Title the above link perhaps - to avoid others wasting time if it's not so relevant perhaps ( even I got where you're coming from with that giving the thread).
Tks
Printable View
Title the above link perhaps - to avoid others wasting time if it's not so relevant perhaps ( even I got where you're coming from with that giving the thread).
Tks
Posts referring to covid conspiracy theories be been moved here:
https://sawatdeenetwork.com/v4/showt...iracy-theories
A447
Moderator
The Lockdown has been extended to the end of August.
No real surprise here.
https://pattayaone.news/lockdown-mea...end-of-august/
A video showing the gay beach area at Jomtien (or lack of) and the other side of the beach area too - if you jump along to around 9.15 or so in the video that's the gay beach area. I should point out that there are a ton of videos now appearing on Youtube, some of which showing Pattaya to be looking like something out of a end of days zombie movie but I figured an empty beach is all we could stomach today perhaps - the rest will all appear on all our screens in due course no doubt by the looks of it . :-(
https://youtu.be/bN9zOLcZveE
Another video, but this one not showing things not totally dead for once thankfully - but with the bars closed etc a lot of course all just a shadow of what we know and would expect to see.
This time the guy is waking in the evening time for a change and he covers quite a large area ( including streets I'm guessing those of us who frequent Mosaic etc know all to well).
For those that applies for some of our usual points of interest you can jump straight on to 29.00 for the Soi Day night area or 30.00 to pass Mosaic ( still open albeit the soi is dark) or on to 39.00 for the Soi day night food night market (thankfully still trading) or 45.00 as he walks past Boystown Soi - which it seems was in such darkness he didn't even bother to pan his camera round to look down it :-(
I have to say though Thailand with it's troubles or not just now, if the choice was sitting stuck in the UK doing nothing special or sitting in Thailand I think I'd still be choosing Thailand perhaps ( medical risks aside of course for those who have them) as I still just prefer the overall feeling and vibe of the place - but maybe ask me that in a few months again and I hope i can still say the same.
https://youtu.be/4T-L3k-2jZE
The previous video has helpful location guidance at the bottom of the screen.
From 24~35 min is around the back of Tuk Com, Soi Day Night etc. Best viewed at 2x speed.
Male masseurs can be seen outside one massage shop, which looks like it's open for business.
Other non-essential businesses open include phone shops and (probably) a tattoo shop. This looks much less severe than European style full lockdown.
I was getting tired just listening to that guys footsteps...that dude can sure walk.
After watching this long video I was left with two rather profound thoughts;
1) There's no city on earth that was created for having more fun that Pattaya.
2) It's only sleeping...with one eye open...just waiting for the signal to start breathing life again.
I saw on one of the Pattaya News Clips that the usual population of Pattaya is about 600,000. It said that, at present, the population is down to 200,000, the rest having gone home. That got me thinking.
Pattaya has 4,000,000 tourists a year. Assuming each one stays about 3 weeks that is another 250,000 people.
So actually the usual population is about 600,000 plus 250,000 tourists (850,000) at any one point in time. Many more in the high season....well over 1,000,000 I guess.
So with only 200,000 people in town, no wonder it looks empty.
Name that tune.
Through Pattaya's winter streets we used to walk our way.
We always loved that time of year.
The boys we loved are all at home now.
Cos we're not there, cos we're not there.
The summer sun will fade and so will virus time.
The autumn leaves they will return.
The boys will bus their way to Pattaya.
All of us yearn, all of us yearn.
Through Jomtiens bustling sois we'll wander once again.
The boys will shout to us 'heeeellloo'.
They will be offed and we will love them.
Just when I don't know, just when I don't know.
Some friendly advice:
Don't ever pay too much attention to numbers over here. Thailand doesn't even know what it's own population is, let alone a single city. The same holds true for the "tourist" numbers, and tourism's contribution to the annual GNP. That's a dart toss as well.
They don't have the systems, and/or, don't know how to administer and manage the systems they do have to maintain any meaningful data. This is obviously a systemic problem in Thailand, and not isolated to any one area. This is still a "paper & pencil" society...and the Cabinet Ministers and Generals have big erasers.
The newspapers commonly report the numbers they are given by some Bozo who just walked out of a meeting not knowing what the fuck is going on himself, and then prints this in his newspaper. For this reason, it's rare that any two newspapers in Thailand report the same numbers...not on any topic.
Common sense is the only tool available.
By looking at the video of Pattaya that NIrish just posted, and seeing what's going on with your own eyes, coupled with what you know about the Delta variant that's sweeping across Thailand - which hasn't even plateaued yet, do you think Pattaya's entertainment venues will be up-and-running in a few months - or would common sense tell you something different?
When I check in to a hotel or apartment in Pattaya, I fill in a form and they scan my passport. Then when I go down to Jomtien immigration, this is already on the computer, so they know exactly where I live. All Thailand needs is some software to add up the numbers and they know how many live in Pattaya, excluding the unregistered illegals.
Of course, as you suggest, there is a fair chance that they don't have the software to calculate a total.
Thailand does not seem very good at IT. That's why the lady with the computer that knows where I live gives me a slip of paper to take to the visa extension desk, rather than the visa extension computer approving it automatically.
I don't think anyone here is waiting for ALL the entertainment venues to open in 2021. Just enough for some fun. So the video of today doesn't tell us whether any will open in 4 months time.
As for the pandemic, well the big question is how many months the current wave lasts for and whether or not Thailand gets it's vaccine factory running properly.
This is new ground for us all.
Let me tell you what happened on my last visit to Pattaya.
After quarantine in December everything closed for a few weeks in early January. No bars, no Gogo’s and restaurants closed by 9 pm. No booze.
A few weeks later restrictions were lifted and everything opened very quickly indeed.
Jomtien was up and running with all bars open. What was left of Sunee Plaza was also up and running as before. For the most part Boyztown bars and Gogo’s were open...those that don’t cater for the Chinese. They stayed closed.
The problem was no tourists. But they made the effort.
And some of the straight bars in Soi Buckow were absolutely booming. Not so Walking Street, again no tourists.
So yes I can see another very quick resurrection as soon as restrictions are lifted again. Clearly bar owners are keen to restart business ..it just needs customers to return. That’s what the Sandpit projects are all about.
So yes, provided entertainment is open, I will return this winter.
Yes, we had about 4 days out of quarantine, then the bars shut down in late December.
During the day, we could use restaurants, coffee shops, the beach and after just a handful of days, all the non-essential shops reopened.
So far fewer restrictions than the UK at the time. I didn't expect it to be effective in controlling the outbreak.
However the number of cases came down and then enough of the bars opened.
Now Thailand is attempting to use similar "soft lockdown" tactics, but they have the Delta variant to deal with. Again, I doubt this will work.
An awful lot can change in the 4 months between now and when I would like to be in Thailand next.
One thing they do need to do is accelerate the vaccination programme. At current rates of progress, they will only have given doses to 60% of the population.
It was mentioned that due to the affect that Covid has had on the local economy that the population in Pattaya has gone from 600,000 to 200,000 I believe this as few workers here come from Pattaya so they returned to there families up country where they can live on almost nothing as compared to Pattaya.
Thailand pins hope on opening next year:
https://www.pattayamail.com/latestne...xt-year-366601
The following figures are from Reuters.
"Thailand has administered at least 22,288,819 doses of COVID vaccines so far.
Assuming every person needs 2 doses, that’s enough to have vaccinated about 16% of the country’s population.
During the last week reported, Thailand averaged about 417,239 doses administered each day."
My analysis on this:
The population is about 70 million.
Over 400,000 vaccines per day is starting to be respectable.
IF they continue at 417k per day, then by 12 Dec, they should have delivered approximately an extra 50 million doses, so a total of 72 million doses.
That's roughly where the UK was on 14 June.
I would think that ought to permit at least some easing of restrictions for the winter holiday season.
All dependent on them maintaining the current rate of vaccinations. In practice, it could increase or decrease.
(https://graphics.reuters.com/world-c...ries/thailand/)