houlicha

I think it might be fair to say that knowledge of some English is much more common among Thai women than among men.

I fully support his right to not eat.

Some old timers use this as the excuse for the annual tour of Angeles City.

This guy should definitely never be allowed in a school again. He is way, way too stupid to be trying to teach anybody anything.

In China, even at karaokes all you have to do is ask for tea, for some reason that seems to answer all their questions. Maybe that will work in Thailand.

I used to fantasize about moving to Thailand, after a year in Udon Thani in the AF and 50 or so trips over for business in later years. I probably always knew it was unrealistic, and TV has convinced me it would probably have been a huge mistake. I would have been one of those who "lost the plot" and died of alcohol poisoning within a year.

Bring back Washington Square.

RIP Darel. Just an acquaintance, but a good man from everything I've heard.

Looks as if we have some non bridge players opining here on the game. It was said above "duplicate pairs bridge, not contract bridge". Of course it was contract bridge, the alternative is auction bridge. What you mean is it was duplicate pairs, not rubber bridge.

They naturally assumed it was heavily involved in sex and violence when they heard about the slams and rubbers.

Happened to us in Shanghai last year. We had some RMB left, so figured we'd spend as much as we could at the shop right next to the boarding gates. After checking in as the flight was called, we went on to the actual mobile ramp, and around the corner where you couldn't see it from outside, there was the table with 2 cops. They were confiscating all liquids, and they had a ton.

And where do they suggest the national policy line should be towed to?

Ms. He might want to consider moving to Toronto or some such place.

Just spent 3 weeks in China. You need to build more KFCs and Starbucks for them.

My heart goes out to the parents. I lost a 14 y.o. son, and once they are gone the reason doesn't matter. Life will not be the same for the parents.

Not much different from the upstairs boys in Patpong who serve you one drink, give you and your partner a bill for $2,800 baht, and meet you at at the door if you try to leave with paying the full amount. It happened to me, just lucky there was a large group just coming in as we we were leaving and they decided not to make a scene.

So how was he able to get the girls at the gogo bar to leave him alone and just let him drink? I was never able to master that.

Other than refugees, I cannot imagine anyone showing up at the front door of a foreign country without a booking for where they planned to sleep that night.

On my first trip to Pattaya, about 12 years ago, I saw a mint condition TR-3 tooling around amidst all those Toyotas. Always wondered how he got it in.

A few years back, you could see topless girls every day at hotel pools. Is that all done now?

It's been about 5 years since I retired, so that long since my last business trip to LOS. At that time I had to start bringing $50 bills because so many of my $100's were being rejected. The reason given was the series they were part of had been heavily counterfeited by the North Koreans. But I was able to find an automatic exchange machine at a bank near the entrance to Patpong 1. Whenever it was working, no problem with accepting bills and of course no passport needed.

I wouldn't worry about the country going bust over this, unless they start telling you the old notes will no longer be accepted. I've got old notes from Mexico, Yugoslavia and others that can be used only to line bird cages.

The OP was sharing his experience strength and hope, and I appreciated it. Not everybody needs it, feel free to move on to the next topic, and cheers. For those of us who do, it's encouragement, and for a few it could even be a life saver.

Until today he was still not accounted for.

So you found him today? Great news!

Maybe we need "no go" zones in Chicago.