Aren’t we supposed to have easier money ? Lol

Here are some meals from asq quarantine hotel. A friend of my girlfriend just went trough it. 3 meals a day from few options and she could order more, additional meals not free anymore probably. For a thai person hotel, meals and covid19 tests are free, they only have to pay for embassy airplane ticket. A foreigner has to pay for everything + 43k insurance.

Lol

So what foreigners are they letting in? just ones married to thais?

Also in the news they're 'considering' giving permanent residence to foreigners that buy condos. Didn't say anything about a minimum price though https://www.nationthailand.com/business/30394652

Looks like prison food.

So people are paying top dollar to go to a country that is on the verge of collapse and where locals are getting ever more persecutory / violent towards westerners?

Food looks ok to me, what did you expect? Obv the quarantine and the up to 43k insurance are going to be major deterrents to the common folk. Some rich peeps may pay it in order to get back in, some may need to for tax reasons or stuff, but obv tourism is not gonna be back in any significance until they come up with something better. There was talk of travel bubbles back in HK before I left last week incl. one with Thailand. Kind of you have to be tested before and after then you're good to go. Knowing my HK govt it is gonna take forever before something if anything comes out of that but other govts may be better up to the task.

If Thailand's goal is to stay Covid free (it's not), then I don't see any issues with their requirements. Not going to argue if it's the best strat or not but that's their decision so far but $5,000+ just to get into the country. **** me, just go to Tahiti or something for that cost.

My buddy who is in his 50's and coming from Murica (Is there a higher risk country?) paid 15,000bt for his Covid insurance.
Company: Luma

Anyone done the Police Clearance Certificate lately? I probably have to get one soonish, not sure should I make a visit to BKK / Nana at the same time or better to pay 5k to some company (or like $350 for siam legal wtf), that still requires a visit to police station for fingerprints

I'm currently in Bangkok and enjoying the covid free atmosphere. Given my personal situation of not needing tourists money nor want more tourists at venues I go to, I like that Thai gov is careful to not add covid risks.

If I was working in the tourism industry, and only have a few months of funds left before I'm homeless, I would be quite pissed and would join in on the protests this weekend hoping for a new regime.

If for some reason l didn't decide to go to Thailand last year, I would take up this new visa in a heartbeat. It's like heaven here relative to the hellish covid and fires in the Bay Area.

This new visa isn't for typical tourists who have jobs w 2 to 4 weeks vacation, which is the large majority of people. It's for those who are wealthy or those who was already planning to work remotely and want to enjoy covid free beaches. I'd guess this group of expats probably amounts to less than 1% of the numbers of typical tourists. But this group of expats stay in the country at least 30x longer, and spend correspondingly.

This group doesn't really targets the tourism industry in terms of spending. Their spending helps thai economy in general.

I read somewhere that thai gov, for the long term beyond covid, is targeting "higher quality" tourists over volume, and this looks like a step towards that goal.

This option exists already. It's probably the most convenient option how to stay in TH long term. You'll get renewable 1 year visa and will be able to renew it forever as long as you keep your money in TH. Better than elite visa where you can't get your money back.

Best convenient option to stay in Thailand longterm... if you have 300k.

Not to mention 300k to invest in Thailand of all places, net should be ~100mm if that’s your intentions.

I see that Thailand looking at giving residency to people that buy condos. Unless you have play money or are a money launderer that doesn't care, people aren't going to invest money in an already overheated condo market.

Plus residency can be taken away at any time. Completely meaningless.

If they were willing to let foreign investors being Thai citizens with no strings attached that's another matter, but Thais are too racist to let a white or black face with a Thai citizen.

It would be great being Thailand right now in some ways, but it's not worth jumping through all the hoops if not already there.

Thai gov was brainstorming again. So far it's 14+14(+21 probably) quarantine, 5 covid tests, 43k insurance, international insurance, fit to fly certificate, xy amount of money in bank, record of movement prior flight.

For expats stuck outside TH, it's doable, but they can forget tourism with anything worse than just covid19 test at arrival. TH is dealing in cheap mass tourism. Even with 200EUR covid test backpackers or families with kids will be out of the equation.

Love the "a record of not being in crowded places"

How exactly do you make a verifiable record of that? I guess you'll have to go to your country's Thai embassy and get dog collared?

In my home country we have an app on phone which does all covid19 related stuff. It is mandatory to download it and sign up if you travelled. It tracks your movement, you will choose where you will do 14 days home quarantine, covid test appointment schedule, where are other sick people etc. If you will break a rule, police will come. It's actually super simple, convenient for a tourist and extremely effective. We had less cases than Thailand and our borders were semi-opened meanwhile TH was fully on lockdown, also our economy is not ****ed.

I absolutely don't understand why TH won't do the same. They are doing this asq hotel nonsense with 32542 conditions without any actual results. Full lockdown, economy ruined, thai airways and many businesses already bankrupt, many are about to, no tourism, bleeding tax money, non-effective domestic stimulus packages which just look good at surface, burning even more tax money that way, its like ghost town in many places. Truly amazing results.

I think TH should just outsource whole management of their country. Just honest look into a mirror and admitting maybe they're good military stuff, but not at running a country and just outsource it. No shame in that. upwork.com, 20$/hour, some indian guy will surely do better than this.

This is what I always said. Just pay Singapore to run the place.

tourist places are dead, but they make up quite a small part of the country. most of the country is basically normal except you have to wear a mask to go into 7-11


and I don't know of any country in the world who thinks a foreigner could run their country better, so idk why Thailand would be any different? Covid response sure looking alot better than England or America at this point. I'm very happy to be riding out covid in Thailand and not back home thats for sure.


fwiw I live in Patts which has been crushed. But it had many good years(up to 2019 which wasnt great most tourist spots in thailand). Just WAY too many small bars and massage shops, it can survive 70% of those shops closing and still be fine. Rents in patts bangkok and probably elsewhere also were/still are too high and need an adjustment.

This could not be further from truth.
I had been living in Central Thailand for years and the effect of draught for many years plus lack of the money from tourism is just devastating.
There is the tickle down effect and all the people working in hotels/restaurants/bars/gogo/massage etc. they all send money back home.
Every small Village/City in Central Thailand (I am taking like 2k people max) have likem 5 days per day every day buses to Bangkok for people working there.
Probably 80%+ of those people send money back home. Same for all the people that used to live abroad forced to come back and not making any money.

It is pretty standard in small Thai citites/Villages to have grandparents taking care of kinds while parents work in BKK/Abroad. Now all of this is done and dusted.

I understand the use for something like this but the implications for the future are terrifying.

Don't one 10 apps on our smartphones already do this?

What’s more terrifying is more and more expectation of everyone having a smartphone, internet and the most annoying one gotta be phone number...

It's all a moot point once facial recognition is fully implemented.

so all jobs in bkk are just gone? zero baht headed upcountry? the whole city of 10 million was just dependent on tourists?

you'd think the government would be nicer to farang since their whole economy is dependent on visitors!

Of course, but using this tech to enforce people to be in certain places with police, etc feels like another meaningful step toward dystopia.