General Reports

[QUOTE=JRoberto;2419122]It's surprising how one's perspective goes out of the window when the news coverage is so intense and emotive. 60 people die on Thai roads every day. This is a substantially higher rate than the death rate from nCoV across the whole of China (current total 259), and no-one has so far died outside China. Yet nobody says "I'm not coming to Thailand because the roads are unsafe".

I have a trip to Pattaya booked in 2 weeks time. I'm not cancelling unless the situation in Thailand spirals dramatically. And I'm looking forward to less Chinese roaming the streets.[/QUOTE]Yep, you are spot on. The hysteria is amazing. Great time to come to Thailand as there are very few tourists here. And I would imagine hotel prices across the region will be falling along with airfares.

With coronavirus in mind, what's the current attitude of girls towards Chinese or Asians? I'm Chinese-American not that any girl would know that. Haven't stepped foot on Mainland China in many years and have no desire to again. Are massage places going to reject me at the door? Will outcall escorts turn away when I open the door?

[QUOTE=Applesauce;2419652]With coronavirus in mind, what's the current attitude of girls towards Chinese or Asians? I'm Chinese-American not that any girl would know that. Haven't stepped foot on Mainland China in many years and have no desire to again. Are massage places going to reject me at the door? Will outcall escorts turn away when I open the door?[/QUOTE]No not at all I British born Chinese and I have no issues. Benn in BKK for 1 week all is fine.

[QUOTE=Applesauce;2419652]With coronavirus in mind, what's the current attitude of girls towards Chinese or Asians? I'm Chinese-American not that any girl would know that. Haven't stepped foot on Mainland China in many years and have no desire to again. Are massage places going to reject me at the door? Will outcall escorts turn away when I open the door?[/QUOTE]I have American Chinese friend who live in Pattaya and he is having no problem. Ofcourse other mongers and some girls get cautious when they see him in bar, but no massage shop has sent him away, yet. As far as outcall escort, I think you should make it clear before booking that you're American-chinese but not from wuhan region, to avoid any confusion later on.

[QUOTE=Goatscrot;2419635]Yep, you are spot on. The hysteria is amazing. Great time to come to Thailand as there are very few tourists here. And I would imagine hotel prices across the region will be falling along with airfares.[/QUOTE]I'm still home but will start my journey tomorrow. I made airline reservations in early November and paid $2250 round trip. Same seats for same dates has varied quite a bit since I purchased. Same ticket was down to $1450 in late November and up to $2900 in mid-December. About 5 days ago price had again dropped to $1450 for a short time and quickly back to $2250. I can't figure out when airline prices will be high or low.

Hotel prices at my destinations are a bit more expensive than I paid through [URL]Hotels.com[/URL] in November.

[QUOTE=Goatscrot;2419635]Yep, you are spot on. The hysteria is amazing. Great time to come to Thailand as there are very few tourists here. And I would imagine hotel prices across the region will be falling along with airfares.[/QUOTE]From past experience, when business goes down, girl prices go up. Counter to all logic ha ha, other than the girl needs more money than usual. I wonder if Hotel prices will really drop?

I would not be put off by the Virus just yet unless becomes quite prevalent in Bangkok. Yet business in Chinese districts in my home country (with few virus cases) has been decimated. A shopping centre food court is doing very badly.

My times of sickness are usually directly following international flights, so that is the risk for me for lots of viruses, even if not flying out of China.

I agree with the writer who points out that there are still far bigger risks in Bangkok, than the virus, such as crossing the road, being on a motorcycle, being struck by lightning, salmonella, botulism, even legionaires disease maybe.

Google Maps shows how bad is the traffic for your directions of best route between two places.

To see Bangkok traffic map in general. Try this:

[URL]http://traffic.longdo.com/en/[/URL]

You can even get past flood maps.

I use Longdo Dictionary too, but its only useful to translate Thai to English if you know Thai script. In reverse, there is some Romanised Thai phonetics for English words in the Thai-English-French: Volubilis Dictionary part. However one can see this dictionary is intended for Thai people, or very advanced Thai speakers. Thai-[URL]Language.com[/URL] is good for English speakers.

Volubis [URL]http://belisan-volubilis.blog$spot.com/[/URL] (remove the dollar sign) provides Excel spreadsheets with Thai, Romanised Thai, English, French. There are top 2000, top 5000, top 10000, and 100 K words / phrases database versions. I am soon to complete study of the top 5000, but am working on Lao / Issan words too. Being forced to speak mainly Thai most days has helped me a lot. The Mrs refuses to speak English to me, but will speak Issan sometimes.

Excel spread-sheets can be fed into Flashcard apps to assist study. Flashcards Deluxe is a really good phone App.

Its not always easy to really like all foreign languages equally. I like Thai, but dislike Issan / Lao, German, Vietnamese, Tagalog, to mention a few I have tried studying. Most languages have some annoying features that we find hard to adapt to. E. g for German its the complex grammar that is annoying, where Thai has the simplest grammar imaginable, perhaps. Issan just sounds much more ugly than Thai. Even the Lao people agree that Thai sounds nicer. Written Lao has spelling more simplified than Thai, even though 90% of Thai words have a regular spelling.

[QUOTE=Applesauce;2419652]With coronavirus in mind, what's the current attitude of girls towards Chinese or Asians? I'm Chinese-American not that any girl would know that.[/QUOTE]Damn right they would not know that. There are millions of Chinese Thai. They would just as well assume you were one of their own until you opened your mouth.

[QUOTE=HorseTrader;2419751]I can't figure out when airline prices will be high or low.[/QUOTE]Low: 2am on a Tuesday night. High: Noon on a Friday.

[QUOTE=Sunlover2;2419592]If you are in a car accident in Thailand you yourself are injured. But if you carry the nCoV home with you there is a risk of infecting your family, friends, acquaintances, and work colleagues. Not to mention the people you come in contact with during transit.[/QUOTE]Over the last 10 years there has been widely publicized measles, sars, mers, bird flu, swine flu, dengue, zika, chikungunya, yellow fever, cholera, H1N1, ebola, and whatever else I can't think of right now. This year it is corona. Next year there will be something else. When do you plan to move into a cave for the rest of your life?

[QUOTE=Applesauce;2419652]With coronavirus in mind, what's the current attitude of girls towards Chinese or Asians? I'm Chinese-American not that any girl would know that. Haven't stepped foot on Mainland China in many years and have no desire to again. Are massage places going to reject me at the door? Will outcall escorts turn away when I open the door?[/QUOTE]I was in Bankok this past weekend Thurs-Sun and was also there till mid Jan. When I landed at the airport this time it felt spooky with a lot of staff everywhere with masks and thermal scanners pointed at people. However once you are out and in the city things seemed just normal except for a lot of people now with face masks including all hotel staff. Bars in Nana, Clubs (level, insanity) and gogo bars were humming as usual although less crowded than NYear. I did not venture to Soi see this time nor Thermae due to not finding time. But a previous thermae contact that I sessioned with told me that she and her friends have stopped going to thermae because of the Chinese possibly visiting there.

[QUOTE=MrEnternational;2420048]Over the last 10 years there has been widely publicized measles, sars, mers, bird flu, swine flu, dengue, zika, chikungunya, yellow fever, cholera, H1N1, ebola, and whatever else I can't think of right now. This year it is corona. Next year there will be something else. When do you plan to move into a cave for the rest of your life?[/QUOTE]Your snark is wholly unnecessary Mr. E but no hard feelings though; as I believe people should do what they enjoy the most.

If you are in Bangkok next week let me know, and I will buy you a drink.

SL.

[QUOTE=MrEnternational;2420048]Over the last 10 years there has been widely publicized measles, sars, mers, bird flu, swine flu, dengue, zika, chikungunya, yellow fever, cholera, H1N1, ebola, and whatever else I can't think of right now............[/QUOTE]I recall all these outbreaks yet none created as great a scare or resulted in more economic damage than the coronavirus. I wonder why?

[QUOTE=MrEnternational;2420048]Over the last 10 years there has been widely publicized measles, sars, mers, bird flu, swine flu, dengue, zika, chikungunya, yellow fever, cholera, H1N1, ebola, and whatever else I can't think of right now. This year it is corona. Next year there will be something else. When do you plan to move into a cave for the rest of your life?[/QUOTE]Good one! Yes I plan to be particularly healthy for the rest of my life by cutting myself off from society, living remotely with very low social contact, not quite a cave, but like a hermit. The one problem is this is not quite compatible with mongering. Ha ha. Can I give it up? Probably not. Maybe for a while, or in patches. My big cut back occurred before the Corona virus, by coincidence.

Airlines could advertise a new class of seating where passengers could pay a little more to be sealed inside a capsule with special air filtering. I seem to remember a Sci Fi book about everyone being sealed off from each other and trying to live to a very old age.

I can hardly remember Mers and H1 N1. Yet I read Thailand had 18 deaths from Swine Flu.

It is hard to fully understand the scare level. 1st factor is how many people have it and where they are located. The death rate of 5% has to be important (Sars was more deadly), since huge numbers of people catch a Flu or Corona Virus of some sort each year. 3nd factor is the level of contagiousness (ease to pass on airborne and surfaces). Number of cases reportedly doubling every 5 days. Will it peak soon? Then there is the insidiousness of symptomless persons passing it on with long incubation period. If you are very close to an infected patient for some time period, are you certain catch it?

Other factors:

Chinese government cover up.

I wonder if the name is relevant? If this was called "bat flu" instead of the Corona Virus, would that be much less scary?

I recall the bird flu time as really silly, with hotels insisting to over cook eggs till they were virtually inedible.

Can the spread be halted, or will it go to all countries? If so, the death toll will be huge.

In a very deadly monkey virus movie with Dustin Hoffman starring, I recall the military planning to drop a nuke on the infected area.

We are all meeting girls wearing masks now. Its a bit like a Hijab. I can't see how good looking they are any more. I am imagining a visit to Crazy House with girls dancing fully nude but with face masks on. Might be a little surreal.

Would guys be happy to fuck girls wearing a mask? Will blow jobs be totally banned as too dangerous?

Terrible tragedy at Terminal 21 in Korat yesterday afternoon. Over 50 shot and 20 dead.