Beer

[Wanderer]

Have you noticed wherever u are in Pattaya there is Beer for sale everywhere, from small eateries, 7-11's to hundreds of beer-bars.

I have noticed my beer consumtion goes through the roof anytime i stay here (every second month at the moment) plus its so hot during the day, a nice cold bottle tastes pretty good and then in the evening its nice to sit on the porch with a few cold ones, and the weekends are another story so i usually celebrate a bit earlier.

Although i don't feel that guilty when I see guys guzzling at beer bars at 10 am nor am i memeber of any of the CHANG clubs.

Is it the same for everyone or just me ( not including 2-4 week once a year holidays).

concerned

[MP5]

Have you noticed wherever u are in Pattaya there is Beer for sale everywhere, from small eateries, 7-11's to hundreds of beer-bars.

I have noticed my beer consumtion goes through the roof anytime i stay here (every second month at the moment) plus its so hot during the day, a nice cold bottle tastes pretty good and then in the evening its nice to sit on the porch with a few cold ones, and  the weekends are another story so i usually celebrate a bit earlier.

Although i don't feel that guilty when I see guys guzzling at beer bars at 10 am nor am i memeber of any of the CHANG clubs.

Is it the same for everyone or just me ( not including 2-4 week once a year holidays).

concerned 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Most drinkers do not have to think twice about this question.THEY KNOW! Is your whole life and thinking centered around your addiction in one form or another - always scheming and plotting to find ways to feed your addictions. Live to use and use to live. Very simply, an addict is a man or woman whose life is controlled by a substance or action. People in the grip of a continuing and progressive illness whose ends are always the same: jails, institutions, illness, poverty, and death.

Only you can decide if you have an addiction, and whether or not a 12 step recovery program can help you. The following questionnaire may help you make this decision. If you answer YES to four or may questions, you may have a problem that can be helped by the steps. See how you do. Remember that there is no disgrace in facing up to the fact that you have a problem!

Answer YES or NO to the following questions.

Substitute "drinking" for your addictive behavior.

1 - Have you ever decided to stop drinking for a week or so, but only lasted for a couple of days?

Yes No

2 - Do you wish people would mind their own business about your drinking-- stop telling you what to do?

Yes No

3 - Have you ever switched from one kind of drink to another in the hope that this would keep you from getting drunk?

Yes No

4 - Have you had to have an eye-opener upon awakening during the past year?

Yes No

5 - Do you envy people who can drink without getting into trouble?

Yes No

6 - Have you had problems connected with drinking during the past year?

Yes No

7 - Has your drinking caused trouble at home?

Yes No

8 - Do you ever try to get "extra" drinks at a party because you do not get enough?

Yes No

9 - Do you tell yourself you can stop drinking any time you want to, even though you keep getting drunk when you don't mean to?

Yes No

10 - Have you missed days of work or school because of drinking?

Yes No

11 - Do you have "blackouts"?

Yes No

12 - Have you ever felt that your life would be better if you did not drink?

Yes No

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What's your score?

Did you answer YES four or more times? If so, you are probably addicted. Why do we say this? Because thousands of people in recovery have said so for many years. They found out the truth about themselves — the hard way.

But again, only you can decide whether you think a 12 step recovery program is for you. Try to keep an open mind on the subject. If the answer is YES, there are many recovery organizations waiting to help you. Just call.

12 step programs do not promise to solve your life's problems. But they can show you how to learn to live without using "one day at a time."

AA is advertised on most local publications.

Don't please do the Drink and Drive or Ride routine

Edited May 18, 2005 by MP5

[monty]

Guess so

I've made myself a rule not to touch alcoholic beverages when the sun is shining

Only fruit juice or soda water...

A cold one in the evening? What would be the point of being alive if that was not allowed

But yes, it's very tempting to hit the bottle in this climate, i've seen quite a few people end up being alcoholics without them noticing... Very unhealthy in my opinion, hence my little sunlight rule

[The Phoenix]

Very unhealthy in my opinion, hence my little sunlight rule 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Right and what is nice with rules is that you start having fun when you break them...?

[Wanderer]

Guess so 

I've made myself a rule not to touch alcoholic beverages when the sun is shining 

Only fruit juice or soda water...

A cold one in the evening? What would be the point of being alive if that was not allowed   

But yes, it's very tempting to hit the bottle in this climate, i've seen quite a few people end up being alcoholics without them noticing... Very unhealthy in my opinion, hence my little sunlight rule 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

thats a pretty good set up, i think MP5 answer is too cilinical as most u 20's would answer yes to 75% of those questions ( i would have)

i work off shore + previous sh*t holes like Saudi, Kuwait so i might go through 3-4 weeks (offshore) (can be months in middle east) without and then back here so I make up for lost time when i come back, but i do see lot of guys who's main hobbyy is drinking all waking hours.

Especially the guys who dring Chang as it is a total crap beer (unless it is served at sub zero temperture) . Heineken or Tiger are the way to go

[cobra]

... you are probably addicted. Why do we say this? Because thousands of people in recovery have said so for many years.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'd also note there is a distinction between chemical addiction and substance abuse,

Many could go indefinetently without another drink in their life without giving it a second thought,

If it's addiction you can not function physically without it,

If abuse, when you do drink you tend to drink to excess.

[lampard10]

Wow.............the usual suspects are gonna have fun with this one.

Jaye/Bronco/DrPP/Jockstar..etc,etc

[Jai Dee]

I only drink on days that end in a "Y"...

Monday,... Tuesday,...

[jayenram]

I only drink on days that end in a "Y"...

Monday,... Tuesday,... 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I only drink on days begining with "T". Tuesday, Thursday, today, tomorrow, Thaturday and Thunday.

BTW, I answered "No" to every one of those questions. Truthfully!

[jayenram]

1 - Have you ever decided to stop drinking for a week or so, but only lasted for a couple of days?

No, I've never decided to stop drinking for a week.

2 - Do you wish people would mind their own business about your drinking-- stop telling you what to do?

No, people don't tell me what to do.

3 - Have you ever switched from one kind of drink to another in the hope that this would keep you from getting drunk?

No. However, I have changed the brand of beer when one brand runs out.

4 - Have you had to have an eye-opener upon awakening during the past year?

No, the FG prevents it.

5 - Do you envy people who can drink without getting into trouble?

No, because I don't know anyone who can drink without getting into trouble.

6 - Have you had problems connected with drinking during the past year?

OK, this one is "yes". Those bloody new licensing hours were a pain.

7 - Has your drinking caused trouble at home?

No.

8 - Do you ever try to get "extra" drinks at a party because you do not get enough?

No. There is always enough.

9 - Do you tell yourself you can stop drinking any time you want to, even though you keep getting drunk when you don't mean to?

No. There's no point. I know I can't stop even if I wanted to.

10 - Have you missed days of work or school because of drinking?

No, I'm retired.

11 - Do you have "blackouts"?

No. But my memory isn't as good as it was.

12 - Have you ever felt that your life would be better if you did not drink?

No.

There you see. No addiction whatsoever!

[Wanderer]

1

3 - Have you ever switched from one kind of drink to another in the hope that this would keep you from getting drunk?

No. However, I have changed the brand of beer when one brand runs out.

The only reason I would switch my drinks is to get drunk not from getting drunk

[penzman]

Hi. My name is Penzman. I have a drinking problem. Two months ago, I bought two large Heinekens. One is still standing in the fridge...

[Popeyethesailorman]

Some of my hero's

You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline; it helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer.

Frank Zappa

Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut.

Ernest Hemmingway

Always remember that I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me.

Winston Churchill

He was a wise man who invented beer.

Plato

Time is never wasted when you're wasted all the time.

Catherine Zandonella

A woman drove me to drink and I didn't even have the decency to thank her.

W.C. Fields

Sir, if you were my husband, I would poison your drink.

Lady Astor to Winston Churchill

Madam, if you were my wife, I would drink it.

His reply

If God had intended us to drink beer, He would have given us stomachs.

David Daye

Work is the curse of the drinking class.

Oscar Wilde

When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading.

Henny Youngman

Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.

Benjamin Franklin

If you ever reach total enlightenment while drinking beer, I bet it makes beer shoot out your nose.

Deep Thought, Jack Handy

Without question, the greatest invention in the history of mankind is beer. Oh, I grant you that the wheel was also a fine invention, but the wheel does not go nearly as well with pizza.

Dave Barry

The problem with the world is that everyone is a few drinks behind.

Humphrey Bogart

Why is American beer served cold? So you can tell it from urine.

David Moulton

People who drink light beer don't like the taste of beer; they just like to pee alot.

Capital Brewery, Middleton, WI

Give me a woman who loves beer and I will conquer the world.

Kaiser Welhelm

I would kill everyone in this room for a drop of sweet beer.

Homer Simpson

Not all chemicals are bad. Without chemicals such as hydrogen and oxygen, for example, there would be no way to make water, a vital ingredient in beer.

Dave Barry

I drink to make other people interesting.

George Jean Nathan

They who drink beer will think beer.

Washington Irving

An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools.

For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemmingway

You're not drunk if you can lie on the floor without holding on.

Dean Martin

All right, brain, I don't like you and you don't like me - so let's just do this and I'll get back to killing you with beer.

[Jai Dee]

[jayenram]

Hi. My name is Penzman. I have a drinking problem. Two months ago, I bought two large Heinekens. One is still standing in the fridge...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Oh yeh, Betty? But what about the 3 cases of *chang* that passed through your fridge during that time?

[lampard10]

Hi. My name is Penzman. I have a drinking problem. Two months ago, I bought two large Heinekens. One is still standing in the fridge...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Liar

[Gary A]

Hi. My name is Penzman. I have a drinking problem. Two months ago, I bought two large Heinekens. One is still standing in the fridge...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I can understand that. I would have a problem drinking that stuff too.

[nev]

when back in fallang land i hardly drink maybe one or two on a friday sat night,but when in thailand i would average 8 a day,mainly tiger or heineken find the thai beers to strong for me i try to have a few soda;s between the beers.

so i would not say i have a drinking problem just that when i am in a bar i like a few to break the ice with the girls,you guysno how hard it is to chat up a girl in a bar need a bit of dutch courage

[patricktan]

I only drinks beer on saturday night and the next day.......hang over.

[jrincon17]

I only drinks beer on saturday night and the next day.......hang over.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

i didnt have a beer or whiskey yesterday , first time since my holiday started a month ago . ###### i couldnt sleep , but slept earlier than i usualy do . Hmmmm Can i have your heineken

[wilson steer]

I know I drink too much, and nearly all of my friends here in Pattaya drink too much. Not so much as to get into trouble or fights or domestic violence etc. just too much, in the sense that it is physically dangerous.

I am seriously worried about getting into an accident, like getting run over whilst staggering around second road and up and down all the soi's. Then there was the time I fell asleep/passed out in a baht bus and nearly fell out at 40 mph. Various, falls, cuts and bruises from banging into things etc. that I never remember how they happened upon awakening.

Then I always manage to lose something, hopefully not my money, but often something is missing when I wake up.

Then there is the medical physical damage: The brain damage is staggering, my short term memory loss is so bad it is laughable. Then at night I can watch and enjoy a movie, then discover in the morning what it actually was, and swear I never watched it. I make plans with friends I cannot recall and lend money without recollection upon awakening.

Then there is the damage to nerves, also exascerbated by vitamin B depletion that drinking causes, my shakey hands in the morning actually frighten people and my Thai GF; she thinks I need a doctor because I can't cope with a mug of tea without spilling half.

Then there is the massive heart damage that drinking causes. 4% of heavy drinkers will die of ACM Alcoholic Cardiomyopathy, suddenly at an early age (35-55). One of my best friends died of ACM last year, at least it was instant, but he left a wife and two kids (he was aged aged just 39.)

Then there is the liver damage. 33% of heavy drinkers will develop alcoholic liver disease and some will die early as a result.

Then there is the damage to the renal system, kidneys often damaged as a result of elevated enzymes in the blood. The pancreas can suffer, pancreatitis is the most painful condition known to man, 20% of sufferers will die of shock.

Then there is the impotence and infertility and damage to the bladder, other cancers like throat, mouth and gullet, stomach damage is almost certain, stomach ulcers and Barretts oesophegus.

So what is the best way to minimise health risks? Eat well, take vitamin substitutes, particularly vitamin B complex, avoid accidents by door to door taxis, take a low dose proton pump drug for the stomach, write post-it notes for memory loss, get cholestral checked often, seek swift medical treatment for weight loss and loss of appetite and any other unexpained pains.

Time for a Chang!

[cobra]

... I would kill everyone in this room for a drop of sweet beer.

Homer Simpson ...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Excellent post Popeye

Beeerrrrrrr

[ProfessorFart]

This is my take on it.

When I'm in the UK I have a rule that I only drink at weekends which I adhere to pretty strongly but every now and again I'll have a few on a Thursday but only a few. This isn't down to any moral issues but merely that booze prices have reached such scandalous levels here that a night out can do your pocket serious damage. I have mates who are out every night )only to the local) but they are frittering £100+ a week without really realising it.

When I'm in Thailand I'll drink most nights in one of my locals and a fair bit too. Maybe 4 large Changs after food, followed by a few back at home too.

I tend to save my big nights for BKK, Patters etc.

I also have a golden rule which I never break apart from special occasions which is I never, ever drink during the daytime.

[lampard10]

. I have mates who are out every night )only to the local) but they are frittering £100+ a week without really realising it.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Blimey Farty! Where do you live? 100 down south would get you out on a fri & sat and maybe a session sunday lunch time,if you took it easy the other two nights. O.K. up north the beers cheaper,but not that much. Alright you said 100+,but my weeks drinking 15 years ago was 100+.........................a fortune.

[wilko]

... you are probably addicted. Why do we say this? Because thousands of people in recovery have said so for many years.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'd also note there is a distinction between chemical addiction and substance abuse,

Many could go indefinetently without another drink in their life without giving it a second thought,

If it's addiction you can not function physically without it,

If abuse, when you do drink you tend to drink to excess.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Wrong! where did you get your definition of addiction!?>!?!?!?

[Humphrey Bear]

Don't drink during the week, working up to 12 hours a day.

Friday night down to the local (Liberty Mansion) for a meal and a couple of Chang.

Saturday night a few more, some at LM, then often more down Walking Street or around Soi Chaiyaphum / Soi Lenke.

Beer is not so bad, but having worked abroad for many years I have had to send up to a dozen men home for drinking problems (mostly from Saudi and Libya - two alcohol-banned countries). Also in Iran (Shah's time, booze allowed) I shipped back five bodies - all at different times - all heavy drinkers / smokers. We were working up at 2,500 metres above sea level, the guys were all fifty-ish, overweight and should never have been working in 50C heat.

But all this has taught me to be careful of alcohol at all times. And not to smoke - not to put on too much weight.

[lampard10]

Don't drink during the week, working up to 12 hours a day.

Friday night down to the local (Liberty Mansion) for a meal and a couple of Chang.

Saturday night a few more, some at LM, then often more down Walking Street or around Soi Chaiyaphum / Soi Lenke.

Beer is not so bad, but having worked abroad for many years I have had to send up to a dozen men home for drinking problems (mostly from Saudi and Libya - two alcohol-banned countries). Also in Iran (Shah's time, booze allowed) I shipped back five bodies - all at different times - all heavy drinkers / smokers. We were working up at 2,500 metres above sea level, the guys were all fifty-ish, overweight and should never have been working in 50C heat.

But all this has taught me to be careful of alcohol at all times. And not to smoke - not to put on too much weight.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Sorry to be so pedantic; but where in this world can you get 50C at 2,500 meters?

If it's outside it should be quite cool at that height.

[Kerryd]

Sorry to be so pedantic; but where in this world can you get 50C at 2,500 meters?

If it's outside it should be quite cool at that height.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You'd be surprised. I'm in Kabul right now, elevation approx 2,000 meters. In the foothills of the Himalayas (properly known as the Hindu Kush mountains). Last summer the temperatures were averaging 45 C during the day and 38 at night. It takes getting used to, as back home in Canada, at the same elevation we would have snow year round.

B.O.T.

Beer ? Yuck. Why would you want to drink beer when there are so many other options (like Whiskey, Vodka, Rum, etc) ?

After all, 8 ounces of whiskey will get your buzz on much quicker than 8 ounces of beer !

Sucky thing here is, they only sell beer on camp (limited to 2 per person/per day). No hard booze at all, so I have to go dry until my next holiday

[lampard10]

Sorry to be so pedantic; but where in this world can you get 50C at 2,500 meters?

If it's outside it should be quite cool at that height.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You'd be surprised. I'm in Kabul right now, elevation approx 2,000 meters. In the foothills of the Himalayas (properly known as the Hindu Kush mountains). Last summer the temperatures were averaging 45 C during the day and 38 at night. It takes getting used to, as back home in Canada, at the same elevation we would have snow year round.

B.O.T.

Beer ? Yuck. Why would you want to drink beer when there are so many other options (like Whiskey, Vodka, Rum, etc) ?

After all, 8 ounces of whiskey will get your buzz on much quicker than 8 ounces of beer !

Sucky thing here is, they only sell beer on camp (limited to 2 per person/per day). No hard booze at all, so I have to go dry until my next holiday

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Then...............................................look out boozers

[Humphrey Bear]

Don't drink during the week, working up to 12 hours a day.

Friday night down to the local (Liberty Mansion) for a meal and a couple of Chang.

Saturday night a few more, some at LM, then often more down Walking Street or around Soi Chaiyaphum / Soi Lenke.

Beer is not so bad, but having worked abroad for many years I have had to send up to a dozen men home for drinking problems (mostly from Saudi and Libya - two alcohol-banned countries). Also in Iran (Shah's time, booze allowed) I shipped back five bodies - all at different times - all heavy drinkers / smokers. We were working up at 2,500 metres above sea level, the guys were all fifty-ish, overweight and should never have been working in 50C heat.

But all this has taught me to be careful of alcohol at all times. And not to smoke - not to put on too much weight.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Sorry to be so pedantic; but where in this world can you get 50C at 2,500 meters?

If it's outside it should be quite cool at that height.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Shiraz.

Or rather about 50km north towards Isfahan, place called Marv Dasht. This is near Takht-e-Jamshid (Persepolis to Westerners).

During the day it rose to over 55C (received air temperature) and one soon learnt not to pick up rebar or nails with bare hands.

There are two desert areas in Iran, Dasht-e-Lut and another (can't remeber the Farsi) meaning Salt Desert and Sand Desert. The Salt Desert had one of the greatest temperature differences anywhere in the world - midday (summer) above 55C, night-time (winter) below (-)26C - these are yearly averages for maximum / minimum, not exceptional recordings.

But I found the people to be among the best in the world for civility and friendship. As I said, this was pre-Khomeini.

Edited May 20, 2005 by Humphrey Bear