LaosLover

If a you took a vacation in Texas, you'd be amazed at the many 50 shades of Texas-dom. So call Thailand Texas and half, interest-wise.

Maybe the country needs more Trump. Sometimes you have to really squeeze that zit, let it re-gunk up, and then squeeze it hard again. It looks like he's dead due to more young voters and him killing off a sizable amount of his base via Covid, but if if even a slim majority for him prevails, then the old line lefties like myself were complacent and cheaping out on donating to Biden -they brought it on themselves. But again, Biden is out fundraising him 2 to 1 (from his basement!!) and he doesn't have a multi-indictment sized hole in his pocket. Already, Trump is campaigning on the super-cheap, depending on volunteers for organization. The Democratic Machine is not called a machine for nothing. I left the deepest part of Trump-land to move here. I hope those idiots get every last economy-killing thing they want. If the country wants Trump, I say give 'em a good double-dose of him.

Chantaburi is a particularly nice collection of old teak houses down by some water. Ubon has a good such site too. Hua Hin is prob the best of these. How many of these are enough to see? I say: 4. We moved here from The Blue Ridge Mountains. People would drive 6 hours to see some old log cabins. When you're around them all of the time, you don't even notice them. Locals in Trat are likewise amused at anyone staying a second night there.

Are go-go drinks diluted? I only have one about every 1,000 days and they always seem fine to me. Could go-go drink-buying and bell-ringing be a way to get rid of a million dollars medium-fast?

I liked Trat and Chantaburi a bit better, but the whole Eastern Seaboard is worth a leisurely trawl. Whenever we go out to a Thai restaurant that has diff regional sub-menu's, we always order heavily from the Eastern Seaboard side of the menu. This is where Thai Fishcakes originated; a rubbery bore in the west, light and piquant here. In BKK, Sri Trat Restaurant is the Mecca of this cuisine. Been twice, would go twice more. (Reservation needed).

Yeah, but I went a month ago. So that's Pai done and dusted for about a year. My wife has never seen CR, so that'll be the next excursion. Call it 3 days, with a big drive around to the sticks one of those days. Viang Viang has likewise been destroyed by covid. And was overbuilt at Pokara levels before that. You can still get that magic tea that lets you sleep really, really well. Someday, there will be historic preservation interest in even places like Pai and Khao San Road.

Everything you said is true, but this one is the truest.

Yeah, I'm all about good restaurants and fusion-ish food. That's a big part of why I travel around the region. It's like living in France, food-wise here, except I like this cuisine better. I like your food pics, but I prefer to eat Asian food from a place where the chef went to school, preferably in the west. I only really eat once a day, so I def want to eat something great around 5 each day (I'm late for tempura). Luang Prubang was formerly my favorite eating out place in the world (including Manhattan). It's been Covid-decimated and prob will never come all the way back. Chiang Mai has at least three 5* restaurants in every category, and that goes double here in Nimman. Food-wise, I'd rather live in Bangkok, but Nimman is close enough. I like super local food too. You went to NUUM in The Old City on my recco. Tin shack genius restaurants in N. Laos are at least a letter grade over N. Thailand. Much more food of the jungle, much more Shan hilltribe food, and the light hand of the French in their cuisine elevates it over (already brilliant) Thai food. If you went there instead, it would be much more striking. But you're a Thai-ophile, not a Lao-ophile, so follow your bliss.

Within the thread, why do tourists go to the same 5 or 6 places?, a Fang fan said that a lot of the streams have dried up.

Have you tried Beer Lao IPA? It's middling, but good for here. I married an English woman and I think you're being too kind.

Chiang Rai -should be called 'after six hours here, I realize I picked the wrong Chiang". -Only one real sushi restaurant, so for me, that's gonna be a no, Dawg. Take a look at Tak. You like waterfalls, that's big 'un. A real hump to get to tho, even with a car.

Sukothai will quell that excitement fast. I like old Buddha's. I was good for 2.5 hours at Sukothai. The weekend market is undewhelming. There's an old teak house guest house right near the park. Great restaurant and a few local boat noodle-ish dishes.

Cheese and coffee AND Liqueurs borders on the bulimic. The young want lighter tastes: whiskey and cognac are not status signifiers like they are for our age. They have their own stupid stuff to take money out into a field and burn it over. When I went to Ko Phangan for the Full Moon party, a Trance-wear (it's a thing) tee shirt was $400. Hot air balloon rides are $500 a pop. Any takers here?

Fang's hot spring is not what it was. I read that here. I like to google image, say, Fang Downtown in deciding whether or not to go somewhere. One place where this kills the place is Chiang Rai. Chiang Rai has a really ugly downtown.

Songkla, but since it sounds like Penang on quayludes, I'm in no hurry. And that park where you're on a houseboat in a mountain lake (also in the south). Fang and Tha Ton - total why I am here? nowheresvilles. Maybe to take the boat ride back to CR, otherwise a complete head scratcher. And not that nice a boat ride since you're far from the shore. The rest are 2-day towns, 3 if you're lazing. If you want maximum off the beaten path weirdness, do N. Laos.

Rich people don't eat a lot of cheese. The want pricier protein. And: It's snobbery to say that a single malt is de facto better than a blended whiskey. I bought some single malts from Tesco that were pretty rough. Chivas Regal was good enough for Sinatra and The Rat Pack. And they could drink anything. A bar pour of Bells is not to be under-rated. JW-Blue has some tiny dribs and drabs of 75 year old whiskey. As a duty-free impulse buyer, I like the airport-only JW green and the two bottles of gold for half off the second bottle. Double black is like sucking on a lump of charcoal. -If you have too much money, than you have to buy more and stupider stuff. Or just leave that money on the shelf. At my age, 70, I don't want to leave too much on the shelf, and I can't really absorb much more stuff. So that leaves only stupid-buying, which is the subject of this thread.

Seriously?

Fair enough, I lived in England during the era of Big Brother Star, Jade Goody. She def had the Essex/Cockney accent. And was beloved, mainly just for that. It's the only English accent that can't be faked. I've heard fake-posh and fake blokey-bloke, but that one is like black ghetto; it has to be lived. And: Wales: The only country where Anthony Bourdain said, "sod off, I'm not going".

So a little farther reach still. That GF experience I had in '86 would be unavailable even to Harry Styles today. Next up with this aging demographic: half your age + 20.

Cardiff is a great, drunky place to see a show. I saw Status Quo and Boney M there*. Demented. *Not on the same bill, of course. That would have been like older Chav Glastonbury.

I always heard it was half your age + seven. I guess when the juicy pickings got slimmer, they added two years to increase the candidate pool.

You're really lucky to have a gf with so much free time.

This is like when I saw Bernard Manning and he said: "You always hear about Islam, but what about 'er lamb?" Alan Partridge really "got" Norwich.

Yeah, and the street with the million boat noodles places. I also really liked the area behind the Asia Hotel. Very muslim. An oldie I met in a pot bar said that muslims keep the rents low. 2 biryani attempts were let-downs, tho.

A major loss. I would take white women there for the thrill of talking to hookers who did not appear upon closer examination to be bonded sex slaves. Always a good night out. With the white women usually paying. There's a Lao restaurant further down the BTS line that has an old outdoor area. And Lao food, that's basically haute Issan cuisine.