mstevens

Saw an ad online for a gogo bar in Nana Plaza which is now open by offering Mexican food....and presumably other things too. Totally contrived way to do business.

I have been using a Symbicort inhaler for years (for asthma) without a problem. One doctor mentioned to me to drink a little water after inhaling. That seems to help so maybe it's worth a try?

The only way there will be a “son of” is if the original owner of that site starts a new website but I believe he was forced back to New Zealand broke with nothing to show for half a lifetime in Thailand. 

3 hours ago, ChaiyaTH said:

What nonsense are you even talking about, the gains that were made on property in Thailand were just as much, the boom just took place before it even started in the west. Just as you could now decide not to sell, to then get in the biggest financial crisis yet, having no chance and seeing 400K value go up in smoke. 

 

I never been into property at all but if I did have bought the condo's back in 2012-2013 alone, I could have sold for double the price 3-4 years later, while being a noob in it, in Thailand.

 

Doesn't really matter where you are. Gold has also done like 10% yearly average for over a decade already, stock markets even more. Anyway, I would sell it if I were you and convert it all into gold and rent in Thailand while sipping coconuts.

Says the guy who never been in to property!

18 hours ago, HeijoshinCool said:

Why would I want to own land? To pay insane taxes, maybe? And when the economy hits the skids and one can no longer pay the tax man, have it taken away from me?

While one might balk at the idea of owning land or property in their home country, the reality is that in recent years the value of property in most Western countries has soared. My house's value is up well over half a million dollars in the last 5 years alone, a story which is familiar to many in the West, especially in the likes of Canada, Australia, New Zealand etc. If I were to sell my house I could move back to Thailand (I lived there once but returned home), retire and never need to lift a finger again. Huge capital gains is one of the big positives of owning property in the West (irrespective of whether you live there or in Thailand) which many foreigners living in Thailand may miss out on.

10 hours ago, Leaver said:

Most have said to me they will not be back in Pattaya this coming high season for a few reasons, mainly:

 

1)   the covid situation is not stable in Thailand at the moment. (they are all fully vaccinated)

To me, this is the primary reason why it's not a good time to return at this time - and it probably won't be for another several months. The situation is fluid and anything could happen. I remain firmly of the belief that when the bars do reopen and tourists do return that due to the nature of the industry whereby customers and staff are if very close contact that Covid will rip through the bars.....and the Thai government's propensity for knee-jerk reactions could see bars closed. There's just no certainty.

11 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

We are witnessing worldwide, runaway inflation. And nobody wants to talk about it, officially. 

This is true, but perhaps not relevant to the current prices of cauliflower and broccoli in Thailand which is due to the time of year (seasonality) and the weather.

11 hours ago, Jumbo1968 said:

Why is Covid not ripping through supermarkets local fresh markets etc, more people congregate in them than they do in bars. 
I haven’t read anywhere a supermarket has closed because Covid ripped through it.

Because what happens in gogo bars between customers and staff (especially outside of the bar later in the evening) is a whole lot more risky than what happens between customers and staff in a supermarket. Further, what's the best most gogo bar staff will NOT be wearing facemasks whereas those in supermarkets do.

All it needs is for Covid to rip through one of the bigger, popular bars and there will be a knee-jerk reaction from the authorities and bars will be closed.

The Delta variant spreads so easily and the nature of the bar industry makes it a most fertile breeding ground.

It is not my intention to be negative or overly pessimistic but I do wonder how the bars will cope given it's an environment where Covid will thrive.

Close and at times intimate contact between customers and bar staff means Covid will run through the bars fast. How will bar staff / customers / government officials respond when that happens - and it will happen!

How will you feel if you read a headline alone the lines of "25 staff and 8 customers in A1 Bar on Walking Street infected with Covid19, spread suspected in other bars"?

I see this is now a big story in the mainstream news with hundreds (or more) people reporting multiple withdrawals from their account in rapid succession. Seems to be an issue with these digital wallets too.

I would not be surprised if at some stage in the not too distant future that vaccination becomes a requirement for visas / extensions of stay also.

15 hours ago, Guffman said:

I renewed visa and work permit a couple of weeks ago. I filled in the work permit application and gave it back to the hr woman. She then asked me if I had the Mor Prom app. I said no. Why would she ask that? I'm guessing they're going to make it a requirement for a work permit. Maybe next year sometime once the majority of people have had 2 shots. Just speculation on my part, but I can see it happening.

19 hours ago, zyphodb said:

I haven't had the ultimatum yet, but am half expecting it, however the director knows my views on experimental "vaccines" and may be pragmatic and not push it, as he should realise that his chances of getting another Native English speaking teacher to keep his English programme going in the backwoods of Isaan are pretty slim. Also he may not want to end up in the Labor courts for sacking me when he's the one who's broken the contract of employment...

I respect your viewpoint, even if I personally disagree with it. What does make me wonder is what the students' respective parents would make of the foreign teacher who refuses to be vaccinated. My feeling is that this is not something many parents would readily accept and they might well put pressure on "Paw Aw" to pressure said foreign teacher to get jabbed, else find a new foreign teacher.

First dose I was fine for 9 hours and then my arm became quite sore to the point that I couldn't move it much and couldn't lift it above my shoulder. After a good night's sleep I was fine and the pain had gone.

Second dose my arm was just a little sore. However, I woke up at 2 AM (I'd had the second dose the previous morning, so about 15 hours earlier) with a raging headache and a fever. I don't like to take medicine if it can be helped but this headache was really bad so I took a couple of Tylenol and an hour later felt much better, the fever was coming down and I fell back to sleep. By the time I woke up I felt fine again.

13 minutes ago, ogb said:

What if they ended up being one of the unlucky ones who died from the vaccine?

The decision on whether to take these vaccines should be a personal decision and each person needs to weigh up the risks - for example, New Zealand has had as many deaths from the Pfizer vaccine this year as it has from covid.

Give it another month or two and, sadly, the number of Covid deaths in New Zealand this year will likely exceed the number of deaths due to the vaccine.

19 hours ago, hotchilli said:

Considering the very low vaccination rate of the general population I would go far as to say it would be complete madness to stick with the October opening..

It just isn't ready, better to say January 2022 and go all out this year to get vaccinations completed.

Even when Thailand has a high vaccination rate (let's say 85%+), I expect new daily infections will still be producing significant numbers (in the thousands) and deaths (in the dozens). I believe this will be the case because A) Thailand has used a lot of not particularly effective Chinese vaccines  B) The efficacy of even the mRNA vaccines subsides over time  C) Thais are very social people and I just don't think they will adapt well to social distancing.

At the risk of being negative, I don't see the vaccines as the answer. Even with the best vaccines and a booster program where people get a booster shot every 8 or 9 months, COVID is going to run rampant in Thailand. Due to this there will be all sorts of hassles travelling such as PCR tests before departure and on arrival as well as various other restrictions - all of which will increase prices - and as such I think this is going to put the vast majority of people off long-distance travel. Until there is either an even more effective vaccine or an effective medication to treat COVID, I think tourism as we knew it all around the world is on permanent hold.

I seem to recall that rental income was taxed at a 15% flat rate, irrespective of how much rental income was received. And it was only the supposedly actually rental income that was taxable.....so rental contracts would often stipulate a fee for furniture and fittings, a fee for security etc. A condo rented for 30,000 baht / month might be broken down in the contract as 10,000 for rent, 10,000 for fixtures, furniture & fittings and 10,000 for security. That way the owner would only pay 15% rent on 10,000 baht (the rental portion of the total 30,000 baht). This is how I believe it was some years back. No idea if this is still correct or not.

I think a really major problem Pattaya faces is the girls being scared to contract Covid and not being interested in going with customers.

I am not in Pattaya but a couple of friends who live there year-round tell me that many girls have left Pattaya. Most because they couldn't make money but plenty are scared of contracting Covid and figure they are safe back in their village. Those girls who have remained in Pattaya will happily go on cam streams to make money but many won't meet anyone in person as they are scared of contracting Covid.

When the bars do eventually open, whenever that may be, there will be men from all over the world inside bars which are small, and women meeting many men from all over the world every day. Even if everyone is vaccinated, there will still be Covid infections, especially given that some vaccines aren't that effective. It all makes me think the future of Pattaya, at least as we knew it, is very, very uncertain.

12 hours ago, Leaver said:

 

I'm sure the owner wished he walked away earlier.

I imagine there are going to be many foreign business owners who feel that way. I hear that some Soi LK Metro bar owners are still paying rent at this time despite being closed for months and in all likelihood no chance to open for many months to come, followed by so much uncertainty. You'd have to be a real optimist AND have deep pockets not to walk away!

On 8/12/2021 at 2:46 PM, Guderian said:

I haven't tried them yet, how do you think they compare with the Aussie SPC version?

I think baked beans are like a lot of food items, we tend to prefer the version we grew up with. Growing up in New Zealand, I prefer Watties. If you grew up in the UK or the USA or Australia, you might not find Watties to your taste and likely prefer the version you grew up with. My American friends all swore by Heinz but when I tried it, I preferred what I grew up with, Watties.

To answer the OP's original question about traveling to NZ, only New Zealand citizens and resident holders can travel to New Zealand at this time (and maybe Australia citizens too?). For everyone else, you need a compelling reason which could be anything from humanitarian grounds to a job offer in NZ. In a nutshell, it's complicated and not particularly easy.

2 hours ago, GammaGlobulin said:

I have a question about NZ citizens who might be trying to leave NZ in order to travel to Thailand.  Do you have any info about this?  I.e., is the process extremely difficult and time consuming, due to NZ rules and regs, or is it easy to leave NZ at this time?  Thank you.

It is easy to leave NZ. Just buy a ticket and you can leave. Getting in to Thailand is not too difficult - a friend flew out from Auckland to Bangkok two weeks ago on Singapore Airlines which had an 11-hour stopover at Changi Airport. He said dealing with the Thai embassy in Wellington relatively straightforward. He just got annoyed at the cost of COVID tests prior to departure.

20 hours ago, Nojohndoe said:

I know a person who worked in the plant making Watties tomato sauce when it was made in Australia.

He saw what went into it. Would not  eat it . Nice plump fresh looking tomatoes were only as close as the label as the contents got.

 

Err, that's odd because Watties tomato sauce has, as far as I am aware, always been made in New Zealand. Not sure what sauce was being made by your friend at that factory in Australia but it was not Watties.