mumjokmok

There was a restaurant in Rangsit called Ja Rerng ( or something like that ) but I went there way before the flooding happened, not sure about the area now. It was a bit of a 'forest foods' place with seating on a deck by a small lake (or large pond). They had some turtle on the menu, gritty snail larb full of grit was one I sampled and the cobra. Cobra two ways, both like a bicycle tyre to eat, my friend imbibed some cobra blood spirit, one whiff smelled like a hospital grade antiseptic. The other time I ate it freshly caught and butchered by some beach boy rastafarian hunters was much more edible. I think most of the snake-eating fascination comes from meeting and watching your dinner perish thrashing about your tableside.

HA HA, what do you think would happen if YS resigns and gives Suthep Ultimate Power. Do you think the PTP will sit at home and say thankyou Suthep you are a nice guy.

They will be coming to Bangkok the following month to over throw him. It will never end. The only way forward is to have an election.

There is something fishy about this whole thing. YS calls a snap election at the first sign of a protest, so quickly, no one expected her to give in so easy, knowing that the Amnesty Bill only has 180 days before it expires. Suthep doesnt have the PDRC contend in the elections as if they hold seats in parliment they can stop the Amnesty Bill from going forward. Sounds more like a plan.

Thaksin and Suthep are as corrupt as each other and probably good mates laughing at the Thai People expense, driving the Baht and SET to all time lows, Ready to jump in and buy some stocks, looking at passing the Amended Amnesty bill (Include Suthep in 2014 for his protest) if no one is in parliment to reject it. The protest is not about Thailand it is about them. They are laughing all the way to the bank with Somtum in hand.

Well I think this type of thing as Matt Daemon so clearly says is happening all over the world... not just here

http://www.upworthy.com/one-of-matt-damons-finest-performances-was-never-in-theaters?c=ufb1

Whoah,... Morpheus?

The passionate divide in the population exists. Violence has been a troubling thing of past protests. Decisiveness is lacking and real brutal "grab it while it's there" opportunities have existed to politically kick each other hard in the nuts, yet no real kicks ( not aimed at each other anyway). Foreign investor confidence is low yet they will be watching the currency move now. Bit of extra discipline comes in takes control, removes the threat (the threat!), sets reforms, sets new business rules. People applaud (whether here or there). Status quo hiccups. Nicely done (little golfer's claps).

Matt Daaaaay Monn of the world police. Like to see Suthep debate that Will Hunting fella.

It is about to split the country into 2.

It is better to split it now, before the civil war.

Or have a 20 years civil war and loose 5 million people first than spit the country.

Wrong! Split at least 3 ways. Do not forget that on average every day 1 or 2 people are mudered in the South by separatists. Abhisit refused to call them terrorists! What is the death toll at now - 5,900?

I think Abhisit might have been tryin' to garner 'em as constituents no? We tried that in Australia but it doesn't seem to win the favour of the people.

Ticks one box in the divisive strategy column for someone else.

Now in terms of championing a struggle for three true democracies, with a wild three way split, would anyone like to elaborate on where we think our international friends would be found. Who pays for guns? How quick do you wanna chop it, the 13th? That kinda stuff, in the real world, gets so ugly and nasty that everybody who wants that better have a little read of "Modern history in the Indian subcontinent and other South East Asian countries other than here"- chapter number 'bloodshed and horror'. Might change your mind.

Bad news for Suthep if the reds actually do that and avoid confrontation he won't have the violence he needs.

Absurd assumption. He doesn't need or want violence and neither do the protesters.

Suthep will still have a hugely volatile situation in which two large political bases have urged their followers into the streets to protest. This is more than enough than anyone needs to try to achieve their desired ends.

Can't painfully and inexplicably drag out an announced street fight very easily now can you.....

Guess the Reds will shut down the rest of Thailand whilst Sutheps mob will close down Bangkok... result!

The rat shirt please come to shut down Phuket, we have too many Russians and Mainland Chinese here!

Do you suspect these groups would fight each other?

Not at all misleading was Jatuporn's statement? I thought they were gonna try do a Gandhi at the feet of baying yellow protesters by the sound of yesterday's article.

Given the Obama/ Egypt "democracy is as democracy does" article today me thinks they all have to go and show their support base in each constituency, rather than a big punch up in the city to try and break the road accidents statistic.

At least if they do that there may be some clarity as to who wants what where?

Ironically then at least whatever gets smashed guarantees (maybe) that the money that must be then spent on rebuilding goes back into your own community....

When countries lose this many people in a similar time period in a war, people are outraged. But when it happens on the roads of Thailand, it's business as usual.

Well you might get yourself a few different sets of comparitive figures this holiday season.

52 people per day, I imagine in other countries there would be tanks out on the streets to stop the drunk drivers if they were racking up those kind of numbers.

I dunno, I'd think that if the sitch starts to get real nasty and a big fights break out, I betcha peace talks with the Pattani boys will be right on the top of the list.... and quick.....

Maybe the moral of the story is if you want to travel to Thailand from other SE Asian nations as what appears as a monk, you'd better have an ID card to do so and sort that part out first before you land, or you might get an "icey" reception.

It's gonna make for good TV when it kicks off.

And as usual with sports like this it's the commentary that's most easily heard over the action on screen, drowning out the real roars of the crowd with the simple touch of a fader, the screams of the ex-player in the booth salivating into his microphone, describing the upcoming play, vigorously chastising the slow motion replay that exposes the umpiring injustice, bringing the audience the feelings on the pitch, the sweat on the brow, the raw tension and energy felt by all involved. They win awards those tv stations... not sure if they take auditions for 'victim' but someone knows their lines.

Well, seems it's now all down to vested interests. Really set up for a mess, the coup might even look like the people's choice once you get both sets of protesters greeting each other in the streets.

It's ugly but it's a proactive political move. It still say 'election' and 'progress' on the tv in funny ways if you are watching a long way away. The opposition parties seem to currently be relying on sentiment and must make a move themselves to "Wow" the people asking questions. (And I'm aware that I'm not using the Thai interpretation of the word wow, however apt in political strategy and the corresponding PR moves of any policy).

I would love to see the opposition sink it's teeth unanimously into any 'plan' just to have a good alternative and counter-argument when asked it's direction. This situation can be solved maybe with countering the populist politics in the same mode of enthusiasm and organisation shown to stage counter-street protests. Idealism may need to heed to realism. That's my 50 satang.

Mr Musharraf says all the accusations against him are politically motivated.

Where have I heard this before.....it came from the direction of Dubai....

Might be Mr Musharraf's bank manager calling... I guess politics takes a special breed of man, and occaisionally you get to see them in court wth that 'wot me?' look all over their chevy chase as their perceived value as a geopolitical chess piece runs ingloriously dry.

Think 'that' man in Dubai has a little bit of toothpaste left in his tube to squeeze, unfortunately.. such are the scenes of the baying mob....

Maybe rather than have a tax as the deterrent Thai's should focus on the thought of what goes into their food first. They have yet to grasp the nuances of the processed food industry and are 'babes in the woods' on the issue. With a bit of real education this rural population with close roots to their food traditions and agriculture might see their eyeballs pop out of their heads in realisation.

I'm a bit suprised that particularly in the South the luk chin carts are so popular (processed fish and meat balls, reconstituted prawn and crab, the hotdog varieties, on a stick deep-fried for 5,10 or even 15 baht each if you like hand-wrapped bacon around your sausage, drown that mother in sweet sticky sauce.... oh my diabetes). It's still simple (and still legal!) to go and slice yourself up 5kg of pork fillet or chicken, fire up the motorbike-mounted charcoal barbecue and get some real protein. (Can't argue the cultural difference from Isaan as sa'tay is sold using pork in the south, yet is scarce compared to the lazy option of feeding a whole 2kg plastic bag full of defrosted balls onto a stick).

The chains are gaining momentum steadily and their 'modern' products gaining the focus of the image-conscious amongst the people, even without the baseless demands of a child who sees a tv commercial to add weight on top of that factor. Recently the chains seem to have become the cheaper option for meat, although vegetables still seemingly reign supreme at the local markets due to the nature of the consumer only needing a bit here and a bit there, or a massive bulk order. Supermarket chains fail spectacularly at selling fresh vegetables worldwide. Please just leave it alone, stick to canneries and juice for brand names.

The people should decide whether to tax junk food or not after they know what goes into making it. It's a bit like the 80's here now with 'new' this and 'new' that. It's still a convenience store and it's still a perceived 'convenience' to get six straws and three plastic bags, or a tiny bag and straw for my can of coffee.

Rather than tax junk food, maybe some health education is needed that is community-based rather than sponsored, providing some awareness of what the consumer consumes. Bit of a re-vamp of existing local markets, such as laying cement floors and sectioning booths for vendors with all-weather facilities, I know it culls the feeling of the old time merchant trade but it solidifies the existence of a fresh produce market in a village,( the beautiful and lively Jao Fa rd morning market into Phuket town, R.I.P. forever ). It also keeps alive a point of sale for non-conglomerate business. Am I going to lead this fight? Um, not likely mates, it's huge and mighty, someone else poke it in the eye....

To tax junk food now might be a bit like taxing measured carbon farts. We can address the very last phase of the issue to make a difference and probably be able to prove it with a spreadsheet printout, but it doesn't address the appetites of our destruction, and everyone should know what they are eating up first.

I've lived here for yonks and one thing I have learned ... Just when I think I have a handle on Thai politics etc., something happens to show I know <deleted>.....wheels within wheels within wheels. Thais are not good at expressing their emotions and have not learned to modulate / express their anger as we do in the west. As a consequence they can go from zero to 110% in a flash. This latest political farce could....

Blow over then re emerge.

Fizzle out with backroom deals.

Become a long drawn out affair till everyone gets bored with it.

Result in yet another coup.

Morph into a civil war.

Choose one or all of the above.

At least we expats can always leave...(if we don't like it).

Pretty much the answer for me. The last line shows the greatest understanding of the culture's culture, however may also encompass the uncomfortable part of the new saddle that the horse is trying to buck. ASEAN may share the Thai's desire to end corruption and promote reform, and the timely nature of this newer, slightly more ferocious version of the long standing conflict might illustrate the dire straits certain sections of society see the country to be in regarding the signing of important documents and big squirts of cash into the nation's economy.

People musing over support for sides and factions in what would be to us expats a truly horrific, nasty and ugly civil war, (think about it, unless you can really get your lingo on in Thai and Isaan and understand what's going on, how comfortable are you going to feel being the 'farang' appealing for any kind of assistance when you should have just bailed as sh-t hits the rotating blades of your freestanding Hatari oscillating model, right in front of your eyes), should maybe go and draw their lines and do their proposed budgets and economic forecasts for your regional GDP's and think about your foreign policy strategy. Thailand is not going to be very stable, neither south nor north, if it's in two pieces. That's when the real sinister stuff happens. People must fight for the whole thing in one piece first or it would never ever be even a little bit the same again....and it will most certainly change the nature of Thai people forever.

Thought you could have found some slightly older news stories to really crack on with that header, aside, sadly all English news is going to look for are words like democracy and election. As the day's pass they will add 30 seconds to a couple of minutes to each story and in that sense I think they can never show the true machinations of politics and struggle, not just in Thailand, but all over the world.

That's kinda what they do, they break stories.

This is a sure-to-be-skimmed-over topic regarding the great Thai luk thung singer Surapol Sombatcharoen, known as the "Thai Elvis" to many back in the 50's and 60's. Given I was born much later known to me as almost certainly the one Thai artist (that I can recognise) whose music has been covered the most by singers and performers in the modern day. This is based on the study of sitting and listening to what music Thai's are listening to for long enough to get used to it.

"Your ear is itchy and you don't know what's wrong?"...

Anyone know of another contender to this claim? One can hear re-worked covers of Surapol hits on a daily basis, there appear to be literally dozens if not hundreds of versions of songs, the beat can vary based on the artist's choice of Khon Kaen-meets-Korean haircut, yet the lyrics tend to remain the same as the original, from what I can make out. I can't list examples but I just hear it everywhere.

Got Jakrapan is one handsome young Thai singer who reworked the full Surapol catalogue a few years back, the music a bit softer and slower than the raw original records, with a bit more midday tv swooning-housewife-style and a whole lotta nice. ( A girl bought it for me, I guess she was embarrassed by the vintage covers on my cd's, it was a lovely gesture but Khun Got is just too sweet and boyish for my cynical Western ears, and there is just no piano accordion guy tearing it up.)

Ood Forest is a very good modern day artist doing the original style of Surapol covers as a live stage show that you can find on dvd easily, should one really want to get the most of one's fascinations.

Has anyone out there watched the acclaimed Mon Rak Transistor? My absolute favourite Thai film from the year 2000 (?) following two lovers, the aspiring luk thung singer Paan and his sweetheart Sadow, and a host of other rather true to life characters including Paan's cane cutting buddy 'Peter'. The story is told well, the interaction between the characters is based on real life (no slapping or 'boing' sound effects) and I would recommend it to anyone looking to embrace a Thai film that you can understand and take seriously, and potentially find with good subtitles. This film is what led me to the music of Surapol Sombatcharoen.

I particularly enjoy listening to the records Yort Pleng, Pi Gair Laow, Mong and Leum Mai Long, they run well as albums and have a developed style of music that was considered somewhat groundbreaking at the time. There are hundreds of random Surapol cd's out there. When it comes to other luk thung singers (and I have maybe listened to twenty-odd different artists) I really only find Pongsri Woranuch, the lady with that special voice, matches it with Surapol for the feeling, and for getting the response from 20-somethings like you are talking about ancient history. Plern Promdance is another worth a listen. I don't understand all the lyrics but I appreciate the energy in the songs and being in Thailand it's good to find something uniquely local that you like. Get some serious stares too "What you, a farang, you like Surapol?". Seems I could woo someone's grandmother.

Anybody else listen to and enjoy the music Surapol Sombatcharoen?

Gotta be someone...

Oh and pronunciation, we are working on the 'football' rule for his first name.

How do people think the international news agencies will cover this?

I remember last time in 2010 the AJ's, BBC's and CNN's et al were quite tough on the Army once they decided to go in and put down the protests. I can recall watching an interview with Mr Korn where he struggled to be able to convince the BBC ( I think ) that sponsorship for the reds was coming from one T. $hinawatra. I stood in Ratchaprasong looking at which lucky waving cat Thaksin toy I was going to buy watching the live video feeds coming in to the fans.

If Mr Suthep wants to draw a coup, and if there is an alleged divide in perceived allegiances within the armed forces and police, it could become a situation where news stations may seemingly take one side again. Considering the different backgrounds of the groups involved and that this time yellow is demonstrating, do you think this time there will be a different light in the Western press or will the news agencies still potentially show red as underdog even though it is in government? Or will they show little patience with either side given the longevity of the issue?

(I'm not pro either side in this, I'm just putting this here because I'd be interested to see the opinions of readers. )

Momento Mori is correct... all misdirection for the Big Picture.... usa losing world reserve currency, GMO foods, ongoing wars to support the usa military industrial complex, big banks, stock market manipulation etc and on forever.... wait till Monsanto owns all the patents for all thai rice and everything else and not just here in Thailand... they are hoovering up every last email, skype, mobile phone call worldwide.... one article has them with 700 servers around the world with some here in bangkok... besides all the satellite communications...any yahoo, gmail, hotmail email and your old mails all storedaway... funny a few years ago when the big 3 email accounts had 1 gig, then 2,5,10 gigs+ now of storage since 2001 and it's all been sucked up by the NSA... yah they may not read or listen to it all - but it all is stored away now... foreign countries plans and inter gov mails and also big corporations from every country - just so they know which way the wind is blowing in Thailand and every other country... if they were listening to Merkel's mobile and other heads of states they are listening to all heads of states for info and other good tidbits that can be used for free trade deals and other big corp info...

just saying... even this thaivisa post... 5 5 5 "Hi boys... whatz up today at the good ol NSA?"

It's come along way from the days of a young J. Edgar Hoover threatening with something like "we saw you out with some broad last night Jones, we'll tell your wife or you do what we say" now it's more like "okay Jones at 16 mins 23 secs into intercourse, beginning at 23:46 hours last night the 4th, she bit you on the ear and called you "big poppy", right after that you mentioned to her you had some files......."

"Anybody who has shoes hand them over now for our glorious soldiers to ready themselves for battle!"

“Wisdom builds the nation, Thai people must not lack iodine”

Who says Thai people are silly. They have National Iodine Day here, and they have iodine-added foods. I think that's good preparation, maybe they know something we don't.

No. They figured out that the upcountry diet was deficient in the iodine required for brain development just a few years ago! I remember it on the news here.

In the US and other countries they started doing this in the 1920's!!!

Of course, just a bit of fun at the 'wild green clouds of doom' scenario that seems popular with posters.

Mr Snowden, while being in political exile, seems to be doing a bit of a promo for surveillance technology.

One thing that you are quite used to seeing these days is that even poor people on the news are toting mobile phones. I'm sure some of them will probably buy a copy version of one of these fancy new smart watches on their way. On the news the poor people's government are always shoddy and brutal fascists compared to us. The way to bring them freedom is to help them get all the social media technology and stuff we have, connect them through grassroots and the like. Then they can be in touch with the world 24 hours a day through technology. Also a lot of big companies that make this stuff have invested for many years huge sums of money into the development and application of this technology into many many facets of human existence. Big companies liaise with huge security firms and international governments to bring them the cutting edge. Their objective is to protect the consumer and protect the people through technology.

Do you really think if they say "oh we've stopped now" that they've actually stopped? Spent what, a decade putting into practice a total clean out of the way you run surveillance and ah, counter-intelligence operations and after a skinny guy in glasses spills the beans Obama's gonna go march down into one of those underground bunkers and go "You heard the people, stop listening right now" turn around, do that Jay Z brush-dirt-off-your-shoulder thing and march outta there.

Roald Dahl was a children's writer and a spy. Edward Snowden must have scared the bejesus out of Mr Putin when he landed- "Nyet nyet. You stay in airport, we check you, you wait". (cos thats how they speak in the moofies).

Yasser Arafat at least you can be glad you didn't go out like Gaddafi. You'd be shocked to see the world these days, all the baddies from your era are gone, we fight shadows now.