Wednesday, July 21, 2021

Samui Plus: Planned Start for vaccinated Foreigners on July 15

International travellers may travel to Koh Samui, if they have been vaccinated against Covid-19, from July 15. But this plan still has to be decided by Thailands government and published in the Royal Gazette.

The Samui Plus plan for the moment looks like this: Before arriving in Thailand you have to follow the same rules as travellers to Phuket. Afterwards the plan looks like this:
Hotels on Koh Samui: You have to choose an alternative local quarantine (ALQ) hotel.
Activities on Koh Samui, Koh Phangan and Koh Tao: During the 1st-3rd nights, if the test is negative, travellers can leave their room on Koh Samui for facilities and services within their accommodation only.
During the 4th-7th nights, travellers can travel on specified sealed routes within Ko Samui only.
During the 8th-14th nights, travellers can travel between Ko Samui, Ko Phangan and Ko Tao.
After fourteen days you are allowed to travel around Thailand, but you have to follow the rules for travelling to other provinces.
Flights to Koh Samui: Bangkok Airways resumes Phuket-Samui route from 16 July (flights on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday). From 1 August – 30 October 2021 the airline will operate one flight daily.

And elsewhere in Thailand?
Read about the plans for Krabi, Phang Nga, Chiang Mai, Pattaya, Buri Ram, Bangkok and Huahin.

Saturday, June 6, 2020

Will Thailand welcome International Tourists only in fourth Quarter of 2020?


Can international tourists visit Koh Samui's beaches from October?

Updated June 6, 2020:
As Thailand has stopped international flights due to the coronavirus outbreak everybody, who loves to travel to Thailand, asks the same question: When will Thailand allow the immigration of international tourists again?

One answer: "It is still dependent on the outbreak situation, but I think at the earliest, we may see the return of tourists could be the fourth quarter of this year," Yuthasak Supasorn, governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), tells CNN Travel.

Yuthasak adds there will likely be restrictions on who can visit and where they can go. Its quite sure, that Thailand will only open for tourists from countries, who have their coronavirus situation under control.

For the moment The Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand has banned all international commercial flights into the country until June 30, excluding repatriation flights. The Thais who do return on these flights are put into quarantine facilities for 14 days.

Thailand is now focused on reopening to domestic tourism in June, Yuthasak told CNN. So far malls, markets, museums have reopened. Bangkok's Chatuchak Weekend Market reopened on May 9. Bangkok's Grand Palace will do so June 4. Restaurants now allow dine-in customers but are not allowed to serve alcohol. Streetfood vendors - for example at Yaowarat road in Bangkoks Chinatown - are open. Boxing stadiums, Thai traditional massage parlours, spas and movie theatres are likely to reopen in June according to Bangkok Post. But pubs, bars and night entertainment venues will remain closed.



Hotels and resorts in Hua Hin have already been given permission to welcome Thai visitors, same for hotels in Nan Province.

Phuket International Airport remains closed until June 15. Phuket island had the highest coronavirus infection rate per capita out of all of Thailand's 77 provinces and the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand does not want to take the risk to spread the infection to other parts of Thailand for the meoment, as Phuket News reported. But now the reopeing is announced for June 15. Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang, Chiang Mai, Mae Fah Luang-Chiang Rai and Songkhla’s Hat Yai International Airports have reopened for domestic flights. In May four airlines – Nok Air, Thai AirAsia, Thai Lion Air and Thai Vietjet Air – have resumed domestic flight operations from airports in Buri Ram, Khon Kaen, Krabi, Lampang, Nakhon Phanom, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Phitsanulok, Roi Et, Sakon Nakhon, Surat Thani, Tak’s Mae Sot, Trang, Ubon Ratchathani, and Udon Thani, as Pattaya Mail noted. But Airports of Thailand warns domestic airline passengers to check provincial travel restrictions before they book flights. There are different rules for quarantine for arriving passengers in every province. Wo arrives in Chiang Mai has to qo for quarantine for 14 days at designated hotels, more informations here. Bangkok Airways has resumed its daily flights to Koh Samui. It performs body temperature checks on all passengers at the point of origin and destination. From June 6 the following airports are open for domestic flights too: Tak, Trad, Nakhon Ratchasima, Narathiwat, Pai, Phetchabun and Sukhothai.

Interprovincial bus services to Thailand’s North, Northeast and East have restarted from 18 May. interprovincial bus services to Thailand’s South have been suspended by The Transport Co. Ltd. until 30 June. Read guide to inter-provincial travel in Thailand by TAT. Find bus schedules and tickets here.

Meanwhile Thailands Natural Resources and Environment Ministry is planning to close all 157 national parks for at least two months every year to allow the ecosystem to take a break and rejuvenate, as Bangkok Post reports. The closure times will differ, due to different seasonal weather conditions from North to South and West to East in Thailand. The National Park authorities are planning to control the volume of visitors with ticket sytems. Popular Maya Bay near Koh Phi Phi - famous due to the movie "The beach" - has been overrun especially by Chinese tourist groups for some years and is permanently closed since 2018. Since then its ecology is gradually recovering and now the national park authority has created a new nature trail and vantage point so that tourists can admire views of the beach and the bay from far away. The entrance has moved to Loh Sama Bay at the back of the island.

Foreign nationals who are permanent residents in Thailand or hold work permits will soon be allowed to return to Thailand, a government official said on May 27 according to The Nation. Many foreign nationals who have Thai spouses had been complaining that the lockdown and flight ban is keeping them from their families.


Find more informations:
Thailand Tourism Updates by TAT
News by Richard Barrow
Quarantine rules in Thailands provinces in Thai


Friday, December 4, 2015

Authorities downplay IS Terror Warning for Phuket and Thailand, but beef up Security

It has emerged that the Russian Intelligence Service FSB has warned Thailand, that terrorists could have arrived in Phuket and travelled on to other places in Thailand. According to FSB 10 Syrians connected to Islamic State (IS) entered the Kingdom in October with a possible plan to attack Russian interests, reports The Nation. Thaiöands security authorities boosted safety measures in the capital and many provinces. PM's Office Minister Suwaphan Tanyuvardhana said that Russia had exchanged information with Thailand and wanted the Thai side to check the accuracy of the information on whether the Syrians had entered Thailand. "Thai authorities looked into the information and as of yesterday, we found no clues on Russia's concerns," he said.

The Governor of Phuket, Jamleran Tipayapongtada, said that all military, police and other authorities were aware of the reports and had intensified security precautions, as phuletwan.com reports. "Everybody who lives on Phuket or is visiting Phuket can help," he said. '"Please let police know if you see something that is not quite right."
Also in Malaysia police have beefed up security, particularly around places associated with Russian and Western interests, which the reports indicated the militants were likely to target, writes Thai PBS.


Thursday, January 29, 2015

British Women, reported missing on Ko Tao, has been found

The website missingabroad.org is looking for the British women Lauren Hebden (27) from Bradford. She is missing since 22nd December 2014. According to the site she went travelling in September 2013 and kept in touch regularly via email and Skype. She stopped in September 2014, apart from one email in December 2014. Missingabroad.org says that "she is last believed to have been in Ko Tao".
A Facebook page with the name Lauren Hebden seems to show, that this person started for a holiday in Thailand in September 2013. According to the Facebook page she worked as Scuba instructor on Ko Tao, first at Roctopus Dive from October 2013 until January 2014, later at Mojo Divers. The two dive shops did not confirm that she worked there. But on the Facebook page of Lauren Hebden you see her with T-Shirts of Roctopus. And Roctopus posted this picture with her. The last post on her page here is from March 2014. A friend uploaded a picture of her on april 29.

Update on 28.1.2015
People living on Ko Tao say on Facebook that Lauren Hebden was seen on Ko Tao in the last days (here). Especially Thelma Mc Nelly is saying this. It could be that Lauren Hebden is just refusing to call her parents. As everywhere else in Thailand some foreigners are working without work permit also on Ko Tao. This makes it difficult to find out the truth.

Update on 29.1.2015

"We are happy to report that Lauren Hebden has been found safe and well, thanks for your great support". This is a Tweet of @MissingAbroad published today. This organisation had published before, that she was missing.


Read more:
Ko Tao เกาะเต่า - a Hotspot for Diving


Tuesday, January 27, 2015

British Woman found dead on Ko Tao:
What happened

A young British woman, Christina Annesley (23), was found dead on the night of January 21 on Ko Tao in Thailand - on the same island where Britons Hannah Witheridge and David Miller were murdered in September 2014. This led to speculations.
But the Daily Mirror reports, citing Christina’s mother, Margaret, that Annesley died of “natural causes". On January 19 Christina Annesley had tweeted, that she needed antibiotics.
According to her tweets Christina Annesley was travelling alone. Before arriving on Ko Tao she had stayed on Ko Samui. Annesley had been in a relationsship with Olly Neville, former youth leader of UKIP party in Great Britian. UKIP party leader, Nigel Farage, tweeted: "Very sad and shocked to hear of the death of Christina Annesley. Thoughts and prayers with her family and friends."

Update on 23.1.2015
As Bangkok Post reports, Christina Annesley suffered from a chest infection during her holiday in Thailand. As documented on her Twitter-Account she drunk a lot of alcohol, what is not recommended during chest infections. Police said the body of Christina Annesley was discovered inside a bungalow room at the InTouch Resort on Sai Ree beach.

Christina Annesley took antibiotics to fight her chest infection. Drinking alcohol then can be dangerous. Read more: Can I drink alcohol while taking antibiotics?


Update on 27.1.2015
Autopsy by Thailands police found Valium and alcohol in the body of Christina Annesley, as The Nation reports. A combination of alcohol and Valium can lead to death, as it is explained here. In her Twitter-Account Annesley posted about consumation of both.


Saturday, October 4, 2014

Two Britions killed on Ko Tao -
What are the Dangers at Thailands Beaches?

See the locations on Ko Tao Google Map by #treasuresofthailand

Picture by Joe Stump
Full Moon Party on Ko Phangan

How To Stay Safe On Thai Islands? This question has been raised after the murder of a British couple on Ko Tao. Travel writer Mel Larcombe has some answers. She writes about the bad name of Ko Phangan full moon parties, rape culture in Thailand and women who date Thai men.
"Thailand’s beach parties are fuelled by ecstasy, magic-mushroom pizzas and everything in between", notes Joe Shute for telegraph.co.uk. He notes that things can get violent, when conservative Buddhist culture and "the worst behaviour that Western hedonism has to offer" are clashing.
An insight about Ko Tao has been published by the blog MikeE's Travels. He writes about mafia-style families (known as Chao Pho “เจ้าพ่อ” in Thai) operating in the Gulf of Thailand on islands such as Koh Phangan, Koh Tao and Koh Samui and the power structures on Ko Tao. He describes the presence of drugs on Ko Tao and how people can become violent on drugs. And he describes the habit of the police, to set up check points, "not to catch and charge foreigners for drug possession, but to use the threat of criminal sanction as leverage in order to extort cash off them". And he describes "motorbike rental extortion". Bikes that are returned with any damage, "no matter how small result in massive costs for the renter." Those who argue with a rental company "risk physical violence, and there have been multiple reports of on tripadvisor of firearms being pulled on those who argue with the rental company".


Later in 2014
The two men from Myanmar charged with murder have retracted their confessions and said, Thailand police turtured them. Their court trial is set to start in July 2015. A team formed by the Burmese government to investigate the Koh Tao case has announced that it is confident the two Burmese nationals accused of the double murder are innocent of the crime.

4.10.2014
Rape suspects charged: Two illegal migrant workers from Myanmar have been charged with violent rape leading to death and murder in connection with the killings of two British citizens on Koh Tao, reports The Nation. The men have also been charged with illegal entry into Thailand. Acting commander of the police Institute of Forensic Medicine, Pol Lt-General Manoo Mekmok, said two semen samples found on the female murder victim matched that from Win and Saw. The men worked at AC Pub.

24.9.2014:
New twist in murder of two Brits in Koh Tao: As Thai PBS reports, Woraphan Toovichien, 49, a village headman and owner of AC Bar which is located near the murder scene, and his brother, Montriwat Toovichien, owner of In Touch resort and caretaker of AC Bar, have been interrogated by Police. DNA samples of the two brothers were collected for testing and were later proved to not match with DNA collected from the scene and the victim’s body. Both were later freed. Eigth Region Police Command commissioner Pol-Lt Panya Mamen said both men gave good cooperation and answer all questions.

23.9.2014:

One tourist murder suspect now arrested on Ko Tao, another on the run: The police have arrested a suspect in the murder of two British tourists in Koh Tao and are hunting for a second suspect who has escaped into Bangkok, reports Thai PBS. The arrested man is the brother of a former village headman on Ko Tao. The man on the run is the son of the village headman. Eigth Region Police Command commissioner Pol Lt-Gen Panya Mamen denied, that local influential people on Ko Tao could be an obstacle to the police investigation.
There are rumours, that Thailands Primeminister and military junta leader Prayuth Chan-ocha is asking the regional police every day about their progress in the investigation, after his promises, to fight corruption among the police forces in Thailand, and to prevent damage from Thailand as destination of tourists.

19.9.2014:
A British backpacker, interrogated by Thailands police about the killings on Ko Tao, is a free man again: Pol Lt General Panya Mamen, commander of Police Region 8 informed media, that the British man is no longer supected and can leave Thailand. Also migrant workers from Myanmar on Ko Tao have been cleared from suspects. DNA probes taken by police did not match with any of 12 supects until now, writes The Nation. Meanwhile, Surat Thani Governor Chatpong Chatraphuti said Koh Tao would no longer be allowed to host spin-offs of the full-moon party that has been drawing hordes of backpackers to the neighbouring Koh Pha-ngan. "We don't want any more crimes," he said.


18.9.2014

British backpacker arrested for suspected murder of fellow Britons at Koh Tao? Surat Thani police yesterday "arrested a British tourist after he was suspected to have connection with the deaths of two fellow Britons in Koh Tao", reports Thai PBS. Police said the suspect urgently left the island on the first ferry to the mainland the day after the murder was discovered. But other sources say, that the British man has been stopped at Suvarnabhumi Airport while trying to leave Thailand and asked by police to remain in Thailand for further investigation. AFP also reported a second Briton has been asked to remain in the country. "They are not yet suspects ... but we have asked them to cooperate until the case becomes clear," deputy national police chief Somyot Poompanmoung told the news agency according to Bangkok Post. Later Bangkok Post reported that the British man was detained.


17.9.2014

Video 'mystery man' suspected in Koh Tao murders: Police are trying to identify an Asian-looking man captured on security camera footage who is now a prime suspect in the grisly murders of two British tourists on Koh Tao, reports Bangkok Post.


16.9.2014 Ko Tao murder manhunt focusing on migrant labourers: The police search among migrant workers from Myanmar on Ko Tao, as Bangkok Post reports.

David Miller, 24, and Hannah Witheridge, 23, were found killed on Monday, September 15, after they had met on Ko Tao, living in neighbouring rooms at the Ocean View Bungalows. The victims' bodies were found around 6:30am after they had gone out together.

Checkpoints have been set-up on the island's two piers, and local police called for reinforcements from Koh Pha-ngan, while high seas prevented ferries and boats from leaving, as The Nation reports.

Thailands Prime Minister Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha ordered police to swiftly wrap up the case, to prevent damage to the country's reputation as a tourist destination.

Follow the news from Ko Tao on Twitter.


Read more about Ko Tao เกาะเต่า


Sunday, July 6, 2014

Ko Khai Islands overcrowded by Masstourism

See the locations on Thailand Islands and Beaches Google Map by #treasuresofthailand

Picture by shinjung_69

Picture by mastahanky
Fish around Khai Nok islands

Picture by Wilson Loo


The white sand beaches of Ko Khai Nai เกาะไข่ใน, Ko Khai Nok and Ko Khai Nui, 15 minutes from Phukets Laem Hin Pier by speedboat, have been reached by mass tourism. A lot of boat trips stop at these islands. There is not much more to do than lying on one of hundreds of deck chairs and pay 300 Baht for that or do some snorkeling.

Ko Khai Nai เกาะไข่ใน:

Picture by sashapo

Picture by sashapo

Picture by Dickson@flickr


Ko Khai Nok นกที่เกาะไข่:

Picture by Qsimple, Memories For The Future Photography

Picture by Qsimple, Memories For The Future Photography


Ko Khai Nui: It is a private island and you find here Chokdee Restaurant & Bar.