Starting today’s news with Samui. . . the island is eyeing European tourists after the Thai government confirmed the Test & Go entry program is being ditched from the end of April.
On Koh Samui, the Tourism Authority of Thailand has met with local tourism associations, as well as over 30 leading European travel agencies. The get-together was to showcase several tourist attractions, activities, and hotels on the Gulf island, in the hope of seeing an increase in overseas visitors from next month.
According to a Pattaya News report, the TAT’s director for Europe, Africa, and the Middle East believes foreign tourists will find travel to Thailand much more convenient now the requirement for PCR testing on arrival is being lifted for fully vaccinated travellers.
ทิติพร มณีนาท says the TAT will check flight and hotel bookings for the coming months, which will be the summer holiday period in Europe. He believes Samui has the potential to attract visitors from the European market through the promotion of its health and wellness offering.
However Bangkok Airways largely runs a monopoly on flights into Samui, making the travel to the island more expensive than to other islands in Thailand. Most airline travellers to Samui will have to transit through Bangkok and catch a Bangkok Airways flight.
Last week, the CCSA confirmed that from May 1st, Thailand will lift the requirement for fully vaccinated travellers to undergo PCR testing either before travel or on arrival. This means there is also no longer a need for a first-night stay at a SHA+ hotel.
However, for now, the Thailand Pass registration process remains, as does the requirement for Covid-19 insurance, although mandatory coverage has been reduced to 10 thousand US dollars
Registration for the revised Thailand Pass will be available after 1 minute past midnight on April 29th.
A Thai man set a new record on Sunday by becoming the first person in the world to rollerblade from the northernmost to the southernmost tip of Thailand.
The man’s journey from แม่สาย district in Chiang Rai to Betong district in Yala covered 2 thousand and 51 kilometres and took 55 days. People have famously run the same route and many Thais have driven the north/south journey, but never on a pair of rollerblade skates.
Jitaruk said the aim of his arduous journey was to set a new record, promote tourist destinations along the way and inspire more people to take up rollerblading. The 25-year-old rollerblading teacher says that people have walked, ran and cycled the journey before, but no one has ever rollerbladed across the kingdom.
Jitaruk set off on March 1st with a backpack containing only spare clothes and rollerblade parts, expecting that if he travelled at 15 – 30 kilometres per hour, he could cover 1 – 2 provinces every day.
Kind people that Jitreuk met along the way provided him with food, water and shelter. He said if he found accommodation, he would sleep there, but if he didn’t, he would find a Buddhist temple and ask to sleep there.
Jitaruk has been rollerblading since he was a child and is now a teacher at a rollerblading academy in Nakhon Pathom province. He said he has a passion for extreme sports.
After arriving in Betong on Sunday, จิตฤกษ์ said the first thing he would do is stop and rest. Then, he will rent a motorbike and visit Yala’s famous tourist attractions like the skywalk, Betong Hot Springs, the Winter Flower Garden, the Ten-Thousand-Flower Garden and the Piyamit Tunnel. ——He said he planned to go sightseeing in Yala city, take “chic photos”,—— look at street art, visit Betong Mongkolrit Tunnel and sample some of Betong’s famous foods.***
Pattaya officials announced on Tuesday that starting this Thursday? the Walking Street will prohibit cars from entering the street, as it did in pre-Covid days.
This news comes as more former bars have opened as ‘restaurants’. From 7 PM to 6 AM the street will be shut to cars again. The street has allowed cars at all hours since Covid-19 first broke out in 2020.
But as Covid-19 restrictions ease, the number of people walking to Walking Street has increased, creating problems as people tried to veer around vehicle traffic. Many social media users have mostly given positive feedback after the announcement about closing the Walking Street to cars at certain hours became official.
Along with several back-peddles for the Thailand Pass, Thailand’s CCSA announced last week it also plans to ease another Covid-19 restriction the alcohol curfew.
Restaurants, and ‘restaurants’, will be able to serve alcohol until midnight, instead of 11 pm. Like the Thailand Pass changes, the alcohol curfew change is set to start on May 1st.
The slight loosening of the alcohol curfew, along with the easing of travel restrictions, is likely to bring up the number of walkers on Walking Street.
Last month, an entertainment official in Pattaya called on authorities to move closing times on venues to 1 am instead of 11 pm.
The official was the secretary of the Pattaya Association of Entertainment Venue Operators. Time will only tell how much the new midnight curfew can satisfy the entertainment and tourism sector***
A Thai man has posted the story about his father, saying his father was a taxi driver and became ill while waiting for passengers at Suvarnabhumi Airport.
He claimed the airport allowed only their ’emergency response team’ to transport his father to a nearby hospital and charged him a hefty 13 thousand baht for the pleasure! He added that poor people simply didn’t have choices if getting sick at the airport.
He explained that his father became ill whilst waiting at a parking area inside Suvarnabhumi Airport on the night of April 25th. People nearby called the National Institute for Emergency Medicine via a hotline 1669 to attend to the man. But the institute REFUSED to come saying the airport was a ‘special administrative region’ that they were unable to access.
He confirmed that his father was finally taken to the nearby Sirindhorn Hospital, about 12 kilometres away from the airport. His father was treated at the hospital but died the following day. On the very same day, the airport’s emergency response team contacted him and informed him of the 13 thousand baht fee that he was expected to pay for the transport of his ailing father and the first aid given to him along the way.
Yesterday, Suvarnabhumi Airport responded to the posts and online discussion, mostly horrified by the airport’s exorbitant fees for transporting anyone sick from the airport. They noted that management didn’t have the policy to ban local rescue groups or the National Institute for Emergency Medicine team. The airport said that, in this case, the airport’s Security Control Centre received a call and immediately sent the rescue team from the Samitivej Clinic Suvarnabhumi to attend to the patient.
The airport emphasised that the rescue teams from many organisations have been allowed to work on emergencies or accidents inside the airport area all the time.***
Police have released their final conclusion about what caused the death of Thai actress Nida “Tangmo” Patcharaveerapong, who fell from a boat and drowned in the Chao Phraya River in Nonthaburi, north of Bangkok, on the night of February 24th. recklessness.
Police presented a summary of their months-long investigation yesterday and announced charges against 6 suspects, including all 5 people who were on the boat with the actress that night, before submitting their report along with boxes of collected evidence to public prosecutors for indictment procedures.
At the press conference on Tuesday at Provincial Police Region 1 headquarters in Bangkok, Pol. Lt. Gen. จิระพัด พูมจิต said that detectives were satisfied with the evidence and witness testimonies, saying there was no need to investigate further. According to their report, police determined that the actress fell from the stern of the speedboat at 10:34 pm.
He said that her death was not murder. Instead, he concluded that someone’s “recklessness” on the boat caused the actress to fall overboard and drown, but he did not say exactly who was to blame. In other words, it was a case of accidental manslaughter.
“Tangmo didn’t fall into the river by her own recklessness, but there was someone whose recklessness led to her death.”
Phumjit said investigators concluded that after Tangmo entered the river, the suction force generated by the outboard motor pulled her downward toward the propeller, which cut up her body, creating the 26 wounds, including the large gash on the inside of her right thigh.
Two rounds of autopsies concluded that the actress died of drowning. No drugs or other substances were found in her system, which could have incapacitated her.
Moreover, police ultimately concluded that, due to a lack of witnesses, it was impossible to prove whether the suspect is known as “Sand” had told the truth when he claimed Tango had fallen from the stern of the boat while peeing. However, police said they believed the other suspects when they said they were aware someone had gone to the back of the boat then disappeared, though they claimed not to have seen the incident for themselves.
During the lengthy investigation, which spanned two months, investigators questioned 124 witnesses, examined 88 pieces of evidence, reviewed 200 video clips, and collected a total of 2,249 documents, which they submitted in a dossier of 8 large files to public prosecutors yesterday. According to the commander of Nonthaburi police, Pol. Maj. Gen. Paisan Wongwacharamongkol was sufficient evidence to press charges against the 6 suspects and bring the investigation phase of the case to a close.
After the police announced their charges, the 6 suspects went to the Nonthaburi Provincial Prosector’s office, where they acknowledged the charges and were released on bail until the court date set for May 27.
Following yesterday’s press conference, the actress’s mother, Panida Siriyuthanyothin, expressed her satisfaction with the conclusions of the investigation and the resulting criminal charges pressed against the 6 suspects. She said she would file a civil case to sue them for more than 30 million baht in damages, having caused the death of her daughter Tangmo. Moreover, now that the investigation has come to an end, she would contact her daughter’s Christian pastor about cremating the body.***
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