baa99

Putin berry, berry 'appy. Putin's lapdog is still very obedient.

https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1204739.shtml A second group of 147 Chinese tourists holding Special Tourist Visa (STV) arrived in Bangkok on Monday, as Thailand takes small steps to recover its vital tourism industry after it closed borders in March to contain the coronavirus. Taking CZ3081 by China Southern Airlines, 147 Chinese passengers set out from Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong Province on Monday and arrived in Bangkok on Monday afternoon, becoming the second batch of Chinese tourists after 39 Chinese travelled to the country on October 20. The tourists are undergoing a 14-day quarantine at designated hotels and will install tracking apps on their smartphones, according to local government requirement. None of the Chinese have tested positive for COVID-19 and none had a fever. Most of the arriving Chinese came to visit families or carry out business activities not as sightseers, the Global Times reporter learned. A woman surnamed Duan from North China's Hebei Province said that she and her child came to visit her husband who is working in Bangkok. "We haven't been together since he returned to work in Bangkok in January," Duan told the Global Times. She added the application process for the STV is complicated and the flights and hotels are expensive. "But at least I can reunite with my family," Duan said. Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday suggested Chinese people try to avoid cross-border travels amid the pandemic. This followed Wednesday's announcement by the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism that China will continue the suspension of travel agencies' cross-border group tour services. Thailand's STV allows tourists from low-risk countries to enter the country and stay for up to 270 days. Thai authorities said China is one of the key countries that STV targets. According to the Bangkok Post, Thailand plans to provide wellness-orientated state quarantine for foreign visitors coming from low-risk countries, said the Thai Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul. "Those in wellness state quarantines can receive Thai massages, spa services and play golf, during a quarantine period which is expected to be reduced from 14 to 10 days," the report said.

Plus, essentially no international travel to bring in the flu virus.

HP Calculator in space.

https://thethaiger.com/hot-news/tourism/chinese-travellers-can-depart-china-and-travel-to-thailand-on-the-stv The report that outbound Chinese group tours will remain banned by the Chinese Ministry of Culture, due to “concerns around the Covid-19 Coronavirus worldwide”, is true. But the Chinese have NOT been given special concessions. They are NOT the only people allowed to apply for Thailand’s STV. They are NOT all businessmen coming up to “google up” bargain businesses in Thailand. The arrival of the first Chinese travellers had NOTHING to do with the lifting of the State of Emergency in Bangkok (there was any array of other comments and conspiracy theories offered following the BKK Post article). To clarify, only Chinese operated and owned tour companies remain banned from organising tour group travel. Individual travellers, tourists or privately organised “groups” by citizens or companies and organisations from other countries are allowed to depart China under the current arrangements. There is no blanket ban on departure for Chinese citizens, although there are restrictions. During 2019, most Chinese arrivals were FIT (free and independent travellers), not on tour groups. 27% of all international arrivals in 2019 were from China. Thai officials maintain that the Chinese travellers and tourists are being tested, quarantined and tracked (via and app) whilst they are in Thailand and that they are being given no special dispensations. Most have organised their own bookings, including ASQ (quarantine) and then around the country. Some have booked onward travel to Phuket and Chiang Mai following their 14 day quarantine in Bangkok.

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3106414/coronavirus-thailand-welcomes-39-chinese-tourists-new Chinese shanghaied by Thai authorities.

I just have 1 egg per week.

https://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/wireStory/thailand-admits-foreign-tourists-time-months-73718447 Thailand’s tourist industry on Tuesday took a modest step toward reviving its coronavirus-battered fortunes by welcoming 39 visitors who flew in from Shanghai, the first such arrivals since regular travelers were banned almost seven months ago. The visitors who arrived at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport are pioneers in a "Special Tourist Visa" program devised by Thai authorities to restore step by step a sector of the economy that welcomed almost 40 million foreign visitors last year and by some estimates accounts for more than 10% of the country’s GDP. Bringing in tourists from China was a natural choice. Thailand was one of the top overseas destinations for Chinese tourists in 2019, when they accounted for by far the largest number of visitors to Thailand by nationality. Just as crucial is China’s ability to keep new coronavirus infections in check, a sharp contrast to most other parts of the globe that send visitors to Thailand.

In 2019, I think there were 10 M Chinese tourists.

https://www.thaiexaminer.com/thai-news-foreigners/2020/10/19/chinese-wave-tourists-in-2021-minister-phiphat/ New plan is to recreate Thailand as a playground for Chinese visitors followed later by other Asian tourists beginning in 2021. The news is not good for western visitors but it is, of course, yet another in a long list of initiatives that so far have amounted to nothing while Thailand’s former hiving tourist hotspots have been reduced to ghost towns and those employed left queueing at food lines. In the meantime, the Maldives reopened to tourism in mid-July without any restrictions whatsoever and is boasting 100% hotel occupancy rates as tourism on the island country in the Arabian Sea is booming. Many are former regular visitors to Thailand who have been forced to look elsewhere. The Thai Tourism Minister, Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn, has now prioritised a plan to allow quarantine free access to the kingdom to 22 Chinese regions reputedly free from the Covid 19 virus at the beginning of the new year. The latest plan envisages up to 11 million visitors in 2021. It comes after the shambolic handling of a much-hyped plan to reopen tourism to a group of 120 Chinese tourists visiting Phuket on the basis of the Special Tourist Visa programme after it was revealed, in recent days, that not a single visa application had been made to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from China. The party is now expected in Phuket later this week.

It seems that no Chinese tourist applied for the STV. Even the Chinese don't want to spend 2 weeks in solitary confinement. A quarantine requirement kills international tourism. I don't think there will be a high tourist season for 2020. The Tourism Authority of Thailand sent a list of the first group of STV (special tourist visa) Chinese tourists to the Thai consulate in Guangzhou on Oct 5. Foreign Affairs Ministry deputy spokesman Natapanu Nopakun, however, said no Chinese tourists had been to the consulate to apply for an STV.

https://web.archive.org/web/20091026194328/http://geocities.com/doxyblue/alltrink.html 9:10 p.m.: The 115 arrives at last, stopping where it's supposed to. Crowded yet not packed. I find a place to stand, pay my fare and pocket the ticket. With the new law against littering, I keep it on me and dispose of it at home. Getting off opposite Patpong Road, I hear a local shouting: "Hey, you threw away your ticket. Pay fine!" I turn to see a local, not in uniform, waving a bus ticket he ostensibly picked up from the ground. I check my pocket and my ticket is still there. Sniffing a scam, I hurry across Silom. Behind me, I hear: "Pay me fine. Only 1,000 baht!" He doesn't follow me. A little boy leaps out from behind a vendor's cart and zaps me with a water-gun.