BangkokReady

Doesn't seem that way. Not just get boosters as already expected? Did it not previously?

Why? What point were you even making? Were you being sarcastic? It's very unclear.

As I have said previously, Western foreigners have "bad covid", not "good covid" like Asians.

Silly Rabbit. You need the lights off to avoid ghosts!

Meaningless unless you compare it to something. Could be worse, could be better. What's the death rate vs Delta?

But the thousands of people there already with covid are no big deal? Do they think this is March 2020 with ~100 cases a day and they're going to trace and test all their contacts? The pretense over foreigners with covid is laughable. I'm genuinely surprised at how I am still genuinely surprised by how the Thai authorities are handling covid!

"40 million people used to visit here. Now it's a ghost town."

Possibly it's like the whole marry your rape victim to avoid punishment thing in some part of central Asia that escapes me now. It kind of sounds like they avoid punishment by, in the eyes of the locals, "taking responsibility for the damage caused". I.e. the girl is unmarriageable now, so the rapist solves the problem by marrying her. I guess it's a way of looking not so much at the actual crime as the consequences for the girl or the community? Obviously very different to how we view things in the West. All quite sad and I guess a wider reflection of how women and girls are viewed in this part of the world.

There's honestly so much snobbery and judgement in this thread. "Dirty old man" - quite an interesting phrase, especially used in a Thailand themed forum, where it seems that 20-40 year age-gaps are the norm. It seems to really stem from a kind of disgust reaction to an elderly gentleman being attracted to a young woman. I wonder what it is that makes people react in this way. I'm not saying I necessarily agree that a 60 something man should be pursuing a 20 year old woman, but it's quite interesting that "dirty" comes into it. Anyone below say 50 might be ok to lust after a 20 year old? But after that they become dirty? Another time we use "dirty" is to describe a promiscuous women. Someone might call her a "dirty sl*t". I think the sort of disgust response there comes from the fact that a promiscuous woman is generally bad for society, or at least a social group, for various reasons. I wonder if there is some reason that a man who is too old trying to pick up a much younger women gets the same response? Perhaps we have some sort of group-think subconscious judgment where we look at a couple and judge their compatibility. We see the physical appearance of the old man and we subconsciously think that he is not going to be able to provide for her and he is not young, healthy and virile, so we object to the pairing. Another interesting thing, is that one commenter mentioned "base desires" or something. I wonder if they are aware that the reason they think and old man is "dirty" for wanting to be with a much younger woman might itself be a "base" reaction? We could suggest that they should engage their brain and overcome this base reaction and logic it out as to whether there is anything actually technically "wrong" with a 60 year old man having a relationship with a 20 year old woman. A 20 year old woman might have a relationship with a 20 something man, it might last six months to a year and it might end badly or amicably. A 20 year old woman might also have a relationship with a 60 year old man that could last six months to a year which might end badly or amicably (you could argue the age of the man might increase the chance of an amicable end). So where is the actual harm in the 60 year old and 20 year old fling? Apart from this basic kind of repulsion or disgust at the idea of a 20 year old having sex with a 60 year old? I can't help feeling all answers would be rationalisations based on "it feels wrong" or "it's just gross". (It's important to note here that when we talk about desire, we are talking about subconscious judgements, so these are things that we are not consciously aware of. Think basic survival cave man type living.)

Just out of pure curiosity, would you have considered having a romantic relationship with someone 20 years younger than yourself at this point?

This is largely irrelevant when discussing attraction, as the subconscious mind generating the desire/urge doesn't know you aren't actually impregnating anyone.

Sorry, does most mean the same as all now? I must have missed an email update from the OED.

Haven't most outbreaks come from places selling alcohol?

So many Thais seem to be forgetting their own culture these days...

The choice to not restrict anything around new year's, then bring in restrictions now, has a bit of a "robbing Peter to pay Paul" feel to it. I don't think anyone can really moan about it.

Beer girls aren't hookers on the side?

Well, if she made a little extra by going home with the odd client here and there, she'd hardly be telling anyone...

So the answer would be to end corruption, introduce proper taxation then increase wages?

Or consequences...

Probably just a big misunderstanding.

These two are trickier as they're probably already being exploited/extorted a fair bit already. They don't want to tread on anyone's toes.

Doesn't sound very Thai. A few jumping jacks and squats are fine.

Genius. ????

So easy to get a loan. Not so easy to pay it back. Such a shame that everyone feels that they have to have a giant truck or they are a nobody. Especially when the government has to eventually allow the fuel prices to go up. It kind of makes you wonder, has tourism been subsidising all of Thailand?

UK seems OK. High numbers but not too many serious cases. Like South Africa, should peak and then fall due to natural immunity.