Fallangpakwan

Going back to stories about HSBC when I was so sick of them a few years back, (Singapore branch), and decided to bail out; I had to make many online and phone contacts and each time a different name would get involved with apparently no record of what had previously gone by. I finally jumped up and down and told them to put one only person on my case which they finally did.

The Horrible Stinking BC is the worst bank I've ever dealt with out of many, and dumped them years back.

A very important subject here; seeing as we only had the choice of US so called beers and 33 or Biere- Larue back in Vietnam days we loved Singha when we managed to escape to Bangers for awhile. However have stuck to Tiger and maybe Asahi lately here seeing they don't seem to do bad things to me which Heinie does these days also. I was told by a lovely Thai doctor a few years back never to drink Thai beer, she said it's all full of chemi's. Tried Archa when it first came out as I was connected to an exec of Thai-Bev at the time and also I am connected to the name Archa.

Should've mentioned that back in VN we sometimes could get hold of NZ or Oz ales.

It's been all change change change for me; started coming for many short trips from Nam in 66 then from Singapore right through till 81 when I came here to work; Patpong in 66 had just been invented then Tiger Rydberg was up and running;Rick Menard got Superstar going; a taxi from Nana Hotel to Patpong was less than 10 baht and you would end up sometimes getting 50 satang change.Speaking of taxis from Nana during the day on a Sunday you would have to stand in the middle of Skvt Rd and look for miles towards Asoke to see if one was coming;Asoke then was way out of town; except Thai Heaven was out there in Petchburi goat track as it was way back then.I could go on all night about it.For me it all started turning crappy around 95 when we had built all the plants at Mab-Ta-Put

I go for TIGER large bottles and seems Makro is the only shop in town that sells it by the case; by town I mean Pattaya,Petchabun,Mae-sot ,Tak etc, and did notice that the case I bought in Mae-sot 2 weeks back were pretty old stock; tasted okay.

I did a second 60day entry there last week; in fact I have been going to Mae Sot to do the visa-crossing for years,mainly because the Immi crew on both sides are always great, in fact one of them fell in love with me last week, and a few years back I jokingly said 300days please and she said if you marry me yes; jokingly of course.

A district nurse here in the Chonburi area. We were close friends for about 2 years, she was a strange person in many ways; always telling me of "numbers" dates, and that kind of stuff,what it all meant in the future; she was a bit like a fortune teller. The last time I saw her was at songkran 1995;12 April, she deeply "waied" me and strongly thanked me for everything I had been to her. She was killed next morning April13 supposedly in a road accident;I didn't find out till 2 days after. One month after I met a friend of hers from Bangkok in the most unusual and coincidental circumstances;it still makes my hair stand on end.That's another story.

Nixen told the rest of the world that the dollar was to be the reserve currency in 1951 when the US decided that being tied to the Gold reserves did not allow the Government to spend what it wanted to sustain the Viet Nam war, The result has been that the true value of the dollar is practically nil, in fact all the Fiat (paper) currencies are in the same boat. None of them have anything like enough gold or silver reserves in their central banks to support the amount of paper in circulation, so if the Greek situation spreads to other countries and there is a run on the Euro,Pound or Dollar ,the world Financial system will collapse, and it will be far worse that the bank crisis in 2008.

Don't know it was 1951 when Nixon did that,more like 1971; but yeah if the crunch really came would say the US$ would be good for wallpaper.

Good deal, let it drop; I've still got a few more months worth of baht to go but won't be long before I need a topup.

A month or so had one fly in the condo as we came home late at night; was a surprise, thought it was a bird at first;chased it around with a tennis racket for a while, then it stuck on a curtain where I managed to bang it a bit, then took it out still alive and dropped it on the entrance; was gone in the morning.

It just goes on and on;building like crazy; if somebody did a study on BKK buildings and buildings all over Thailand you would see about 50% of them are never used. Drive from Chiangrai to Trang; Mae Sot to Mukdahan, anywhere and they build build build, mostly shophouses by the hundreds alongside shophouses built 30 years back and never been used since.I know there's supposed to be "money in bricks and mortar" but reckon there's a limit.Bangkok has always been a swamp and always will be.

I was told last week in no uncertain terms by Sriracha Immi office that they would definitely issue me with a "residence" letter for licence renewal.Admittedly they do know me fairly well there and I do own my condo.As someone mentioned earlier, go to the Licence office and get them to list all docs you need; also make sure you do drive licensed; you have a "brush" somewhere and you could be up s..t creek without a paddle as far as cops and insurance company are concerned.

It's been going on more than 30 years, I remember when Nana up to Asoke was a racetrack for cars back in 82.

If this was ever properly enforced LoS would have the wealthiest government ever heard of.

I've said it before, travelled home late at night in '95, water up to the bonnet of the taxi. Then there were the 10,000 year rains in '83 when the streets were flooded for 3 months.

Why is this news anymore?

Yeh I remember the 1983 flood well; was living in Suk Soi 20 and office at Bangkapi, was hell getting anywhere in my car, used buses mainly; there were guys windsurfing along Skvt between soi20 and Asoke.

It's real good to see the ongoing discussion on such an important subject;"mans reward at the end of the day for all the crap he has to put up with".In my time I have indulged in some great brews around the world and also had to survive on absolute garbage; the worst in my memory being something called PRIMUS on a brief trip into the Congo.Returned to Vietnam 4 years back to see an array of quite good tasting brews available; a vast contrast to their beers back in the "conflict" days. Seem to remember in the last year or two seeing a list of ales denoting their qualities and their bad points; can someone remind me where that could have been??

Bring back Amarit. Probably won't, it's been many years.

Way back in the old days just when Patpong was invented Singha, Amarit, and Krating-Daeng were the only beers available,better than Vietnamese and US beers of those days that we had to live on over the border. Singha was the best,then the other 2 died away, but Amarit came back again with a "natural beer" late 80's if I remember rightly;I liked it but it died too after a year or so.

Amarit was one of the better tasting Thai beers, and was still available early to mid '90s, it was the only draught beer available at the time in Bkk.

Are you sure you dont mean kloster which died away a good few years back.

Another Thai beer not mentioned as of yet, Federbrau, red feather getting harder and harder to find, how many remember this crap, Bia Thai.

beers-thai-leo.jpg

Chang, LOL, thats an interesting story.

yes! Amarit was GREAT. they actually brought it back for a short spell about 8 years ago, then it disappeared again...

Kloster was okay,but died out fairly quick tho I did hear someone saying they could see it on some shelves just a few years back

Nearly right, it was Krating Thong beer. I will apologise to my RED BULL neighbours.

Red bull used to be a beer?

Sorry, maybe I got that wrong, not red bull but a name very much like that; the <deleted> Tigers washed away my memory

Bring back Amarit. Probably won't, it's been many years.

Way back in the old days just when Patpong was invented Singha, Amarit, and Krating-Daeng were the only beers available,better than Vietnamese and US beers of those days that we had to live on over the border. Singha was the best,then the other 2 died away, but Amarit came back again with a "natural beer" late 80's if I remember rightly;I liked it but it died too after a year or so.

I stopped drinking Thai beer yonks ago, and was once told by a beautiful Thai doctor not to drink it due to the preservatives in it, she had done some research. Now I stick to TIGER and have no problems with it except upcountry, in fact most places, restaurants and bars have never heard of it even though many 7-11s, Big-Cs,Lotus and Makro usually have it.

The Tiger available here is brewed in Thailand.

Yes; as is Heineken,San Mig, Asahi etc

I stopped drinking Thai beer yonks ago, and was once told by a beautiful Thai doctor not to drink it due to the preservatives in it, she had done some research. Now I stick to TIGER and have no problems with it except upcountry, in fact most places, restaurants and bars have never heard of it even though many 7-11s, Big-Cs,Lotus and Makro usually have it.

Been growing my own and expanding the number of trees in my orchard out of Chiang Mai as well. Advertised seedlings in a Facebook page and sold some but the response wasn't astoudning. Mix of Thai and westerners buying. Pics are of seedlings and fruit on the "mother" tree...

Is this something that I could grow on my condo balcony in Bangkok?

If yes what's the yield.

Thanks in advance for your feedback.

We are in SriRacha area and have 2 plants in pots, very easy to grow but they will never be fruiting, they have to be big trees before that happens, however a neighbor is growing one in ground that is now a reasonable size, doubt though it will ever fruit; too hot here.

Often Makro in Pattaya North and probably the other one South, has Thai avos, not too expensive, but they seem to always keep them real cold and half go rotten rather than ripening.

I am from New Zealand and I love my Cardo's. When I go back I always buy 4-5 real hard green large ones Hass around NZ$2 - 50baht I wrap them in tin foil and they travel good. My favourite is toast with Vegimite on and spread the Advo over it, lovely.

The thing is APEC is in full swing now (Asia Pacific Econ Forum) Thailand, New Zealaand & Aussie are members and 2015 is the year that all the 23 country's abolish 90% of import duties from each other so really their should be no or very low duties on them. Perhaps it is customs and the importers still making a filling on them.

Any real Kiwi would be spreading marmite not that oz rubbish