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What? Do something that actually makes sense? Surely you jest . . . Unfortunately many of the decisions, rules, and schemes they come up with to deal with this crisis are knee-jerk reactions made by people incompetent to deal with this in the first place. I'm no more competent than they are. I admit it. The problem is they won't admit it. I have no idea who would be competent. Nobody has ever had to deal with a crisis like this before, especially in a modern mobile society. Nobody has the magic solution. But I wish they would be more proactive and fully think through their ideas before they impose them.

The gay scene has not left Thailand. While the physical manifestations of it have temporarily retreated, the gay scene certainly continues to exist in the consciousness of Thais and foreigners alike. Gays certainly do not suddenly become non-gay because their favorite venues are not available at the moment. Their inclinations and desires persist. Our identities exist in our minds, and for a while longer we'll have to be content to live off those memories. And for those still in the country, the gay scene--as mentioned above--is accessible electronically. Even if the hi-so proponents may wish to sweep "sex capital of the world" from the narrative of guide books, the gay scene will continue because it's an irrepressible force of nature: the nature of men who have sex with men. One of the pleasures of international travel is that gay men still understand how to find like-minded individuals, even if there's a lack of venues. And beyond looking on line, there's always the eyes. Isn't that how we spotted other gays before any of the electronics existed? If you walk down Silom, or just about any crowded road, and can't find a local guy who may be interested in sex--or at least getting to know you, you're probably not paying attention. Despite the naysayers' claims, Thailand is not suddenly about to reverse form. Bangkok is not going to become London; Pattaya not St. Kitts. Even the Tourism Authority (TAT) acknowledged Thursday that getting tourists back to Bangkok is job one: "The worsening Covid-19 situation in Thailand has led the Tourism and Sports Ministry to reconsider the country's reopening strategy, admitting some target destinations are still marred by soaring infections. However, the ministry insists on reopening Bangkok by this year as the capital is the heart of the tourism industry in Thailand." There are gloomy days ahead. Opening plans will be delayed. But the government is all too well aware that it must get the doors reopened. The transportation infrastructure and hospitality sector haven't gone away. More important, tourists from across the globe have not forgotten why they want to return. When the great cities of the world get back into the tourism business, they, too, know that what made them so damn successful in the first place is something that should not be tampered with. Whether it's Rio, Paris, New York, London, Tokyo or Bangkok, tourists will want more of the same. Count on it.

The drugstore I mentioned gives the results and form to you while you wait. Wouldn't it suck to wait until you get to the airport to find out that you're positive and can't fly? Plus, Haven't you gone to the Tomcal school of taking your luggage to the sauna on your last night and leaving from there to the airport

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.

The photograph certainly doesn’t tell us much. An old man, his soulful eyes staring forward, wrapped up against the cold walking on the rocks by the sea, his beard and full head of very long white hair draped over his shoulders. He could be anyone in his mid-60s. Could he really have been a movie star, one of the most talked about on the planet? Copyright: MantarayFIlm2021 For those who were not born by about 1960 and so know little of his history, they soon will. For decades this elderly man despised the title “most beautiful boy in the world.” Yet he is happy with a new film and its identical title that will hit the screens at the end of the month. For its subject, that description is now no longer a heavy millstone around his neck. As he tells us in a fascinating article in yesterday’s Guardian newspaper, back in 1992 he finally got rid of all his demons - his mother’s suicide, the death of a daughter which almost ruined his marriage, the grandmother who brought him up and dispatched him to all manner of auditions single-mindedly determined that her grandson would become a star. A recap. Out of the early morning darkness a steamer slowly emerges from the mist, its single chimney belching out black smoke. On the soundtrack we hear the start of the hauntingly beautiful Adagietto from Mahler’s Fifth Symphony. In a long opening shot, the camera follows the steamer as the sky gently lightens. Eventually the film cuts to a fifty-ish figure sitting wrapped up on deck seemingly unsure of what the he is doing and what the future will bring. Soon we realise he is sailing into the fabled city of Venice. This successful, widowed and disciplined composer whose life has been a constant search for the expression of beauty in music, has lost his muse. He has come to the Lido in Venice to re-find both himself and rediscover that beauty. As the film unfolds, he does indeed find both, but in such an unexpected manner it will so change and unbalance his life that reason abandons him. On a lonely beach in front of his hotel on Venice’s Lido, hideously made-up to appear more youthful, he eases into a deckchair, before him the vision that embodies the beauty he has discovered. He tries to reach forward, but his heart gives out and he slumps on his side. He dies alone in the shimmering heat, dressed in his three-piece white suit, his lips painted red, black hair dye streaking down his cheek as the strains of the lovely Adagietto come to an end. By now, many will have recognised the film as the 1970 adaptation of Thomas Mann’s novella, Death in Venice, by the great Italian director Luchino Visconti. The lead role of the composer, Gustav von Aschenbach, is played by British actor, Dirk Bogarde. The vision he has seen, that essence of beauty, is in the form of a tall, slim mid-teens beautiful boy with flowing golden hair named Tadzio. When the film was released, many gays had gasped at the sight of the 15-year old Swedish actor, Björn Andrésen. Was it any wonder that Aschenbach was smitten by him? Who wouldn’t be? Copyright: Warner Bros Death in Venice was soon being screened around the world. In Japan, Andrésen was sought after for television commercials and was mobbed almost as the Beatles had been mobbed just a few years earlier. It is claimed that he was one reason why many anime artists changed their depictions of effeminate young men Most assumed Andrésen had to be gay. After all, for years it had been known that Visconti was gay. Within the business, the rumours were that the unmarried Dirk Bogarde was gay (after his death it was revealed he was indeed gay and had a life partner). Most of the crew working on the movie were gay. During the year’s search to find the right actor to play the role, surely Visconti would lean towards a young gay man. In the Thomas Mann original, Tadzio represents merely a Platonic ideal of beauty. Visconti changes that in his movie. He makes Tadzio such a beautiful boy it is as though he has just walked out of a Botticelli painting. Aschenbach clearly looks at Tadzio with an increasingly intense, if initially misunderstood, passion. The camera lingers as he first sees Tadzio join his aristocratic Polish family in the hotel dining room. Eventually, Tadzio looks back at him, the look extending a little too long. Several times during the film Tadzio has a habit of placing one hand on a hip that has just a hint of camp about it. The hints seem just a little too obvious. Eventually Achenbach cannot avoid close contact with the boy when they walk towards each other in the hotel corridor. As they pass, Tadzio turns to the older man. Here and in other scenes there is the faint glimpse of a “come hither” look. After deciding not to leave Venice in the face of a growing cholera epidemic, Aschenbach returns to the hotel. He meets Tadzio again on the beach when the boy is swinging between the poles of an awning. Yet again Visconti has Tadzio pause and look directly, almost knowingly, at Achenbach who in turn cannot draw himself away. But this most beautiful boy was confused when making the movie, for Andrésen was not and never has been gay. He often said that Death in Venice destroyed his film career, so identified had be become as a homosexual youth. He talked of his discomfort at the looks he got from older men when Visconti took him and the film crew to a gay bar. “The waiters at the club made me feel very uncomfortable. They looked at me uncompromisingly as if I was a nice meaty dish.” What would he say if he was to meet Visconti today? He is uncompromising. “Fuck off!” Being immortalised as a beautiful boy was not a blessing, but a curse. "I felt like an exotic animal in a cage," he says. And because it happened so early in his life, it distorted all his experience for years afterwards. After Death in Venice his career as a young actor declined, partly through mismanagement by his agent and perhaps through bad choices. His desire had always been to become a musician. Classically trained when younger he could play a piano concerto when required but rock music was his love. For decades he struggled in a rock band and playing occasional parts on stage. He lived in Stockholm with his wife and daughter, but tragedy dogged him. He lost a child to illness. As a result his happy marriage broke up. Eventually he was reunited with his wife and daughter. In 2003, though, he was particularly incensed when the feminist author Germaine Greer published a book titled The Beautiful Boy with his photo on the front without first obtaining his permission. She had, however, obtained approval from the photographer who owned the copyright. It was as though he was doomed forever to remain “the beautiful boy”. Perhaps surprisingly, Andrésen allowed the directors of the new documentary film to follow him around for six years. As they say in The Guardian interview, “After being a public figure for so long, I think it was nice for him to take back the story of his life. We didn’t want Visconti experts or other talking heads discussing him. I think Björn also liked that we wanted to do a cinematic film, and to do it beautifully, like Death in Venice.” The Most Beautiful Boy in the World opens in UK cinemas on 30 July. Part of the above post includes excerpts from The Guardian article – https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/jul/15/death-in-venice-screwed-my-life-tragic-visconti-beautiful-boy-bjorn-andresen

Sounds like a get rich money scam rather than insurance. With these around, no wonder covid cases in thailand cant go down hehe.

I think so, I haven't used them but United airlines offers a link where you can buy them in packs of 10. They are video supervised when you do it and they give you some code or verification you can use I guess??

Only for phuket model i believe. Coming in and quarantine 14days doesnt have to be vaccinated.

sad, but such is a risk of travelling those days. No only to Thailand but to nearest shopping mall as well. Only person in my close family who got seriously sick last winter (survived) to this day has no idea how and where he caught it. If your friend is landing in hospital it must be a bit serious? Was he vaccinated ?

Seems like all that time he is quarantined to keep himself from potentially spreading the virus into thailand, but instead he got the virus in thailand. How ironic.

In the form visible from street level, perhaps . Bars , saunas and massage parlors may be gone one day but commercial sex industry ? No country and no society ever achieved that in long term. Considering that our days are numbered too , most likely industry's disappearance in not such a stressing issue for us and if happens, it will finally let us to do some sightseeing to learn Thailand better.

From Thai Enquirer What does it mean for us to excavate, understand, and retell the past? At what point do narratives become fiction, and how do we retell history? What does it mean for us to take on that role of a storyteller? Emma Larkin (pseudonym), award-winning author of several non-fiction books on Burma, tackles these issues in the process of making her fictional debut, “Comrade Aeon’s Field Guide to Bangkok.” Divulging on her writing, her career, and what it means to articulate a city as vast and immeasurable – and with as complicated a past – as Bangkok, Larkin explores different modes of memory and how we write history. Writing non-fiction has been Larkin’s strong suit: her memoir, “Finding George Orwell in Burma,” has won numerous awards. “Comrade Aeon” is a decisive step not only from Myanmar to Thailand, but also from non-fiction into fiction. Despite such a change, however, Larkin confidently strides into the new chapter of her career. “It’s liberating,” she says, “shifting from non-fiction to fiction.” In the process of writing non-fiction, there’s great responsibility in telling that story given the deeply sensitive political context of places like Myanmar: “someone’s given you their safety,” says Larkin. “Their safety is in your hands once they tell you their story. It can be quite constraining to the creative process.” Fiction, however, allows for exploring all sorts of topics with the aide of allegory and allusion, letting subtext fill in the gaps where something more explicit is too dangerous. “If you were writing a non-fiction book about Thailand, it would be very hard to tell a complete story,” she explains. “It’s always struck me that in places … where you have controlled access to certain aspects of the news, fiction plays an important role in all of our lives,” Larkin continues, “there’s rumours, there’s belief systems built around the lack of access to the truth, there’s all sorts of fictions that interplay in our day-to-day life and the way we perceive governments, each other, and history.” “Comrade Aeon” becomes a vehicle not just to tie together the different realities of Bangkok, but also to explore “the cycles of history” that Thailand is prone to. Though she chose to write about Black May, what Larkin is really interested in is how Thailand is haunted by “a recurring cycle of unfinished, incomplete stories.” “It’s quite spooky how there are so many unresolved issues in Thai history,” she elaborates. “Things happen that never get resolved and they just trail along across decades like ghosts.” Will we ever address our past? Can we? The answer remains perpetually unclear in the seemingly endless regimes of military dictatorships and media censorship that the country is constantly under. But if there ever were a time that we lay our roots bare, Larkin envisions it to be very similar to what unfolded in Myanmar in 2012, after elections are held for the first time since 1990. https://www.thaienquirer.com/29926/fiction-memory-and-reclamation-an-interview-with-emma-larkin/

I guess you have to actually read it to answer those questions. Take Alex Kerr's "Bangkok Found," in which he portends the slow demise of the Bangkok gay scene, and compare it to his latest book, "Another Bangkok." Based on the interview with him that I posted in another thread, he doesn't seem to have much now to say on the topic. Nevertheless, there are likely many readers who'll find his observations about architecture and culture of interest. Lots of articles and opinions posted on the forums aren't directly related to the gay scene. They do, however, provide a broader context for understanding what's happening in east Asia, the geographical center of interest of most readers. You have posted many such items and they have certainly helped us form a greater appreciation of what the region has to offer.

To be blunt, the gay scene in Patong wasn't much cop on my first visit in 1997. Pre-app , of course. In the far-off days of a vibrant Boyztown, it offered a preview (on reflection) of what the future held for our beloved Pattaya.

@Latbear4blk Thank you so much for the interesting posts and photos on your trip home to BA I know it must take a lot of time to put your posts together but this forum member for one has really appreciated them. I'm a 74 year old living with my partner in Thailand and I guess I will never get to South America but posts like yours are a substitute. Wishing you a safe journey

The claims adjusters clearly got their sums woefully wrong, no doubt lulled into a false sense of security that they could make big profits because when these policies were marketed the numbers of covid cases in Thailand was so low. Perhaps this company did not even bother placing all or part of the risk with the re-insurance giants. Who knows? Forcing it to pay out on legitimate policies is the obvious course of action. But what if a large number of payouts puts it into bankruptcy? Then many policy holders are well and truly f**ked, and no doubt not just those covered against covid. It makes one wonder what might happen with the government insisting on medical insurance from Thai insurance companies for certain retirees. How solid are these companies? Before I took out my Thai policy some years ago I checked with the issuer that they used one of the major international re-insurance companies. That made me feel a lot better about the policy.

Pretty easy I did mine in Feb at Sao Paulo International airport, took only 4 hours to get report

One more, while I am waiting to board my plane in EZE. I forgot to recommend a restaurant and share the last two items checked out of my To Eat List. The Museo del Jamón is a tradicional Spanish (from Spain) cuisine restaurant close to Avenida de Mayo & Avenida 9 de Julio. I used to love it when I was living in Baires and I was not disappointed. I ate a great Tortilla Española: And finally, I got my only Flan con Dulce de Leche in this trip: And this reporting is now over. I think?

Right now I am waiting in my airbnb for a car service that will pick me up and take me to Ezeiza. At today's exchange rate, it costs me U$S 12.33. Just finished packing. Yesterday, I got my airbnb's hostess to refund me almost 90 bucks. On Wednesday, I went to the Lab to get my covid test, ready for a fight. My appointment was August 2nd, and I thought that I had a better chance walking up to their site instead of calling. No fight was needed, the whole process was delightful. They even refunded me money, as I had paid for a PCR test. As the well known lazy dilettante I am, I did not research properly and just assumed that the PCR test needed to entry Argentina was a universal demand. Fortunately, this lazy dilettante feeds from the wisdom of the real experts. Thanks to the friend @floridarob, I learned that you need a rapid antigen test to entry the US. I had paid for a test that costs twice what I needed. However, not only everyone was super friendly and accommodating, from the security guard to the nurses, not only they administered the test without an appointment that day, but they algo gave me back half of the money. I ended paying U$S 20 for the rapid test. I could have gotten it for free in the public system, but did not want to take the risk of a delay in case they were overwhelmed. If you happen to be in Buenos Aires, I strongly recommend LABORATIORIO ROSSI. I actually chose them amongst the recommendations in the US embassy website. They have a very friendly user portal to set appointments and pay, and several locations in the city. They told me that the results could take up to 24 hours. A few minutes after I walked in back to my airbnb, I was receiving an email with a link to my negative result. Sweet. These last days I walked a little bit for Monserrat and San Telmo, which are more or less Buenos Aires Historic District. This is a representative view: My iPhone is not very good at taking the images without adding light everywhere (or I do not know how to use it properly), and you cannot appreciate in this pictures how daylight is fading, and classic farolas are already lightning up in the background. This is a very popular neighborhood amongst foreigners. They mostly come on weekends, though, when these empty streets become very crowded, many of them closed for vehicular traffic and turned into only pedestrian. It is an area full with antiques stores, and an antiques street fair on weekends. As I am walking late and on a weekday, most stores are close, but you can see a few examples. Many blocks are filled with stores likes these ones. Also take a look at this picture, because if you visit Buenos Aires you will probably not recognize this place: It is the famous Plaza Dorrego, which is wrongly called "Placita San Telmo" by many. You would not recognize this place because you would probably visit on a weekend. Walking would be challenging in the crowd, and the space would be covered with stands offering antiques and art-craft. This was an area I used to visit a lot during the last years of the military dictatorship back in the early 80s. Back then, gays and lesbians would shelter in this area rather than Barrio Norte. I used to hang out in bars around Plaza Dorrego a lot. Then, during the second half of the 80s and the first of the 90s, I was involved in acting and directing theater in the local alternative circuit. I walked by the place where I took my first acting class. Now it is a typical store selling used furniture. It is also the Bohemian hood in Buenos Aires, where artists choose to live. Many of my artists friends still live there, and I am always visiting them. So not only I have been in this area in each of my visits to the city, but besides I'm very familiar with it. Of course I notice changes like old stores gone and new ones arrived, but everything else is pretty much the same. I do not see the blooming change I saw in Palermo, a mostly unknown territory for me. This is a very alive area at night in non pandemic times, almost as much as Palermo. Last night I wanted to say goodbye with a boom, but my plans went wrong. They started surprisingly well, and then they went in a very wrong direction. At 4 pm I received Y, my Venezuelan friend. I think I shared before that our sex was not so satisfactory and we were drifting towards a "clean" friendship. Well, we had an amazing chemistry. Not only the sex rapport was intense, but the whole interaction was very warm and fulfilling. We had a shower together, and oral sex while bathing each other. Then we continued making out and we were about to have full sex when we realized it was 7:30. I had made an appointment at 8 with one of my favorite local escorts. We had been even fucking for free, and I wanted to say goodbye paying him his new fee (thanks to my advertising he has now a new and higher fee) in full, and having amazing sex. I had warned him I may be saying goodbye to a friend when he arrived at 8. When Y and I realized it was 7:30, we decided to smoke a quick joint and have some more oral sex instead of fucking. I was eating his ass when my date rang 15 mins before scheduled. I went down to bring him up, and warned him that he had interrupted us because he came in earlier. Everything seemed to be OK. I am not going to enter in details from here. The point is that he was completely disrespectful and dismissive of my dear friend, with all the racist and xenophobic attitudes that trigger me. You all know how easy I am to trigger with these things. It is not only online. After walking Y out, apologizing for the bad moment (he was shaking, trying to control his rage), I came back furious and had a two hours very uncomfortable conversation, and of course no sex. So I had that bad closing of my night. I am happy now because I have already talked several times with Y and he (we) is fine. Today I had a last lunch with home made cooking. After kissing goodbye my mom and sister, I came to my base to pack and here you have me. This is the last report I am posting in this thread. I think.

The same for Australians. The visa system was an absolute pain in the you know where. I used to think in paranoid moments they actually discouraging people from visiting Brazil. One extreme to another.

If you are a US citizen, you no longer need a visa to travel to Brazil. So nice not having to worry about having a valid visa any longer! https://onemileatatime.com/brazil-dropping-visa-requirements-us-citizens/

The Best Story start this week

Can check out the locations they are doing them near where you will be, is about 120 reis more or less. Just need your passport, Appointments only, done via this link. Up 3 days before you return to USA...not 72 hours like GOING to Brasil....3 calendar days. https://www.drogaraia.com.br/agendamento/covid19

From Books on Asia Podcast On this episode of the Books on Asia Podcast, sponsored by Stone Bridge Press, we have returning to the show Alex Kerr, author of such notable books as Lost Japan, Dogs and Demons, Finding the Heart Sutra and Another Kyoto. Today Alex is going to talk with podcast host Amy Chavez about his latest book "Another Bangkok" released July 1, 2021. He introduces Thailand’s capital city via its architecture, arts and culture, and shows us how they are similar to Japan.

Alex Kerr's 2009 book Bangkok Found has been updated and re-published on 1st July this year with a new name "Another Bangkok". I am not sure how much of the material is new (but it does cover the Covid crisis). It is published in the UK by Penguin at £9.99 and should be available internationally I assume.

After watching first three episodes I agree with you, worth watching if only to see how relationships will develop. Nice refresher after all those Bangkok / university themed series, finally we get to see remote Thailand. Crime scenes bit weird but due to short episodes thy must to take some shortcuts on sophistication. At least two actors are in extremely good looking category and Mek / guy with ponytail on some pics / in his tight jeans is sexy like hell. as for product placement - they need to finance it somehow. It looks that in this covid season Thai BL industry is keeping us occupied and healing our wounds of missing LOS

I binge watched first three episodes today, as expected from mafia milieu movie , soaked in a bit of blood but I like love plot and how feeling of two main characters ( and it looks two side ones too) develops so certainly evening well spent. Crime part of plot a bit childish and unsophisticated (so far) but romantic part heart warming and eye pleasing Waiting for more

I love the main character, so cute and weepy!

I'm watching it, mildly interesting but English subtitles available on all 9 episodes so far. Most interesting for me was episode 4 because of Max Tul presence and last one , episode 9 , kind of ground breaking as in 46:17 minute clearly Sean is sporting an erection inside of his undergarments and no effort is made to hide it , quite opposite . Check for yourselves. https://pops.tv/video/bromance-ep-9-en-d2-popsthai-60e584e850a2600055a32b27

is not explicit but tactfully removes any doubt as who of two is the top is case somebody is curious. I suspected reverse at first until last scene of second episode

I saw the uncut version yesterday. The scene they cut for YT isn't really that explicit at all. It's a shame it was removed

better to watch on LineTV as on YouTube some spicier scenes were removed ( relax , NOT THAT SPICY but I'd say sexually suggestive). Definitely worth time to watch on either broadcaster, 1/2 hr well spent

From the wisdom of Colonel Vikorn (to whom I defer completely ). John Burdett's Bangkok Tattoo p31

A friend just finished a 15 day quarantine in Bangkok in order to see his partner of many years. They were reunited 5 days ago. Today, there was a case of Covid in their building and they both tested positive for it. Very sad. Now, he is off to hospital for I would assume at least 2 weeks. He is schedule to fly back to US 2nd week of August so not much time with his partner or friends.