YimSiam

The only time I sit there at the GBB is during those early morning hours - 6-7 am I guess - drinking sidewalk beer from Mama with that gang of thievin' ladyboys and aging hookers, for old times' sake. Many fond memories on the side plastic chairs, far fewer in the bar above. Another closed morning option - christ, I'm going to end up spending days in my room with ladies ordered off the internet if this keeps up... Whatever happened to the 24 hour good times - ah yes, they moved to Pattaya, that's what happened. See y'all in Chonburi.

80,000 largely unexplained "public order" disturbances reported in China annually - maybe now we know what they are all about!

Too damn intoxicated to fuck much these days, it's a sad state of affairs...

My greatest enemy is my unbreakable addiction to business class... This habit makes all economy fares - however theoretical they have become - look fucking beautiful and as reasonable as I could ask for...

Ah, come on, there's good and there's bad. The good 'uns, maybe they're not exactly on the beaten path, and they're behaving well, they've got some linking string of enquiry they're following to add a little coherence to their trip. Learning about the world, contributing to the lower echelons of society a few baht at a time, nice folks. I was one, not so very many years ago - '95: Singapore to Bangkok, a month's loop of Myanmar, Saigon to Hanoi, Calcutta to Bodh Gaya to Kathmandu, through Pakistan to Kashgar and into China proper out to Tibet and then Kathmandu, Bangkok, Singapore, home. I was a little dirty, a little ragged at times, but generally polite, and I think that's the most of them. Got nothing against a backpacker - the majority are good people, I think. It's the Brits that are most likely to screw things up. The Americans might be loud and naive, but they're not quite as belligerent and entitled as the Brits. As always, Scandies and Nordic types, and the low countries, you can't complain much about them. Good manners.

I've also been moved by the acid and DT thing, three days without a drink and without a single bit of sleep, just floating through that hallucinated world of deprivation and fear, my visions not always so controllable, especially in the dark - and the music! Unbelievable endless auditory - I could hear mice whispering a mile away, and conjure orchestras with the tilt of my mind. Amazing, amazing stuff. Staring sober at a blank white wall for hours, and reading shifting lines of poetry off it, verse after verse after verse. I hate to say, but it's only when I'm at my most fully delusional that I think I've become aware to any reasonable degree of how powerful our minds are - we skate the surface, but underneath that vast soft machine is churning out world after world after world... Barbituates are the preferred dt meds - not so much of a risk of convulsions, keeps the lawyers at bay at the rehab centers...

The way she sat on that back, nice shoulders, pleasant curve to her back - fantastic. Excellent work by the young lady, in the middle of the day.

Ah, Fiery Jack, you're experiencing a common side effect from getting sober - like when the Freak Brothers came down. The Thai version is that suddenly you start seeing kathoeys everywhere... and then realize that they've been there all along... it's enough to drive a man to drink again (at least, a man like me - and I've got the evidence to prove that...) Beware, there's more where s/he came from... it never ends...

But jesus, 9,000 is a solid number! Where did they put them? The only place that can hold that kind of crowd would be, I don't know, Walking Street. Or the Beer bars. Behind [the beer] bars, pending deportation. Pretty much where they started, I guess.

9,000 and only four wanted by Interpol? Can't be Pattaya, the Interpol number would be wildly higher...

Used to live in Pattaya, I'm pretty sure. Years without a job or license, but then stumbled - literally - into the Drunk Express gig! (Still no license, though...)

If there is an airline called "Drunk Sun Express" I am fully ready to fly it - sex or no!

Either way, it only really matters once you know the monthly rent, doesn't it? ...

I'm with bust - who cares about road safety, if in the end it's all part of the grand scheme of cause and effect and just desserts? Life in Thailand is fleeting, just like the Buddha teaches - road accidents just a more vivid illustration of this fundamental principle... I'd also throw in the idea that individuals under my own vague southeast asian conception of state and citizenry are not really autonomous actors or persons who have rights and responsibilities, but rather mainly a resource to be controlled and exploited - so they have accidents, no big deal - and anyway, it's karmic law in the end...

At least you know the Saudi one can't be blamed on women drivers... and given that it's someone kind of trying to do some manual work, probably can't blame it on an actual Saudi, either! "What does this button do?"...

I have a hard time imagining there's a decent Reuben in Bangkok - even if the place is called New Yorker - but I'll give it a chance next time I'm through. 'Specially if open 24 hours.

US flights? I prefer Amtrak. And live outside the US, thankfully. Anytime I take a US flight, it's just the last leg after transatlantic or transpacific flights - a little reminder of how pleasant it is to fly with the ladies of EVA, Cathay, even Royal Jordanian!

completely - can you imagine what it's going to be like to be an air hostess on arab airlines for the next few months? every filthy fantasy those fuckers have had for years suddenly has validation - they ARE all prostitutes, just waiting for a boob grab or ass slap to open the negotiations... I have a lot of sympathy for the women who do this work - their patience is fucking amazing.

I liked the simulated blow job videos they made a few years ago, that was cute. And they looked like they were having fun. I suppose that's not in the cards for a couple years, ah well. The circle remains unbroken.

Don't worry, the hackers'll break in, swipe the data, get to their safe place and start sorting it out - and find out just how utterly useless and confused the data is... It'll be a mess, start to finish, there'll be several changes of administration and philosophy as it progresses, and in the end you'll have the digital version of the New World Mall or the Hopewell Stonehenge... Never fear - chaos conquers every type of order or tyranny eventually - and quite quickly in LOS.

Wow, that's the first time I've seen "rights advocate" and "Burmese Embassy" linked in anything but conflicting roles. I hope they've been thinking carefully about the impact of their statements - may not be in the best interests of the accused for the Burmese govt to weigh in publicly on their side, when the assertions necessarily mean that the Thais fucked up. Thailand is going to stand for Myanmar giving them any shit? Huh. We'll see.

"In the two explosions, materials used in making the bombs were same as the materials used in the bombing at Erawan shrine and Sathorn pier. This finding prompted the police investigators to believe political motive was behind." I think I need to work on my investigative logic, since I don't clearly follow. "They are also trying to get in touch with his bondsman as on every occasion that he has been arrested, the bondsman always state that Aod was staying at a house in Sena district in Ayutthaya province. Initial inquiries have found that the home is question houses no less than 27 individuals. Authorities are preparing to send a team to the house to make a physical inspection." Jesus, more than a month later, they've got another suspect, an address, the number of people at the house, etc - and the newspaper is faster to report that, than the police are to take a drive over to the apartment and see who's there? I agree, the photo looks rangy like the bomber. But the way the 'political suspect' is being played out, it looks like a publicity play. This is not how you actually try to get a suspect, it's how you try to persuade the public that there's a political angle. But yeah, he looks the part. If he's still in country and gets arrested, jesus he's slow!

We're currently well below our average level of confusion, no need to worry...

One need only follow the Not-Very-Noble Eightfold Path: 1. Right Flight 2. Right Visa 3. Right Hotel 4. Right Dinner 5. Right Drinks 6. Right Bar/Gogo/Disco/Freelancer Hangout 7. Right ST/LT 8. Right 'Resolution' Try it, it works - snuffs out desire like a tiny candle is snuffed by the wind. Unfortunately, like novelty birthday candles, that desire lights right up again shortly after, and steps must be repeated, until you figure out a more Noble way to get off the damn carousel... YimSiam

Yeah, that is the problem. It would all be so easy - just walk away, fuck it, over. But then - there's another Tuk. Or Pam. Or Nit Noi Nim Noo Ning... etc.