Acharn

20 hours ago, Lacessit said:

In Chiang Mai, there is a big karaoke nightclub. As a Thai woman drily explained to me, it's known for karaoke with options. The nightclub is owned by a VERY senior policeman in Chiang Mai.

I don't know if you know of the Thermae in Bangkok. First opened in 1967, it catered to farangs, and was essentially a market for street-walkers, so they didn't have to walk the streets (very hazardous in those days with the military dictatorship). I don't know the truth of it, but the accepted wisdom was that it was owned by high ranking police officers at the Lumphini Station. I know for a couple of years in the '90s there was a Police Captain there every night, acting as if he was a manager. The original had a massage parlor on the second floor, a barber shop with lady barbers on the ground floor, and the coffee shop in the basement. Although it was named as a coffee shop, they sold beer and liquor as well, and food. Fascinating place. It was said that if you wanted a sixty-year-old woman with an eye patch and a wooden leg you could find her in the Thermae. It was compared to the alien bar in the original Star Wars movie. Some of the women were quite attractive, though. I don't know if it's still there (Sukhumwit between Soi 13 and Soi 15, IIRC).

On 9/22/2020 at 7:09 PM, Matzzon said:

Hey, totally irrelevant! Nobody enforce those rules and laws anyway. Why would they think that a new law would be different? 

If you think that law is not enforced (selectively) you need to get out more. You really don't know anything about Thailand.

Never gonna happen. I don't want to make false accusations against the police, but I remember when the current law was passed in December, 1996 (just months before the Dom Yum Gung Financial Meltdown). There were some good things in it, but they still allowed police to arrest women for prostitution. When asked, the spokesperson for some do-gooder NGO came out with, "We have to be able to arrest them in order to be able to help them." It's an essential part of the economy, yet it's illegal. Still, if you notice, they don't apply the law so strictly as to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. In the United States that's called prosecutorial discretion, and it is used in exactly the same way.

10 hours ago, Jeffrey346 said:

Besides airlines/travel services, who takes an AMEX Card in Thailand.

Back in the '90s you had to let them add 5% to the net price to cover the AMEX fee.

8 hours ago, Bender Rodriguez said:

let's blame weed while the problem is yaba ...

Reefer Madness. 

2 hours ago, stouricks said:

They cant be, they don't have red plates!

You remind me of one scene from one of the coups, that was caught by an international news magazine. I don't remember which year it was, but a news photographer caught a picture of a column of tanks moving through Bangkok, and stopping for a red light. I'm pretty sure the picture was in the International Herald Tribune and several other magazines with international distribution.

Back before the late General Prem Tinsulanonda stepped down, coups were the equivalent of elections. We had one every four years or so. Thanong Kittikachorn even conducted a coup against his own government, I think in 1971. Then we had some pretty turbulent civilian governments -- politics were high entertainment. After 2006, the military doesn't remember how to run regular coups so as to give more people a chance at the trough. We may be reverting to past practice. They should study Field Marshal Phibulsongkhram. There was a guy who knew how to run coups. He made himself dictator four or five times.

I get stressed every year when time to extend my stay comes around again. I've been fearful ever since Purachai was Minister of the Interior (first Thaksin government) that they'll change the rules again. I've been doing this for 38 years now and have never had a problem, but Purachai was xenophobic, and also head of the "church wing" of the Phalang Tham Party (no longer in existence), so he was representative of a lot of conservative, monarchist Thais. Aside from that, nothing worries me. "Whatever will happen will happen."

I think you mean a dish called Hung Lay. I've only had it once. It was mentioned in a thread on names of Thai dishes you can commonly order. Title of the thread was "Thai Dishes to Order," first post June 12, 2014,

It's not obvious from the name what it is, but I can tell you it's large brown chunks of what I presume is beef, and obviously stewed. I haven't asked for it since, but now that you've reminded me maybe I will.  Sorry, I don't know where you can find the recipe, but knowing the name should help.

10 hours ago, ThailandRyan said:

He is treated like any other head of State. Do you believe any of those in a position of power drive themselves to and from, and do not have security teams providing an escort wherever they go. If you do you live on another planet. A long time ago it might have been needed but with people who try and do stupid things to these people well tgats why they are escorted. Now, with saying that, not everyone working for the government needs an escort, only those who are in a position to do the work necessary to assist the people.

You're quite right, of course, but I was recently charmed by a picture of the President of Portugal, standing in line to pay for his purchase at a 7-11 store.

My niece just did it, but I'm afraid I don't know the details. Apparently she and her husband just went to the Land Office and asked what they needed to do. The helpful people there explained it all to them. 

2 hours ago, Deli said:

Why don't let them just gamble ?

Win win for all involved. Dead gamblers are colleteral damage.

All anti-gambling laws, whatever country, are just a source of revenue for the cops. The cops are almost always able to persuade enough politicians and influential people of the moral evil of gambling to keep the laws in place.

I don't do mobile (i.e., use my phone) but for my PC, Bangkok Bank has a great program (not "app") called BuaLuang iBanking. You select either Thai or English. The English version is excellent.

Since I am not Thai, I may misunderstand, but I think Thai Buddhist belief is that if your body is not cremated your soul cannot go on to the next stage after death. That's either rebirth and the following working out of karma, or judgement by Yamabaan, ruler of Hell, and punishment according to his decision. I prefer to think of karma, a natural law, rather than judgement by capricious gods (or demigods, not sure exactly what Yamabaan's actual status is). So, if I understand correctly, keeping his body on display is preventing his spirit (or whatever it is that is reborn) from suffering the punishment he deserves.

16 hours ago, A1Str8 said:

TRT is great but has those side effects yes.

 

If you don't want the sides, here's what you can do: eat more fat. The body makes hormones including test from fat. If more is available it will produce more. Don't eat junk, no alcohol, smoking etc. Those all lower test levels significantly. Don't eat meat or very little. It is well documented that vegetarians have higher test levels. 

Intense daily exercise. It's known to kick hormone production into high gear.

Work hard. On anything. Nothing raises testosterone production as efficiently as the feeling of accomplishment! Whatever you do that makes you feel proud, strong, makes you feel like a man, signals the brain to tell the body to produce more T. 

A couple years ago I read advice to take a tablespoon of cooking oil every morning to improve testosterone production. Our diets, when we're older, tend to be deficient in fats. I've recently come to prefer soy bean oil to the sunflower oil I was eating earlier.

On 7/15/2020 at 11:49 PM, Tounge Thaied said:

The entire world is BEING gripped in fear. 

There is no agent in your sentence. Try, "There are powerful government and corporate entities working day and night to create fear and panic among people all around the world."

I got a letter from Bank of America on 10 July, notifying me they've changed the conditions of my credit card again. The letter just had a date June 2020, so I don't know when it was sent.

On 7/11/2020 at 1:08 PM, puck2 said:

Isn't it strange that only "retournees" cause covid-19 cases here in Thailand, in a country with such low infection cases?!

 

If you use your logic then you decouver contradictions.

 

• As far as I know, no normal tourist is allowed to enter Thailand - except diplomats, etc. "12 from Sudan", they all haven't been controlled in their country or airport of departure? The same concerning 1 patient from Bahrain and from the US, too? Unbelivable.
• Only farangs carried the Covid-19, Thailand, but Thailand has gone 47 days without a domestic case. Incredible. Yes, if you don't test Thais, there are no cases! Trump logic.
• Yes, I know, the time between the virus-infection and the -discovery takes more than 3 days. Therefore it's possible, that the virus could not yet be detected in the state of departure, but a short time later in Thailand. But, but .. that happened 47 days only in falang cases? Incredible.

 

For me it seems the military government wants to hide a lot.

??? Why do you say "falang" (I spell it 'farang') cases? The article said they are all "returnees," which I interpret as Thai people.

11 hours ago, colinneil said:

Unbelievable, men go off hunting, ohh something moved so he shot it.

What a bloody brain dead individual, first thing you do is make sure you know what it is your going to be shooting, not this clown, bang i shot it, thought it was a rat.

Size of a man, to the size of a rat, big difference.

 

Well, this happens several hundred times every year in the U.S. It's so common only the local newspapers bother reporting it. It's even more common than police killing unarmed people. Some farmers don't leave their houses until hunting season is over, and, if they have room, put all their cows in the barn. This is one of the reasons I want to ban semi-automatic weapons from civilian use. 

4 hours ago, candide said:

Some books have been already shipped to distributors so we may hear about it.

So far, nothing on the friendly bay where pirates like to shore.

Yes. A New York state judge does not have power (jurisdiction) outside New York state. If books were already shipped to California, say, or Arkansas, they can legally be sold regardless of the restraining order. It would be good if the editor of the story (I blame editors more than reporters for the lousy state of journalism) had included information about where the printing plant(s) are located.

10 hours ago, thequietman said:

Very calm and collected. He knew exactly who this guy was, and he knew exactly what he was doing.

 

But, how did he know that the victim would be visiting at that time and on that day?

 

Wow! ????

From what I understand from the story, he'd been working there for a while. Presumably he could have been informed the victim brought his car there from time to time, so all he had to do was get a job there and wait. Or it may not have been planned at all. He might have just carried the gun all the time, and when the victim came in too advantage of the accidental occurrence. We don't know from the report if they had previous history.

On 6/25/2020 at 3:49 PM, dabhand said:

Normally you can change the passport number at the branch where you opened the account. I have done that at the Pattaya Sai2 branch of SCB without needing to show my previous passport.

I had to do that at the Lad Praow branch of Bangkok Bank. My account was so old I had not only changed passports, they had at least one major upgrade of their software and could not make changes to my old account. The generous clerk spent about three hours on it, and finally solved the problem by deleting my old account and moving the funds to a new one, which had an account number so similar to the old one that memorizing it was easy. You do have to do it at the branch where you originally opened the account. Perhaps you need to speak to the manager. In my case I didn't have to appeal to authority -- the young lady in Customer Service was determined to take care of a long-standing customer.

On 6/25/2020 at 12:26 PM, brianthainess said:

Here we go again another poster offending and making  assumptions  (yanks judging) about me I first started coming here in the early 80s and never recall ANYONE asking me, maybe you SEEK high status but i do not, i consider to be well respected by the locals, invited to weddings, funerals, birthday parties, school and temple do's, by rich and poor alike, no one asks me how much i earn, my respect is earnt by my deeds and actions. ????you can enjoy offending me but i really don't give a <deleted> 

I'm really surprised you found my letter offensive. I wasn't saying anything about you, I was trying to explain a part of Thai culture. Perhaps I should have been more careful about mentioning status. I have usually been associated with rather poor people, and Isaan people, at that. Their status in Thai society is not high, but they have to assign a relative status to me to know how to react with me. What pronoun to use, for example. In old Thailand (I'm talking after World War II here, and early 1970s), at least in the villages, status did not depend on wealth or education so much as knowledge of local rituals (when was the proper time to present an offering to the Goddess of the Fields), knowledge of Buddhist scriptures, esteem of fellow villagers, etc. Status dictated how high you raise your hands when you wai, for example. It can determine which pronoun (in Thai) people use to address you, although I don't think that's likely to arise at our level (if you're the CEO of a company that employs a lot of people I think it would). I think you are assigning a different meaning to the word "status" than i inended. I'm surprised you have never been asked how much you make. Perhaps younger people have learned that foreigners are uncomfortable answering. So I apologize if I offended you. That was not my intention.