14 hours ago, rabas said:

 

Daily hospitalizations in Europe are sky-rocketing, way above the US or anything seen before. Just 6 countries Germany, UK, France, Italy, Spain, and Switzerland are near 100,000/day.  The Check republic and Brussels are off the charts.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/10/22/world/europe/europe-hospitals-covid.html

It's the flu season, it's expected respiratory illnesses spread effectively this time. Should be over sometime end of November in most places when temps go under zero. Compared to the spring peak, when it hit the naive population, this is still manageable. Which the countries are doing in varying degrees. Excess mortality is rising, but again low compared to spring. Let's see how November goes.

19 minutes ago, Pattaya Spotter said:

More bad news for the Forum China-bashers...it looks like the Thais can probably sell a lot of their newfangled Baht 30M and 10M condo visas...a even more of these little piker B 5M visas to another bunch of IPO Chinese millionaires and billionaires. Westerners need not apply. 

 

Ant Group to raise $34.5 billion, valuing it at over $313 billion, in biggest IPO of all time 

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/26/ant-group-to-raise-tktk-billion-in-biggest-ipo-of-all-time.html

Yeah, I'm sure Jack Ma will come to Pattaya and buy Walking Street because it's so Hi-So.

2 hours ago, dougiemac52 said:

I was thinking seriously about investing in property in Thailand up until last week. Currently in an ASQ hotel. For the money I paid for the privilege, the food is common, the fruit you get on a daily basis never changes. The hotel say they change the menu every 2 days. They do but just the same as it was 2 days before ????

The attitude of the hotel staff is very condescending, they think they are in charge. And the rooms are cleaned every 3 days although I have managed to get it down to 2. 

All the hot meals are cool. 

So I will find somewhere else that may appreciate me as a human being

Come now, be happy they don't just throw the slop on the floor of the jail cell.

Why bother being nice when the prisoner has no other choice.

1 hour ago, SidJames said:

Rock lobsters?

No, real ones. Apparently there's an oversupply. Grab 'em while cheap. I made three with garlic butter in oven, delish.

3 hours ago, Henryford said:

Long queues, a good reason NOT to visit Koh Chang.

Only for passenger cars. Unfortunately, to enjoy Koh Chang, a car is almost a must-have. The roads are peppered with crashed motocys.

I was looking at a trip up north .. but rainy season, then followed by smoky season, all topped off with wearing uncomfortable masks for a flight .. nah. Will stay within driving distance. Which is not bad at the moment, for first time in years Thai friends are coming back to Pattaya, now that the Chinese hordes are gone. I do like the change in demographics.

Dry season started 22nd ... smoking season starts 5mins later as the CP maize farmers light up.

All I have to say about this is Deleted Deleted Deleted Deleted Deleted Deleted Deleted Deleted Deleted Deleted. 

Ain't freedom of speech grand.

2 hours ago, Miami007 said:

The concept of herd immunity is being debunked in the USA. 

 

Basically,  the 2 years timeline is the same as the Spanish Flu 100 years ago.  No vaccines back then and no border closures but masks recommended. 

The lockdowns reduced R, which means it'll take longer than Spanish Flu. As long as R>1, the virus will keep spreading. The effect of the measures is to lengthen the time it takes for the virus to play out. So, likely more than 2 years. The IFR seems to be dropping though.

8 hours ago, ukrules said:

I have a feeling China is going to be in for a big surprise towards the end of the year when COVID explodes across the country.

You won't hear bout it, though. CCP has patched the Great Firewall.

3 minutes ago, polpott said:

If there were asymptomatic people wandering around the community they would be spreading it to others. Some of them would become sick and some would die. Your argument has no logic. Where are the overflowing hospitals? Where are the dead bodies?

It seems the R in Thailand's environmental conditions naturally "flattens the curve". So no overflowing hospitals. As for the bodies, have to wait until end of budget year to see the tally (excluding Bangkok and the 75% that die at home): https://hdcservice.moph.go.th/hdc/reports/report.php?source=formated/death298.php&cat_id=491672679818600345dc1833920051b2&id=b4ea22252bb533f3f9225dfcab83d43a

Well, while not exacly prawns, Naklua fishmarket sells lobsters at 500 baht each now. Yummy. The price of kung must also come down, makes no sense when there's a surplus.

IMHO there's no substitute for frying in oil. We have an air fryer, some Chinese thing wife bought, and I only use it for heating sausages Works for that.. For proper fries we got a delonghi rotofry which works with lot less oil than usual fryers.

11 hours ago, Jack Hna said:

Weird how the mention of tax seems to be propping up the Not part of this question.

It's the usual socialist mindset. They want to get their paws in somebody else's wallet. It's always 20-40% of the population, at least. In Thailand you'll find them in the form of somchais bumming off smokes or laukhao.

14 hours ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

Just finished watching season 1 of Warrior, loving it so far and downloading season 2 episodes as they are being released.

 

Kinda makes me think of the series Kung F-u back in the early 70’s and how it was critically acclaimed and well received but as a young teenager I wanted to see more action and less about Chinese philosophy and culture .

 

Warrior on the other hand is full of violence and sex and swearing ................... if this had been on tv in the early 70’s pretty sure I would have been sent to bed before the “ good bits “ !! ????

Yes, based on writings of Bruce Lee. He wrote them before wokeness was a thing, quite a good series and I think somewhat unique.

2 hours ago, Salerno said:

 

Hmmmm, so masks on for temp check ...

 

   

 

but then off again ... 

 

 

That's the gold standard here, keeping up appearances. 

Bursting eh? I went out on both Thurday and yesterday and only now heard of the festival. Must've been limited to the BKK hotspots, 21 and Central. Nothing unusual up to 2nd road.

57 minutes ago, BigStar said:

We also always ignore the Mastercard Index, which happens to correlate pretty well. Mastercard doesn't count transit lounge visitors or day crossings by Laotians that TAT: TVF insists are being counted. Check out a few years of Mastercard: https://www.traveldailymedia.com/thailand-no-1-destination-on-mastercards-global-index/

I checked Mastercard's data source before. Government agencies -> TAT.

1 minute ago, BigStar said:

But the authoritative TAT: TVF now seems caught in a contradiction. Of course the tourism minister is NOW speaking gospel truth, because he's talking about a YUGE loss. Heads all nod wisely in unison. Yup.???? Justice bein' done at last, heh!

 

Trouble is, to agree now then to account for such a loss you have also to agree with his earlier stats re: the YUGE number of tourists and revenue generated.

 

Wot? Were all our sneers just ignorant bashing as usual????? 

Actually, has anyone checked these numbers vs the earlier per head expenditure TAT claimed ( without ever giving the source data ) ?