OPINION
“Hopefully, and essentially, there has to be a radical Thailand Pass-ectomy.”
July 1 seems so far away as the rest of the world has moved on and opened up, with many SE Asian destinations also dispensing with many of their Covid-arrival procedures already, or in the next month.
Whilst the rest of the world has established new travel lanes and travel bubbles, Thailand remains in a time bubble, stuck mid-2021 in a pre-Omicron world of curfews, restrictions and incoming travellers treated like extras in The Andromeda Strain (a 1971 sci-fi B-grade movie about a viral pandemic).
Travellers arriving in Thailand are still welcomed by the completely unnecessary vista of awaiting PPE-clad officials with their swabs and checklists. After being whisked through immigration they continue in their escorted isolation to a pre-paid SHA+ hotel to have their also-pre-paid PCR test.
They…
