Sydebolle

So yet another valuable member of the Thai society had his 15 minutes of fame. For all those who missed the show; there are such shows taking place all over the Kingdom in so-called "Go Go Bars"; arguably you have to buy a drink to see the indecency and no, filming is not on the cards ...... Pathetic!

I assume that Beijing called in the Thai ambassador for consultation or the Chinese ambassador presented its compliments to the competent Thai authorities on this issue. Without massive pressure by the red brethren of the North this would not have happened. Thailand could have done so much better as Thailand should decide what happens inside Thailand without "friendly advice" by the real power brokers. A poor statement by the present government, totally unnecessary but in line with other human rights issue. Remember the Tak Bai incident where they "perished" 70+ in the South of Thailand and the case never reached the bench due to the expiration of limitations of law. Welcome to Thailand!

Lost in translation, the ranger's command in (possibly) Italiano was inaccessible. Someone took those tourists there (assuming that they were not be parachuted into the area) and the old saying of "C'est le ton qui fait la musique" might apply as well. If the area was not clearly marked as "no access" then you just nailed another nail into the tourism coffin!

While less than ten days ago the boys in brown hunted down a Lao girl in the South of Thailand to avoid tainting the clean image of pristine semi-divine Thailand. The matter has been taken very serious and the top brass was out in force to bring this ill-reputed business to a momentary halt. Among others there was a Police Major General, a Police Colonel and a Police Luitenant Colonel spear-heading the operation. But all this could also be fake news as we know that prostitution is illegal in Thailand and hence cannot take place. The pricing for an upcountry house of ill repute is interesting as well. The employees were offered at prices from 2,000 - 3,500 Baht per "session". The facilitating encounters surcharge was another 300 to 500 Baht and the cash-strapped clients were given bank facilities of wireless bank transfers to the girls' accounts - which are apparently linked to the bar's financial system. Latter controlled by Papa-san; now how modern and futuristic is the world's oldest trade in Kumphawapi Megacity!

If it is green you might have a coat of algae; those you can remove with hydrogen peroxide. Wet the floor, pour hydrogen peroxide (available on shopping platforms) over the wet area and let it work for +/- ten minutes, rinse with hosed water. You can assist with a floor brush and/or repeat the treatment. This however applies only to algae which you can also find even more often on non-tiled concrete surfaces as soon as (rain) water does not immediately disappear and the floor does not dry instantly.

Don't go there, the heat guns result in brittled PVC which can create much more headache and financial issues than replacing used piping parts with brand-new stuff 😉

The actual land price listed with the Land Department is - in most cases - undervalued as their clients (buyers and sellers, usually sharing the costs on a 50%/50% basis) try to keep it as low as possible. Check other properties around you (if for sale) as well as enquire the empty land price around you. Arguments like paved road, electricity, city water and/or wastewater drainage are elements as much as access to infrastructure (shopping etc.). The house after ten years is an eyesore for Thais unless you apply respective arguments. After ten years you can see eventual damages or aging issues which you never see on a blueprint which can show nasty surprises within the first year already. The single story rule-of-thumb would be THB 15,000/m2 without white goods, tiled, proper windows and doors - all this is indicative only. Once you have a price idea you go and market it accordingly; you can always go DOWN with the price; listing with agencies is a good idea. Some agencies want your property exclusively which I would not sign as they do not carry your property exclusively either. Prepare professional photographs (I had them done for THB 10,000 - the best ever investment) as you have to turn on all lights during daytime; viewings are done in a completely air-conditioned-down house, don't over clean the house prior to that as you're selling a home and not a museum. Get a proper description with full details in Thai, English, German and French (you might outsource that) and be present when viewings take place as NOBODY knows the house as well as you. Apply common sense and you'll get there. Good luck!

Convincing argument to leave - yet it is not your normal family hamster or guinea pig 😉 A pitbull is - as proven over and over - a dangerous animal unlike, say, gold fish?

Help me out here; which 7/11 sells kangaroos, ostriches, capybaras, emus, peacocks, pygmy goats, wild boars, civets, Sulcata tortoises and reticulated pythons? Or is it Lotus's, Makro or Big C Extra instead? Most of these animals cannot read and hence would not have found the Spaniard's farm on their own - or am I getting something wrong here? Go after the wild life trade and you'll earn a medal in Geneva, bestowed by the WWF.

Maybe it is time to add "bulldog" and "pitbull" onto the list of animals which you do NOT KEEP DOMESTICATED. I hope the owner is taken to the cleaners for all medical and cosmetic surgery treatment of this poor girl. Nobody keeps lions, leopards or panthers domesticated either ........

Well, I still do not get it. Pre-pandemic timetables featured, among others, two daily services between Udon Thani and U-Tapao and I've used this shuttle almost weekly. Most planes were booked to the rim, never more than, say, ten seats empty. Air Asia stopped during the pandemic lockdown and never ever took that service back into their timetable. Question now is, why - as the tariff between Udon Thani and Bangkok was considerably cheaper than U-Tapao yet hundreds of daily passengers now are forced to travel via Bangkok for the lack of an (albeit costlier) alternative 😉

Unless the monks were forced, against their will, to make use of the ride ............

Who writes the hospitality laws and regulations, who legalized (quite rightly so to decriminalize) the cannabis business, who has to put its fingers into each and every subject rather than let the free market decide. The owner(s) of such illegal rental places are 100% identificationable so it might be, once more again, the authorities who in such cases do absolutely nothing

You're absolutely right, there are apparently some 5,000 gods while religion remains the unnecessary discussion over who has the bigger imaginary friend 😉

Well, well, the future will look back at history and find out, that Zelensky was nothing but yet another puppet. As long as you take an absolute nobody, put him into a presidential palace, let him outstay his (rigged) welcome, then you know that you're dealing with banana republics. Zelensky reminds me of Marcos, Lon Nol, the Shah of Persia who got massive help in unseating Mosaddegh, Vang Pao who fled his people and did not understand to the day he died, how he was puppet mastered.

17/18 dead, 35 injured - how many people were on this bus?

The origins of Father Christmas can be traced back to the legend of Saint Nicholas, a 4th century Greek bishop. Saint Nicholas was known for his kindness and generosity, and became the patron saint of children. Saint is - to my limited knowledge - a religious description. Your call!

Who remembers the hilarious incident in front of Foodland Supermarket's branch on Sukhumvit Soi 5 in Bangkok. A French man in distress over the inability to cross from the right to the left hand side on the Soi in front of the supermarket made a complaint to the unofficial "parking attendant managing" the public road space for the benefit of Thai motorbike owners parking their vehicle there against a small unofficial fee. He tied up a string or rope around the handle bar or something, hooked it up on his pick-up and drove further into Soi 5 until the string/rope snapped. Dozens of bikes were "altered" in one or the other way, the lack of CCTV never identified the culprit until he, in his apparent intoxicated stage, must have gone to town boasting his achievement upon which he was apprehended. The bike parking got massively reduced, the police started to do a part of their job when roaming the lower Sukhumvit - one never knows if the Pattaya problem might go up in fire one day due to a "seeping" fuel tank and a thrown-away cigarette (as so happened in Phnom Penh by a disgruntled tenant with a similar problem). The selfishness combined with the absolute absence of law enforcement must, over time, result in nasty conflicts ...

This Farang-bashing is getting worse by the day; yesterday's cover page on "www.aseannow.com" had only and exclusively the following articles as teasers on top of their newsletter. Needless to say that any crowd has its problematic members but the internet would explode, if they would list the Thais in the same pro-rata as the alien, dirty farang and whatever else these non-Thais are called. Be warned, it seems to get worse and worse and worse ......

Follows the non-storage of 17 million travelers biometric data, the (un)stable website on 90 days- reporting and then they seriously wonder, why Thailand is not the mother of all IT hubs ............

Nice to see that there are no other problems in the Kingdom. You may call it tasteless, even irresponsible but that is possibly where it should end. I never saw the Catholic Church questioning the fact, that Walking Street, Patpong, Soi Cowboy etc. are filled with naked girls wearing nothing but a cap of Father Christmas. I - for one - consider this "defamation" of the Catholic faith, as mentioned, equally questionable but I would never ever feel affected, insulted or anything worse as the girls have not the slightest clue, what the story of the (imaginary?) Father Christmas is. As I am not gay I do not know, if male gogo bars in other continents have stages full of young men disrobing of saffron-yellow robes which could be related to monkshood. So, cool it and be advised, that without this posting on the internet only a tiny fraction of people would have even noticed.

Lovely to hear from you again; I do not know the difference between kosher and chabad - both are not Italian kitchen expressions. I lived among lovely Jews who did NOT steam down my neck with "interesting" requests as I was a "Shabbat Goi" (look it up if you do know this expression) in my younger years. A Shabu Shabu shop does not sell sashimi, a Japanese not pizze and pasta and an Italian neither kosher, halal or any other non-Italian dishes.

Wondering what was triggering off this "job" for an elderly caucasian lady ..... She can consider herself lucky as in Singapore, if caught, it would have meant mandatory death sentence - as in Malaysia and Indonesia.

You may have your point in as much as I have my points. No other group, religious, ethnic, or by nationality, is of the firm belief, that they are special ....... except the "chosen" people. I - for one - never chose anyone in as much as I never ever did "promise land". It is an attitude problem which I never ever had with any other group of people whereas consistently and exclusively with a few Jews (not all of them luckily).

It is not the pork, the seafood (except fish), the entire "kosher" set-up of food preparation, cooking and the separate equipment needed for all this ....... it is an attitude problem by some very few of the clientele. Never had an issue with a Muslim as they simply don't order non-halal food nor drink alcohol, as there is plenty of acceptable alternatives for them. Nobody in his right mind would expect kosher food in an Italian restaurant like nobody would enter a kosher restaurant and ask for a pork chop with a creamy mushroom sauce.