I traveled to Thailand for two weeks in Jan 2019 with my
Mavic 2 Pro. No issues at all. I am sharing some details to help you get how it feels like.
I was really stressed by reading everything in the internet about registering a drone and a possible confiscation, however, I finally decided to take the drone to Thailand, having no time for registration left. But everything turned to be smooth and not that scary.
I had a flight to Suvarnabhumi Airport, then from Don Muang Airport to Krabi and back. Security never had any questions about the drone in my compact backpack. Actually I packed a drone into a small case and took off propellers, also having a lot of other electronic devises in the backpack like chargers from PC, toothbrush, etc. Battery was in the drone all the time.
During my trip I saw like 8 to 10 people flying drones on Ao Nang Beach. One guy even looked like flying his drone for the first time, trying to figure out how does it work, and he was literally flying above the heads of the people... So far, nothing prevented him from landing his drone, and I don't think all those people have licenses to fly. There were some beaches with "No Drone" signs. Obviously, no flying there, and surprisingly no one did.
Nevertheless, during my trip I filmed like 8 different locations, mostly from a kayak or flying in the morning when there were just a few people in the whole area. Jungles, beaches, islands - perfect things for captures. I didn't fly near people/crowds and I don't recommend doing so. Bangkok is also a big no-fly zone, and, actually, there's nothing interesting to film.
My recommendations:
- Don't fly in touristic and crowded places, obviously. Forget about filming local museums/artifacts/Wats/etc. All sightseeing has a guard which is definitely watching your drone.
- Check Thailand no fly zones before flying. There's a special map in the Internet (not the standard DJI fly map).
- Always watch your drone and keep it visible all the time. Ensure you are not hovering over private territory. I saw a couple of villas with very aggressive signs like "No entry. I don't call 911 *a picture of gun*"
- If you are a tourist like me having no time for a long drone registration process think about whether it worth it, because, whatever it is, you will think and worry about your drone each time you want to take off.