anddy

no need to buy cheap fake Viagra or expensive real Viagra when you can get real Kamagra in pharmacies here for 400 Baht per 4 pills (or 80 Baht for jelly), or about 250 Baht for real thai-made Sidegra (4 pills). All same same but different, but both safe and effective

if and when I read reviews (not that often, coz I don't care much what other anonymous people say, they may have totally different preferences than me) I read mostly between the lines which I find more revealing than what's actually written. By doing that you can try to get a feel for what kind of person it is, and thus how to evaluate his/her actual words. Sometimes I say to myself, "ah typical complainer, always finds something to bitch about" and can immediately discard the entire review, regardless of whatever facts the person may present. As for fake reviews on tripadvisor, I never never read reviews there. If at all, I read reviews on booking.com or agoda, as they can only be posted by real guests with real bookings and stays.

AND Babe was at Hotmale tonight as per HM's fb video!

1. I thought so too lol. Suited my laziness for studying at this age 2. yup 3. Well we have the long words, but that's one thing. Having an entire sentence without spaces, coupled with the difficulty of telling which syllable belongs to which word (depending how you "allocate" it, it can give a totally different meaning) is another thing. OfcourseeveninenglishorwhateveryournativelanguageyoucanstillreadasentencewithoutspaceswithoutTOOmucheffort. Justneedsgettingusedto, but still with spaces it is so much easier, avoiding the ambiguities too.

oh of course, how could that slip my mind

very interesting, didn't know that at all about Korea. Of course I was joking coz your earlier post sounded like the "man-made" is a special fearure haha. I know your main point was about it being documented. Thai script, while based on some others (as many words are), is credited to King Ramkanghaeng, who apparently came up with the set of characters including the tone markers and the related system. That was some 700 years ago. On the general topic of script, last year I read a small book about it. Rather interesting how some scripts developed and that often political and prestige considerations, rather than suitability, were the factors determining which script was adopted for a particular language. Goes to show how Latin became dominant in Europe ages ago, as the Roman Empire was the ruler of much of Europe.

This was about ENGLISH teachers and has morphed in to a Thai language and (with your post) a general language thread lol yup agree. Especially when it's languages from totally different backgrounds, like European vs Asian laguages only agree 50%. Time yes definitely, and there is no real short cut to learning a language. Effort, I now disagree, because I put close to zero effort (only plenty of time) into my Thai learning by absorbing it through the "ALG = Automatic Language Growth" method used by AUA Thai Program (www.auathia.com), based on the research by Dr. Marvin Brown. I was very skeptical of this approach, but I chose this school anyway because it was an important point for me to (a) not have a rigid teaching schedule, where missing classes would meaning being left behind and (b) to be able to be lazy, i.e. not do anything at all to learn or "study" the language, no homework, no books or other material to study, no nothing. And, lo and behold, eventually it turned out their promise of effortless and natural language absorption(*) DID work. I now speak fluent Thai with very good pronunciation (the Thais tell me and make a point of specifically mentioning that part, coz many farang don't get the tones properly) (*)absorption: why is this spelled with a "p" instead of a "b" when it comes from "to absorb" (not "to absorp")???? Thai has that too, no spaces between words, which is a pain in the [insert your preferred body part lol]. One gets used to it, but it would be so much easier with spaces, especially since there are a LOT of combination words, so sometimes it is not at all clear where a word begins and ends, if a syllable (which alone can be a standalone word) is part of the previous or following syllable/word Are there any non-man-made alphabets? Which are they?

yeah sounds about right

Seems you are missing the point ehre. Of course it is "really" illegal in Thailand. The question is, is that law (consistently) enforced? The answer to that is obvious, that the reason for that answers should be obvious, too (ie. tea money). The tea money issue might be the major roadblock in change the law, because both police and military will not be willing to give that up so easily, plus they often even own or have stakes in such establishments. As for being Buddhist, I don't know if that's a real reason for making it illegal. Thailand has always been Buddhist and according to the article prostitution was only made illegal in 1960. Why then and not before? I do not know, but being Buddhist hasn't changed before or after that year.

good point on the Chinese comparison, if that's the case that many foreigners living there master those tones. In my opinion based on my experience it is best to learn the tones by NOT making a conscious effort to do so, but to let the ears and the brain "tune into" them over time. It does take time and patience (up to a year), but then it all happens naturally and you wonder how you ever could NOT distinguish them. Another observation on the tones: it is a myth that western languages do not have tones. They do not have tones in individual words that would change their meaning, but they have tones in sentence structures. Consider these sentences, which in their word content are 100% identical, but not in their meaning: It is raining. It is raining? The spoken distinction is ONLY in the tone, making them distinguishable as a statement and a question. So the claim to be "tone deaf" when it comes to languages is simply an excuse. I do acknowledge though that it (a) takes time to be able to distinguish the tone in words (see above) and (b) to get used to the tones' meaning changing quality in words rather than sentences and (c) that in Thai you cannot change a sentence into a question by changing the tone (or sentence melody if you will); Thai always requires a dedicated question word.

they are unvoiced and unaspirated, that is true, but they are still "audible". Similar to the ending "p" in "stop" which is usually unaspirated (if I'm not mistaken). Or the leading "b" in "bus" or "boy". Not sure what wikipedia means by "no audible release". It surprises me a lot that you say that "to me กะ kà, กับ kàp, กัด kàt all sound more or less same same (spoken by a Thai)." Maybe you just need some more listening exposure to allow your ears to "tune in" on these sounds?

I couldn't agree more. I fully came to realize this fact when I learned Thai and the writing system, which (a) makes a lot of sense, (b) has a clear system behind it for the tones (which unfortunately even Thais are unaware of as they aren't being taught their own scropt in that way. So it is best avoided learinng Thai script from Thais, farangs do a better job at it), and (c) all vowels (36 of them, if I recall correctly) make one, and exactly ONE sound, and there are separate characters for the same sound but of differennt spoken length (short and long). That's unlike in English where a written vowel makes a multitude of sounds (just consider "a", what sound does it make? Many if you just look at a few examples: Sam, same, sample, awning (the latter being ore an "o" than an "a"!). So I sympathise with Thais finding English difficult. My own theory (which I believe to be very plausible) for this mess in English is, that English in fact does not have a script for it's own language. Instead, it hijacked the Latin one for it's purpose. But that was invented for Latin, and nothing else. Thus the difficulties encountered in many languages using Latin script. Spanish being a descendant of Latin apparently has much less of a problem as @10tazione mentions. which also seems only logical. Other languages made some adaptations to Latin (such as German for the Umlaute, French has accents, Vietnamese alls sorts of "extras"), but English made so such attempt. Latin having only 5 written vowels is simply unworkable for English with many many more vowel sounds. So the 36 in Thai may sound like a lot, but it's actually far far easier that way. Hardly pronouncing final consonants t, k, p is actually only half true. It depends on the vowel preceding it. Some vowels can have an ending consonant, some cannot. The "ai" sound as in "like" (Thai: ไ) can't have one. Therefore "like" (and our fave app LINE) become "lai". Pet, ont he other hand is a permitted combination, and indeed the word exists in Thai: เผ็ด pronounced the same as the English "pet" but meaning "spicy". Skipping the ending "t" is actually a Burmese accent for the Thai language, they apparently don't have many ending consonants. Makes them difficult to understand when they speak, Thai, but I got used to it by now as I chat (and flirt lol) with some at my regular eatery al the time. The upshot of all this is, when speaking Thai it makes understanding Thai street English so much easier, as one knows where they're coming from with their seemingly odd pronuciation.

That's one, if not THE most prominent hallmark of Thai policy - inconsistency. Paired with often not making sense and/or being illogical (both to the western mind, at least) makes it utterly unpredictable. As @spoon already said, TiT, and all we can do is shake our heads. Conclusion: Yes. Tourism sector trashed? Overall economy suffering as a consequence? They don't care. Or rather they pretend to care, and come up with remedial policies, which in turn suffer from the usual ailments mentioned above. The Phuket model aiming to "restart tourism" may be somewhat of a "restart" but will be less than a drop in the bucket given their aim for a whopping 1200 tourist admissions per month.

yup. I this context I found this analysis interesting, with a good historical perspective on military power and coup politics: https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/1987267/thailands-changed-coup-considerations

I also find the Thai obsession with native teachers weird. For me, it's straight out of the "TiT" tool box. As has been pointed out in this thread, the quality of teaching doesn't depend on the nativeness, but on the teaching skills. Native English teachers were unheard of when I went to secondary school and everyone got along just fine. The Thai teachers would need to get a good education themselves though, obviously. They still might find it more difficult than, say, Europeans because English is so much more difficult than and structurally & grammatically different from Thai than it is from other European languages. What I really wonder, though, is what is a "native" speaker in their book. A few months ago I read a story about the Covid risk of bringing a planeload of Filipinos in as English teachers (of course that wasn't a problem due to the mandatory quarantine). But seems Filipinos are "native" enough to qualify? As for the job itself, a friend of mine who has plenty if insight into it, said it involves a lot of admin work too, like writing regular progress reports on each student on a regular basis (was it even weekly? Don't remember for sure). Freelancing may therefore be a more easygoing alternative. Another issue with the 10k native teachers they are aiming at is consistency. So common in Thailand. Apart from this project possibly falling victim to the NATO rule (No Action, Talk Only), they may pursue it for a while, then later (under a different government) finding it no longer desirable or too expensive or whatever. My friend tells me it has been going like this for decades. No wonder general English proficiency continues to be, uhm, underwhelming in Thailand. Having said that, I've met Thais with superb English. A good friend of mine is an example, but he has studied in London for several years. But another recent one was a sales guy for a hotel upcountry at a travel fair promoting domestic tourism. I asked him about it, he said he's from Bangkok and hadn't studied abroad.

You are simply wrong about there being two Freshboys LOL. "Freshboys upstairs is open?" - Yes, where else as there is not downstairs Freshboys "one of the Freshboys closed" - well yes one closed loooooong ago at it's old location in Soi Twilight, There has been only one ever since.

ah yes, again now as you mention it it comes back to my mind, too! Where Banana is there was a (str8) bar called Tapas. And actually I'm not sure at all not that Spanish on 4 was ever called "Tapas". They may have said something like "Spanish on 4 - Bar & Tapas" in which case the "tapas" part is not a name but says that they serve tapas (kind of Spanish appetizers or finger food).

that is true, though they may draw different conclusions and devise different measures based on that same, public information than other countries might because Thai logic, as you know, is, well, Thai logic and not necessarily a stringent logic according to the common meaning of the word

Now that you say that, that is entirely possible. A complete refurbishment in it's initial stages doesn't look different from dismantling, so that may have fooled me

you guys got it all wrong lol - Nakarat is on the same side, not opposite, where Tapas was (actually it wasn't called Tapas, but "Spanish on 4"), both on the right hand side - Nakarat is on the 3rd (or 4th?) floor of the corner building of Soi 4 and Silom, i.e. the very first building on the right hand side - Tapas/Spanish on 4 (now pride) is several buildings further into the soi, well past G's German Restaurant Yes Nakarat still in business, although no guys sit outside on the Silom side of the building, only on the soi right in front of the entrance to the building

How fast things change. I was in Soi 4 briefly today, and later in Soi 6 and observed the following: Banana Bar on Soi 4 as well as the gogo bar upstairs are permanently closed. The door was open and I could see the interior has already been largely dismantled. The Spanish restaurant on the right hand side (I think Tapas was the name) is no more. Instead, there is already a brand new gay bar & restaurant named "pride" (not really a very creative name I find, but so what) Super A was closed, if permanently or just tonight I couldn't tell (was riding on my bike, so no closer look) Golden Cock is in the process of being closed down. BUT: apparently they have merged or will replace Nature Boy. Riding past, I saw a guy carrying something out of GC towards NB. The green Nature Boy neon sign was lit, inside colored lights were flashing. New on the outside a brightly lit Golden Cock sign, complete with, well, the cock image. No picture as I was riding....

uhm, wrong person to ask? By definition, the PM is the one to be ousted, so he certainly wouldn't/shouldn't know lol

ThaiGov sneaks French tourists in to test ‘Phuket model’ By Coconuts Bangkok Sep 9, 2020 | 12:07pm Bangkok time A quartet of French men were indeed allowed into the kingdom on a chartered flight to pilot the proposed “Phuket Model” of reopening limited travel to the resort island, officials confirmed yesterday. Though the public was kept in the dark about their visit, the island airport’s director said it was meant to test containment protocols. Both the Foreign Affairs Ministry and COVID-19 task force have acknowledged the recent visit took place but did not disclose details about the French tourists’ stay. Phuket International Airport director Thani Chuangchu said yesterday they had already left for Cambodia. He said the men stayed two weeks at a government-approved hotel and were monitored by local health officials and a security team. He did not say if they were allowed to leave the unspecified hotel, but said there were no reports of local transmission afterward. Reactions to the news were mixed, but most on either side of the issue said the government should have been transparent about the plan rather than keep it secret. Fending off criticism, Phuket Gov. Narong Woonchiew said it was necessary to thoroughly test the protocols planned to allow a limited number of long-term tourists onto the island, where they would stay in semi-quarantine before being allowed to travel onward. Narong said the exercise would help when it comes time to implement the full program. Set to start in October, the plan is facing possible delay due after a case of domestic transmission was found Thursday after 100 days of none detected. https://coconuts.co/bangkok/news/thaigov-sneaks-french-tourists-in-to-test-phuket-model/

an additional observation from this evening in Patpong: Bangkok Massage was open, too. Hadn't seen them open at all yet whenever I passed.