General Reports

Here is an article summarising the current protests and current attitudes to the current monarch: [URL]https://www.asiasentinel.com/p/thailands-king-wears-out-his-welcome?fbclid=IwAR0xcga5Q_hiwMWD0jPcQLZcnatsJjuRPkmY606brpfqptpRSYaVukl3qV0[/URL].

If you are interested in Thailand, you should read it as there is a lot of violence around the corner. The Thais have had enough and I imagine the farang will have a heavy toll to pay. The article seems very informed, much more so than LBFMs and those who idolise them.

[QUOTE=LittleBigMan;2493813]We can only speculate so much personally I hope it happens by the end of the year although I'm here in Thailand. Sure there is certainly going to be even a bigger debate as to whether it is effective enough and that is where Thailand comes into the picture as to whether they are going to open their borders without having to play all their games? Is the effectiveless result will happen fast enough for them to let down all their barriers and open their borders for travel internationally pre-covid with just a certification you had gotten the vaccine?[/QUOTE] Difficult to say. If you look at the flu vaccine, its effectiveness is between 10 and 70 percent depending on the year. 30-50% is the norm. To get regulatory approval the covid-19 vaccine needs to be 50% and I doubt that level of effectiveness would be enough to convince the Thais to open their borders. But most sources seem to think the covid-19 vaccine will be more effective, maybe 90% or more, so that together with much lower infection rates may be enough.

[QUOTE=*****man;2493820]Difficult to say. If you look at the flu vaccine, its effectiveness is between 10 and 70 percent depending on the year. 30-50% is the norm. To get regulatory approval the covid-19 vaccine needs to be 50% and I doubt that level of effectiveness would be enough to convince the Thais to open their borders. But most sources seem to think the covid-19 vaccine will be more effective, maybe 90% or more, so that together with much lower infection rates may be enough.[/QUOTE]I agree, but we are talking about the Thais up to now what have we been discussing? The nonsense the idea's etc etc they are desperate trying to put up a front as you noted norm but desperate people will do desperate things and overlooking the % I wouldn't be surprise one bit?

At present there is a lot of dissent and internal pressure on the Thai Government to jump start the economy and therefore to open up the country. When the various vaccines (plural) begin to be distributed around the world these pressures to open up will be overwhelming. No one can say for sure what the Thai Government will do or how soon they will react. I have a hunch they will be slow to react and take their time. So be it. It is not like Thailand is the only country in the world with sexy, young girls to my liking. Thailand is still my 1st choice to travel to as soon as I receive the vaccine, but if the Thais still have restrictions in place when I am ready to travel I will go somewhere else and not think twice about it.

Like I have said in previous posts, Brazil is fully open now! As is the CR, Barbados, Zambia, Croatia, French Polynesia, and Ecuador to name a few. If I were 25, I would hop on a jet and be in Sao Paulo fucking sexy Latinas tomorrow. But I am not 25 and although I have a greater than 99.99% chance of surviving the Chinese Virus, I would not want to catch it and suffer through it, especially in a foreign country. A friend of mine recently underwent the virus. He complained of severe, debilitating headaches that seemed to never go away. But after 7 or 8 days of suffering the headaches went away and 12 days after contacting the virus he is 100% fine. But it was a harrowing experience. Something I would prefer to miss. 555.

So, I wait like most of us for the vaccine. But my point is that things will open up fast once vaccines (plural) become available. I hope Thailand chooses not to lag behind other viable girly nations, but that decision is up to them. Fortunately, I am not dependent on the policies of any one government, Thai, Philippines, Indonesian etc. So I will make my decision on where I go the moment I am cleared (vaccinated) for takeoff.

It will be a cold day in August in Thailand when the US embassy asks Medicare if they will reimburse American tourists or retirees for a Covid vaccine shot or the Thais would allow an introduction of 'some sort of (Medicare) program to get vaccines to US citizens there'.

[QUOTE=Rodwint2;2493208]If you are "stuck" in Thailand as a tourist and not living there on a retirement visa, you may want to raise the issue with the American Embassy in Bangkok to see if Medicare coverage will allow some sort of program to get vaccines to US citizens there. My friend is married to a Thai woman and lives outside of Bangkok. He is concerned if he would be able to get any kind of vaccine. He is worried that the Thai system of discriminating against "farang" will require an outrageous payment of some kind.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=Tomasb;2494026]It will be a cold day in August in Thailand when the US embassy asks Medicare if they will reimburse American tourists or retirees for a Covid vaccine shot or the Thais would allow an introduction of 'some sort of (Medicare) program to get vaccines to US citizens there'.[/QUOTE]If we are of an age to qualify for Medicare and living/retired in Thailand with the pertinent visa, we are already required to have Thai-based health insurance. I assume most policy providers will get on board with subsidizing the cost of a Covid vaccine if not covering the cost of it 100% after one is approved and available. It would be in their interest to do so.

Pacific Cross added coverage for Covid to my approximately $140 USD per month in-patient (1,100,000 THB of coverage) and out-patient (40,000 THB of coverage) policy on the run between my renewals at no additional charge then or at my renewal date.

[QUOTE=PedroMorales;2493814]Here is an article summarising the current protests and current attitudes to the current monarch: [URL]https://www.asiasentinel.com/p/thailands-king-wears-out-his-welcome?fbclid=IwAR0xcga5Q_hiwMWD0jPcQLZcnatsJjuRPkmY606brpfqptpRSYaVukl3qV0[/URL].

If you are interested in Thailand, you should read it as there is a lot of violence around the corner. The Thais have had enough and I imagine the farang will have a heavy toll to pay. The article seems very informed, much more so than LBFMs and those who idolise them.[/QUOTE]Not sure where you're presently residing Pedro but if in Thailand I would caution against sharing anti monarchy sentiments online. Not wise.

[QUOTE=EihTooms;2494037]If we are of an age to qualify for Medicare and living/retired in Thailand with the pertinent visa, we are already required to have Thai-based health insurance. I assume most policy providers will get on board with subsidizing the cost of a Covid vaccine if not covering the cost of it 100% after one is approved and available. It would be in their interest to do so.

Pacific Cross added coverage for Covid to my approximately $140 USD per month in-patient (1,100,000 THB of coverage) and out-patient (40,000 THB of coverage) policy on the run between my renewals at no additional charge then or at my renewal date.[/QUOTE]A correction? We aren't required as you noted for everyone on Medicare? Currently as far as I know it isn't required if you have a Retirement Extension Immigration O, which I have had for 15 years and it isn't required only Visa currently Immigration O-A!

[QUOTE=LittleBigMan;2494076]A correction? We aren't required as you noted for everyone on Medicare? Currently as far as I know it isn't required if you have a Retirement Extension Immigration O, which I have had for 15 years and it isn't required only Visa currently Immigration O-A![/QUOTE]You're right, I was just thinking of USA citizens over the age of 65 where Medicare coverage for a Covid vaccine was in question who are also O-A Non Immigrant long stay/retirement visa holders.

[QUOTE=PedroMorales;2493814]Here is an article summarising the current protests and current attitudes to the current monarch: [URL]https://www.asiasentinel.com/p/thailands-king-wears-out-his-welcome?fbclid=IwAR0xcga5Q_hiwMWD0jPcQLZcnatsJjuRPkmY606brpfqptpRSYaVukl3qV0[/URL].

If you are interested in Thailand, you should read it as there is a lot of violence around the corner. The Thais have had enough and I imagine the farang will have a heavy toll to pay. The article seems very informed, much more so than LBFMs and those who idolise them.[/QUOTE]I've been reading those reports with great interest. I remember when insulting the king could get you in jail. Now there are protests by thousands of Thais against the monarchy. Things are changing. Whither Thailand? Whither our hobby in its most favored destination?

[QUOTE=Turgid;2494154]I've been reading those reports with great interest. I remember when insulting the king could get you in jail. Now there are protests by thousands of Thais against the monarchy. Things are changing. Whither Thailand? Whither our hobby in its most favored destination?[/QUOTE]There are contrary reports too, saying the demos are small and foreign led. I see Thailand as being in play to contain China. The King is not helping. I would expect farang to find themselves literally in the firing line as the economy tanks. All this nonsense talk of a vaccine, when none exist for flus and people dispensing polio shots have been shot. The new normal is to get some providers and do things low key. A lot of Thais, I'd say, would love to see the back of Pattaya, the LBFMs and their lovers. Thailand is overdue an eruption.

Is this money ever used to help the Thai people?

Thailand Has a good economy. I always wonder why all the money goes.

I am very aware of the rules of lèse-majesté in Thailand. I once almost got lynched because taxi drivers thought I had insulted the Royal Flowers in Chiang Mai when King Bhumibol the Great ruled. I tired to save two Belgian arrested at gun point for defacing a 50 baht note with his head on it. I know the drill backwards. I am also ware of this web site's long standing policy towards King Bhumibol the Great. I am also aware of how King Bhumibol the Great became king when the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces surrendered.

I never even dreamed of insulting King Bhumibol the Great or watching The King and I (banned in Thailand).

However, King Bhumibol the Great is dead. He lived mostly in Hua Hin. This bloke is shacked up in Germany with 1000 Hi soc Thai hookers. It is all over international media. I am not making any positive or negative comment. Just saying the balloon is going up and it is not going to be pleasant.

Thailand is the Land of Smiles. But Pol Pot always smiled. It is going to be nasty. I was chatting to some Pattaya hookers tonight, They have nothing. Such people are dangerous. Guys here want to get a shot of some untested vaccine. There is no vaccine against machettes.

[QUOTE=Franciscass;2494067]Not sure where you're presently residing Pedro but if in Thailand I would caution against sharing anti monarchy sentiments online. Not wise.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=PedroMorales;2494264]I am also aware of how King Bhumibol the Great became king when the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces surrendered.[/QUOTE]Your awareness is flawed. The Japanese announced their surrender in August 1945 and the surrender agreement was signed on 2 September 1945. King Bhumibol became king when his brother died "in mysterious circumstances" on 9 June 1946. There's plenty of conflicting reading matter and conspiracy theories out there about these "Mysterious circumstances" but I've never seen any linking it to the Imperial Japanese occupation of (or alliance with, depending on viewpoint) Thailand during WW2.

Indeed neither of them were even in Thailand during WW2.

[QUOTE=PedroMorales;2494264]There is no vaccine against machettes.[/QUOTE]Machetes don't stop M16 rounds. Let us all hope it doesn't come to that this time.

[QUOTE=PedroMorales;2494264]I never even dreamed of insulting King Bhumibol the Great or watching The King and I (banned in Thailand)...[/QUOTE]The King and I might have been banned decades ago but not for the past several years. I have a great blu-ray disc of the 1956 musical version with Yul Brynner that includes Thai subtitles that I bought openly displayed on the shelf at a Thai owned home video store in Fortune Town mall at mrt Phra Ram 9. It is not censored or edited in any way from its original USA theatrical release. The girls love it. I must have watched it a half dozen times with different Thai girls here.

I understand there was some sensitivity about it in the past. But there is only one sequence in it that I could see being taken as insulting to the King's intelligence. A funny bit where, due to her superior English language skills, he dictates a letter to the English school teacher offering to send "two male elephants" to then President Lincoln to be released into the American wild so they can produce a herd of elephants to help him win the Civil War. She interrupts and tells him he might not really mean "two male elephants". He looks puzzled, dismisses her and walks away with "you fix up the details!"

On the surface that bit of comedy could be taken as insulting his intelligence, as though the King did not know it takes a male and a female to make a baby. Highly unlikely. But I think the author actually based the joke on a Thai language quirk that does not differentiate between male and female genders. For example, there is one word in Thai for girlfriend OR boyfriend ("fan"). And many times Thais refer to "she/her" when they really mean "he/him" and vice versa because their language does not generally differentiate in that way. There is a brief allusion to that language quirk earlier in the movie when the female English teacher is addressed a couple of times as "Sir."

I suppose the offence to the King could have been that Yul Brynner was not Thai. But it seems they have gotten over it as it is on the home video version at least.

Also, there are more recent live action (non Thai actor playing the King) and animated versions of The King and I that have played on Netflix Thailand off and on over the years.

Oh, one interesting side note about The King and I is the King's number one son in that story, the one Brynner's King hands the reigns of power to as he is dying and the new young King immediately begins to decree a more liberal demeanor with regard to royalty by the royal subjects is King Chulalongkorn, the King for whom a notable universitiy, hospital, etc in Bangkok are named.