impulse

Not true at all. Chinese tourists will eat anywhere they get good food. They may favor Chinese owned restaurants because they have menus in Chinese and not in Thainese. And those restaurants know how to make the food like "back home", and not some Thai adaptation of Chinese food. But that's no different from Brits preferring English menus and recognizable British food. They'll eat at other restaurants, and often fill Japanese places. I'm hopping on a plane tomorrow to China, my 14th monthly trip in a row, after living and working in China on and off since 1999. Probably 50-60 R/T flights in total from BKK to China over the past 10+ years. Here's another shattered myth. They'll be loaded up with stuff they bought in Thai owned shops, with a lot of that stuff being luxury goodies. And more and more of them are independent travelers, after one or 2 flag lady tours, to learn the area.

Turbulence, or a defect? From 2 months ago: Boeing is telling airlines to inspect switches on pilots’ seats in its 787 Dreamliner jets after a published report said an accidental cockpit seat movement likely caused the sudden plunge of a LATAM Airlines plane flying to New Zealand. Passengers reported that when the Dreamliner dropped without warning, people not wearing seatbelts were tossed from their seats and into the cabin ceiling and aisles. The plane later landed at Auckland Airport as scheduled. About 50 people were injured, according to emergency crews in Auckland. https://apnews.com/article/boeing-warning-cockpit-seats-787-dreamliner-07c59619ab48c9cbea2a4df091fd6d21

But he waited for Biden to take the Donbass. Some people call it crazy. But Trump's a master of strategic ambiguity. There's no telling what's going to happen if you FAFO on his watch.

You mean like he did during his first 4 years? The problem with all the doom and gloom forecasts is that there's history that says otherwise. Biden, OTOH, has been 3 years of disaster and counting.

She's been sick a long time, then. Because she's still disrespecting half the electorate. Or maybe she's not sick. Just mean spirited.

Nah. No body who voted for Trump was ever going to vote for Clinton. Doesn't matter. For that brief moment, to score some cheap points, she took off her mask and revealed what a divisive, mean spirited person she really is. That wasn't the only thing that lost her the election, but it made the difference.

She'd still be president today if she hadn't made the "deplorables" remark.

Dang man. I'm glad you toned it down.

Nowadays, disrespecting and pissing off half the US population seems to be the Democrat go-to. Or, at least the DNC Elite. The party of unity... JFK is rolling over in his grave.

What's that, Keep Going Broke? That's not what I worked for, but it kept happening when women were involved.

So you're not down on Jews per se, but you don't care for Israeli gub'ment policies? Used to be, that wasn't considered anti-Semitism. Nowadays... That'll get you blacklisted.

Yup. Looks mostly peaceful to me. https://edition.cnn.com/2024/04/01/middleeast/israel-protests-netanyahu-intl/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2024/05/25/middleeast/tel-aviv-protests-gaza-hostages-intl-latam/index.html

So what do they call it when tens of thousands of Israeli citizens protest their own gub'ment's actions? In Israel. Is that anti-Semitism, too?

From the linked article: I drank several rounds before driving my daughter into town. On the way back, I stopped at the gas station to fill up,’ Mr Davis declared. He claimed he was unaware of his actions. However, he sincerely regretted what happened and offered apologies to both the victim and the Thai people. So the guy was driving in a drunken blackout. Then he assaulted some guys. Nice...

His last one worked out fine. Russia behaved. Hamas behaved. The border was pretty much sealed by his last year. But TDS won't let its sufferers to get past those mean tweets. As if they were worse than the specter of WW3.

Some day, maybe someone can explain to me how this is a war, and not a police action. Acknowledging (or creating) a Palestinian state would make it a war... Tough situation. Israel is in an intractable position. But that's been the case since around 1948, when the Palestinians rejected the offer to return part of what had been taken from them.

Don't sugar coat it. Tell us how you really feel...

Sitting on an 11 hour layover on my way to BKK, I noticed there's a horticulture exhibit through tomorrow (May 24) at BITEC. I'm short on details, but it may be worth going for anyone who grows their own. Or it may be a bust. Do your own research. Google BITEC I'm limited on a tiny screen on a network in a Chinese Airport. Chongqing is a very nice airport, though. Not a bad place to get stuck.

They provided 1.4 million doses at a cost of over $1 Billion? Do some math on that one...

My experience with Asian airlines (Singapore, Korean, Chinese, Thai...) is the pilots are likely to leave the seat belt sign on for the entire 10-13 hour flight. I prefer the US based pilots who will announce that they're turning it off so we can move around and use the head, BUT warn that turbulence can be unexpected, so leave it fastened while you're seated. If the seatbelt sign is on for 13 hours, you never know when it's safe to hit the head and avoid soiling the seat. Edit: On the flipside, I much prefer the Asian cabin crews. I've concluded that the US airlines choose their international cabin crews by seniority, and they are often tired of their job and surly. Not all. Some are delightful. But on average...

Better than ending up in an illegal black site, the victim of an "extraordinary rendition". Which were all the rage around that time. He's still in the news, his case and cause still have international attention, and there's significant pressure on his own gub'ment to defend him. Ask Epstein how things go when inconvenient people with inconvenient evidence end up in custody. Oh... Wait...

No. She won the Democratic primary. She wasn't re-elected to anything.

Too Many Words

Yup. That TDS really takes it out of you.

AP says: Tracking data captured by FlightRadar24 and analyzed by The Associated Press showed the Singapore Airlines flight cruising at an altitude of 37,000 feet (11,300 meters). Just after 0800 GMT, the Boeing 777 suddenly and sharply pitched down to 31,000 feet (9,400 meters) over the span of some three minutes, the data shows. The aircraft stayed at 31,000 feet (9,400 meters) for just under 10 minutes before rapidly descending and landing in Bangkok in just under half an hour. The descent happened as the flight was over the Andaman Sea approaching Myanmar. So it must have happened pretty close to BKK. It will be interesting to hear from passengers and crew what actually happened and why. https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2024-05-21/1-dead-others-injured-after-london-singapore-flight-hit-severe-turbulence-singapore-airlines-says