The Beer Bar

From The Nation The Mass Rapid Transit Authority of Thailand (MRTA) has halted plans to extend the Yellow Line monorail from Lat Phrao to Ratchayothin as the proposal by Eastern Bangkok Monorail (EBM), the concessionaire of the project, has now expired. The plan has been put on hold, as some 100,000 passengers are required to use the service daily to ensure the investment feasibility of this project. Pakapong Sirikantaramas, the governor of the MRTA, revealed that the proposed expansion of the Yellow Line covering a distance of approximately 2.6 kilometers, was submitted by EBM for consideration prior to the opening of the monorail in June. …

From Coconuts Bangkok Deputy police chief Surachate “Big Joke” Hakparn’s house was raided by cyber police this morning as part of a nationwide operation to shut down online gambling networks, according to a search warrant issued by Royal Thai Police. The 52-year-old top cop believes the search warrant, part of an cyber police operation called Big Cleaning Day, was executed due to his prior cases involving influential figures and police involved in gambling websites. He claims he has been wrongfully targeted and says the warrant is due to internal conflicts within the Royal Thai Police Big Joke, who is currently one of four police top dogs considered for t…

NOTE -- Kudos to PaulSF, a good friend and sports aficionado first class for bringing this to my attention. When the Miami Marlins yesterday beat the Pittsburgh Pirates to clinch a spot in the divisional playoffs baseball playoffs, few were aware that the team's general manager, Kim Ng, is not only the first woman general manager in Major League Baseball history but the daughter of mixed east Asian ancestry (mother from Thailand and father of Cantonese descent). Her unlikely rise in a man's game had very early roots when she accepted a post with the Chicago White Sox in 1990. The rest is for the history books. From Time magazine Kim Ng took her seat o…

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/iM3Uh5m3WoM Top ten, and one of them is from Southeast Asia - but it isn't Thailand.

If you're in town between now and October 8th,you might want to consider this street food event. Or you could also just check out the vendors who set up shop along the Silom-Surawong rectangle. From The Nation Celebrity chefs in Thailand are scheduled to showcase their culinary skills and latest street food inventions at the “SX Food Festival 2023”, an exhibition of sustainable food at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre in Bangkok. The event is part of the Sustainability Expo 2023 (SX2023), which runs until October 8 at the convention centre. Held under the theme “Thai Street Food Museum”, organisers modelled the exhibition venues…

CNN is reporting that the new Prime Minister is having second thoughts about the legalisation of cannabis. In a recent Bloomberg interview he said that his government would seek to "rectify" the law on cannabis within the next six months. "The law will need to be rewritten . . . we can have that regulated for medical use only." https://edition.cnn.com/2023/09/29/asia/thailand-cannabis-clampdown-what-next-intl-hnk/index.html

From The Nation The word "police" (“tumruat”) in Thai has its roots in Cambodia’s native language, Khmer, and the oldest evidence of this word in Thailand can be found in a stone inscription in Lopburi province, which was created between 1022 and 1057. It is believed that this term referred to individuals who worked in government-related roles. However, the oldest known institution in Thailand with functions similar to the modern police force existed during the Ayutthaya period under King Borommatrailokkanat (1448 to 1488). During that time, police officers acted as royal guards and worked within the Grand Palace. They would acc…

From The Nation A merger between Line Corp and Yahoo Japan Corp has created a new company called LY Corporation. Line Corp, which operates the popular mobile messaging application Line, will use the new name from October 1 onwards, it said in a statement released on Thursday. Line app also informed its users about the imminent name change in a message sent on Thursday. “We thank all the users of the Line Official Account service. Line Corporation and Yahoo Japan Corporation will merge to become a single company on October 1, 2023, and the company’s name will be changed to LY Corporation,” the message said. From October 1, L…

From Thai PBS World The Bank of Thailand’s monetary policy committee unanimously voted to raise the policy rate by 25 basis points, to 2.5%, with immediate effect today (Wednesday). According to Piti Disyatat, secretary of the committee, the Thai economy overall continues to recover this year, although at a slow pace due to soft external demand, but growth should pick up next year, supported by both domestic and global demand. Inflation is projected to increase next year in line with the recovery and El Niño -related supply pressure. The committee projects growth to be 1.8% and 4.4% in 2023 and 2024 respectively, driven by private consumption. Growth t…

From the Thaiger A handsome Thai pancake seller who helps his mother at her market stall in Rangsit has become an Internet sensation. The young man has caught the attention of netizens after a TikTok user, @niwat_kj, shared a video of him following a visit to the market stall at Si Mum Mueang Market. In the TikTok post, the user wrote, “The pancakes are truly delicious. They’re the best at Si Mum Mueang…I would buy the entire store. The seller is extremely cute. Everyone at Si Mum Mueang is adorable. I love him.” The video shows a customer asking the good-looking seller if he was helping his mother, to which he shyly nodded. The customer then asked th…

From The Nation Pita Limjaroenrat resigned as Move Forward Party leader on Friday, relinquishing his chance of becoming opposition leader. Pita explained in a Facebook post that he was forced to quit after being suspended as an MP pending the Constitutional Court ruling in his media shareholding case. He also pointed out that Move Forward was forced into opposition despite gaining the most votes in the May 14 election. Pita said he decided to quit as party chief after talks with his party's executive committee and MPs. He added that Move Forward must lead the opposition in Parliament to promote change in Thailand, whi…

From CNBC Long waits to receive new passports haven’t yet eased from earlier this year, as the U.S. Department of State works through a backlog of applications amid high demand for international travel. While the State Department expects delays to shorten through the rest of 2023, travelers should continue to plan well ahead, a Department spokesperson said. The Department’s message to U.S. citizens: Apply at least six months in advance of your planned travel or passport expiration date, the spokesperson said.

From Pattaya Mail By Barry Kenyon Barclays’ decision to shut down as many expat accounts worldwide as they can find is causing distress amongst British retirees and long stayers in Thailand. The bank claims the reason is that Barclays’ home services are for UK residents, but Pattaya expat Mike Gilmore says he has been an expat customer for over thirty years. “The real reason is they are not making enough money from us,” he said, “and don’t want the hassle of dealing with overseas customers as they continue to close branches and cut staff numbers.” The bank is offering an alternative to switch to a global account at its offshore bases in the Isle of Man and …

From Thai PBS World Thailand’s Si Thep historical park, in the northern province of Phetchabun, has been recognised as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site at the World Heritage Committee’s 45th extended session in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, today (Tuesday). “The World Heritage Committee’s decision is a major source of pride for Thailand and its people and will serve as an incentive for people to protect and conserve their cultural heritage, as well as other natural resources in Thailand, which will help promote tourism and economic development,” Natural Resources and Environment minister Pol Gen Patcharawat Wongsuwan told a news conference at the National Mus…

From The Thaiger Financial experts are predicting a further depreciation of the baht throughout this month and next, due to the increased volatility in the global money and capital markets. This follows the US Federal Reserve’s recent suggestion of a potential increase in its benchmark interest rate. Poon Panitchpibun, a strategist at Krungthai Global Market, a research centre of Krungthai Bank, noted that the baht opened yesterday, September 21, at 36.25 against the US dollar, a depreciation from the previous day’s close of 36.07. The baht had shown a gradual strengthening, fluctuating between 35.86 to 36.23 per dollar on Wednesday night, before it slipped…

From AFP / Thai PBS World For millions of Chinese tourists, Thailand used to be a happy land of water fights, lantern festivals and delicious food. But thanks to social media rumours and a blockbuster movie, the kingdom’s image among many Chinese people is now one of dangerous illegality and seedy scam border compounds — leaving visitor numbers plummeting. Thailand is hugely reliant on tourism, particularly from China. The country welcomed more than 10 million Chinese visitors each year before the Covid-19 pandemic — numbers Bangkok is desperate to see return. But its struggling holiday industry has been hit by viral social media rumours claiming that …

For a decade around 1990, there was a popular TV series that regularly placed Bangkok's then-named Oriental Hotel (now the Mandarin Oriental) as the best in the world. Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous was a cloying peaen to all those places none of us could afford to visit hosted by the equally cloying Robin Leech. Since then world class hotels have opened all over the place. Virtually the only one I ever stayed in (apart from The Oriental in Bangkok which was business-related and free!) was the gloriously understated Park Hyatt in Tokyo, the hotel where director Sophia Coppola filmed much of her lovely movie Lost in Translation with Bill Murray and Scarlet Johanss…

Bangkok Pat takes us to some vanishing places, including Soi Twilight and Babylon

I experienced these masterpieces of design in a 4 **** hotel in Bang Saen, Thailand. Do Thais have longer arms than the average? Where am I supposed to wash my hands? Do I think too much? (I know I do ...)

From Pattaya Mail By Barry Kenyon In a surprise move, The Thai prime minister revealed in an interview in New York that smoking pot for leisure needs to be outlawed once again. Srettha Thavisin told Bloomberg Television that the law needs to be rewritten to regulate ganja for medical use only. “There can’t be a middle ground for recreational use,” he concluded. Following the declassification of marijuana as a narcotic last year, around 6,000 “dispensaries” have opened nationwide with most of them not bothering to hide their sales to the smoke-for-leisure Thai and foreign population. The retail outlets are supposed to restrict to 0.2 percent the amount of te…

From Thai PBS World The Department of Rail Transport believes that, if the Pheu Thai party’s policy to reduce the fare for electric train services in Bangkok and its suburbs to 20 baht, to travel the entire distance of a route, the government must allocate a special fund to subsidise the operators for their loss of revenues, as specified in the concession contracts. The 20-baht electric train fare is one of the Pheu Thai party’s election manifesto promises. According to a study, conducted by Thailand’s Development and Research Institute (TDRI), electric train fares in Thailand are about 20% higher than in Singapore, even though the per capita income of Sing…

From Thai PBS World Transport ministry will press ahead with the land bridge project, to link a deep-sea port in Ranong on the west coast with a deep-sea port in Chumphon on the east coast by rail and motorway systems, to facilitate goods shipments to destinations beyond Thailand without going through the Straits of Malacca. Transport Minister Suriya Juangroongruangkit said it is estimated that the massive project will cost about one trillion baht. Each seaport will be capable of handling 20 million cargo containers, or TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit), per year. Suriya said that the project is now being studied by the Office of Transport and Traffi…

From Thai PBS World Paris, France – Elon Musk has sparked outrage among fans of his social media platform X by suggesting he might introduce a monthly fee for all users, in what would be the biggest shake-up since he took over the site then known as Twitter last October. During a talk with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, Musk said that introducing a small monthly payment for X would combat the “armies of bots” on the site. Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion but has since admitted its value has plunged after he gutted its workforce and allowed right-wing conspiracy theorists back on the site, sending advertisers fleeing. X users u…

From Thailand News Agency BANGKOK, Sept 1 (TNA) – His Majesty the King has granted a royal pardon to ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra, reducing his prison sentence from eight years to one year. The 74-year-old Thaksin returned to Thailand from 15 years of self-imposed exile on Aug 22. He was sent to Bangkok Remand Prison on the same day to serve an eight-year prison sentence for abuse of power and conflicts of interest. He was transferred to the Police General Hospital on the first night in jail due to his illnesses including chest pain and hypertension and has remained hospitalized since then. Outgoing deputy prime minister and justice minister Wissanu K…

From The Thai Enquirer PM’s deputy secretary Natreeya Thaweewong came out to defend why Srettha’s charter flight to the UN General Assembly cost 30 million Baht. Her response came after recent calls by political activist Somchai Srisutthiyakorn to look into why the flight cost so much. She explained that an e-bidding system was used to secure a reasonable price. Thai Airways initially asked for 25 million Baht, but due to increased fuel prices, the cost rose to 30 million. Natreeya broke down the total cost, which included 4.84 million for aircraft expenses, 16.8 million for fuel, 1.47 million for food, 3.06 million for ground services…