I just read Freelancer's reply to my post last month—sorry, takes me awhile to get to things when I've got so very little on my agenda, LOL. Oh yeah, ASQ...

The food was lousy. As you're not supposed to leave the room (I went to the lift lobby and walked around in circles every day for exercise), they leave meals packed in plastic on a little table outside your door. You order for seven days at one go, mark your choice on a paper sheet and leave it for them. The “Western” choice is typically a mistake except for breakfast, well, sometimes anyway. Thai is institutional and some of it was edible, some not. They allow delivery (ASQ isn't a casual tourist-choice, but if you're contemplating it be sure the hotel you choose allows food delivery). However, they wouldn't accept delivery after 16:00 and it was usually delivered around 17:00. But a lukewarm pizza beats what the kitchen delivered...

I mention ASQ because they announced that Bangkok would be locked down for “two weeks” when I was about halfway in. Ha ha, thought I: miss me with half of that, as I'm already locked down! As is often the case the joke was on me as now (the first week of August) Bangkok is locked down yet again.

We experienced this last year, but it was different. Back then we all felt optimistic. Like, how long can this really last? The feeling was that we'd just help out people in the short-term, and things would right themselves. Nowadays, optimism is difficult to come by. Shuttered storefronts and quiet streets. Now we know that some things just aren't ever going to come back.

The authorities hint that the current lockdown will last all month, which seems optimistic, frankly. The Delta variant is crazy-contagious and the vaccine situation is all screwed up. I'm not going to get into this—just leave it at that. Curfew at 21:00 but everything is closed by 20:00. Closed pretty much by sundown.

I can walk on the street so that's good. I go for a walk every day. I get work done. And I watch a lot of movies. Such a fascinating existence in an exotic Asian city, amirite??

Oh yeah, women. I check Thai Friendly all the time. I don't use other apps—never been on Facebook so I don't use Tinder, but I wonder how private that app is when it's tied to someone's FB account. There's OK Cupid and some other apps, but I'm on TF.

Which is not unaffected by the ongoing situation. Last week I pinged a bunch of potential freelancers in their mid-20s. Three who said they were looking for customers quoted me 3000 baht short-time. OK, that's an attractive Thai freelancer who will deliver herself to my door, so it's hardly out of order to ask 3K. But that's more than the going rate, and it's sort of the-principle, and sort of dick-apathy because if she turns out to be a dud for whatever reason, well, that's 3K shredded. And if she turns out to be great, then every future visit will be at that rate as well.

I shouldn't have overthought it. Turns out at least one of these dames (and some others) aren't in Bangkok. There's no business here. I suspect some are massage-parlor employees without a gig. With no revenue, why stay in the city? One I like is back in Roi Et, back home with the family. She sent me a message today complaining about a lack of sex. I sympathize, but what am I gonna do? Some girls do camwork, ask around if you're interested in that.

Inter-provincial travel is banned. I'm sure I could get to Pattaya or Hua Hin if I wanted to. But PTY would be another hotel, arranging for FLs to visit me in plenty of time for curfew. The pool would be closed as well. I don't know what's going on in PTY.

It's worth noting that in these times, people are keen for any sort of remuneration. This means being aware of building security. And while it's always been the case, now more than ever is the time to be polite to all Thais. On TF, I write “khap” at the end of most sentences. It makes a difference—always has, always will. You don't want just anyone visiting your flat at any time, and nowadays, you want to keep all relationships grudge-free. Avoiding trouble in Thailand is important, verging on critical. Keep 'em sweet.

I've been inviting Candy over pretty much every week. We get along, she likes me and we really like fucking each other. The sex has ranged from excellent to mind-roasting leg-quaking junglefuckin' good. She has her routine when she comes over, I make sure the correct towel is out and the batteries in her favorite vibrator have some, er, juice in them.

There's another one who I've written about before—a skilled technician to be sure but someone I call when I want that technical expertise to get off. OK: she arrives and it's 2Q for 1K baht. It's kind of like McSex, frankly. I like her, but not every week.

At the moment it's difficult to source new talent. There's no incall any longer—all shophouse massage huts and other knocking shops are closed, closed, closed. The short-time hotels are naturally still operating, but it's been a few years since they offered on-site technicians (and yes, I've done that). I dunno what's happened to the go-go divas, streetwalkin' queens, BJ bar staff and nuru-wranglers of Sin City. Maybe washed down to Heaven in one of Bangkok's infrequent rain showers.

What can I say, it's life during wartime. It's not a shooting war. But supply chains are important now. The Hobby is a hobby and right now, I'm more concerned with other things. Blessed to be vaccinated with mRNA technology, right in the arm-meat (and it hurt for two days after, GOOD).

I'm OK. But the situation here is bad. Don't plan a trip to Thailand until they scrap ASQ. Save your funds, do good in your community, that's the deal now

JtB

Thanks to everyone for reading and commenting.

QUOTE:

blahblah777 wrote: "How did delta get to Thailand in the first place when they were so strict with testing and ASQ?"

I'm not a virologist, but my understanding is that viruses mutate constantly to aid replication. They just do. COVID-19 has mutated thousands of times already, just like flu viruses. When you get a flu shot (which is a good practice BTW), it contains killed-virus samples of the most-prevalent flu viruses around at the time. It's a best-guess type of thing. Many medical decisions are simply guesses based on science, observation, and whatever tools we have at the moment.

Viruses need hosts to mutate. And they need a suitable environment for transmission. During the winter season, some flu viruses simply died off because general populations protecting themselves against COVID practiced basic hygiene: distancing, masks, hand-washing. The flu viruses couldn't infect enough hosts, so they...became extinct.

The only variants we hear about are the rare " psuccess stories" like Delta. We know about that one because it's more contagious. It's taken root in places like Taiwan and Australia that sealed their borders early. Here in Thailand, a single employee of the now-notorious Krystal Club went to a concert in Hua Hin and turned it into a superspreader event. At least 26 people were infected in that one instance.

So the answer is: viruses increase their contagion with successful mutations. How to stop said mutations? Reduce the number of hosts. Vaccination is the best way to do this as far as we humans are concerned.

Thanks for the tips--fiwfans is up again, as is dek-sideline. It's roughly the same talent pool and I don't think ever goes away, but circumstances are not ideal. Anyway, let me see what I can manage.

JtB

Sorry in advance for the length of this.  I spend way too much time on learning about COVID-19, the global economy and other things.  Every time I turn around, I learn something new about COVID-19 that is different from a few months ago.

I do enjoy reading other people’s stories as an escape while not having any new stories to share.  I do feel it is important to learn about what is going elsewhere in the world and thank JackTheBat and others on sharing “on the ground” news.  

There is debate about whether viruses are “alive” but that doesn’t matter.  A virus has one function and it is the replicate.  Viruses has RNA not DNA.  Every so often they replicate an “error” in is RNA that creates a variant.  COVID-19 has over 6,600 mutations and counting. This is not surprising when you think about how the hundreds of millions of people infected and it has had a chance to replicate tens of billions of times.  A small number, Alpha, Delta, Gamma and Lambda, are more dangerous because they have adopted a more efficient way to attach itself to your lung cells via spike protein, and take over your lung cells to make more virus and killing the lung cells.  The faster the virus can do this, the less time your body has to figure out how to and attack as the virus is replicating out of control.  The cells in your lungs are destroyed which opens up your lungs to infection from natural occurring bacteria in your lungs that the lung cells keep from getting into your vulnerable areas.  The death of lung cells leads to what you are seeing on the news.   There are people saying it is not COVID-19, it is the pneumonia that kills you and COVID-19 does actually kill people are wrong.  If not for COVID-19 destroying your lungs, then you would not get an infection that can kill you.

Introducing dead virus in whole as a vaccine is not used anymore. Vaccines are simple in concept; how do we get information to teach our bodies to fight the virus.  Believe it or not, for centuries, dead viruses were the only way and how they introduced the dead virus was not a simple shot but through consumption of the virus or have other people exposed to other infected people and hope for a low death rate.  Today, it is dissembling the virus to find the specific RNA creates the spike protein that latches onto your lung cell.  Through this research you now have a “picture” of the spike protein.  The hard part is finding a way to tell your body’s defenses to look for spike protein and teach it to generate the right antibodies and other defenses. The antibodies are designed specifically to get between the spike protein and our lung cell to stop it and thus keeping the lung cell safe.  The virus cannot do anything our body has time to generate other natural defenses like T Cells to go kill the virus as opposed to trying to keep us alive by fighting infections.  People fearful that the COVID-19 virus is being introduced to your body via vaccine are incorrect. There is no virus in the vaccine.

Not all vaccines are equal because of different technologies on how to teach your body to recognize the “picture” and how to take action.  This is why you have different efficacy.  Everyone is different, each person’s body to “learn” and “retain” the information from the vaccine is different.  Ideally, we would like our bodies to learn something once and be good like Chickenpox or Measles vaccines; but not all viruses are equal nor in the same family.  For example, the Flu is not in the same virus family as COVID-19.  Hence, the conversation of booster shots and the need for new vaccines to address variants.  People should get whatever vaccine is available.  Any efficacy rate over 50% can help stop the virus from spreading.


The question pending is: can a vaccinated person who is infected by Delta be a transmitter on the virus?  All the vaccines are effective on stopping transmission of a vaccinated infected person for the original COVID-19 virus and Alpha variant.  Then we have the studies out if Israel questioning this and then Provincetown, Massachusetts super spreader event.  There were large gatherings both indoor and outdoor in of Provincetown for “Independence Week” during the week of June 29th.  From July 3rd to 17th, there are 469 confirmed COVID-19 cases, of which nearly 75% are vaccinated people and 90% of the cases were Delta variant. Provincetown’s 2,600 population has a near 95% vaccination rate.  It is a population vacation destination during the summer that attracts tens of thousands weekly.  The Provincetown super-spreader event resulted in increased infections in less vaccinated areas like Boston with a 60% vaccination rate.  Of the 469 cases being tracked, 0 death, 5 hospitalized (of which 4 were vaccinated), and the remainder mild or no symptoms.  Of the hospitalized there are possibly other underlying health factors. There is an ongoing study to determine if Delta variant can be transmitted by an infected vaccinated person.

The US CDC believes that the Delta variant is looking to be as contagious than the Chickenpox.  For comparison for every person infected by the Flu can transmit it to 1.2 to 1.5 persons.  For everyone person infected by the following the spread is as follows:

-        MERS can infect between 0.3 to 0.7 persons.
-        H1N1 can infect between 1.45 to 1.48 persons.
-        Ebola can infect between 1.5 to 2.4 persons.
-        1918 Flu can infect between 2 to 3 persons.
-        SARS can infect between 2 to 5 persons.
-        Original COVID-19 can infect between 2 to 2.5 persons.  
-        Smallpox, Rubella and Polio can infect between 5 to 7 persons.  
-        Mumps can infect 4 to 7 persons.
-        Chickenpox can infect 10 to 12 persons. (Delta Variant spread rate thus far)
-        Measles can infect 12 to 18 persons.

You will note that many of these diseases we have vaccines that we still use to prevent epidemic or pandemics. The 1918 Flue died out after 3 years and killing an estimated 50 million people.  We never developed a vaccine for SARS, which is now the distant the ancestor of COVID-19.

One of the challenges is WHO and a nation’s CDC will disagree what is a variant of interest and what is a variant of concern verses a variant of interest.  The lack of a consistent global message on this leads to more confusion among everyone which does not help.

Thank you for your indulgence on my COVID-19 information rant.  I am fairly confident that this information will change again in a few weeks as new research comes up.