thailien8

Whatever do you suppose Thai guys did with their time in the days before they had motor vehicles? Now that they have access to those wonderful modern status symbols, along with their cigarettes, gold and mobile phones, they must forever flaunt their enhanced standing in this unthinking society.

When I go back to Farangland now, it's always reverse cultural shock to have motor vehicles polietley stop to allow me, a lowly pedestrian, to go first. The account of the tourist bus driver trying to run down elderly farangs who innocently believed that zebra crossings actually mean something brings out the "worse than useless" syndrome in Thailand. One wonders why the Thais ever bothered to paint the useless zebra crossings. Are they merely copying farang practices, or was there some sweet deal between a painting company and ???

The TAT would do a valuable service if they would publish a small brochure warning tourists about life-threatening Thai cultural idiosyncracies, like ignoring zebra crossings, motorcycles going the wrong way, on the wrong side of the street, on the footpaths, without headlights....

Safe deposit boxes of adequate size are in banks. Mine at a nearby Thai bank is only 400 baht a year, never a problem in ten years. I also found storage lockers in several bowling alleys, about 1500 a year, tho some are full. I've got most of my stuff in two of these lockers now, ready to flee if the bird flu becomes a human epidemic, or if terrorists start bombing Bangkok.

That will be a job and a half. Remember they tried to capture a load before APEC?

Yes I remember the half-hearted APEC clean-up, but they sure didn't get any of the population on my little soi. No motorcades of VIPs came near us. A friend told me that the dogs on his soi (Sukhumvit 8) were rounded up and taken away, only to be brought back after APEC.

Maybe bird flu virus will mutate into soi dog virus, and the Thais will have to cull all the filthy mutts.

If you spot one of those big roaches in your bathroom, turn the water squirter on it and pin it in a corner for a while. This weakens and slows the roach so it won't scamper away before you can kill it.

When I go back to America, land of toilet paper, I really miss my butt squirter. If possible, I'll sit on the sink and clean with water. In Thailand, I try to avoid using the toilet in fancy hotels, as they all seem to think paper is superior to water for cleaning.

While they are young and pretty enough to willingly submit themselves to such exploitation as we men may want to give them, many can exploit us for some pretty good money. After the mutual exploitation dies down, for those not lucky enough to meet the farang of their dreams, the experience they have gained during their time of being exploited can be quite useful. There are several former agogo dancers I remember from a decade ago who are now working as mamasans, waitresses, beer bar managers, and other pretty good jobs where they can be helpful to guide the younger ones in the art of exploitation.

Yes, I've been to Highlander several times this year. Since I am one of the few stone age people left who do not own a TV (by choice), I keep my own personal list of venues where I can watch the occasional sports event. When I walked in the Highlander the first time, it was one of those many evenings when every bar in town was showing the inevitable soccer game. I was hoping to watch some snooker on another UBC station. There were no other customers, the soccer game was on the very big screen at the front of the bar. The owner, bless his Scottish heart, was happy to change the station to snooker. Then I discovered that the second floor (or first floor if you prefer) is the best place in Bkk. to watch TV while eating a leisurely meal. The big screen can be seen at eye level, without the need to crane one's neck upwards as in so many other public venues. The picture is crystal clear, and the owner even was willing to turn on the sound without drowning it out in loud music. The aircon was effective and the food was plenty good. I especially liked the first item on the menu, Scottish chicken soup. Highlander is one of the places in Bkk. that I worry may be closed due to lack of customers the next time I go there. In some ways, it's too good to last. Now if they could just capture some of the Old Dutch customers from just up the street.

To my delighted surprise, I found a place in Pattaya where "real pool" is played. There are only two tables, and no air conditioning, but the tables are excellent and the international rules of ball-in-hand (no 2 shots) are posted prominently on the wall, and adhered to by the players. The venue is a little hard to find. It's located on Second Road (Pattaya Sai Song), just south of Tim Bar Beer (big sign) on the same side. There is a sign out front about "Real Pool" and the small venue is about 50 meters back, next to a small group of beer bars. It's open 4 pm to after midnight. You can play by the hour or by the game (20 baht). If there are other places like this in Pattaya, where are they?

Bike lanes in Bkk.??! Yet another example of the unexamined, thoughtless, illogical, worse than useless "ideas" the Thais come up with for show purposes only. Kind of like the zebra crossings all over Bkk. that might fool the unsuspecting tourist into thinking that they are there to make it safer to cross the road on foot.

Bike lanes in Bkk. would actually be motorbike lanes, and any non-motorized bicyclist would quickly learn to get out of the way, as we hapless pedestrians do when a motorcycle comes at us (legally???) while we are walking along a "foot" path.

Yes the destruction of the Soi 10 beer bar area remains a glaring example of how efficiently Thais can do something when properly motivated. I've always been impressed with the great co-ordination of the traffic police when it's time to block traffic on major roads in order to make way for a motorcade of some VIPs. It seems this is one thing the police are thoroughly trained to do. The many motorcades zooming unimpeded around Bkk. during the recent APEC conference, while the rest of us were relegated to watching these impressive spectacles from the sidelines, were shining examples of Thai efficiency.

More recently, I was amazed at how quickly and thoroughly the thousands of campaign posters for Bkk. governor were removed the evening of election Sunday and Monday morning. By the time I walked around on Monday, there was nary a familiar face of Chuwit, Chalerm, et al to be seen. Those posters must have been worth something to somebody.

Harry, thanks again for replying, but a left luggage service isn't really what I'm looking for, especially at 90 to 180 baht per piece, per day (ouch). That's much more than I want to pay for storage, and I don't really have "pieces" of luggage to store; rather I want to dump a bunch of books, photo albums, diaries and other loose stuff in a locker or lockers for a year or more. There is a left luggage facility at Hualamphong train station as well, but I've read about theft problems there.

I used to ride the #12 bus in late afternoons, out Ramkhamhaeng Road, just to look out the window and watch the endless numbers of lovely uni students in their tight uniforms on the sidewalks. Maybe I should have been paying attention to what was going on inside the bus....

Why do the Thais seem to prefer to destroy viable, thriving commercial properties (not only Chuwit's Soi 10 beer bar property, but also the former Clinton Plaza across the road, and Siam Intercontinental Hotel) in order to build something else, which may or may not get finished before the next economic crash comes along? If they want to destroy something to build on the property, why not get rid of that horrible eyesore of a rotting skeleton that lurks right next to Nana BTS station?

Thought I'd try one more time before this topic sinks out of sight. Found some available lockers in the bowling establishment in MBK for 1500 a year. Price is OK, but they are still a bit too small for what I would like to keep in them. Does anyone know of larger lockers or lockable storage space?

Harry, Thanks for the link, but despite its nice touristy description of Bkk.'s temples, etc., I could find no info about storage facilities in Bkk. This website covers USA and a few European countries, and is intended basically for executive families who need lots of expensive relocation services. Any other tries?

I've been living in an apartment in Bkk. for over ten years, but now I want to get out and travel for many months. I will reduce my possessions to a bare minimum, and give up my apartment to save on rent, but don't want to throw everything away. Does anyone of a place to keep some things in storage in Bkk.? A large locker or small storage room, payable by the year, would be enough. I would need to be able to use my own lock, or at least have a key to keep with me, so left luggage facilities are unacceptable.

Some bowling lanes have large lockers, but all I've checked are full. Goethe Institute has lockers, but one must also pay 1200 baht a month for swimming pool membership. Any other ideas? Thanks

I'd like to add a couple of quotes from the story on the front page of Bkk. Post of August 19.

"The students were admitted after sitting an English-language screening exam but were sent to non-English speaking countries to pursue their bachelor's degree. Many found themselves learning a new language from scratch and were expected to be proficient enough to study in universities alongside native speakers within a short period."

"Opponents, (of the project) however said the government was trying to woo the loyalty of poor voters."

After all, the next election is coming up in a few more months....

Several years, when I lived way back on a long soi, I would occasionally get stupid and take a ride with a moto geek. They kept an assortment of old "helmets" hanging on nearby tree branches. When I would ask to put one on my head for the 3-minute ride down the soi, they all of course laughed and used the all-purpose "mai pen rai". How silly of me to want to protect myself. Funny, funny farang. I refused then to get on one of their motos, and now I won't get on a moto in Bkk., even with a helmet, because I really hate the way they drive.

From the time I first started coming to Bkk. as a tourist in 1991, one of the annoyances that really got to me has been the open selling of very pornographic videos on the tables that are set up on Silom and Sukhumvit Rd. sidewalks, every evening. I cringe for Thailand when I see innocent families of tourists, out for a little shopping walk, exposed to pictures of extreme sex acts, displayed on the tables at the eye level of little children. Last time I looked, these porno vendors were still there. Civilized nations restrict the sales and viewing of pornography to adults, behind closed doors. They don't put it out on display for all to see, as they do here.

I read a couple days ago in The Nation that the dogs that were "saved" from the cooking pot now have another problem. Those who saved them cannot afford to feed them. So the saved dogs are now locked away in some enclosure and slowly starving to death.

And driving a motor vehicle is the surest, quickest for a farang to get in trouble in Thailand.

Whenever I am sitting in a bar, and two or more girls approach me, our conversation often quickly locks on to the topic of skin color. Typically, the Thai girl will make some disparaging remark about the color of her own "black" skin. My usual retort is that her skin is not black, but gold color (pyuu see thong). My skin is not white, but red. To challenge her stereotype of white skin being more beautiful than dark, sometimes I have the girls compare the color of their skin. If one girl is noticeably darker than the other(s), I always say I prefer dark. To reinforce this, I buy only the darker-hued girl a drink. Hope this helps her self-esteem.

Besides religion being an obvious cause of the mental illness of terrorism, how about nationalism? The idea of a nation being some kind of holy entity, set in stone, is causing a lot of the problems. USA might be less of a world threat today had the South succeeded in the Civil War. The huge obscenity of a nation that was the USSR spawned a number of new nations which must be relieved to be out from under that regime. Czechoslovakia successfully split into two. East Timor was justifiably split from Indonesia. It can be done, and IMHO it should be done in more unstable countries. If the Muslims always to separate, let them. Give back the three southern Thai provinces to Malaysia, where they belong and want to be. Give the Philippine island of Mindanao to the Muslims, and see if they can become a viable nation, or not. Divide Kashmir between Indian and Pakistani zones. After all, much of the current troubles were caused by the colonial powers arbitrarily creating artificial national boundaries, which ignored the wishes and ethnicities of the people living there.

In this benighted country where face and status rule, crimes are committed but no one commits them, mistakes are made but they are honest mistakes, so no one can be held responsible.

In The Nation letters to the editor on March 24, 2004, is a letter from "Long-term resident" entitled "What happened to the online collection of HM's speeches?"

This letter is as follows: "Up until late last year, His Majesty the King's speeches were available for downloading from a dedicated website that was publicly accessible. Most of the speeches were in Thai, some had been translated. Shortly after HM's wonderful December 4, 2003 speech, I looked for that website with the intention of downloading HM's amazingly incisive, candid remarks. I could not find it. I have tried to find that website many times since, but cannot.

I noted during my hours and hours of web searching that the entire government website system has been revamped, supplying unlimited encomiums to the Great Leader. One wonders how such a high-tech administration could have lost His Majesty's website. It would be a great public service if The Nation could find the link to the website where one can download HM's publicly-available speeches or, alternatively, make a transcript of HM's December 4 speech available through The Nation's website."

Intrigued by this letter, I tried a google search, but could come up with only HM's speeches from 1995 through 1998, translated into English, on Thaipro.com which linked to Golden Jubilee Network.

Does anyone know how to find out what HM actually said about Thaksin in his last several birthday speeches?