PeterRS

None of my Thai friends ever go near the tourist commercial sex venues. When they go out they meet in bars which are devoted almost exclusively to Thais. Many cater to a mixed crowd but will have a specific gay section. There is also a vastly larger thriving commercial sex scene around the country which tourists and local farang never get near.

The reason most farang do not speak Thai is laziness. I know - I am one of them (although I do speak a little). If tones are the problem, why is it that many foreigners living in Hong Kong and the south of China can master the 9 tones required in Cantonese, or those living in the north the 4 tones in Mandarin? The same is true for grammar. Why should it be any more difficult for a foreigner learning Thai than an Englishman learning German? The grammar is not very similar.

Whatever happened about Anwar Ibrahim becoming Prime Minster as explicitly promised by Mahatir?

There is a reason for that. All have English as one of the official languages. I know some young Vietnamese whose English is vastly better than many of the Thais I have met. I read somewhere of a poster who happened to meet a middle-aged African American lady who had been hired through the American Embassy to teach English. Problem was her southern accent was so pronounced the poster had difficulty understanding her. How Thai kids would know what she was saying I have no idea! The problem with inviting teachers to come to Thailand is the Education Ministry seems to have pretty wide guidelines and leaves selection up to Embassies or other third parties. Some will be good. A lot will be average and many end up complaining about the heat and their conditions of employment.

I must be going blind! Really sorry but I cannot find any way of accessing special Msrriott Hua Hin 999 baht rates on that page. Only the Marriott Marquis in Bangkok. There are lots of other links to other offers but I must be missing something. On other sites there are staycation rates at 50% off but that is still well over 2000 baht.

Can I ask how you booked this rate? I cannot see it on the Marriott's own site.

Private hospitals are closer to empty than full. I was at the Bumrumgrad pharmacy about 2 weeks ago. Hardly any patients waiting for medicine. That particular hospital depends for much of its income on middle east travellers. Not one to be seen. Not surprisingly, Bumrungrad has reduced its private room charges by 40% and other services by smaller amounts. BNH also seems to have less foreign patients. A Thai friend was recently at the huge Ramathibodi public hospital. he said it was like a station at rush hour!

I wonder how true this really is. Daily I hear news reports that it is no longer a case of minimal risk for those under 50. This seems to be an illness with lingering side effects that can go on for months. And some specialists are now saying it is basically a disease that attacks the blood vessels rather than primarily the lungs. Whatever its effect on greater numbers of young people, we will presumably find out soon enough as thousands of US students have now contracted the virus thanks to the policy of opening up places of education.

Something odd seems to be happening on the inbound tourism situation. Apart from the talk of opening Phuket in October but with quarantine and the possibility thereafter of travelling to other parts of the country after a 3rd week of quarantine (none of this yet finally confirmed), I am surprised at a new TAT TV commercial being shown regularly on many of the True Visions TV channels, including CNN. Apart from making Thailand seem alluring, it stresses the fact it is safe. This campaign seems to be addressed to possible overseas visitors rather than local travellers. Then this morning I got an email from Qatar Airlines advising they have now resumed 10 flights a week from Bangkok. Only one-way tickets are offered at reasonable prices. In September flights to London are 10315 baht economy and 36470 biz class. I have no idea what has prompted these actions unless there is a possible opening up in the works sooner rather than later. But that is purely my read.

Agree with Michael and Anddy. A lot of people still wearing masks but many less than before, except on Skytrain, MRT and taxis, Thai Channa app rarely used. Only temperature checks seem the norm.

I have read a number of scientific papers over recent years about SARS. The American Journal of Biomedical Science and Research stated this https://biomedgrid.com/pdf/AJBSR.MS.ID.001017.pdf With SARS the world got lucky for two reasons. The period between infection and showing signs of symptoms was as early as 2 days. Then SARS was only transmitted once an infected person started to show symptoms. Testing and tracing was far easier than with covid19. Sorry I cannot speak for the other viruses you listed. Most studies state clearly that early and accurate transmission of information between health authorities is vital in countering new viruses. With covid19 that has been lacking from the get go. The Chinese authorities are definitely in the wrong. The WHO were slow off the ball. Governments and health authorities around the world were equally slow off the ball. We should not forget the first known identified case outside China was discovered in Thailand on 13 January. Despite CDC alerts between January 6 and 8 about the danger of travel to and from China, general travel from China to the US was banned only on February 2 but with a large number of exceptions. Italy also confirmed the first European cases at the end of January and banned air travel from China at the same time. By then this virus was well and truly out of control. Vietnam, Taiwan and Hong Kong were hard hit by SARS. Hong Kong has also had waves of various waves of swine flu. In these cases governments acted fast and set up departments to deal with future health emergencies. Taiwan has only had one small wave, Vietnam now two and Hong Kong three. But total numbers remain tiny compared to most other countries. At some future time I hope a lot of people around the world are going to be held accountable for the huge death toll and the coming economic catastrophes.

That is some jigsaw puzzle! But it may not even be that simple. I spoke to an Elite Visa holder presently stuck in London. He was not sure if he wished to return and only decided yesterday that he was prepared to go through all those hoops. So he went to the Thai Embassy to check on flights since he can only return on a designated repatriation flight allocated by Embassies. He was informed the earliest flight he and his partner can get on is in March 2021. He told me there is a waiting list of 1117 and they are #118 I. That is way less than one flight per month. I asked him to check on other European departure cities. Vienna and Frankfurt have shorter lists but you are only permitted to travel from the country where you have your official residence. But with so many on waiting lists I cannot imagine why they do not add extra flights. I can only assume there are insufficient rooms available in ASQ hotels. My friend added that the Embassy is happy to arrange arrival details for those travelling by private planes!

I thank everyone for their comments. Let me please set the record straight. 1. Even in this time of covid19, I am one of the fortunate ones. I am healthy and I am able to work part-time for about 4 hours each day. 2. I have a Thai partner. We enjoy being together and spending time together. Again I am fortunate in that I am here and he is here. I am sorry for all who have freinds and boyfriends here who are stuck overseas through no fault of their own. When I met my boyfriend on the Blued app he had never been in any gay establishment in Bangkok. He lived on the outskirts of the city, comes from near Chiang Rai and has a busy job with a company providing translation services. 3. If you had wanted a summary of gay bars 5 years ago I would happily be submitting long reports. The last time I was in Soi Twilight was a few nights before DIck's closed. I believe that was two years ago. A few friends and I met for one last dinner for old times sake. We then moved over to Hotmale 2, one of the host bars near the entrance to the soi for a couple of drinks and to people watch although there were not any people that night. I have not been in a gogo bar in that soi for about 4 years. 4. I have not been in Silom Soi 4 for more than 2 years. 5. When I used to go to Soi Twilight I would cut through Patpong 2 to get a taxi on Silom to avoid the rip off drivers. I have not been in the Patpong area since bars started moving there. I am sorry I cannot provide the reports that some posters want. One sad note for those who enjoy fine dining at a medium price. La Table de Tee, the little French nouvelle cuisine style reastaurant in a dead end alley off Saladaeng and a favourite of many is a casualty of the virus. It will not reopen.

I have no idea what you are talking about. I visit the Silom area about once a fortnight for coffee with friends at Silomm Complex and to visit the supermarket. I have not been to Silom in the evenings for a very long time, certainly more than two years. As for Suriwong, I was again there only once a few weeks ago to visit a friend staying at the Marriott Hotel. But that was for breakfast and the hotel is a long way from the bar area. As for Patpong, I have not been near there for years. So since any information I post would be very much out of date perhaps you can advise me what I can post that will be a craze for you. I cannot think of anything unless you want information on traffic conditions and the weather. On that front, the traffic has returned to being bad and the weather is rain in the afternoon or evening on many days. But since that will not be what interests you and the others who craze I will cease posting and stick to photographs as long as stocks last.

I do not ENJOY anything of the sort. I believe in being practical in the light of the dreadful situation the entire world finds itself in. For those not in Thailand who wish to visit, I very much regret that they are unable to do so. But facing facts is far better than hoped for speculation. I do not go out to bars as I have a partner. So what do you want me to do? Make up a story? Like all posters I comment on posts or comments in posts that i wish to. I saw no point in commenting on the earlier poll. I do not need you to tell me what I should comment on.

10,195 respondents across 17 countries does not seem to me like a viable survey. Without further information we can only conclude that about 600 Thais were polled. So ir it the 82% of all Thais who are confident that the country is ready for tourism or just 82% of the 600? We need to know a lot more about those polled before any conclusion can be drawn.

I agree on both points. But that raises a question (at least one): if you ensure that one party remains in power for 55 years with virtually no end in sight, no matter how good or qualified to how much success it has achieved, is that democracy? On the other hand, if every country had saunas filled with handsome young naked men as in Singapore. Id say democracy works Yet the political system votes them into office. Is the system itself therefore broken? If so, why does the electorate not do something to change it? I know. There is no real answer. If the USA plods on with just two main parties at war with each other and no one gives a damn about changing the system, what hope is there for real democracy in the west of the world.

But that is democracy at work. The fact is it doesnt work because in some countries (many countries?) the wrong people often rise to the top. Many then do their utmost to stay there. Since Word War 2 the prime example in Asia has almost always been The Philippines (a legacy of US colonialism but Britain and other colonial powers do not look good). Others are not far behind. To say that democracy thrives in Japan is some sort of joke. The CIA backed LDP coalition rose to power after the US occupiers rewrote the constitution and has been in power almost continuously ever since the mid 1950s. Lest we forget, we can also blame the US occupiers for drafting the Criminal Code which includes the prohibition of pictorial references to genitalia which led to the use of the pixilation so many westerners dislike. In Singapore one party has been in power ever since Independence. Many know the reasons behind Thailands strange form of democracy. There is no need to go on. For those who moan about Trump, Johnson, Bolsinaro, Duterte and their ilk (as I do), how do you propose the system should be changed?

I do suggest that even if quoting from the news media references to a certain family should be edited out prior to posting here.

A friend with the 5 year visa tells me that the 5 year Elite visa inserted into his passport has a validity of 5 years. There is therefore no need to renew the visa/permission to stay annually. That is only required of those on annual retirement visas. He believes the annual multiple reentry permit does need to be renewed and costs 3,900 baht. But if there is an Elite member here he will surely clarify this small issue.

That there is a very good chance all of these flights will be cancelled unless the government lifts the international travel ban. At the rate the virus continues to spread within the USA I cannot see the Thai government permitting any flights from that and many other countries by October. But then, who am I to know? None of us knows.

The amount for a 5 years Elite visa is 500,000 baht. You can stay permanently in Thailand or enter and leave as you please. Unlike the lump sum annual retirement visa, you only need a Thai bank account but with no minimum in it. Each year you are entitled to 24 free one way limousine airport transfers included in the cost. Once a year you have to purchase another multiple reentry permit for 3,900 baht. You do not have to bother with 90 day reporting as you can take your passport to the Elite Visa office on Sathorn and they do it for you. After 5 years you can renew, or take out a 10 year Elite visa for 1 million baht.

I once attended a lecture about the death of Princess Diana given by an elderly lady who purported to have good connections with the British Royal Family. Afterwards I went to ask her a question. When she learned I was living in Bangkok, she sighed, "Ah Thailand. That reminds me of the time in my youth when I used to visit Fookay and had an affair with the Sultan there." Huh?

Surely $3000 equates to over 90,000 baht. I was at Bumrungrad Hospital this morning. There is now a colonoscopy/gastroscopy package for 34,000 baht covering both procedures. They also have a 40% discount on room charges and 15% discount on medicines. The hospital is usually packed with Middle Eastern patients but with none in sight it is clearly suffering financially..

There is a big push on local tourism now. I tried to book a hotel in Hua Hin for early this month and could not get a room in my preferred hotel. Yesterday at a small shopping mall in Bangkok there was a desk offering great rates at seven 4 star and 5 star Anantara Hotels - US$199++ for 3 nights including American breakfast for 2 and airport transfers valid till December 31. But if you booked yesterday, four of these properties had an even better rate of just $99++ for the three nights. Book through agoda and the best price you get for the flagship hotel on Rajadamri is 5500 baht per night. I have heard of other hotel promotions but not checked. I suspect that higher end properties are getting more of the customers but that is a pure guess.