Coss

Yes, I've always found, that substantial preparation, is necessary before approaching Cactus.

True Story 2015 - James Franco, Jonah Hill, a good movie, the ending? well it is either a good ending, or a let down, hard to decide. Worth a watch. Good acting.

Also, this place doesn't look like a GFE place, but if you get there, a review please, for those of us who can't go and see for ourselves... http://www.blackpagoda-bangkok.com

Mr Jack, Cactus, Soi Cowboy, if you don't know it, you should, if you do, why you ask question too much?

Wow! I didn't intend to be so prescient. In your opinion, how common, are people such as the in-law, I mean do you hear of others like this, or do you think this one is an isolated case?

8 Dec 2015 Central Embassy, where a bomb from August 17 neither injured or disturbed anyone RATCHAPRASONG – The Central Pattana Group today reported that a large bomb was detonated inside the Central Embassy mall on August 17, the same day as the Erawan Shrine explosion. Due to the lack of people inside the mall, the explosion caused no casualties, and was in fact completely unnoticed until yesterday when a member of the maintenance staff asked management whether the hole in the 3d floor atrium was supposed to there. “It appears that Central Embassy was the second victim of the co-ordinated terror attack on Bangkok in August,†said the Group’s PR manager at a press conference at the mall this morning. “However, due to the absence of any shoppers, visitors, or staff in the immediate area, there was no injury to report. Or any report at all, until now.†According to initial police investigations, the explosion happened at 6:56 pm on August 17, almost simultaneously with the Erawan bomb nearby. Security camera footage shows a detonation from what appears to be an abandoned Central shopping bag left near the 3d floor art installation. The explosion, which is being estimated as equivalent to 6 kilos of TNT, ripped apart the art installation, broke a gap into the floor, and completely destroyed two nearby shops, a Scotch and Soda boutique and Maison Martin Margiela. Neither shop was occupied with either shoppers or staff, as both had chosen to close at 4pm for the fourth consecutive week due to an absence of traffic. The blast was heard by two hosting staff at the also-empty Din Tai Fung. However, they thought it was just a bass drop from the DJ set being played upstairs at the unattended Hip Hop Night on the terrace. The massive hole in the floor and black blast marks were discovered the next day by maintenance staff, but were thought to be just another high-concept pop-up store. The possibility that a bomb had gone off wasn’t even considered until this week, when the Sol and Gravite Bridal manager, returning from a long vacation from the unvisited store, inquired why the windows in the shop had been shattered. The Central Embassy Mall is the flagship venue of the Central Pattana Group, Thailand’s largest retailer. Opened with great fanfare in 2013, the Central Embassy location has been plagued with extremely low visitor numbers and reported discontent from retail tenants, many of whom have shortened their operating hours or canceled their leases outright. However, the Central spokesperson was quick to dismiss any connection between the absence of casualties and the mall’s failure to attract shoppers. “We’re very pleased to report that no one was hurt,†said the Group’s PR Manager. “And we think it was very lucky, considering that Central Embassy is Bangkok’s favorite destination for luxury and lifestyle,†she added, gesturing behind her to where a single small group of Chinese tourists wandered through the vast, white foyer space. Police intend to charge the crime to the suspects already arrested for the Erawan bomb. In addition to damaging mall property, they will be charged with disturbing the peace, littering, and attempted murder of hypothetical customers. Link

http://notthenation.com/2015/12/thais-to-honor-wheelchair-bound-king-by-paralyzing-bangkok/ worth a read

It's obvious to me, he was told to root out the perpetrators of these despicable situations, by his superiors, who had been told for years, by the folk down south that it was not Thais that were doing this. When he found that those same folk, were actually the ones responsible, his bosses hung him out to dry. He looked for an escape route, which he has found.

The artist, who has never revealed his identity, said "We're often led to believe migration is a drain on the country's resources but Steve Jobs was the son of a Syrian migrant. "Apple is the world's most profitable company, it pays over US$7 billion ($10.4 million) a year in taxes - and it only exists because they allowed in a young man from Homs." http://www.nzherald....jectid=11560460

Sorry, I meant, has the in-law fallen into the stereotypical debt trap, or are they faring OK and not under financial pressure from these arrangements. What I hear from elsewhere is that, some folk got a credit card, without being vetted, bought a car and got a rebate, spent it all up against the wall and now have their car repossessed, credit card cancelled, have to change name and move village etc etc. Not that I'm suggesting your in-law is one like this, just curious, if they are in a similar situation.

You got me right there, to misquote Jack, "Open google images, down trousers"

The Gunman 2015 - Sean Penn, Jasmine Trinca, Javier Bardem, Ray Winstone, Mark Rylance, Idris Elba. A very good action movie. Well worth a watch. Meru 2015 - a documentary about mountain climbing, a bit slow at first, with the fellows demonstrating that they can use sentences of words of one syllable, and also giggle. I was almost going to quit on it when it got quite attention grabbing. Overall worth a watch for the 2nd half of the show. What they studiously played down/avoided talking about is that Mt Meru, is not just a tick on the list of difficult 'walls', Mount Meru is a sacred mountain with five peaks in Hindu, Jain and Buddhist cosmology and is considered to be the center of all the physical, metaphysical and spiritual universes.

Thailand’s slave ships on the retreat http://www.ft.com/cm...l#ixzz3u3LRLFr2 When Nestlé made an extraordinary admission last month, it was just the latest sign of mounting pressure on a trade that has become a byword for brutality. The Swiss food giant acknowledged its Thai seafood operations were supplied by companies that use practices commonly described as modern-day slavery. Official reports, media coverage and victims’ testimony have long cast a spotlight on slave ships off the Thai coast. The mostly migrant crews, often undocumented labourers from Myanmar, Cambodia and Bangladesh, are subjected to beatings, extortion and even murder. As Nestlé acknowledged, this is no merely local matter. The Thai seafood industry produces some $6bn in exports and international attention may be beginning to rein in some of the industry’s worst abuses. “Forced labour and human rights abuses have no place in our supply chain,†the group told the Financial Times. “We are committed to eliminating them in our seafood supply chain in Thailand, working alongside others.†Nestlé’s admission came after a report it commissioned from Verité, a charity that fights labour abuses, which revealed that some workers at the group’s seafood suppliers in Thailand were sold, deceived with false promises and held in debt bondage. It was only the latest such finding about the Thai industry. One 2009 UN report concluded that men and boys were kept at sea for two years or more in prison ships, deprived of food and made to work for 72 hours at a stretch. Most of the 49 trafficking victims interviewed then said they had seen the ship captain commit murder. For its 2015 Seasonal Appeal, the Financial Times is working in partnership with Stop The Traffik, an organisation that raises awareness about human trafficking. “It’s an ugly reality that’s now being fully exposed,†said Phil Robertson, Asia deputy director for Human Rights Watch, the US-based campaign group. “It’s now possible to make the link between the way fish are caught in Thailand and those products landing on people’s dinner plates around the world.†Nestlé says it commissioned the Verité report after detecting problems in its supply chain in 2012, when it was conducting a study into sustainability. But its announcement also came hard on the heels of lawsuits launched in the US on behalf of consumers against it and other companies over alleged slave labour links. Further targets of litigation include Costco of the US and Thailand’s CP Foods. CP and Nestlé have said they will contest the cases; Costco that, like CP and Nestlé, it is working with the Thai government, fishing companies and other retailers to address questions raised about the seafood industry. Other pressures are also rising over human trafficking in Southeast Asia, including a warning from the EU that Thailand faces possible sanctions if it does not improve standards in its fishing industry. The Thai government responds that as part of an anti-trafficking drive it has impounded thousands of boats that failed to register with the authorities. Thai and Malaysian forces also conducted raids this year on so-called “slave camps†where migrants are often held for ransom on both sides of the two countries’ border, recovering the remains of more than 160 people. Chris Lewa, who runs the Arakan Project, a non-governmental group that tracks movements of migrant boats around the region, says the clampdown has had a marked effect. “It’s very clear that the camp issue on both sides of the border seems to be over — at least for now,†she said. This year’s smuggling season, which begins as monsoon rains end in September, is already about a third through. Ms Lewa added that so far only a handful of vessels carrying about 1,000 people in total were thought to have left from people-smuggling hotspots in Myanmar and Bangladesh. That compares with a total of more than 68,000 people estimated to have been smuggled out during the 2014-15 season. But the wider problem of trafficking in the region is far from resolved. EU ambassadors in Bangkok this month welcomed the “political messages†given by Thailand but also issued a further warning about the “gravity of the situation which requires further and decisive actionâ€. Campaigners were also dismayed by the sudden departure last month of Paween Pongsirin, the Thai police officer in charge of a broad investigation into people smuggling and human trafficking. He resigned after being ordered to relocate to the southern region where the trade is strongest, which could have put him at risk of reprisals from local gangs. Some critics saw his reassignment as punishment for targeting officials involved in the trade, including the high-profile arrest of an army lieutenant-general. Sceptics argue the impetus for action against trafficking may weaken as headlines fade away and considerations of realpolitik take over. The US has already faced criticism for moving Malaysia up this year from the tier of countries deemed to be making no significant effort to combat trafficking. In a sign of the scale of the remaining problem, the Environmental Justice Foundation, a campaigning group, recently published the results of a three-year investigation that linked trafficking in Thailand to deep-set problems such as corruption, official complicity, and overfishing, which has reduced companies’ returns. Steve Trent, the EJF’s executive director, describes large parts of the sector as characterised by “illegality, violence and abuseâ€. Despite this year’s advances, he is still waiting to see prosecutions and a more fundamental overhaul of an industry whose reputation is still very far from clean http://www.ft.com/cm...l#axzz3u3KT8zyb

Oh all right then, just one, one of 33

too many images to post here, click the LINK

Skyfall 2012 - still good, 007.

and http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/11/world/asia/thailand-human-trafficking-asylum-australia.html?_r=0

Sorry for that, 'twas intended for those who think having a 'shooter' is a macho and glamorous thing.

Give 'em a questionnaire on arrival. I went to Australia recently and I had to fill out a form saying that I hadn't been to Africa and got Ebola, I asked them if they had one for South America and Chagas disease, but they were not amused. I offered that I also hadn't been to India and Belarus and could I have forms for those countries, but the moment had passed and the lady started looking sour at me, so I left.

Pol Major General Paween Pongsirin, the leader of Thailand's investigation team into Rohingya trafficking, is seeking political asylum in Australia. "I can’t stay in Thailand. It’s dangerous. If I remained in the police force, I would be in danger. I had sought help from the highers-up, but there was no help, no protection, no mercy and no compassion," he told The Nation. His plan to seeks the asylum broke out today. Arriving in Melbourne a few days ago on a tourist visa, he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's 7.30 programme and Guardian Australia he plans to seek asylum. Paween, 57, said he resigned last month after he was transferred against his will to an insurgency-plagued region in the deep south of Thailand. He told Guardian that traffickers he was pursuing were influential in this region and "senior police" in the area were involved with the trade. He told his superiors that he feared for his life if he were sent there, but says his protests were ignored. Paween said he hoped Australia would grant him asylum. "I worked in the trafficking area to help human beings who were in trouble," he said. "I wasn't thinking of a personal benefit but now it is me who is in trouble. I believe there should be some safe place for me, somewhere on this earth to help me." http://www.nationmul...a-30274654.html

"breath of god of death" f*** m**** c**** l******

Once at Nong Khai immigration on the Friendship bridge, they were targeting visa runners. As I had multiple (once a month) Thai entry visas they questioned me, but when they saw that I was visa running in reverse, i.e a day or two in LOS an then 1 month in LAOS, then no problemo.

target the 13% not the whole