Enzian

"5000 per month"? I seem to recall a figure of approximately 65/day on the roads on average, pre-Covid, though that may well not have included those who die in hospital or elsewhere later than the accident. So 65 X 30 is 1,950. I agree it would be good to have a better overview, of everything.

Racism is stupid, and Thai racism is no exception. But some Thai racism is the result of misinformation and indoctrination, and for the victims of such I have Buddhist compassion.

3 hours ago, CorpusChristie said:

Surely you have 24 year old prostitutes in the USA ?

Sure, for 4 or 5 hundred.

This topic and thread have potential, but can any of you people come up with more specifics?

Last Saturday around 4 PM the were two ambulances in the center of the Sukhumvit-Asoke intersection, a young man was on his back, had on a GRAB vest or jacket, I watched them stabilize him and finally get him into one of the ambulances.

I had 6 bikes till finally sold the last one in my 40s after nearly going over a cliff toward the ocean in Marin county. An accident with my first one in Germany when I was 21 should have been my death, but I landed just right. 

I never get on a bike taxi in Thailand, I'm crazy but not that crazy.

I just broke up from a 4 1/2 year relationship. She cost me probably $10K a year, which my son with whom I consult on everything, thought was not unreasonable, considering my income etc. is more than the US average. She did stick with me and helped me a lot in many ways, but the warning was that not long after we started together she was pushing for marriage. I declined. The best tip I got was from a farang friend who has been a monk for many years now, who said "Marry in haste, repent at leisure". I never forgot that and never got around the caution. Now she and I are split and I owe her (and her family) nothing.

More shocked than when one came out of her first boyfriend's pants?

I'm putting my daily effort into Italian. There is a little more art and culture in Italy (sarcasm warning), and that's where I would prefer to die (but not from Covid). However I do know enough Thai to tell the taxi driver to turn right or turn left.

15 minutes ago, possum1931 said:

What about people who actually live in Thailand and have families here who go visit people in their birth countries?

Will they be allowed back before tourists?

Yes, I have a new granddaughter in CA I would like to see in person, but I'm here in Thailand on a retirement visa. But videos are ok for now. A more interesting question is, what if I suddenly die here, without wife or relatives only friends, could my son even fly in from CA to manage my remains?

Are not a lot of airlines in the world in different versions of the problems discussed above? And won't these factors mean that when it all shakes out flying will be more expensive than we were used to pre-Covid? And won't that mean less tourists, less budget tourists for sure, in the great destinations (like Venice or even Paris as examples)? And since I can afford somewhat more, I like.

I have a PhD from UC Berkeley in English, concentrating on the English Renaissance and Shakespeare, and later gained some expertise in modern and contemporary American lit.

I taught 10 years in the midwest, then left academia and hardly looked back. Sometimes I think I would like to try it again, but I'm 80 tho in good health, and I try to travel to Europe all the time: in 5 years I had to do only one 90 day report. And I don't need the money, thank you.

I was just there yesterday the 1st tho i live in Bangkok, and the famous seafood market was going full blast, it doesn't seem to me they are waiting till the 6th.

Is there a real flu season per se in Thailand? I had two distinct cases of flu over the winter here in Bangkok. First one in mid December could have been Covid in disguise since on the 6th I had just come back from 3 weeks in the area around Cologne Germany where there were Chinese tourists all around (and had massage in a Chinese parlor). The second at the end of January was called a common flu by a doctor I went to for a note "unfit to fly" so I could apply for some travel insurance because it caused me to cancel a flight to India. Aways seemed to me that one could catch a flu-type cold any time of year here.

Since the only kind of evidence we're likely to get anytime soon will be anecdotal (since the government reporting doesn't address what we really want to know, namely, the actual totals), I propose we all ask ourselves Have I had it, or Do I know anyone who has had it, or Do I know anyone who knows anyone who has had it? And report it here. For myself, I haven't had it that I know, nor do I know anyone, nor know anyone who knows anyone, who has had it in Thailand. Now in the US my son, who has a degree in public health but was never tested, is pretty sure he had a mild to moderate case of it.

That saying about "swing a cat" refers to a certain kind of whip, not the animal.

This is good publicity for them, and businesses in the US I know use "loss leaders" all the time to improve the total volume of business.