anddy

highlighted part seems inaccurate to me. Viruses cannot "grow" by themselves outside the body like bacteria can in a moist environment as envisioned in the statement. Viruses need to be inside a host cell to manipulate it's DNA to have the host cell produce more viruses. So outside the body, no virus growth. Said environment may (or may not) prolong the life span of a given virus outside the body, but they won't "grow". Correct me if I'm wrong....

that illustrates that this whole excercise is not very useful. Obviously, nobody healthy ever measures their body temperature several times throughout the day. When in Singapore recently, many places like temples, tourist attractions, shopping malls, banks, had temp. measurement at the door. Well guess what, my own and my companion's temperature was all over the place, going up and down wildly and rapidly. Two examples: 1. at one of the "trees" at Gardens by the Bay they took the temp. I was rather high (to my surprise) at something like 37.6. We had been walking around in the heat and humidity for some time. They said "sorry Sir you can't enter now". Me: "but there's aircon inside, I'll cool down inside in no time". They: "Sorry Sir can't let you in, please cool down first". OK, no point arguing so went to coffee shop maybe 100m away with aircon. Sat there for maybe 10 minutes, sucked on some ice cubes, then went back. Temperature now about 36.8. All good, can go in now. 2. At a temple, my friend is at 36.7 or thereabout. About half an hour later at the entrance to the bank, 37.5. "Oh you rather hot la" but could go in. Asked about the threshold: 38. Inside he cooled down of course and when going out maybe 20 minutes later went back to the temp checkers at the entrance to re-check, just for the fun of it: well under 37. The morale of the story: any threshold that has a 37-handle is really useless as that temperature is completely meaningless and not indicative of a fever here in the hot climate. When I am actually sick I already feel very unwell at a rather low temp of 37.3 and KNOW I have something, even though doctors and nurses then always say "no fever". But this heat-induced 37+ temperature doesn't make me feel uncomfortable or unwell at all.

exactly. But apparently the hysterical sg rumour mill had rumours to that effect, prompting the statement. really no reason not to go (unless there were a dramatic change in the situation). Everything is pretty normal here. If you're concerned about going to BKK, then by the same token you should be concerned about staying in Sg!!

thanks @macaroni21 for the Rapee review, that's good to know. I have been there once or twice quite some time ago, I think for Thai massage, but otherwise have not gone there because (a) I always found those ugly shirts (almost jackets) off-putting and (b) the guys there are mostly really unattractive (to me). The latter doesn't really matter for just a good massage, but they always seem downright ugly to me, unlike at Prime (my usual go-to place for quality oil massage) where they at least look decent or "normal".

from the last 2 posts it becomes apparent that hotels.com doesn't have their business in order, showing such an absurd quote.... Not sure if I have ever used that site, if I have it must be 15 or 20 years ago.... Nantra may not be great, but at about 600 Baht it's value for (little) money provided that's for the larger rooms (which may not be the case). I have seen one of the large rooms there (when @vinapu stayed there and I could have a look at his room) and it seemed perfectly fine to me. The very small single rooms though (have seen one too) do seem inadequate though.

The answer to the first question (has anyone had HE there) is a yes. The answer to the second question (do they even do that) is a clear "it depends". In my experience, the general rule at Prime is that HE is NOT happening. But as "general rules" go, there are exceptions and it very much depends on the individual masseur and presumably his mood in that particular moment, how he perceives the given customers body (attractive, acceptable, unattractive, or whatever), maybe his need for extra tip that day, and not to forget the constellation of the stars. I've had many many massages there where nothing happened or was even hinted at. Including raging hard-on's being flatly ignored. Then again in the rarer instances they'd just proceed to take care of said hard-on, or asked about it. I had a regular there (who unfortunately left about a year ago), who I booked for his (for me) outstanding massages. First several sessions, hard-on's went ignored. Then one day all of a sudden he gave a HE. But even then that didn't become the rule with him. On the other hand, I had another regular there (sadly also left) who gave the most sensual and erotic massage ever, including a superb super skilled HJ. And that happened every time I booked him (which I did when I wanted that, as opposed to just a good massage which is my main and usually only reason to go to Prime). So bottom line is: it clearly depends.

I have cleaned my phone with alcohol spray more or less every day (often multiple times a day) for many years simply because I don't like it when it's covered in a greasy film of fingerprints and what not. Alcohol is the most effective in removing that. Now serves an additional purpose, as it turns out

this whole thing and the self-protection is way overblown. Yeah, use common sense (I will maybe wear a mask at the airport tomorrow and definitely use alcohol on the fingerprint scanner), but on the whole the risk is so low I can't be bothered. It's not ebola, either after all. Chances are, EVEN IF I get this virus (chance something like 1 in 500,000 if we have 20 cases in BKK, probably less coz I don't get in contact with Chinese), I won't die from it coz I'm not old with pre-existing conditions. If my personal mortality probability is, say, 1%, then my overall risk is 1 in 50 million. Again, I can't be bothered with all this hyper activity about protection and stuff.

re. Z: kinda surprising as your taste overlaps so much with @vinapu's and A is an example for that re. H: these things don't always have to be for money, you know....

I've always been an avid hand-washer and do it quite often even when out and about (like in a mall washroom or restaurant before and after eating). But for when that's not available or not even an option (like public transport) alco sanitizer - regardless of it's real effectiveness against THIS PARTICULAR virus - will definitely better than doing nothing at all. I have just purchased a pack of 10 masks from Japan for 350 Baht at one of the Chula pharmacies on Rama 4. One was out of stock, two still had (or had again, presumably temporarily lol). I have also for quite some time used a wet wipe to wipe the fingerprint scanner at the airport before using it, simply because I find it rather gross. I don't even know if these wipes contain alcohol (I think not) and if they are effective against any germs at all, but again probably better than nothing (again, my rationale has been "it's gross" not "it's infectious"). Could replace the normal wipes with alco wipes, but couldn't find any (surprise surprise). Can also spray it with the alco spray and wipe off with a tissue. Plenty of options. So true and SO difficult. I must be one of the worst offenders in the planet lol. Incidentally, wearing gloves by passengers as @paulsf reports won't help them in the least if they are still touching the same things around them AND themselves (i.e. face/nose/mouth).

I was there in 2006 and horse-drawn cart was the ONLY mode of transport (ok, maybe bicycle, I don't remember for sure), definitely no scooters let alone airconditioned car lol. We did enjoy the horse-draw cart thing very much though, it just adds to the experience of visiting these ancient sites. As for Shwedagon (and all other temples in Myanmar), I can confirm what @DivineMadman said, the awfully tacky neon bling-bling lights on the Buddhas were in full force back then, well before the country opened up and even before the (attempted) monks' revolution (or whatever it was called). Very enjoyable and entertaining report, like someone said both for style and content!

green with envy LOL, but good for you that you can do that. Even at 30 (even at 20) I could not.... Guess given your tempo you wouldn't have time to meet for a coffee or drink or something?

Source: It is no secret that the models don't do it for me AT ALL with the notable exception of Babe for his boyish cute looks, smile and not overly huge body, but this guy gets pretty close to Babe! That smile makes me melt...

surprise, surprise....

no, not on their faces

could be G-Star Pattaya, which has recently opened. Similar to Fake, though I wouldn't call either one a "dance" club, more like a "stand around tables" club LOL as the "dance" floor is not open but full of tables to stand around to drink the bottle of (usually) whisky, which appears to be the main reason to go to such Thai-style clubs, rather than dancing as in western-style clubs (such as DJ Station or G.O.D.)

yes of course they keep the mask on during the massage

@z909 hand gel is available in small 50ml bottles at 7/11. Seen it there many times. May be sold out now, I don't know, but in principle it's there.

While it is true that the common flu causes vastly more deaths, it is also true that it affects vastly more people, as in millions upon millions. The point is that the key to the "hype" around the coronavirus (and SARS at the time) is the mortality rate, which is very low for the common flu. "very low" multiplied by millions of patients still gives a rather high looking number of deaths. With corona, a LOW number of patients will give a high number of deaths because the mortality rate is about 3% currently. If you get the common flu, you are VERY unlikely to die from it, with corona you have a statistical chance of 3% to die (was about 7% with SARS). So you really (a) don't want to get it as an individual (b) prevent it from further spreading as a government Luckily, at this point the chances of (a) are so low and individually preventable that it poses no real risk to the general population and us as individuals. The common flu is a HUGE risk to contract, but negligible risk to die, hence no panic or hype or drastic containment measures. Bottom line: containment measures are necessary and warranted, individual panic and fear is not.

Interesting, especially for rail road aficionados: https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/makkasan-bangkok-trains/index.html with lots of pictures

Is sky news a tabloid-type outlet? That sounds like sensationalism: More cases than any other, OMG SOOO MANY!!! Truth is, it's still only a handful (as anywhere outside China at this point), only in China are the cases measured in the thousands (and even that is minuscule in a country of 1.x billion, plus not spread throughout the country). Of course, appropriate measures, both by officials and individuals) should be taken to prevent further spread given it's elevated risk relative to the common flu, but I consider my personal risk of getting infected negligible.

100% agree with everything you said in above post. Especially two eternal truths: That has been your mantra forever, and it couldn't be more true. so true, in the online age the negative things are often totally overblown, simply because people are more driven to report and discuss negative things such as the crime danger in Brazil than normality. My own mantra in this regard: "never believe the hype (positive or negative)" - at the very least do your own research and form an informed opinion. As you successfully did. ah yes so sad... I would have loved to meet him for a view into that world. Having said that, depending on when you arrive we just might still overlap for a day or two. I leave on the 11th. All I can say to that is "overblown hysteria". Yes of course one needs to take some simple and sensible precautions, but you won't catch a virus from walking the same street with infected people. Besides, there are what, 5 cases reported now in Thailand? That's less than 1 in a million of the Thai population. Chances to win the lottery are higher.... And chances to "win" this one can be reduced by appropriate measures. Of course this particular infection warrants some more thorough precautions given it's elevated higher mortality rate relative to more common infections. BUT avoiding an infection is a common sense thing, and this one is no different. One succeeds in avoiding the common flu in flu season with the appropriate precautions even when millions of people around us are infected. So gimme a break.

might that be our generous @vinapu? Hehe

very very true, especially so at the SO (lol), which is very gay popular and markets itself as such, and also hosts a regular (monthly? or even weekly? I don't know) gay pool party. Glad to hear about your lovely bfe and looking forward to read more about it in this thread