Mekong

I don't use Google or similar, I use mekong, yes I wrote my own search engine Only 4 lines of code in Unix hehe. Spaces and commas both have ASCII codes assigned to them in HTML Space is $ hash 32, 20 in Hexadecimal, 0001 0000 in machine code this old fart grew up with. Whilst commas and space are not essential in searches, if used one gets better results, as you Thai's often say "Up To You"

An enjoyable afternoon hooking up with old friends, it was short notice I know but that is usually the best, I apologise for inflicting Mrs Kong on you all, feel for me I am with her 24/7, I am her stupid old man and she is my silly old cow. Thanks for the guys who managed to make it, KS looking cool as always, huumlaar taking centre stage as is his want, but chest hair fires were not lit on this occasion, Coss, always a pleasure I think loss and rural Vietnam are both as fucked up as each other, Cav, glad you showed up, Cav and I work similar lines of employment and nobody really knows what we do, Stone Soup, I did meet SS many years ago but he forgets about it, who would want to admit meeting me, and not forgetting Specialist, he arrived in Bangkok after midnight on Sunday but showed up, nice one Sir, nice to have met you. Many people perceive that there is an inner circle of Thai360, a clique that is so untrue, KS has benched me from this board on 3-4 occasions before I learned to bite my tongue so no nepotism shown. We are just a bunch of expats who happen to live in S.E. Asia, and this forum brought us together, OK we may be slightly abstract, personally I have spent half of my life in Asia so not exactly sane am I? Guys, lets not leave it 18 months until next time.

I ain't nobodies bitch motherfucker eat donkey shit and die hehe I remember about 6 years ago I did come across this illegal race, for me a Sunday run out was riding up to Korat (Nakon Ratchasima) through Khao Yai national park and then back via Nakhon Nayok, towards Rangsit, There I was in Lam Luk Ka, seeing teens on their 125CC rice burners whilst sat astride my Italian Stallion, my Ducati 916SP, I was told no contest, so I just sat and observed the kids trying to outdo each other, i did take a cute seat cover home

Specialist. I do agree that a full-up colonoscopy examination is both intrusive and painful but i am in the "At Risk" category, I was diagnosed with HBV (Hepatitis B Virus) about 3 years ago and as such I know that I am suspectable to cancer. In my opinion it would be better for me to have cancer found at the benign stage rather than have symptoms of cancer when full blown. I want to grow old disgracefully and if that involves intrusives examinations so be it. I drink too much, I smoke too much well Doctors tell me something I don't know, Guys who don't drink or smoke don't live any longer it just feels like it. Maybe I am a pretentious twat who can afford health scans (waiting for munch master to reply) Sorry once one turns 50 health and wellbeing is main objective, there is no point in having earnings in the bank if dead

Now I have turned 50 and accept that I am closer to the grave than I am to the womb I decided to have a full blown health check up, surprisingly I am not dying. As a recovering Alcoholic who also smokes too much this was good news to me, in fact I got better results than Mrs M and she only hits 46 at the end of the month, a teetotal non smoker. Only issue was CEA count (Carcinoembryonic antigen) was high, personally I think it is due to smoking and not cancer, Doctor wants to do a Colonoscopy on me, another $800, basically an endoscope shoved up ones arse and another rammed down ones throat, I have opted for full general anaesthetic option, I would prefer to be out of it with a camera up my arse and down my throat. What made me laugh was the option for Colonoscopy DVD recording for 720 Baht, like I could just imagine inviting my mother in law and rest of the family around to view an endoscope up my back passage, I declined that option. Not looking forward to Monday, the preparation, high grade laxatives for colon evacuation, in other words I will be glued to the bog all day, Mrs Mekong already has toilet paper on ice for the time. Why do I do it, well as i stated I am now 50 years old and to be honest on the downward slope towards my grave, IMHO it is far better to find out if one has cancer or any other illness at an early (benign in the case of cancer) stage than to treat the symptoms once an illness has taken hold. Even a basic health screening at top BKK Hospital is not Cheap, at least $350, but in my opinion it is worth the money, I would rather pass away in my sleep at 85 in peace than spend $1000's on health care when I am 55. There does become a stage in life when ones own personal health and wellbeing becomes more important than money and I am at that stage now, I want to be the 85 year old asshole laughing to the crematorium. Mrs Mekong has level 3 Breast Cancer, not an issue capture when in benign stage so can be sorted, Mrs Mekong has 38DD chest where I can go to sleep and feel deaf, but since it was spotted early no need for a mamascomonstty just a little snip as an out patient. Taking care of ones own health may be expensive but a damn site cheaper than being dead, I want to grow old disgracefully and be the oldest swinger in town, working on it.

Coss, Just go to the shop mate and get a 128GB off the Shelf, there are plenty of Apple stores in Bangkok, Get off the BTS at Siam go to third floor of Paragon, pick one up then continue to Sala Daeng tomorrow, you have to change lines anyway.

Being ambibexrus I could not decide to wear on left or right wrist I stopped wearing when being asked "Do you Have time on you Cock"

You must be left handed

Here is a (very bad) Location Map http://www.mollymalonesbangkok.com/location_map.htm Basically Sala Daeng BTS station walk south for 150 Meters, take the first Left into Soi Convent and Molly's is about 50 Meters down on the left. Being a Sunday even a taxi from Sukhumvit should only take 15 minutes, probably quicker than BTS, Sukhumvit, Ploenchit, hook a left onto Ratchadamri, past Lumpini Park cross Rama IV and onto Silom. If huumlaar can find it like he did last time then I am sure you can, hope to see you there.

I have a Raymond Weil which I bought back in the late 90's whilst working in the Middle East but have not worn it regularly for over 10 years now, same as Flashermac I just use my mobile phone. The phone is my alarm clock and wakes me up, when my driver takes to and from work there is a clock in the car, I spend 12 hours / day sat in front of a computer which tells me the time, of an evening everything shuts up by 10PM in my part of rural Vietnam so if I am out that late I am kicked out and sent home. Furthermore when not at work knowing the time to the last second is unimportant I can usually judge the time to within 15 minutes of the actual time which is good enough for me. So in answer to the original post, yes I do own a watch but I don't wear it regularly, then again I also don't wear rings, bracelets or necklaces anymore either.

munchie, It is said that "The Queens English" is an Edingburgh accent where the letter J is pronounced yay.

I think that you will find the reason why native English speakers tend not to learn another language is because the rest of the world all try and speak English. It is the international language, if a German, Italian and a Spaniard were to be in a meeting together they would communicate in English, as such that makes native English speakers lazy when it comes to learning another language. Whilst not being fluent enough to hold down an in depth conversation in foreign languages I can exchange pleasantries in Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Thai and Vietnamese, as a native English speaker I personally tend to find if I can speak the basics such as hello, thank you one more beer and fuck off the people in the host countries always try to converse in English.

Munchie If you like the Sopranos may I recommend " The Wire" excellent series.

Not quite Pathum Thani, The races take place in Lam Luk Ka which is just east of the Outer Ring Road (Highway 9) Big races often held over Public Holidays as well as every Sunday

Just watched "The Long Good Friday" again, I had forgotten how good that movie was, and it really is not acting. Hoskins was introduced to the Kray twins in the 60's but chose not to pursue a life of crime, joined the merchant navy and took up acting rather late in his life. He never took himself seriously, just a kid from North London who got Lucky and came out with many memorable quotes "I've played so many historical characters because most horrible dictators are short, fat, middle-aged men." "I realised one day that men are emotional cripples. We can't express ourselves emotionally, we can only do it with anger and humour. Emotional stability and expression comes from women." "[On the set of Hook] We had Dustin Hoffman apologising for making Ishtar. And [steven] Spielberg apologising for 1941 and Robin Williams jumping in and saying: 'I apologise for Cadillac Man. I was sitting there and shouted 'Well, I apologise for f**king nothing!'" "Monogamy is a possibility – and a necessity. Kids have got to have something they can rely on. You have got to have something you rely on." "The worst thing I ever did? 'Super Mario Bros.' It was a f**kin' nightmare. The whole experience was a nightmare. It had a husband-and-wife team directing, whose arrogance had been mistaken for talent. After so many weeks, their own agent told them to get off the set! F**kin' nightmare. F**kin' idiots." On ever doing the BT adverts again: "You're joking, intcha? I couldn't believe it. It was un-be-lie-va-ble. The worst thing that happened to me was Madonna getting stalked by a fella called Bob Hoskins, and I had f*ckin' hundreds of people come up to me, and say 'It's good to stalk.' B*stards! Hahaha!" "I'm very romantic. I've emptied flower shops." "Money's very handy, let's face it." "When you get to my age, what you want is the cameo. You get paid a lot of money. You fly in for a couple of weeks. Everybody treats you like the crown jewels. It's all great and if the film turns out to be a load of s**t, nobody blames you. "I'm Winnie the Pooh - that's as sexy as I am. I meet ladies and they talk about their family and I talk about my family. It's about as sexy as a bag of Brussel sprouts." "What do I owe my parents? Confidence. My mum used to say to me, 'If somebody doesn't like you, f*ck 'em, they've got bad taste.'" "What would I have done if I wasn't an actor? Probably rob banks." Star

Coss, We will have to exchange notes and decide whom's Peoples Republic of Idiocy is in fact the most idiotic, Laos or Vietnam, I reckon it could be a close call. DS, Sorry that you cannot join us, would have been fun to hookup with the old crew but I trust up country life is treating you well and your health is back on track, I will raise a glass of cranberry juice in your absence, then quickly pass it to Khunsanuk whilst demolishing another Pint of Tiger.

Burning Fossil Fuels, I like it, my current project i somehow have to burn high sulphur content anthracite coal which can not be exported from Vietnam. For 1200 MW I consume over 8,000 tonnes of coal per day which is over 9KG / Second, the boilers eat it up. IMHO the most important fact of Environmental Impact is not emissions, we have FGD (Flue Gas Desulphurisation) to keep SO2 Levels down, SCR (Selective Catalytic Regeneration) to keep NO2 Levels down and ESP (Electro Static Precipitators) to keep the ash levels down, but the impact on the river. The coal comes in by barge up the river, since it is shallow 250 tonnes per shipment or 2 barges per hour for 16 hours per day, 365 days per year, a lot of river traffic. Then there is the temperature rise of the river, for a Thermal Cycle Power Plant to operate copious amounts of cooling water are required to cool the L.P. Steam back to Condensate (water) this will raise the river temperature by 4-5 Degrees Celsius downstream of the plants outlet, the EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment Report) stated "Marine Life Will Adapt, Bull Frigging Shit. I have been faced with roadblocks manned by pitchfork weiding Vietnamese villagers who are opposed to this project, and to be honest I can't really blame them, we took over 3125 rai (500 Hectares) of rice farming land to build this monster which has taken away the livelihood of generations of rice farmers and now we will change the conditions of the river which will impact the subsistence living fishermen. Society needs power, we all consume Electricity but is the social impact worth it? I don't think so, some people may say look at the overall picture but I say go and live in these rural communities and see the impact that the thirst for power is having on centuries old communities. Even though I am an engineer I find myself being a Social Worker trying to find common ground between the villagers and Government, they have now built 3 schools to educate the next generation and agreed that 75% of the plant employees will be locals from the Mai Loc Commune, who gives a shit? I Do, it is not global warming we should or should not be worried about but the impact on local communities. Forget "Global Warming" it should be Global Warning, I am not proud of the fact that I employed by a commie government who rule their people rough shod I am proud of the fact that I can get them to listen to me.

Whatever the (mis)translations may say Si Lom is Four Winds, it is the commercial heart of Bangkok and took its name from the old nautical term "Sailing the four winds of the Sea"

Mr C, Glad to see you are still in town, some BM's have work on Monday so mid afternoon sunday suits them better, plus the all you can eat buffet finishes at 7PM being there at 2 gives us 5 hours of eating We will be there from 2PM onwards, no need to make it bang on the nail time, show up at 5PM and I am pretty sure a few of us will still be there, it is more about having a bite to eat and catching up on old times rather than a blow out, fark I am now into my sixth decade now and have slowed down somewhat. I gave Suadum (Insert his most recent board handle here) a call on wednesday evening and he is in Aylesbury UK for some reason and cannot make it, I would not wish Aylesbury on my worst enemy. Hope you can make it mate. Kong

No wonder todays Thammasset Grads are not as good as their predecessors when their professors cannot read basic English I thought cheap VN beer was addling my brain more than beer chang. 2PM Got it now?

An open Invitation to meet up, It is one of those rare occasions where the planets have aligned and a few old hand board members will be in Bangkok at the same time. I am back on R'n'R from Vietnam, Coss will be in Town from Vientiane, a good friend of mine huumlaar will be in attendance and the Maestro of this Board, the Host with the Most Mr Khunsanuk has indicated he is interested in hooking up. I think Flashermac is stuck to his colostomy bag and has been unable to respond. This will not be a full on session of hedonistic debauchery, I cannot speak for the others but in my case those days are behind me, just a bunch of S.E. Asian expats more intent in grabbing a bite to eat and chew the fat over our own tipple of choice. So whether an old hand of meetings of the past or a recent newcomer with a few spare hours to fill on a Sunday afternoon, feel free to drop by, honestly we don't bite. See you there, the more the merrier. Cheers Kong Map http://www.mollymalonesbangkok.com/location_map.htm

And about time too IMHO, he has looked totally out of his depth at United. Even Martinez is showing him up at Everton taking basically what was Moyes team and getting them to perform better. I don't think Moyes is a bad manager but not a top manager, the likes of Newcastle, Southampton and Aston Villa is more his level. The timing was what I expected, after defeat to Everton Sunday it is now mathematically impossible to qualify for the Champions League and I am sure that there was some clause in his contract that failure to qualify was grounds for termination of contract with a lesser pay off. It is not just Giggs taking over for the rest of the Season also Nicky Butt (that should plug a gap), Butt has been United's Reserve team Manager for the past 18 months or so he knows the youth players better than anyone. As for next season who knows. Jurgen Klopp would be my choice but he seems committed to Borussia Dortmund so probably a no hope Second Diego Simeone, he has taken Atletico Madrid to the Semi Finals of the Champions League and they currently sit at the top of La Ligue ahead of Real Madrid and Barcelona Third would be Laurent Blanc, he spent 2 seasons at united a Decade ago had 3 years managing Bordeaux a couple of years as French National Team Manager and now doing well in his first year at PSG. Fourth Louis van Gaal, not a long term replacement due to his age but his track record is unquestionable, League Championship Winning Manager in Netherlands, Spain and Germany, UEFA cup winner, Champions League Winner and out of contract with Netherlands national team after the World Cup. Manchester United have to go for one of those four, and I think that it will be van Gaal for about 3 Seasons to steady the ship so to speak then had over the reigns to Jurgen Klopp one he has realised he has taken Borussia Dortmund as far as he can. As for Moyes, well I hear that Nick Farange of UKIP has offered his a position to run in the next election in UK, after all he has done a fine job of staying out of Europe.

Flash That was 2013 figures probably will hit 100K in 2014 plus a US Citizen can deduct certain Foreign Housing Costs. I have just had breakfast with an American Guy I work alongside here in Nam (Public Holiday today) he has lived in Nontaburi for over 20 years and his eldest Luk Krueng son is at college in the US. He is due out on leave next weekend and will miss the Songkran chaos in Thailand by spending a few days in Singapore and opening a bank account there, Singapore is the only ASEAN country to have set up an IGA.

Cav, It is not money laundering it is Uncle Sam trying to tax US Citizens on overseas income. FATCA (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act). FATCA requires non-US Financial Institutions (FI's) to report information on their US account holders to the US Government or face a 30% withholding tax on income from US Sources. The regulations - 544 pages with some areas still left to further guidance - did take into account many of the comments from the global financial community to eliminate unnecessary burdens and permit the leveraging of existing practices to make Fatca implementation a more manageable process. Notwithstanding the attempt to make the rules more palatable, most of the fundamental obligations set forth in the proposed rules were adopted in the final version. Implementing a Fatca compliance programme will still be an enormous challenge for Thai FIs. The cost to build a Fatca compliance system can be many millions of US dollars for a large, complex FI with diversified product offerings - life insurance, asset and wealth management, brokerage - and operations in multiple countries. One option to mitigate some of the burden for FIs is an intergovernmental agreement. An IGA is an agreement on Fatca compliance and reporting between a foreign government and the United States. But an IGA is not a panacea and still places significant costs and burdens on FIs and the foreign government. It has been reported that the Thai Bankers Association and the Federation of Thai Capital Market |Orga-nisations have called for the Thai government to enter an IGA. One would hope that the Thai government addresses the possibility of an IGA with eyes wide open. One possible issue with such an agreement is that it would require every Thai FI, large or small, to comply with Fatca. While many large Thai FIs absent an IGA will in essence be required to comply with Fatca because of their extensive contacts with the US financial system, many mid-size and small Thai institutions have little or no interaction with the US and would otherwise choose not to comply with the act. With little or no US source income they would not suffer any withholding until at least 2017 when something called pass-through withholding may come about. An IGA would impose significant compliance costs and burdens on FIs that would otherwise have chosen not to comply. Entering an IGA would also result in significant costs to the Revenue Department, as it would need to build and maintain systems and devote manpower to meet its obligations under the agreement. There are two IGA models - Model 1 Reciprocal and Model 2 Non-Reciprocal. Model 1 would alleviate Thai FIs from reporting information directly to the US Treasury. They would report instead to the Thai Revenue Department, which would accumulate all the information from every institution and report it to the US. One can imagine the information-technology system the department would need to build to accomplish this! Model 1 was designed to accomplish two things - to deal with situations where local privacy laws prohibit FIs from sharing customer information with a third party like the US government and to have the US reciprocate and share information on the country's citizens' US-sourced income with the foreign tax authority. In the case of Thailand, the second objective is somewhat moot as Thailand only taxes offshore investment income of its citizens if the income is remitted to Thailand in the year earned. By simply leaving the income offshore until the following year, Thai citizens can avoid Thai tax. The issue of privacy laws could be dealt with by Thailand passing legislation permitting Thai FIs to share customer information with the US under Fatca. Under Model 2, local FIs would still report directly to the US Treasury and not to the Thai Revenue Department, and there would be no sharing of information from the US on Thai investments in the US. So how is Model 2 different from normal Fatca reporting? What it does is lessen some of the due diligence, withholding and other requirements on FIs under the normal Fatca regime. It also reduces the burdens on the local tax authority that are present under Model 1, but still imposes requirements on the local tax authority that do not exist in the normal Fatca regime. In the normal Fatca regime the local tax authority is not a participant and is in essence a bystander, and all compliance burdens are on the FIs that choose to participate. The United States has said it is in active negotiations with more than 50 countries on IGAs, but only four have been signed. While a Model 1 or 2 IGA would reduce the compliance tasks for financial institutions, it would shift some of the load and responsibility and attendant costs to the local tax authority. An IGA would also necessitate some level of local legislation to be enacted to implement it. Now that the final regulations have been issued, Thai FIs will need to begin in earnest to address Fatca. But they will need to know sooner rather than later whether Thailand will enter an IGA and if so which model, as their systems, processes and controls to implement a Fatca compliance programme will be substantially different with or without an IGA. Small institutions that thought they could ignore Fatca will also be required to comply if there is an IGA. One would hope that the government would quickly make known its intentions, and that whatever they are, it does so with eyes wide open and a full understanding of the commitments involved. Additional information on Fatca, the final regulations and IGAs can be found at pwc.com/us/fatca. http://www.nationmul...m-30199055.html For ASEAN Nations the deadline was 1s January 2014 for implementation of IGA which was then extended until 1 July 2014. With a non functional government in Thailand that cannot even pay farmers on rice pledges and tax refunds on first time car buyers the chances of IGA agreement over FATCA before the 1 July deadline is pretty slim . FI's are recognising this and are refusing to open bank accounts for US passport holders.

Flash My Point completely schools will prefer to hire Pionys (who are quite fluent in English) for 66% of Salary and not the problems of securing Visa's and WP's for them. When ASEAN opens up Jan 1 2015 it will have major repercussions all over SE Asia, even here in VN they are gearing up for it http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Thai-language-fever-stirs-in-Vietnam-30228789.html Thailand needs to wake up, Vietnam has overtaken TH in Rice Export market and are now planning on taking over the job market. PTT and QPI (Qatar Petroleum International) are investing US$33 Billion into an Oil Refinery down in Long Som, close to Vung Tao about 30 Minutes from HCMC. Now when Thailand's Flagship Oil & Gas Company decides to make investments in other ASEAN nations rather than the home market it should be a wake up call to the nation. As a footnote, PTT and QPI have headhunted me, I have worked for both companies in the past, 2 years Detailed Engineering In TH followed by at least 2 years in Long Som on site, I do have Vietnamese TRC (Temporary Residence Card) and Thai Work Permit, not many Western engineers have both