thaiophilus

I've had a look through my collection of ancient guides and have unearthed these maps from 1994-1997 (those are the publication dates, so they may already have been obsolete by then.
Apologies for the unclear text on some - it's difficult to scan pages that won't lie flat.
In that little alley the 1994 map has Khun Bar, Golden Cock, Super A, Lucky S, Super Lex Matsuda and Mama Sun (which was karaoke bar)
 1994 (Thai Scene/Notcutt),
1995 (The Men of Thailand 5/Allyn)
 
1996 (TMOT6)

1997 (Thai Scene)

1999 (TMOT7)

I've had a look through my collection of ancient guides and have unearthed these maps from 1994-1997 (those are the publication dates, so they may already have been obsolete by then.
Apologies for the unclear text on some - it's difficult to scan pages that won't lie flat.
In that little alley the 1994 map has Khun Bar, Golden Cock, Super A, Lucky S, Super Lex Matsuda and Mama Sun (which was karaoke bar)
 1994 (Thai Scene/Notcutt),
1995 (The Men of Thailand 5/Allyn)
 
1996 (TMOT6)

1997 (Thai Scene)

1999 (TMOT7)

I've had a look through my collection of ancient guides and have unearthed these maps from 1994-1997 (those are the publication dates, so they may already have been obsolete by then.
Apologies for the unclear text on some - it's difficult to scan pages that won't lie flat.
In that little alley the 1994 map has Khun Bar, Golden Cock, Super A, Lucky S, Super Lex Matsuda and Mama Sun (which was karaoke bar)
 1994 (Thai Scene/Notcutt),
1995 (The Men of Thailand 5/Allyn)
 
1996 (TMOT6)

1997 (Thai Scene)

1999 (TMOT7)

We can hear collective sigh of relief of 1 400 000 000 Chinese and 150 000 000 in Russia. 

For the first-time visitor I'd still recommend using a taxi. The train journey requires you to buy tickets, find your way on foot between stations and then from station to hotel, with luggage, in the heat, in a non-English-speaking environment with a weird alphabet, after a long flight, in the wrong time zone...
At some point culture shock is likely to strike. The "old hands" posting otherwise good advice here may have forgotten what that was like 🙃.

Agreed, and I make a point of getting myself lost and randomly exploring any new city I visit. But not before breakfast.
Not so...
My first experience of BKK culture shock was in a taxi. After traversing what looked like a modern city with multi-lane elevated roads and high-rise buildings, and a litany of strange place names on the signs - Chatuchak, Din Daeng, Rama IX, Ngam Wong Wan, Chaeng Watthana, Sukhumvit, - the taxi turned off the expressway and dived into the bowels of the Khlong Toei intersection, which appeared to have trains mixing with the cars, and suddenly I was in what felt like an impossibly narrow canyon of decomposing concrete with festoons of wires draped everywhere...
Of course, that was before the ARL, MRT and BTS existed, and meter taxis were still a rare novelty, so the challenge of negotiating  a taxi or tuktuk for every journey was part of that first impression.

Another couple of good but not fancy Thai restaurants in south Pattaya:
ฟ้าพัทยา: Fra Pattaya, on Pattaya Tai between Second Road and Walking St. The speciality is duck but if you ask for any Thai dish they can probably provide it. The menu used to be written on the walls in Thai only, but nowadays they have a huge picture menu.
ผักบุ้งลอยฟ้า: Pak Bung Loy Fah on the corner of soi 13/3 and Second Road has a good menu of seafood and other dishes. They don't throw flaming morning glory across the road any more but that's the origin of the name.
Both do excellent กุ้งแช่น้ำปลา

Then there was Nicky's Gay Pattaya/Thailand/... - another valuable source of information until he retired and took up writing novels.

Agreed, and I make a point of getting myself lost and randomly exploring any new city I visit. But not before breakfast.
Not so...
My first experience of BKK culture shock was in a taxi. After traversing what looked like a modern city with multi-lane elevated roads and high-rise buildings, and a litany of strange place names on the signs - Chatuchak, Din Daeng, Rama IX, Ngam Wong Wan, Chaeng Watthana, Sukhumvit, - the taxi turned off the expressway and dived into the bowels of the Khlong Toei intersection, which appeared to have trains mixing with the cars, and suddenly I was in what felt like an impossibly narrow canyon of decomposing concrete with festoons of wires draped everywhere...
Of course, that was before the ARL, MRT and BTS existed, and meter taxis were still a rare novelty, so the challenge of negotiating  a taxi or tuktuk for every journey was part of that first impression.

Yes, that's the one.

For the first-time visitor I'd still recommend using a taxi. The train journey requires you to buy tickets, find your way on foot between stations and then from station to hotel, with luggage, in the heat, in a non-English-speaking environment with a weird alphabet, after a long flight, in the wrong time zone...
At some point culture shock is likely to strike. The "old hands" posting otherwise good advice here may have forgotten what that was like 🙃.

Another couple of good but not fancy Thai restaurants in south Pattaya:
ฟ้าพัทยา: Fra Pattaya, on Pattaya Tai between Second Road and Walking St. The speciality is duck but if you ask for any Thai dish they can probably provide it. The menu used to be written on the walls in Thai only, but nowadays they have a huge picture menu.
ผักบุ้งลอยฟ้า: Pak Bung Loy Fah on the corner of soi 13/3 and Second Road has a good menu of seafood and other dishes. They don't throw flaming morning glory across the road any more but that's the origin of the name.
Both do excellent กุ้งแช่น้ำปลา

For the first-time visitor I'd still recommend using a taxi. The train journey requires you to buy tickets, find your way on foot between stations and then from station to hotel, with luggage, in the heat, in a non-English-speaking environment with a weird alphabet, after a long flight, in the wrong time zone...
At some point culture shock is likely to strike. The "old hands" posting otherwise good advice here may have forgotten what that was like 🙃.

Agreed, and I make a point of getting myself lost and randomly exploring any new city I visit. But not before breakfast.
Not so...
My first experience of BKK culture shock was in a taxi. After traversing what looked like a modern city with multi-lane elevated roads and high-rise buildings, and a litany of strange place names on the signs - Chatuchak, Din Daeng, Rama IX, Ngam Wong Wan, Chaeng Watthana, Sukhumvit, - the taxi turned off the expressway and dived into the bowels of the Khlong Toei intersection, which appeared to have trains mixing with the cars, and suddenly I was in what felt like an impossibly narrow canyon of decomposing concrete with festoons of wires draped everywhere...
Of course, that was before the ARL, MRT and BTS existed, and meter taxis were still a rare novelty, so the challenge of negotiating  a taxi or tuktuk for every journey was part of that first impression.

Agreed, and I make a point of getting myself lost and randomly exploring any new city I visit. But not before breakfast.
Not so...
My first experience of BKK culture shock was in a taxi. After traversing what looked like a modern city with multi-lane elevated roads and high-rise buildings, and a litany of strange place names on the signs - Chatuchak, Din Daeng, Rama IX, Ngam Wong Wan, Chaeng Watthana, Sukhumvit, - the taxi turned off the expressway and dived into the bowels of the Khlong Toei intersection, which appeared to have trains mixing with the cars, and suddenly I was in what felt like an impossibly narrow canyon of decomposing concrete with festoons of wires draped everywhere...
Of course, that was before the ARL, MRT and BTS existed, and meter taxis were still a rare novelty, so the challenge of negotiating  a taxi or tuktuk for every journey was part of that first impression.

For the first-time visitor I'd still recommend using a taxi. The train journey requires you to buy tickets, find your way on foot between stations and then from station to hotel, with luggage, in the heat, in a non-English-speaking environment with a weird alphabet, after a long flight, in the wrong time zone...
At some point culture shock is likely to strike. The "old hands" posting otherwise good advice here may have forgotten what that was like 🙃.

PS Make sure you see the taxi driver turn the meter on! It should read 35B to begin and increase by around 5B per km or 2B per minute if stationary. Suvarnabhumi-Silom is about 30 km via the expressway.

For the first-time visitor I'd still recommend using a taxi. The train journey requires you to buy tickets, find your way on foot between stations and then from station to hotel, with luggage, in the heat, in a non-English-speaking environment with a weird alphabet, after a long flight, in the wrong time zone...
At some point culture shock is likely to strike. The "old hands" posting otherwise good advice here may have forgotten what that was like 🙃.

Using a local SIM (especially if you want internet access) is usually way cheaper than paying international roaming charges on your home phone.
BTS (Bangkok [Mass] Transit System) is the Skytrain (elevated as the name suggests). MRT (Metropolitan Rapid Transit) is the Metro (underground). ARL (AIrport Rail Link) is the elevated train from the airport to the city centre. TiT[1] so they don't properly connect and there's no cross-ticketing, so there is no simple rail route from the airport to Silom.
Yes, a taxi from Suvarnabhumi (pronounced "suwannapoom" [2]) is probably the easiest way to get to the hotel. Ignore touts trying to sell you overpriced "!limousine" services, go to the public taxi counter just outside the terminal building. You should be given a form which is the taxi driver's registration details in case of complaints. Make sure you keep it! The driver will ask you for cash for the expressway tolls (~70B unless they have gone up recently?) and on arrival you pay him (THB cash, no cards!) whatever is on the meter, which should be less than 350B, plus a 50B airport surcharge
To get cash for your taxi fare, don't change money at the overpriced exchanges in the baggage hall, go down to the basement level (signposted "airport rail link") and use one of the money exchange booths there. (And don't buy your baht before you arrive, either - you'll get much better rates in Thailand than elsewhere.)
[1] "This is Thailand", a phrase that can only be understood by experience...
[2] aka "Swampy", but that's not a name a Thai would recognise.

Using a local SIM (especially if you want internet access) is usually way cheaper than paying international roaming charges on your home phone.
BTS (Bangkok [Mass] Transit System) is the Skytrain (elevated as the name suggests). MRT (Metropolitan Rapid Transit) is the Metro (underground). ARL (AIrport Rail Link) is the elevated train from the airport to the city centre. TiT[1] so they don't properly connect and there's no cross-ticketing, so there is no simple rail route from the airport to Silom.
Yes, a taxi from Suvarnabhumi (pronounced "suwannapoom" [2]) is probably the easiest way to get to the hotel. Ignore touts trying to sell you overpriced "!limousine" services, go to the public taxi counter just outside the terminal building. You should be given a form which is the taxi driver's registration details in case of complaints. Make sure you keep it! The driver will ask you for cash for the expressway tolls (~70B unless they have gone up recently?) and on arrival you pay him (THB cash, no cards!) whatever is on the meter, which should be less than 350B, plus a 50B airport surcharge
To get cash for your taxi fare, don't change money at the overpriced exchanges in the baggage hall, go down to the basement level (signposted "airport rail link") and use one of the money exchange booths there. (And don't buy your baht before you arrive, either - you'll get much better rates in Thailand than elsewhere.)
[1] "This is Thailand", a phrase that can only be understood by experience...
[2] aka "Swampy", but that's not a name a Thai would recognise.

Using a local SIM (especially if you want internet access) is usually way cheaper than paying international roaming charges on your home phone.
BTS (Bangkok [Mass] Transit System) is the Skytrain (elevated as the name suggests). MRT (Metropolitan Rapid Transit) is the Metro (underground). ARL (AIrport Rail Link) is the elevated train from the airport to the city centre. TiT[1] so they don't properly connect and there's no cross-ticketing, so there is no simple rail route from the airport to Silom.
Yes, a taxi from Suvarnabhumi (pronounced "suwannapoom" [2]) is probably the easiest way to get to the hotel. Ignore touts trying to sell you overpriced "!limousine" services, go to the public taxi counter just outside the terminal building. You should be given a form which is the taxi driver's registration details in case of complaints. Make sure you keep it! The driver will ask you for cash for the expressway tolls (~70B unless they have gone up recently?) and on arrival you pay him (THB cash, no cards!) whatever is on the meter, which should be less than 350B, plus a 50B airport surcharge
To get cash for your taxi fare, don't change money at the overpriced exchanges in the baggage hall, go down to the basement level (signposted "airport rail link") and use one of the money exchange booths there. (And don't buy your baht before you arrive, either - you'll get much better rates in Thailand than elsewhere.)
[1] "This is Thailand", a phrase that can only be understood by experience...
[2] aka "Swampy", but that's not a name a Thai would recognise.

Using a local SIM (especially if you want internet access) is usually way cheaper than paying international roaming charges on your home phone.
BTS (Bangkok [Mass] Transit System) is the Skytrain (elevated as the name suggests). MRT (Metropolitan Rapid Transit) is the Metro (underground). ARL (AIrport Rail Link) is the elevated train from the airport to the city centre. TiT[1] so they don't properly connect and there's no cross-ticketing, so there is no simple rail route from the airport to Silom.
Yes, a taxi from Suvarnabhumi (pronounced "suwannapoom" [2]) is probably the easiest way to get to the hotel. Ignore touts trying to sell you overpriced "!limousine" services, go to the public taxi counter just outside the terminal building. You should be given a form which is the taxi driver's registration details in case of complaints. Make sure you keep it! The driver will ask you for cash for the expressway tolls (~70B unless they have gone up recently?) and on arrival you pay him (THB cash, no cards!) whatever is on the meter, which should be less than 350B, plus a 50B airport surcharge
To get cash for your taxi fare, don't change money at the overpriced exchanges in the baggage hall, go down to the basement level (signposted "airport rail link") and use one of the money exchange booths there. (And don't buy your baht before you arrive, either - you'll get much better rates in Thailand than elsewhere.)
[1] "This is Thailand", a phrase that can only be understood by experience...
[2] aka "Swampy", but that's not a name a Thai would recognise.

Not a "violation". Wrongly accused of violating their "SPAM policy" though I can't imagine how.
As he says,
"I could be accused of a lot of things, but spam is the last thing that comes to mind. I asked for a review of their action and hope to be back online soon."
See recent postings on Gaybutton's blog.

Not a "violation". Wrongly accused of violating their "SPAM policy" though I can't imagine how.
As he says,
"I could be accused of a lot of things, but spam is the last thing that comes to mind. I asked for a review of their action and hope to be back online soon."
See recent postings on Gaybutton's blog.

Is he pissing razor blades?