quite well, and tests for antibodies amongst army conscripts six months ago showed a very low incidence.
It follows that whilst the true number of cases in the LoS might well be ten times or more the number recorded, it may not be sufficiently endemic yet to go away..
Dodger (October 2nd, 2021)
Now we need the UK to remove Thailand from the Red List. Quarantine anywhere is too much for my restless spirit to contemplate..
Nevertheless Congratulations to Billy Houston. He can inspire us with happy stories of reunions. And Thai food. I miss that , too.
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