bobblobfish

It's cheaper, but it's unclear whether it's acceptable. If you're flying in, you'd need to convince both the airline check-in agent (which sees nothing about a bus in their system and can't verify it) and potentially immigration if they ask (they usually won't). Generally, when dealing with officials, even if you're technically within the rules, you don't want to get too creative and be "that guy" which stands out and they have to consult their higher ups about. Often, their first instinct is to just refuse you. If well prepared, maybe you can convince them to check further, but more likely you'll just miss your flight or be refused entry, and appealing it afterwards is no fun.

If you get denied a visa, you can try to get a refund for the flight (or change dates). With most fares these days, you're unlikely get most of your money back. Consulates don't give a damn about applicants wasting money with no reason, even in cases where visas acceptance rates are low and a ticket is a huge burden to the applicant. In fact, some bureaucrats take delight in causing such discomfort. To minimize the risk/loss, you could get a flight out of Thailand to a neighboring country, rather than a long-haul one.

Grace hotel was a state quarantine facility for a while, and roped off. Did it recently re-opened up as a monger hotel with a disco? I think you might be asking questions about a long-gone venue.

Hopefully this happens. Not the first time they announce something and delay it or don't implement it. Bangkok Sandbox was scheduled for Oct 1, didn't happen.

Closings and restrictions certainly move fast, re-openings and getting back to normal... not so much.

If they are, they're doing a great job keeping it a secret. From Bloomberg: Malaysia eyes international border reopening in December. Now, whoever followed SE Asia tourism news lately, know that "eyes" means jack shit.

Yes, it improved, the daily case numbers are slowly falling, but there's a way to go. In Bangkok, 10pm curfew is still in place. If vaccination continues at the current pace, Thailand reach 70% in December. This is the stated goal by Thai gov't, but after the delta variant it doesn't really mean anything. Several countries (e.g. Cambodia, Singapore, Malaysia) have already passed that mark and are in no hurry to reopen.

Why do you Why do you think popping in a SIM card from a Thai carrier would increase your risk of hacking? If anything, US consumers tend to be wealthier, and thus a more valuable target for hackers than an average Thai.

This. After licking doorknobs, shagging working girls would be up there in terms of Covid risk. Overall, the risk in Thailand is low, so if you can take it, go ahead, but if there's any concern at all, better not even bother.

New regulation (since Jan 1 2016), makes this 30 days by land (for all eligible countries), but limits the ground entries to only two per year.