thaipara

7 hours ago, Proboscis said:

 Money expected, of course. If you include such women, I guess you would be well above the million mark.

I quite agree. Former gf is inundated with friends/acquaintances wanting "take care" of me when I visit next month. Hotel workers, sellers of stuff in the market, stay at home mothers, none ever involved in prostitution as would be recognized as such in the West. 

This video shows a typical installation procedure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tdoXj_KkwE

No indication of how they came up with the 1,900 figure. Are they counting as 0 the income of all those who have left? In that case the remainers (sorry for triggering phrase for some Brits) would have a lot higher average income. Also, this is a classic case where the median  (middle of the income distribution) would be more informative, since the big bosses' salaries are so much greater than what the folks at the cutting edge earn. 

23 hours ago, sirineou said:

I did not say that 5% will get it, I said that 5% have the potential to get is. 

Yes, you did say that. But I feared folks might not read so cIosely, and further, thought the the most enlightening part of the quoted material was in the final sentence: "the actual percentage of vaccinated people in the Pfizer (and Moderna) trials who got COVID-19 was about a hundred times less than that: 0.04%." Four cases out of 10,000 people.

20 hours ago, sirineou said:

If the vaccine  is 95% affective, then for every 100 people vaccinated, 5% will have the potential to catch the virus if exposed,

It's not as dire as that. I quote from a story on livescience.com:

"One common misunderstanding is that 95% efficacy means that in the Pfizer clinical trial, 5% of vaccinated people got COVID. But that's not true; the actual percentage of vaccinated people in the Pfizer (and Moderna) trials who got COVID-19 was about a hundred times less than that: 0.04%."  

Googling "meaning of 95 effective vaccine" will provide more details, if wanted.

23 hours ago, Dan O said:

That's not exactly correct. 

Thanks for the clarification. I will try to complete the application process and let all know how it turns out. I could of course do a visa-exempt entry and try for an extension, but current stories (here and from friends in Pattaya) of the horrors of Jomtien immigration these days makes me prefer the TR visa route, as long as no trip to Chi-town and extensive booking info is needed.

Thinking about getting a TR 60 day visa, I looked at the visa info on the Thai Embassy website where I read "From 18 February 2021, visa applicants in the United States are required to apply online through the website https://www.thaievisa.go.th/." Further, looking over the application manual and the website itself, it seems that a) In order to get a visa one has now to travel to appear in person at one of the consulates, and b) one has to account for every day's accommodation during the intended stay with confirmed bookings!

I gather that the in-person appearance has already been instated for some European countries; what purpose does it serve? Other than making visa-exempt entries all the more attractive, I suppose.

And are RITs (Rich Independent Travelers) the sort to fully book their 60 days in advance? Where's the Independence in that? 

Hard to see how these requirements will work to increase tourist numbers in the future.

On 3/16/2021 at 1:31 AM, soi3eddie said:

From what I am hearing, the Jomtien immigration office is totally toxic.

That is indeed my impression. A Lao friend last year got a non-O in Jomtien for being the mother of two Thai children (not married to the father). This year they say that a non-O is impossible; she has to get married (not at all easy) or do covid extensions until border runs are again possible. Or, of course, an agent is employed.

21 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

 https://www.tipinsure.com/CovidRegional/product_detail

Ta ever so for just the information I was looking for! Especially helpful since the search function on TV is broken at the moment

14 hours ago, bluesofa said:

20 hours ago, rooster59 said:

putting the pee in priapism

 

But surely the problem was the pee couldn't get out of priapism? 

Assuming that you you want to alleviate your present state of celibacy, the fundamental question is whether you  are a 4F  sort of guy, or not. (see the urban dictionary under 4f, definition 5, if you are too young to recognize its meaning immediately).

If you are, the online resources already recommended are your go-toplaces. Otherwise, gentlemen's clubs and bar beers and agogos are slowing winding up, in Pattaya at least.

On the other hand, if you like longer term associations, assuming that you can contact some of your "friends" (in the Thai sense) from before, and if they are well-disposed towards you, they will be able to set you up with some companions to "take care" of you for a week or so at a time.

In a sense, things are no different from before; how much you enjoy really depends on you. With the right attitude and application you can find the experience as fulfilling as you wish.

Has it yet been mentioned that implementing a proof of vaccination requirement will prevent children from travelling? In several countries a covid vaccination is not going to be given to children any time soon.

Did anyone notice the real pros amongst them? They held their drinks high, not allowing them to be be contaminated with mere water, clean or not.

I am afraid this is a bit tangential, but I have a Thai friend who returned from Europe about three weeks ago and was found to be covid-positive upon arrival. She was discharged from a 15-day stay in a hospital to return to her family's home in Udon. There she continues to suffer various  serious symptoms and is self-quarantined, being checked in on by a doctor every day.

Her biggest fear now, she says, is that when (as she puts it) she dies, no one will come to attend her funeral ceremonies. The thought is making her feel quite depressed.

Being between Udon and Loei (both affected), Nongbualamphu missed out how?

17 hours ago, smedly said:

Face screens are well documented as useless, wear a mask or nothing

I quote an article: "A recent opinion piece in JAMA by Eli Perencevich, M.D., a professor of internal medicine and epidemiology at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, and two of his colleagues pointed to such benefits of shields for infection prevention, and noted that “face shields appear to significantly reduce the amount of inhalation exposure to influenza virus, another droplet-spread respiratory virus. In a simulation study, face shields were shown to reduce immediate viral exposure by 96 percent when worn by a simulated health care worker within 18 inches of a cough.” "

For the "smell cigarette smoke if using a face shield crowd", I offer an excerpt from a Washington Post article: "to what extent the virus can be transmitted as an aerosol — although the evidence is far from conclusive and no such infections have been documented." Cigarette smoke is an aerosol.

15 hours ago, JusticeGB said:

 

BDSM with social distancing that might be difficult!

Everybody has to stay a whip's length apart. . . 

8 hours ago, Mac98 said:

It's easy to social distance. Just pretend every facility is the auditorium of an '80s adult theater. Nobody sat anywhere near anyone else and liked it that way.

Might it not be more correct to say "needed it that way"?

Thanks for the info - the big question (they have decided to do the non-O; the money is salted and is seasoning) is whether to enter in future at Nong Khai, or the more convenient Bueng Kan, where, it is feared, the immigration officers might be over-zealous in pusuit of tea money.

Very big thanks for the information; it was received with relief. May I ask which border crossing you typically use?

A friend is a Lao citizen, the unmarried mother of a Thai child. She currently does monthly border runs to keep her residence in Thailand legal. At a recent visit to immigration (residence certificate), the officers there suggested she get a non-O based on her motherhood. There is no problem in meeting the requirements, but she is afraid that having such a visa in her passport will alert the Lao officials when she returns home to the fact that she has broken Lao law by being an unmarried mother.

Does anyone have definite knowledge of how alert Lao immigration is to the nuances of Thai visa classes? What exactly does such a visa in the passport show in the case of a non_O based on having a Thai dependent? How alert would a Lao officer have to be to make the connection? 

Any and all insights gratefully received.

(Not an exact fit in this forum, nor in the SEAsian news one; certainly a moderator will place it properly.)

A dehumidifer _is_ an air conditioner, or, better to say, a dehumidifier wraps up all the components of an aircon in one package. Being a single package, as noted above, it raises the temperature in the room it dehumidifies, just as a refrigerator does. It's quite a complex analysis to determine whether or not your particular unit is the most cost-efficient way to go or not. The electric bill will tell the tale.

I had a friend in the US many years ago who did commercial and domestic HVAC. His big selling point for central air was the inclusion of adjustable ducting that allowed the user to make the choices we have here with split unit air cons - "cool" or "dry". He called it the "desert breeze" setting and after trying it there were few users who would go back to the "cool" option.

When I taught in Malaysia, many students kept class notes in something clearly labeled "Cock Ring Binder".

I will be entering Thailand at the end of May on a tourist visa that I will convert to long-stay-for-reason-of-retirement. I will stay in a rented condo in Pattaya and my stay will be reported to immigration. Do I need to get a TM-30 as well?  

Further, in the past, a letter from the condo's juristic person is all that was needed for proof of residence (instead of all the condo's owner info) for getting both the TM-30 and an extension of the permission to stay. Is it likely that this remains the case? 

Thanks!

Members of a certain vintage may remember, and prefer, waitron.