Andrew65

It makes sense. It's a long distance with lots of dark areas on the beach side for unseen people to loiter in. I spent most of my time living in Bangkok. An American friend called "The Walk Of Shame" the area on Sukhumvit Road between Soi 3 and Soi 5. There's a bus stop along there where there were always LB's & hookers loitering (pretending to be waiting for a bus?????).

Most (like 90%) of ladyboys haven't had the full sex change operation. That was according to a (real woman) bargirl who I spoke to in Patpong many years ago.

Ladymen

Even back in 1985, I was advised that it was best not to walk along the footpath on the beach side of Beach Road after dark. (Even if you didn't have anything expensive on you!????).

I actually agree with you on the war on drugs thing, and besides alcohol and cigarettes, I've never been a drugs user. (had a smoke 3 times in my life).

No, I worked in oil exploration, often in the back of beyond. Spent some time on the edge of the Rub Al Khali 300km (?) SE of Dharhan, very hard to get drink there???? Most of my career was spent in very remote places, PNG, Australia etc (dry crews there when in an Aborigini area! Who woulda thunk it? An Ozzie crew with no p*ss!????). My old friend Eamon O'Rourke worked for BAE in Saudi, he once drove home to the UK on break!

Yes (with orange juice, worst ever hangover????), and if you wanted real spirits they cost about $150 a bottle. In the 3 years I was in Saudi I probably had a drink on 6 occasions.

Many years ago my cousin went for a job with a big employer in our town in the UK. She went for the pre-employment medical, and the quack asked her if she had taken any illicit substances recently, and she said she had smoked some weed a few days previously. He said to her that by telling him that she had saved the company £XX for the drugs test. He said, no problem, I will just see you in a month's time. (He may well have been a toker himself!?). But that was good of him.

Their country - their rules. To tell you the truth Mike, I'd love to drive to one of our nice pubs in the UK, have a few pints, and drive home again, but I can't. That's just what the laws are in the West, but I would probably get off with it in Thailand. I believe that in the UK now almost as many people are getting driving bans for drug driving as drink driving. Also, Thailand has a massive drugs problem, so we shouldn't be surprised if they have draconian drugs laws.

When we're in such countries we bear that in mind and act/behave accordingly. (I worked for 3 years in Saudi).

A case of their country - their rules Keith. We should also bear in mind that Thailand has a massive drugs problem, so if we're caught we're treated accordingly. (BTW, I'm not some anti drugs nut).????

Probably 15 years ago an old friend was crossing Asoke Rd (Sukhumvit X'ing) in BKK (not sure why he was crossing Asoke when there's an underpass!?????), when a motorbike taxi brushed past him quite roughly. My friend responded by slapping/hitting the guy's crash helmet. I explained to him that it's best to NEVER do that, no matter what the situation is. It could could have been that within 10 seconds he was surrounded by 8 other riders, one of whom may have even been carrying a knife. (He's quite an intelligent guy, who had spent many years in Thailand, and I was surprised that I needed to point this out to him!).

Yes, sometimes at Heathrow the Air Canada people, who checked in passengers for EVA Air did the same. Also in Australia. As I mentioned, I once edited and printed out a Bangkok Airways ticket for this reason, and it worked!. I was once made to buy an outward ticket (Bangkok - Penang) at Brisbane Airport before they would check me in. I then sent the ticket back to them and they refunded the money. (when it was still the old style paper 'voucher' tickets). This rtn/onward ticket has always been the rule in Thailand, but the Thais only talked about enforcing it in recent times. (Over the last almost 40 years I must have entered/departed Thailand about 70 times).

Many times over the years I entered Thailand with no outward ticket booked. Although one time I printed out and kept an 'edited' ticket/flight details, just in case.

The thing being, "idiots of this nature" have lots of money, which the Thais covet???? If the Thais were more choosy ('if the Devil casted his net'), very large numbers of tourists would not be able to visit Thailand. For instance, if they had a drugs conviction, which I'm pretty sure disbars one from getting a visa to the USA.

Good to see my compatriots still flying the flag for old Blighty!????

Just recently I was reading that in the UK younger people were not drinking as much as young people were years before. I wonder how much this is to do with it being cheaper to get high than to get drunk?

I doubt it, he was a Swedish farang. In my many years in Thailand I had some very wealthy farang friends.

My old (late) Swedish friend bought a gold Rolex Oyster Perpetual some years ago, and it was around a million Baht. He had an amazing watch collection, including 3 or 4 (real) Rolexes.

I hope things work out for this guy, very sad. In my 20 years in Thailand I studiously avoided riding on motorbikes/taxi, due to the roads being so dangerous, and not wanting X million Baht medical bills.

Without exception, a Thai lady will ALWAYS insist that you shower before getting into bed (whatever time of night it is). That was my experience anyway.

A gold Rolex Oyster would be about a million Baht (ballpark).

It remains waterproof so long as it has been serviced and the gaskets have been changed. I failed to do this with a real Breitling, and water got into it in the shower. Cost about 30k Baht to have fixed. Haven't worn it in the shower since.

My old (wealthy) friends wore real Rolex's everywhere over the almost 20 years that I knew them, and never had a problem. The one had the most amazing watch collection. 3 or 4 Rolex's, a Hublot, a limited edition Patek Phillipe (worth around $60k).

In the years when I used to do that kind of thing, however drunk I was, I would always undress in the bathroom, on the basis that my money was in my shorts pocket (could be as much as 15,000 Baht). One night, probably down to alcohol, I left my shorts unattended with what's-er-name in the bedroom. I discovered later that a $100 bill had disappeared.????