Andrew65

I was last there 20+ years ago, I've long since stopped visiting the Plaza, just drinking in Soi Nana, Stumble Inn etc.

OK yes, I'm just mentioning how it is in the UK now. Pretty much EVERYWHERE now has the card reader machines. I do still keep some coins for a few things like parking ticket machines (in the glovebox) and where I used to live, the washing machine. Other than that, it's 100% plastic. (I even pay the bus fare with plastic!).

They used to do nice ribs in the Woodstock Bar.

Is that Peter that ran the Old Dutch? White haired Brit guy.

I remember it being there 18 years ago when I lived off Soi 22, and someone had said that it had been there for a very long time before that.

There are lots of 'gaps' in lower Sukhumvit nowadays where bars used to be, sadly missed. The Offshore Bar. The Dubliner. CC's. ("only piss, no sh*t" toilet) The Beer Garden (Soi 7). The Beer Haus (Soi 23). The Cross Bar. The Kiwi/Soi 8 Bar. The Londoner. For me, even when they're only moved to a new location, it's never quite the same!

I used to like the full English breakfast in Chequers. I seldom used it as a boozer, but would have if I had lived closer.

You don't need those things to use a debit card.

I moved back to the UK from Thailand 6 years ago, and I would say the vast majority of my transactions in the UK are now with a debit card, and no problems with it.

Det 5, a bar restaurant in Sukhumvit Soi 8, BKK I think was charging 70 Baht for a small Tiger when I was there recently. Nice food there too. Red Lion Soi 13, 80 Baht.

Many years ago it was rumoured that the rent on the Irish pub on the corner of Silom/Thaniya in BKK was a million Baht a month. I used to go in there on the rare occasions that I was down Silom way.

For most of the 20 years that I lived in Thailand I never had health insurance. Moved there when I was 33, left when I was 53. Never really had health issues that required it, luckily.

I know they're cheats, but one thing to remember is that the flag-fall on the meter is as it was 25 years ago, 35 Baht. It's an illustration of how people in Thailand are screwed money-wise. I reckon that that flag-fall anount should be 60-70 Baht today to reflect inflation. I'm pretty sure that when I first visited Thailand in 1985 meters had yet to be introduced, you always negotiated the price with the driver before travelling.

Sounds a bit steep, I recently paid 500 Baht from lower Sukhumvit to Swampy, and that was with a big tip.

Just take a look at places like San Francisco and Vancouver.

Smartphone in one hand, cigarette in the other. I gave up smoking about a year after returning to the UK from Thailand (after 44 years a smoker). By far the main motivation being the exhorbitant cost. To be a smoker in the UK would cost me £4,000-£5,000 per annum, which I just can't afford. I'm now 4 years an ex-smoker.

Poor worker training? More like p**s-poor management. Let's put the blame where it really lies, and not with the worker.

Yes, I'm fully aware of that🙂

With correct health & safety implemented no one should have been able to be in the area where that machine was operating. There should have been 'magic-eyes' etc that stopped the machine if anyone entered the danger zone. If such an accident happened in the UK there's a big chance that one of the bosses would be sent to prison.

When I worked in New Guinea we had a MiL-8 helicopter with a 9 man Russian crew, they were forever at the vodka. It was a 5-ton lift chopper only used for freight (up to 5 tons), so we never flew in it.

There's an old joke that goes: "All you need in the cockpit nowadays is a pilot and a Rottweiler. The pilot to feed the Rottweiler, and the Rottweiler to stop the pilot from touching anything!"☺️

I flew with RB years ao, they don't serve booze but you can drink from your own supply. Qatar, Gulf Air, Emirates, Etihad are all Islamic airlines that serve booze.

'Wait training', waiting a long time to be released.

Some years ago an official from the Nigerian Embassy stated that there were around 1,000 Nigerian nationals in prison in Thailand, the vast majority on drugs charges.

In other words, never marry a Thai lady lawyer!😁