vaughn

I think i would rather stay in Phuket if i was going to do the sandbox thing. Koh Larn is nice for a visit, I enjoyed taking a boy over there with me as well. A week or two on that island alone.. i'll pass.

It is a terrible thing that those with power or wealth are able to remove themselves from blatant wrongdoing so easily, but definitely not anything you won't also frequently see in western democracies or any other nation i can think of. The 'behind closed door' deals with district attorneys offices in the US, and dropping/reduction of charges across most other jurisdictions happens all too frequently, where political protection is used for donations and favor. The gun violence seen to be used across SEA by some of these corrupt Hi-So people is unique though, i remember reading some stories about Cambodia's elite and charges that seem to vanish for them after broad daylight murders over minor disagreements.. it is all pretty alarming.

I try to pack light to leave plenty of room for shopping when i travel, no better place to shop for the climate of your destination than when you're there. That said, I live in a hot humid climate already so my casual clothes don't really change too much between home and holiday. Shorts and tee during the day, shorts or jeans and a short sleeve button down shirt at night.

There are still likely to be a few who have not been able to return, I read somewhere that some of the people stuck in India have been waiting to return for months. The international arrivals cap is determined by each state based on what they can handle in their quarantine hotel capacity. At present i think the overall allowance is about 2500-3000 passengers per week australia-wide, but it was a lot lower for most of last year. We have also had interstate hotel quarantine requirements, which is where i got stuck because i was working in another state when there was a hotspot declared so i had to sit in hotel quarantine for 2 weeks (at my employers cost) just coming home from another city within australia.

There isn't much chance of that, in Aus the police meet the plane at the gate and all passengers are taken to mandatory hotel quarantine for 2 weeks with security guards at the hotel. 14 days and 2 negative tests before you can be released, if you leave your room you are locked out and can't get back in (no key) and you will be charged by the police. I had to do this late last year and the process was pretty locked down to prevent people skipping out of quarantine. We've had a few leaks from the hotel quarantine but that has mostly been from hotel staff, guards or nurses contracting the virus.

End of 2022.... that is really disheartening news to hear, but with how poorly our vaccine rollout is being handled i am not surprised that is the expectation. Yeah the flights are starting in the next few days, if they haven't already. The government coped a lot of negative media coverage and did a 180 on their rhetoric.

My current plan (hope) is to spend the full month of December or alternatively January. This really depends entirely on whether Australia will get vaccines in arms, quarantine both on the Thai end and returning home is reduced to a few days or dropped entirely. I plan to spend my first week or two in Pattaya regardless of the quarantine measures, so if the Pattaya Mail news is what reality looks like at that time i'm fine with that. I'm also curious about how many of the bars will be open with boys back from the neighbouring countries, so trip reports from people with feet on the ground will help sway my decision.

My favourite restaurant from my very limited time in Pattaya is Pupen Seafood South of Jomtien, it has a really big menu with thai, chinese and other styles of seafood. It is on the expensive side but everything i had there was great. https://g.page/pupenseafood?share (google maps link).

I'm probably 95% into guys, and 5% into women. I generally prefer guys who are slim-toned and on the twink-ish side, but i have never been with a ladyboy. I have been considering exploring nana plaza and soi cowboy when i return to bangkok just to test the waters, but it will be hard to pull me away from the allure of the boy bars.. maybe i will find a forum member who is around at the same time to get some backup on that mission haha

I think there is some contractual issues with AstraZeneca that France and Italy are using to keep the vaccines that were destined for Australia, i'm not really sure of the specifics to be honest. Australia are going to be locally producing the Astra vaccine at our own production facilities so i don't think it will significantly impact us, but it might add some delays to our vaccine roll out.

Life in Asutralia is mostly back to normal, with the exception of no intl' travel. Bars are open, and large gatherings and events are starting again. Mardi Gras in Sydney this weekend went ahead, but in a more limited format and a little less of a party vibe. We had a few outbreaks in 2020 where we went into lockdown with travel restricted between states/regions, people mostly followed the rules, and with quarantine for inbound travelers we managed to avoid widespread issues that a lot of other countries had. Our issue is now that countries supplying the vaccine are withholding our supply because we are not in as dire a need, kind of understandable but still a bit frustrating to be penalized for doing things right.

I dream of the day i can complete option 1, but i'll settle for 3 haha. Thanks for the info

One question I have is what will be the requirements for the members only area? Will it be based on approval after X number of posts or is there some other criteria? Thanks for the update.

Yeah it seems like they made some wrong turns from owning an apartment and by the sounds of it living a fairly comfortable life to where they are now. I am curious about what the catalyst was that got them to this point as well, i would usually assume drugs or medical issues but i guess a low pension and living beyond your means for long enough would do it as well. As you don't end up having to deal with two squatters who won't leave.

That is a really bad situation for them, and my greatest fear for when i (hopefully) retire to Thailand in the future. It sounds like a combination of poor money management, some bad luck, and a reluctance to help themselves. They need to find a way to get accommodation in their home country and take up the embassy on their offer before they become homeless, that will turn their situation from terrible to unbearable for the remainder of their life. Under no circumstances should you allow them to stay with you when they are evicted, that call from them is inevitable and will be the most difficult to turn down, but given their refusal to leave the rental it would be a very bad move for you. I hope the situation works out, and you're a kind soul to help them as much as you have.

Interesting video. I already use HA serum in my skin care, i alternate between HA and a vitamin C serum. I was recommended it by a friend who is a dermatologist, i just follow his advice with no knowledge on the science (i trust him not to give me bad advice and ruin my face haha). Even with my simple regime i've noticed really good results, following it morning and night for 6 months so far: 1. cleanse with a good face cleanser, dove sensitive skin soap is a cheap option that works well, 2. a couple of drops of serum on dry skin, I alternate HA and a vitamin C serum for morning. The brand 'The Ordinary' makes great reasonably priced options, 3. moisturize with a light non-oily moisturizer, 4. Sunscreen, this is a must every day to prevent damage from sun and pollutants, something light and non-oily. I like 'La Roche-Posay' because it is anti-shine and non-perfumed. I went down a path of buying the expensive brands for a while, but i honestly didn't see any benefits over the cheaper brands like The Ordinary

That's fair, i agree there are times it can be our own expectations that spoil it for ourselves, or our mood at the time etc. The gamble is really just my outlook towards finding boys and performance. I don't worry too much if there are a few duds, i go into it knowing that there are no gaurentees.

I would say from my experience the second time the service is often better, mostly because i will only repeat if there is chemistry, and there is less time needed to work out what our preferences are in bed so exploring new things becomes easier. That being said, i've had a repeat turn out to be a dud on the second or third encounter a bunch of times. It's always a gamble, you win some you lose some.

I'm sorry to hear the loss of your friend, and a member of the community. Rest in peace Firecat.

There is no timeline set for any return to mass tourism (without hotel quarantine) yet, it is unlikely that individual traveler vaccination status will change that in the short term. The vaccine effectiveness against transmission is still unknown, these vaccines have been developed to prevent severe disease. Until we get health data analysis back from the next few months of vaccine rollout, we will not know the true real world effect on infection and mortality rates for vaccinated populations. When we start to see the results coming back in to public health surveillance networks and risk models have been applied by governments, then it is likely we will start to hear information about timelines for return to tourism. Maybe the vaccines will be extremely effective with plummeting infection and mortality rates. Maybe vaccine effectiveness is moderate and we are stuck with some retention of COVID controls. Maybe we have mutations that lead to vaccine escape variants and we get hit with a whole new world of pain. The good news is we are potentially much closer than we could have ever expected to be at this point in time, i hope we are on the home stretch to getting this under control.

What a difference a year can make. I was in Boyztown and Jomtien last NYE.. admittedly Jomtien still only had about 15-20 customers that i saw at 9pm, but BT was pretty packed and walking street was just chaos. I hope Sunnee holds on long enough for me to finally visit. Thanks for the report z909! Happy new year everyone, hopefully 2021 brings better news for us all to make Bangkok and Patts mission possible again.

I've had money in cryptocurrencies since about 2012, made a few mistakes selling early and re-buying too high. I would be a multi-millionaire if I had of just held on to it all, but hindsight is 20-20 as they say. BTC and XMR are the only two i hold onto now, It's an interesting investment/gamble, but very high risk.

Sweden being in that list is interesting, after i have returned to LOS to confirm this for them, i might need to venture over to Sweden in the future to uhhh investigate these claims :)

I love a good spy novel, added to my reading list! RIP

I do share the same fears, but I try to stay optimistic, with change comes opportunity. we might return to a skeleton of what was once the best location in the world for our interests, but there will be demand and i'm sure lots of tourist money waiting to be spent. When those borders open and tourists can flock back in, there is going to be a mad rush, i predict hotels booked to capacity and prices going pretty high with that initial demand. I wasn't around when Soi Twilight went through it's shutdown, but i assume many of the same fears were around at that time.. some will close, some will move, and in this case some will hold on for dear life until the return of the market.