@Mike ******

Grrrrr.

I hope now that I've paid $90, the government doesn't shut down tourism again because of Omicron!

Resolution:

In the end, after weeks of dealing with the government, I received a rejection: Vaccine card not in English. I got this even though the card was both in Khmer AND English, and the QR code only returns English results, and my wife got accepted immediately with the same type of card.

I decided to give up and hire a company to do my Thailand Pass.

Got my Thailand Pass in 5 hours. Job done.

I'm married to a lovely, wonderful, sweet Thai woman.

It is normal in Thai culture to pay sin sod, and you are marrying a Thai. Thais are not Americans or Brits. They have a different culture.

In American culture, we have this habit of downplaying how important money is. Money is important. The Thais just recognize this truth outright, which I consider to be refreshing. In Thailand, a sinsod is you saying, "I consider your daughter and your family to be of value to me." So in Thailand, not paying a sinsod suggests you consider the bride and her family to be of no value to you. A Thai man would consider it to be a matter of pride to produce as large of a sinsod as he could afford.

Of course, we are not Thai. However, you are marrying a Thai. You can meet in the middle. Rather than providing the largest sinsod you can afford, I still think it's reasonable to put up some sort of sinsod in deference of Thai culture.

I would beware of any family that insists on an enormous 500,000 baht sinsod, as it suggests they don't understand or appreciate your culture at all, which considers it abhorrent to pay for a wife. Stay away, because there will be nothing but problems and a failed marriage.

At the same time, if you insist on paying no sinsod at all, that woman should beware of you, because it suggests you don't understand or appreciate their culture at all, which considers it insulting and awful to pay no sinsod. She should stay away, because there will be nothing but problems and a failed marriage.

My advice is to remember who you're marrying and for them to also remember who they're marrying. Surely you two can come to a sinsod which isn't too onerous. If you can't, time to break it off now.

Edited a lot for typos. Stupid phone.

Don't buy nonrefundable anything.

@Bobby *******

He has a LOT to lose. Cost of flights and booked hotels can be thousands of dollars!

Use your America Online account! 14,400 baud for the win!

So what about people who have paid for a nonrefundable SHA++ hotel??

@Michael *******

24th. But the wife got hers in 5 mins.

24 hours and I'm waiting. Thai wife did it later the same day and got it in 5 mins

It depends on your age and health. If you're not old or sick, COVID was always very unlikely to kill you.

If you are old or sick and vaccinated, you run a lower risk than unvaccinated. If you're old, then you don't have time to waste. Go live your life!