vaughn

Wow, this is great news! It must be such a relief for the business owners, one hurdle down and some hope there might be some money coming in again. I assume this will immediately benefit the Jomtien area, but I wonder if Boyztown and Sunee will try to pivot and get SHA+ to start serving food with off-able waiters or something similar

meanwhile, instagram story from a certain boy from a bar on Khaosan Rd last night at about 1am.

Agree, I wasn't referring to them. I meant the establishments that did not previously sell food but are now 'operating' under restaurant licenses.

'restaurant' in name only is what most places are doing it seems. From what i am seeing in insta stories of the boys in other places in bangkok, it is business as usual, dancing, bottles and drinks on the tables, no food in sight. They're partying it up until 2-3am. They might reduce capacity, temp checks, QR code and vaccine checks, but i can't say for sure.

Does anyone in the area know the status of Poseidon? I've heard mixed reports on if/when they're openning. Normally i would book at Agate but they're still not showing when they will be open. ***edit*** I did a bit more digging and found Agate's instagram, it appears they are SHA and opened on 15th November. Their website still shows no availability so maybe they only accept booking through the SHA sites.

I won't be traveling this Christmas/New Year, but i still think it can be worth it if you don't have your expectations too high. Bangkok would be where i would stay, unless you want a quiet new year in Jomtien (pattaya). VCK (@vckcoolspace on twitter) and Krubb (@krubb_bkkth on twitter) are the most popular saunas that i see the boys i follow go to in Bangkok. They both seem somewhat foreigner friendly, they seem to attract more of the twink crowd than muscle but that might be biased by who i follow as to what i see.

One of the thai boys I follow posted that DJ station is now open. I'm not sure how they will enforce or check vaccination status of guests, or if the 9pm stopping sale of alcohol is missing a wink next to it.. but good news to see more life returning to Silom

The instagram stories i'm seeing from thai boys partying on Khaosan Rd drinking until 3am makes me wonder how they plan to enforce these rules anywhere, Hi-So or not. Prohibition doesn't work, either they will relax the rules or the population will begin to ignore them and they will lose more control.

I agree with Vinapu on this. It's a risk, but a small one considering the number of arrivals and positive test rates on arrival. I think i saw the number of positive arrivals in the test&go scheme was 0.05, your risk of arriving with covid can be further minimized with proper precautions (N95 mask, self isolation before flying, window seat, good hygiene) depending on how much you are willing to do to mitigate the risk. I would put this risk along side 'mototaxi accident putting me in hospital', it could happen and ruin my holiday but will it stop me getting on one for a short trip. For others it might, for me it won't.

From what people were reporting in the Phuket sandbox it was generally less than 6 hours from test to result, but Bangkok might be another story. I think until a few weeks have passed and we see it working in action we won't know. If you're landing next week and don't have time to wait to find out, i would prepare for the possibility of extending to a second night or see what fees might apply to late check-out after 12pm. to be safe maybe pick a hotel that has partnered with a major hospital for testing and is close in proximity, confirm with the hotel they will be able to test at midnight or 1am when you arrive, find out what the latest checkout possible is before you need to book a second night.

I have mentioned in other threads that I plan to visit for the full month of April. I have booked my first week in Bangkok and the second in Pattaya with fully refundable hotels, from the second week (Songkran) I will decide whether i go back to Bangkok, stay in Pattaya, or explore elsewhere. If alcohol restrictions are in place with all gogos and bars closed in March, or if restrictions get any worse than they are as planned at Nov 1 'quarantine free', I will cancel. Here's hoping i will be writing my live trip report in 5 months time.

It depends on so many unknowns at the moment, i'm planning for April because i can't risk getting stuck and living in Australia adds another level of unknown to the return. If i could do Dec-Jan, i would wait until end of November to decide because right now they are trying to change the arrival process so the picture should be clearer by mid-late november.

I guess that the reason the tourism minister is even raising the entertainment venues issue is because he has heard the message loud and clear, the two groups of tourists who are likely to jump on a plane this high season are couples without kids or single guys, both of which *usually* enjoy nightlife and drinking. I'd give them a week or two, I'm sure they will announce something positive around nightlife reopening for December in provinces with high vaccination rates

I'll take it as a good sign that at least the tourism minister is raising the proposal. He obviously sees the need for entertainment venues if they want larger numbers of tourists to return.

Before the latest lockdowns i saw a lot of thais posting photos on twitter outside or at Krubb. Both VCK and Krubb are on my list to visit, they seem to have a good crowd of locals in their 20s going on weekends.

I haven't stayed at Crowne at Lumpini, but every other country i have stayed Crowne there is no issues with joiners. Western chains, particularly any 4 stars or above will not hassle you over guests or joiner fees.

The free spending rich, private jet traveling tourist isn't going to land anywhere that their coke stash will put them away for life 😅 On a serious note, if TAT want the big spenders they should be focusing on upper-middle class. This group loves to spend and show off their disposable income. The super rich don't spend as much outside of their bubble as TAT might think.

I wonder how this will impact the migrant workers doing border runs on tourist visas, i can imagine handing over another 500 baht a month might be significant to some of them. If it's an airport tax then fair enough, I don't really care, it will just make its way to a bunch of politicians bank accounts anyway.

I wonder what the reaction would be to a feature request asking to search hotels based on whether they are guest friendly 🤔 It is a little bit hilarious that they announce the launch of a site for searching for hotels, but the search functionality isn't implemented yet, very on brand for TAT.

Will there be the ability to travel to Thailand.. Yes Will it be quarantine free, easy, worthwhile (subjective) or taken up by tourists immediately.. No We're in uncharted territory with a government that makes snap decisions then poorly communicates them and then wraps it up in a nice bundle of bureaucracy, red tape and paperwork. I think giving them some more time to work it out would be wise, but there are some brave souls out there who might want to take a chance.

With the way Thai bureaucracy works it could take a couple of months haha. I'm planning and booking for my next trip to be April, i figure that should be enough time to sort out how reopening will work and hopefully get bars back to operation.

That caught my attention as well. I am no expert on the elite visa and rights within Thailand, but my understanding was that if you wanted to own land previously you had to do it under a trust or company with a Thai citizen (lawyer or partner etc) as the majority holder. I know that there are ways to game this and keep the asset safe but it sounded tedious. If this allows a foreign individual to own land and property that would be a big incentive.

https://thepattayanews.com/2021/09/14/tourism-authority-of-thailand-plans-to-propose-no-quarantine-tourism-under-one-sop-one-system-scheme-for-fully-vaccinated-foreigners/ It is refreshing to see some small steps in the right direction and a proposal that looks to standardize the process rather than adding another level of complication. The article has a lot more detail, but nothing is set in stone yet and decisions are a few weeks away.

I think i have asked maybe once or twice with working boys, usually after poor performance haha. The type of guys i am attracted to are usually fairly obviously gay, my main question is usually 'Are you bottom?' and then usual 'get to know you' kind of vetting.

Australia's national carrier Qantas has said it's tentative plan is for direct Bangkok flights to resume in April 2022. So that's my realistic goal at the moment, although if the tide turns and things improve before then I will return sooner.