London Lowf

Not my scene - enough lady-boys and drag artists on display on Bangla. Also, I read years ago that they solicit quite forcefully for tips and photo opportunities once the show has finished.

Rat-U-Tit was a thigh-deep river for a couple of hours and I was marooned in a side soi opposite Christin Massage. For a while no-one was attempting to drive, ride or even walk in that area. Just after midnight it eased enough to wade over to Hippie Road for a few beers and an hour or so later the floods subsided and I managed to coax my bedraggled scooter into life and ride home. PS: I'd parked the scooter on Rat-U-Tit but while I was sheltering in a launderette a hundred yards away, the locals rescued it and pushed it to higher ground. Nice people!

But.... they carry guns! Okay, they're not going to shoot you at a checkpoint but they do have the upper hand and I'd rather play it their way.

Pretty much any bar on Bangla I would guess. Aussie Bar definitely.

You rode a car past the cops today and they ignored you?

The more one-sided the quicker the lesson given and the problem resolved. In my home town a few months ago there was a paraletically drunk guy trying to break into a bank with his bare hands - it took a dozen cops and three police vehicles to sort it out.

I've seen "them" more than once on Bangla Patong - buy a coke to share in the Seven and then sit at a bar and start trying to grope the girls.

A lot of hotels and businesses didn't survive Covid but, looking at the main booking sites, those that did are already reasonably full. Bangla is busy, as is Beach Road and OTOP - compared to exactly a year ago it is thriving. It is not too quiet.

Yes - if he (or she) went out of their way to help me.

I'll let the public judge and leave it at that.

A swan can be very aggressive and intimidating, but being able to break your arm is a myth/old wives tale.

I believe that if you save/convert the two pages of your Tabien Baan as a single .pdf file you can then upload that. Yes, the system is a pain - I think that, if you make a mistake, you're better off just starting all over again. On my TR visa they spelt my name wrong despite me uploading numerous documents with the correct spelling - the embassy could/would not intervene and so I had to start all over again and pay a second fee. Grrrr!

I'm talking about the majority of your 9,700+ posts - see, trolling!

Sparktrader is an occasionally amusing troll, nothing more - most on here surely know that and do not take his nonsense or opinions seriously.

I see Westerners wai'ng bargirls and restaurant staff and it makes me cringe - do you bow and shake hands with bar staff at home. The only person I've ever wai'd was an immigration official who jumped me to the head of the queue - respect and gratitude.

I don't feel assimilated to any part of the human race, let alone an alien (to me) culture with unfathomable (to me) beliefs and values.

Yes indeed - a lot of the crowds milling around are Indians and SEAsians and so sightseeing rather than spending anything in the bars. I was on Bangla last night and it was busier than I've seen it for many years - I thought this might be the case as the traffic on the roads at each end on my ride to my parking place was close to gridlocked. Even with the space-wasters there were plenty of punters spending money in the bars and most of the girls had a drink in front of them, albeit not from me as I became a cheap Charlie a few years ago. Surprisingly, the ebb and flow of punters meant that the usually busy Blue Lotus bar was not even half full although the sister bar (Black Horse) opposite was packed and so I stopped there for one and noticed that they have now officially taken over the bar on the opposite corner that used to be an offshoot of Sunset - I was surprised that they have bar-top poll dancers (of sorts, attired in blue, of course) but I guess that the proprietors have now embraced the P4P scene as since Covid there are always plenty of non-uniformed girls hanging around out front and touting and they are clearly available for takeaway! it struck me last night that the only stunning females I have seen recently have been SEAsian tourists - tiny, cute and very pale and so I would guess Korean? Maybe I'm just getting old and/or I've just spent too much time on Bangla over the years....

The problem is that those choices are often immature and ill-informed. There's a reasonably attractive girl that I've seen a couple of times in Patong recently and she is covered, but most noticeably she has a marijuana leaf on her upper arm and on her forearm a very predominant and indiscreet "F*** You" - her choice, but I (and many others) will make a judgement on her based on that. (Not that she or you cares, of course)

SETI - the clue is in the "ET". (Sorry, off-topic and I know you're being light-hearted but I just couldn't resist)

Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't the Victoria Centre the nightlife hub of Buriram? There were also a few lively bars near what I believe is known as "the circle" - the big roundabout at the south of the town. Neither place was hostile, but I just got the impression that they were not interested in engaging with farangs.

Patong Hill is an inherently dangerous stretch of road - off-camber hairpin bends, a polished surface with dreadful levels of grip even in the dry, and poor road markings/lane separation. I am nervous riding it whatever the conditions. The poor driving and vehicle condition are secondary to that - the vast majority of riders and drivers are ultra-cautious on that road.

Last night there was a bunch of about ten Indians around the ForEx counter at the end of Bangla basically faffing around and making a song and dance of the whole thing as they always do. I very assertively shooed them away and a cute young Russian lady, who was also waiting and fed up with their time-wasting, made a point of being extremely thankful. I wonder what she would have done if I'd been gallant enough to let her in front of me! We all have our racist views but I generally have no problems with Russians, and I don't take that much notice of MSM to even form an opinion of their leader.

555 - every casino I've ever been in had a very similar carpet. A lot of money has been sunk (without trace) into that place.

I fully agree, but in this instance the OP was in a position to prevent that possibly happening.

The guy was in on the road - the good Samaritan simply wanted the OP to lift him onto the relative safety of the pavement/sidewalk.