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Finally and thank you! Swimming means so much to so many people, especially older people who can not do other forms of exercise. We need to be able to swim in our own pools for health! Looking forward to getting back in the pool more than ANYTHING else in life!!!

Oh, I just love to read all the comments. It is a thrill a minute. I don't believe the Phuket Sandbox will be as successful as they think it will be. For one, many businesses won't spend the money to rehire people, get ready to open just on the hope that they will make enough money to stay open. And so many of the people that worked in bars and restaurants have gone home during this pandemic since they are no longer employed. Are they going to want to come back to Phuket just on the hope they will have a job again? All the requirements that the Thai govt. put in place...all the testing that the visitor has to pay for, discourages most everyone except people that have family in Thailand and want to get back to see them and not be imprisoned in a room in BKK for 14 nights but have a little freedom to roam. But what they are not saying much about i that you won't be able to just roam anywhere on the island, as I understand it. There will be some areas off limits because the people have not all been vaccinated yet. And what, you have to wear a mask while you are sitting on the beach relaxing in the open air or when you are out in the water swimming? COVID DOES NOT FLY LIKE A BIRD!! The idea you have to wear a mask outside is totally ridiculous......unless you go into a crowded area. Then you might want to put one on. The required tests should be a minimum expense OR given free by the govt. to be an incentive to come to Phuket. Having all these "precautions" in place just shows the Thai govt. does not believe in the science behind the vaccinations. Vaccinated people have the lowest chance of getting and spreading COVID. I would worry more about Thais injected with the China vaccines. I can't wait to see what China will want to extract from Thailand down the road for sending all those free useless vaccines. Do you really think there will be no price to pay to China for being so generous with their crappy vaccine? You can't stop the virus with vaccines that are 50% or less effective. And COVID is not going anywhere ever. It's here to say, just like the flu. So countries better get used to living with it and dealing with it. Also, Phuket is an island. There is only so much you can do there. And how expensive is it going to be to travel around the island? Is the governor going to force the mafia taxis to lower their prices so people will be more willing to travel around the island more? Is he going to set decent rates so you can travel to the other side of the island and see different areas? I doubt it. It's bad enough you have to pay 300 baht just to ride around the one one-way street in Patong or 800 baht or more to go over the hill into Karon. I think there will be tons of scams from the taxis to try to get as much out of people as they can starting July 1. Someone really needs to sit down with the governor and discuss this with him. But I doubt that will ever happen. I need to come over for a business reason and yes, I'd rather spend my quarantine on Phuket than in BKK imprisoned in a hotel room with no cleaning except what you yourself has to do. At least I can go out for walks in the morning or evening, spend some time on the beach. I could care less about bars being open and I am sure there will be a few nice restaurants open and plenty of coffee shops. But I will spend as little as possible in Phuket while I am there since the Thai govt. has loaded me up with expenses I should not have to endure. There are many others that may do the same. So I doubt this plan is going to be the big money maker they envision. Hey, if the tar balls are still hitting the beaches I just might volunteer to help clean them up but they will have to provide the gloves and shoe covers for me. At least I could contribute something positive besides my dollars!!

You could make a difference between swimming pools and other places. Research showed that pools desinfected with chlorine in the water provide no danger for spreading Covid.

It's about time, gyms and pools should NEVER have been closed, especially not if we pretend this is all about "public health". And no word about this nonsense rule, that people who live, eat and sleep together, must wear a mask when they're driving together in their private car!? Are we also supposed to be afraid of infecting our cars with covid19?

i think it should be very easy to know how many people booked flights, because nobody will book at the last moment, considering test requirements. Without disclosing a manifest, airlines have this figures for sure. What we can watch here is a cancellations of the flights, i think flightaware, kayak and phuketairportonline could be an interesting resource

"i say it's your fault if you fail to achieve what i promised to do!"

The way things are going, I'd rather go for a full quarantine in Bangkok and pull a Martin Sheen a la Apocalypse Now. It'll end up being cheaper and less of a headache.

I'm reading Dreamland by Bob Lazar. For anyone interested in the UFO phenomenon it's well worth checking out.

Hey Tim… tar balls have been a chronic problem in The Bahamas for decades… resorts require tourists to use paper towels and kerosene to swab tar from their feet before entering the resorts.

The proper chanel means the cartel and with brown envelopes?

At least there is some sense of a plan, a target, a timeline. Defining some milestones on the road back to something like normal, would be even better. People can work to a plan. People can put their efforts behind a well thought out plan. I think the restart of Phuket's tourism will be a staged progression. I know that many of the usual population who work in various aspects of Phuket life aren't there right now. They have gone back to their home villages to survive. So it will be a very different Phuket that people return to. Having said that, there are tourists who didn't want the bars, bar girls etc etc. The prospect of a holiday in a Phuket that hasn't had the tourist damage to beaches, natural wonders and attractions would be wonderful.

Can you list the condos they are buying the most so I know where to stay away from ? Asking for a friend.

However, it may result in a happy ending, or 2 ... :)

This is the 3rd such incident I have read in the last week. Very sad, but an inevitable by product of poor electrical standards, education and laws. I am thankful the UK has very high standards as life cannot be replaced like a faulty appliance.

6% is hardly surprising. The Hotel I frequent in Chiang Mai closed the day we left in March last year and has remained closed since then. The Hotel/Resort we frequent in Koh Samui did similar and both establishments assure me that all their staff are fully vaccinated and whilst Koh Samui are cautiously on the starting blocks to reopen, CM aren't holding their collective breaths. In the meantime, I have been in the garden practicing jumping through hoops in anticipation of given the green light when I can start all the required documentation to leave my Country and enter Thailand.

English package tours to Spain probably upstaged by Aussies or football supporters. Personally I have no problem with Chinese tourists of any caliber except in busy airports. Whether its LHR, DBX. SYD or BKK, they're all LOUD and pushy. I have many Chinese friends and acquaintance's, mainly ex Hong Kong, but more lately well educated younger folk from the Mainland who work in NZ or Aussie banks and other businesses I associate with. They're intelligent and hard-working.

Hmmm! I guess the real test will be how many full (or empty) planes turn up in July. What I don't see in the latest regs is the "braclet". That was going to be a deal breaker, just the thought of being treated like a prisoner on home release. Has it gone? Is it going to reappear on arrival with a brochure setting out the "list of punishments"? Not looking very promising to be honest.

VIETnamese are ethnic south-eastern coastal Chinese, just not HAN Chinese. They were driven south by Han Chinese. Their strength and success is from their Chinese roots. There are surely many badly behaved Chinese tourists, but you don't hear about the well-behaved ones do you. You might want to consider for example English package tourists that go to Spain vs those that go to France. The former are generally no better than Chinese, at least the Chinese don't get drunk and violent. The latter are like the middle-class Chinese tourists that behave well, appreciate local culture, and you don't hear about.

This whole clusterfvck is so typical of everything this tin pot, junta run catastrophic kakistocracy is renowned for. It has turned into a cat sand box because it is so full of shit! Who would be stupid enough to fall for this absolute scam just so that they can spend their holiday stuck in some overpriced, flea pit of a hotel, waiting while the idiots run the useless PCR test (which is another added cost) and is not worth the packet it comes in, to maybe FINALLY released from their purgatory to be handcuffed to a tracking device, so that they can wander around the cemetery that was Phuket and not even be able to get any alchohol to relieve the boredom?! All this because a bunch of mentally deficient muppets in Bangkok have convinced themselves that all this crap will have tourists flocking to the bloody place! And all this worldwide insanity because of a "pandemic" so terrible that it has to be advertised 24/7 on the TV, in the newspapers and on the internet!

Is there one piece of new information in this post??

So we have to take a SHA+ transport to our hotel and stay in our rooms until we get the test result. Do they really expect people who are traveling to Phuket for five or six days to waste time waiting in a hotel room for a test result? Isn't that a friggin quarantine? Also, that means we can't rent a car? Do we have to travel back to the airport to rent a car after our test result? What a waste of time and money. Meanwhile, domestic travelers who are not vaccinated and are far more likely to transmit COVID only need a PCR test within seven days of travel and don't have any other restrictions. Only fools will travel to Phuket.

I was planning on going to Phuket in early August with my Thai wife, as we are relocating to Chiang Mai and thought this would be less restrictive than other locations where a strict quarantine would be required. Now we find out that the Phuket Sandbox cannot be used by Thai nationals, As things have changed so much, we have given up on the idea of Phuket and will just quarantine probably in Bangkok. We needed the certainty of our trip and the Phuket Sandbox could not do that. We will hope things will change for the better by the time we travel but at least we know what the worst case scenario will be.

Thailand needs tourisst but tourists do not need Thailand with all this crazy restrictions, in Europe you can travel now without problems or 5 times PCR testings

Why would your think that? Phuket to date has struggled to get more than a trickle of domestic tourists over the last year. Now they expect 500K over three months in the low season. You do know the definition of insanity right? Even just the 129K in foreign tourist while incredibly low is questionable. That’s just over 1,400 per day yet in other articles Thailand only expects about 100 in the first week. In addition, there is only about 7K signed up to date for the entire 3 month period. To be fair most people might still be waiting, but packages have been sold for for quite some time. Personally I’d rather just wait till mid October when the entire country will be open with few restrictions. Why jump all the hoops and pay extra to sit on a beach and get rained on when October is right around the corner?

I really hope this plan comes off - I would love to be able to head straight to Hua Hin rather than be held in Bangkok or Pattaya for 2 weeks

Unsurprising. Why would one military dictatorship criticise another?

Hi King Cotton and have now finished this book and it was good in parts and just not my type of story. Iris is over eighty years old and suffering from heart problems, she begins writing the story of her life for her granddaughter Sabrina, whom she has not seen in years. She tells the story through flashbacks. The biggest surprise for me, was to discover Margaret Atwood had written the Handmaid's Tale. I have watched 2 seasons of it so far on a streaming provider.

Very true and well said Guevara

Swimming is/was one of my favorite past times and agree totally that they should have stayed open. Simple case of not using changing rooms or showers and only use the pool (Arrive ready)

Shabu-shabu is a very popular choice among families and friends across Bangkok, especially on a cold and rainy day. This Japanese hot pot dish usually has thinly-sliced cuts of beef or pork stewing in a delicious broth with a mixture of vegetables; this combination packs a rich and flavourful punch with each bite. Not only does it warm up your belly, but it’s mouthwatering and nutritious as well. If you are craving some shabu-shabu, you’ve come to the right article! Below, we have compiled 5 shabu restaurants where you can enjoy a delicious meal by yourself, with your friends, family, […] The post Top 5 Shabu-Shabu Restaurants in Bangkok appeared first on Thaiger News. Read the full story

Agree 100%, Alex. Any decently-run business will have sufficient resources - cash, mostly in this type of crisis - to enable it to adapt to the difficulties. This country has now become too used to the free and largely populist-driven handouts that have been thrown around like confetti of late.

Actually it can, the load centers have a grounding bar but people don't use qualified electricians to wire their houses. The house me and my wife bought has some of the most screwed up wiring wires taped together no junction boxes. I added on a shop and rewired the kitchen I used a different load center with a ground rod and 3 prong receptacles

One thing I have not seen covered in all this opening up and ‘sandbox’ discussion - with special regard to Phuket - is the inevitable influx of bar, restaurant and other workers that opening up will bring. Thousands have left Phuket and gone home to their families in the provinces. It’s all very well vaccinating those currently on the island, but if large numbers return to work without vaccinations and from provinces with higher infection rates, the effort is largely wasted - there is significant risk the virus will be brought in, and those not fully vaccinated will contract it - and so might some who have been. Infection rates are still rising nationally - there’s a danger that pushing this scheme too early to save face will do more harm than good.

SHA hotels for vaccinated people is a huge joke . I come back from my country , so, even if I live in Thailand with my Thai wife in her house , I am allowed to stay with her in our home during the day and have to go back to an SHA hotel for sleeping during the night and that for 14 days. It is time to stop stupidities.

Should not be surprising and Chinese were always shrewd and smart investors. China is almost fully recovered from covid and sitting on tons of cash now. Let's face it, China is a superpower and while other superpowers trying to suppress China, they just do what they do best: buy and control. Bangkok Bank: belong to Chinese conglomerate.... want to know more? Just search top 10 Thai corporations ownership on WiKi.

I do not believe they have imagined that people could fly from different country than the one they residences in. And with Schengen being a "free travel" zone there'll be no stamps or anything proven the day of entry (if they wouldn't believe you're living in Germany) , I have said it many times before, as a true tourist, there are other places to travel too and enjoy your holiday at because don't believe for a second that Phuket, or Thailand as a whole, is the "tourist - beach - beer" loving place it once was. No it is closed [per-se] and if you once thought the tourist areas were dirty, with shedload of tourists and sellers not flocking the streets, you're up for a surprise!

on june 18th this was in the newdpaper The Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) on Friday defined Bangkok and the three adjoining provinces of Nonthaburi, Pathum Thani and Samut Prakan as dark red zones of maximum and strict Covid-19 control. how can the governor open business. is doublespeak the national language? just curious

Scheduled flights are just that, scheduled. Without bums on seats they can, and will be cancelled.

All very well but still nothing is decided and nothing is official. The embassies know nothing about it, and so nobody can register for the COE under this scheme. Also there is no indication anywhere as to what countries fall into the low and medium risk countries. With so much in uncertainty so close to the kick off date, and no possibility of getting the COE, where are all these thousands of tourists going to come from?

Why are none of the news articles since the June 18 announcement not talking about alcohol in restaurants in Phuket? Is the ban lifted effective June 22 or not?

Swindlers Hotel Association.

That's it. I'm done. I am cancelling my month long vacation to Thailand. My Thai wife can meet me in another country and she can stay in the 14 day quarantine when she returns to Thailand. She doesn't mind. The Thai government is absolutely retarded.

'Sinopharm, AstraZeneca, and Sinovac are “alternative” vaccines. They have both been approved by the World Health Organization' Ahem........

KR - you are right in that the blame is not all on the Junta, as international tourism into Thailand from the 'west' was declining already in 2015. I think that it was also due to other more 'appealing' SEAsia destinations emerging after the GFC, including Vietnam and China itself. I know of one group of blokes that went to Thailand for a golf tour every year for a while, but they swapped to China in 2016 (Mission Hills near HK) and it was much cheaper and a far better experience - except for the food :) Golf course building in both Vietnam and China was booming before Covid, and is now starting to ramp back up - Greg Norman's company is involved in many of them in Vietnam (50+ I believe). There are very few new medium/high golf courses in Thailand - nothing like in those other countries - and from what I saw many golf courses in Thailand are in decline (and they are ridiculously expensive compared to others). I use golf, but that switch has apparently happened in most 'western' tourist attractions in SEAsia since 2010. On more point - 'tourists' from China are not really tourists as we know it. Most Chinese people have to go through some hoops to 'apply' to go on an overseas holiday - and they are often 'guided' towards approved CCP destinations - which under the Thai Junta has included Thailand way more than before. That is all anecdotal of course, from informal sources, because all such matters inside China are heavily censored and media organisations do not like to upset the 'gorilla'. Our PM has been giving them grief lately and look where that has got him.

I hope these are inscrutable Chinese as they see the value of their condos plummet.