yselmike

Only the beaches and national parks are staying closed.

It's gonna be ok you can all relax, there's not going to anybody taking showers,having soapies or getting their laundry done for maybe another year or so. Plenty of time for them to expand or build more reservoirs before the unwashed hoards descend.

The biggest problem in Jomtien is garbage, stinking overflowing trolleys on beach road,piles of bags and bins all over.Every undeveloped patch becomes a dumping ground and every tide brings more to the beach to add to the crap the locals leave after picnicking on the promenade! Garbage is closely followed by the dogs who spoil it for everybody, except of course for all you expert dog whisperer's.The locals have a chance to reboot but I won't hold my breath.

It was not the daughter of the Thai airways top man!

It was in the papers that a Thai airways plane was stuck for 8 hours in Germany because they couldn't pay for the fuel! The daughter of the top man was on it.

That's the beauty of laying bricks/tiles on sand easy to maintain and repair when the sand shifts or rain and the sea affect them. If they maintain them is another story.

I shall be 70 next June so I am sort of thinking about doing something then, but if things are back to normal come January I might not be able too resist a February break from the winter.The exchange rate will be a big factor in the decision about length of stay or if I travel at all and any health issues that may pop up out on the bicycle most days up to 50km a trip now.

It's 38.52 on the TT Web site.

I flew back from Bangkok to Amsterdam with KLM on Wednesday and the evening before I got an email that if I had made other arrangements could I please let them know as there were a lot of people desperate to get back and they could use the seat.I replied I would be on the flight. Saw a report that the cabin staff of KLM were understandably worried about the virus and then got another mail saying there would be limited service on board,no alcohol,hot drinks and one hot meal, " bring snacks" and I did no problem.thats how it was. Once we took of they repeated what was in the mail no booze,tea,coffee one hot meal.....and no service water,juice,soft drinks bits and bobs would be in the three galley's and it was self service,no problem I thought I have my own snacks and water. BUT it was a non stop people coming and going to get liquid and my seat was on the aisle by the middle galley and half the people on the plane passed by my seat multiple times,I am home and waiting with trepidation for the fever to hit me.That flight did not have a free seat and they took two other flight and cabin crew back as well.

They won't have anybody flying from the UK because of restrictions on entering Thailand,plus the UK government is advising people not to travel and that will invalidate any insurance,sort of catch 22 where insurance is concerned I'm scheduled to fly out Wednesday and will be at the airport T least 3 hours before the flight.

But if a currency is floating the markets decide,I remember when the Baht was tied to the US dollar at 25 Baht.Not sure what happend to the pound back then has any bearing on today's markets.I do remember when I was only allowed to take out £100 and it was stamped in my passport.

I will need to change some Euros soon,there is chatter on the forums that the Thai government will devalue the Baht.Can they do that or do the markets decide the value as far as I am aware the Baht is floating on the exchange?

Just walked down beach road from Soi6 to mike's, the pumps are primed and ready to go and fenced off,still the one solitary parachute and only saw one guy working grinding the rough edges or cutting a straight edge.mikes shopping centre is dead,not much happening in terminal 21 but I was there just after it opened it's handy for me to get some of my daily 10k walk round the floors in reasonable cool conditions.Around soi Buakhao and metro it looks normal and busy but it's not it must be scary if you are working, it's starting to look disastrous for the little people in Pattaya.

I booked with KLM in January for €785 that's with €50 for seat selection it's now €675 with seat selection. and EVA were showing €583 I have never seen it that cheap in 20 years.Thats direct flights from Amsterdam.

£ is back under 40,it's showing 39:88 on the TT web page and the € is 34:02.