firecat69

In a perfect world you would be right . However the US is far from perfect with Trump controlling the levers of government.Trump put someone with no expertise in charge of the Post Office . The first thing he did is trash Million Dollar sorters ( essentially new) to the garbage heap. That immediately backed up the time for delivery of mail. We still have no idea how many Votes by Mail never got counted because they are in trash piles or still sitting in post offices. This same person stopped all over time during this critical time of voting. Of course it is undeniable that Democrats were encouraged to vote by mail which would lessen their chances of contracting the virus by standing for hours in lines to vote. Democrats heeded this while Trump told his Voters don't worry about the Virus. It is going away and really no problem. Mail in Ballots can't be trusted . Well now we are seeing how dangerous this Virus is when you have a Moron like Trump running the government. All these idiot Republican Governors who danced to Trumps Flute now see their states overrun with the Virus with no beds in Hospitals and Hospitals forced to allow medical personal who have tested positive but have no symptoms to continue to provide care. We are now on track for 500,000 deaths by the time any vaccine can be widely distributed. All of this because of millions of stupid citizens who danced to Trumps lies and refused to wear masks etc . Of course we have a lot of company around the world who also did not do what the Doctors suggested to help stop the spread of the Virus while waiting both for a vaccine and the ability to distribute it to an increasing % of the public that does not trust anything said . As someone who has travelled around the world since my 18th Birthday , I was always suspicious of the USA and the supposed great Democracy. Yes we have done some great things and we have failed miserably in other instances. But not until now have I had to question whether a large % of our politicians don't care about our citizens but only power . Likewise I am disappointed how many citizens of Democracies around the world have failed to do the simplest things in order to protect themselves and others from contracting this Virus. There is plenty of shame to go around and likewise there is praise to go around for countries who took the hard steps to protect their citizens despite the economic pain!

Sadly you are right but hopefully when there are some competent people back in the Executive Branch , more attention will be paid, but it sure would help if the Dems won both the Ga Senate Seats.

Trip Advisor has some balls when they allow anyone to post reviews whether or not they have ever actually spent time at the Business.

One constant is that Thai Boys almost always look younger than their actual age. We should be so lucky!

Who knows?? Thailand might allow vaccinated persons to visit Thailand.

Just plain ridiculous . Those days are long over!! 42 years . Really you are just plain ignorant if you don't things have changed. Maybe not perfect but certainly not anything like you are trying to say.

You are right about 1978 and completely wrong about whether things have changed. Just in the 10 years I have made Atlanta my home, the change is unbelievable. The state voted for Biden against Racist Trump. The 2 white Republican Senator candidates who 6 years ago would have won in a cake walk will now have the fight of their life and I predict at least 1 of the Democrats will win.I go into Whole Foods and half the customers are Black. During the same time the change in North Carolina is amazing and likely will tend Blue in the next Presidential election. Democrats did not win Texas but it is inevitable that in the next 10 years Texas will change to Democrats. Unfortunately Florida continues to be stubborn Republican . Probably as much Democrats fault for not understanding the make up of the state which is highly diverse.

Although you make some good points , I see no chance of Republicans ever getting close to 80 seats. Rather if Democrats come up with good candidates particularly women , they will gain seats. I am hopeful that Dems will gain at least 1 seat in Georgia for the run off in January. Perdue is a piece of crap and without the Presidents coat tails , he is likely to lose in a state that is constantly moving Democratic. I see North Carolina moving Democratic as well as Arizona .

Could not have said it better myself. Those same Republicans have been stealing elections for many years . Just unbelievable that Georgia is voting for Biden and who knows they will have 2 Senate seats at risk in the re-vote. Maybe the Dems won't win those seats but it will be close and likely switch in the future. Apparently no hope for places like Alabama but places like North Carolina and even Texas are moving to the Democrats . The only reason Republicans can ever win the Presidency is because of the ridiculous system. It's been many years since they have ever come close to winning the most votes. In a real Democracy Republicans would have to change or never win National Offices.

Never been to Kiev but Prague is a great city but the boys will be many times more expensive than Thailand. Suggest you go to boytoy.com in their forum, you will find lots of info on Prague and maybe Kiev ( I have not kept up with site the last year.

I completely get that about comfort with dentists. I traveled 1/2 way around the world to Thailand this January and February for the express purpose of seeing my favorite dentist ( maybe a couple other reasons?) . I also originally found this dentist also in Bangkok Pattaya Hospital . He subsequently opened a private practice. He had to book me for a very complicated root canal at Bangkok Pattaya Hospital besides the work he performed. Not sure but it was an older women ( about 60 inches tall) who only worked 2 days a week . It was 2 1/2 hours and never felt a thing . They locked down Thailand a few days after I left. Possibly I should have just stayed. HeHe! BTW Jupiter Boy is a Very Lucky Young Man and if he is smart I will be saying the same thing 10 years from now or more!

First if you read the statistics that Reader posted, evidently many countries have a poor overall health condition under your thesis . Love Bill Maher but that was a better argument when it looked like the election could be close . Now it is taking shape as a blow out ( I Pray) If need be the military will remove him. Side note voting started in Georgia yesterday and people stood in line up to 12 hours in order to vote. I doubt many of those people were voting for Trump! Just another Red State that may go Blue,

We have an idiot Senator from Wisconsin that bloviated that BS in March. He said we lose 30,000 every year to traffic accidents and we don't close the roads. I sent him a message that he was a Moron , at the time there were only less than 10,000 deaths from the Virus. Now we are heading towards 300,000 by the end of the year. Lucky for him he is not up for election or his stupidity would send him packing. Hopefully there will be long memories and he will be thrown out in 2022. Of course that does not change the fact that Thailand has too many road deaths . Of course a good % of those are on motor bikes where there is no protection in an accident and the vast majority are drunk drivers. We did cut down those kind of auto deaths when we got tough on drunk driving but I admit I certainly realize how dangerous it is to drive in parts of Thailand.

Sorry but don't agree with some things at least in the USA which has the largest number of deaths. A large % of that population is not lucrative unless they have insurance which many do not or if they do it is not sufficient to cover the bills . I suppose I could find the facts on mass shootings but I doubt there is any difference . The shootings are now smaller but might add up to the same number of deaths. Really the overall number is all that counts. https://247wallst.com/economy/2020/08/11/us-gun-deaths-top-25000/ That number is larger than 2019 ( I decided to google it)

Complete ignorance. Check the deaths in Brazil or major cities in Mexico , Colombia and many more! Last time I visited those countries, I remember them as pretty hot. Plus under that thesis I wonder how those 110 degree temps in Arizona create so many deaths. You sound like a Trumpster ( complete ignorance)

I agree. If much of the rest of the Western World had done its job , there would be many travelers who could visit Thailand . Yes unfortunately I am a Trump citizen and not welcome in most of the countries in the world that I have visited over the last 50 years . Talk about collapse how would you like to be a business owner in Hawaii. I'm not sure what % tourism is but I bet it is a lot larger then in Thailand . They let no one in from the other 49 states never mind any other countries , Just now talking about opening up without quarantine!

I'm going to chime in on this. I have posted on many sites both good and bad reviews. In all honesty most of my reviews have been positive because I do a fair amount of research in advance of my travel. I would guess 80-90% of my bookings were for leisure travel and thus it is much easier to do some research vs. Business Travel which might not give you the same time to read reviews etc before booking. I also use a mix of Big Chains because of the past ability to earn ridiculous amounts of points just for spending on normal purchases and getting credit card bonuses etc. I always took Trip Advisor reviews with a grain of salt and would look for confirmation on booking.com. Unlike many of the Hotel sites , you cannot post a review until you have actually checked out of the Hotel. Thus % of fake reviews are greatly reduced. Of course then Airbnb came along and you can definitely count on the reviews there for the same reason as Booking. Still 2 people will see things differently or possibly have an unusual experience which could color their review. It takes very little time to read reviews of say the last 90 days and you enhance your chance of picking a Hotel that will give you value for money. Surprisingly even the big chains will have dogs in their portfolio either because of location , age with no renovations etc.

Thanks for that post. I have a good friend who is in that boat and his wife and 2 kids are Thai. They live in Bangkok and hope to move to Canada when this Covid - 19 is over . His kids can get Canadian passports but of course there will be many hoops to jump through to get his wife into Canada. If you have any knowledge or suggestions in that area please send a PM.

LUCKY for you I don't still own this Board because you would be banned in 30 seconds. Hopefully Michael will feel the same way when he reads your post. No one will be sorry to see you go!!!

This thread makes me remember many funny times. I had regular from Soi Twilight when I was living in Bangkok. He was someone who I saw many times and we went on trips together and sometimes went home with 2 or 3 of his friends. I never asked his age because the Bar I was taking him from and my own eyes guessed 21-23. Then 1, 3 day trip to Chiang Mai he left my computer on and he was chatting with friends and he forgot sign off. It was Thai site but some was easiy to translate. He had all his information and under age he was 34. To this day it is hard to believe . We laughed about it and I told him , that it made no difference to me and it did not. I wish I had stayed in touch . He would be 44 now and I'd love to see a current photo. Memories!

Looks like a 12 year old wrote it . 100 tourists per week which somehow will equal 1200 per month ? 1.2 Billion baht per month is equally ridiculous as they are unlikely to find many or any who would be willing to spend ( my calculator does not go that high) per month . And of course even if they were to find a great number of wealthy people to spend that there is no enforcement mechanism to determine what they would spend . And even if they somehow could monitor the spending there are already long stay visas which would be much less expensive for those who want to stay possibly for a year.

I have to laugh just a little bit at Michaels Post. Having know him for close to 20 years and having traveled with him to a few countries , I can say none of the replies to his questions have even come close to what he has already thought as a minimum. Not only that the boy is likely to never be treated any better and feel less like a money boy than when he makes this trip with Michael. Also if the boy is smart and treats Michael less as a client but as a friend he likely will get considerably more than the amount agreed upon. Hopefully Michael has found the Boy he deserves for this trip!!!!!

Well now you really got me. You certainly are not from the USA because there is nothing close to Universal Health Care in my country which is one of the continued disgraces for supposedly the richest country in the world!!

Why are you always trying to pick a fight.? I did not accuse anyone of making that comparison. In fact I apologized for not realizing his post about 0.01% was about Thailand . ( Sometimes at 2am the brain does not operate at 100%) This thread is about tourists returning to Thailand . So since I am from the US as are many posters am I not allowed to state my beliefs that US citizens will be at the end of the line when it comes to returning to Thailand . That they are 1 of the 2 worst countries in the world in handling the Virus . That their % of citizens with the Virus is disgusting . Truth is Thailand did one of the best jobs and they will decide who gets to return and in what order. And anyone who would criticize Thailand for the lock down , they better come from a country that did an equal or better job. ( may not be any) . Whether I might have assumed Vinapu was from the US has no meaning , because I once guessed he was from Canada and he corrected me and for all I know he is from Venezuela.

I'm sorry if I did not realize you were talking about Thailand with your 0.01 %. It certainly was not clear either in your response to Up2U or that Up2U was talking about Thailand rather than his own country. Ridiculous to try to compare a country like Thailand that did the right thing with a country which has a Moron for President who is only interested in his own wealth and to hell with the almost 200,000 people who have already died and the many more that will come unfortunately. After all the Labor Day celebrations the death count will again spurt way past 1000 per day and no telling what the final count will be but many experts think it may be 500,000 by the end of the year. Flu season is about to start which will even complicate more the lives of anyone with the Virus. No wonder almost no country in the world will allow people from the USA to visit them. Really matters little when Thailand will open their borders because the US will be at the end of a long waiting line, before they are welcome!