Papa Sam

Phuket's Bangla Rd on Patong Beach celebrated its - this time official - reopening yesterday too. Even iconic Kangaroo Bar was open: Okay, people are wearing masks, but otherwise this looks good to me... Source: ThaiPBS A bar in Nawamin had an unexpected visit from the authorities yesterday. The bib came to check whether the Health Safety Standards, or SHA, had been complied with and also if alcohol was being served after 21.00 (9pm). Source: Snakehill

The Standard writes about the reopening of Bangkok yesterday November 1st (via Google Translate): Yesterday (November 1) was the first day of opening the country. It was allowed to sit and drink alcohol in restaurants. THE STANDARD went to explore the Nana area. The atmosphere on the first day was still a bit subdued because foreign tourists have not arrived on the first day. As for Soi Cowboy, it is still lonely because it is a pub and bar alley, so it hasn't been allowed to open yet. Some images from the reopening night in Bangkok: First KSR (Khao San Road): Nana: Morning-Night and Stumble Inn bars seemed to be open again but if one takes a closer look one can see there were no guests inside.... Sukhumvit Soi 11: Sukhumvit Soi 7: Cowboy: I particularly like this picture with the police officer standing still in front of one of the closed bars on Soi Cowboy: Unlike Nana, Soi 7 and KSR, Cowboy was almost completely in the dark last night. Source: The Standard [/url] On November 2nd, at 8:30 PM, Shinsaku, a Japanese expat restaurant in the Rama 4 / Chong Charoen area in Bangkok, was randomly inspected by the authorities, led by Pol. Lt. Gen. Samran Nuanma, and a TV crew: Apparently everyone complied with the current regulations which means everyone was drunk before 9 PM as per request of the local Bangkok government...[emoji23] Happy days are here again (kind of...)

Demolishion work at Soi MIT: Source: New Bar FB

How long will the 9pm deadline for serving alcoholic drinks in Bangkok last before it'll be relaxed? Tempo News writes: The Thai Alcohol Business Association requested to increase the deadline to 11 PM, but that proposal was rejected. Asawin Kwanmuang, Governor of Bangkok (BMA), said that further relaxation of Covid-19 prevention measures and allowing guests to drink alcoholic beverages in restaurants that meet SHA standards beyond 9 PM will come gradually They will assess the situation every two weeks. He hinted that they might move the 9 PM deadline for alcoholic drinks 1 hour, or 2 hours, or 3 hours further back back next time they are assessing the situation. But what do you do if by 9 PM you haven't finished your drink yet? The general says: If by 9 PM, you still haven't finished your drink, what do you do? Just leave it in the bottle, cover it with a lid, and take it home. If you're on the table, you can do 2 things: 1. knock it all down 2. pour it out, it's not difficult at all. ... If something is still left in the bottle, cover it with a lid and take it home... https://thepattayanews.com/2021/11/01/bangkok-governor-turns-down-entrepreneurs-outcry-of-extending-drinking-hours-to-1100-pm-easing-bars-and-nightlife/

Kozy Kazy won't be reopening as a gogo restaurant tonight let alone serve alcohol after 9pm... ===> Perhaps the small bar area on Sukhumvit Soi 11 will? At least when the rain has ceased?

Sukhumvit Soi 8 is one of my favorite bar areas in Bangkok. One new bar to expect there will be Rumours. Rumours was probably one of the most popular bars of Queen's Park Plaza before the whole bar complex was demolished. They eventually moved to the new bar area on Sukhumvit Soi 7. As was reported further above, Rumours had to make way for Random at Seven: Sukhumvit Soi 8 was very much a tourist alley, though expats did hang out there too. Corona of course had devastating consequences for Soi 8.

The gogo bars in Bangkok have started recruiting girls again: Suzi Wong is an almost iconic GG gogo bar on Soi Cowboy, owner is a big big bar group... Also on Soi Cowboy, Kozy Kazy is looking for girls for their reopening tomorrow... Soi Cowboy on the eve of the "grand reopening": Nana Plaza bars are also already looking for girls (I've used Google Translate):

Random bar in front of the Soi 7 bar complex a few days ago: Sukhumvit Soi 7, October 31st: Pic from social media

Nana Plaza supposedly will be reopening tomorrow, November 1st according to BKK7, a well-known nightlife blogger: NEP October 31st: Monday morning, Soi Nana on the day of the grand reopening of Thailand:

Great pics mate! Soi 4 Nana tonight, Saturday 30 October 21: Hooters Nana: Stumble Inn: Strikers Nana hotel parking lot: Hilary 2; From social media

Chaos 9 - Food and Drink... The girls are eating something in the picture above... So I guess it's gotta be a restaurant...? (okay, the food probably came from the 7-Eleven around the corner...) I've never eaten any food in there - nor seen any other customer eating anything in there... I think the barkeeper didn't even serve me a spearmint with my mojito... Seriously: I think it's very unfair that you can get booze in Bangers from Monday - but not in Patts.... The owner of Le Pub Pattaya is rightfully angry imo: I guess next week there will be a lot of folks traveling to Bangkok from Chon Buri?

A delegation of the RTP (Royal Thai Police) today inspected Suvarnabhumi BKK Airport to check if they are ready for the reopening on November 1st. The immigration department and the tourist police at BKK were asked to focus on taking care of 3 main issues: 1. Convenience and speed of service, especially the process of entering and leaving the country. 2. Safety of life and property: Precautions to preventing infections with COVID-19 (both staff and tourists). 3. Make tourists feel welcome and impressed! There are now more than 2,000 police and immigration officers at all five international airports deployed, namely Suvarnabhumi, Don Mueang, Phuket, Chiang Mai and Hat Yai, and in addition there are 1,715 tourist police officers across the country. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, they had to handle about 100,000 passengers a day on average. Currently, there are on average only 1,400 passengers per day coming into Thailand. It is believed that between November - December 2021, there will be an average of 4,000 passengers per day. BKK is currently able to process about 700 passengers/hour, but from November 1st onwards, if passengers use the Thailand Pass application, they will be able to process up to 2,000 passengers/hour because they don't need to scan documents such as the COE documents, TM.6, T.8, etc. Source: https://mgronline.com/crime/detail/9640000107347 (translated from Thai into English using Google Translate)

https://www.facebook.com/Chaos9BKK/posts/3049033418712365

We should let Fenton go first. If he comes back in one piece, then maybe... [emoji38]

Alcohol will be served again in Bangkok's restaurants from 1 November 21... ....but not in Pattaya... https://www.sanook.com/news/8465726/

Every survey I've seen in the past 1-2 years found that the majority of Thais are against opening the country to foreigners... One has the impression that Thais rather want farangs' wallets to come to LOS alone but not so much farang people... From CNA today: “The more tourists visit Bangkok, the more income is generated. Right now, we want our economy to improve, especially for Bangkokians in the service sector. They don’t have income because many businesses have been closed for a long time.” says the deputy governor of Bangkok. He also pointed out that they developed an exit plan, which will kick in if quarantine-free travel is terminated under the scenario of COVID-19 transmission reaching a critical level. The exemption form quarantine for the 46 countries ends after 2 months on December 31st 2021. We'll see if there'll be an extension of this date or not... And last but not least: According to the deputy governor, “there is a high possibility” for the alcohol ban to be eased in certain venues. https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/thailand-bangkok-nov-1-covid-19-reopening-international-tourists-2274841 3 more days to go for the grand reopening!

I once had sex with a post-op who proposed using a female condom during the act. Wasn't bad iirc but I'm not sure if 7-Eleven or any other convenience store even sells them anymore...[emoji2369]

Excerpts from a story that originally appeared today on the SCMoPo: I don't think Bangkok's nightlife can ever be the same again. You have to have good friends in the police to stay open (manager of a pop-up bar which has operated in near open view throughout the latest lockdown, despite a booze ban.) "When we have to close there is another bar upstairs to go to. We know how to work carefully." There are regular local media reports of raids on illegal bars across Bangkok crammed with both Thais and foreigners who are tested for Covid-19 - at their own cost - and fined around US$120 on the spot. Bar owners say their pay-to-play relationship with local police stations has become more complex and costly. .. at Soi Cowboy, the neon-lit strip whose racy go-gos have drawn tourists since the 1970s, reopening feels a long way off, and food stalls have occupied the entrances of closed bars Outside 'Kozy-Kazy' nightclub on Soi Cowboy (some say it's the sister bar of infamous Crazy House gogo bar next door on Sukhumvit Soi 23), Kanya Serint, a 38-year-old who has worked as a chef in the area for the last decade, now makes papaya salad for a small income while she waits for the tourists to return. If we reopen our country too soon - only to close again - that will be the end of Soi Cowboy," she said. https://www.msn.com/en-xl/money/other/once-asia-s-party-capital-will-bangkok-s-nightlife-scene-recover-even-if-thailand-s-tourism-industry-picks-up/ar-AAQ1ZsK

Oh no!! Lisa / Lalisa won't show up for the NYE event in Phuket!

Video of the raid (starts at 0:20, might have to skip or first watch the advertising): https://youtu.be/vHme35vHLRw and here as well: https://youtu.be/eOxCZnQsNok

The Daily News also reports on the raid: https://www.dailynews.co.th/news/414546/ as well as: https://www.komchadluek.net/news/489940 Thaiza: https://thaiza.com/news/amp/514951/ and even js100: https://www.js100.com/en/site/news/view/110347 and Amarin TV: https://www.amarintv.com/news/detail/104867 and Siam Rath: https://siamrath.co.th/n/292517 and Matichon: https://www.matichon.co.th/local/news_3011677 and Channel 3: https://ch3plus.com/news/category/263528 and Channel 7: http://www.ch7.com/amp/525109 - they even have a video of the event and name the bar: news.ch7.com/detail/525126

Currently circulating on social media in Bangkok: Despite the current booze ban, Crazy House, a fully nude GG gogo bar (at least before the pandemic), right around the corner from Soi Cowboy, on Sukhumvit Soi 23 in Bangkok, was serving alcohol to its guests. On Japanese expat sites they say that this was an open secret... Last Sunday they got a surprise visit from Thonglor police: Thonglor Police Station arrested 61 people, 26 of them men and 35 women. Upon checking the receipts, they found alcoholic beverages listed there (-> how stupid is that???)... Source: FB

The hotel industry in LOS could face a fierce price war in the upcoming months, with hotels chasing the few tourists that'll arrive under the current conditions, writes the Macau News Agency: (via AFP) "The prolonged shutdown has 'devastated' the hotel sector, Thai Hotels Association president Marisa Sukosol Nunbhakdi said, adding that nearly half of the industry’s employees were left jobless from closures and lay-offs. With Bangkok’s remaining hotels chasing so few visitors, the industry is having to adapt to compete, dramatically slashing room rates. 'A fierce price war has been declared between hotels because supply will remain very abundant for a long time compared to demand,' she said. These challenges are dampening Marisa’s expectations for the re-opening. 'If in the next few months we manage to fill the hotels to 25-30 percent capacity, that will be a success,' Marisa said, but she does not anticipate a return to normal before 2024."

I think I've done it only once, on a Middle Eastern airline some years ago, because only a few more miles were needed for booking a reward flight. But I'm not sure if, generally speaking, it makes sense to buy miles at all: https://thepointsguy.com/guide/why-buying-points-and-miles-without-a-bonus-almost-never-makes-sense/