caeron

I've avoided Hong Kong for some time, as I have Russia. I don't trust either China or Russia to obey the rule of law. Russia is now obvious, but I an sure if China thought they could get away with seizing Taiwan, they would. They've been assholes to all their neighbors. When I visited Vietnam some years ago, they cared very little about the US. The guide wanted to rant about what China had done.

I'm not judging others on their drug use, just that I'm personally uncomfortable being around it. It might tempt me to return to the folly of my youth. Of course, given that I couldn't stay up that late, I think there is little risk of that! 😆

When I was young, I enjoyed experimenting with drugs. Now that I'm old, not so much. At least here in the US, damn near everything might have a killing dose of Fentanyl in it. We had two high school kids die this week here in Portland Oregon of Fentanyl overdoses from counterfeit pills. They mix that shit with everything these days.

Love you dear, but you're wrong. Well, not about the cute part though 😀. He deserves this and more. He shouldn't have pretended to be a victim of a hate crime.

Kid torched his own career, and then doubled down. Pity, but he's getting what he deserves. This kind of thing just gives fuel to the bigots to say that these things don't happen. It is a perverse version of stolen valor, and is not at all cool. I agree that with the quote from the judge: "There's a side of you that has this arrogance, and selfishness and narcissism that's just disgraceful," the judge said. "You're not a victim of a racial hate crime, you're not a victim of a homophobic hate crime. You're just a charlatan pretending to be a victim of a hate crime, and that's shameful."

Looking at the Bangkok Post article new infection rates have doubled in the last month from about 10K to 20K, but that's out of a population of 70M. Of course, there is always underreporting, but even counting that, I think this is still pretty good and small. Standard precautions apply. Hanging out in bars and other places with lots of people is going to be a lot more dangerous. I'd be a lot more concerned about going to Hong Kong. They've been trying for the zero covid policy which always was going to fail, and now it is doing so rather disastrously. Today it reported 58,000 new cases on a population of only 7M. So 20x higher than Thailand. (depending upon how much under/mis-reporting there is in both places).

Hot guys, but it is quite a haul to get there it seems.

Last time I was there before the pandemic the pickings were very slim, so perhaps it was all for the best that they were disinterested too. I guess we'll see if the situation has improved. I'm doubtful.

I'll stop by in a few weeks. Given the state of the world in this pandemic, I'm not expecting much. I am not sure the report will reflect what it may become when things open up more, but I'll report my take since I'm sure photos are still out.

Trump wanted to blow Putin because Putin was the Dictator that Trump wished he was. Much like Putin in Russia, a lot of Americans wished he was too. Putin is an evil man. He dreams of being the new Tsar, and he doesn't care how much blood building his throne will cost. People surprised by this haven't been paying attention. China may follow suit and we'll have a new world war on our hands, except the Axis powers will be Russia/China and their pet dog Belarus.

As an aside, I miss bibottomboy's posts. I hope he is well, since he hasn't been around in quite a while.

Unfortunately, I think a lot of them want people just like them in office. To quote Blazing Saddles "You’ve got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the new West. You know… morons."

I love just walking the streets. I'm pretty sure it won't be close to normal, but after a couple of years cooped up, I just need to go somewhere for my mental health. The few years in the US have been very depressing. Covid and fascists.

I will be there in a few weeks and will check in. I'm a bit dubious that it will be worth the time versus the apps, but will report my experience.

My read is that government bonds pay around 2%. If you could earn around 6% elsewhere, you're giving up 4% a year, which on a $250K investment is $10,000K a year. If you want to keep that much of your portfolio in a bank account or Thai bonds, I guess it works. But if you don't, there's a real cost.

I'm glad I went when I did. I regret not seeing more. I fear that too many in Europe lack the will to really hold Russia accountable.

https://www.facebook.com/tawanmuscleman/ They say they are open. I am sure that when one of us who cares gets to Thailand, we'll get a report. They're not the kind of guys that appeal to many board members.

The Quarter Silom uses Paolo Phaholyothin Hospital. The hospital didn't respond to my query, maybe somebody with a Thai friend will have more luck confirming testing timing with them.

Indeed, though a number of places do have 24 hour testing. I have to hope, or if it is morning, that I can pay the hospital for express testing. The Quarter did at least confirm that they use a different hospital than the one other Silom hotels use which doesn't offer express testing. I gave up trying to get answers out of the hotels because of the half dozen I wrote, none responded with anything helpful. (Some responded, but didn't answer the question I asked about quick testing and follow up emails were ignored.)

The Quarter in Silom told me 12 hour turnaround. They don't use the same hospital as other Silom hotels, so there may be an express option. I wrote the hospital and got no response. The best express I found was a 4hour turnaround at the notable markup you might expect. Sorry, I don't remember which, but I found it was almost impossible to get a response from any of the hotels to clarify how this would work, and what I needed to do to get an express test. So, while they advertised it, I couldn't confirm it. With new variants possibly coming at any time, I'd rather get approval now rather than risk something popping up and the program shutting back down. My .02. I arrive around midnight, so the 12 hour turnaround isn't a problem for me. I noticed on some of the other websites that some hotels were bad about getting you the paperwork you needed to confirm for Thai Pass. The Quarter wasn't helpful on some of my emails, but they did that relatively promptly at least. Good Luck.

Well, I've paid for a day 5 PCR test I won't need, but since I'm going on to the Philippines afterwards which requires one, I think I'll just pretend the day or so before my trip onward is my "day 5", so I don't have to pay for another test. The system does seem subject to abuse.

I submitted my paperwork to Thai Pass yesterday, and woke up to it in my inbox this morning. So, annoying as it may be, they're apparently processing swiftly at the moment.

Well, the competition is Pro-Am, so perhaps the Amateur side of it will appeal more to the Tawan crowd. I guess we'll see. Honestly, I like them muscle guys, but the ones that win competitions are too far over the line for me anyway. I think at that point they start to look weird.

Well, if that's true, the next competition is March 26-27 if the following link is correct. I'm there just before that, so I guess I can find out if the pickings are still as slim as they were the last time I went. https://www.ifbbpro.com/2022-thailand-pro-qualifier/

Thank you, thank you, thank you! My attempts to google had mostly met dead ends, or information that was years out of date. I'd planned to split my time between Manila and Cebu, I think I'll take the advice and spend more of it in Cebu. Can you recommend a good area to stay there?