Tourism was just starting to look like it was picking back up here in Chiang Mai and some of the hotels and even smaller businesses were starting to see some signs of life as far as the life's blood of the tourism industry in the northern city that I call home is concerned. But just like Sod's Law dictates, 10 people snuck over the border and bypassed security and medical checks, tested positive for Covid once detained, and have caused a panic in the city and surrounding areas that has once again chased away all the little bit of domestic tourism in the area.
src
All of the women were employed at the 1G1-7Hotel, which is a very strange name for a hotel and it serves as an "entertainment complex and resort" that is frequented primarily by wealthy Burmese men. I'll go ahead and give you a minute to try to guess what sort of employment that these women were involved in. Normally, the migrant workforce goes in the opposite direction because Thailand is much better off financially speaking than Myanmar is. Burmese workers can be found all over Thailand because they will gladly work for a far lower wage than Thai people will. This of course is true in all professions but one, and I'll leave it up to you to figure that one out.
src
Thai nationals are still allowed to return from Myanmar but just like anyone else that is involved in this crossing, a lot of questions are going to be asked and they have to go through the same quarantine and testing procedures that the anyone else entering the Kingdom has to go through. For this group of 10 women, they were snuck in and bypassed the official crossing points which from what I have heard is not terribly difficult to accomplish at most borders in this country.
They are being lauded as incredibly selfish people and 2 of these women, due to contact tracing are meant to have traveled on commercial airlines upon returning to Thailand. I can't find any pictures of the women and I think that is being kept a secret, which is very strange for Thailand because they love to have pictures of accused criminals, normally with a police officer pointing at them.
src
This is not one of the girls in question btw
This practice of pointing at things in crime scenes and various other official evidence photographs is quite humorous to Thais and expats alike and has lead to a rather funny website called Thais pointing at things
Ok, I got side-tracked there.
The government is going to press charges against the women and there are also a series of hotels that are planning to sue the girls for 20 million Baht (around $700,000) which is just an absurd lawsuit because these girls don't have any money and that is why they were working at an "entertainment complex" in an impoverished country illegally.
So what is going to happen with all of this? I hope we dodged a bullet and that nothing will come from it. We were just starting to enjoy a bit of freedom of movement and the masks were starting to come off in public. The Health Minister has downplayed any rumors of a new epidemic and no new mandates have been made because of this. Let's hope it stays that way.