Specialist

Don't remind me. A few years ago, I encountered one such group. One of them was quite persistent: she/he WOULD NOT let go of my wrist. I finally had to employ a breaklock I learned many years ago. Done full speed and full power against a resisting opponent, it can break bones. I did it slowly and gently, which let him/her figure out that he/she could either let go or experience a lot of pain as his/her wrist was bent in ways it was NOT designed to bend.

The first time, he got me. I didn't recognize him the second and third times. I realized who it might have been, and then recognized him when he started the game, the second time. I didn't recognize him at all the third time, except for the game, and then I realized who it had to be. I didn't remember the taxi number well enough to be certain of it, this last time. Different taxi numbers. This has happened over the course of several years. I won't swear that the third time was the same guy, but it sure sounded like him.

Is there a procedure for filing a formal complaint against a taxi driver? I think this is the third time I've run into this particular clown. His modus operandi is to claim to understand where you are going, and then persistently misunderstand, until you are (ideally) a long way from your starting point AND destination. The first time, he got away with it. The second time, he tried really hard to misunderstand "Soi Cowboy" as "Soi Kow", giving up when I said "Soi yisipsahm". Tonight, after the hotel security guard told him Terminal 21, and I told him Terminal 21, he tried to claim he heard 41. When I said "Yisipet", he tried to ask "Sukhumvit?" This was after he'd driven RIGHT PAST Terminal 21. I ordered him to pull over, NOW. It took me THREE TIMES telling him to pull over and stop. He finally pulled over just short of Suk Soi 23, and I got out. Blew my plans for the trip pretty thoroughly, as I just got out of the hospital yesterday and didn't really have the walking range to get back to the skytrain station without serious rest time. I would REALLY like to see his cabbie license lifted and shredded, to force him into an honest career, like maybe a ya ba dealer.

I do not currently have any capability for transferring CDs to MP3s. I'm trying to work one problem, not two.

OK, my old Sony portable CD player crapped out on me, and I need to find a replacement. Good places to look? It will be playing through existing Bose headphones, so audio quality is a MUST. It will frequently be bedside, so provision for an AC adapter is a MUST. Where's a good place to shop? Obviously, I don't want to spend a ridiculous amount of money. (I could replace the old one for upwards of US$300, as it has long since been discontinued. NOT A CHANCE!) Suggestions welcome. Skytrain or subway or taxi access required: the doctor has put me on limited walking restriction for the duration. Thanks!

"The Spy Who Dumped Me" - OK, this was just FUN. It trotted out EVERY LAST ONE of the known spy movie cliche's, and it still managed to wind up being fun to watch. "Casablanca" - Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, if memory serves me. No matter how many times I see this one, I still enjoy it, every time. It is arguably the best movie ever made.

It's funny. I used to enjoy walking down Suk, seeing the variety of stuff at the tourist trap stalls. Then the porn and the pills and the toys started crowding everything else out, and I got tired of it, real fast.

Hit Charley Brown's off of Suk Soi 19. You might be in for a very pleasant surprise.

T minus 2 weeks and counting. Arriving Swampypoom very late 14 Feb. DEROS 4 Mar. Two five-day (M-F) seminars back to back. This is going to be INTERESTING...

Flash, you have to remember something. Hotmail is MICROSOFT. 'Nuff said.

Tourism numbers may be high, but I saw something in the last couple of days that said they are off significantly in just the last few months. Wait and see. I'm tentatively scheduled to be in town for the second half of February.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/Tourism/30358483 The key provision appears to be "The Interior Ministry regulation will be amended to allow foreigners who receive a visa waiver for 30 days and travel into Thailand via land immigration checkpoints or land border checkpoints to enter the country with an unlimited number of visa waivers per calendar year." This SEEMS to mean that you can make UNLIMITED visa runs per calendar year if you initially enter by land. It may or may not actually require the initial land entry, that that the exit/re-entry be by land. The first comment on the Thaivisa coverage page (https://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/1068563-thailand-announces-huge-changes-to-tourist-visas-in-bid-to-boost-tourism/?utm_source=newsletter-20181114-1434&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=news&fbclid=IwAR1od0AJCxSpCMb6bPSD5horgaDgiT5yzYD3J_-UxautK_sTDNM7wUyIOOI) seem to cover the critical point. ""Tourism numbers and revenues must be taking one hell of a hit to do this; it is a refutation of everything the Junta has been doing or saying for years. There is a great deal more to this story; I am looking forward to finding it out." Now, they are saying that this is initially a two-month pilot program, but, if they actually put it in place, they may find it difficult to kill. Certainly putting it in place and then killing it would hurt tourism even worse than it is already hurting. (And it IS hurting: that's kinda obvious.)

Nope. None of the above. Watch was still on my wrist, wallet still in my pocket, mobile still back in my hotel room, room key still in pocket. You're jaded. I was surprised. And grateful.

Sometimes, something happens that goes a long way toward restoring your faith in humanity and Thailand and the Thai people. Yesterday, I was walking up Suk Soi 7 toward the beer garden. I don't know what happened, but I stumbled, couldn't recover, and went down hard in the street. I saw a motorcycle avoid me once I picked my head up. Before I knew it, before I even had time to start thinking about how I was going to get up, there were people around me, asking if I was OK, helping me up. I finally counted four men and one woman. They got me stood up. I had some scrapes, bleeding. Someone found paper towels somewhere, they helped me clean up, and one of them then walked with me to the beer garden and saw me safely to a stool. The beer garden dek serve found a towel and then their box of plasters, and we finished the cleanup and bandaging job. TIT. Thank God. The Thais are still some of the most wonderful people on the planet.

You recall correctly. Had Gore won Tennessee, we would not have had the Florida drama. It is EXTREMELY rare for a Presidential candidate to lose his home state and yet win the election overall. Given that Noo Yawk is Democrat to the stones, it is not surprising that Trump lost that state. As for why he won the election, well, look at the county-level or poll district-level maps and you will begin to understand. (Those maps will also give you a very strong hint as to why the US has the Electoral College.)

Well, how'd you do, I see you've met my faithful handyman. He's just a little brought down 'cuz when you knocked, he thought you were the candy man.

If you mean www.flowerbangkok.com, their "Contact Us" gives a telephone number Telephone: +66 2 552 8116 Fax: +66 2 972 8793. Those are Bangkok city numbers, not mobiles. Give them a call and ask for their shop address.

I just saw this one tonight. The "major" plot twist was obvious, painfully so. On the other hand, the movie won the coveted Crazy Farang Award for Best Visual Gag, with the British getaway helicopter's registration code: G-DEUP. Giddi-yup!

Well, since you said it: I'm at T minus 5 weeks and counting. Arriving late Saturday, 1 Sep, flying out early Sunday 16 Sep.

I still remember the night I arrived in Bangkok on my very first trip. I flew into Don Mueang, caught a taxi, and was staying at the Ambassador Hotel on Suk Soi 11. We turned onto Sukhumvit Road, and it suddenly hit me: At midnight, this city was ALIVE!, in a way I'd never seen before ANYWHERE. The street vendors were a noticeable part of that. Over the ensuing years, I gradually realized that the street vendors were not really the active commerce I'd thought initially, but, for a long time, it was fun to see what they were offering. I got tired of it as the porn and adult products and fake drugs started crowding out the more interesting stuff. At the same time, every time I hit town, landing shortly before midnight, getting to the hotel around 1 AM or so, Sukhumvit Road is still alive.

He ran Dream Disco in the Zenith hotel on Suk Soi 3.

STOLEN!

Several years ago, there was a letter to the editor in the Bangkok Post. The author commented that he routinely spoke with government functionaries in English, and he routinely spoke with bargirls in English, and the bargirls were almost universally much more fluent and understandable. I noticed something similar during stays in Bumrungrad. The nurses were generally a lot easier to understand in English than the doctors were, even if it did occasionally come out as Tinglish. The reasons appear to be the same: the nurses and the bargirls get a lot more practice on a daily basis.

Update from a while back. All reservations in place. Arriving Swampypoom late 1 Sep, flying out too early on 16 Sep.

The Incredibles 2. It was OK, but not as good as the original, in my opinion. They went too far toward photorealism on the animation, which left a lot of the faces and heads reminding me VERY strongly of Gerry and Silvia Anderson's "Supermarionation" shows: Supercar, Fireball XL5, Stingray. I saw the plot twist coming a mile off. And it did bother me some that they seemed like they chose to be politically correct, showing the wife as the totally competent one, while the husband kind of bumbles through.