PeterRS

I am as sure as I can be that you are correct. We also need to remember that many diseases - minor as well as major - are jumping the species barrier. HIV is known to have crossed from a species of chimpanzee to humans in The Congo in the 1920s. SARS in 2003 is known to have crossed from the animal population in China's Guangdong Province to humans. Although the first known cases were discovered in Hong Kong, it is known that a visitor from Guangdong had brought the virus from China where there may well have been earlier cases which the local medical community could not diagnose. MERS in 2015 was another. Now we have covid, another crossover. Part of the problem is that in some parts of the world humans live in very close contacts with animals - sometimes with animals at ground level and humans living above. The emergence of SARS amazed the medical community. Previous coronavirus infections were generally mild with a long incubation period. SARS was an illustration of what veterinary scientists had been suggesting for some time: that there was the potential for these viruses to kill animals and even humans in close proximity to them. What is perhaps surprising is that the incubation period for SARS averaged only 6.4 days and death in untreated patients followed relatively quickly, much faster than with most Covid cases. The only certainty is that more similar but still unknown viruses will appear.

Agreed. But you clearly know precious little about the Chinese authorities when its President has decreed a zero covid policy. Anyone who breaks the rules re covid stands to lose more than his/her job!

You obviously may do as you wish - as do I. My information is not third hand. It was information directly over the phone from a man I have known and trusted for almost 30 years. I know who I believe. You have also merely repeated what i stated - that there are Chinese students in Bangkok, as indeed there are some Chinese workers.

With all respect to @vinapu I somehow doubt how accurate your off was, unless he already studied or worked here. Chinese is a term that covers those who live in China and the vast majority that make up the huge Chinese diaspora. Did he ask if they were Chinese from China? Did he ask if perhaps they were Chinese living in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, The Philippines, Hong Kong, Sydney, Melbourne, Vancouver, Toronto, San Francisco . . . Was his English good enough to know if they did not tell him? China has been very strict re outbound travel since a directive issued on 27 January 2020. That directive was reiterated on 30 March 2022. Further, since 6 August 2021, China has ceased issuing and renewing passports other than for those studying or working overseas. Essential outbound travel is permitted provided the authorities are satisfied on the "essential" elements. All other outbound travel is banned. One of my good friends and his partner live in Shanghai. One is American who has lived in the city with his Chinese partner for almost 30 years. The Chinese is a successful businessman running several companies. Yet even he has been unable to satisfy the authorities that the business trips overseas he used to make fall into the "essential" category. So he cannot travel outside the country.

Yes, i agree my earlier comments are perhaps overly critical. I realise, too, that both airlines and airports depend on quite a variety of independent contractors over which they have little direct control. But I still feel that the industry as a whole, while very quick to downsize as the pandemic started to hit, did not do nearly enough to form a task force to work out a whole series of scenarios dealing with how it would get back on its feet depending on how covid progressed and was eventually going to come to an end. There is an article in today's Observer newspaper in London about the chaos in London's airports and many in Europe. It points out that British Airways was quick to cancel about 10% of its schedule back in April to last until October so that it would avoid the worst of the chaos for its customers who made it to airports. Easy Jet, the continent's largest low cost carrier cut very few and is now left with a huge backlog and a vast number of angry passengers. Under UK and European regulations, many of these passengers are entitled to payments for delays and cancellations, leading to Easy Jet in particular trying to get out of such payments. On the other hand, the second very large UK-operated low cost carrier Ryanair has had to cancel no flights over this last month. Ryanair obviously had its crisis management team much more up to speed than other carriers. As worrying for the industry is the possibility of a major downturn in the autumn, partly as a result of general cost increases to make up for the losses of the last two years and especially oil price increases. The boss of Heathrow, one of the world's largest international airports, is quoted in the article as stating it could take 18 months to be fully staffed once again. 18 months? In my book, this man should be fired. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/jun/11/with-six-weeks-to-save-summer-can-easyjet-climb-out-of-the-chaos

I totally disagree. When it comes to medical issues and an infection can be spread to others as easily as covid, individual rights do not take precedence over the right of a community to protection from those who might be infected. I am all for freedoms, but freedoms with responsibility. Too often the second part is totally forgotten! Earlier @reader wrote - "China claims it has vaccinated about 80% of population but did so with a near useless vaccine. The comparisons soon become meaningless." Am I missing something? Chinese are not permitted to travel outside the country as far as I understand it.

So the Biden administration bows to the demand of the airline industry! With 33% of the US population still not fully vaccinated, this seems nuts! If someone wants to go to the USA, in most countries getting vaccinated is not that difficult.

Every company, especially those in the travel industry, has to have planning in place for disaster scenarios and individuals virtually on stand-by to head up a disaster team at a moment's notice. If ever the need for that was illustrated, the arrival of covid was it. Equally, though, over the last two years every company should have had a team working on various recovery scenarios. This would have been far from easy given the need for co-ordination with many divisions within a company as well as government liaison, but far from impossible. Had that been the case, I am pretty sure the new set of disasters presently experienced in the travel industry could have been in large part all but avoided.

It seems not to have been noticed by posters that earlier this week the Thai Cabinet gave its approval to a Same Sex Civil Partnership Bill. https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2322310/same-sex-partnership-bill-gets-nod A Civil Partnership Bill has been discussed in Cabinet over the last 10 years and thing has happened. Clearly there will be lots of hurdles before the Bill can become law. This is especially true given Thai society's conservatism. As Nikkei Asia points out, on the day of the Cabinet decision https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Society/Thailand-s-historic-LGBT-bill-exposes-rifts-inside-community The Nikkei article adds there is a "strong rift" between certain groups within the LGBT community.

I have noticed the same for a much longer time in advance. Qatar's biz fare to one of the UK cities for March next year has dropped to slightly less than I paid for March this year. An earlier query a few weeks ago had showed a 25% increase.

I have a condo on the top floor of an 8 storey building in a residential area of the city. Until I started making life difficult for the management company - which otherwise is actually very good - no one paid any attention to fire. Every time I raised the issue at the owners AGMs, I would be told that all the apartments have smoke detectors (but no sprinklers) and there are fire hoses, extinguishers and emergency lighting on every floor. But the main staircase is completely open all the way up the building. There are stairs at the back, but everyone just left those doors open, especially the cleaning staff. It took me 3 years not only to persuade everyone, management and some tenants, that these had to be kept closed and there had to be Fire Exit notices in red on each. Only after I said I would pay for the latter myself were they finally put up. Then there is the issue of fire drills. Again it took about 3 years but the management did organise an excellent demonstration by the fire department of what to do in case of a fire and how to use the fire equipment. 9 out of 50 owners/tenants turned up. But the twice a year fire drills I have consistently sought have never happened. Nor do we know where the evacuation assembly area is. A majority of the residents here are Thai. It is perfectly obvious they have not the faintest concern about fire. And I expect this is true of much of Thai society, alas. I have always had my own extinguisher from HomePro in my apartment and I expect it should not be difficult for fires in individual apartments to be contained within the units at least to enable everyone else to get out of the building - assuming the fire alarms continue to work!

This has been discussed in other threads over the years. The possibility of an evening fire in DJ Station or anywhere else in that soi with its extremely narrow entrance is a disaster just waiting to happen. Why the fire department is not more strict re emergency exits etc. beats me. Remember the Santika nightclub fire in 2009? Emergency exits again closed or blocked. 67 died in that fire.

I'm happy that I seem to be wrong in my earlier assessment, although my concerns about the conservativeness of Thai society in general and the unspoken ' harassment' of the majority of young professional gay guys continues unabated. Although stating the obvious, Bangkok is not New York in the 1980s or Sydney in the 2000s if only because the three societies are vastly different and at different stages in social development. Hopefully it will get there. Nothing that I have seen mentions numbers who attended. Anyone able to hazard a guess?

I don't want to put too much of a damper on what happened yesterday. At least it was a larger March than last year's - and that had been the first for more than around 15 years. I did not go but a Thai friend of my partner went. He said he found it rather depressing. Apparently there was some kind of marching band which did nothing when marching and only played very occasionally when it stopped. He reckoned about 50% of the participants were sex workers. Watchers enjoyed the drag guys but he said there were very few ordinary Thai guys in the Parade, unlike in Taipei where the vast majority of the 200,000 or so who now turn up each year are just ordinary guys, girls and some families dressed casually. Of course, many are dressing up in hugely colourful costumes and there are floats from some of the gay bars. When I was last there in 2018 there was even one from Destination, Beijing's gayest night club. But they are very much in a tiny minority. As has been discussed before, even in this day and age in much of Thailand and especially amongst the middle class the stigma of being a gay can have quite serious consequences at work. Consequently far too many are stuck in the closet and would never consider coming out to take part in any Pride parade. We may not like this - indeed, we may condemn it - but it is fact and there is nothing we are able to do about it. Sadly, a Parade like yesterday's with many in colourful drag outfits, lipstick and all the other drag trappings only reinforces the views of the majority.

Re Japan and the host boy bars, it might be useful to new members for me to repost information about them. This is one chain that can be found in many of Japan's cities, including Kyoto. There are two in Tokyo. As you can see, there is a lot of detail about the boys, what they will do (the icons tell you if he will top or bottom or both), whether he will accept a drink (alcohol) and if he has been in a gay porno movie. Another part of the site will say precisely when they are available. All can be booked in advance even before your arrival in Japan. The price list shows that the service is not cheap. On the other hand with the Japanese Yen now low against the US$, a one hour session in your hotel room is around US$100. I am told most customers have the boys go to their hotel rooms rather than use a room on the premises. This is fractionally cheaper. With Tokyo's horrendous traffic, don't worry about his being late. He will arrive exactly at the appointed time, if not a little beforehand. And the session will last exactly for the time you pay for. From most reports I have seen on line and heard from individuals, almost all the boys deliver exactly what you want and give you the feeling they are enjoying their time with you. Absolutely no tipping! http://lang.dgdgdg.com/top.php It's unlikely anyone will be visiting Japan in the near future as it has just opened its borders to group tour visitors. No one knows yet when solo tourists will be permitted entry or under what conditions. Hopefully by some time in the autumn (which is when I want to return!) As for saunas, as mentioned '24' in Shinjuku ni-chome is a great sauna. Usually there will be quite a wide age range with a largish number of students from nearby universities. The '24' in Ueno is about a 15 minute walk from Ueno station and really quite easy to find. Slightly more working class lads there but still worth a visit. In both you just have to get used to having sex more or less in the open spaces (very dark) unless you pay extra for a private room. From my own occasional observations, I have not noticed any particular reluctance for Japanese there to bottom. Indeed, one of the most amazing experiences I had in 24 Shinjuku was on a Saturday afternoon with a guy who was married with 2 kids. He was insatiable! He said he went every Saturday afternoon and the whole point was to get f---ed to the point of exhaustion!

'Mature' in this case means 70 and over! There are various other groups who qualify such as business/first class passengers on most airlines (but not all and you'll probably need a card given out on board to qualify,) APEC Business Travel card holders etc.

This is one issue that the airlines have brought on themselves. First by encouraging passengers to take carry-on baggage rather than pay for luggage in the cargo hold, and second by not policing passengers to ensure that the number of carry-on bags is not more than permitted by the conditions of the ticket. When I was working full time in the Asian regional offices of three international companies, I had to travel each year to several company offices. The least expensive way to do this was usually with a round-the-world ticket. Not only did these have the perk of several more flight sectors than I needed (up to 16 until around 2004 when it was reduced to 14 on OneWorld) - thereby permitting several short vacation side-trips at almost no cost, as I was allowed biz class travel the tickets were automatically upgraded to first class within the USA if, as was usually the case, there was no biz class on the plane. Not that first class was anything like a first class in most other areas of the world - in fact, space-wise not even on a par with premium economy nowadays. But it did permit much faster check-in, lounge access and free drinks on board. What always annoyed me was that some passengers who boarded the aircraft first would plonk their bags in the overhead bin at the front before moving down to their seats at the back. So first class bins were often full by the time premium passengers boarded. Only very occasionally would flight attendants stop this. Since these days, I have found that only Easyjet in Europe has been very strict on carry-on bags and bag dimensions (haven't flown Ryanair and so have no comparison). In Asia, though, despite often stringent regulations on carry ons, I have never once seen any airline staff stop passengers who take on board more bags then permitted. And like @Olddaddy's experience, it is frequently Indian passengers who bring a very large number of shopping bags on board. I don't really blame the passengers. If an airline has rules and 99 times out of 100 fails to enforce them, then its staff are to blame. Last point on air rage. I have written several times to the so-called legacy carriers in Asia requesting that boarding passengers who have large backpacks be forced to hand carry them on to the plane. Twice I have been hit on the head when in an aisle seat and a late boarding passenger has suddenly turned around resulting in my getting hit on the head by the backpack. Fortunately I wear spectacles. If I did not, on one occasion the loose end of a thick strap that hit the spectacles could have badly damaged my eye. But writing is clearly a waste of time for I still see flight attendants happily accepting passengers wearing large backpacks.

Emirates has finally started to introduce a new Premium Economy Cabin on its A380 fleet. Dubai to/from London, Paris and Sydney will be the first cities served. From the website, it looks like it is located at the front of the lower deck. First row should therefore offer extra space. https://www.emirates.com/th/english/experience/cabin-features/premium-economy-class/

Continuing on this slight side-track, surely the airlines and the airports are primarily responsible for the much longer delays, with immigration authorities not far behind? To a certain extent it is understandable. When covid really started to hit, passenger traffic collapsed almost completely. A huge number of staff were laid off to avoid bankruptcies - although quite a few airlines did go under. The major resurgence in travel has taken most in the travel industry by surprise. We can complain that they should have had better planning in place for all eventualities and getting staff quickly back to work, but that's not going to help with the existing long queues, delays, over-bookings and cancellations. I guess those of us in Asia are in a slightly better situation. In the meantime, those in the west have little choice but grin and bear it.

I last chatted with him about 4 months ago. Sadly for him, he's still single, although he now has a group of close Chinese friends. He always tells me there is a dearth of foreigners in Taiwan and he is now at an age when any who might be available will be looking for someone younger. So I am certain he's just given up. It's a real pity since he is such a nice guy and could make someone really happy.

How did you guess? LOL Seriously, though, I don't think the young guys I have been lucky enough to meet up with have been attracted only by photos - although if I had photos which made me look like the face of a camel I might have had a problem. There just seem to be some guys in some of the cities I listed whose only interest is in hooking up with older farang. For them this is certainly not so easy when living in Tokyo, Taipei and Danang, and no doubt quite a few other places. A former bf of 5 years who lives in Taipei and with whom I get together for brunch whenever I visit is always complaining that he is unable to find a suitable older westerner. He's now in his early 40s, is still good looking, very fit and in a good job - plus he has another asset I need not describe here! Just as an aside, he (I'll call him Feng) told me a funny but true story. He thought he had found Mr. Right, an Englishman in his late 50s who worked in Taipei. Unfortunately Feng loved life and really enjoyed going out to concerts, movies, museums, occasionally a disco etc. but his English bf only wanted to crash when he returned from work and watch television or videos. Even so, Feng enjoyed being with him. After about 18 months together, though, Feng decided he should liven up his sex life by finding a friend with benefits. Quite unusually for him as he had only ever been with westerners, he found a slightly younger Taiwanese guy whom he'd meet roughly once a week. This continued for about a year after which Feng decided to break it off. Some weeks later, cuddling at home with the English guy, they heard the doorbell. The English guy answered the door. It turned out to be the Chinese guy who'd come looking for Feng. Very stupidly Feng had at one time given him his address but not told him he already had a bf. All this came out as the three of them were having drinks. Learning of the reality of the situation, the Chinese boy left. The English guy seemed to take it all in his stride and did not make any fuss. A few weeks later Feng returned from work. He went straight to the bedroom to get out of his clothes and take a shower. As he opened the door, there in bed together were the English bf and his Taiwan FWB! He gave up his bf days later.

My days in the bars and with money boys ended quite some time ago. I therefore have no interest in what going rates are. That said, I have nothing whatever against money boys. They provide a service and are making a living. Good on them, especially if the service is great. However, being based in Bangkok I notice that there are so many boys available on the apps who are not money boys and whose only interest is in a good time with some good sex. Bangkok being a large city, most will ask for transport if they are coming from reasonably far away, but few request taxis. Sometimes a nice dinner is accepted, but far from always Having a partner, I don't take them up on offers. But my partner knows that I do meet up with guys when i travel, but again not money boys. In Tokyo, Taipei, KL, Singapore and more recently in Danang there always seem to be plenty of boys looking for an older farang. On my last trip to Singapore I was merely lying on my bed after a rather heavy lunch when a young student clicked on me. Turned out he was virtually passing the front door of the hotel. Well, what was I supposed to do? I had a good time. I fully realise that non commercial guys are not always available when a visiting tourist wants to hook up. Many are students or young guys with jobs. So outside of Thailand I do not expect hook ups till early evening. So far I have rarely been disappointed.

The new "social order" has been promulgated for at least a couple of years. The government no longer wants cheap tourism. It's after the big spenders. So it has made it easier to park your private jet in Phuket! 🤣

We can blame the first Thaksin government and his homophobic Interior Minister Purachai for early closing times. Before their Social Order campaigns in the early 2000s, bars and clubs stayed open virtually as long as there were customers. Purachai imposed mostly 1:00 am closing times. Even the hugely respected GM of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Kurt Wachtveitl, told the New York Times this would be a major setback for Thai tourism.

Unquestionably. And it was not Nixon or US administrations that created that change. It was the twice rehabilitated Deng Xiao-ping and his vision for a new China. Sadly Tiananmen Square in June 1989 remains one blot on his record. But even a detailed analysis of that disaster illustrates how he was increasingly hemmed in by the old guard which felt his reforms were not in accord with Mao's revolution and which had got rid of the reformers Deng had earlier placed in top positions. Thereafter, Deng's power was significantly reduced. The real question for Thailand and the huge investments it made in recent years to cope with the huge - and largely surprising - uptick in Chinese tourism is will the Chinese return in the same numbers. Tourism in this country seems to go in cycles. First the westerners, then the Russians. If the Chinese cannot be attracted back in the same numbers as in 2019, who will take their place? Indians?