TMax

Yeah the old departure tax, that was incorporated into the price of the airline ticket a while back, most countries did the same but some still slug you that tax at the airport on the way out

Just going to post the link here as it's a pretty long article but well worth the read. It looks like Sinopharm and Walvax Biotechnology are starting up on the mRNA vaccines now. Nations switch away from Chinese vaccines

Great news, now if only I can be there fir the reopening

Don't know anyone personally but I have friends that have lost family members in both England and the US, some also have family suffering long covid (ongoing health issues after initial infection is cleared). Even though I have now had both shots of Astra I still don't wish to get the virus, even if it's only a mild infection as I am in an at risk group with some previous respiratory health issues.

Travel fund is quite healthy but I would rather save as much of that for the fun times to come after I get there, fares should come back closer to normal by the time I go back. From Australia we still need a valid reason to travel overseas, unfortunately 2 weeks of sex with some smoking hot Thai guys is not reason enough for our government 😉

Not only is it a bureaucratic nightmare for me to travel (both ways) but the fares are ridiculous, just as an example I looked on google for a two week trip November 8th to 22nd and there is no way in hell would I pay $5400 for an economy return flight to Bangkok (that was the cheapest flight that came up). It would have been on Singapore airlines and Scoot and 11hrs 50mins via Singapore (about 4hrs in transit), previously I would fly direct to Bangkok on Thai airways (6hrs 50mins) and pay about $1000. I also searched Skyscanner and Flight centre and they say there are no flights listed for the above dates. Think I'll wait until things settle.

Not me, I'm prepared to wait until mid next year, will wait and see how everything goes first. Hopefully things will improve to the point we can travel again without too many restrictions but time will tell on how things play out.

I was never really into the bar scene but enjoyed the massage places, good for a quick massage and then some steamy sex, as you say it will be the apps if the bars and massage places aren't there anymore.

This is becoming depressing, if true. Just been looking up the Prince massage in Bangkok and it appears another quality massage spa has closed permanently (according to Google search), that's 3 of my favourites gone now. I can understand these things happening because of covid but I'm really starting to wonder just what if any gay massage businesses will survive and what things will be like on the other side of the pandemic. Truly hoping this thing is over or under control sooner rather than later and that these businesses can start back up again.

As far as size is concerned I guess I've been lucky in my experiences in Thailand, most have been about or a good portion above average. I'm generally happy with what they have and will enjoy it but I do prefer something of a reasonable size, I have only had one real flop but that wasn't due to size but just floppy and no amount of work could get it up (he wanted me to get him some Viagra but not for short time). Really hanging out to the day I can return so that I can play with any and all sizes again.

At least they got him, I like the bit that says intensive interrogation. PHUKET: Police have arrested a 27-year-old Thai man who has reportedly confessed to the murder of a Swiss tourist, two days after her body was found at a local waterfall. The confession followed an intensive interrogation of the man, who had gone to the site to collect wild orchids, Thai media reported. Arrest made in murder

I was just surfing the web and googled Arena and it's come up as permanently closed, looks like another casualty of the time but I would hope it will rise again. Whilst it wasn't the flashest of places I always thought of it as my rough and ready go to place, it was the one that I could always count on to get an ok to good massage and a very good shagging and mostly by well hung guys. Certainly never left Arena disappointed and had it on my to do list once we could travel back to Thailand. I had a bit of a laugh on my last trip when choosing the guy I asked for tops only and to see the number of hands go up and so quickly too, good times.

My thoughts exactly, needless to say when the time comes I will be packing at least 3 times the number of condoms that I usually take over an am looking forward to receiving many a pounding by the hot and horny Thai massage guys😁

I've been watching some animal rescues on YouTube, Hope for Paws is a good one but there are so many others.

It's been 2 years since my last trip and I am only dreaming about my next, whenever that may be. I fully intend to make up for lost time if and when we can return and I can say that it will be a wild ride for sure😄

Apparently the two shots of Sputnik each use a different adenovirus (as pointed out by z909), it looks promising and I would much rather have that than the sinovac as it appears to be so much better. Seems the side effects are similar to all the others too. Medical news on Sputnik V

I know people that believe it's a hoax (or as thry put itba load of crap) and yet they are still lining for their vaccinations, I get a good laugh at that but stay well away from arguing or even commenting in their presence when the covid topic comes up.

I think at the moment the apps would be the best bet for some fun times in Phuket, it's been a fair time since I was there last but back then there appeared to be a bit of a downturn in the gay scene (bars etc). One of my happy memories happened in Phuket, my very first m2m sexual experience and how it opened the door for me, so it's a little sad to see the scene there in decline (if it indeed is).

Latest on that insurance companies plans. SMK lashed over Covid termination Insurance regulator to block termination of contracts with lump-sump payments Thailand's regulator warned Syn Mun Kong Insurance (SMK) on Friday that it cannot arbitrarily terminate Covid-19 insurance contracts with lump-sum payments, threatening legal action or fines if the insurer moves forward with its plan. The Office of the Insurance Commission (OIC) said it will block the terminations if SMK fails to strictly adhere to all conditions stated in the contracts, according to OIC secretary-general Suthiphon Thaveechaiyagarn. "We are in discussions with SMK and if it does not change its decision, we can exercise the registrar authority to require the company to honour the condition of the original insurance contracts," Mr Suthiphon said. "The company may be charged fines as well." SMK warned over contracts When Covid first struck Thailand last year, insurance companies started to offer non-life Covid-19 insurance policies. Customers could buy 200,000 baht to 2 million baht of coverage for only 450 baht to 1,200 baht a year. Now insurance companies find themselves not only covering claims by people legitimately suffering from the virus, but also from economically desperate people who purposely got infected to collect insurance money.

I'm not too sure on the current prices but these are from 2019, from memory all the times I went there over the years the price stayed much the same. As reader said, those that stayed at Tarntawan could get a discount day pass but not too sure if that's still available. I used to go to Bangkok for 4 weeks at a time and would take out a months membership, every day it would be an early workout in the gym followed by a good swim in the salt water pool.

Agree on that, now it comes back to bite them.

I can see a lockdown for certain areas won't be too far away, Bangkok would be the prime place for lockdown. Looks like that idea is starting to float around in some peoples heads already. Of course if they start talking about it and it gets reported in the media (lol see below) there will be a mass exodus out of Bangkok and good luck trying to stop that. Lockdown in sight

I think it will be interesting to see which way they go after astra and they start looking at the booster shots, for those of us getting the astra will it be one of the mrna vaccines or will it be the Novavax? I believe there are some countries that may have started mixing the vaccines and there is a study being done by Com-Cov and Oxford University on mixing which showed promising results so far. Curious times ahead by the look of things. Com-Cov Oxford study news

It was good to see they came up with a plan, now we just have to wait.

Sad news for those in Bali mut in my view the Indonesian govt hasn't been very good in fighting covid and also the vaccination roll out. Their daily virus count now above 20k and according to some over there is actually greatly under reported, I can't see Bali opening this year and even into next year. The previous attempt for reopening Bali came unstuck with domestic tourism, too much virus floating around Indonesia and as to be expected some brought it back into Bali which had to be closed down again. I agree with Singapore being fully opened first, yes Phuket sandbox is under way but will need a little time to see if it's going to be successful or not, if yes then that model could be used elswhere. My worry with Thailand is that they haven't got sufficient control over the current outbreak to give much confidence of fully opening up this year. An interesting link on Singapores vaccine tracker Singapore interactive vaccination tracker I also think Vietnam could be opened up sooner than most of the other countries in that list.