YimSiam

"Ladyboys and More" - finally, advertising that hews towards the truth...

What happened to the Christian Troy character in the end - still down there? Or...? Was prolific for a while, I recall.

There might be some folks at suvarnabhum with ideas could solve this problem, don't know why China struggles: make airplanes with no doors, and voila! No problem.

Thais didn't kill any foreigners who didn't deserve it, might be a helpful modification.

Given that I was confined to a hotel room for the weekend, hit Spectre, The Martian, and The Lobster back-to-back-to-back one day - Spectre as expected, same-old same-old. The Martian could have presented it's premise and its total dramatic trajectory in a 20-minute short-film, while the Lobster was a good one - unsettling for a 40-plus guy with no wife or family, funny, depressing, clever - ambiguous ending, which you don't find often these days... though by the end it had been stretched a bit too far, I still enjoyed this one and recommend it.

Agree that it can be tough these days to find the right balance in Cowboy - the coyote thing is an impediment, attitudes are mixed, and some old stand-bys (Afterschool, e.g.) have lost some of their charm. Soi 22 - you really have to be committed to having a good time there (which I often am, so that works for me at times) to make it an option. A good number of preparatory and ongoing drinks helps, as well as a degree of blinders/beer goggles as to quality and selection. Pattaya, ah Pattaya - whatever you're looking for, you can find there.

Talk is cheap, Nasiadai... You'll be back, and you'll find some glimmer of hope somewhere in there! Pricing is not going to be the cause of decline (but this has all been said before). It's an overall cultural change and awareness, impact of social media, economic improvements in Thailand - and the rise of the ladyboy.

I suspect that when the Saudis lit the fuse on this one, they had already moved their personal out of harm's way - this was like reaching out and punching the flashing red button that says "Piss Off The Shia NOW!"... Throws cold water on any plans Kerry and Putin might've had for downshifting the Syrian war somehow... With friends like Saudis, who needs enemies.

Better him than me, that's for sure! Thailand as playground far better than Thailand as beat - whether you're a cop or a reporter.

(Hope no one takes my concerns about footwear as a criticism of the eager young lass above - I have full appreciation for all of her assets, including shoes, wear the same myself around the house...Just there's a time and place for everything, and 'on stage' is generally not the place for flipflops... Very best wishes to the young woman as she heads to the big city!)

Maybe that's my problem - not only does it seem my body is sometimes incapable of processing the alcohol I provide it, maybe I'm actually producing my own alcohol! Stewing in my own juices, so to speak. What a terrible fate, what an erratic driver.

Maybe we could all pitch in, get her a new pair of shoes? Those flipflops (by which, obviously, I refer to the SHOES, and not to any other aspect) put the capital "V" in Village... Get her a job a Hooters, while the place is still open - if she can't speak enough English to serve as waitstaff or whatever, maybe she can just stand guard to watch for possible runners - with her solid village constitution and work ethic, I don't doubt she'd be ready to tackle anyone trying to avoid their bill!

There's plenty of words in all the AA stuff to take massive exception to - the question to me always seem to be 'Is alcohol - or whatever - fucking with my life and having more negative impacts than I would like it to have?' And if that's a yes - fucking with my work performance, damaging my reputation, disturbing my relationships with family friends and others, leading me into lies and deceit that causes problems, well then it's an issue that should be dealt with (and I actually find AA meetings to be a useful way of providing some short-term trajectory corrections, but that's just me - and certainly, I don't buy into lots of the language and concepts of it, just find it useful to go sit with a bunch of shockingly similarly-minded individuals and consider my actions a bit - better than spending that hour sitting with my bottle of vodka with no similarly minded individuals, which is often the apparent option!). If I'm capable of enjoying myself, and providing insightful, informative updates on the latest Hooters franchise, which has been erected as a giant corporate wart on an otherwise pristine pristine stretch of pavement dedicated entirely to the sins of the flesh and mind, well then, I'm doing fine. Fine-ish. So says I.

Hot chick actresses do have a way of 'adding more depth' for me, that's true. Haven't seen Spectre, but have seen photos of the actress - welcome, pretty Moneypenny...

Poor Andrew - it would certainly seem that there are more lucrative and less futile career options for him out there in the world somewhere. Virtually fucking anything would be a better way for him to spend his time - not knocking him personally nor his work, and it's stuff that I find interesting and I hardly disagree with his general concerns, but dude, the obsession is not good for a man... Sometimes a guy need to know when to leave the boulder at the bottom of the hill this time, and move on to other pursuits! The dividends on his various pursuits cannot have been good over the years. Let us see whether Thailand exemplary record of mercy and understanding is continued with these Burmese guys, without regard to the absence or presence of actual culpability.

Shocking as it may be, I'd say the majority - at least the majority of my time, if not the numerical majority of individual visitors - are speed dials from my current lineup. Definitely the first night is regulars on call, then maybe a few new finds over the next couple days, then back to regulars for LTs for the bulk of my visit, plus throw in a couple of bj bar visits here and there for guaranteed satisfaction they can offer... Picking from my regular team members these days - I know what I like, I know what they offer, and they are the perfect solution to coup/election/holiday disturbances to opening hours... None, however, are Thermae girls, at least as far as I know!

Nana Disco used to be my own personal vision of heaven, a heaven that I visited so bloody fucking often that it got to the point that I'd sample virtually every ware available remotely worth sampling... Going in there was like visiting Cheers bar from the sitcom - a place where everybody knows my name! (Well, not my name, actually - but my Bangkok nightlife alias, at least...) My first freelancer pull was out of Nana Disco, although she did have to tail me down to Thermae to get me to seal the deal... ah, memories... 98 through 2003, say, were Nana glory days for me - at least for the early part of the evening, it was a place to start, and the crowd was the same crowd that would then wend its happy way up to - yes, it's true - the Grace hotel coffee shop for the very wee hours for a while. Ah, to be young, handsome and good-hearted again. Or at least young and handsome. Hell, what I'd give just to be fucking good-hearted for a few hours... But that's all in the past... Passage of time and attainment of knowledge has done terrible things to my consumer profile, when it comes to the Sukhumvit lifestyle...

Huh - just read this article in The Atlantic - http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/11/twilight-of-the-headbangers/407848/ How Long Can Lemmy Go On? Now they have their answer.

I fucking love luk thung dancers. That's my dream girl - a gorgeous, brilliant, independent Thai chick who happens to be a luk thung back up dancers. Feathers, ridiculous boots, utterly stupid dance routines, all of it - love that.

Indeed, the reports are almost guaranteed to be more of a good time than an actual visit! Perhaps someone should advise our dear friends at Hooters that the only Thai ladies with farang names are of the type to populate Casanova, etc. No better giveaway for a ladyboy than the use of a farang name - and for those of you who are turning to your girlfriends and nightly rentals Lisa, Nancy and Penny to ask whether that's true, I assure you - there are exceptions. No many, but one or two. Okay, there was one exception - but she's no longer in the nightlife biz. They're fucked over there, those Hooters folks. Best thing that could come out of this is a bit more foot traffic headed to the other morning/afternoon bars on the soi, who will now be even more grateful than usual for a reasonably priced eye-opener in the company of a few lovely-ish, or formerly lovely, ladies and dek serves... Runners, huh? Thing is, you try to pull a runner on any other bar on soi 4, and you're lucky if you get home without a broken nose and full wallet-emptying - but it sounds like the local powers-that-be may not be so concerned about enforcing the pay-for-what-you-drink rule normally in place - may bode poorly for the newest member of the neighborhood... Keep the reports coming. Impressed that you are capable of prompt and coherent reports on site... something I have not been able to pull off for quite some time!

Maybe if the win on appeal, it's not such a loss of face, though even I would tend to see that as much worse... Better aim for pardon or commuted sentence - because after all, the Thais are a merciful and forgiving people.

Christmas also outlawed in Somalia this year, glad I didn't book that Mogadishu package tour I was considering...

Willie dead? Sacrilege. Willie will never die - he'll just be a little bit higher...

Yeah, but... at a certain point, doesn't descending to these depths of lunacy cause more of a national loss of face than a few big shots losing individual face? Persisting in developing this banana republic image is just not good for anyone's face, no?

It's been pretty clear that it's a bunch of bungling and less-than-credible statements from virtually everyone involved - through in confessions elicited through torture, and that's the sum of things. The only question has been how ridiculous they were willing to go in the end - and it seems like they've chosen Completely Fucking Ridiculous. Would've been better off to just pick a couple random guys and shoot 'em the day after the murders, call it a day - instead of putting the whole nation up again as an object of derision. Why on earth do they bring this shit on themselves? A couple of egos on the line, produce some stupid decisions, and let the whole country and its massive tourist business fester as a result? For what? What was the payoff here, why go through with such BS? Is there no one with a cooler head to call stuff like this off before it gets to this point? Ah well. Nice country, mainly. We all have our flaws, don't we.