Kerryd

Sigh.
If you'd been here more than a day you'd know that pimps have been importing hookers from Uzbekistan for decades.

The usual ruse was to bring them to Thailand as tourists, take their passports and put them on the street to sell their "goods".

Many were not "prime" but ! They could usually do pretty good because they had a winning strategy. They'd saunter up and down Walking Street (or other areas) and look for old, white guys sitting alone in bars.

And they'd go talk to them. In English. Which it seems many Uzbekis learn in school.

So old Joe Brown, who doesn't understand Thai - or "Thaiglish" - and isn't doing well with the ladies suddenly has a "white" girl smiling and speaking to him in his own language. One hand on his leg and he's as good as bedded.

I know this because I used to know a lot of bar owners and managers (mostly Thais) and asked them what was the attraction because most of those women were just plain scary. (The better looking ones end up in Dubai or Abu Dhabi. The "OK" looking ones end up in Budapest or Amsterdam. The scary ones end up in India or SE Asia.)

And think about it. YOU go to Thailand because you like "exotic" flavours that aren't readily available (or as cheap) back home.

Well, a lot of Thais - and Japanese and Koreans and Chinese - also like "exotic" flavours and to them, white (and black) girls are "exotic".
That is also why you often see a lot of (equally scary) Nigerians trolling those areas and for the same reason.

And it used to be, back between 2004-2010ish, that every 3-4 months there'd be an article in the Pattaya Mail (and on ThaiVisa) about the police "rounding up" a crew of Uzbeki hookers, charging them and then deporting them.

It happened so often and such regular intervals that it became apparent it was a scam.
(I was forced to actually do a post once listing all the news articles over the previous 2 years because some infantile, intellectually challenged, inbred mouth breather called me a liar when I commented on yet another story about yet another "round-up" and sure enough, over the previous 2 years there'd been a story every 3-4 months.)

My theory was that the pimps would bring in a fresh batch of hookers and take their passports. In the beginning they'd be good earners, hoping to "buy back" their passports and return airfare quickly.

But then they'd start earning less (or keeping more for themselves), maybe when they realized they'd been screwed (literally).

And when they weren't earning enough to make it worthwhile, the pimp(s) would notify "someone" at Soi 9 and suddenly there'd be another round-up and the "old crew" would be locked up and deported.

And a couple days later a new crew would be on the streets.

It's almost funny that there are enough of them that they have "territories" and try to defend them.

And the police obviously know what is going on - and obviously look the other way. I guess it's not "that time" of the year (yet) for another round-up.

This article literally has nothing to do with the topic. 

Mistake with a copy/paste perhaps ?

4 minutes ago, Ralf001 said:

 

Whats the statue of limitations for these offences, 5yrs ?

Assuming you actually want to know:

The Statute of Limitations for offenses punishable by (death, life imprisonment or sentences exceeding 20 years) is 20 years (in Thailand).
For offenses punishable by sentences between 7-20 years, the Limitation is 15 years.
For offenses punishable by 1-7 years, the Limitation is 10 years.

Sigh.
They don't suddenly spring from the side of the road from a camouflaged hiding spot. Not for years now.

But they will try to block slow-moving vehicles that ignore the officer's instructions.

Alcohol checkpoints are strictly regulated now. They MUST have lights, signs, traffic cones, officers to direct vehicles for secondary inspection, officers to do secondary inspections (i.e. breathalyzer tests), officers to write tickets, officers to detain individuals if required (and a prisoner transport vehicle) and officers to persue anyone that tries to flee the checkpoint, as well as a senior officer in charge.
(If I recall, the rules are there has to be 10 regular police and 1 officer minimum per checkpoint.)

And they have to have tables/chairs/computers where the tickets are written as well as wifi CCTV so they can be monitored from the main police station.

Which also means they have to be located in a decent area where they can set all that up.

And those rules came into effect what, 4 years ago now ? 

But the Pattaya police chief back then didn't like the new rules so they just stopped doing alcohol checkpoints for a long time.
Now it seems they do them - rarely.
 

A "tunnel" to channel water from South Pattaya all the way north to Na Kluea so it can drain into the ocean ?
(Never mind the environmental aspect of flushing all the crap in the drains straight into the ocean.)

The only place they could construct such a tunnel is under one of the North/South streets (# 2 or # 3 road basically) or under the highway itself.
Can't even go down the center of the highway because you hit the "Center Road" tunnel and then at North Pattaya Road you have the Highway 7 overpass.

A couple years ago the city tried to alleviate the Sukhumvit/South Pattaya Road intersection flooding by installing a pump (by the north corner of the Esso station) and enlarging the drainage channel leading from the highway down the little alleyway that runs on the south side of the Batman building.

I recall seeing the massive open hole in the ground where they'd started the work, got as far as the little soi that runs from the Batman building up to South Pattaya Road and then stopped.

I marvelled at the size of the concrete "drain" channels. Two of them, side by side.

Each was wide enough you could have ridden a mid-sized ATV down them with no problem and anyone under 5'10" tall could have probably walked down them without bumping their head.

Took them a few months to finally come back and cover those channels over, install new storm drains and lay the new road on top.
But I never saw them extend that drain any further past that point.

And every time it rains, that intersection still floods - and soi Batman (the whole area around the Batman building) turns into a lake over 1 meter deep. 

It's the same thing on Khao Noi.

The first time I visited someone on Khao Noi (2009 maybe ?) the road had been completely torn up so they could install a new drainage system. Then they covered it over and for awhile it was a very nice, very smooth road.

And, naturally, a couple years later it was partially torn up so they could install and new, larger, drainage system, new storm grates at the bottom end and the "holding pond/pumping station" a few meters down the railway bypass.

I assumed that was a part of a project to protect the new railway bed from being washed out every time it rained. (Remember when they set down that new railbed years ago and brought in all those concrete railway ties that have been stacked by the rail station for (5 ?) years or so.)

Khao Noi now - if you can see the road through all the ad-hoc "repair" jobs from everyone and their dog digging up the street to put in a new drain pipe or something and then doing a craptastic job of filling in the hole and paving/cementing over it - has 3 separate drainage systems running down the road from just below The Chilled shopping mall to the railway bypass.

And every time it rains, from the Mike Orchard Villa housing compound down to the bypass, it turns into a raging white-water river.

And I don't think I've ever heard anyone, ever, blame flooding on those reservoirs - on the other side of the high ground east of the city - overflowing.

But hey, a tunnel sounds better than their previous plan to pump all the storm runoff from the sewers straight back into those same reservoirs, flooding them will all manner of toxic contaminates and who knows what else that people routinely throw down the drains.
 

2 minutes ago, Bert got kinky said:

 

He was a high level pro with over 50 fights

Where did you get this nugget of information from?

50 fights by 21 years old is not realistic.

In reality, there is no records of him in https://boxrec.com, showing that he has never fought in a professional boxing bout.

 

Maybe he mixed up Gladstone and Tonkin ?

However, I tried searching that site for Jayson Tonkin (full name and just last name searches) and it has no records and he has fought in a number of tournaments - but mainly in Thailand and Cambodia.

Boxrec collects data from various sports organizations so if an organization isn't a "member" or doesn't submit fight results, they wouldn't appear on that site.

Just looked again and I see a post dating back to 2016 about him (as Jayy Tonkin) fighting for AKA Thailand and I found a .pdf about AKA Thailand showing a profile of him with a 17-7-1 record.

(Note no "neck tatt" so the profile pic must be a few years old.)


His last Instagram post was a clip from a fight 2 months ago where he scored a 1st round TKO.

Fairtex had a post about Tonkin's match on 20 Oct being cancelled due to rain.

It's pretty messed up.

You'd think (normally) that an athlete who obviously has to train a lot and keep in excellent physical condition wouldn't be messing with drugs at all.

Tonkin was supposed to have a match less than 2 weeks ago (cancelled due to flooding). You'd think it would have been rescheduled to happen in the near future.

I don't know what the drug/steriod policies are for the different Muay Thai fighting organizations in Thailand and Cambodia are but even if they don't care (or test) - cannabis and ketamine wouldn't be something you'd expect a professional fighter to be using.

Got to love the "experts" who think there's no way that the ketamine found in the room could have anything to do with one of the guys being dead and the other in a coma.

Sure, maybe it was just the marijuana, right ?
There's a reason ketamine is a Class 1 drug and it's not because it gives a "calming effect".
Sounds like something a ****ing drug dealer (or junky) would say to try and justify their own actions.

One would hope that the media follows up on this story - but "This is Thailand" and following up on stories seems to be taboo here for some reason unless the subjects do something else "newsworthy".

Like the Canadian found dead in his apartment a week or so ago. Chances we'll ever hear what the cause of death was (after the autopsy) ? 
Between zero and not a chance in h3ll. Because no one will follow up or report on it unless it's something really strange or exotic.

If Tonkin recovers, we may get an update - or a report of him being charged for the drugs.

Otherwise we may never know what really happened.

I do believe "straight white English speaking males" are an endangered species in most Western countries these days and do make up a small but significant visible minority in Thailand as well.

But - wrong skin colour to be given any consideration regardless of length of time in the country, family, business or amount contributed to the economy.

And how did he manage to get a pistol and a rifle registered in his name ?

And it seems he has a history of "anger issues". Road rage with an ambulance driver ?

Kicks a woman in the back for the heinious crime of sitting on some steps he had (illegally) built on public land near the beach ?

Methinks a quick check with Interpol might be in order to see if he's here because he can't go home.

I've noticed there are really only two seasons in Thailand. 

Rainy season - which normally runs from mid-April(ish) to mid-October(ish) and is the hottest part of the year.
Dry season - from mid-October to mid-April and, generally, the coolest part of the year (especially in the Northern provinces).

It's not an exact science of course. This year we didn't get much rain at all at the start of the rainy season but have been getting blasted over the last couple of months.

And I recall last year (2023) commenting in early April that "Songkran" had started early because we were already getting lots of heavy rains well before the actual holiday.

But generally it's "hot and wet" from April to October and "dry and cool" from Oct to April.

I remember it used to be a hoot coming to Thailand (from Canada or another cold place) in Jan/Feb and walking around in shorts and a t-shirt at 2 am while the locals, especially the girls, were wearing sweaters and wool hats and gloves like there was a blizzard roaring through because the temperature was down to 20-22 Celsius (68-72 Farenheit).

My friends make a point of taking a trip "up north" each year so we can go camping "in the cold". I tell them I moved to Thailand to get away from that !
And we end up somewhere like Ban Ja Bo or Ban Rak Thai or even Pai and it really, really re-affirms my decision to move here.

This was the temperature at a resort in Pai in Early Dec 2019. (5.7 Celsius - 42 Farenheit)

Geckos get everywhere.

One morning I poured myself a cup of coffee (in a large, dark mug). Added a spoonful of sugar and some of that powdered creamer, stirred it up then sat in front of the computer to see what happened in the world while I'd been sleeping.

Halfway through the cup I felt something solid touch my lip. Spit the coffee back into the cup, grabbed a spoon - and found a 3" (7.5cm) gecko dead in the bottom of the mug !

He must have crawled in there during the night and then suddenly in the morning got doused in steaming hot coffee. Don't know how I stirred the coffee without noticing it had something "extra" inside it.
Took me a couple weeks to stop thinking about it every time I had a cup of coffee.

(Now when I put the cup by the coffee maker I put a spare coffee filter on top so I can see if "something extra" tries to get into the cup again. Turning the cup upside down just results in it "sticking" to the cloth and having to peel it off in the morning and having a rim of fabric shreds.)

And it's almost impossible to keep them out of a house/condo as, when they are little, they can slip in through the tiniest cracks and holes. And they seem to grow quickly - though you never really notice a decrease in the amount of annoying little bugs that also find their way into the house every day. In fact, the only thing the geckos seem to be good at is leaving little "presents" - on the floors, the walls and the counter-tops (and likely in places that are hard to see normally).

However, the one in the photo above appears huge - and very hard to miss. But if the cake comes from a place that mass produces them there's a chance it could have ended up in there accidentally.
But it would have had to somehow end up perfectly curled inside the cake so that no parts stuck out where someone would see it. Not just perfectly curled - but also apparently right at the bottom of the cake so it wouldn't be found until most of the cake had already been eaten.

But from the sounds of it, the customer appears to be trying to soak the baker for a hefty compensation.

I found that "Thai" restaurants - literally around the world - rarely make food that tastes "authentic" or is as spicy as it is in Thailand.
In part because they can't get fresh ingredients like red chilies, lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves or galangal so they "substitute". After all, ginger pretty much looks like galangal, right ? And dried lemon grass powder in a spice jar is probably just as good as the fresh stuff, right ?

(Chinese restaurants around the world have the same problem. In Vancouver we were lucky. Restaurants would have cooks that literally just got off the plane from Beijing or or Shanghai and we had local "Asian" markets full of fresh "Asian" vegetables and herbs. But as soon as you travelled even a hundred kilometers away from Vancouver, the food in Chinese restaurants took a huge dive in taste and quality.)

And - they ALL "dumb down" the spice because they know 99% of their customers couldn't handle it if it was made "Thai style". I found that out back in '98 when I was in Ontario and planning a trip to Thailand. 
I was getting food from a local Thai restaurant to "prep" myself to handle the chilies. I thought I was doing good. I was ordering the "3 chili" (hottest) levels and not having a problem. I was also ordering the "suicide wings" from another place and not even getting a tingle on my tongue. I was ready !!

I went to Thailand all brave and confident, went to a local Thai restaurant and ordered something like a Pad Kaprow "Thai style". 
I couldn't get through 3 spoonfuls. Too spicy. I was kind of upset because I couldn't handle a simple dish.
Because a "scorching 3 chili" dish in Canada was probably the same as "made for young children in Thailand" level of spice.

Last time I was in Canada I found a Thai restaurant near my hotel and gave it a try.
I think I ordered a green or red curry and some other dishes and the waiter cautioned me that it was very spicy.
I told him "no problem, in fact, ask them to add some extra chilies".

The dish came out - with those hard, dried out chillies that are inedible. Like trying to eat brittle plastic.
And needless to say, the dish was not even close to being "spicy".

(The worst was when the company I was working for put us up in a 5 star hotel in Dubai. They had Tom Kha Gai on the menu. Spicy coconut soup with chicken. One of my favourite dishes.
They brought it out and immediately you're looking at it going "huh ?". No coconut milk at all. Not spicy. Had like 2 of those dried out chilies in it.
It was like an oily tomato soup. But that's what you get when you order a Thai dish at a restaurant in Dubai that probably uses Indian "chefs" that got their certification from the the local print shop where they also got their qualifications to be an electrician, mechanic and transport truck operator.)

(I spent 10 years working in Afghanistan and we had a lot of Indian employees and we quickly found out how most of them got their qualifications. We had "mechanics" who were qualified because they'd worked at a Tata assembly plant. One guy did nothing but put the front-left tire on each car as it passed. Another guy only put the front bumpers on. But somehow they were "qualified auto mechanics". Our plumbers used to go ballistic because every time a "qualified plumber" did a job they'd have to go back in and redo it properly the next day. The electricians literally had to sit on "qualified" electricians and teach them how to do basic tasks - properly.)

"Restaurant staffers should have been trained to serve Thai iced tea or “some other dairy-based product” to customers with bad reactions to “spice intensity” — but there were none of the beverages on hand, according to the suit.

Instead, Walia was forced to chug “an entire glass of coconut water and more water, but the burning did not subside,” the lawsuit states."

"Walia’s lawsuit also targets over two dozen individuals, including her server, chefs and other employees who may have “influenced, designed, prepared, or participated in creating” the dish."

“A new employee who prepared the dish made an error and added additional peppers, rather than reducing them as requested,” Walia, of San Jose, claimed in a November court filing."
(And she knows that how ?)

The restaurant literally just has to bring a menu and have oh, I don't know, 500 or so customers show up to testify that they've eaten the same dish with no problems.
Lol at their menu when they do things like this: "Pad Grr Pow" or "Pad See U". The list the alcoholic drinks they serve but don't show any non-alcoholic drinks (like smoothies or shakes).
Note the restaurant is located about 70 kms south of San Fransisco.
And their food is not that spicy. LOOK at the chilies they are using.

Those same dehydrated (or "sun dried") hard chilies that have almost no flavour at all. The Chinese use these a lot and restaurants overseas where they can't get fresh ingredients.
"Dragon Balls" from the restaurant's web menu.

 

Burmese guy - in Ranong.

So all the "raging grannies" can simmer down and untwist their knickers because it wasn't a "white guy" in Pattaya (or Phuket) involved.

Umm.  

If the SUV was making a U-Turn and a motorcycle was travelling at high speed in the oncoming, right-hand lane, it would hit the "left side" of the SUV. This is Thailand. They drive on the left side of the road. So you pull into the right-side lane to make a u-turn which exposes the left side of your vehicle to the oncoming traffic.

It is a common event in Thailand. Most of my Thai friends are very cautious when they see a vehicle at a U-turn as they know it's quite common for (cars/trucks/SUVs) to decide that they have room/time to turn and that any oncoming traffic should just move out of their way.
More than a few times I've had to hit the brakes and change lanes to avoid someone that just decided they were "bigger" or "more important" than me and pulled out right in front of me. Especially annoying when you check your mirrors and see there were no vehicles behind you and all the other guy had to do was wait 3-4 seconds.
But, this is Thailand after all.

And "heavily modified" bike could mean almost anything. Doesn't appear to be a scooter based on the exhaust pipe. Looks more like a 150cc Honda Phantom or a different model of "low CC, "cruiser-style" bikes in the 150-175cc range.

And it was at 8pm. Just after dark. The area appears to be well lit. (But how often do you see motorcycles riding after dark with no lights on because they think it saves them tiny ounces of fuel by leaving their lights off ?)

And because the SUV driver fled, one can assume he knew he was likely at fault (or had been drinking, or in possession of contraband). If he'd stuck around, he would have likely been breathalyzed or even sent to the hospital for a blood test.

Unless he was a rich HiSo or "connected" of course, in which case he would have been allowed to go home and sleep it off and then go to the police station when it was convenient for him.

Unfortunately, not only will the investigation be - somewhat less than thorough - I suspect the follow-up will be near non-existent.

They should have an alert out to every hospital/clinic in the area and to every repair shop that could do extensive repairs to a vehicle of that type. (There's absolutely NO indication that the SUV driver was the lone occupant of his vehicle and if he did have passengers it's possible they may have required medical assistance.)

And one might think the police actually be able to search a DLT database for "silver Toyota Fortuners" and compile a list of those registered in the local area for a start.

And I'd suspect there'd be some bits and pieces of the SUV scattered around the accident scene that would be evidence.

But regardless, I suspect there's very little chance we would ever hear the outcome of any investigation anyways unless it turned out the SUV was owned/driven by some very "newsworthy" VIP or HiSo.

Followng up on news stories here is something no one seems interested in for the most part.