Trip Hop

Interesting comment as there are only a couple of high end drones that are capable of being flown in the rain? So unless you've been operating a commercial drone operation in the last 2 or so years (when the first IP45 drone was launched), you're obviously telling porkies about the drone? Now considering the amount of time that you appear to have been in Thailand, I find that very unlikely? Also when you consider that the price of the most expensive model E-MB that you are promoting here wouldn't even buy a pair of batteries for one of our drones, it kind of puts things into perspective? I'm not dismissive of E-MBs, although it would take a lot for me to buy one. I am however somewhat objective to your sarcastic and immediately condescending attitude to someone who may just know actually more about batteries than you do? Especially as you're obviously telling porkies to further your case? A bit of basic business advice, telling porkies about anything in life when you're trying to promote something, doesn't exactly bode well for business!

I'll tell you what, the next time I put one of our commercial drones up in the rain back home in Blighty, I'll measure them, especially for you!

Very true if Li-Po batteries. I wouldn't want to leave one out in the sun here!

My thoughts exactly when I read the "by invitation only" part about one of the new visas. The Thais have an obsession about being seen as hi-so and appear to believe that everyone else in the world has the same desires? One of the most important bits of advice that a very wise long time ex-pat businessman in Thailand gave me years ago was not to show your wealth. Otherwise you are just making a target for yourself?

Well it does if they went to the TAT school of economics? More tourists equals more jobs for the locals for them to spend their hard earned cash in shiny new motorcycles. More tourists also equalling more demand on the hire firms for them to buy more shiny new motorcycles although I bet most of them are still holding onto their stock from pre-covid days? However this is all reliant on your faith in the TAT school of economics to start with? ????

I'd agree with straighter than most of the rest but think you are pushing it too far here?

Possibly but I would say that the main reason is that he's been connected to the horologist since a very young age?

If only you knew the truth? He's just better at not making it blatantly obvious!

It’s all down to the ability to pay. Why go chasing locals that would get a maximum 500B fine when you can shake down tourists for 30000B?

The COTU syndrome is oh so true! The GF came over to the UK for a visit a couple of months back and one of the first observations she made was that how clean and tidy the general surroundings were when compared to Thailand. They can spend millions importing sand to improve the beaches but if they don't upgrade such things as the infrastructure and sidewalks, with regular trash collections etc, it will never be the high class destination that they would like to claim and promote? You would have thought with all the overseas jollies that Prayut et al have had over the years that they would have immediately noticed the same as the GF and tried to do something to improve it?

Used it once myself and would never again. Terrible service/attitude considering the way they try to portray themselves and received far better service elsewhere. Would welcome it to return though, if only to relieve the demand on the competition?

The flights are fairly full because to the best of my knowledge, none of the major airlines have reinstated their full pre-covid schedules? I used to fly Qatar Airways from the UK with a short transit in Doha for a reasonable price. Since BA have stopped flying direct to BKK and are sharing with Qatar, a one stop with Qatar is dearer than a direct with Thai. Until one of the majors breaks rank and reinstates their full schedule, we are stuck with high prices as the airlines will most probably be happy to take a slightly reduced profit for less risk. Add this to the exchange rate of the last 4-5 years and Thailand is no longer a cheap destination.

HI all, Does anyone know of any co-working spaces in the Pattaya area that has a daily charge and super fast wi-fi/ethernet, i.e. say 500 Mbps or above? The ones that I can find only have 100Mbps and I have a lot of data to download/move? TIA.

Happened to a friend of mine many years ago after a motorcycle accident in the Canary Islands. Spanish surgeons done a quick fix which resulted in his one leg being about 2" shorter than the other. When he returned to the UK, they had to re-break his leg in several places and re-set with plates basically along the whole length of his leg which reduced it to 1/2". He suffers a lot in the cold weather these days due to the amount of metal in his leg.

You need to distinguish between "Outlaws MC" which is the name of a club and the term "outlaw motorcycle club". If you look closely at the photo, you will see MC after Outlaws? Google them both and all will be revealed.

"Outlaws MC" is the name of just one of the largest and oldest clubs worldwide. The term outlaw motorcycle club is used by the authorities to describe both this and many others. You should try educating yourself before commenting, your naivety might not be so profound then?

Firstly thanks for your reply, it seems a genuine enquiry to understand why we do what we do and I have no problem replying as honestly as I can. People decide to become part of a MC for individual reasons and I could write 2 pages here which still wouldn't cover all possibilities. Often I have wondered as to what exactly brings us together. My own personal view is that we all have some sort of objection to society's expectations, that say that at this age you should be doing this and at that age you should be doing that. It doesn't automatically make us bad people though. I suppose we all like to live a bit dangerously and the freedom it brings. And before someone chirps up with some clever comment about this guys lack of freedom at the moment and for the foreseeable future, as stated previously I don't think this is club related. We still like to party and raise a little hell regardless of our age and society's expectations. We have an extremely low tolerance of fake people (keyboard warriors included) and the bullsh*t that they bring, this applying to the authorities as well. Our word is our bond and we are true to it, whether it be good or bad. We are brought together initially by our love of motorcycles and as you state, when riding together this brings a lot of camaraderie but it goes a lot deeper than this. Personally as a member I don't have any problems in life. If I have a problem, whether it be financial, emotional or otherwise, it becomes the club's problem and it will be dealt with between us all, whether it be just by support or other means for more serious matters. The club becomes your family but it is a family that will never let you down. When I explained this to my daughter-in-law once after she asked questions similar to yourself, even she commented that I was extremely lucky to have the people around me that I do. Yes as you state, there is always the chance that could get pulled in by the law by association for something illegal one of your brothers has done but if you have no knowledge of their dealings, then you can't be guilty. It may cost you a day down the local nick but that is something that we are willing to tolerate for the sake of the club. On this point though, a member will never involve any of his brothers in any of his dealings outside of club that he doesn't want to be involved with and should you accidentally hear something that you don't want to be part of, you can just make your excuses, walk away and this will be respected. The only exception to this being where a brother may have been wronged by someone whereby it will be dealt with by the club as a whole and there is no getting out of this. Again though, this and the possible repercussions is something that you accept as part of the club.

The ones you refer to for lawyers/bankers are most probably rider clubs which are nothing more than a bunch of like minded people who just enjoy riding together. If you were a member and needed any kind of serious help, you would soon find that your new found friends are nowhere to be seen. Any club that wears a 3 piece backpatch is a MC and technically 1% whether they wear the 1% patch or not. As such they expect to be tested by other clubs at some point and will stand their ground to protect the club and patch. Whilst all MC's follow the exact same protocol and rules, the larger more well known ones are referred to as "outlaw" clubs. This is just a term used by the police and media for their own gains and whilst its origins does date back to an incident in Hollister not long after the second world war, this definition is extremely outdated in today's world.

Statistics are wonderful things in that you can manipulate different outcomes just by adjusting the criteria/weighting. My point was that there is good and bad everywhere and in everyone, whether it be race. religion et all. To tar everyone as the same just because of their associations is very narrow minded indeed. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of MC club members that are engaged in criminal activity. However, excluding the occasional fight or similar, the majority are not and are actually quite normal people outside of "club" with a lot of them being legitimate businessmen. Personally I know a MC member that is covered in tattoos from the neck down/wrist up but is also a medical professional. Are you saying that he is not fit to treat someone just because of his club ties or to put it another way, would you refuse his treatment if you or a member of your close family was dying? Another is very high up in local education and both his pupils and their parents rave about how good he is? He has been "club" for the best part of 35 years. As for myself, yes I am "club" and proud of it. I'm also a consulting engineer that generates a legitimate income in the top 5% back home in Blighty. As the old adage goes, you should never judge a book by its cover? The thing is that everyone including the BIB automatically assumes that this incident is club related? Personally I don't at present but will stand to be corrected should more information at a later date confirm this to be the case?

A newbie to Thailand are you or just naive to what goes on outside your little bubble? It's one or the other, otherwise you'd have to agree with me?

Very true.

The simple fact that you refer to them as gangs and not clubs just goes to show the extent of your naivety on this subject. There are far more falangs in Thailand that commit criminal activity that are not part of an MC club. By your rhetoric does this mean that they should kick all falangs out too?

I met him a few times briefly a few years ago before he relocated to Cambodia just before Covid. He used to come to eat and have a few beers at the g/f's restaurant because he was sweet on a girl that was renting a room from her. He wasn't the most talkative guy but those in the MC world rarely are to outsiders until they get to know them. On the other hand, he didn't immediately come across as an obvious bad person.

I've purchased 1 LHR-BKK return and 1 BKK-LHR return tickets in the last 2 months and whilst not as cheap as EVA, a direct flight with Thai is actually decent value compared to what the other operators are offering for 1 stop tickets. In fact they've been cheaper than quite a few of these 1 stops with decent transit times. I flew Singapore Airlines 15 months ago and whilst they were reasonably priced, I didn't find the service anything to write home about and they didn't even come up near the top of the list in the searches for the last 2 tickets?

Cadbury’s Dairy Milk chocolate used to be a favourite of mine back in my younger days when I used to smoke the stuff regularly. ???? For those that obviously don’t understand I’ve got mates in their 50s/60s who still smoke everyday and they are some of the most passive people that you will ever come across. Even my ex would prefer me to stay in and have a spliff instead of going down the pub and having 6-8 pints of Strongbow!