josephbloggs

Here we go again. Let me use your same paragraph but just swap a few key words and see how it looks: Any normal person free to think should hate the USA as well, responsible as they are for the deaths of millions of people and the maiming of millions more. Then the abuses in Iraq, and concentration camps for people who are not charged with crimes, oppression and brutality against black people, really what''s not to hate? Not the Americans, the USA.

I came through a couple of weeks ago. The main Fast Track entrance is closed for renovations so instead there is a Fast Track queue to the left of the normal queue that goes to a few Fast Track counters and there was no queue, However in the normal queue there were plenty of desks open and only a few people - maybe 4-5 deep at each desk maximum. It was the same when I came through last month. The airport really is no where near as busy as it used to be. If you have access to Fast Track it's great but imo it's not worth paying for at the moment as it hardly saves you any time.

Would be nice if the article mentioned where to get them. Haven't found a good Bahn Mi here yet. I do like Vietnamese food. Chili crab is way over rated. Every time I go to Singapore the people from our office want to take me for chilli crab. "Be careful, it's spicy, are you sure you can eat it?". We eat way spicier stuff here. It is not even slightly spicy, it is just messy, too sweet, and not particularly tasty. A nice fresh Thai poo neung with nam jim is a million times tastier. And Filipino food is generally disgusting, oily and bland. A good rendang is delicious.

Looks like Thai Hor Mok.

As opposed to the good old USA who withdrew from the Paris Agreement on climate change under Trump. And the US is second in the world for total CO2 emissions, double that of India in 3rd, and almost four times that of Russia in 4th. Per capita the US releases more than two times the amount of CO2 than China. But yeah, China....

Because it has become an increasingly cynical website that appeals to the cynical TVF populace and therefore generates more clicks. 90% of the "news" articles have a cynical slant. Personal opinion, of course.

I think we know the answer.

Yes, it would be if that had anything to do with it at all, which it didn't. Have you ever used the BTS?

There's always one isn't there. Can't stand a good news story about Thailand so you have to somehow make it as though there's a negative that "the west" does better. UK passport renewals are a shambles and an embarrassment. Renewed my son's Thai passport recently, we were in at 9am, out by 9.15am and picked up the passport at 2pm. Caught a flight that same evening, stress free, as we knew there would be no problem getting the passport quickly. Absolute efficiency.

To add to the others no-one does canned Guinness here anymore - you used to be able to buy it a few years ago but not enough demand I guess. I bought a few cans in Malaysia a couple of weeks ago and they are now sitting in my fridge. As mentioned lots of pubs here have draught Guinness although the supply chain is very sketchy so they are often out of stock for periods of time. But it is not Irish Guinness from Ireland - it is brewed in Malaysia if that makes any difference. I also find that most of the pubs in Bangkok don't pour it properly, they just pour the whole thing in one go and you don't get that nice creamy head. Had a few pints in Muddy Murphy's in Singapore recently and the Guinness was miles better than what we get served here - and they made you wait for your pint just as they should. It was so good I took a pic.

I remember it - it was a widely reported rumour but was completely untrue. They actually went bankrupt before they could finish it and it was seized by the banks. Accor (owner of Sofitel) eventually wrote it off. A few years later it was bought by a Singaporean company who finished it and turned it in to the Hilton. The same company also bought Exchange Tower which had been abandoned when almost complete and several other abandoned projects. So I'm afraid your engineer just believed an urban myth. (I also believed it at the time until I found out it was <deleted>) Here's an interesting read: https://www.afr.com/property/thai-ghost-buildings-given-new-life-20060620-j74wz

Joseph McCarthy lives!!

The "News" section on AN just gets more and more interesting. Sometimes I think it is too high brow, too serious, and perhaps they should dumb it down a bit. A car at a jaunty angle. Wow. Hold the front page.

I'm waiting for the first "Don't they know retail is dead" type of response.

Taken in by another ridiculous AN headline. The last line of the article says: "the maximum the court can give is 20 years under the law." So actually the headline should be "Actress Pinky faces 20 year sentence" but that wouldn't get you frothing and clicking.

There's always one....

I've travelled internationally four times in the past 4-5 weeks since restrictions lifted, and each and every time the immigration staff have been genuinely nice and friendly. Just left now for Singapore and I got a wai, a smile and a chat. It's been noticeable on each trip how much friendlier they are. I've never found them rude or anything, but just businesslike. I wonder if this is a new policy, or if it is just a result of them not being so stressed out with long queues of people? Anyone else noticed the same? Anyway, it's nice.

I recently made a thread with questions about import duties for hand carrying a wood fired pizza oven and 20kg of oak pellets back from the UK. Got some good info and I carried it back with no issues. Some people were interested in the oven and asked me to post a review once I'd used it, so here it is. @richard_smith237 It's a brilliant bit of kit. So nicely engineered, easy to put together (took one minute), easy to use. It gets to around 450 celcius in 15 minutes or so and cooks the pizza in 60 seconds. I had to cure it for 30 minutes the first time (just burn wood in there at maximum temp) then it was ready to use. The very first pizza I cooked in there burnt as I put it in and came back 90 seconds later to check - too late; the second was great. The heat is so intense that 10-15 seconds is the difference between being underdone, perfect, and burnt - literally - so you have to be vigilant. The taste is amazing, the texture is amazing. The machine needs no looking after other than cleaning soot out of the chimney. I just fired it up for the second time tonight. Honestly better than most pizzas I've ever ordered, but definitely room for improvement still. So my review is it is well worth it. Needs a learning curve as to how to cook at such high heat (how thick should your base be, how sloppy your toppings can be, how devoted you need to be about watching it cook and turning it around and removing it in time), but overall it is 10/10. If you were thinking of getting one I recommend it. I should point out I have absolutely no affiliation with the company, they don't even ship to Thailand, but I had wanted one for a while, I had a trip to the UK booked so I ordered one to be delivered there then carried it back. https://ooni.com/collections/ovens/products/ooni-fyra Some pictures from today.