JensenZ

I agree. They will have years to complete this project, in a virtually tourist-free town. Walking Street has been left to decay over the last 18 months and is an embarrassment ot the city.

I went for a ride down Walking Street yesterday. The whole street is completely shuttered. Very little will be coming back. They didn't take the down time as an opportunity to repave the road surface which is now a real big mess. The only reason I can think of is that they plan to demolish Walking Street... which would be a good idea.

Maybe they will start smiling again if/when they get their jobs back. The ones who have held the fort for the last 18 months are an elite club.

That depends on the price differential. If I run out of money, they wouldn't support me, that's for certain. Price is usually the biggest factor when choosing where to shop.

I think good roads are more dangerous for Thai motorcyclists. They aren't all completely nuts, and ride slowly on pot-holed roads, because most of all they don't want to damage their motorcycles/scooters. A tumble at low speed will be less likely to kill than a high speed accident on a better road.

My wife orders balloons and other assorted party paraphernalia online from Shein. They have a huge assortment at very cheap prices (from China) and free, fast delivery. Allow a week for delivery.

And of that small trickle that may come, why would they come to Pattaya? There is absolutely nothing for tourists to do and not even a decent beach. The very few will probably find better things to see and do in Thailand. Getting back to normal is not like turning a faucet back on. The industry has been destroyed and it will probably take a decade to return to "normal", if ever. However, if nightlife is not important, Pattaya is better than ever as a retirement location. The buses are gone and traffic flows.

The workers are long gone. Bringing tourists back in will not reopen the 1000's of businesses that have been shuttered in the last 20 months. By now, most of those workers have moved on to a new life doing something else somewhere else. This will give a distinct advantage to any businesses that have managed to hold on, at least in the first couple of years. These Thai seers (forecasters) seem to alway live in a bubble, thinking the problem is Thailand and as soon as they open their doors tourists from all around the world will come flocking back in. They are so naive. They don't seem to grasp the severity of the world's ecoomic resession which is sure to deteriorate significantly before it improves, and tourist numbers will be down worldwide for a very long time. Thailand is a budget tourist destination and they need tourists from the socio-economic sector that has been hardest hit by the pandemic. The world's rich have done very well during covid, but they're not coming here. These Thai forecasters would do well to follow some international economic news from time to time. If not, then at least get a more reliable crystal ball.

I have absolutely no concern whether the people next to me or close to me are wearing a mask or not. I don't wear a mask when I sit down in restaurants to eat. You are immune to covid when you sit down in a restauarnt, but if you stand up, beware - put that mask back on very quickly because the viruses are on the lookout for people who are not eating or drinking.

Good people wear masks, bad people don't, LOL

Does this mean when you're in your own country, you don't abide by the rules? Actually, putting on a mask here is not optional, so saying you put one on (suggesting you're a good person to do that) when you go out is irrelevant as it is mandatory and hefty fines can be given if you don't wear one. You will not be about to enter any shop without one, so you might be able to get some street food, or have it delivered, but you won't be doing any grocery shopping.... even at the local 7Eleven. My guess it will be a long time before Thais don't have to wear them.

I'm afraid of my mirror image and photos of me. I feel better and younger if I don't look.

In cahoots to achieve what? He lives on a pension and is already supporting her, what else was there to gain?

Fair enough, in which case they are depressed, so their unwillingness to converse with strangers is not strange at all...

Ok so from where you are from you say hello to all strangers on the street, everywhere you go? Really? That's a huge task. Does "someone" include all Thai people in Thailand that you pass on the street? Or are Thai people not considered "someone"?

Perhaps these "strange" (based on your idea of strange) people went to live in rural areas far away from other foreigners because they don't want to be disturbed. They could just be loners. Surely if being in areas where lots of other foreigners lived was important, that's where they would be.

The OP is quite vague here, using the word "Farang". Which countries does this term cover? Is he using skin colour to decide on who is Farang and who is not? Personally I don't use the word. I use "foreigner", which includes every non-Thai in the world. The OP is making his assessment based on the assumption that every non-Thai (or Farang) should behave the same way as he does or they are abnormal in some way. His behaviour is the yardstick he is using to assess the bahaviour of strangers. The problem is, every non-Thai, from the other 194 countries of the world, behave differently. People from some countries talk to everyone, others are reserved, or even shy to talk to strangers. People from small country towns are more likely to be outgoing than someone from a big city. Judging people based on their willingness to talk to strangers is a sensless endeavour or even perverse. You might not catch outgoing people in the right mood, and they might not want to be disturbed. There can be countless reasons why a stranger doesn't want to talk to you, so don't take it personally, or judge the person based on your social norms.

Obviously everyone is suffering due to covid except maybe the super wealthy who continue to increase their wealth while the rest suffer. We know one thing for sure, the investors in T21 are still bullish looking ahead as they wouldn't be constructing a new parking building in the middle of the pandemic if they weren't. Life will go on. Even if tourism takes many years to recover, Pattaya should be seen as another Thai city that will survive, including the malls, without tourism, as all the cities up the coast do. How do these malls with the same outlets survive in non-Tourist cities all over Thailand? Pattaya will change, but it's not going anywhere. There are still plenty of Thai people that live here.

I'm pretty sure computer sales are fine irrespective of what you see in Tukcom. That centre was fading before covid. There's no need to go there to buy a computer - all the malls have outlets that are much more pleasant to shop at. The phone booth touters probably put a lot of people off too.

No, not at all. They are not blind, and note that most famous people on TV and movies are light skinned, and they believe their children have a better chance of success in life if they are mixed. They always swell with pride over light skinned children no matter what their financial situation is. They can always find food.

You might be surprised to learn that a lot of SE Asian woman love the idea of a mixed race child and don't stress out too much if the father disappears.

That's the best idea - to prevent him abusing any more Thai woman.

Even with those activities available, when would there be "many tourists" to miss them? Even with bars fully open, it will be a long time before we need to worry about many tourists. Thailand is not the only country suffering, but reading here it seems it's only Thailand that has covid and that the rest of the world has conquered it.

Who goes to cinemas these days, even in good times? I gave it up years ago. It used to be fun, but home screens are too big now, especially if you sit close LOL. Now with high speed internet, or a cheap Netflix subscription, you can watch anything you want, when you want.

Having a lot of drunk people around increases the risk of spreading infections. Drunk people don't adhere to rules as their IQ diminishes in direct proportion to the quantity consumed. What's wrong with decreasing the risk of public drunkeness? We should be happy that many things are slowly improving. It's worldwide covid and a 14 day quarantine that destroyed tourism, not the alcohol restrictions. Don't worry, you can still get smashed at home.