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Not what I have heard although I am happy to be wrong. I have a friend who lives in the 'Terminal' on Soi 88 who tells me most of the local style bars north of the railway are open when they are allowed to. The rules change and some bars pretend to be restaurants. Some areas such as Soi 94 were closed early while others were open. From what my friend tells me (and remember I am really talking about local bars serving those living in Hua Hin i.e not Bintibaht area) there were many bars still offering a beer and a girl even during the quiet times. If all else fails get down to Baan Khun Por, the food area near the Soi 88 junction with the railway, that (again when allowed) is a great place to meet freelancers and local girls. I also keep in touch with the HUAHIN Forum which gives local updates. The rules about closures etc are changing regularly and I think they were updated yesterday due to decreases in infection rates but need to check with my friend what that means for bars. Which copper you know and money paid sometimes circumvents local rules.

Roast pork was a lovely Sunday dinner

This afternoon I was having a soothing green iced tea, after a long walk, sitting on a bench in a semi isolated inside area of Pantip Plaza (CM). Nobody near me for at least 150 feet. I was enjoying some light reading while taking sips off my tasty beverage. Of course I had my mask off (I am religious about wearing them) so I could drink my tea. As I was reading I coughed once very lightly. At that moment there was a fat ass white guy walking near by (at least 20 feet away) walking with his Thai girlfriend. He suddenly stops and says something to me that I couldn't make out because he was so far away. I looked up at him (he was wearing a mask) and he mumbled something again that I could barely make out.....then I realized what he said ---- "Did you just cough ?" he says to me. It took me a second to actually register that he said something so fucking stupid. He then turns and makes a detour around me like I was some kind of infected zone. My reflexive response once it dawned on me what he was on about was - f**k OFF ! He of course had no feedback and kept on trucking. What a god damn idiot. He was a Yank of course, complete moron.

Udon too far away from beach. HH the Kings "summer residence" kind of a low key place, and I think will remain that way (regarding minimal naughty stuff). I'm back and forth on my thoughts regarding Pattaya, in respect to what may happen in the future. I commented on my previous post how I don't really see it becoming a huge "family destination". Nothing has changed regarding those thoughts since. But.... I do have to say when covid first hit (and I witnessed the entire lockdown first hand) my initial gut reaction and thoughts were - Now they (the anti-naughty groups) who have been outspoken against "nightlife zones" will have the political pull and public support they need to get their agenda through. That being a broad rejection of the beer bars, go-go's, etc. Now.... as time went on and I branched out more throughout the town and viewed the carnage, the vast empty rooms, the empty baht buses, the lines of people waiting for food. My initial thoughts began to shift. I began to weigh the chance that many of the folks who previously would have been strong advocates of bouncing the naughty scene out might be reconsidering. The reason why is perhaps they would see how economically devastating the loss of the market was having a huge negative impact on not only businesses, but on individuals who really had/have no other means of support (not to mention huge loss of tax revenue). The longer the shut down dragged on the more I began to see things in this respect. So..... what am I trying to say here ? I don't think my initial thoughts of covid will be the final dagger in the heart of the monger scene will actually happen. Yet, I certainly don't see the investments pouring in to realistically transform the place into some family destination (that's for damn sure). What I think now we will see at some point .... Slow return to what we were seeing before covid. Slow gradual shifting, continuation of the monger scene along with Indian small business investments. But we will see many vacant bars and shops for a long time. Those that are able to weather the storm and keep their places in good shape may survive and actually prosper. It will be a long time coming for big changes. Some will end up doing well, but they have to be able to wait it out, not just in the short term, but long term.

There is an old lady that appears to be a little off her rocker I only see her when I go to the market .. she seems to sleep wherever ... and just rides her bike all day long Anyway, Ziggy and I were at the market this afternoon and we saw this old lady sitting on the curb crying her eyes out and stomping her feet .. acting kinda nuts ... Ziggy walks right up to this person and asks her what is wrong ..... I don't know what the lady said to Ziggy because whenever she says something to me it is all gobbly guck ... Ziggy tells me the tires are flat on her bicycle ... I tell Ziggy not to worry .. we will fix .... Ziggy gets this old lady to stop crying ... we walk a couple of blocks to this motor bike shop ( they always seem to be everywhere ) ... I sent a young guy at the motorbike store to go buy whatever he needed to fix this old ladys bike ... About 1 hour later .. the old ladys bike was fixed and she seemed happy ... I asked Ziggy how did she know this old lady .. she told me she always stops by moms flower shop and mom gives her a little baht to eat .... I told Ziggy good ...

Kite with a snack

Lasagne made from scratch topped with a Black Bomber cheese sauce. I contemplated having salad with it for a nano second.

I am probably 30 years or more older than you so the pace in Hua Hin is ideal for me and I understand those that are young and like to party then Phuket or Pattaya may be better placed. Again you will no doubt have been to some Thai clubs and if in good company age doesn't tend to be a major issue as everybody is just having a great time. Just for your info if you are in Hua Hin again there is a great club at the end of Soi 94 (corner Phetkasem road) called East Rooftop which is in the G building on the top floor. It is a place where a lot of the beautiful locals go, been many times and loved it each time. May only be the 8th floor but a great place to begin or end the night. A Thai friend of mine owns the building so that is how I was lucky enough to find it. If you got Facebook the link below gives info. https://www.facebook.com/easthuahin/

My neighbour gave me a bottle for Xmas, I haven't opened it yet.

Spag bol for dinner.

Just for kicks, looking around some of my old USB devices. Phuket 2009 with wifey....12 years ago? Geez...

I think we are quite blessed here in the Uk as the main supermarkets seem to pretty much always have a rotating door of money off deals on wines. I regularly see £7.50 bottles down to £6 but a great one is the 25% off for 6 bottles deal so if you like a particular brand then you really are quads in.

I am not so sure about that ... I was just recently in Cha Am and Hua Hin ..... 2 or 3 weeks ago .... the bar scene there is always pretty low key ... just about everything was open .... we went and ate a dinner at https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g297919-d4467411-Reviews-DiDiNE_Restaurant_Cha_Am-Cha_am_Phetchaburi_Province.html

The guy who lives in the house next door to us when we are in Mae Sot has the loudest sneeze I have ever heard. Consider the loudest sneeze you have heard then multiply by a factor of 20 and that may approximate to his condition. If he goes down with Covid he will infect the whole village with one sneeze. I imagine it is some kind of medical condition but I cannot be assed to Google.🤣 I remember saying to Sai "It would not surprise me if he did not have a heart attack sneezing like that!" "Oh, he has had one already."

Happy Elephant.

https://amp.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3116784/chinese-construction-cambodias-next-tourism-hotspot-kampot It seems the Chinese are turning their attention towards Kampot. This is one reason Cambodia has never really appealed to me as an alternative to Thailand. I really enjoy Phnom Penh and the bar scene there is better value for money than Pattaya for me, and probably more fun as well. However, Cambodia just doesn't have the same infrastructure, comforts and attractions as Thailand. Phnom Penh is great for 5 days to a week, but I couldn't stay there for any longer.

Unless the Chinese take over the dark side as well I expect those local bars will remain. My mates told me at Christmas that the pandemic hadn't really caused too much issue on that side of the Sukhumvit, the bars were still there, the same girls (same quality) were there and if you needed a drink not much had changed. Ok maybe closed now (not sure, need update) but where there are expats there will be local bars. Nongkhai has got Soi Boxing which no doubt will still be there after the pandemic recedes. Soi 80 in Hua Hin and other expat (local) hang outs will still be around as they don't really rely on tourism but will just feed the local foreign market. Maybe the Pattaya go gos will close or change hands to Korean or Chinese but they will still offer entertainment, just maybe not what we all want. In Angeles bars are closing but bars have come and gone when the Americans left, when Pinatubu covered the town in lahar and when the Koreans moved down from perimeter. Europeans, Americans and Aussies are hardy characters, they don't run to the hills like Asians at the first sign of trouble. They will return and bars will cater to their needs. Many of those Korean go gos in P.I actually cater to foreigners as well, go in them at 8pm and you will be outnumbered by the Koreans but by 10 pm most Koreans are in their bunks with their conquests and those same clubs are full of Caucasians with enough girls left to go around. Maybe Pattaya will change but I believe as long as Americans, Europeans and Aussies still wish to visit Thailand for the beaches etc should they have a need to be entertained by lovely ladies there will be entertainment for them...

Tonight another massage, another dinner. Then we walked a bit north - past the moo ga ta place which was doing quite well - to a small bar, offering massages, food and some drinks. Soon enough, they ran out of real coke and we had to use coke zero as a mixer which is quite horrible, even when mixing with sang som. Nevertheless, I quite liked it there, as it was offering a bit of an island feeling, .....listening to the waves, Losso or Carabao playing on the stereo, wind in your hair (what was left).....

Luckily I have a cheap palate, anything off the bottom shelf is good for me. When I lived in Thailand I always just got boxes of red or white at Makro as the economy of buying in bulk worked for me. OK it might not have been Mont Clair (always laughed at) but it was a cheap and cheerful stuff brand. In UK I usually buy £4.50 bottles of supermarket own brand Soave or Frascati and if feeling rich I might move to a bottle of red such as 19 Crimes (a nice Australian) at £9 although I have recently been getting them at £7 in Tesco. Red is better suited to my constitution and a £6.99 bottle of Merlot usually sees me having more than one glass. My palate also means when traveling business class on planes I get upset stomachs as my ideal choice is to have economy food as the business class stuff is too rich. I will say though that I do like a good bottle of port and the more expensive decent vintages actually seem to sooth my palate rather than irritate it but you can't keep drinking port however good it is. I have nothing against expensive bottles of wine but they would be wasted on me really even if I wasn't paying for them.

Not any more 😁

Fcuk him best to leave to RIPs for his victim ...

Download the app and watch the label tell you his story.Amazing.

Woke up this morning to a warm house again. The engineer turned up yesterday as planned and fitted the new fan, but it wouldn't run. The cooling fan fins for the coil were jammed against the body of the main fan chamber from assembly. He told me it was the last one on the shelf and it would take a few days to order another in, being Saturday afternoon all of the other suppliers closed at lunch time. The unit comes with a 12 months warranty, so the engineer agreed that I could try to fix it and he would still honour the warranty. Having bent all of the offending fins away from the body it was clear that the main fan inside was jammed up too. FFS. What a croc of shite. The fan drum was eccentric so when it rotated it jammed against the coil mounting screws. Fortunately being a croc of shit helped me as the drum was fixed to the shaft with a grub screw which I could just get to. I released the drum and refixed it so that it could spin freely, but it now touched the screws which attached it to the boiler housing. Fortunately I had enough washers to shim the screws allowing free spinning. Thankfully it all went back together and ran nice and quiet and the enginner having now been at my property over 2 hours for a job that should have taken 30 mins agreed to take the cost of the fan to him plus a little cash for him turning up on a Saturday. That saved me a few quid for my efforts!

That's a wonderful red.

Same all over the world. This thread has been great last 24 hours. Yes China's Golden Road / Belt and Braces and whatever else it gets called has been really shown up by this pandemic. I loathed Trump from day 1 but he was right to warn about Chinese Imperialism. It is colonialism by another name. From deep sea ports in Myanmar to skyscrapers in Phnom Penh to airports in the Congo China is buying up the world. I think personally Pattaya will become the Las Vegas / Blackpool / Macau / Bundoran of Thailand. Hideous casinos, karaokes and cheap Chinese buffets ......... bars as we know them will be a distant memory. (See I brought it back around to bar closures). How is Khun Egg getting on ??? ...Baggies won today against their deadliest rivals so ......

is that the place that all the chinks pulled out of and left as a ghost city?

There is a an Argentian we have,it’s called 1884.It’s a Malbec. it retails for $18 and is extraordinary for the price. We have a Calwara Australian for $9.99 that is great too. we have noticed that customers are very specific about the wines they drink. one lady came in around two weeks ago and she said “do you have painted turtle Cab Sav”? My guy called me out of the office to talk to her,as he knew we didn’t have it. I said “no ma’am we don’t.Is there something else we can sell you that will be similar?I have some suggestions”. her response.”No,I drink Painted turtle,that what I like”,at which point I said “oh that’s fine ma’am,how long have you been drinking that for”? 2 years was her response. so I says “well dear,what did you drink for the first 53 years of your life,and how did you manage to settle on painted turtle”? her old wine had sold out so she chose something new. Well,at that stage I knew I had her.Sold her a bottle of Bodacious Deep red,and she’s been happy with it ever since.😁😁😁 it’s a $9.99 ,750ml bottle.🤣🤣🤣Some,people just need a little push.

Woohoo top of the league!

"When this all blows over, the tourists will be back." Where were all the tourists before Covid? It is easy to forget that for a couple of years prior to Covid, Pattaya had no real high season at all and that there were just far too many bars/GoGo's chasing the same diminished customer base. The continued high value of the baht was resulting in customers coming less often and spending less when they did. The baht continues to be far too strong for western tourists. Buy a bar now means putting it in mothballs for the whole of this year at the optomistic best. When Thailand eventually opens up to any meaningful influx of tourists I very much doubt that they will becoming from "western" countries. The chinks do not spend money in our bars/GoGo's. Thailand needs to come to terms with the fact that Covid is NEVER going to go away. There will always be some positive cases from tourists irrespective of world wide vaccination. If they do not accept that then they will retain quarantine periods and then you can forget mass tourism. As for condo projects. Surely any building going on now was the result of decisions/planning undertaken well prior to Covid. Pattaya and Jomtien is absolutely surrounded by new completed constructions conspiculously absent of any purchasers. Sadly, I do not think the Pattaya we have loved and enjoyed to the full will ever return to anything like its former self.

Apparently it goes well with cheese ............ dick cheese

Watched this on Amazon last night and thought it was superb.

Ditto from me. That's another country off my list for travel.

Great thread, @Evil Penevil Thank you for posting.