LaosLover

I have the American orientation that offensive free speech should not be punished. Offensive actions? Yes. My tolerance of where one becomes the other is probably broader than yours. Other countries believe in more regulated speech. They're not nuts, they're facing different pressures and coming from different traditions than me. Same with Thai people. They have a hundred mini-evaluations a day of, "did X make me lose or gain face"? As an affluent person, I can bestow face-credits just by being polite. Caveat: white people face credits only rate about 20% the worth of Thai people face credits.

It's down to the flav-uh. I didn't love Morocco either. I was cooling my heels in Mexico City waiting for Thailand to reopen. I'd rather be in Ubon in a flat roof dump than in high end condo in Mexico. For USA GenX, Latin America is to them what Thailand was to me. In Europe, they prefer Ibiza to Ko Phagnan. The world changes.

Agreed, but that's why they have signs in amusement parks saying you have to be this tall to ride this ride. Because all of the rides entail a little risk. I don't know where you can escape relationship-risk. I know 10 guys who married Japanese women, who would the so-called top-tier of Asian womanhood, due to education, western-friendliness, sexual openness etc. All of those guys are in dead bedroom marriages with kids who don't even bother to speak English around them. Root cause: They are stinky white people and over time, expressing that -in a million little ways- is no longer suppressed as an impulse. it's hard-wired. Be THIS tall to ride this ride -and know your socio-racist tolerance going in.

I always idolized the English as racially enlightened -until I lived there. Soooo much anti-semitism, like quadruple the US, and hating South Asian people, who are generally held up as model minorities in the states. Everyone is racist. And everyone should shut their mouths and be polite about it in general society.

Yeah, there is reciprocal agreement act you only have to pay the higher amount (USA versa Portugal). Essentially, you are trading your state income tax for the Portugal 25% levy. The average state income tax is 9%. You're getting access to their medical system etc., but most people will be unhappy to be potentially paying triple their state tax. In Brazil, there is no tax treaty with the US. So you have the pleasure of paying both. You can skip out on state taxes as an expat, but a lot of the states will still chase you, even if you leave by the book like I did (and still got unsuccessfully chased).

These nice people have a lot of racial hangups. Thank God I come from America. Where that could never happen.

Brutal flat 25% tax on all income for expats there (Brazil is even higher).

We're in the realm of slight exaggeration for comic effect; a realm you apparently may never actually enter. To the casual observer of ye olde Colonial buildings and little tapas plates, there's def some overlap. I say if you love Portugal, you'll love sexy, afro-mixed Brazil ten times more.

Went twice, basically: Spain for 20% off. Latin America offers Spain for 50% off. More brits there than in Benidorm. You've been warned.

The heart wants what the heart wants. Bob's done the math and is eyeing the exits. Fair enough.

Agree and will go a step further: When we leave their presence, it's like we weren't even there. Back in the 80's, the dollar was weak and NYC was flooded with cashed up Euro's. Did we obsess about them? No, we merely coined the diss, Euro-Trash, and were done with it.

Wanna-be beatnik? How is that even a bad thing?

I worked there. They also owned The Bleecker Street Cinema downtown. So it was Virdiana uptown and Putney Swope downtown. They ran it like a film studio with the hits underwriting the losers- the hits being, in order (circa '76): Story of O/Emmanuelle 2001 It's A Wonderful Life (at Christmas time). Meanwhile, Jules and Jim/The 400 Blows might draw 20 tickets on a rainy Wednesday night. And: Let us look back to a wonderful time when you could take your straight arrow, pre-feminist girlfriend out on a Saturday night to sit through Story of O. Those days are gone for good.

Everything you mention is something I envy people watching for the first time. Do-Des Ka -Dan, Kurosawa's first color film, should also be on the list. The 5 1/2 hour 7 Samurai -have you endured it? I'm going to call that an 8 pee-break film. And for the super-patient: Tokyo Story. On Youtube for free: -Will def watch. It's been years since I saw a 5* Asian movie. Also patience-testing (but in vibrant color and a collection of short stories:

I'm going to Melbourne in March and will def try to see a film in that pink theatre. Other great midnight films: The Harder They Come, Rocky Horror, El Topo (tho Holy Mountain was nuttier). Ladies And Gentlemen, The Rolling Stones 70's pay per view with a bigger sound system was another all nighter. Beneath The Valley of The UltraVixens was the most over the top Russ Myers film, but I also feel due for a re-viewing of Myra Breckinridge or Caligula. Baltimore still has midnight movies.

I can't believe that Uttradit still has postcards.

That theatre is so deeply blah that it should be preserved for future students of blah-ness.

If you ever go to Vientiane, they have a lot of art film dvd's in the Talat, including a ton of old Japanese stuff. I found Drunken Angel there, last seen in 1974 (as a midnight show in Greenwich Village). Mountain of the Dead is another epic one I got for a buck. It's also called The Ballard of Naryama. Do you know the Hong Kong film called The Boat People (about The Boat People)?

We were just at the little Hmong market in Chinatown. Wall to wall J. In a way, Thailand is their Mexico.

The smaller the J, the bigger the bucket hat.

And the bucket hat. For both sexes. The J's are def bucket-hat people. Color-coordinated, of course.

What building across the street is 40K? We're friends with our agent at Realty66. Stuff goes fast here. Japanese people look pretty Japanese to me. And they dress alike in pastel shapeless dresses and straw hats. Nimman is full of shapeless dress and straw hat stores. The whole weekend White night market is for J's. Not to mention all the durian dessert places.

Yes, people from many lands eat at Rock Me Burger, but I walked by it 15 minutes ago and it was def all J. Not sure what you're going on about either (you mean wot as a brit).

He already blew me off. You must rate.

"Why stay in New York? Just stay in Staten Island". What do these mythical "good" conversations consist of? Manly squinting about how a man's gotta do what a man's gonna do? Recalling past rice paddy beauty queen conquests?