JaiRai

Been back in California for a year now and miss the city (bangkok). Miss the smarmy heat, the naive tourists, the smiling street vendors sizing them up (and sizing me up too), I MISS THE WOMEN, miss the bizarre conservative culture hedonism on display, I MISS THE WOMEN, miss the unique smells (except the open sewers). Miss the fucking street food that makes me tear up, and then when I go to wipe my eyes with chili residue on my fingers it gets laughable (also another hint - NEVER go to take a piss after touching spicy Som Tam). I don't think the bar decline is due to price - more complicated than that. More to do with where people travel during economic times of mediocrity. Hell the busiest gogo club in Bangkok - Bacarra - is probably the most over-priced with the most aggro felines. I don't really like the place but it packs them in like an assembly line. Don't worry Nasidai - your English is easily understood. You're kind of like a toned-down and polite european relative of Bukowski. Returning to the enigmatic city of Bangkok in March, look forward to it.

Yes, as soon as an infrastructure is implemented where genuine power remains in the control of those who have it now, regardless of any election outcome, THEN they will have an election.

ya gotta include the song they wrote when Flash joined the service.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qafnJ6mRbgk

Could survive a long time if the goal was the lowest subsistence possible and eliminated all social outings. The food would be the easiest thanks to the beautiful phenomenon known as Thai street food. Wouldn't willingly choose to live in a hovel though, and especially wouldn't want to go through life without being able to go out and enjoy a roaring night or even a quiet night with good friends and good drinks.

Take Thai women out of the equation and the number motivated to live in LoS would go from millions to about... say.... thirteen.

All that is true sir, hence the engineering genius in overcoming the obstacles. They've been plugging away on hydrogen fuel cells since I was at Uni in the 90s and have come a long way. Gas combustion engines were also fraught with problems (not to mention some of the solutions - eg 'leaded' gas). Future will tell. Maybe another dead end on the scrap heap of history - but I hope not.

Toyota running on a hydrogen fuel cell is actually pretty damn impressive. The engineering that went into this... fucking beautiful. Here's fingers crossed hoping this isn't a one-off and is able to thrive.

Freerunning. Didn't Flashermac invent this back in the 70s when he used to dodge his checkbins down on Soi Cowboy??

wtf is wrong with people. Article: http://bangkok.coconuts.co/2014/11/17/teens-copy-koh-tao-murders-savaging-german-teacher-garden-hoe?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=BKK%20Newsletter "A German man was enjoying the sunrise at a park in Udon Thani with two Thai friends when drunk teens beat him severaly with a garden hoe because they wanted to re-enact September’s brutal murder of two tourists on Koh Tao. Doctors have given the 25-year-old German, whose name was withheld, a 50 percent chance to survive the attack Saturday from three intoxicated men who were later arrested and told police they wanted to emulate the murders of Hannah Witheridge and David Miller on Koh Tao. They also broke of the arm of one of the German victim's Thai friends. Police chalked it up to “youthful recklessness†and lamented the damage the teens had done to their futures. "This action is a typical case of youthful recklessness," police Col. Surin Chaichomphu of the provincial police force was quoted in Khaosod English. "The three suspects are all students. But now they have ruined their future." Thanakorn Khusuwan, Surachet Sripolmuang and a third man identified only as “Wuth†were charged with assault. Two of them were 17, the third was 18. Police said a murder charge will follow if the victim dies. The German man, who reportedly worked as a language instructor and helped locals who wanted to move to Germany, was known to visit the park to watch the sun rise."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dm6qw_yeo6o&index=12&list=PLsExMBM99duwC_Yq8FbCwAFII3yQQDxFi

He's an idiot. Guy has a ridiculous history in Australia posing with overpriced cars and self-promotion as a 'bad ass,' but I guess that didn't last. Stabbed a Canadian teacher (little guy) on the beach in Pattaya and then later bragged how we was able to manipulate the police. Then even later changed the story to him sticking up for the downtrodden somehow. Anyway, (IMO) a douche who loves to see himself in the media and seeks to cultivate his bad-ass misunderstood hero image. I can see Pattaya police shaking him down, sure it's possible, but I can definitely see him exaggerating everything for his own use (self promotion). Stopped reading stickman after he practically worshiped the guy (sharky) in print. Sharky seems a cautionary tale in human idiocy, in a fertile place - Pattaya - for that to bloom into spectacle.

Probably unknown to many -- Flashermac relocated to Europe in the 90s to explore the electronic dance culture. This clip is one of but a few records of that time. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dIUM4LRVsE

Yeah, I used to get mightily irritated with religion in my old college days but that's mellowed. Don't get me wrong, fundamentalists who interpret religious doctrine as scientific truth scare the bejeebus out of me (pun intended) - I'll fight them till the day I die -- but I think for a lot of people religion is more of an esoteric anecdote trying to give meaning to things. It's not necessarily competing with science (for many), but rather a symbolic way of interpreting life to give it a broad and spiritual meaning. I got no problem with that. The force is with you.

My error I assumed a salvage title (which one still might be able to sell for 6k, but -- a challenge). At any rate good luck.

I know more people that are in debt and overspend, some severely, than I do those without significant debt (talking about non-Thais). So definitely that phenomenon is way beyond being Thai. One thing I have noticed is that Thais are more likely to share money between family (read: give freely), without a thought. Kinda easy come easy go approach - I've met very few with some sort of investment plan or idea about saving for the future. btw - It might be a challenge getting 6k for an 07 Civic with an accident on record. Also - you can lease something like a Hyundai Elantra for a couple hundred a month with 2k down, poor man's way of saving face and eliminates the hassle of maintenance, etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STxJxnivgpo&list=PLCwNoryIY15WDth3gkgWHbqcTWb6rlgEO

Probably the only thai specific forums with heavy traffic are thaivisa and ajarn. One is mostly retired expats whinging, the other is english teachers. Not really sanuk or enthusiasm for the beauty of the place as opposed to the pitfalls. But yeah dynamics changing and next generation gravitates more to FB and Twitter. Still I love Bangkok. Love Chiang Mai. Hate Pattaya (nothing against those that don't). Would like to spend more time in Surin, Khon Khaen. Still a lot of wonder and mystery and gamble to being in Thailand (if I lived in LoS a decade that perspective might be a whole lot different). Nightlife is a bit aggro and mercenary (though I wasn't around for the glory days referred to). So be it. One of my favorite places to escape the tedium of life's grind. And still a few good (or interesting) folks lingering around these boards and nuggets of wisdom to glean here and there. Every time I think I've left or focused elsewhere - end up circling back out of curiosity. And made a couple friends worth having. As Jim Morrisson once wisely put it: let it roll.

...we're all the same. Banksy image.

^^ that looks kinda interesting Flash. I need to get an investigative sleuth reporter job so I can get paid to explore the urban craziness. Fuck this sitting around in an office shite. Sorry OP, to your query -- so your criteria is drinking alcohol at a bar establishment with women around to engage with while you're there, in the daytime. That 'daytime' thing limits your social options, and SS is right - the women at the bars during the day - all of the bars - are generally not all that inspirational, plus the heat saps your energy, it's much more subdued. NIght time is the right time. That said, soi 4 is your best bet for the given criteria. During the day the bars with the most women hovering about will be Morning/Night, Hillary 4, Nana beer bar, Bar 4 (probably). Maybe Hillary 1. The other bars will only have a small handful of ladies around. Ooops, the place just adjacent to Hillary 4 (at the Nana entrance) might be alright too. Soi 7 Biergarten? Big mayb3e. Biergarten is hot, balmy, with some slightly overweight middle aged and aggressive lady hawks hovering about in the day. Strikers, New Wave (soi 7), Gullivers are great places to shoot pool in daytime because hardly anyone there (I think you can even shoot free at strikers until evening shift comes, maybe not anymore). Good luck.

You can always go hook up with Flash at his personal establishment -- the ku-de-ta club http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUFgsqM7mCI

Had this teacher at my school on soi 12, very attractive and articulate. Baang. A few times we'd shoot the bull after class or go grab some street food outside. She had a boyfriend that always showed up - upper middle class Thai guy working in an insurance business nearby, nice guy from what I could tell. He was definitely smitten with her and would leave her gift baskets at the school and stuff like that. One day she didn't show up. So class was cancelled. I walked over to Sunrise Tacos to get a margarita and lo and behold - there's teacher and her boyfriend right out front having a heated discussion - she looked to be in a rage, he looked defeated. Hmmmm. What the hell is going on I thought. By my second margarita she had stormed off somewhere and he left. By my third margarita she came walking by talking on her phone making dramatic gestures and noticed me - she came over. What's up? After telling me she didn't want to talk about it and me saying.. 'ok,' she started to talk about it. Turns out the two had begun to plan marriage but his family shut it down because she had been married before. That was it, the only reason. His family saw her as spoiled goods even though the two got along great and she had a lot to offer. Then she went off on a rant. I said - well, so what if his family doesn't approve. Who cares. Get together anyway. She said - nope, doesn't work like that here - and she was adamant about not being a mia noi or someone on the side. So I said, well if you're a young divorced Thai woman, what are your options? She said -- you have options, but will face obstacles because of the divorced status. Then she said one of the most appealing options is to go with a 'good' falang. Hmmmm. Then she proceeded to talk non stop for a couple hours till I finally faked being sick so I could get away, but not before she got my phone #.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-29638717

A few months shy of 14 years old and pretty damn interesting. (note: it IS possible to not support Thaksin or the junta, you don't have to be one or the other) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-KEwNQMQrw&list=WL&index=13

Suthep has no interest in these people anymore, nor will they have the tacit approval of the Bangkok power brokers and the ARMY - they'll have a much tougher time of everything. Though it will begin to illuminate not all is as it is portrayed in the 'happiness' regime.

Note: my little story deals with an ED Visa, not work visa, but probably similar process at immigration? First time I went to immigration for 90 day visa renewal, I went alone and was there approximately 4-5 hours waiting in different queues. Further - I didn't know I had to do a 90 day report in addition to the visa renewal, I mean they stamped my passport and told me I could go. The second time I went I showed the info desk people (right at the front entrance) my paperwork and they said there would be a problem because I hadn't done the 90 day report on my last visit - wtf I didn't even know what it was and nobody had explained this to me, not even the school. Was starting to hate life when I see one of the receptionists from my school there, they sent her out if they have a large amount of folks due at immi that day. She was helping a nice japanese couple from my class. Serendipity. I went up to get her input. Her input was this: give me 500 baht and I'll have you out of here in 30 minutes, with everything done. So first she took me over to the 90 day report queue and walked up the side to talk to one of the ladies, done in about 5 minutes. Next we went over to the main immigration queue with my school paperwork (here's where the waits can get ugly in Chaeng Wattana), she took the 500baht along with my paperwork and passport and told me to go eat downstairs. Soon after I got a call to come pick up my passport from her and I was done. Only time I paid extra. Would do it again in a heartbeat.