daydreamer

Thailand has already included a departure tax into the price of international airline tickets for about 20 years, so they should not have any problem with collecting this new revenue stream from the airlines. Before the departure tax was included in the ticket price (about 20 years ago), every departing international passenger was required to buy a paper tax receipt for 500 baht in cash after check-in, and then immigration officers collected the tax receipt when the traveler passed through immigration, upon departure. I remember machines in the airport departure terminal that sold those paper tax receipts. Tourists used to be reminded to keep 500 baht cash when leaving the country, to pay the tax. Over the years, and after the tax was integrated into the ticket price, the international departure tax increased from 500 baht to 600, then to 700 baht, and recently it was increased to the present 730 Baht. This fee is invisible, as it is now built into the international airline ticket prices. Domestic passengers currently pay a tax of 130 baht on flights. This newest tax is being called a "tourism arrival fee or tax", and will be 300 baht (in the beginning). So once the new tourist arrival fee is implemented, between the two taxes, a round-trip international air traveler will pay 300 baht arrival tax, and 730 baht departure tax, for a total of 1,030 baht. https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/general/2866607/minister-aims-to-levy-300-baht-tourism-tax

Well, the government of Thailand is still promoting cash usage big time. The government just budgeted 180 billion baht (cash) for the first tranche of 10,000 baht handouts. The ATM machines are working overtime, as can be seen in this photo from the front page of today's Bangkok Post.

I didn't see this announced in the Bangkok Post, but here are a couple links stating the new Electronic Travel Authorization will not begin this December as planned. Originally set to begin in December 2024, the launch date for the Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) system remains undecided due to the need for further coordination with relevant agencies. https://www.globe.co.th/news/thailand/thailand-postpones-launch-of-automated-tourist-entry-system/

Well, there are people complaining that security staff are directing families with children to the fast track lane, causing long backups. Families with infants are a listed category for fast track. I don't know if airport staff are allowing families with older children (with no infants) to use the fast track or not. The reference I made above concerning congestion comes from this document from AOT:

Economy class passengers age 70 and above are welcome to continue to use the Fast Track Lane, as directed in guidance from the Airports of Thailand, the management company of Suvarnabhumi Airport. So, no change for 70 and above passengers, see the photo of previous signage above, it states "Senior Citizens Over 70". I failed to include the senior citizens category in the list I typed in my original post above. Sorry for any confusion.

Yes, the change was that Business Class and First Class no longer use the Fast Track Lane in zone 2. They now use the Priority Lane in zone 1 or zone 3. The immigration officials made this change to alleviate congestion in the Fast Track Lane. Here is a photo of the previous signage at Fast Track. Note the previous inclusion of business and first class passengers.

Yes, there are three immigration entry zones. Under the newest rules, if you travel by Business Class or First Class, you are eligible to use the Priority Lane in zone 1 or zone 3. The Fast Track Lane is only for Diplomatic and Official passport holders , BOI (APEC CARD)/ABTC, MICE, Smart visa, Long-term resident visa(LTR). The easiest way to identify the three immigration zones is by the gates that are opposite them. If you arrive from the gates on the western end of the terminal, as most international passengers do, the first immigration zone you will see on your left will be Zone 3. This layout map of the arrivals below makes it more clear. So if you are a business or first ticket holder, you use the first or third zone, not the center zone. Then after entering immigration zone 1 or 3, look for the Priority Lane, at one side of the zone. Note the East and West markings on the diagram. The gates on the east side are used for domestic flights. As to the question which airlines use which zone, the zones are not airline specific. You are free to use any zone.

The buildings have not changed. They have remained the same for decades. What you are looking at is a view of the Boyztown other entrance on Soi 13/4. Both views below were taken from in front of the Penthouse Hotel. The building on the right with the ornate wrought iron railings used to be the New Orleans Restaurant. The tall building in the background is still there.

For those humid days in Thailand, this is the way to go.......may as well be comfortable and stylish at the same time.

Peter, from your description, it sounds like the bar may have been named Solid Bar. Was the mamasan the same one who always wore the oversized blazer by chance?

Yes, the website Utopia and the gay and lesbian Utopia complex off Sukhumvit were both operated by John Goss. Utopia had a building with a bookshop, guesthouse, and a cafe on Sukhhumvit soi 23. The building currently houses a Thai restaurant named Jutharos. It is located a couple blocks from soi Cowboy. The exact location can be seen on Google maps at https://tinyurl.com/ybnb8jvn I stayed in one of the Utopia guesthouse rooms in either 1995 or 1996. I had offed a boy from the Hippodrome Bar in Saphan Kwai, and we stayed at the Utopia guesthouse room for a few days before we traveled together to Ko Samui. Incidentally, the boy that stayed with me at the Utopia guesthouse turned out to be a model featured in Midway magazine, one of the publications mentioned earlier in this thread. I remember the Utopia cafe served a very tasty khao soi, the Lanna Thai noodle curry soup that is somewhat difficult to find outside of northern Thailand. John Goss also took the hundreds of excellent photos for the book "Very Thai: Everyday Popular Culture" by Philip Cornwel-Smith. The book is available on Amazon. It is worth a look if you are interested in Thai culture and everyday Thai life.

Yes, I remember the Apache Bar from the 90's, and the loincloth costumes the boys wore in the bar. I remember reading an article in Midway magazine that predicted that the planned skytrain, which was due to open in 1999, would hopefully bring more farang customers to the numerous Saphan Kwai bars. I don't think the skytrain ever made the area popular with farangs. Some of the Saphan Kwai bars I remember offing boys from were: Be High Street Boy Hippodrome Charmming (spelled with two M's) The Eagle Apache Midnight Cowboy These bars were all within walking distance of each other, in the side sois along Pradipat Road.

Not all Thailand Pass approvals are fake. If you receive an email about your Thailand Pass, please note where it is coming from before opening any attachments. Any emails coming from contact@passthailandteam ( .com) are fake. The correct domain address for Thailand Pass is @tp.consular.go.th . Also note that the genuine Thai government address ends in .go.th and not .com This information is also on a pop-up on the genuine Thailand Pass website at https://tp.consular.go.th/ I am posting a screenshot below. I added the blue arrow to make it easier to find the applicable text.

A photo from our last walk on Ao Nang beach, the evening before leaving the south I had to make a new flight booking for us to return to Bangkok. We had missed our return flight due to the quarantine period. Since Thai Airways ignored my request to change our booking, I decided to give my money to a different airline for the return flight. I purchased one way tickets to Bangkok for us on Nok Air. Phang Nga bay from the air, just after takeoff from Phuket: On final approach into Bangkok, the plane flew over the mouth of the Chao Phraya River, where it snakes its way into the Gulf of Thailand Nok Air uses the old Don Mueang airport. The airport still looks much the same as it did years ago, with some renovations. Even though it's a much smaller airport than Suvarnabhumi, they still somehow managed to park the plane at a gate that required about a kilometer of walking through the terminal to reach the baggage claim hall. In Bangkok, we checked in to the same room we previously had three weeks earlier at the Furama Sathorn. The next day was Chinese New Year, February 1st. I had no plans, and that afternoon asked N what he wanted to do tomorrow. I was pleased that he didn't give me that old Thai standby answer, "up to you". I decided to go along with whatever he wanted to do for the next couple days after returning to Bangkok. He made a phone call, and told me we were going on a road trip the next day. What a nice experience he planned for us. That morning, I found myself in a very nice new Honda van with some of N's friends and two Buddhist monks in saffron robes, on a road trip to Ayutthaya. The van belonged to one his his friends, who drove. The plan for the day was visiting two large temples in the historic district of the former capital of the Ayutthaya Kingdom. For the first part of the trip, N and I sat together in the second row of seats in the van. When the two monks joined us along the way, I switched to riding shotgun in the front, the two monks sat in the second row, and N and a friend sat in the third row. As we drove through heavy Ayutthaya traffic due to the holiday, songs from the Eagles and Aerosmith were pumping from the stereo. I just went along for the ride, carefree and taking it all in, as it was N's chance to entertain me for the day. I had no plans or agenda, and it was kind of amusing to watch N having fun, and acting as the guide, as the day he had planned for us played out. Some of the best and most interesting experiences when you travel happen when you relax, and don't ask too many questions, or as the Thais say "don't think too much". In Ayutthaya, for a couple kilometers, there were vendors lining the main street that leads to the historic temple district. The vendors all sell the same thing - huge bags of air puffed and brightly colored fish food, and small live fish in plastic bags. The live fish are sold for release in the temple ponds, for merit making. This was the first time I've seen these huge bags of brightly colored fish food for sale anywhere in Thailand. I have seen containers of small fish food pellets, and bags of day-old bread for sale near many other wats around Thailand, but not these giant sized bags of vividly colored fish food. Apparently these Cheetos-looking fish snacks are something unique to Ayutthaya. Not to miss out on any potential customers, this vendor also had bags of day-old bread, and bags filled with fish food pellets for sale. They can be seen in the lower right portion of the photo. The first temple we went to was a Buddhist temple with a heavy Chinese influence. There was a huge gold Buddha statue inside the main building. The place was packed with people due to the Chinese New Year holiday. I'm not sure what this man is doing, but he's holding an open bottle of Big C brand cooking oil in one hand and a white lotus bud in the other hand. Of course the lotus bud is commonly found in temples, used in prayer rituals, but the cooking oil? The tuk tuks in Ayutthaya are a different type than the Bangkok style. They are kind of a mini songtaew, with two bench seats in the back, running along the sides. In the front, there is a steering wheel, not handlebars. Also, the front cab has doors, with roll-up windows. They remind me of the three wheeled vehicles that were still in use in rural Japan until the 1980's. This red model is kind of sporty, complete with a set of vintage mag wheels. The second temple we visited had a huge ancient chedi, There was a very steep staircase, where you could climb up into the inside of the chedi. Once up in the chedi, we looked down through an iron grate to see two monks far down inside the base of the chedi, sitting and counting large piles of coins. In the center of the photo, the staircase is visible, with people climbing up into the chedi. We had a fun day trip, and it was good to see Ayutthaya once again, after many years. The following day N insisted we take a tuk tuk ride in Bangkok. I hadn't been in a Bangkok tuk tuk in more than 30 years, but I did not want to deny him his fun. It was my last full day in Thailand, and rather than resist, I decided not to "think too much". Of course, N chose a tuk tuk that made a mandatory stop at an Indian tailor shop on the way, one of the most common tourist scams in Bangkok. The way it works is that if the tuk tuk driver delivers potential customers to a certain prearranged shop, for each visit, they receive a stamp. After filling a card with 10 stamps from the shop, the driver receives 4 liters of free fuel from the shop. Usually these shops are either jewelry stores or tailor shops. So we spent 5 minutes inside, looking at bolts of cloth that could be made into clothing. I had no intention of buying anything, and in 5 minutes, we were back on our way. Our tuk tuk as it entered Silom Road, with Saladaeng Road on the left. Looking back on my quarantine experience, as it worked out, it was really not as bad of an experience as it could have been. I can think of many worse places to be than being sequestered in a hotel room with a hot Thai boy for 8 nights of mandated quarantine. I could have just as easily have caught covid at home, and not in Thailand as I did. But then I would have been in isolation by myself, instead of with N. Luckily, I had enough time in Thailand, and the quarantine happened early enough in our trip that with some strategic juggling of our schedule, we were able to travel everywhere we had planned to, with one exception. The only planned location we had to cancel on this trip due to the time spent in quarantine was a few days in Pattaya. But Pattaya will still be there waiting for my next trip. One benefit of this quarantine escapade is that I didn't need to spend time in Bangkok during my last full day in Thailand to get a covid test to enter the USA. Under the revised US CDC rules, if you can show a positive covid test result within the past 90 days, and have a medical certificate clearing you for travel, no test is required to enter the US. Upon showing these medical papers at Suvarnabhumi, there was no issue checking in for my flight without a covid test. In case you are interested to know what the quarantine expenses were, I paid 30,500 baht for N to stay in the hospitel with me. I exchanged money only once, at the beginning of my trip in Bangkok, enough to cover the entire trip. I then deposited this money in my K-bank account, so I could withdraw it at ATM's. Using the exchange rate at the time I bought my stack of baht, N's quarantine equated to about 910 US dollars. This amount covered both his hotel fee and the hospital charges, and included N's ambulance ride. The hotel and hospital fees were billed separately. My hotel fee and hospital charges came to 41,500 baht for the 8 nights, and there was no fee for an ambulance ride, as I drove myself to the hospitel. This difference in pricing is because of dual pricing for Thai citizens and farang tourists. And this was with my second PCR test being paid for by the Thai government under the amended rules for the 7 night Test & Go program. I have read that some people have been charged far more than this amount to be quarantined in other parts of the country. It probably helped that we were not near any cities. Khao Lak is not heavily developed, and is very lightly populated. I'm guessing in Bangkok or other large cities, the charges may have been substantially more. It also helped that we only needed to quarantine for 8 nights each, not the 10 days they originally told us we would be staying. Several times during our month together, N told me that he really liked to be able to get away from Bangkok. He said he enjoyed being in quiet locations with not so many people, like the bungalow resort where we stayed for a few days. I surely hope to see N the next time I travel to Thailand, and I made that clear to him. He has sent me messages already since I left, telling me he wants to travel with me again next time. Another evening view from the 12th floor balcony of our room at the Furama Sathorn, my last night in Thailand. With the way the world has dramatically changed in the last couple years, I just hope that it won't be much longer until many more people will travel to Thailand, and bring the tourist income that that is so much needed by many people and businesses there. Even though we had to be quarantined, I had a really nice time in Thailand. Would I go again under the same circumstances? You bet I would. It sure beats sitting at home looking out the window, and waiting for who knows how long for the pandemic and travel restrictions to come to an end. I've already started thinking about where I want to travel on my next trip to Thailand. I am counting the days until my next flight to Thailand, when I hear those electrifying words on the loudspeaker, "Ladies and gentlemen, this is the captain speaking. In a few minutes, we will be landing in Bangkok". Until that magical moment arrives, I will continue to be the daydreamer.

Just this evening, I received a second one of these fake emails with a PDF file attachment, that if opened, no doubt contains malware. I'm copying the text of the email below. It is sent from contact@passthailandteam I deleted the .com extension from the above email address so nobody will accidentally click on it as a link. If you receive one of these spoof emails, do not open it. I left Thailand more than one week ago, but the hackers don't know that. Beware. Here is the text from the email: There are problems with your information. You can access and download your Thailand Pass QR Code by double clicking the attached PDF Travelling to Thailand 1. Please prepare your documents to present at the check-in counter and to the agencies concerned when arriving in Thailand. The documents are as follows 1.1 Passport with visa (if required) 1.2 Thailand Pass QR Code (on mobile device or printed copy) 1.3 Medical certificate with a laboratory result indicating that COVID-19 is not detected through RT-PCR test (issued within 72 hours before departure). If the Port Health and Quarantine at airports in Thailand discover that you have invalidated COVID-19 RT-PCR test result or if the type of the test is not RT-PCR method, you will not be eligible to be exempted from quarantine, but you may be allowed to enter Thailand by quarantine only. 2. When arriving in Thailand, please present your documents and Thailand Pass QR Code to the immigration and disease control officers. Download the attachment PDF and update the information