still_shameless

Bumrungrad was where the dentist tortured me last time. By most reports it is very good. But aimed primarily at well funded foreigners. "Just my tolerance"? Nah, just weird nerves. My pain threshold is high, and 75% of my teeth respond normally to anaesthetic.

I have had up to 6 shots on the left side of my lower jaw. Still doesn't work. It's nothing to do with injecting enough or not. Right side, 2 shots, I'm all good.

Nothing. It's more to keep you calm, on the assumption that you are simply a nervous patient. For most people it is fine. It doesn't block pain. In my case, i need work done on my lower teeth and blocking injections literally do not work on one side of my lower jaw. The rest I'm happy to have done just under a local. When I had eye surgery under twilight medication I had local anaesthetic as well and it was still painful but bearable. No way am I getting major dental work with no effective blocker under twilight. Problem with most dentists is that they think you are imagining it if they give you 3 or 4 times the usual amount of anaesthetic and you are telling them it didn't work.

I need this too. Twilight sedation is out for me. I've had eye surgery twice under twilight sedation. Not fun.

Dave, what's the mood in the bar industry? I can't imagine anything other than doom and gloom. Few would have the resources to ride this out.

I will drop in for some nachos on my next trip.

Does Taco Bell on Soi 11 count?

I would live around Silom. Good pubs, restaurants, street food, awesome park nearby, Skytrain and Subway stops, etc. I have lived in that area more than a decade ago.

Is street food still being sold (for take away)?

There are still restaurants selling booze, also pubs that sell food still open. I know of one pub in Sukhumvit that was getting a sign made up to say it is a restaurant. I saw small restaurants with "food and drink" written on the window with marker pen around Silom. But generally it's dead quiet. A bunch of ladies in Soi 7/1 offering full service massage is about the only action available that i saw, apart from a few freelancers.

Holy crap. ^ I went to cancel a hotel booking at S31. They checked my temperature on the ground floor then they offered me a tiny condom. I was confused because it was too small although the female security guard was cute enough. Then she instructed me to put it on my finger. It was for pressing the lift buttons. I walked past a security guard in the street. He looked right at me and I thought he was going to say something to me. Turns out he was just adjusting it to make sure there were no gaps... okay, middle aged white guys in Sukhumvit are high risk, I get it.

Only Mandarin closed in Nana Plaza last night. Thermae is pretty much a washout, only a handful of girls even bothering to show up, and I assume nightclubs are similar. I went through immigration on Saturday. Not a lot of people arriving, obviously. But they were still struggling to cope because there didn't seem to be a lot of staff on, and those who were working didn't seem to know what was going on. Empty restaurants everywhere. Cowboy bars mostly open, almost zero customers and some bars have almost no girls working. Massage lady today was happy to get a customer, she said "I go buy ticket home now". I asked "No customer?". She said "No, I scare".

The airport was chaotic yesterday (Saturday). Staffing levels appeared to have been planned on the basis of nobody arriving. The plane from Sydney was about 60% capacity. It was surprising to see supermarkets with bags of rice and toilet paper stocks at normal levels. The irrational panic has not set in here yet.

Thanks, I have booked 4 nights there to spoil myself at the end of my holiday. Normally I'm a cheap 3 or 4 star hotel kinda guy, but some 5 star hotels like s31 are discounting heavily. How is the breakfast?

Also it's not an influenza virus.

I second Majestic Suites. Great location. Landmark is a bit more upmarket (5 star) and my friend got a reasonable deal there last month, not too expensive. Also a great location.

On my last trip to Pattaya, just last month, I took home a very nice girl from a beer bar in Soi 7. I couldn't finish using a condom but we both had a good time trying. A couple of hours later some sleepy cuddling got more serious and she guided me inside her and pulled me towards her. I went with it and had no trouble finishing bareback. And again in the morning. Bad, bad. bad idea, even though it felt great at the time. HIV is actually well down the list of things to worry about. An incurable superbug strain of gonorrhea is thousands of times more contagious, literally. Not to mention pregnancy - you think the girls all take secondary precautions? Fortunately I'm shooting blanks. I don't know why some girls are so keen to go bareback. There is so much more risk for them.

Main issue is to be sure that you are getting the real thing and not some cheap copy that doesn't work. Pharmacies in Thailand are not above selling counterfeit drugs. I always use the pharmacy next to Bully's as well when I'm in BKK.

Most pharmacies are selling the same fake stuff as you find on the street. In my experience. There are a few legit pharmacies but you need to know which they are. I bought a 4-pack of apcalis for 600 baht from a pharmacy, By the time you consider that potency is about a quarter or a third of cialis, it is barely cheaper.

The Queen's Castle upstairs bars used to be legit, but those are all closed now. They were part of the King's Group. I had some great nights in those bars and saw some funny things. Part of history now.

There are plenty of wanton ladies in Bangkok. Which is how we love them. Not too sure about wanton soup.

Kebab shop on Soi 4. Bug cart on Soi 4.

https://majesticsuites.com/reservation.php There is a smoking/no-smoking option on the reservation form. Which should mean that at least some rooms allow smoking. Definitely no balconies but the location is almost impossible to beat. I will be staying there next week.

But the 68 is just as much fun. ;)

My suggestions: 1. Buy yourself a street food breakfast or two rather than a Western style hotel breakfast. The opposite end of Soi 24 from Sukhumvit is good. Also all around Silom in the early morning. 2. Go wandering around back streets looking for street food at lunch time or early evening. 3. Central World is my favourite shopping mall to spend a few hours in. More places to eat than you can poke a stick at. Check out the supermarket on the. 7th floor, which is probably as close as you'll come to Harrods food hall in a Thailand. It has supposedly been rated as the #1 supermarket in Asia. 4. Siam Paragon is another great shopping mall, and not as enormous as Central World. 5. Lumpini Park to wander around and see the enormous water monitors (lizards) cruising around the ponds and canals. 6. Something I haven't done yet - watch a proper Muay Thai fight. 7. Chatuchak market. 8. Klong Toey markets - just to wander around. 9. Seaworld in the basement of Siam Paragon. 10. Eat fresh seafood at a riverside restaurant - I've been to Baan Klang Naam and really enjoyed it, but there are probably better places.