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The National Parks and other attractions around the Mae Sot area of Tak province have only just reopened following the vigorously imposed Covid19 restrictions being relaxed. The fact that there have only been two positive cases in the whole province (both back in March) is either testament to the prudent action taken or a vast over reaction by the local authorities.Take your pick! 😀 The province may only have two significant towns but it has a number of excellent National Parks and Sai keeps finding quite unexpected hidden gems for us to visit. Yesterday was a 40 minute drive through the quite spectacular countryside which surrounds Mae Sot to vist the Tropical Gardens of Terrayawan. The gardens are extensive to say the least but also contain many other items of interest. Dual pricing did apply but with a difference. "How much did it cost to get in Sai?' "It was 50 baht for us (3 sisters) but nothing for you as free for Senior Citizens!" Sai sure knows how to twist the knife! 🥴 The first impression is very pleasing to the eye. 😀 We started to wander around the gardens themselves. They actually go on for ever and they have a cycle park where you can borrow a cycle but we gave that a miss. I wonder if anybody recognises this fruit. Looks like an apple but the size of a mellon. Sai has no idea what it is either? This wee fellow is called "Sparky" He's not so tough! We slowly made our way back to meet the rest of the family in the Cafe. It is not a Honda, that is for sure! Found a real "Iron" throne inside! 🤣 A very enjoyable day out.

There's nothing better than beans on toast!

It's ironic that expats used to disparage the two week millionaire types on the forums , but without them the future is bleak for a lot of bars

Aye, but they spent billions on a track and trace app, they were certain that would work

Many of them will be married or have girlfriends, therefore they won't be out barfining. I wasn't surprised to see Flowers comments that there are very little barfines and the girls are getting frustrated, I can see more girls heading back to the provinces if things don't improve soon.

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. That is never ever ever right. 😱

'A few people are asking me how is the bar business here right now, so I thought I would answer here. Everyone is having to work much harder than normal, keeping staff morale up as much as they can. Vag is running meetings daily and changing things daily. I feel with all our supporters, advertising and effort that we put in, we have a better chance of survival than those that don't do so much. But as more bars are opening daily, sales are dwindling. I expected sales to go down immediately on the 7th but it takes a few days for bars to get ladies to come back. Many ladies don't want to come back until flights open, many ladies want to leave because they are getting very few barfines. We have never seen such a low amount of BF's, but things will improve slowly. (in 3 weeks I hope) I notice more gogos and bars opening tomorrow. I expect many places to close again soon. We will fight it out, we are trying hard and I think we can last until international flights open, I fear many other businesses will crash or close again, I really hope not. I don't want anyone to lose their business over this madness. This is the most dangerous time, where most businesses will start burning cash. It's going to be survival of the fittest or stay closed and weather it out. Landlords and others are rubbing their hands already. We are very lucky we have so many expats staying in Pattaya, Phuket bar scene seems to be much worse off! Last night I had a drive through the town on the way back from Bangkok and it was so weird seeing so few places open and many places dead.' Refreshingly honest assessment of the situation by Bryan Flowers.

Hell, a few more of those pics and I'll ban myself .....

Started on beer, then wine , now champagne ..

A huge chunk of the expats in Pattaya are well into their sunset years and going out a few times a week was plenty for them......Its going to take quite a few of these older farangs to make up for 1 two week millionaire who is young randy as a rabbit and ready to blow loads of cash.....

''Marquee'' to night at 19.30 hrs.......

like a dress rehearal, for a show that wont be going on . its dire. I met BF this morning. he always prety straight talking with me. says there was a boom start then it just died. S6 is expecting more bars to open for even less people too. the gogos and clubs are opening to .. thin air for sure

I love all the travel I left on the 27th of June spent the first three nights in Bangkok then three nights in kanchanaburi the next two nights in a ayutthaya then three nights in ubon ratchathani and I am currently on my third night in khon kaen. It's been great add a chance to see the whole Countryside still got new Udon Thani and Nong khai to visit. Then the last three nights in Bangkok and home little over 3 weeks. In a couple of weeks I'm leaving to do the south of Thailand Samui has been dead but it's starting to open up again and there are great values Hotel wise to be had. And all of this because I don't have to be anywhere at any given time.

I 99% agree m8 the ''Pièce de résistance''is to have them topped with a fried eggs or poached eggs..........

They are beautiful dogs. Photo nicked from their FB page.

Go big or go home.

same,same I will sit eat them cold straight out of the tin for a snack,yum,yum regards grayray

I don't get the emails , probably have opted out .. but isn't Ivan always shouting at mods telling them to consider their positions .... well depending on if it's past the yardarm in Oz ...

Laughing at the 24/7 group email just sent. Well not the actual email, the 'You might be interested in' bit in it which shows a few threads of interest. One of them is the Trump thread in the Politics section which shows @Ivan the terrible shouting at a mod that he's seriously warped and to consider his position 🤣 To be fair, if i hadn't logged on for a while and seen that, it would maybe pique my interest

Only if it successful and approved, so the Govt are hedging their bets that it will. If it doesn't get approved it's cost the Govt nothing (well, slightly wrong of me to say that because they funded Vaccine research to the tune of 65million sovs last month). It is still on trial in Brazil with 5000 people since June 20th , nothing is certain until it's trial is over and it gets the nod for public use in humans and Man U fans. Fingers crossed.

As Sturgeon has now decreed that I can once again visit my static van, I got this for dinner last night. Prawn tuna and onion pizza starter, followed by chips cheese kebab with garlic sauce. Finished off for today's lunch.

Never mind the gym mate crack on with that cake... 😁

I miss the true roll eyes,rolling rofalmo(sp?) and many others ...can they be imported please? They were so much better than the latest incarnation shit stuff

I remember last time they took me ages to find on the net and i'm sure there's about 2 to 3 zip files and this is part of the problem with the names and the format. I'll do some digging around to see if I can find then and if so i'll add the links here.

Beach gal and I were out f**king around today .... pretty much in our own back yard ... Ziggy was sleeping close by ...

For sure many households in the provinces are missing the extra income BGs provide. This has a knock on effect by not spending on businesses in their area. Just hope Thai immigration don't make too many hoops to jump through on returning to Thailand whenever that is possible.

Sir the flu, cancer, heart attacks, people dying from shark attacks don't exist anymore......Now people only get sick and die from Corona....

Got to hope the 2020 flu season isn't a bugger, a double whammy will not be good..better Hold Fast

The offshore guys help to keep some bars ticking over during low season, no sign of them getting in anytime soon, it really looks bleak. I was one of the more optimistic people when this all went to shit, but the only hope I see for a swift recovery for the bars, is this Oxford vaccine coming good in September.

Yep, what the bars desperately need now is a huge influx of Gabor's LDOP Asian cretins.

Professional Beach Dweller

Well, for me .. not that it matters ... but, I will just wait and see when they throw the Visa Amnesty " hammer down " ... it is like a Thai telling you they will meet you at 8:00 pm

In fairness to them, you could argue they have been more generous than they ought to be. There are still repatriation flights leaving Thailand every week, most tourists could, and should, have made their way home by now.

Walking Street in Pattaya at night. Bars and clubs showing a slow recovery from Covid (July 2020)

My betting is that they'll relent in the end and come up with some sort of money-making fix that will give you, say, a 30-day extension in exchange for a few thousand Baht. I find it hard to imagine them being so generous again and extending the amnesty without making a bent satang out of it, that's just not the Thai way.

I agree never happen not in 3 weeks

The chances of Thailand opening to tourists in 3 weeks time are slim to zero.

This is common the world over in many poorer countries. I don’t get the moan tbh, even the farang price is usually piss all in the whole scheme of things and it’s usually tight arses having a moan for the sake of it........I don’t care about the principle of it, you’re either willing to pay or not.

If you can find what you're looking for elsewhere, via Google say, you can always just copy the location and then paste it into your post as a url. The trouble I find is that the old emoticons on Secrets and other boards were small and a little bit subtle, whereas nowadays it all seems to be emojis that are the size of a dinner plate and as subtle as an elephant's fart.

It just so happens that I am about to produce a new topic about an outstanding Park/Attraction we visited yesterday up here in the north west of Thailand. It was the superb and very extensive "Terayawan Tropical Garden" which was really much more than simply a tropical garden with many interesting things to see. No dual pricing here with the entrance fee being 50 baht reduced to zero for this farlang ( and Sai's Mum and Dad) as they do not charge for ..................................."senior citizens" Much to Sai's continual amusement. l did not know whether to be pleased or insulted.🤣 Either way, great value even at 50 baht.

Depth charges works fine as well. Or grenades if your budget is limited...

Bloody hell guys, stop drinking and smoking stuff..... Them beans look shite, and taste like shite. They spoil any proper food picture. But yeah, yeah, I know....it's a cultural thing. ( although thats insulting the word "culture"). Beans in.tomato sauce, washed down with a mix of tea and milk for breakfast....🤮🤮🤮🤮 The rest of your breakfast is ok. Well, except that black stuff you sometimes add...

Who?

I thought it was Chang Fai.

Ditto from me! I love good baked beans and mushy peas.

Enjoy beans. Usually over here in Yankland, they are a dinner food. But since eating English breakfasts overseas, I like them with a morning fry up .