caeron

Even before Ukraine the world was ignoring it. I wish the hell we were helping the resistance.

I agree. It's long past time when we help the Myanmar resistance with weapons and training. Hopes and prayers don't answer bullets and bombs.

Dreamboys were in posing straps for the show, and Moonlight showed a lot more with the show. Jupiter no, and can't say about the other ones. Hotmale is open, but I didn't go in, so can't report. It does feel like you have the country to yourself. There are tourists, but not many.

Arrival was smooth. Once you had all your Test and Go paperwork, it was an easy ride in from the airport. The advantage of landing around midnight. I ended up in the Quarter in Silom. Central, solid, cheap. Only real downside is they are doing construction and it is noisy during the day. Test took the full 12 hours. I was sampled at midnight at the drive through, but didn’t get my clearance until just before noon. Masking up everywhere, including on the open street is a bit annoying, but it seems like things are otherwise beginning to get back to normal. No night market, and many places still closed, but a solid core still open. Bars aren’t enforcing the mask mandate at all, though given how few customers there are, it felt very safe to me even so. I hadn’t expected I’d feel comfortable to unmask. Frankly, I felt far more uncomfortable being the only patron in several I visited. I could have my pick of the boys, because everybody is looking just at you. If you like being the center of attention, now is the time to go. Bonus for me, no Chinese ladies. Dreamboys: I was the only customer, I think. Maybe two locals. Two other foreigners came in and left shortly thereafter. About 18 boys, good mix of types. One guy, however, looked like he was on the other side of 40 and pretty used. I wondered what his story was that he was trying to make it as a go-go boy. Freshboys: Again, no customers, I didn’t stay. (400baht beers add up) About a dozen boys, towards the twinkier end, though lots of tattoos. Moonlight: 6 boys, but all that perfect jock muscled look I love. Could have offed any of them. Will return. Had about 3 other customer groups, so very light, but not entirely empty. Attentive staff. Jupiter2018: Sad. I’m not a fan, but about 6 boys, half of whom even in the show didn’t take off their shirts. Most wore mask shields (boys weren’t masked anywhere else) which we know do nothing so not sure of the point. Had maybe 4 other customers. Half the boys didn’t make eye contact when they walked in front of you. Just stared into space. Guys were hot enough though. Tawan: As bad as I feared. 2 Guys, muscled but fat, both probably 40+. A few more in the place, who might have been guys on offer, but they’re fully dressed sitting by the sides, playing on their phones. In the dim room, you can’t really see them, and they never even looked up, despite the fact that it's pretty clear that having a customer is rare. Place is tiny, but since there’s no one there, I guess it doesn’t matter. I drank my expensive beer and left. I took one for the team. I don't suggest you bother unless you're a complete muscle nut. On the plus side, visiting some tourist places I hadn’t been before. I recommend both the flower market and the amulet market for a fun bit of exploring. Icon Siam for those who like ogling temples of consumerism (a $1.65B dollar mall). The Thursday Muay Thai fights at Rajadamnern Stadium were fun. I stayed through the first title bout, but the Thursday card runs from 6pm to something like 10:30pm, and the next title fight is the last fight of the night. Fights are thursdays and sundays.

I've avoided Hong Kong for some time, as I have Russia. I don't trust either China or Russia to obey the rule of law. Russia is now obvious, but I an sure if China thought they could get away with seizing Taiwan, they would. They've been assholes to all their neighbors. When I visited Vietnam some years ago, they cared very little about the US. The guide wanted to rant about what China had done.

I'm not judging others on their drug use, just that I'm personally uncomfortable being around it. It might tempt me to return to the folly of my youth. Of course, given that I couldn't stay up that late, I think there is little risk of that! 😆

When I was young, I enjoyed experimenting with drugs. Now that I'm old, not so much. At least here in the US, damn near everything might have a killing dose of Fentanyl in it. We had two high school kids die this week here in Portland Oregon of Fentanyl overdoses from counterfeit pills. They mix that shit with everything these days.

Love you dear, but you're wrong. Well, not about the cute part though 😀. He deserves this and more. He shouldn't have pretended to be a victim of a hate crime.

Kid torched his own career, and then doubled down. Pity, but he's getting what he deserves. This kind of thing just gives fuel to the bigots to say that these things don't happen. It is a perverse version of stolen valor, and is not at all cool. I agree that with the quote from the judge: "There's a side of you that has this arrogance, and selfishness and narcissism that's just disgraceful," the judge said. "You're not a victim of a racial hate crime, you're not a victim of a homophobic hate crime. You're just a charlatan pretending to be a victim of a hate crime, and that's shameful."

Looking at the Bangkok Post article new infection rates have doubled in the last month from about 10K to 20K, but that's out of a population of 70M. Of course, there is always underreporting, but even counting that, I think this is still pretty good and small. Standard precautions apply. Hanging out in bars and other places with lots of people is going to be a lot more dangerous. I'd be a lot more concerned about going to Hong Kong. They've been trying for the zero covid policy which always was going to fail, and now it is doing so rather disastrously. Today it reported 58,000 new cases on a population of only 7M. So 20x higher than Thailand. (depending upon how much under/mis-reporting there is in both places).

Hot guys, but it is quite a haul to get there it seems.

Last time I was there before the pandemic the pickings were very slim, so perhaps it was all for the best that they were disinterested too. I guess we'll see if the situation has improved. I'm doubtful.

I'll stop by in a few weeks. Given the state of the world in this pandemic, I'm not expecting much. I am not sure the report will reflect what it may become when things open up more, but I'll report my take since I'm sure photos are still out.

Trump wanted to blow Putin because Putin was the Dictator that Trump wished he was. Much like Putin in Russia, a lot of Americans wished he was too. Putin is an evil man. He dreams of being the new Tsar, and he doesn't care how much blood building his throne will cost. People surprised by this haven't been paying attention. China may follow suit and we'll have a new world war on our hands, except the Axis powers will be Russia/China and their pet dog Belarus.

As an aside, I miss bibottomboy's posts. I hope he is well, since he hasn't been around in quite a while.

Unfortunately, I think a lot of them want people just like them in office. To quote Blazing Saddles "You’ve got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the new West. You know… morons."

I love just walking the streets. I'm pretty sure it won't be close to normal, but after a couple of years cooped up, I just need to go somewhere for my mental health. The few years in the US have been very depressing. Covid and fascists.

I will be there in a few weeks and will check in. I'm a bit dubious that it will be worth the time versus the apps, but will report my experience.

My read is that government bonds pay around 2%. If you could earn around 6% elsewhere, you're giving up 4% a year, which on a $250K investment is $10,000K a year. If you want to keep that much of your portfolio in a bank account or Thai bonds, I guess it works. But if you don't, there's a real cost.

I'm glad I went when I did. I regret not seeing more. I fear that too many in Europe lack the will to really hold Russia accountable.

https://www.facebook.com/tawanmuscleman/ They say they are open. I am sure that when one of us who cares gets to Thailand, we'll get a report. They're not the kind of guys that appeal to many board members.

The Quarter Silom uses Paolo Phaholyothin Hospital. The hospital didn't respond to my query, maybe somebody with a Thai friend will have more luck confirming testing timing with them.

Indeed, though a number of places do have 24 hour testing. I have to hope, or if it is morning, that I can pay the hospital for express testing. The Quarter did at least confirm that they use a different hospital than the one other Silom hotels use which doesn't offer express testing. I gave up trying to get answers out of the hotels because of the half dozen I wrote, none responded with anything helpful. (Some responded, but didn't answer the question I asked about quick testing and follow up emails were ignored.)

The Quarter in Silom told me 12 hour turnaround. They don't use the same hospital as other Silom hotels, so there may be an express option. I wrote the hospital and got no response. The best express I found was a 4hour turnaround at the notable markup you might expect. Sorry, I don't remember which, but I found it was almost impossible to get a response from any of the hotels to clarify how this would work, and what I needed to do to get an express test. So, while they advertised it, I couldn't confirm it. With new variants possibly coming at any time, I'd rather get approval now rather than risk something popping up and the program shutting back down. My .02. I arrive around midnight, so the 12 hour turnaround isn't a problem for me. I noticed on some of the other websites that some hotels were bad about getting you the paperwork you needed to confirm for Thai Pass. The Quarter wasn't helpful on some of my emails, but they did that relatively promptly at least. Good Luck.

Well, I've paid for a day 5 PCR test I won't need, but since I'm going on to the Philippines afterwards which requires one, I think I'll just pretend the day or so before my trip onward is my "day 5", so I don't have to pay for another test. The system does seem subject to abuse.