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vinapu

Third time lucky - December 2021 trip to Thailand in covid time

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10 hours ago, vinapu said:

You build it and they will come. 

Thailand is good at building large railway stations, with the size of the building far exceeding what is required.   Obvious earlier examples include Makkasan and the elevated monstrosity in Khon Kaen.

If the investment in stations were matched by a punctual high speed rail service, they might just start to get some passengers through these facilities. 

The main objective seems to be the construction, rather than providing efficient transport.  

 

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1 hour ago, z909 said:

Thailand is good at building large railway stations, with the size of the building far exceeding what is required.   Obvious earlier examples include Makkasan and the elevated monstrosity in Khon Kaen.

If the investment in stations were matched by a punctual high speed rail service, they might just start to get some passengers through these facilities. 

The main objective seems to be the construction, rather than providing efficient transport.  

 

More backhanders in construction, I assume?

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20 hours ago, z909 said:

Thailand is good at building large railway stations, with the size of the building far exceeding what is required.   Obvious earlier examples include Makkasan and the elevated monstrosity in Khon Kaen.

 

I'd add Bang Bamru suburban station with 17 urinals, more then in United Nations building, 2 urinals for each passing long distance train. Now bit better used with new SRT line so perhaps that was original idea. 

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On 12/11/2021 at 6:33 AM, vinapu said:

apps I must say it was a bit shocking when after installing Grindr messages and pictures started coming immediately to a degree that at one point I just stop even looking at them. Whether what was, presented was of any interest is another question but certainly traffic is ther

No wonder when bars are closed and almost no tourists are coming bar boys and freelancers have no choice but trying desperately to find customers at the apps.

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Oh lucky you-krap khun much and hope it will all be even more pleasant along the balmy sea overthere.

You were apparently just too late to take profit of the free introductory time for the 2 red lines by SRT. There are also many more wats with a boat-shaped building in-even 1 south along New Road coming from Silom. I guess there might even be another red line stop along or just above the old train stop-it certainly was under construction.

Re bus-stations (satanee); Ekamai is due to be demolished soon by now-a new one is to go up much further along the BTS close to motorway-or maybe it goes to somewhere near Swampy airport. SaiTai-new is in fact as such quite a pleasant and well-organised bulding, more a shopping centre, but its way out in the sticks. The new red line nr 2 also does not come near.

Agree with your impression of Swiss-have also used it quite a few times untill coming back the day covid struck last year. They used to have 2 flites/day, the other operated and code-share with THAI.

Keep us informed (well, you will) and hope you can stay a long time!

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On 12/8/2021 at 2:27 AM, numazu said:

I have completely written off Thailand for at least this holiday season.

Poor Burboy, brokenhearted again.  And the rest of us don’t get to read your wonderful trip reports. Also brokenhearted.

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On 12/5/2021 at 1:18 PM, vinapu said:

 

As for your question,, why now,,? It was mainly to act on old Lenin's question: "if not us, then who?, if not now then when"? 

 

 

Lenin?!  Aaaaaargh!  Nooooooo!

Although this saying has been made popular by several political figures such as Ronald Reagan and John F. Kennedy, its origins lie in Hillel the Elder, a Jewish leader, who stated, ''If I am not for myself, who will be for me? And being for my own self, what am I? And if not now, when?''. This quote has been used over the years in slightly different verbiage by several different people.”   

 

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11 hours ago, faranglaw said:

Lenin?!  Aaaaaargh!  Nooooooo!

......its origins lie in Hillel the Elder, a Jewish leader, who stated, ''If I am not for myself, who will be for me? And being for my own self, what am I? And if not now, when?''.

 

I didn' t know he frequented Patpong, that's bit of surprise but I guess, one never knows. 

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5 hours ago, vinapu said:

almost impossible to get an eye contact with any of boys

I am surprised by the behavior of the boys.  With so few farang currently present I would have thought they would be trying their best to entice an off or at least a drink and a tip.  Apparently not. 

Here we are, concerned about the bars reopening.  It never would have occurred to me that the boys would show such little interest.  If the bars reopen and customers find that kind of attitude from the boys, then why bother to reopen at all?  If I had gone to a bar and was treated like that, it would be a hell of a long time before I'd be a customer there again. 

If I were the owner of a bar with boys behaving like that, I would be furious.  Entertaining and attracting customers - that's their job.  They're not supposed to be there to goof around by themselves and virtually ignore customers.

The bar owners better wake up and figure out that it is going to take much more than simply reopening to attract a profitable customer base.  They better have a little chat with the boys and make sure of an attitude change - like right now.

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27 minutes ago, Gaybutton said:

If I had gone to a bar and was treated like that, it would be a hell of a long time before I'd be a customer there again. 

That's exactly how I intend to respond.   For the first time in several years, they had one boy who might even have been of interest to me, but he was more interested in sitting down and playing with his phone. 

The only positive thing I can report is the bar has a portrait of "Charlie" above the stage.  If I'm not mistaken, that's "Jomtien", a former moderator of Gay Thailand, who passed away a few years ago.

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1 hour ago, z909 said:

If I'm not mistaken, that's "Jomtien", a former moderator of Gay Thailand, who passed away a few years ago.

You are not mistaken.  Charlie was a nice guy, but unfortunately a very heavy drinker, which eventually had the unsurprising effect.  Most nights he could be found at the Yaya bar after the Kaos bar went out of business.  Charlie did have a Thai boyfriend, I believe a Chiang Mai native if I remember correctly.  I have no idea what became of him after Charlie's death.  He disappeared from Pattaya.  He most likely ended up back on the rice farm.

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Jomtien Complex was open last night and Boyztown closed. A Boyztown staff member was at Jomtien Complex and said Boyztown would be open tonight, Christmas eve. The reasons for the closures vary from the new police boss visiting to someone calling and warning the bar owners that the police were on there way so the bars all closed. The Complex restaurants all remained open.

The straight bars near the Jomtien Complex have all been open with no recent closures and not much in the way of Covid precautions being observed. It would be good to know the real reason for the closures of the Complex and Boyztown on alternate nights but it usually has something to do with the tea fund needing a top up.

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8 minutes ago, aussie_ said:

It would be good to know the real reason for the closures of the Complex and Boyztown

I think most of us already know the real reason - and you got it right . . .

In case nobody noticed, as far as I know not a single case of Covid, including the Omicron variant, has occurred due to any of the restaurants, bars, or even bars pretending to be restaurants being open.  So, if the current governmental policies remain in place and the police are busy closing down venues, what exactly are they protecting us from?

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