LaosLover

Some wisdom here. During a recent Bangkok hog-athon, I went to The Ministry of Crab for a big 'un and the Raddison Bleu Sunday Buffet (features a half of a biggish North American lobster in addition to Hua Hin night market-level seafood options, a 4* carvery station, and a 1st rate Indian section). I needed a day in between for these belly-crams. Both cost about the same. I left full to bursting and very satisfied at both -which was the better meal? Not even close, Ministry of Crab. True 5* level ingredients done right in an imaginative cheffy place is the apex of food-dom. If you have a hundred dollar bill you need to get rid of in a hurry, go there right now. But which meal did I have more fun eating? Def. the buffet. There's a lot to be said for having a slab of Virginia Ham, dried beef, half a dozen Tandoori prawns, Fin de Clair oysters, greek salad, charred artichoke hearts, Nan bread and Dahl (it was really good Dahl) on the same plate. When Alan Partridge used to bring his own, bigger plate to a buffet, I could relate. Plus going back for some raw bar and sushi, and more of that Virginia ham that was truly worthy of the prefix, Virginian. Plus a made to order small raspberry souflee along with some pineapple that had been roasted in Sailor Jerry's rum and a passion fruit chocolate bon bon. Again, a super-plate. In the 2,000 baht range, you can eat a 5* meal (at least at lunch) in Bangkok or an enormo buffet. I go for 5* over buffet ten to one, because I am an advanced Bangkok restaurant connoisseur. But if someone visits and I want to blow their minds, I go for a buffet. Partic. a high end Indian buffet, like at Charcoal or Punjabi Grill, tho Rang Mahal is the gold standard. Even in London or Delhi, it is impossible to eat labor-intensive Indian food this good at these prices. Non Indian: The Marriot $150 blow out is in my top 5 meals of my life, or the more reasonable and very venerable Landmark Hotel (unlimited shrimp tempura, made to order). Buffet strategy is usually to avoid carbs and bread ("that's how they getcha", as per my parents), but if they're putting out real pumpernickel or plucking a nan right out of tandoori oven, I'm going to have a bit. At the Marriot, they make pasta inside a giant drum of parm cheese, scraping the sides the parm ham wheel for extra cheesiness. With white-knuckled resolve and a sashimi-focus, I managed to eat only a single bowl. There's a YouTube of it if you need a day-brightener.

Some asked Howard Hughes's butler how much money he left. The butler replied: "All of it".

If you go Asian food court in Flushing, Queens, the competition of intra-Asian food makes it all very high quality. Duck pancake for a buck. Green Tea Salad next door. multi hanging meat options. Thai people want to eat Thai food, on the low end. Why would they not? Must to avoid: Night market sushi.

KK is long on my list, but I have never pulled the trigger. I heard it's the most spread out and devoid of a downtown-town in Issan. True? What makes for a great night market? I always find the food to be a little on the cold side. Partic deep fried stuff that they let lay around instead of doing it to order. For a healthy eater, it's down to meat on a stick, hopefully still warm. I have never had a night market meal that was the equal of a place that could succeed at the level of being a store front restaurant. That food is cheaper for a reason.

A bit of a thumb on the scale for Nong Khai there. A place with a river setting will always trump in inland town. I like Ubon for the same reason. Ubon is a two day town once in a blue moon, or a four day town that you've then done and dusted. It's a good to do it with Khorat or Nong Khai, or better yet, all three in one week. One let down was the pottery museum, but it's a tall order to make old pots exciting. And it's an old exhibition. Fans of the diorama will not be disappointed. The interlocking swishy patterns derive from Vedic India and echo through to Hmong tribal stuff, The Impressionists, and all the way to Keith Haring. You think of someone 3,000 years ago dipping a brush into paint made from berries and making the first art. You can buy an eight inch 3,000 year old pot for $100 on Etsy. Most are real, it's too obscure to bother faking. And back in the day, those people had nothing to do but toss out a couple of pots. Laos in particular is littered with untouched dig sites. A couple of stores sell repro's. Hard to take home, but cheap.

In the Appalachian region from which I came, Three old widows in my town are on old stud rotation. He's 75, and ploughs driveways. The jokes practically write themselves.

Life and Death On The New York Dance floor. It's about the transition from disco to new wave in downtown NYC clubs in the early 80's. I went out at least 3 times a week back then. I saw a lot of post-punk, like the famous PIL show where everyone rioted, The Talking Heads in club shows, The Clash with a rap act who was bottled off stage, to name a few. The book is too detailed, it goes week by week for five years. No $40 DJ fee is too small to squabble about a half a century later. It makes me remember famous for five minute bands like Killing Joke and YouTube them up, prob for the last time. Can't recco it if you weren't there, but a 500+ page music book on something non-mainstream is always an immediate buy. I liked Elvis Costello's autobiography the same way, even tho I have barely listened to his music.

Who can forget the righties fake wailing about Hillary? "She can't even WALK!!!!" And now: "He can't even TALK!!!". Looks like a major Republican platform plank is going to be about firing all of the inconvenient civil servants; another vote killer like abortion: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-retribution-agenda-government-workers-schedule-f-rcna78785 Still, no health plan, then?

I'm on #3. #1: young death. #2: became a secret heroin addict from an inheritance that she didn't tell me about. #3: still excited when I enter a room #4? Prob won't be that excited when I pop into the room. This really is the last gasps of my hey day.

This is very humane advice. If you moved out 6 months ago, tried to hang on, and now feel this level of unhappiness, you need to go.

This is like, "Riddle me this, Batman".

If only you could explain what you mean in any kind of broad sociological way instead of sniffily claiming superiority and then lapsing in to solemn muteness. This nice man's problems can be boiled down to disappointment that people in a poor, religious-orthodox place think and act differently from what he'd like. If he lived next door to me in Yuppie-bubble, Nimman, Chiang Mai, he would have no such problems. I don't recall your advisement. At all. Please feel free to advise again.

You seem 100% committed to remaining in this child's life. Fair enough. But that quote above bears reflection. My brother raised another man's infant for 5 years while he was in prison, with his girlfriend. That guy got out of prison and took the child back. Then the GF ran off with the prison-guy. There's a lot of instability in your situation too. Out of you, the kid, and the mother, you have the least say-so in how things play out.

The second part of my post that says that modern people should tread lightly in very traditional places and expect some judgement along the way?

Seriously, what are the odds of this nice man attending Dang's 10th birthday party? Or even his 6th?

As Clint Eastwood said, "If you want a guarantee, buy a toaster". I substantially helped raise 3 children via-step-parents arrangements. We're all 100% estranged. It's the outcome about 95% of the time: they stick with Mom -and Mom is done with you. You will indeed be forgotten. It's nothing personal. That child will not be at your death bed. Be grateful for the love experience and get on with your life. As to the rest of it, if you move to a poor, ultra-traditional place, there's going to be a lot of pettiness, resistance to outsiders and generalized, poor education dysfunction. Hello? You moved to the Buddhist equivalent of the Bible Belt? I lived in Appalachia and I had all of the same complaints, except for the kiddy-fiddling part (but with Baptist dry drunks -who knows?).

2nd hand sex doll? I hope somebody got up there with a bottle brush.

Did the dim sum lunch at the Shangri la. Very uneven service, in that they didn't have a cart going around, you had to order Ala Carte -in limited quantities, and then wait a fair bit between courses. But dim sum-wise, it was great. As good as you're ever going to get. Premium ingredients and good sized portions. Value for the money and it was only 2k baht for a bottle of wine. A deal, given the posh setting. Completely unrelatedly, I ate an 1800 baht seafood buffet at the Radison Bleu in Bangkok. Couldn't fault it; beautiful carveries, a first rate Indian section, and more shellfish than you could want, including fin st Clair oysters. I've never had a bad buffet north of 1000. The venerable Landmark Hotel on Suk Road is a prime example. Have eyed the Shangri-la Friday night blow out a few times. I note that you get 2 slipper lobsters; for me, an underachieving shell fish, but still good that they're throwing you a couple. At the Radison Bleu, they gave me a half a 1.5 pound Maine lobster.

I'm good for about 2 a month.

I feel that Ginger Farm Kitchen has jumped the shark a bit. But there are 4 other 4* a/c places nearby within a stone's throw. Plus: What do I know? Ging Grai in Nimman kills all with it's pan-Thailand, multi-regional menu. And yes, the a/c is strong. Why Not? Italian is next door and also great if you change your mind at the last minute, as I so frequently do.

Have used this twice with a visa agent for extensions. In and and out and generally more agreeable than the place by the airport, partic if you get there upon opening. Before opening, Starbucks downstairs is open.

....Still just crickets chirping in Tucker-land. It's like waiting for a communique from Q-anon Q,. Will this be a similar fade out? Where's my promised hard-hitting conversation about science -excuse me, emerging science? That's science that's so iffy that they can't just call it regular science. And changing demographics? I'm going to go out on a limb: Not changing for the better, I'm sure. He doesn't want to talk about emerging science or half pint of guiness-demographics for free. Why would he do that? Has he ever?

Your prob is with boarding the airline. Call them and ask about one way tickets. In general, it's more liability for them to let you fly. I know someone who had to buy an exit ticket in Hong Kong to get on his next flight leg; diff airline change meant diff policy. Once, flying Air Garuda, I was required to buy an onward ticket (which they let me refund in the airport when I got there).

Good article in NYMag about how Fox grooms and disposes of their talent as ruthlessly as Asian boybands. Said Roger Ailes after assembling the original The Five, "You're not people, you're types, and there's 100 replacements behind you". So who's the next smarmy militia-lover to fill the 8 PM slot? Jesse Waters isn't up to it. The poor dupe from their morning show got a hail of abuse. And he can't be a uni-party globalist. Problem: They're everywhere.

Dream on. Even multi-shirt wearer Steve Bannon points out that Tucker has a non-compete clause. He can talk, but not for money. Hence, the presidential run wet dream. I snorted tea through my nose when he bemoaned how "they" won't let anyone talk about natural resources. I agree it's a rare tv station that brings potash storage concerns to light. And certainly least of all him. His calls to action will result the same as Trump trying to assemble a crowd outside his courtroom. So now that he has the world's ear, what's he got to say? New racist conspiracies? So hard to squeeze out a new angle these days. Bring on the My Pillow Guy again? And the guy who wears the suit that looks like a wall. Thai tie in -you can get a wall suit made in Chiang Mai for yourself. A voting fraud bombshell? That's some well trod to death-ground. Plus: Possible $784M oopsie. More bug-eating concerns? Soooo last week. Other than butt hurt claiming to be an oppressed victim of a very conveniently vague conspiracy of silence, where's the money shot, Carlson? No deets, no further interest. If he's going to be a conservative iconoclast who remakes the repubs, he's going to have to eventually spit it out and actually say something, instead of just threatening to. -Like his best friend, You-know-who.