firecat69

Great reports but unless I missed it again, there was no report on the specifics of your Quarantine which I think many including me would find very useful information??

Just a good informative post!

DId u have have to quarantine ?

I must nave missed in the last few months that you are currently in Thailand. Shame on me!!

It would be if they could have GoGo Bars!

It really is hilarious when someone who has never posted wants us to believe him over a member who has lived in Pattaya for 20 years. Nobody here knows you and certainly nobody knows your trusted and reliable source. For now I will think Willie may be right. You don't remove furniture unless you are finished!

Great story the like of which just does not happen in the rest of the world!

I count 1 smile and 3 smirks . Need better photographers!!

It would be far far down on my list of reasons to visit!

No More because they have to work harder to take the same amount of time for the same price!

I must be lucky because I have stayed at Hiltons and Marriotts all over the world ( too many cities and countries to count) and not once have I experienced the failures you have been unlucky enough to have. Possibly with the exception of a few poor WiFi's . Now non- international chains and lower priced Hotels I have experienced most of the things you mentioned . However I am a planner and I read all the reviews I can find on a Hotel I intend to book and that minimizes the booking of hotels that will disappoint me. Certainly there are pitfalls to reading reviews and after awhile Booking.Com became my #1 choice for finding non International Chains. Since there are no reviews allowed until the guest has actually checked out , you remove the chance of of fake reviews and Booking.com usually contacts any guest who was unhappy . Now my expectations for tourist hotels in locations where there are few if any International Chains then I have experienced just about everything you mentioned. But then AirBnB came along and all of my tourist travel for the most part reverted away from Hotels. On a scale of 1-10 the worst AirBnB I ever had was 7.5 and I had lots that were just as good as it gets. It does not work if you are making 1 night stays but 2 nights or longer I completely changed to Air BnB except when I just wanted to use some accumulated CC Bonus points and have the bonus of Happy Hours and Breakfast Buffets and swimming pools. On second thought I have experienced some Dud Chain Hotels but not surprisingly they were in my country ( Leader in Virus Deaths )and complete incompetence the USA.

You are definitely not alone. The Gay Bars in Pattaya that have failed over the years have no one to blame but themselves. They allowed what used to be fun places to spend a few hours ( yes imagine that) or at least an hour before taking someone back to our hotels etc, to a peek in the door to see if there were more than 1/2 a dozen boys and actually alive on stage before sitting down and paying anywhere from 4x-6x more for a watered down drink or beer that Lady Bars sold to their customers. Wonder why the Apps have become so popular? There were times in the past I entered Funny Boys found a good seat and spent up to 2hours and sometimes did not leave with a boy but always called down a couple from the stage and bought them drinks and tipped them because I appreciated the management and wanted the bar to be successful . There were other well run bars that were successful doing the same thing and I treated them the same way. I am not sure what happened to them whether there were just fewer customers or fewer managers who knew what they were doing. Using Funny Boys again as an example the long time manager whose name I forget but certainly Willie Willie will remember ,left for whatever reason and instantly the atmosphere changed in that Bar and eventually failed which most long time visitors knew would happen. This was the same for many Bars in Pattaya . It is a hard job managing that type of Bar, Keeping Boys and Customers Happy . Most fail because of bad management not because of lack of customers. Moving to Bangkok for the discussion , there are many examples of well run Bars that survived on Soi Twilight and were able to move across the Soi and will once again be successful when the Virus is eradicated . Even now with no tourists they are surviving while waiting for Swampy to open again.

Toooooooooo Funny !!!!!

What are you doing up at this time????

I still remember US Naval ships coming into Pattaya and depositing 1000 + young sailors at a time. I would guess a small % are gay . The rest can't wait to get in Lady Bars where beer is cheap and company reasonable especially after being at sea for months. No way a Gay Bar can compete with that . Also many have fond memories of Sunee Plaza having lots of Bars but not to many of us ( I Hope) were happy with a very busy underage trade that was the reason for some Bars existence. Some Gay Bars in Pattaya in the last few years have needed to rely on women customers as well as men ,at which of course many of the boys were quite happy with that change. Nothing stays the same and I am actually amazed at how many Gay Bars actually moved from Soi Twilight across the street and are surviving while they wait for customers to return. I'm pretty sure the various Apps hurt Pattaya more than Bangkok since the travel time for the Boys in most cases is considerably less than travel in BKK which of course can be quite lengthy and aggravating when the Boy does not show because of traffic etc. Hopefully in 6 months the posts will return from members once again enjoying Gay Bars even if the number is reduced. I would guess some member will have saved up quite a bit of money to once again enjoy Thailand.

So I think it is about 7 years since I visited some of those Bars with a Straight Friend and apparently nothing has changed . Amazing when you have a volume of customers , it becomes much easier to charge less and still pay tea money. Gay Bars will never be so lucky!

And there we have the answer Bangkok will probably survive because the Bars generate a lot more Tea money .

Unfortunately the slow count is mostly because of California . Yes they have a population larger than many countries but that is no excuse for their antiquated systems especially since they are by far the richest state. As I read all the posts in this thread , I am forced constantly to return to the real problem IMHO and that will continue to be sites like Face Book, Twitter etc. Is it so long ago that Al Gore was denied the Presidency by the Supreme Court that many don't remember how this outcome was accepted and we moved on . Now Florida reports election results faster than any other state. It is a fact that Trump as useless a human being as he is could not have created this uproar about being cheated without Face Book, Twitter etc where millions can read ridiculous lies that are purported to be fact. If the when the Democrats controlled all 3 branches of government had been smart enough to bring Puerto Rico , District of Columbia etc into full fledged entities that could have Senators , this ridiculous system where 40% of the population controls 60% of the Senate would have been fixed.

I have to admit Hanoi is one of my favorite cities in the world as long as your visit takes place in the cool season ( delightful). Fabulous outdoor cafes under beautiful trees and of course wonderful restaurants . Apps are active enough to find company if and when needed.

I just think there is too much confusion about what Media was and what many now consider Media. Facebook and Twitter etc are not Media in my mind . They are under no regulations, they allow every Tom ,Dick and Harry to post BS with no responsibility of what is posted. They cannot be taken to court and sued for money damages and thus are immune to right or wrong. I watch Fox news sometimes and they certainly have a bias but there are things they will not allow to be said or inferred because of possible Legal Consequences. At least in the US, the major news outlets are careful not to cross the line of Bias vs Fiction. FB and Twitter etc have no legal consequence because they have no news organizations. They allow any Tom, Dick,and Harry to post fantasy , lies etc with no consequences to their Money Machines as if they are News Organizations. There are millions of people who get their news from these outlets and they legitimately think of them as real news outlets. They consume what they view as news on the run and thus millions of these people will tell you that George Floyd was responsible for his own death . So who is to Blame? In the US at least there is blame to go around but certainly it starts in the US Congress and at times elevates itself to a Conservative Supreme Court. This is what protects FB etc from being sued into oblivion and needs to be changed. Not sure about other Democratic countries but I guess they have the same kind of protection but we have members here who can comment? https://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/what-is-section-230-the-legislation-protecting-social-media/

Embarrassed to say I never thought of that . It is a good idea but only if everyone did it .Otherwise his drivel would pop up when any other member replied to him!

Why can't you recognize that you are a selfish jerk. Nobody likes you here . Go back to where ever you use to post and if not ,hopefully Michael will ban you!!!

Great program last night by one of the best investigative reporters on the race for the vaccine! https://www.msnbc.com/on-assignment/watch/race-for-the-vaccine-cracking-the-code-96010309723

You are right that it may not be easy but something has to be done. If FB wants to make Billions off of fictitious stories then let them be sued like any newspaper would. There is a big difference between personal opinion and things that purport to be fact to the unsuspecting.

Just seems to be the old story for hundred of years . Democracy is messy and to work its best needs an educated citizenry . Unfortunately the education that much of the citizenry now gets is from the likes of Face Book and Twitter etc. Those companies should be banned or at least severely restricted by allowing them to be sued into oblivion if allowing false facts to be posted like they are the Gospel. If the great newspapers of the Democratic World posted the lies that are allowed on Face Book etc they would fast be destroyed at least in the USA. In the USA you only have to go back to Bush vs Gore to see how it works. There were no riots when Bush was declared the winner after the Supreme Court ended the fiasco in Florida . And in fact the Clinton Government did everything possible to make the transition smooth. Unfortunately the late start still caused the Bush Presidency to make some severe mistakes that may have led to 9/11. This mess that Biden is going through is likely to cause unforeseen turbulence because of Baby Trump not doing the right things. Would be interested to hear from citizens of other Democracies ?