LaosLover

He said that when he was choking the guard, that he really wasn't choking the guard, just showing the guard his hands (by choking him). So def a sentencing add-on for such a stupid story. To the people wailing away here about too-strict sentencing, what is the appropriate penalty for being a ridiculously implausible liar and idiot? Will throwing the book at liar/idiots lead to more plea deals and less trials? I have a relative who insisted on a jury trial after being caught dead to rights. They offered her parole, she wanted a trial. So jail for a year instead. If they have you on camera, just use the brains that god gave you and plead out.

As per my name, I have happily done 2 weeks+ just in North Laos, Ponsevan too, and the south. But you'd need some kind of ethnological reason to do that. The fruit shake options really thin out 5 miles outside of either of the big towns. If I lived in Issan, Vientiane would def be my getaway of choice.

Can anyone name a single republican who wants government supported medical care at NZ levels? No. That would even be more liberal than what Biden wants. Your no doubt enlightened views on assault weapons? Pretty leftist by US standards. You cosplay as conservatives -but do you even go out in the woods and kill Bambi? No. Keep stamping your pretty little feet. Daddy will still protect you.

You gotta really lovvve that nice croissant for breakfast. I spent ten days there for my preservation project, with friends -and something to actually do, it was def on the long side. 2 weeks in Siem Reap would have you examining every last brick at Angkor Wat from all six sides. However, I did do a month in Luang Prubang and could have easily done a second one.

.....You forgot Bernard Manning. Very good docu on RAR out a couple of years ago (but too much Tom Robinson in it).

I just left living in The Blue Ridge Mountains and the Dead-like jam band thing is still the predominate taste there -and that means when it's festival time, a mixed race (booo) reggae band will be on the bill too. The reggae flavor of choice is heavily apolitical and def broad stroke feel good rasta instead of nyahbinghi, but 20 year old people there still buy Bob's greatest hits and possibly a tee shirt too. He's perennial counter culture now the way that tie dye is. That dead in Jamaica show was part of an ill fated rock festival that about 200 people showed up for. Other deranged bills were like, Aretha Franklin, Black Uhuru, Skeeter Davis, and The Clash. I wish they had that kind of cross-audience booking these days. Another beloved cross-booking example was John Cooper Clark opening for The Rock Pile -and standing his ground under a hail of bottles. New York is brutal for brits without radio play.

I went to see Gregory Issacs in Negril. Show time was midnight. At 2 AM, we went back to the room to smoke a pile of pot. At 6 AM, we heard him come on. Live reggae = very hit and miss experience. Except for Brit reggae. Linton Kwesi Johnson was riveting. Aswald was like a jazz band. Steel Pulse opened for The Talking Heads at Radio City and held their own. Twinkle Brothers opening for Hazel O Connor is another cherished gig off mine. And then the whole U sounds thing. Brits may have drastically misunderstood the blues, but Reggae they truly got down to their bones and the world owes them big time for it. Without the English, Reggae would be at the level of say, Calypso in music consciousness. Saw The Dead in Jamaica (worth a google). Yellowman opened. And ran over them like a tank.

My mother was from Brixton, left in 1950 for Brooklyn with my Navy dad. When I would tell this to old dears in England, there'd be an eye roll: "Well, it's QUITE different now".

Just to brag, I saw Bob with Bunny and Peter still in the band. I just missed seeing them at Max's Kansas City Bar with a very young and raw Bruce Springsteen opening. The world moves on. Asking young people to listen to Roots Music is like demanding that I listen to Matt Monro. But bad example. Matt Monro is like Mozart compared to Reggaton. At least you brightened my day in that I'm not missing anything by not being there. Holland -now those are Roots/Dub people.

All great choices in that part of town. Would also add the Peninsula to that list. The quality of all their restaurants makes them a bargain compared to Hong Kong/NYC. I see the Peninsula is offering a $400 vegan tasting menu for a nightly seating of six patrons now. I considered it for about a second and half, but I didn't like the menu. And for $400, I want to see some seriously mega-seafood, not aubergine, on my plate.

I'd do Kyoto and nearby attractions for a chill but full 2 weeks. Mount Koyasan is like a dream. Osaka is like Tokyo used to be. You can fly from Osaka to Okinawa now for not a lot of money (Hawaii on a budget). Or do Tokyo and stuff around it. Tokyo and Kyoto in the same 2 week trip is a little rushed and offers you no in-between stops.

Agreed, and Bali is more than just Ubud and Kuta. You could kill easily a month there. In Ubud, the classical dance performances and costumes are superb. I had to go 3 times to get the hang of them, tho. You need some patience until the clingy-clangy music kicks in -which was very influential on the composer, Steve Reich.

Broadly (like, very broadly) agree with what you say, but either we believe in the concept of The West or we don't. And if we do, we should hang together. As to bully America, if it weren't for us being over-reaching idiots, NZ people wouldn't need to visit China; they'd already be standing in it.

Mega-let down that they're playing new stuff instead of roots and dub but I guess time marches on. I was in Jamaica in '19 in a rum shack and I turned the locals on to Burning Spear who had never heard of him. But lets face it: 92% of Burning Spear's audience is white world music nerds like myself; just like I never saw many black faces at a BB King show. Great memories of half a dozen carnivals in the aughts. I'd rock up to the Channel One sound system and chill out there all day. Reggae-ologists will know that Channel One was the home of Dub God, King Tubby, and yes, they still had his speakers. Impossible to conceive of such a mixed race (not to mention mixed black race) event in the states. Brooklyn Carnival is much more segregated.

Yeah, what you're describing sounds like Switzerland to a person living in Alabama.

My name give me away. So I say split the diff and go overland thru very mellow and unspoilt S.Laos, down through Cambodia, and then take the river route up to Ho Chi Minh City. But to answer the question, I like Cambodia more to due the people being more friendly and less ripoff-ish. Also, the Vietnamese dining options of soup and spring rolls get old after a while. Yes, yes, dullsville pendants, I am humorously exaggerating a bit here. No need to rush forward with your stern remonstrations about having had a nice piece of fish in Na Trang. I loved Hanoi and Hue, but Vietnam is the only SEA country that I didn't visit at least 3 times. Final verdict: Just not Buddhist enough.

Who knew that Mar A Lago had the same interior decorator as a Weatherspoon's in Blackpool?

Where do the rioters intend to riot? FBI buildings? Surely, that bed bug-crazy possibility has already been planned for. Town Halls? What do they have to do with it? Police departments? Already have shown to empty the gun if they feel even a little unnerved. Another go at the Capitol Building? Def will not be taking selfies with the guards this next time around. We'll see sporadic terror akin to school shootings. It will be random. Trump wants America to look like Fallujah on his behalf. But these people are driven by deep religious grievances, not stuff they know is complete nonsense.

....But Sukamvit Road is like New Orleans. You have to brutally assess every bite: is this worth the stomach space when I'm going to see another tremendous eating opportunity in the next 50 feet?

Parsing a Kiwi from an Australian accent is well beyond the ability of any living American. When I lived in England, I could eventually tell the diff between south and norf. My greatest discernment achievement was being able to pick out posh from fake-posh.

Back in the days of the Lonely Planet Thorn Tree Forum, there was thousand+ responses to an American who claimed he sewed a Canadian flag on his backpack so as to be better accepted by Euro's. Almost certainly an early instance of what we now call trolling. It's still a running joke on the Lonely Planet spinoff forum. I can't think of any other instance of someone pretending to be from somewhere else. Australians have a faking advantage over Americans who cannot discern an Oz accent from a brit one, unless the speaker is urging them to throw another shrimp on the barbie. I lived in England for 8 years and I can only tell the difference about two thirds of the time.

Landmark Buffet is def great. I once ate 12 tempura shrimps as the guy plucked each one out of the deep fryer. Marriot on Sukhamvit has a buffet for $150 (includes unlimited high end wine) that has every luxury item on earth. I wish I liked foi gras. Stuck with the Fin Au Claire oysters. Rang Mahal has a Sunday buffet that's a semi-bargain. No tandoori shrp tho. Buffets are a little stressful because you're always calculating how to beat the buffet. As my parents admonished me, don't fill up on the bread. That's how they getcha.

As long as I'm here, "Conquered by rhymes with plankers" is among the funniest lines in film-dom. I could understand them too. Prob a deliberate decision so Trainspotting could cross over to American art house cinema's (which did actually exist in my lifetime).

Agreed. They have the letter that looks like a cursive N, but sometimes it has a little dot or a line placed in various places around it. Thaipod is what I'm struggling through/avoiding and it's pretty good with the letter/sound match up. They offer a lot of stuff free on Youtube. I'm also picking out words from Thai menus.

That's why I prefer my limited doses of Billy Connelly in book form. If I can understand Frankie Boyle, I just assume it's Billy's fault.