ft101

Agreed, just the post I quoted seemed to be unaware of this development.

plunet

Whilst I am certain it is a cumbersome procedure (as paperwork and permissions usually are) I would suggest bringing yourself in potential lese majeste issues is to be avoided Even if his royalness is cycling around in Germany.

RustyC

I have business reasons for wanting to go sometime September/Octoberish, but I couldn't do the 14 days if it came to that. The U.S. could be a real black-sheep country for trying to go to many countries. Proving I'm not infected may be a part of it but a mechanism may not be in place by then, and if there's any screening-on-arrival then airlines could want to push it to before departure to avoid having to bring the person back as they'd be obligated to. There's also the possibility of a second wave that could just mess everything up. I wish I could be more optimistic.

yosithezet

Probably a good idea to figure out how you can achieve your business outcome without traveling physically. Maybe find someone already in country to help you complete whatever business you have or see how it can be accomplished remotely. Singapore is exploring a travel bubble which will start with essential business travel between 6 provinces in China and Singapore. They are exploring some additional countries as well. Thailand is not on the list. Between corporate and Singapore restrictions, assume I won't be able to travel to Thailand for business the rest of the year, and I can only hope that leisure travel to Thailand for those of us living in Singapore resumes after Songkran next year.

zombietooth

If you are working with a Thai business, you can get a waiver for quarantine on arrival. I am being recruited to go and do a job in late July and my way has been officially cleared. I already have airline tickets, a visa and a contract, but I am leaning against going because of the Thailand residents here warning me about the likely continued closure of the tourist infrastructure (i.e. nice resorts and restaurants).

transpac

While anything is possible, especially if you are some sort of VIP, I have not heard of anyone (other than Royalty obviously, and friends of the "government") being granted a waiver for quarantine.

Thousands of Thais, including champion PGA and LPGA golfers, being re-patriated need to go into quarantine. Hundreds have arrived just in the last two days.

Exempting foreigners and VIPs from quarantine might not go over so well with the regular folks?

Can you share what type of visa you obtained? And did you have to purchase insurance? And what does this "waiver of quarantine" look like?

Kalboz

Order extended untl June 30th!

goodeats21

FYI - That came from Bangkok Governor. I don't think that has applicability across all of Thailand.

yosithezet

Where is there bull fighting and fish fighting in BKK or Thailand?

goodeats21

I was wondering the same thing. According to Barrow's twitter post, there is some bullfighting in the South of Thailand.
Curious that it is listed as a prohibition in Bangkok.

No idea on the Fish Fighting arenas.

Kalboz

That goes into "Only in Thailand" files ... I think they were referring to Crocodile farms and such and confusing them with fish!

RustyC

Back in 1995 on Ko Samui I saw one of those fights where two water buffalo, I think it was, lock horns. I forgot how they determined the winner (no matador there).

transpac

Obviously it's more about the gambling than the actual animals fighting.

Large crowds, everyone screaming, money passing hands. It was no surprise that the biggest COVID-19 outbreak started at a muay thai boxing arena (owned and operated by the Royal Thai Army).

Cockfighting and fish fighting don't require a lot of space. These activities occur throughout Thailand. Now getting those tiny gloves on the fish is surprisingly challenging. Siamese fighting fish (Plakat Thai) are small, look like goldfish to me.

Never heard about bullfighting here. Suspect that if it occurs it's bull on bull, no matador involved.

LoungeLizzard

The Bangkok Post caused a lot of confusion with their article on May 28, which led many people to conclude that tourists could freely travel to Thailand after from July 1.
I agree with both transpac and Richard Barrow that this is highly unlikely.

Bangkok Post this week mentioned the more realistic creation of "travel bubbles", saying that such a list of countries and conditions does not yet exist.

The Tourist Authority of Thailand published their three part strategy for tourism recovery this week.
Not much news, and I can only hope that a lot of it was "lost in translation".
If this is really all there is, then it's awkward, given that this is a multi billion $ industry.
Slogan, situation assessment, measures, connection to reality, economic assessment and proposals... none of it convinced me.

To summarise, they (TAT) claim in their strategy (without giving a source of this information), that:
- International tourists coming to Thailand should not travel from or have lived in ongoing local transmission areas.
- (on arrival) A medical certificate is also required to be presented.
- Once arriving in Thailand, tourists are required to undergo the COVID-19 rapid test screening process for reconfirmation, and then depart for a sealed area without making any stops.
- Tourists are required to install and use a tracking application on their smartphone for the safety and protection of travelling in and out of sealed areas.

They then go on making some economic suggestions.
Really wild. But it's rather entertaining and fun to read who they want to see in the country and how to shuffle (mostly non-existent) money forth and back.
Example: "Extend the night-time curfew in areas with international tourists to stimulate the night-time economy." - Whatever that means.

LoungeLizzard

The Nation has also picked up the travel bubble topic in this article.

"Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha recently instructed the Tourism and Sports Ministry to prepare for bilateral negotiations on travel bubble agreements.
Earlier Tourism and Sports Minister Pipat Ratchakitprakan said that such talks might happen in the second half of this year."

Not sure if this means that the prime minister told the Tourism minister to start the negotiations now, or if "talks might happen in the second half of the year" is still the timeline.

I was confused about who the TAT expects to visit:
"Yuthasak (TAT governor) expected that the first groups of travellers to Thailand would be from the Meetings, Incentive Travel, Conventions, Exhibitions segment and health conscious travellers."
Really?
- That looks to me like a list of high risk transmission areas.
- "Health conscious travellers"? - Maybe not.
- What happened to the strategy of moving tourists to sealed areas?

****

Transpac will easily take all this information this in his stride.
I'm just wondering about all of it, and I have to admit that I obviously understand nothing about Thailand.