So we've all been on the edge of our seats about the list of things the government of Thailand is going to allow us to participate in starting today and the official list was released yesterday. I would like to say that we are celebrating today, but we are not. The list is absurd and nothing has changed very much to the point where I don't even understand why it is that they bothered to open things back up at all.
Keep in mind that this is the list of things that are NOT allowed to open back up and while certain things like nightclubs and massive parties are understandable.
I circled beaches because except for fortune-telling booths being banned, which would always just be a one on one situation where distancing would be very easy to accomplish, I think it is the most stupid.
I don't live at the beach, but I do realize the profit potential for the areas that actually are beaches and how the people are not going to travel to beach areas if they are not allowed to use the damn beaches. Think about how easy it is to social distance (a term I have grown to hate) at a beach. I have been to the beach many many times here and in virtually every one of those situations it has been with just a few people and you don't exactly mingle or even get near others.
src
Obviously situations like the above one in Maya Bay at Phi-Phi Islands need to be avoided but this was a bad situation long before anyone even knew what Covid was. I can't help but think that the government's decision to keep beaches closed was based on extreme examples such as this one.
If you look at the potential for beaches to be busy when there are near zero international tourists in the area, the decision to keep them closed just seems mean.
src
Even if you do believe that Covid is a deadly killer (I don't) how is an environment like what is pictured above going to spread covid on a massive scale? Especially when you consider that supermarkets and outdoor markets are, and have been for a long time, open.
Combine this with the fact that certain beaches that the police have some sort of ownership in actually are already open and making tons of money and it is difficult to not at least suspect that the government officials are all in on this scheme and want to milk as much money out of it as possible during the "pandemic,"
Cockfighting is prohibited but should be all the time anyway. I was actually unaware that this was not illegal already anyway. Animal abuse much?
So basically Thailand can be applauded for limiting the reach of Covid during the past 2 months in that they have had very little in the way of death. However, it is starting to look like corruption at this point because police owned businesses are not abiding by these rules in certain locations. How can we not treat this as suspect.
I suppose the only good news is that they have declared that July 1st will be the full re-opening of everything... which they might reverse if they get too attached the the additional amount of money that they themselves are taking in.
Isn't Thailand's most sought after destination the beaches? This seems counter-productive. I would imagine there is a tremendous loss of livelihood over this continued closure.
I can't imagine a police force being so openly corrupt so that it is simply there in front of you for all eyes to see.
Well I was actually a bit surprised to find out that Bankgkok and Chiang Mai are actually the top destinations. But i remember also hearing that this has a lot to do with the Asian market such as Chinese, who are a very large part of the "customer mix" here in Thailand. Asians tend to want to stay out of the sun and therefore a beach getaway isn't what they are looking for. I suppose that is a long-winded answer to your question but yeah, the beaches are pretty popular here for sure.
i think that when this protest movement is done in USA and the numbers don't spike like crazy it might be a lesson to the world that the entire Covid reaction was a huge mistake the likes of which the world has never experienced before. If there is any truth at all to what they have been saying about the spread of this virus, we should be seeing a tremendous amount of people infected in the States.
If we don't see an increase I think the rest of the world can chill the hell out about the restrictions in place.
Yeah we are still being held to kind of silly standards for distancing as well. It does seem to be very selective though how this is encouraged. I like the meme where a police officer is saying to a guy sitting alone on the beach "it's not safe here, go shopping at Wal Mart instead"
i've heard that the beach reopening is being moved forward after people complained about it. Hope that's true. I've always thought that beach closures were really stupid during this "pandemic"
I just spoke to a friend of mine in Phuket and the beaches were open today. woo hoo