optimjim

With regard to the punishment of the drinker in this world, the punishment is flogging, according to the consensus of the fuqaha’, because of the report narrated by Muslim (3281) from Anas (may Allaah be pleased with him), who said that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) flogged the one who had drunk wine with palm branches stripped of their leaves and with shoes.

But there is some difference of opinion as to the number of lashes. The majority of scholars are of the view that it is eighty lashes for a free man and forty for others

Assuming they don't bring any slaves or their wives, then there could be up to 1,600,000 lashes given next year when the blokes from Brunei return home, and that's just for alcohol, then add 100 lashes each for adultery and there won't be enough branches left in Brunei for 2016 punishments

Nice one . Keep 'em coming. (The jokes, not the Bruneians tho I could care less)

Yonhap omitted one more guideline in it's reporting:

Do not eat your mobile, even if it has an apple logo. It is not nutritious.

And has the profile of a banana..

I did some business once with a Korean gent named Ham In Bum. No, this is not a joke. I still have his business card. I wonder what suitable alternative names would be for Our Dear Leader who invented the mobile phone and regularly holes in one on the golf course. Any suggestions please.

My thanks to Mr. Sargant (spelling ?) for making my day. I have been chuckling for several minutes now. What an absolute loser.

Looks about 90, dresses like the dregs and has appalling taste in women -as well as no common sense.

I am older than the feckless "victim" but in all my years in Thailand have never been with such an ugly-looking female. On reflection, maybe he had a modicum of sense in reportedly not "recompensing her for keeping him company".

In my opinion, these models and the ones on Thai soap operas are less appealing then many bar girls. I'm not much into bleached white skin, nose jobs, bob jobs, and all that awful makeup.

On the other hand, I wouldn't kick em out of bed either. I'm not crazy.

Tut-tut. 15 to 18 below the legal age of consent. But then, we are only looking, not pervs (I hope !) Air Jamaica did a great show from NY to Kingston years ago, with free Rum Punches in the days when airline free drinks were a rarity. The idea is nice .... don't think much of the choice of models though. duh

I thought for a minute this was an article from the Onion news. Sounds like it would be a great topic for a PBS or BBC documentary. I can see it now. Richard Attenborough could do the narration. )

What great idea. A BBC - or even a talented-amateur - docu. on the old bars of Bangkok with clips and pictures supplied by us "Old Farts". I am sure there are so many who would contribute really good stuff and make it a really enjoyable watch, with some of the atmospheric Motown backround music. Could even include Grace Coffee Shop (pre the more modern hotel building) and the "old" Thermae. (But forget the smells from the urinals on entering !! yuk.) Great soups though and a Tom Yam Kung with enormous Kungs. Any takers for starting a docu. project ? Come on, there's plenty of creative talent out there --- and how nice it would be to preserve it all on a DVD or similar.

I for one hate to se the places of old with some character disappear. Before you know it Bangkok will be rebuilt to look exactly like so many major cities in Western countries. Those who resent the existence of bars should simply stay away from them.

Couldn't agree more with you on this,Watcharacters. Shiny new clinical buidings have zero atmosphere as afar as I am concerned. The very grottiness of some of the old bars in Patpong and on Sukhumvit itself (remember "Three Roses" ?) was part of their charm. Who recalls the finest water-hole in Patpong ,the "Napoleon Lounge" ? Wonderful lunchtime snacks, music and polite, friendly waitresses who would spend time sitting with the customers without angling for tips. Also the Sunday night Bangkok Jazz Club band playing there to a packed house. Alas, those places gone forever but I cherish the memories of good times there (and not just as a dirty old man !!!).

Indeed they did appear to dodge a bullet in terms of disease outbreak. However, it would appear the most dangerous thing during the floods was the electricity system. Maybe the embassy would have been better to set up rudimentary classes in electrical installation and wiring.

Indeed they did appear to dodge a bullet in terms of disease outbreak. However, it would appear the most dangerous thing during the floods was the electricity system. Maybe the embassy would have been better to set up rudimentary classes in electrical installation and wiring.

How very true. Even some smaller hotels have dangerous shower installations (my friends and I have had a few shocks - though not together, I hasten to add). Sadly, my wife's younger cousin was electrocuted in their home-village near Amnat Charoen a month ago. These accidents happen so often, I'm afraid, when there is no real system for checking up on elctrical installation safety.

I was an Export man for more than 30 years for a UK company. Rule no. 1, never let your company choose your flights, times and routings for you. If you're lucky enough to have a division that do the bookings (a luxury nowadays) then nominate the flights and hotels yourself, that way you have control over your itinerary and airlines, and not some dopy girl in the office. Good luck with your travels.

How very true. always book your own flights. I got 'stuck' in Kenya once and the RAF sent me back to the UK on an Aeroflot flight (don't ask) never again. One airline that joined my banned list for life.

Dead right,Lumply. I, too was an export man for a UK company for many years and used to research my own itineraries aand destination hotels (if visiting a country for the first time). Using the Airlines guide one could even chech on the type of aircraft and intermediate landings -- in those days far fewer non-stop flights.

This desire to preserve the purity of a language is quite common, and ultimately bumps into reality of concepts that came into existence in the last 100 or 150 years. I once wrote a dictionary of science in another language and had to deal with these issues. Concepts like element are easy enough to replace with an indigenous word, but try aberration, achromatic, aerodynamics, anion, Doppler effect, eutectic, isothermal, photon, X-ray, colloids, ions, electrolysis, etc. Then look up these concepts in multiple and unrelated languages. The practicality is that these are international terms varying only in the tonal qualities of pronunciation across borders.

Then again, what has allowed English to grow as a global language is precisely the tolerance it allows to acquiring additional vocabulary.

The part i dont understand is how these people can still travel

internationally even after being charged considering all the computerisation today ?

For example, I assumed that the pictures taken of us all by immigration at

checkpoints were part of an elaboratecomputerised data base

so why can't they have some kind of data entry which immediately

warns the immigration office of the status of people like this ?

Why cant they be placed on some kind of " no fly " list ? Congratulations, Midas, in talking such good sense. It is ironic that law abiding folks with a genuine reason for applying for visas for various countries are sometimes refused on the most trivial grounds. Wake up Thai Immigration and British Authorities too, for that matter.

I dont see there is any excuse these days for people to be still be able to

abscond to Thailand and continue to live under the radar for so many years.

I've just heard it on the BBC News.

There are queues ten miles long outside the Thai Consulate in London.

Apparently there was a mad scramble involving thousands of people, all desperate to get their free visas before the consulate runs out of rubber stamp ink.

Major employers in London are complaining that their offices are unmanned as the stampede for visas reches crisis proportions.

Riots and mayhem on the streets are feared.

The Home Secretary is considering mobilising the Home Guard to restore order to the capital

So much for Democracy. I'm getting out of here while the getting is good beforethey shut down the main airport in Bangkok. I certainly don't want to be stuck here during a Revolution should it come to that.

Good idea, TerryM. I was here when General Suchinda seized power and I went to Don Muang the same evening and had to come back into Sukhumvit as most (maybe all ) flights were cancelled. Meanwhile my visa and ticket expired. Not especially convenient.

The next day there were no taxis running to the airport and while I was quietly watching strange goings on near the Nana Hotel a soldier stuck his gun in my face.

So discretion is the better part of valour.

I feel very sorry for the 50 Swedes who lost their money on the "apartments and villas" purchase and it does not seem foolish to trust a compatriot running an (apparently) well-established and legitimate enterprise. Who can tell when a business is going to go BANG or involve criminality by directors , witness Enron and Shell, even beloved Guiness, a few years ago. But I wonder if a check was made with the Swedish

Embassy on the bona fides of Mr. X ? (and would they have helped, anyway ?).

My wife and I bought a 2-room house in Pattaya - nice little place - through a company called Ratanakorn. They were honest at least. But we have been trying every way to sell it for 2 years, even at a loss . The Pattaya housing market is blatantly overbuilt, however, so real crap, with a capital C. I fear that extreme caution - to the point of paranoia - is needed before buying a property in Thailand (or Southern Spain !!!)

So don't be to hard on those guys. Excrement happens. Yes, Siracha John, some of the properties were obviously condos i.e. apartments. Well spotted.