Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, it is kind of an opinion piece, a requiem for the end, I don't know if it is ending but it is currently not in existence now, the "free travel" era of Thailand.

I started thinking about this reading article from the Pattaya Mail, that is pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Pattaya Sandbox Idea Still Needs a Whole lot of Detail. A lot of great information in that article by the way. I urge folks who are watching this video to go check that out, but this one excerpt struck a chord with me. Quoting directly: "The days of traveling internationally to Thailand with just an air ticket and a passport are ancient history but the alternative bureaucracies to deal with anticipated mass travel are still a mystery." 1) Really well put. I like the way that is written but 2) I really hope they are not ancient history. I really do hope that people are operating in good faith and we will once this situation has abated we will see the stuff roll back. As with other travel regulations and things that we saw especially in the aftermath of things like 9/11 in the US, oftentimes these things do have a tendency to linger longer than one would have initially thought. In some cases certain things never do seem to go away or things never do seem to go back to the way that they were.

I have to imagine, especially if you want to encourage substantial tourism to Thailand, it has to be made to be at some level convenient. Now how you deal with that in the immediate term remains to be seen. I think Thailand has got a tough road to hoe ahead but out a couple of years, I can definitely see a situation where a lot of these more onerous requirements for entry and exit and return to Thailand could probably have been rolled back or they have just extinguished them because there is no longer a need for it. That being said it remains to be seen and we will certainly keep you updated on this channel as the situation evolves.