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NOTE -- This is among the most objective and comprehensive articles I've come across on this topic. From NYTimes How Bad Will the Coronavirus Outbreak Get? Here Are 6 Key Factors How contagious is the virus? It seems moderately infectious, similar to SARS. How deadly is the virus? It’s hard to know yet. But the mortality rate is probably less than 3 percent, much less than SARS. How long does it take to show symptoms? Possibly between 2 to 14 days, allowing the illness to go undetected. How much have infected people traveled? The virus spread quickly because it started in a transportation hub. How effective will the response be? The W.H.O. has praised China’s efforts, but critics fear lockdown measures may not be enough. How long will it take to develop a vaccine? A vaccine is still a year away — at minimum. Continues with supporting data and graphics https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/world/asia/china-coronavirus-contain.html

From Bangkok Post Human transmission of coronavirus confirmed in Thailand Thailand has seen its first case of human-to-human transmission of the new coronavirus inside the country, a senior Public Health official said on Friday. The patient is a Thai taxi driver, Tanarak Pipat, deputy director-general of the Department of Disease Control, said on Friday. "The Thai person who was infected does not have a record of travelling to China and it is likely that he was infected by a sick traveller from China," Dr Tanarak said.Previous cases in Thailand have all been either Chinese tourists or Thais who had visited China, where the virus originated. This raised the number of confirmed infections in Thailand to 19. Dr Sopon Iamsirithavorn, director of the Bureau of General Communicable Diseases, earlier told reporters on Friday morning that two cabbies who had picked up Chinese tourists later fell ill and sought treatment two days ago. The tourists had arrived in Thailand before the Chinese government suspended outbound trips by its citizens, he said. Human-to-human transmission of the virus has also been confirmed in other countries - including Germany, Japan, South Korea and the United States, Dr Sopon said. Dr Sopon Iamsirithavorn, director of the Bureau of General Communicable Diseases, earlier told reporters on Friday morning that two cabbies who had picked up Chinese tourists later fell ill and sought treatment two days ago. The tourists had arrived in Thailand before the Chinese government suspended outbound trips by its citizens, he said. ======================================================= From South China Morning Post Singapore closes borders to all Chinese travellers to stem spread of coronavirus The island nation is the first Southeast Asian country to bar all visitors from the mainland It has also reported three new cases of the virus, bringing its total to 16, including the first Singaporean to be infected https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3048441/singapore-closes-borders-all-chinese-travellers-stem https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/1847884/human-transmission-of-coronavirus-confirmed-in-thailand

From Bangkok Post Two held for sharing fake news on virus Two people were arrested on Thursday in a crackdown on misleading information being posted on social media in relation to the new coronavirus, Digital Economy and Society (DES) Minister Buddhipongse Punnakanta said. He said officials from the DES Ministry and the Royal Thai Police’s Technology Crime Suppression Division (TCSD) obtained court warrants to search 15 locations and found six suspected cases related to fake news that have been causing fear and confusion. Of the six suspects, two were charged under the 2017 Computer Crime Act’s Section 14 (2), he said. The charges were in relation to a false report about infections in Pattaya and an edited video clip of a Chinese man collapsing. Section 14 (2) concerns the “uploading of false information into the computer system, which is bound to damage national security and cause public disorder”. The minister said the Anti Fake News Centre, supervised by the DES Ministry, has received 7,587 items of suspected fake news from Saturday to Wednesday. Most of them involved fake patients, the alleged scrapping of thermal screening at airports, allegations of the number of infections being covered up and claims that some products can kill the virus. To counter the spread of fake news, he said the ministry was working with health authorities to produce easy-to-understand infographics for public distribution. “When it comes to health, people will believe and share anything,” he said, urging people to check facts before they forward any content. The minister said the Anti Fake News Centre, supervised by the DES Ministry, has received 7,587 items of suspected fake news from Saturday to Wednesday. Most of them involved fake patients, the alleged scrapping of thermal screening at airports, allegations of the number of infections being covered up and claims that some products can kill the virus. To counter the spread of fake news, he said the ministry was working with health authorities to produce easy-to-understand infographics for public distribution. “When it comes to health, people will believe and share anything,” he said, urging people to check facts before they forward any content. https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/1847099/two-held-for-sharing-fake-news-on-viru

Do you have any info on the Vietnam locations, please?

From Coconuts Bangkok Beijing talks Thailand out of evacuating Wuhan as virus transmissions reported outside China Thailand has shelved plans to evacuate its citizens from the Chinese city where a viral outbreak was first detected at Beijing’s urging as confirmed infections in the kingdom rose to 14. Tana Weskosith of the Foreign Affairs Ministry told reporters that China is confident it can look after the students and workers trapped inside the Wuhan exclusionary zone that has expanded to essentially quarantine at least 50 million people. “China has absolute restrictions on entry and exit from Wuhan and does not allow anyone to travel in and out in order to strictly control the spread of the coronavirus. Thailand has to strictly comply with such a measure. Therefore, we cannot fly the C-130 plane to pick up our people, but, what we have to do is to rehearse the guidelines and prepare measures to be ready if and when the evacuation plan is allowed by China,” Tana said. Somehow those strict measures didn’t stop Japan and the United States from evacuating their citizens. About 200 Japanese evacuees landed safely in Tokyo this morning; the Americans airlifted 240 people. The Thai response has invited strong criticism and calls for tighter travel restrictions. Five million residents of Wuhan, China, left the city for Chinese New Year travel before travel was cut off, according to that city’s mayor. The government and military had announced a rescue plan following a viral plea from one of the students trapped there, who said they had insufficient food and wanted to come home. Cathay Pacific and Hong Kong airlines have announced they would halve the number of flights to mainland China. The former will do so progressively starting tomorrow. Rival Hong Kong airlines said it would cut more than 200 of such flights until Feb. 11. https://coconuts.co/bangkok/news/beijing-talks-thailand-out-of-evacuating-wuhan-as-virus-transmissions-reported-outside-china/

If you intend to wear a face mask, it would indeed be wise to bring them with you. As of yesterday, they were unavailable in many Bangkok outlets, including the Chula Pharmacy on Rama 4 that ranks among the better suppliers to locals and the nearby medical community. They told a friend that they were awaiting delivery of new supplies. In many US cities, they are also unavailable as the Corona virus scare multiplies.

Point well taken: it's easy to get fixated on the Corona virus because it dominates the news cycle. The common flu (and associated pneumonia) claims a huge number of lives world-wide each year. The World Health Organization chart and map (see link below) plots deaths from flu and pneumonia world wide as of 2017. Here's a sampling of the rankings of nations that may be of interest to readers of this forum: 24 - Philippines 53 - Laos 54 - Malaysia 56 - Singapore 57- Thailand 62 - India 67 - Cambodia 78 - Myanmar 90 - Japan 101 -Russia 117 - Vietnam 119- U.K. 131- S. Korea 147- U.S. 148- China 162- New Zealand 163- Germany 169- Australia 170- Canada See complete chart and map at https://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/cause-of-death/influenza-pneumonia/by-country/

The link provides a lot of interesting data but the number of infants killed by the flu this year is actually 54. From link above: "To put the risk in more context, the current US flu season has killed 54 infants so far, according to CDC. And in the first two weeks of 2020, the flu has killed more than 5,000 people in the US, mostly through associated pneumonia."

From CNN ....in public ports I know the feeling: Your battery is low, but you have to keep tweeting. You see a USB port or an outlet in public, plug in your device and feel the sweet relief of your phone charging. That comfort could be shattered by an invisible attacker collecting information while your phone is plugged in to a hacked outlet. "Just by plugging your phone into a [compromised] power strip or charger, your device is now infected, and that compromises all your data," Drew Paik of security firm Authentic8 explained. Authentic8 makes Silo, a secure browser that anonymizes web activity. Public charging stations and wi-fi access points are found in places like airports, planes, conference centers and parks, so people can always have access to their phones and data. But connecting your phone to an unknown port has its risks. The cord you use to charge your phone is also used to send data from your phone to other devices. For instance, when you plug your iPhone into your Mac with the charging cord, you can download photos from your phone to your computer. If a port is compromised, there's no limit to what information a hacker could take, Paik explained. That includes your email, text messages, photos and contacts. It's called "juice jacking," a term coined by researchers back in 2011. Last year, the same researchers demonstrated "video jacking," using hacked ports and your phone's video display to record everything you type and look at. Continues at https://money.cnn.com/2017/02/15/technology/public-ports-charging-bad-stop/index.html

"Bargain," albeit, is a subjective term. Not knowing what dates you're looking at, I spot checked Agoda and Hotels.com for Silom area on Feb. 24-25. The following prices appeared attractive: Mid-rage options: Raya, $58; Bandera Suites, $52; Ban Silom, $36; Fumara, $49; Silom Serene, $46; Trinity Silom, $42. Coming in above the $60 range were Tarntawan Surawong and Holiday Inn Express, both at $61. Economy options: Red Planet, $29; Glitz, $33; Nantra, $19.

+1

If you're a contrarian investor with your time and money, the first quarter of 2020 may indeed prove to be a good opportunity to visit the LOS. Consider what's happened in the past week in the wake of the Coronavirus outbreak: 1. Tourism authorities predict hotels and other travel-related businesses will take a big hit 2. The baht has lost ground to the dollar, pound and Euro 3. China has canceled packaged tours and many outbound flights All this will likely be reversed as quickly as it has come about when the threat is contained. In meantime, however, you stand to become a more hansum man.

From Khaosod English Tourists Still Don’t Know About These Decades-Old Street Food in Bangkok Just south of Sathorn Road are clusters of back-to-back street food shops who’ve been serving hungry locals and honing their craft for decades. By paying as little as 40 baht, you could get a dish of noodles and fish balls that someone has spent 40 years perfecting in this neighborhood along the streets of Chan, Saint Louis, and Sathu Pradit. Plus, they’re largely free of tourists, so you’ll actually be eating what locals eat, not what Instagram influencers/backpackers are snacking on. Ride up and down Chan Road on the following red hop-on-hop-off song taew buses: 1256, 1271, 1279. Taxi drivers, Grab Bike riders, and bros daring each other to finish multiple huge bowls are just some of the regulars that come to an unnamed shop serving huge bowls of egg noodles since the 1970s. “One big bowl used to be just 50 satang. My mom wanted to give huge portions to working people who need lots of energy,” said Weera Nopparatcharoeksuk, who took over from his parents about 10 years ago, as he swirls noodles with a stick in hot water. “We can charge cheaply because we make the noodles ourselves.” The shop’s specialty is Bamee jub gung, literally “coolie egg noodles,” a dish popularized by Chinese laborers in the past, who needed cheap, high-energy dishes. There are three sizes to choose from: 30 baht, 40 baht, and 45 baht: or in layman’s terms, large, larger, and largest. The noodles have no added color – the light yellow is all from the eggs. We couldn’t even make a dent in the 45 baht noodles (and we asked for extra, free pork rib broth as well), a pile of eggy goodness with thick chunks of grilled pork and homemade pork wontons. “Most of my customers are men, but I’ve had some ladies come in and finish a 40 baht bowl while a guy couldn’t finish a 30 baht one,” Weera said. Fun fact: Although the shop doesn’t have an official name. Locals have christened it “Bamee Jub Gung Pa Pranee” or Aunt Pranee’s Coolie Noodles, after Weera’s mom. Open 9am to 2pm Mondays through Saturdays at Soi Chan 43, Yaek 11. Continues with more listings, photos, video and map link http://www.khaosodenglish.com/featured/2020/01/25/tourists-still-dont-know-about-these-decades-old-street-food-in-bangkok/

I think the status of the Thai and Chinese economies will be the overriding factor, particularly the value of Silom real estate. Twilight was the mainstay of gay Bangkok for a long spell until the land below and sky above beckoned developers. Now that Patpong has quickly absorbed that role, it's success over the next decade will be partly ruled by the same forces. The Silom venues (including Moonlight and Jupiter) need a stable influx of Chinese customers to make the numbers work. The proliferation of massage shops scattered around the area (especially along Surawong) likewise would have a tough time without them. Not a gay venue (although many of its customers are), Prime is one of the few that could survive. Because of its large local following, Soi 4 is somewhat immune. Nevertheless there could be a pruning of venues in a serious economic downturn like the financial crisis of 1997. At the moment, the economy of Thailand is fairly stable but it faces increased headwinds, the most immediate of which is the strong baht. Beyond that it's political future is one of those "black swan" events that economists worry about. The booming economy of China is expected to slow during the decade but continue to dominate the region and--to a lesser degree--the rest of the world. A prosperous China means a continued flow of customers--male and female--that fuel gay Bangkok. ASEAN neighbors can be expected to slowly increase while western clientele numbers will be lucky to remain stable. As for individual venues, there has always been an on-going evolution of clubs. That will continue as a few go by the wayside while others consolidate or go out of business. Nothing new there. That said, gays--regardless of where they're from---know that Bangkok is one of the best destinations where they can feel unencumbered by their preference.

NOTE -- It's clear to me that all posters who contributed to this thread have strong views about the environment and how it affects those who live in an visit our favorite city. We may come at the issue from different angles but all make valid points. I think the following article illustrates the need to arrive at workable solutions to air pollution. From Bangkok Post PM2.5 clogs Bangkok marathon decision Air pollution in Bangkok has stymied Thailand's dream of becoming the marathon capital of Asia, with the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) determining this weekend if the Amazing Thailand Marathon Bangkok 2020 (ATMBKK) has to be cancelled. The 3rd edition of the marathon, sponsored by the government, is set for Feb 2. Of the 28,000 people registered for this race, 20% are foreign participants, said Tourism and Sports Minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn. "If the air pollution is at an unhealthy level and harmful to runners, we don't have a choice -- we must cancel this event. Hopefully, we can still keep going like last time," said Mr Phiphat, referring to the 2019 edition of the race, also haunted by poor air quality. As a co-host, the agency is monitoring the pollution level on a daily basis and will follow the Public Health Ministry's instruction on whether to withdraw this year's event, said TAT governor Yuthasak Supasorn. However, if the event continues with the same schedule, all necessary preparations are already in place. The agency is seeking cooperation from stakeholders such as the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration to ask construction sites along the running route to stop working three days before the race. The road will be cleaned thoroughly to wash away the dust. More water stops will be available to runners, as well as increased misting fans to clear the toxic miasma. Mr Yuthasak said the decision must be made this weekend as 6,000-7,000 foreigners have to plan their trips in advance. https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/1842349/pm2-5-clogs-bangkok-marathon-decision#cxrecs_s

From Khaosod English Scholar Fears Massive Renovation of Iconic Avenue May Erase History BANGKOK — Works are underway to tear down buildings along a 1,200-meter stretch of the iconic Ratchadamnoen Avenue and rebuild them under a new architectural style per orders from the Crown Property Bureau, who owns the land. According to its website, the bureau – which manages assets and properties on behalf of His Majesty the King – pledged to renovate 10 buildings on the avenue in a “neoclassical” style, ditching the art deco look originally implemented in the spirit of a 1932 revolution that overthrew the absolute monarchy. The announcement, which promises to be the biggest alteration to the Ratchadamnoen Avenue since 1940, drew praises from some who believe the redo would attract more businesses and tourists, while a historian expressed unease at that memories attached to the democratic revolution would be erased along with the avenue’s old look. Ratchadamnoen Avenue is perhaps the most politically charged landmark in the capital; its history symbolizing the ebb and flow of the ideological struggles that define the last century of Thai politics. Construction first began in 1899, ordered by King Rama V who wished to imitate the modern, grand avenues that he witnessed during his European tour. Historians said the avenue also doubles as a projection of power by the the king’s absolute monarchy regime. Though each end of the avenue stood two spectacular palaces, much of the road was home to empty lots and trees, until a revolution in 1932 overthrew the king’s direct rule and replaced it with a parliamentary democracy. The revolutionaries, who called themselves the People’s Party, soon set out to fill Ratchadamnoen Avenue with buildings designed under art deco style, said architectural historian Chatri Prakitnonthakan. He said art deco was chosen by the revolutionaries to signify a break with the feudal past. Their project was formally inaugurated in 1940, including the Democracy Monument that was placed right in the middle of the avenue. But despite their historical and cultural significance, they are not considered “protected buildings” under the law, and therefore subject to any plan of demolition or renovation – such as the one happening right now. Continues with historical and contemporary photos http://www.khaosodenglish.com/news/2020/01/23/scholar-fears-massive-renovation-of-iconic-avenue-may-erase-history/

Of course she does: "What caused the high levels of air pollution in Bangkok last winter? The major sources of PM2.5 particles are exhaust from car engines, power plants, and agricultural waste burning, which lead to a number of theories - stagnant air flow, old diesel cars, coal power plants, and agricultural burning from neighboring provinces." The again, I could be talking about "cars" and you could be talking about, well..... "cars". It's the crap that you can't see--like colorless, odorless and tasteless carbon monoxide--that is among the more dangerous emissions.

From NY Times How Gay Art Survives in Beijing, as Censors Tighten Grip The artist Gao Jianxiang at his Beijing studio, foreground, with his gallerist, Pierre Alivon, whose gallery ART.Des in the Chinese capital shows gay-themed work.Credit...Pierre Alivon From the outside, the facade of Destination (a prominent Beijing venue that expressly welcomes gay people) is downright drab. But inside this four-story cultural center on the east side of the city, the works in the nonprofit art gallery can push boundaries. This is no easy feat as censorship restrictions have been tightening in China under President Xi Jinping. And, although same-sex relations were decriminalized in 1997, gay Beijingers say they continue to face discrimination. They look longingly to Taiwan, where a recent decision to legalize same-sex marriage on the self-ruled island of 24 million is being celebrated throughout the world. Taiwan has long been the heart of gay Asia. In mainland China, acceptance of same-sex couples has progressed at a glacial rate. Many gay Chinese will never come out to their family, and there are still gay conversion centers around the country. However, there is a quietly present gay community in Beijing. Destination, which opened 15 years ago as a nightclub and has since expanded to become a cultural center, is one of the few places where gay men can be open about their sexual orientation, according to observers. Since the center’s opening, its clientele has remained mostly gay men, but it’s more than just a place to find a date. The center provides anonymous H.I.V. testing, practice rooms for a men’s choir, yoga and dance classes. And on the third floor, the art gallery, ART. Des, provides a window into the current state of gay art in Beijing. Continues at https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/17/travel/gay-art-beijing-china.html

The following is a quote from Part 1 of the link cited above: "What caused the high levels of air pollution in Bangkok last winter? The major sources of PM2.5 particles are exhaust from car engines, power plants, and agricultural waste burning, which lead to a number of theories - stagnant air flow, old diesel cars, coal power plants, and agricultural burning from neighboring provinces." Part 1 of the reports offers some advice for tourists: "On average tourists should avoid Bangkok between late October and early April. You may be thinking, “But that’s when I have my holiday! Where else I can go?” May I suggest Phuket or Samui Island? The south of Thailand has low AQI all year long, as you can see in the map below." That's about half the year so not very helpful for ex-pats and those tourists coming specifically to Bangkok. Part 2 of the author's report provides strong evidence that the burning of agricultural products around Southeast Asia contribute mightily to the seasonal problem. There's also an informative discussion of the effects weather inversions, wind and humidity exert on conditions. However, vehicle missions (as Anddy describes first hand from his motorbike) do indeed acerbate the problem. It's among the reasons that London penalizes drivers who enter the city center.

The idea is to keep the children out of the transportation network where they are less likely to be exposed to pollution. Bangkok has steadily expanded its BTS and MRT networks to the point you can get to many destinations around the city. It was done, I understand, with German engineering and technology. The stations and equipment are among the cleanest and best maintained I've seen. There's buses if you take some time to become familiar with the route system. And there's the river and canal boat systems well used by locals and tourists alike. I have no trouble getting around the city.

If you were just about to climb the stairs to Freshboys, the bar is immediately to your left. It's open on two sides (Patpong 2 and the portico side ) just in front of Screwboys. It has small tables, a sofa and small bar. The Freshboys waiters (all will be wearing numbers and acting as hawkers before show) are offable. Don't be surprised if they find you before you find them.

From Coconuts Bangkok The wai and its spoken counterpart sawasdee, a beautiful and gracious tradition widely associated with Thailand, is being celebrated today by tech giant Google for being “adopted” this day in 1943. “Known as the ‘Land of a Thousand Smiles,’ Thailand is world-renowned for its friendly people and gracious hospitality,” Google’s announcement reads. “Today, sawaddee can be heard across the country—from the idyllic beaches of the south, to the temples of the mountainous north, and everywhere in between—epitomizing the welcoming spirit of Thailand.” By “adopted,” Google of course means unilaterally imposed by fiat on the populace by then-dictator Plaek Phibunsongkhram, who wielded absolute power to drag Thailand, if not kicking and screaming, then wai-ing and sitting, into the modern era. s part of his Thai Cultural Revolution, he changed the nation’s name from Siam to Thailand and famously passed laws requiring Thais sit in chairs, men wear pants, and women kiss their husbands goodbye. Before that, Thais greeted each other however they wanted. That included “How are you?” “Have you eaten?” and “Where did you go?” Plaek is a complicated figure – he was a leader in the revolt that overthrew absolute monarchy in 1932 before going on to embrace fascism, Mussolini and Imperial Japanese occupation. On Jan. 22, 1943 he issued the following decree: “The Prime Minister has considered the matter and believes that in order to enhance the honor of our people and the nation, and for the Thais be praised as a civilized people, and as speech reflects the one’s mentality; therefore, the order has been given to strongly urge all public servants to say ‘sawasdee’ to one another when meeting the first time every day. Doing so will foster friendship and instill the habit of speaking only auspicious words. In addition, public servants must advise those in their households to also use the phrase sawasdee.” He was ousted a year after mandating the Sawadee greeting as Japan crumbled and the Thai underground resistance movement grew in power. Following the final routing of the Axis powers he adored in World War II, Plaek returned to power with a newfound enthusiasm for democracy and ruled another nine years. The word “sawaddee,” derived from svasti (“well-being” in Sanskrit) was invented in the mid-1930s by Chulalongkorn University professor Nim Kanjanajiva, aka Phraya Upakit Silapasan. https://coconuts.co/bangkok/news/google-celebrates-greeting-imposed-by-thai-dictator/

From the BBC How a boy from Vietnam became a slave on a UK cannabis farm It was a horrifying death for the 39 Vietnamese nationals found in the back of a trailer in an industrial park in Essex, in October last year. The story shone a light on the subterranean world of people smuggling and human trafficking, reports Cat McShane, specifically the thriving route between Vietnam and the UK. Ba is slight for 18. His body shrinks into a neat package as he recalls his experiences. We're sitting in a brightly lit kitchen, a Jack Russell dog darting between us under the table. Ba's foster mum fusses in the background, making lunch and occasionally interjecting to clarify or add some detail to his account of his journey here from Vietnam. She wants to make sure his story is understood. Ba's lived here for nearly a year. He was placed with his foster parents after being found wandering, confused and scared, around a train station in the North of England, with just the clothes he was wearing. "You feel safe now though, don't you?" his foster mum asks, needing affirmation that the mental and physical scars Ba wears will heal with enough care. His story is one both extraordinary, and typical of the growing number of Vietnamese men and women recognised as being potential victims of trafficking in the UK. For several years, Vietnamese have been one of the top three nationalities featured in modern slavery cases referred to the National Crime Agency, with 702 cases in 2018. The Salvation Army, which supports all adult victims of modern slavery in the UK, says the number of Vietnamese nationals referred to them over the last five years has more than doubled. It's estimated 18,000 people make the journey from Vietnam to Europe each year. Ba believes it was a Chinese gang that trafficked him to the UK. He was kidnapped off the streets of Ho Chi Minh City, where he was a street child, an orphan who slept in the bend of a sewage pipe. He sold lottery tickets for money, although older men sometimes beat him and grabbed his takings. A 2017 Unicef report described Ho Chi Minh City as "a source location, place of transition and destination of child trafficking". And a 2018 report by anti-trafficking charities said numerous trafficked Vietnamese children had reported being abducted while living on the streets. That's what happened to Ba. "An older man told me that if I came with him, he could help me earn a lot of money. But when I said no, he put a bag over my head. I couldn't believe what was happening," he says. He was then bundled into a small van, bound as well as blindfolded, his shouts stifled. Somewhere along the way, Ba's captors changed, and now he couldn't understand the language they spoke. When they finally came to a standstill and the bag was removed, Ba found himself in a large, empty, windowless warehouse in China, and was told to wait. "I knew they were preparing to send me somewhere to work," he says. During the months that Ba was held there, a guard regularly beat him. "I don't know why," Ba says with a shrug, "there was no reason." When he was caught trying to escape, his punishment was far worse than kicks and punches - the guard poured scalding water over his chest and arms. "It was agony. I was shouting at him to stop but he didn't listen," he says. Ba became unconscious with the pain. "I just lay still for days. I couldn't walk. It was painful for a very long time." His foster mum adds that his scarred skin is tight all over his body, and a permanent reminder of what happened to him. Ba was then moved to the UK in a succession of trucks. He remembers the silence of the final container, where the human cargo hid among boxes. The quiet was broken only by the rustling of cardboard being ripped up, to be used as insulation from the gnawing cold. His long-sleeved top offered little protection. "I was always scared on the journey, and very tired. I couldn't sleep because I was so worried. I didn't know what was happening to me. I wasn't told anything about where I was going." In fact, Ba was destined to work as a "gardener" in the UK's illegal cannabis trade - which is valued at around £2.6bn a year. In an abandoned two-storey house surrounded by woodland, he was locked-up and told to look after the plants that grew on every available surface. It was a mundane vigil of switching lights on and off over the plants at set times and watering them every few hours. But it was also punctuated by violence. When a plant failed, Ba was starved and kicked by a Chinese boss, who would aim for the burns on his chest. Ba never received any payment for his work, and wasn't told he was earning to pay off his fare to the UK. He was a slave. "How did I keep going? I kept telling myself to keep eating, keep working and to wait for the opportunity to run away," he says. He finally escaped by smashing an upstairs window, and jumping to the ground. Then he ran for as long as he could. Continues at https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-51176958

From Bangkok Post City Hall has ordered about 20,000 personnel to start work at 10am instead of 8am and suspended classes at its 437 schools on Wednesday in its fight against unhealthy smog levels. The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) came up with four urgent measures to deal with the hazardous ultra-fine dust levels in the air in the capital, said spokesman Pongsakorn Kwanmuang. The measures are the introduction of staggered working hours of 20,000 BMA personnel at City Hall in Sao Chingcha area and the BMA City Hall Tower 2 in Din Daeng, suspension of classes at all 437 BMA-run schools, distribution of face masks and campaigns to promote their use, said Pol Capt Pongsakorn. https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/1840579/city-hall-orders-staggered-hours-in-fight-against-smog

NOTE -- Although Coconuts Bangkok has since posted an article, citing a government official who claims that the British man does not have the virus associated with the Wuhan variant, it also seems directed at downplaying the issue . The spokesman says the public shouldn't be alarmed because there's no indication that the man traveled to Wuhan. That suggests that that the virus can only be acquired within that city. The second article below from the South China Morning Post presents a more dire scenario. From Coconuts Bangkok As Wuhan virus fever takes hold of the public’s imagination, Thai health officials said Tuesday afternoon that a 32-year-old British tourist who fell ill on the resort island of Phi Phi does not have the potentially fatal disease. Ash Shorley, who reportedly fell ill after arriving in Thailand in late December, has been the subject of breathless reports indicating he might have been infected with the virus that has killed at least four people since it emerged in Wuhan, China last month. Phuket’s top public health official, Thanit Sermkaew, told the Phuket News today that Shorley did not have the disease. Disease Control Department Director Sophon Iamsirithavorn today said no record could be found indicating Shorley had traveled to Wuhan. He said the public shouldn’t be alarmed. https://coconuts.co/bangkok/news/british-tourist-recovering-in-bangkok/ ============================================================== From South China Morning Post Wuhan coronavirus: 20 other cities in China affected by outbreak, Hong Kong academics say The model developed by Hong Kong University suggests coronavirus outbreak worse than officially reported Model, which used travel and other data to map out the likely spread of the virus, estimated 1,343 people had been infected in Wuhan The Wuhan coronavirus has already spread to 20 other cities in China, according to a study from the University of Hong Kong that suggests the outbreak is worse than officially reported. A model developed by HKU’s infectious disease experts found the virus would have taken hold across swathes of mainland China between January 1 and 17. The analysis by the university’s WHO Collaborating Centre for Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Control was unveiled on Tuesday, when health authorities reported 21 cases in six mainland cities other than Wuhan, the source of the outbreak. https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3047022/wuhan-coronavirus-20-other-cities-china-affected