DivineMadman

Bored due to quarantine? Maybe this Gay Bangkok related crossword helps ...
I didn't manage to use Html to make a fillable form, so you might want to print it out or solve it in your memory.  The word definitions are in the next post, I am sure you know them all, readers of the forum have an advantage!
The dark squares are the solution, but you have to put the letters in the right order (not sure if that is hard or not, but in that case I can still give a hint).

If you sign in from comment-on-a-post there is a "remember me" option.  There may be other ways also, but that has worked without fail for me.

Perhaps worth keeping in mind that businesses have been allowed to re-open -- but only under the "new normal" rules.   Screening, social distancing, masks (duh), limitations on number of customers allowed in at any time, plexiglass dividers between tables, etc.   (I assume everyone has seen the pictures).  Barbers have to wear masks and shields.  Some mainstream massage shops are already planning for that to be required.  
In China, Shanghai Disneyland is reopening and tickets sold out almost immediately.  But there will be all the usual health precautions and more, and right now limited to only 30% of capacity.  
Personally I think this is being handled quite well by the Thai authorities.  There will always be slip-ups and it will take some time for the real "now normal" to evolve, but they're good, small steps forward.
Here's what we might expect from one of the better-known legit(-ish) massage places.  

Perhaps worth keeping in mind that businesses have been allowed to re-open -- but only under the "new normal" rules.   Screening, social distancing, masks (duh), limitations on number of customers allowed in at any time, plexiglass dividers between tables, etc.   (I assume everyone has seen the pictures).  Barbers have to wear masks and shields.  Some mainstream massage shops are already planning for that to be required.  
In China, Shanghai Disneyland is reopening and tickets sold out almost immediately.  But there will be all the usual health precautions and more, and right now limited to only 30% of capacity.  
Personally I think this is being handled quite well by the Thai authorities.  There will always be slip-ups and it will take some time for the real "now normal" to evolve, but they're good, small steps forward.
Here's what we might expect from one of the better-known legit(-ish) massage places.  

Perhaps worth keeping in mind that businesses have been allowed to re-open -- but only under the "new normal" rules.   Screening, social distancing, masks (duh), limitations on number of customers allowed in at any time, plexiglass dividers between tables, etc.   (I assume everyone has seen the pictures).  Barbers have to wear masks and shields.  Some mainstream massage shops are already planning for that to be required.  
In China, Shanghai Disneyland is reopening and tickets sold out almost immediately.  But there will be all the usual health precautions and more, and right now limited to only 30% of capacity.  
Personally I think this is being handled quite well by the Thai authorities.  There will always be slip-ups and it will take some time for the real "now normal" to evolve, but they're good, small steps forward.
Here's what we might expect from one of the better-known legit(-ish) massage places.  

Perhaps worth keeping in mind that businesses have been allowed to re-open -- but only under the "new normal" rules.   Screening, social distancing, masks (duh), limitations on number of customers allowed in at any time, plexiglass dividers between tables, etc.   (I assume everyone has seen the pictures).  Barbers have to wear masks and shields.  Some mainstream massage shops are already planning for that to be required.  
In China, Shanghai Disneyland is reopening and tickets sold out almost immediately.  But there will be all the usual health precautions and more, and right now limited to only 30% of capacity.  
Personally I think this is being handled quite well by the Thai authorities.  There will always be slip-ups and it will take some time for the real "now normal" to evolve, but they're good, small steps forward.
Here's what we might expect from one of the better-known legit(-ish) massage places.  

A trial period is essential. At least six months, preferably more.  I considered it sixteen years ago when the pound was worth 73 bht. I'm pleased  I remained in London and continued to travel for holidays, grateful that I could afford to do so. 
Returning to your question, one of the major issues for me was exactly what you mentioned. I only knew one expat (he has since died) and, to be blunt, the posts I read on a gay forum (not this one) suggested that I'd never fit in. Some of the attitudes were genuinely appalling to someone who has lived in a liberal, multi-cultural city all his life. I appreciate that this was not true of others but feared that expat life may not be for me.
So you are right to take into account what sort of social life you'd have in Pattaya, as well as obvious things like finance, weather,  health and the political situation, remembering that if you sell-up at home, you may find it financially problematical to return if things don't turn -out well.

Personally, I took Secretary Mnuchin's more to mean exactly what he said - "too soon to tell" as far as international travel was concerned for the remainder of the year.   He acknowledged there will be some very limited, necessary business travel.  Implicitly his observation about business travel means there will some flights.  I think there will almost certainly be some limited travel by regular folks as well.   I don't think Mnuchin is particularly keyed into when countries in SE Asia will begin opening their doors or on what conditions.  
The various lockdown restrictions that various countries have in place remain.  In typical Bangkok Post fashion, even the headline of the article that started this thread is inaccurate.  The idea of opening the door to Thailand for travelers from China and S Korea is just something that was floated.  The restrictions haven't been "lifted."  And that particular idea is hardly news.  There have been very very public discussions before about the need to get essential business travelers back into Thailand.  
The Chinese government has told its people no international leisure travel for the time being - I forget whether the restriction was until October or the New Year (and which New Year).
 

Let's hope the good secretary is a better manager of finances than he is of flight schedules.
For travel this Sunday, seats are available on flights out of Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco for Tokyo and Seoul.

I keep in contact with a bunch of guys from all over - Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia.  With a few it's daily, and with a few others more like a couple of times a week.  I also "actively" follow 3-4 more guys on Facebook (with mutual "likes" and comments, etc.), but that's less of a connection as far as I'm concerned.  Actually, not much of a change between pre-COVID-19 and now.
No requests for money - so far - but lots of mutual complaining about the current situation and overly-optimistic thoughts about when we can be getting back together again.
In the current shelter-at-home world, it's no exaggeration that the countless pictures and videos and idle chit-chat with the guys is the highpoint of my day.  But I've always said that I have been very lucky with the guys that I've gotten to know.

I keep in contact with a bunch of guys from all over - Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia.  With a few it's daily, and with a few others more like a couple of times a week.  I also "actively" follow 3-4 more guys on Facebook (with mutual "likes" and comments, etc.), but that's less of a connection as far as I'm concerned.  Actually, not much of a change between pre-COVID-19 and now.
No requests for money - so far - but lots of mutual complaining about the current situation and overly-optimistic thoughts about when we can be getting back together again.
In the current shelter-at-home world, it's no exaggeration that the countless pictures and videos and idle chit-chat with the guys is the highpoint of my day.  But I've always said that I have been very lucky with the guys that I've gotten to know.

I keep in contact with a bunch of guys from all over - Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia.  With a few it's daily, and with a few others more like a couple of times a week.  I also "actively" follow 3-4 more guys on Facebook (with mutual "likes" and comments, etc.), but that's less of a connection as far as I'm concerned.  Actually, not much of a change between pre-COVID-19 and now.
No requests for money - so far - but lots of mutual complaining about the current situation and overly-optimistic thoughts about when we can be getting back together again.
In the current shelter-at-home world, it's no exaggeration that the countless pictures and videos and idle chit-chat with the guys is the highpoint of my day.  But I've always said that I have been very lucky with the guys that I've gotten to know.

In case you didn't see it live - and with the technical issues delay - the benefit concert last night (U.S. time) "Take Me to the World: A Sondheim 90th Birthday Benefit Celebration" to benefit ASTEP (Artists Striving to End Poverty) is available on YouTube.  It's great.  Just great.  The YouTube link can be found on the Broadway.com site:
http://www.broadway.com/sondheim90

In case you didn't see it live - and with the technical issues delay - the benefit concert last night (U.S. time) "Take Me to the World: A Sondheim 90th Birthday Benefit Celebration" to benefit ASTEP (Artists Striving to End Poverty) is available on YouTube.  It's great.  Just great.  The YouTube link can be found on the Broadway.com site:
http://www.broadway.com/sondheim90

The music was great. It was the testimonials, however, of two of my favorite Broadway actors, Nathan Lane and Jason Alexander, who told us stuff we really didn’t know before about the man.
It also reminded me what I missed about the city. In the brief lead-in to the performance, the audience hears what was once typical street sounds from the theater district (traffic, horns). I realized immediately that that was also what I missed.
This somehow got me to thinking what I’m truly missing about Bangkok, and Silom in particular: that cacophony of the street. Hawkers, waiters, barmen, vendors, masseurs all angling for my attention.
A stream of faces comes to mind that I can recall clearly. But the individual voices I find increasingly difficult to recapture with the same precision. And I fear losing them.
To me, Bangkok would always be there. For 18 years it was just a matter of going. Now that that has changed, I’m more aware than ever of what I had come to take for granted.

In case you didn't see it live - and with the technical issues delay - the benefit concert last night (U.S. time) "Take Me to the World: A Sondheim 90th Birthday Benefit Celebration" to benefit ASTEP (Artists Striving to End Poverty) is available on YouTube.  It's great.  Just great.  The YouTube link can be found on the Broadway.com site:
http://www.broadway.com/sondheim90

I completely agree...one shouldn't miss the ladies who lunch...
 

From CNN
The wild story behind Lonely Planet's first Thailand guidebook
By Joe Cummings   Editor's Note — Joe Cummings created the very first Lonely Planet Thailand guide, which was published in the early 1980s. As the famous travel brand begins shuttering its offices, Cummings reflects on his decades-spanning career as a guidebook writer.   (CNN) — The recent news that Lonely Planet Publications was shutting down its production offices in Melbourne and London almost entirely, and totally eliminating its widely admired magazine and all non-guidebook titles, didn't take me completely by surprise.   With planes grounded, borders closed and people staying home all over the world in response to the Covid-19 health crisis, any business associated with travel and tourism is on its knees at this point. Still, having been a Lonely Planet guidebook author for 25 years, I feel it.   I watched the company grow from a fledgling two-person start-up in the 1970s to an empire with more than 500 office staff on four continents. In the 1990s, when I was visiting LP's headquarters in Melbourne two or three times a year, a steady climb in sales and production forced the company to shift to a larger location three times.   Thus for me, and I'm sure for many others who grew up hopping the globe with dog-eared guidebooks close at hand, the closure of Lonely Planet's original headquarters signals the end of an era. In my life, that era kicked off when I first read "Southeast Asia on a Shoestring" while on my way to work in Thailand as a Peace Corps volunteer in 1977.   Nicknamed "the yellow bible" by its legion of devotees, the rustic guide was written by the UK's Tony Wheeler, who together with his Irish wife Maureen, created their DIY imprint four years earlier after finishing an overland journey from London across Asia to Australia. Their stapled-together "Across Asia on the Cheap," complete with hand-drawn maps, sold 1,500 copies on street corners down under.   Each chapter was devoted to a different country in Southeast Asia, and although the info was skimpy, and the maps barely usable, I was nevertheless impressed that someone had actually done it. Born to a traveling military family who lived in Europe, I was used to the "F" guides -- Fodor's, Fielding and Frommer's -- which for the most part stuck to well-trod itineraries in Europe, North America and Japan.   Established during the early post-WWII era, these guides were geared towards people like my parents, who carried bulky suitcases and traveled by private car. Writing about how to travel in developing countries via local bus and train, Lonely Planet was very underground by comparison, for the time. When I finished my assignment in Thailand and was preparing to travel home by way of India and Nepal, I checked Bangkok bookshops to see if Lonely Planet had published anything more on these countries other than brief chapters in their out-of-print "Across Asia on the Cheap." There was nothing available on either place yet, but while browsing the shelves, I discovered just-released Lonely Planet titles on Myanmar and Sri Lanka. I bought both, and read them cover-to-cover while traveling through the subcontinent (I didn't actually visit either country till later, as a Lonely Planet author on assignment). Avoiding culturally insulated travel
Back in the States, I started writing for The Asia Record, a San Francisco-area newspaper dedicated to Southeast Asian affairs in the wake of the US-Vietnam War and fall of Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos. I also enrolled in a master's program at the University of California at Berkeley, where I wrote a thesis on tourism as seen through the eyes of communist insurgencies in Thailand and Malaysia. One day in late 1980, I sat down, fed a blue aerogram into my electric typewriter, wrote out a proposal for a "Lonely Planet Thailand" guide, and mailed it directly to Tony Wheeler. Within a few weeks, Tony wrote back and said that coincidentally he was looking for someone to do a guide on Thailand, and since LP was expanding, he didn't have time to do one himself.   At his request, I sent him a writing sample that followed the Sri Lanka guide template and focused on Ko Sichang, an island off the coast of Sri Racha that I'd visited several times while living in Bangkok in the late '70s. As far as I knew, no one had ever published anything about the island in English before.   Tony's second response came quickly, offering $9,000 to create the first edition of Thailand -- a travel survival kit. I had to pay my own air fare and expenses, but as it turned out I simultaneously received a paid fellowship from Berkeley to carry out field studies, so I rolled the two projects into one trip during the spring of 1981.   I hit the ground running. It was an exciting moment for me, since the book I was researching would become the first English-language guide devoted entirely to Thailand since "Guide to Bangkok with Notes on Siam," published by the State Railway of Siam in 1928. Although there were a couple of French and German guides, they were very much geared towards hiring your own car and driver and staying in first-class hotels along the way, much like Fodor's and other mainstream guides. Continues at
https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/joe-cummings-lonely-planet-thailand/index.html

Yes.  100% agree.  
And traffic fatalities do not overwhelm the health care system or endanger the lives of health care workers.
Boggles the mind that after all this time some people are still saying there's nothing special about a highly contagious disease with serious health consequences.

As my business is now closed already for 6 weeks due to Covid-19, I am getting bored and take some time to write a report about my latest trip to LOS.
During winter, some take a shortski for a long weekend. I don’t like that, so I have booked a 5 day 4 nights trip to Bangkok at the end of January: leaving on Thursday evening after office hours, taking an overnight flight to BKK arriving on Friday afternoon and leaving Tuesday morning and be home on Tuesday evening. Back in the office on Wednesday morning, only missing 3 work days.
As I only have a direct flight with Thai leaving at noon and arriving at 6 AM in BKK, I had to take a connecting flight. Last year, I used Aeroflot through Moscow, but this time Finnair was the cheapest, only 505 EUR.
The day before departure, I got an email from Finnair that my flight was overbooked and offering compensation for voluntary denied boarding. Didn’t react to it, as I was not sure which leg of my flight was overbooked. After my first flight to Helsinki, I got the same email for the second time. Looked at the departures in Helsinki and noticed there was a Finnair flight to Moscow, which would give a nice connection to the Aeroflot flight to BKK I used last year. Arrival difference in BKK was about 3 hours, and I would still have my full first evening. I volunteered, and had to choose between 300 EUR cashback on my credit card or a flight voucher of 500 EUR. Hesitated a bit, but choose the 500 EUR flight voucher valid for 1 year. 3 hours less in BKK, but probably my next trip for free…
Friday evening
As usual, I have booked a suite on the top floor of the Raya Surawong hotel. I really like that hotel and all the boys know it.
It is so sad to see Soi Twilight closed, but I’m up to discovering the new bars. But first, I decide to go to Golden Cock bar. I am lucky and get into some hot action with 3 of the boys. I really like that they are so open to each other. I left happy and gave a nice tip to the 3 boys.
Afterwards, I visited Lucky Boys, which I really like. Even when crowded, it feels like you have enough air to breed, as it has many seats and a very high ceiling. Mamasan from X-boys recognized me immediately. It is really a “supermarket of boys” as so many cute guys are on stage. Had a drink, watched a show, selected a boy and we went back to my hotel room. Boy was from Cambodia, would do everything and kept that promise. Gave him a well deserved tip when saying goodbye and added him on my Facebook. I stayed in bed and had nice dreams…

THere's nothing stopping them from changing anything in the future.  I'm just trying to make the simple point that there might be a simple explanation on why they did what they did.

Yes. Death accident is not contagious. Covid-19 is. And we have seen much wealthier countries with much better healthcare being overwhelm by covid-19 and death counts were in ten of thousands because they didnt shut down their economy early enough. Thailand death toll is low because they of this, and they will continue to do all they can to avoid being the next USA (used to be italy, and before that, wuhan) 

Oh, Pete, you can try to can cherry pick statistics and manipulate facts but you can't hide your intentions. You and others here have used the "per 100,000" or "per million" representations of infections and death rates before because they present a comparable and standardized comparison between countries. And in fact, the UK has twice the death rate per million as the US. I think that's very sad but nonetheless true.
And you conveniently ignore that the US began sending aid to Britain before Pearl Harbor in the form of destroyer naval vessels and aircraft. And you completely forget that American merchant vessels were carrying supplies to the UK before Pearl and the losses they sustained were horrific. And that civilian pilots from the US were flying British fighters alongside your countrymen before Pearl.
NATO was  designed to provide a shared cost of defending much of Europe and North America with a potent defense against future Russian--or other--intervention. Over time, however, European nations began cutting back on military spending and the burden fell inevitably on the US. We can argue the pros and cons of NATO in the 21st century but unfortunately there no substitute for it ready to roll out. And there are none on the drawing boards. We're all stuck with it. As to whether or not the US will make good on its commitment, I agree there are no iron clad guarantees but you have to admit it has a pretty good track record in such matters. And who else can you turn to except the two powers you mostly distrust (Russia and China)?
And you're right, of course about China eyeing just about every nation south of its borders as potential expansion territory. If the US didn't cooperate with some other SE Asian countries and nations, who can provide a creditable moment of pause?
On the whole, America has been a very good friend to Europe before and after WWII. It didn't forget it's allies--and enemies--in post war Europe. The Marshall Plan provided great aid in helping the region get back on its feet.
Just as others are proud to be citizens of their homeland at this moment in time, I don't shrink away from being proud to be an American. The current administration won't rule forever. I
 

I know of one academic at Chula who will disagree with the suggestion that Thailand danced to the U.S.'s tune, with the suggestion of vassalage or client-state status.  Particularly in its (Thailand's) own backyard.  The royalists -- and this doesn't mean the monarchy, it means the conservative military and -adjacent parties, including the Democrats -- played their own "Great Game" and have pivoted and played various sides off against each other since the Colonial Era - and are the only ones to survive in the region.  Now we are seeing exactly the same thing play out - but this time a flip of sorts back to China, led by the military junta which one might otherwise expect to be fist-and-glove (as it were) with the U.S.
Thailand profited immensely by the Western boycott of Myanmar, and chaos and lack of development in Cambodia and Laos served Thailand's interests as well.  Horrible as that may be.
And lets not forget that model of Angkor Wat in the Grand Palace.  Says something ........
(By the way, her name is Wasana Wongsurawat)

I think that for the most part in the M-T-L-C-V countries, the governments don't stand in the "take care" position with the people.  Thaksin Shinawatra certainly took steps in that direction in Thailand (for his own reasons), but the conservative/royalist/military/bloc seems to have accepted those steps only begrudgingly (witness the current junta's shitty first steps towards universal income payments to help ease the COVID-19 crisis, finding only 9 million people eligible).  I think there was a headline where some government agency was boasting it had created 300 jobs for people displaced by COVID-19.  Big f***ing whoop.
What these countries do have are the underlying social structures that have been in place long before the rise and fall of "mere" governments: the family, the village (or local communities) and the temple.   (I'm less confident of this start as far as VN is concerned, because I think perhaps during the more oppressive communist years there may have been more damage to these sorts of undergoing structures.)  Sometimes people here question the idea of the guys sending so much of their earnings home to "mom", but the flip side is that there is a home for them to go to and, out in the countryside, plenty of food.  Temples are arranging food distribution - and in the non-urban areas temples have always played that role with the "excess" daily offerings.
Also, in Bangkok and I read Pattaya, bars and NGOs are stepping up.  SWING Foundation in Bangkok has been providing food and supplies and has stayed open to provide medical services to the gay/trans "service worker" (sex worker) community.  Patpong Museum has been helping out also, but I assume their focus is the bar girls.  COVID Thailand Aid - I've posted about them before - is providing food and supplies to the elderly and at risk community in the Khlong Toey slums and more recently throughout much of Thailand.  Another organization based in Klong Toey that has been stepping up is the marvelous Duang Prateep Foundation.  I am sure all through would welcome donations.  
So, for the most part,  I don't expect the government to do much.  But I think the local people in the community will make the difference.  
On a side note, the guys I worry about are the guys who for one reason or another, don't have a family situation where they can go back home, and have stayed in BKK.