anddy

I just saw the list on BBC, to my big surprise Thailand was not on it. Go figure. European patchwork at it's best.

That may be the case, I honestly don't know and didn't look to deep into the announcements from Europe as they're irrelevant to me. Only relevant to me is what Thailand does, and they haven't lifted the restrictions for people like me (not even ever mentioned them at all as a category of people, and how they may be handled going forward).

what remains utterly unclear and unadressed is what the status of the many expats living in Thailand is. Europe just opened up for Thailand, so Thais can go there to visit and obviously can come back. But can I? As it stands now, I cannot. Why? I can't conceive of ANY reason, but it is what it is... I will continue to do what I've done ever since this started: wait and see.

heavier droplets may fall downwards, but aerosols won't, especially from talking and laughing and easily travel to the next "cubicle". *IF* there were virus carriers in such a setting it could easily be a super spreader event. But of course, as vinapu points out, if afraid of the virus then simply shouldn't go. If not afraid, accept infection. Luckily, with no reported local transmissions for over a month, chances seem low so we hope it won't happen.

only they look too low. It looks to me as though peoples' virusemitting faces will be above those partitions, maybe so as to not obscure their view of the stage? Very useful then LOL

"to take issue" again sounds kinda serious to me. I wouldn't say I took issue with "connote", it's just my understanding that a "connotation" is more of a side-meaning (similar to a side effect of a medication) rather than the main, true meaning of a word. So related to รับ I felt it's more than "just" a connotation, because receiving is a main meaning of it. Related to "bottom" it might indeed be more of a "connotation", maybe you referred to that rather than รับ (or both). Of course it's not wrong to say "connotation" here for either, so I surely didn't want to "take issue" with it, just offering some additional (as you say, possibly incorrect, fair enough) insight or point of view, which in turn in a thread like this is never "necessary" in that sense. Just offering some views or opinions, that's all.

why so cross @DivineMadman? I'm not trying to "correct" anything, or be overly serious about this either, I was just taking up your "linguistic tangent" which I though was fun and discuss some finer details of your or mine understanding of รับ.

oh I got that wrong then, maybe because of your initial comment about being "constantly fascinated and amused" about the uses of รับ. Having said that, to me in all the examples you gave it is still a form of receiving or accepting, as in taking up a task such as a massage รับนวด = taking up/accepting the task/work of giving a massage. Just making it VERY short, as they like to often do in Thai. Of course it's NOT about receiving the massage itself in this case. Again, it's is very contextual here. But we probably shouldn't be boring other members with splitting hairs over รับ, but rather give some more useful advice in this regard, such as the pronunciation: รับ rup รุก rook (as in book or look)

lol, so it's simply the resemblance of the shape of the letters or numbers I / 1 and O / 0 to you-know-what that indicate it's meaning? That's funny but very practical

sounds like a no-go for the go-go's. But they don't have customers anyway, so wouldn't be economical to reopen anyway. Can't imagine locals, expats and a few stranded tourists being enough for a viable business. Also, no DJ Station etc...

it's not really just a connotation, "to receive , to accept" and similar are the original meanings of รับ, the gay bottom meaning is rather a slang meaning (that makes a lot of sense, needless to say), which is why it's not in the regular dictionaries. Only in the context of a discussion or statement of the sexual role does it become "bottom". That's why there is nothing odd about the examples you gave, it's just our distorted gay perception that make those a tad odd haha Incidentally, the same is true of the English word "bottom" and its true and gay meanings lol

No unique assumptions here. You could just use the Thai words in an otherwise English statement or question. Like: "I am รุก" "(Are) you รับ?" [you can omit the unnecessary and (for a Thai with rudimentary knowledge of English) somewhat complicating grammatical "are" - KISS=keep it short and simple]

Thanks @spoon for posting, but what's the source? A link would be useful to be able to re-share to others I can't confirm that at all. I have seen Thais without masks as well, and increasingly so as local transmission have been zero for so long now. I see maskless Thais everywhere now, but it's always in outdoor settings, where I don't think it's a big deal. o be clear: by saying I see them everywhere I don't imply a large percentage. The vast majority still does wear masks more or less everywhere. Except guests in restaurants (both indoor and outdoor), where the rate is zero % LOL

Yeah I'd say you spend enough time in Thailand to learn some basic essentials such as that (where google translate or similar won't help). Top= รุก Bottom = รับ

That's EXACTLY the same article as the one from I think the BKK Post that you already posted. Good job of copy & paste on the part of Bloomberg news LOL

Soi 4 being somewhat alive and kicking again is not a contradiction to the possibility of it's eventual Twilight fate. The lights are on in the present, the eventual closure is (hopefully far) in the future. I have heard such rumours even before the stickman article, and as we all know every so often there is some truth to rumours. WHEN and HOW exactly these will play out is the big unknown obviously. But it's hardly fake news.

What I hadn't realized before is that Welcome Bar apparently is part of Balcony. The name and logo on the door of the bar also include the Balcony logo. Hence, they are automatically a restaurant, too.

as of right now, Soi 4 is in a state of gradual reopening. Last night, not only G's Restaurant, Connection Bar Restaurant and Fork&Cork Restaurant were open, but also Balcony Bar Restaurant Karaoke and even Welcome Bar (with no attempt to hide the word "bar", but with a food menu prominently put on display). Balcony had "bar" and "karaoke" covered up, and Telephone the same, though not open yet last night. But this afternoon there were workers busy, apparently preparing for the reopening.

apparently, there is a rush of volunteers to do just that: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-18/volunteers-are-lining-up-to-be-infected-with-the-coronavirus

the disappearance of a virus actually not only leads to the evaporation of the motivation, but also makes it impossible to develop one. Virus trials work by giving the new shot to x number of people, then releasing those people in the "wild" of the general population and see if they get infected or not, and by what percentage the infection rate is lower than in the control group. Now, if you don't have any virus out there, no such clinical trial is possible. This is a problem even for Corona/Covid in some countries developing a vaccine as they are getting the virus under control. Trials will have to be moved to countries where it is still widespread or even increasing. Fortunately for the vaccine development, unfortunately for the affected populations, there is no shortage of such places at the moment. An alternative method would be so-called "challenge trials", but I don't think they will go that route for ethical reasons.

competing claims, that hasn't occurred to me, but now that you say it, yes it's a worry in this crazy world. Instead they should be happy that there are (hopefully) multiple vaccines avaiable at the same time, speeding up the global vaccination process. Incidentally, even Thailand is working on it's own vaccine!

The demise of Soi 4 and Soi 2 will be very sad and a big loss in the same way as Twilight is/was, in that the condensed nature of these Sois make them unique scenes. While the gogo bars of Twilight had an excellent transition arguably for the better in Patpong, it is still not the same as the cozy atmosphere of Twilight, which continues to be missed by members of this board, as evidenced by recurring references to the missing Maxi's equivalent for instance. The same will be true true to an even bigger extent for Soi 4 and Soi 2. Especially Soi 2 is a microcosmos of it's own, completely hidden from and unconnected to the outside world. Both Sois are/were a huge magnet not only for tourists but also expats and locals. Yes, (gay) nightlife will continue in some form around the area, presumably in Patpong, and fun will be had, but with a very different feel to it. I admit I'm rather sad about that. As for the Patpong nightmarket, I've been waiting for something to happen for years. It has been declining for a long time. 20 years ago, all stalls were occupied and throngs of tourists making the aisles almost impassable. In recent years, every other stall unoccupied and tourists few and far between. A slow death. The new development plans outlined in the interview sound very good indeed, though, I'll welcome that with open arms.

the fine print on Baht notes may hold clues as to what constitutes an economic urgency. Bot sure that source of clues is available to the boys, though

Restrictions should make sense to be accepted by the public. Here, one is obliged to wear a mask more or less everywhere. In public transport, that makes perfect sense. In a shopping mall, fine. In the park or even on the beach? I don't think so. The same with the curfew, makes even less sense than mask wearing in an outdoor setting. That's where frustrations come from.... At your river park, I'd say the same: no need to wear a mask as it's outdoors and transmission risk is already very low. So common sense tells me it's all good there.

yeah, here in TH they seem more afraid of a second wave than they need to. They STILL keep the stupid curfew, no idea what that's supposed to be for now. We had ZERO local transmissions for 2 weeks already. Like that is going to shoot up when they were to lift the 11pm-3am curfew now. Most everyone is at home in bed then anyway, and partying won;t be an issue as bars are closed, so people can and do party at home, curfew or not. It's getting annoying by now.... [end of rant]