Pdoggg

Unless rents are renegotiated how are any Pattaya bars going to survive if farangs don't return this year and next year has 20% of 2019? EDIT: Same goes for restaurants. I would think the best positioned eateries would be street stalls such as those that might be found outside a Family Mart which I assume pay some sort of monthly rent but probably not any upfront fees and can walk away at any time.

I heard Grand Bella was a quarantine center. The hotel that I walked by was the Mercure. Could just have been some package tourism but my gut feeling is quarantine.

An rather interesting but long academic style article about feminist theory and the contradictory messages regarding sexual relations on campus nowadays. https://quillette.com/2020/06/17/bad-vibrations-the-lies-universities-tell-their-students-about-sex/

Sadly, there will be many bars that will shut down for good. Even if the bars that cater to farang were permitted to reopen tomorrow with no restrictions whatsover, where are the customers? Certainly not in Pattaya. There was one article that stated there were only about 5000 expats left in the Pattaya area. While I think that's an undercount, I would think that business would be off by 80% or more compared to low season 2019. I would imagine that many barowners will walk away from their leases especially if their upfront costs were relatively low and their rent relatively high. Even before Covid, many bars were struggling. Not a fun time to be a business owner just about anywhere in the world. But some bars are remodeling. I was walking on the Baby Boom soi today and saw some work was being done on 555, one of the gentlemen's clubs there.

However 23 Burmese who recently returned home from Thailand tested positive after crossing the border. This would be evidence that Thailand is not Covid free.

The CCSA (The Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration) will meet this Friday to consider rules for the possible reopening of bars in July. Under this proposal, which is by no means final, lady drinks will be forbidden (see Catch 22 below).

Girls On Top

Tonight I passed a big hotel with a huge parking lots in which were parked two big tour busses. Those who disembarked had luggage. What seemed ominous is that the hotel staff were dressed in hospital type gear and wore plastic face masks. There were more staff than you would expect in the lot. My guess is that it is now a quarantine hotel. It's also possible that it has to do with the domestic tourism program which involves a stimulus package that encourages tourism but seeing two busloads of Thais entering a Pattaya hotel is new to me. You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave

I have no fear of catching corona virus these days as there has not been a single reported domestic case anywhere in Thailand for 26 days and much longer in Pattaya. I think that I have a greater chance of being run over by a baht bus then dying of Covid-19. If/when Thailand reopens for tourism then I guess I'll have to hunker down like many of you are now doing in the States or Europe.

Is this the same Poppy that was extremely popular when Sensations first opened?

You mean Transfer Wise, right? Looking at Transfer Wise right now it seems that it's almost as good as SuperRichThailand for the Aussie Dollar. For the USD SuperRich Thailand has an especially good rate. I have a question about Transferwise. Does the Thai bank ever tack on any fees or is the baht amount shown on Transferwise the exact amount that you receive?

The big positive for me is that in the last three months I've had a grand total of two beers and currently my near sobriety is a habit. To be sure, I'll drink more when the bars open but it's sure been nice waking up without even he slightest hint of a hangover. My girlfriend has discovered the joy of working out. With nothing much else to do it has become a habit for her which she plans to continue. Two definite silver linings in the corona clouds!

Rom reads the situation, deviates from the game plan and calls an audible. Touchdown!

DACA = Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, an immigration policy (enacted by the Obama administration) that allows people brought to the United States illegally as children to defer deportation and live and work legally. DHS = Department of Homeland Security APA = Administrative Procedure Act which governs the process by which federal agencies develop and issue regulations. BBG = Blind Boy Grunt. I'm telling you anyway. IMHO = Inside Multiple Homosapien Orifices

Good question. I think before the oral arguments last October one would bet that it would have been 5-4 overturning the Circuit Court instead of 6-3 upholding the decision. But the line of questioning by Justice Gorsuch led court watchers to speculate that he would side with the liberal judges. Getting Chief Justice Roberts onboard is icing on the cake. It's possible that if Gorsuch was not for overturning that Roberts wouldn't have been either. I think Roberts prefers to side with the majority if he can find a way to do so. If the Chief is in the majority then he can assign whoever he wants to write the opinion. But if it had been 5-4 without Roberts then Justice Ginsburg, being more senior than Gorsuch, would have decided who would write the opinion which would likely have been more a broad based denouncement of discrimination based on sex rather than the narrow approach taken by Gorsuch.

Mr. Pornchai Sung-iad, Permanent Secretary of Banglamung District, warned owners at restaurants firmly- If your main business is selling alcohol you are considered a bar or a pub and not a restaurant. He stated regardless of license status that violators will be closed and fined. The closure would last until bars, pubs and entertainment venues are legally allowed to open. Entertainment venues are still legally closed by the Thai government due to Covid19 prevention measures. Pornchai instructed police to enforce the rules across the Pattaya area, ensuring that restaurants were not encouraging drinking without dining or other pub and bar like activities. He clarified that according to the measures given by the Thai Government that the relief of allowing alcoholic beverages at restaurants was to enjoy a beverage with a meal, not for groups of people to meet for only drinks like a bar. Pornchai also stated that if restaurants that were allowed to open were violating social distancing rules and other rules like not using the Thai Chana platform for Covid19 tracing they would also be shut. Multiple venues were inspected and shut in the Soi Buakhao area after alleged violations of both primarily selling alcohol or violating social distancing rules according to Pornchai. https://thepattayanews.com/2020/06/17/pattaya-police-warn-if-your-primary-business-is-selling-alcohol-or-violating-social-distancing-you-will-be-shut-restaurant-license-or-not/

If the border remains closed then there would seem to be nothing to be afraid of in Thailand. I think beer bars should be permitted to open now but there are obviously not enough expats to support all of the existing Pattaya bars. I guess the bars that will do best are those with a strong expat clientele or a really unique selling point. If/when the border is reopened it's a whole new ballgame. It's pretty apparent that many people resist social distancing so if entrance requirements are not strict when the border opens then there could well be a second wave. Given that the Thai economy heavily depends on tourism there will probably be some sort of opening. I think at first it would be wise to open to just a handful of relatively safe travel bubble countries such as New Zealand. Why not do that now? But there will be lots of pressure from tourism related businesses to open to China. A mandatory two week quarantine is a deal breaker for most tourists. Instead I hear there could be measures such as a doctor's note stating that you're covid free combined with proof of insurance. I've also heard that everyone could get tested at Swampy and if anyone on your flight test positive then every passenger gets quarantined. Again, a deal breaker for short term tourist. I will probably be stuck here for years as once I leave I fear I won't be allowed back in.

Took a stroll down Chaiyapoon around midnight. It had a bright welcoming feel to it as opposed to Soi Honey which was dark and mostly deserted. Chaiyapoon had quite a few massage shops open and also some bars seemed to be quietly operating. When the beer bars re-open, I think Chaiyapoon is positioned to do far better than most areas. Even if half the bars on Chaiyapoon remain closed and the other half are half staffed it will still feel alive and vibrant. OTOH if say Soi 7 was barely open it would feel very empty. But on Chaiyapoon it's not obvious that the closed shop is a bar. On another note, I passed by the newer Kateseree near Soi Baku/BabyBoom and the sign said they will only serve booze with a food order and only from 11:00-14:00 and 17:00 to midnight.

Visa is now more transparent with their markup. Today June 16th Yesterday June 15th The markup seems to vary daily. Perhaps because the Visa rate is only calculated once a day or perhaps due to other factors.

Pattaya residents don't seem concerned about social distancing as there is a perception that the virus does not currently exist in Pattaya. Could be problematic when the second wave comes when the borders are reopened. With the new rules comes winners and losers. The winners are restaurants which are now defacto bars and convenience stores that sell the beer that people are drinking on the street. Owners of beer bars are rightly outraged at this turn of events because if more bars were open there would be more effective social distancing. But even if the beer bars were open people want to go where the party is and the festival type atmosphere of Treetown is quite appealing. Withersppons, only a couple of minutes from Treetown wasn't busy as that's not were the party is at. Will be interesting to see if the authorities tone things down tonight as last night their focus was on making sure that open establishments had the proper licensing. The above clip is a Nightwish/Nick video and the article below is Nightwish/Pattaya News.

Her name is เอ็ม There is no official transliteration standard though Google Translate returns M if you plug in เอ็ม One can use M, Em, or Aem but obviously using M is posting like a boss. M has adopted numerous dogs which add something special to TJ's. In the Bond movies M, played by Judi Dench, kept a bulldog statue on her desk. Another reason to use M. She's highly regarded by her staff. One night Pee was gushing on and on about how M is just like a mother. Seems she really takes great care of her girls! Besides taking care of her dogs and staff, she also takes very good care of us......her customers. M makes sure we're comfortable and sometimes sends over a round or drops some 5 baht coins in the ashtray to use for the bog. She sets the tone for a fun, upbeat, and no-hassle atmosphere.

The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that workers cannot be fired for being transgender in a blockbuster win for the Transgender community. The 6-3 holding, authored by Justice Neil Gorsuch, a conservative appointed by Trump, is a landmark development in the history of transgender rights in the United States. While workers in about half the country were protected by local laws that prohibit discrimination based on gender identity, there was no federal law that explicitly barred transgender workers from being fired on that basis.

Where's the party at? Treetown. It's one big open air party on Buakhao in front of Treetown. Packed with farang without masks, beer bottles in hand. Lots of ladies and absolutely swarming with ladyboys. The dam broke and people are revelling in freedom way beyond pre-Covid days. Not sure if the BIB will let this continue on future nights.