thaibeachlovers

Yeah, they tried to make it a version of Singapore ( where I lived for a few years in the 70s ), but kept the awful infrastructure such as pavements that were broken and obstructed, telephone wires at head height, etc so they never really made it better. Singapore worked because it was all done with proper planning, but Bkk was a disaster area because there was never a plan, or at least one that worked.

Those buses were still around in the 90s, though they had proper seat padding then. Perhaps not the same buses, but same colour and size. The guy that took the money always had a job squeezing between the standing passengers.

After I discovered that hotel I always stayed there. It was brilliant. Such a shame it closed. They probably built some modern POS on the site, but I never went back to see.

I first read of Patpong in the 1970s and it was a rather different place than it became in the 90s. One story I remember from the book was how a BG set another BG's hair on fire for "stealing" the guy she wanted. I visited Bkk on a bus tour from Singapore in the 70's but got conned by the tour guide ( he would have got commission for every guy he took there ) to go see a sleazy ( and I mean really, really sleazy ) GI bar with a very boring live sex show, so I missed out on Patpong. Some of the guys on the tour did go there, and it sounded like they got the better deal.

Nah, they went PC. They did give him the boot without as much as a goodbye party. PC is the scourge of modern life and a pox on it.

You have it right. Trink was indeed a one off. I guess some allow their dislike of the farang bar scene to influence their opinion of the man, as I doubt any of them ever met him or talked to him. Anyway, who cares about their opinion? He was a must read for myself, so I certainly don't. A friend of mine had the Bkk Post sent to him in Saudi, and I'd photocopy the Trink column. Still have them somewhere.

You say "proper writer" as some sort of snide put down, but I'd say Trink was more popular than all of them put together. Anyway, you have it wrong as Trink reported more than he wrote, and your list is of authors, not reporters.

In your opinion. Thousands disagree with you. Stickman had it right.

When the poster you quoted comes out with garbage like the below quote, one knows he's full of it, as e mails didn't exist when I was reading Trink's column. I was an avid reader of his column, and there was nothing wrong with it. Anyway, it was more an information column than an opinion piece. I guess some allow their obvious dislike for the farang Bar scene in Thailand to taint their opinion of the man that reported on it. I didn't use his column as a guide of where to go, or such like. I had discovered the greatest Gogo that was or ever will be in Bkk, the Hollywood Royale, the place of dreams become reality, so I never really went anywhere else. It was a hard blow when purachi ( may he rot in hell forever ) destroyed the scene, and the Royale ceased to be. The farang scene never recovered from purachai, so it was perhaps a good time for the Trink column to have also ceased to be. He did try to start a pay to use web site, but such rarely succeeds, and he vanished from my view. He lived on though, long after his column died, till 2020 Here is a pretty good review of his time in Bkk. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Trink A native New Yorker, Trink moved to Bangkok in the mid-1960s and taught English at various universities before taking over the "Nite Owl" column in 1966 at the now defunct Bangkok World, an English-language evening newspaper. Trink's popular "Nite Owl" column ran weekly for the next 37 years,

Just because I didn't write anything about it does not mean I agree- I just couldn't be bothered to do so, but carry on telling me what I agree with by all means. Bye.

My username goes back to when I joined the forum ( ThaiVisaForum ) and the beaches were all pretty good ( except Had Rin which was a <deleted> even then ). My dislike for Chaweng is nothing to do with the sand or the sea, but everything to do with the <deleted> behind the beach. I used to stay there in JR Palace, when the residential buildings were virtually invisible when looking towards the land and the Ark Bar was a quaint structure of natural materials. Then the greed set in, JR Palace was burnt down, Ark Bar went upmarket, the nice resorts got bulldozed and the concrete trucks started. I gave up on Samui last century. I remember standing on the ferry from Don Sak and seeing a truckload of rebar driving onto the ferry, and I knew the good times were gone. Luckily Phangan did not have an airport, so it remained pretty much a decent island to stay on, which I did stay on for the remainder of my beach days. IMO Kata was so ordinary I never even bothered staying on it. Samet was a garbage tip end to end and the only thing the National Park officials did was collect the fees. The village was a vile disgusting hole and they couldn't even build a decent pier. There is more to a beach holiday than nice sand and clear water, but if all one wants is a bar to get pissed in, I suppose it doesn't matter.

I never mentioned Russia but keep deflecting by all means. You know who we is.

LOL. This little conflict has had western pundits wrong so many times that I'm surprised some still try it on. Seems that all the AN posters telling us 2 years ago that the orcs were losing have thought better of it and abandoned ship.

I was referring to Next.

I started not long after yourself, and while the thread consolidated and educated me, I still believe the same as when I started- God is the creator of life the universe and everything, but God doesn't intervene in my life. If I thought my life was God's plan for me I'd hate God. I prefer to believe that s**t happens and a lot ended up on me, because I was too dumb to get out of the way ( women mainly ). If God is reading this, can I have the winning lotto numbers please. The thread was very illuminating about non believers though, at least the ones that actually thought about it. The ones with the one line idiocies were not even worth my time. I do miss the thread though, and I used to look forward to reading and posting on it and some of the characters that were regular posters like MauGR and yourself. I don't miss some of them, like that sc****c guy. I think I have him on ignore now, but I don't see him anymore. I should have done that ages ago. I posted a lot on this thread and that does leave a gap in one's life when it's over. If I learned anything from life, it's that everything ends, eventually, and things I love end sooner than things I don't. Even the universe will end sometime. I'm going to end too, in a few years time, or less, so I'm hoping that I'm right about what comes after. If I am, we'll all have a big get together in the afterlife. Take care and may life's problems be small ones. PS. I still love sunsets.

My wife never actually came at me with a knife, but I wouldn't buy her a gun, which she wanted. I did get her to sleep in a different room and I bolted my door at night. Not related to the above, I refused to let her drive with me in the car, because she turned in a raving monster behind the wheel. After we got divorced she got a job driving a van, the sort that were always being driven too fast- the perfect job for someone that drove like her!

All countries have some bad, AND some good. IMO Thailand had more good things than the other countries I lived in ( except for Antarctica- heaven on earth. Unfortunately Antarctica isn't a country and one can't emigrate to it ).

I'm not suicidal.

I had a lengthy reply to that which I'm not going to repeat, but in essence I said that most women I have known lacked sweetness, which IMO is the most vital element of femininity. A woman lacking in sweetness, is not feminine, IMO. My Thai wife had sweetness, and was feminine, but I only found out after we got married that she was also a shrieking harpy from hell.

Thanks for that Fred. That's what I'm talking about. I have met very few women that are empathetic, emotional, caring, nurturing and compassionate. Hardly any, to be truthful. Perhaps you were more lucky than I, but when you say "a few wives" I guess not. If I found a woman like that that wanted to marry me I'd never let her go. I thought I found one like that, but it didn't last long, and I was gone. She managed to find another sucker shortly after me that she married, but he lasted less time than I. Don't think I had no female friends, I had lots but only platonic.

I missed that before. They won't be more feminine in private because a feminine woman is always feminine. If they ain't in public they ain't in private. Femininity isn't like a dress. They can't put it on in private and take it off in public.

I'm not suicidal.

Thanks for replying Fred. I may have only been in 2 serious relationships ( one with a western woman ) but I worked for decades with women, lots and lots of women. Hundreds I worked for years with, and thousands for just one shift. I think I got to know women better than most western men, not that I ever cracked the mystery that is woman. No man will ever discover what makes a woman tick, and visa versa. I can say, Fred, that of all those hundreds of women I knew well, having spent many hours working with them, very few were feminine. Masses of pretty ones, hordes of attractive ones, but of feminine ones not a lot. Femininity is something that comes from within a woman. Can't paint it on, can't dress it on, can't act it, can't pretend it. They either have it or they don't. Being feminine isn't "acting like a lady" Fred, being feminine is BEING a lady, and it can't be faked. Yes, a feminine woman can be strong and independent, but they don't have to be. It's like true beauty, it is something that comes from the very being of a person, not something they learn to do. Not something that can be practiced in a mirror, like a smile. It's like being charismatic; either have it or don't.

Perhaps he likes land whales.

Your idea of cheap women and mine differs. Cheap for me was Pattaya's 500 LT, as opposed to a Bkk gogo dancer at 1,000 LT, but that was last century.