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When entering Israel, all passengers get tested in TLV airport upon arrival and must quarantine until they get their results. That is perfect time for me to start writing. Intro – 8th trip report (and 8th visit) to my favorite city in the world. 37yo Israeli. Last trip was for the White Party of New Year’s Eve 2020 with my husband. I remember that before we flew to BKK on the end of Dec 2019, reports were starting to come about some virus in China. I couldn’t imagine back then that this virus will make me separate from BKK for such a long time. More than 2 years and 4 Pfizer vaccines later I booked this solo long weekend, to see if even after Covid changed a lot in the world, the BKK magic is still there. And it is still there 😊 Bureaucracy – Once I booked my first night directly (Grand Hyatt Erawan) and got the authorization I submitted all documents online and Thai pass was approved in less than 24 hours. Since this trip was exactly 5 days, I did not need a second PCR. And also, they now dropped the second test anyways. I found the whole procedure friendly and fast. Flight – One of the unfortunate results of Covid is of course the chaos of booking flights. We used to have 3(!) TLV-BKK direct flights a day. Now we have once a week, and 3 times a week TLV-HKT (Phuket) -BKK. None of the direct options suited my very specific flight schedule requirements so I booked Turkish Airlines with an Istanbul connection (650 USD). This is a 14 hour journey with the main leg being over night which is exactly one of my firmest requirements of a flight to BKK. A couple of days before the flight, when the probability of me actually taking that flight was high, I found that business class fare declined dramatically so I upgraded (Additional 1600 USD). The TLV-IST leg in both directions was a full flight and the IST-BKK flight was half full in both directions. Flights were great, slept great and woke up refreshed. Suvarnabhumi was kind of empty and I was out in no time. Hotel – Grand Hyatt Erawan (9400 THB test & go package with fast PCR) – Not my preferred location. Hotel lacks character but they did supply the only thing that I really wanted them to – a really fast PCR result. On my way to the hotel, we stopped by Medpark Hospital for a drive thru test – 16:18 was the swab time. At 17:41 the phone rang with the negative results. They did what they promised they would and that was great. They were also very generous with a 4PM checkout time to match my next hotel check in. Breakfast was OK. After that I went for a stroll in Silom. Soi 4 seemed pleasantly crowded. Some places closed; others opened instead. All and all, I was surprised to see a lively scene, not far from the way it used to be. I enjoyed my walking thru the different streets and venues and waited for 22:30 for the show at Tawan to start. Tawan was a sad place that Thursday night. As some photos here show, it is forth of its original size – and the stage has almost no accessories or decorations. Actually, that night there was not even a show, just 4 guys going up and down the stage for an audience of 3 people. Guys on stage are not my type, some are off season, some are in no season, but as Vinapu said – it only takes one guy. And that guy was there – I think his name was Nut but I’m not sure. A Lean bodybuilder classic type. I didn’t want to leave Silom as I wanted to party later that night so it was coinvent that they offered a room. 2800 THB later (500 off, 300 room, 2K for the guy) and we were at their room which was descent enough for the muscle worship session I wanted. He supplied it to the max and I left there very happy for myself but sad for that establishment. I do think/hope that they will improve as more and more tourists come. After that went to DJ station, which was not full as it used to be but also not empty. Music there is still shit 😊. GOD was closed that night which disappointed me but I knew it would open for the weekend so I called it a night. Will continue soon.

Whatever. US is only country in World what barbarically dropped nuclear bombs on heads of innocent civilians. Nuclear. Bomb. Point. And never said "we are sorry". Germans did it after WWII. US never did. And by your logic Russia should immediately drop bomb to Kyev? For to "save hundreds of thousands on both sides"?

We really do have similar tastes…. Sebas Blanco has me thinking of dusting off my Columbia file and actually making the trip that never happened but started this thread.

From Channel News Asia KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia will fully reopen its borders on Apr 1 as the country begins to transition to the COVID-19 endemic phase, Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said on Tuesday (Mar 8). Speaking at a press conference, he explained that with this development, international travellers entering Malaysia would only need to have valid travel documents to enter and exit the country, and Malaysians can travel freely to other countries with similar open borders. He added that foreign travellers will no longer need to apply via the MyTravelPass mechanism, and only had to download the MySejahtera contact tracing application. He said: “Taking into account the Omicron variant which is still in our country and other countries, there are some mandatory steps for both Malaysians and travellers.” For those who are fully vaccinated, there is no need to undergo any quarantine. They only need to undergo a COVID-19 Real Time-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) test two days before departure and a professional COVID-19 Rapid Test Kit-Antigen (RTK-Ag) test within 24 hours after arrival in Malaysia. For countries that have not fully reopened their borders such as Indonesia and Singapore, Malaysians can utilise the vaccinated travel lanes that had been agreed on between Putrajaya and the relevant countries, the prime minister added.

I know 1 is working as a grab food driver, 2 are on call masseur in a spa near Dom Muang, a few works as gym instructors, 1 as motorcycle taxi. This sad news makes me afraid when I finally see the state of the new tawan.

From Richardbarrow.com Yesterday, 1,000’s of people received this email. The thing they all had in common was that they had signed up for Thailand Pass. Some told me they had only signed up a few days ago. Others said they used a unique email to sign up. If you get this email, do not reply

and world , including those two countries hopes they will not be tempted to try if they in fact work as intended

does Russia? or any other country in fact ?

there's no such thing like glorious war, fact obviously lost on militarists and their appologetists

I'm certainly not advocating the use of nuclear weapons. Nine countries now have that capability. But only one--Russia--has warned that it has placed its nuclear forces on high alert.

Well congratulations Tassojunior, you are now reduced to using the excuse of every thug and bully: "Look, if you had given me your lunch money when I asked you first, you wouldn't have a bloody nose now. Why do you have to make it hard for yourself?"

From Ted Talks

Just a bit of context on the figures of deaths in the Donbas conflict that Tassojunior quotes in almost every post. The number of civilians who died in the Donbass conflict went from over 2000 in 2014, to 26 in 2019 and 27 in 2020. This was a more or less frozen conflict in military terms. In the wake of the Russian invasion last month, more civilians are being killed every hour in Ukraine than died annually in the Donbass conflict in recent years. Obviously every death is more than just a statistic, but Tassojunior quoting the figure of 14,000 overall in the conflict is misleading when many posters who are unfamiliar with the Donbass conflict may assume it was still going at that sort of level. Also remember that the conflict was started when Putin unilaterally invaded Crimea and aided an insurrection in the Donbass region. Perhaps the most famous incident in the early years was when Putin, with incredible recklessness, sent Buk missiles to the rebels, along with people could operate it, and they promptly bombed a civilian aircraft out of the sky, in the Flight MH17 tragedy. Another issue that Tassojunior continually raises is the failure of the Minsk process. However, the failure of the Minsk II process was not purely a stubborn refusal by Ukraine to accept a fair deal from Russia. Although France and Germany tried for several years to get the Minsk instruments to work, they came up against what has been referred to as the “Minsk conundrum.” This is how Al Jazeera explains the problem. I’m just using Al Jazeera here as example of a news website that wouldn’t be necessarily pro-Western. “Ukraine sees the 2015 agreement as an instrument to re-establish control over the rebel territories.It wants a ceasefire, control of the Russia-Ukraine border, elections in the Donbas, and a limited devolution of power to the separatists – in that order. Russia views the deal as obliging Ukraine to grant rebel authorities in Donbas comprehensive autonomy and representation in the central government, effectively giving Moscow the power to veto Kyiv’s foreign policy choices. Only then would Russia return the Russia-Ukraine border to Kyiv’s control” Full article here: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/2/9/what-is-the-minsk-agreement-and-why-is-it-relevant-now The real stumbling block was that Putins real aim was never rights of self-government for Donbas, but instead his demand that the terms of the agreement would result in the Donbas region having a veto in international treaties and agreements by Ukraine, which would result in Ukraine being prevented joining NATO or the EU, even if a huge majority of the rest of country wanted to. In other words, Putin would have control over Ukraine is foreign policy, despite the policies of whatever person was elected democratically as the President of Ukraine.

That is about 1/3 of the waterworks I remember from 30 years ago.

And do you recall what happened about three weeks later? Japan surrendered to the allies, thus avoiding an invasion of its homeland, savings hundreds of thousands on both sides. And while on the topic, less not forget the Soviet's role in the episode. Prior to the nuclear bombings, Japan's leaders were privately making entreaties to the publicly neutral Soviet Union to mediate peace on terms more favorable to the Japanese. While maintaining a sufficient level of diplomatic engagement with the Japanese to give them the impression they might be willing to mediate, the Soviets were covertly preparing to attack Japanese forces in Manchuria and Korea. So Uncle Joe passed on an opportunity to avoid the Japanese catastrophe in order to gain some more of the spoils of war.

This is good to see, the green bridge between Lumpini and Benjakitti parks is being renovated. On my trips I like to take the early morning walks around Lumpini park and the green bridge to Benjakitti will make it a good morning exercise walk, just trying to keep some fitness up on my trips. By the looks it may well be finished before my next "planned trip". The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) has started renovation work on the “Green Bridge”, the elevated walkway connecting Lumpini and Benjakitti parks in Khlong Toei district. In a Facebook post on Sunday, the BMA said the renovation project started on March 1 and work on the 20-year-old walkway is expected to finish before the end of September 2022. The BMA also unveiled the concept design of the new Green Bridge (link below), with provision for pedestrian walkways, bicycle lanes and green space incorporated seamlessly to maximise space usage and offer convenience to visitors to both parks. The renovation project started from Phaisingto Canal next to Ratchadaphisek Road and will finish at the Sarasin intersection on Wireless Road near Lumpini Park, a total distance of 1.6 kilometres. Read on Green bridge renovation

If you really were serious about "wanting to see as few people killed as possible" one would think you'd would be calling on Putin to get the hell out. Instead, you're trying to justify why he went in. Sorry, my friend, but that sure sounds like an apology. By the way, you avoided the question you cited in your post: are you better off now than before Putin started his invasion?

Indeed. Full report will come in a couple of days. To make a long story short: it is now kinda shit and in no way even resembles what is was. But, I did had luck there. Even so, it was just luck, the place is dead.

Whatever you do, DO NOT skip Iguazu!!! There is no place like this on earth.

Yep. Now the falls are cute beautiful. Normally, they used to be scary beautiful. The Paraná river is at an historic low. Climate change in all the areas directly influenced by the Amazonian system (which is all South America but Patagonia) is speeding up at alarming levels. Most of my family lives in Corrientes city, the heat is scorching, and a huge fire just burnt significant parts of the Iberá, not far away. The whole city was covered by ashes for several days.