A lot of what you just said reminded me of years ago when the internet was only a few years old and everybody from all over the place was desperately trying to communicate with people from afar.
It's amazing thinking back how much better it used to be, now it's so centralized, I don't run into people for such far away places as much.

It's a shame you were no longer able to communicate with your contacts and your right about them mostly being the better people to ask rather than what we get on TV.
But to be honest when I looked for information I didn't bother with much of what I saw on TV or mainstream sites, I think you can find more truthful information with independent sites and vloggers/ bloggers.

While Thailand sounds great what happened during covid was rather disappointing and perhaps a warning to stay away, however there as generally been news going around lately that many in government admitting what happened during covid was wrong with their attack on freedom, still I don't think it would stop them from doing it again.