Agreed goji.
And even 2 weeks quarantine on arrival in Thailand is no real issue if you are staying for 90 days. There is the cost of it but if you subtract what you would have to spend anyway it would still be worth it to get back into Thailand.
Agreed goji.
And even 2 weeks quarantine on arrival in Thailand is no real issue if you are staying for 90 days. There is the cost of it but if you subtract what you would have to spend anyway it would still be worth it to get back into Thailand.
Two weeks quarantine on arrival in Thailand is a bigger inconvenience.
In the UK, quarantine is at your own home. So I can go anywhere in the house or garden, order & cook whatever food I want, use the exercise bike etc
In Thailand, I believe it's at a designated hotel. I presume we're expected to stay in the room & eat what's provided.
What I meant was that for a 90 day stay one could put up with 14 days quarantine on arrival in Thailand.
It would however be unacceptable for a one month stay.
its back to the middle ages this pandemic thing...could go on for a dozen years until it exhausts itself...
Goji and gerefan2 are not far short of planning to parachute into Pattaya and go undercover in order to get their fix of the place.
Such is the draw of Paradise upon Sea that few who've spent time there would consider such action unreasonable.
Chocks away chaps.
francois (July 29th, 2020), GerBear1958 (July 29th, 2020), gerefan2 (July 29th, 2020), snotface (July 29th, 2020), Zebedee (July 29th, 2020)
Thai quarantine might turn out to be similar to Melbourne quarantine where the security personnel charged with keeping an eye on those quarantined,were "rogering " ( is that a word ) their charges. Now nearly all Victoria is in lockdown as a result of the subsequent spread of covid-19 . That's one hellava rogering!!!
Admittedly there were other sources of the resurgent outbreak also.
Beats the alternative.
If no tourists are allowed entry - that means that the countries where the tourists reside are continuing to get clobbered by Covid-19, and certainly not places I would want to be.
If Thailand continues to stand firm on their C-19 restrictions, which I believe they will, the economy will continue to decline - no doubt about that, but every single Thai that I've talked to understands and supports this position. regardless of the hardships being encountered. Business owners...well that's another story.
As a resident expat, I really feel sorry for my friends who can't make it back here for holiday, but actually enjoy the beaches more with less tourists...appreciate less traffic and safer roads overall...breath cleaner air (tour buses are history)...and can always find a place to have fun. Bars, restaurants and entertainment venues are suffering as expected...but there's always somewhere to find what you're looking for.
A vaccine is definitely the critical piece on the play-board right now. The borders in Thailand won't be open to high risk countries (and possibly others) without it. From what all the medical experts have been telling everyone from the time this virus hit, is that it will require 12 months of testing before it can be approved and released to the public. That puts us near the end of 2021 at the earliest.
As far as Pattaya: It has been imploding for the past 20 years and simply outgrew itself. The infrastructure, e.g., electric systems, water systems and roadways are unmaintained and overburdened to say the least and supported by third-world technologies at best. The lack of skilled internal resources needed to support the massive growth Pattaya has been experiencing simply adds to the problems.
I took a drive along Pattaya Beach yesterday...stopped in at Royal Garden...and continued along Jomtien Beach on my way home, and honestly saw what seemed more normal to me than anything else. As far as the number of people on the beach or out-and-about in the stores, it seem more balanced and the roads were definitely safer to drive on.
From my perspective, Pattaya is much more a dead zone. The gay zones are on life support, barely kept alive by the few remaining expats and those others who are stuck here until when; the future is grim.
Yes, they ended up fucking not just those in quarantine, but the entire state of Victoria and the subsequent flow-on has affected the whole country.
I was supposed to fly to Japan this month to celebrate the "significant" birthdays of 2 friends. To save me traveling twice in the same month - not that that would have bothered me - they planned to combine their parties and celebrate at a hotel on July 20. I was really looking forward to it and the fact that I'd have to quarantine for 2 weeks on my return didn't bother me.
But then reality hit. I'd have to return via Sydney, where I'd also have to quarantine for 2 weeks. Four weeks in quarantine in hotels I could not choose was too much to bear.
I agree with goji - I think a vaccine and/or a treatment will be developed before too long and this nightmare will be over.
First stop, THAILAND!!
GerBear1958 (July 29th, 2020)
I am in the camp that we are in for a long wait. The first vaccine is likely to be largely ineffective or fail altogether (given the history of vaccine development) and this virus will keep circulating about, popping up here and there, at its will, for years to come. If it doesn't kill a lot of (more) people, it will be a damn nuisance, which is well worse than the common flu, for perhaps a generation. Don't expect miracles, boys, it is not going to happen.
In order to avoid economic Armageddon, Thailand (and elsewhere) will have to open up if only to survive. I don't think we can go back to a non-globalist economy. The world is too intertwined and interdependent. But given that the trickle of humanity which is allowed to move freely will have to be constrained and closely monitored (for disease), it would seem logical that in Thailand, as is the case here in Hawaii too, that tourism will turn away from the mass tourism of the past and only allow the equivalent of Elite Visa Holders to have unfettered access to the passport control stands at Swampy.
It's quite sad to say all this. As a world we had almost reached a place that the average Joe could travel freely and experience the world. I think that is going to (have to) change. If you have a choice between 100 tourists spending $100/day, or 10 tourists spending $1000/day, it is pretty clear what governments will (have to) choose. It's called optimizing tourist revenues while keeping down the number of persons and therefore the risk of transmission of this stupid (well not so stupid actually) virus!
Dodger (July 30th, 2020)