PeterRS

Part of this scandal is the time it takes for a British national to obtain a new passport. It was not that long ago that all one needed to do was amble up to Witthayu, enter the Consulate, provide the dying passport and the application form. The existing passport would be cancelled, you'd receive a form in case you were stopped by the Thai police for not carrying a passport, and within four days the new passport would be ready. Then, just as I was preparing to apply for a new passport, I learned that applications in East Asia for almost all new passports would be handled by the Hong Kong Consulate. So I waited until I was next due in Hong Kong, went to the Consulate only to be informed that a decision had just been made that all passports would be handled directly from the UK and a new office in Liverpool! Obtaining a new passport from the UK was supposed to take merely a few weeks. But since the Liverpool office has to handle all new passports and renewals, in the early Spring after it opened it was inundated with applications for new passports from Brits requiring them for their summer vacations. End result? A large number of Brits could not get the passports in time and missed their hollidays. For those overseas, the application procedure skyrocketed to around 12 weeks. And although the Liverpool office procedures have been streamlined, those applying for passports in Thailand are still advised to allow 12 weeks. With the UK Consulate no longer involved, all passport applications in Bangkok are processed by a third party based in the Trendy Building on Sukhumvit 13. No other party is permitted to handle passport appications. But then some bright spark realised that dying passports could not be cancelled on site and sent back to the UK prior to new ones being issued, for in Thailand it is the law that passports be carried at all times by foreigners. So, in the absence of an official UK government form, applicants thereafter had to make colour photocopies of every single page of the old passport and hand them in along with the all the other forms. They could then hold on to the old passports. The most difficult issue for those with travel coming up or who travel regularly, once your passport page copies have been handed over, you can no longer use the physical passport you are now allowed to hang on to for travel outside Thailand. To all intents and purposes it is dead and you have to wait months for the new one. Then another bright spark found a way to make more money. Those applicants can apply for a temporary passport! In addition to a load of additional paperwork, this will cost £115. And that will not be deducted from the cost of the new passport so your total bill for the larger passport will be £253.51 (plus up to £15 for colour photocopying of all the passport pages). Worse, the temporary passport is only valid for countries that do not require visas for British citizens. Finally, you have to pay for the new passport and the courier service to deliver it back to you in advance. Try using a Thai bank issued debit card and the chances are high payment will eventually be rejected. So if you have one, use a UK debit card or a generally accepted credit card. Better still, if you happen to be in the UK, book an appointment at the Passport Office in either London or Glasgow and hope that you can use the one-week fast track service. It worked for me!

Ah, the banana! Of great interest to readers here, although not the yellow, slightly rotted ones! That particular banana was featured in Art Basel in Miami Beach in 2019 and did indeed sell for $120,000. Only there were in fact three bananas! The conceptual artist Maurizio Cattelan who came up with the idea called the work Comedian. Pretty appropriate I guess since you'd have to be something of a comedian to lash out $120K for that piece of crap . . . err.. art! In fact, though, Comedian was so successful there were two other buyers. The second buyer paid the same price. By the time the third came along, the price had gone up to $150K. Apparently, according to some sort of connoisseur, when you buy it you are not buying a piece of art; you are buying an idea. One visitor to the Exhibition liked the work so much, he literally ate the banana. Took it off the 'artwork', peeled it and ate it. That visitor was in fact a performance artist, David Tatuna. “Art performance by me. I love Maurizio Cattelan artwork and I really love this installation. It’s very delicious.” Asked how it tasted, he explained, "Like $120K!" The gallery merely replaced the now eaten banana with another, and no one seemed to know the difference. And isn't that the good thing about a work like Comedian? Once it rots, you merely replace it with another. So inexpensive. Will the three that were sold rise even further in value? Ah, now there is the question. How long is a piece of string? And how much crap in a piece of shit? https://www.vogue.com/article/the-120000-art-basel-banana-explained-maurizio-cattelan

Some years ago i visited the Peggy Guggenheim Museum in Venice which is acknowledged as the finest collection of 20th century American and European Art in Italy. In 1976 she sold her entire collection to the Solomon Guggenheim Foundation for US$40 million. Presumably the collection has increased in value and is now likely to be well in excess of $120 million (my guess). Lke the Rothko in @caeron's post, I totally fail to understand why many contemporary works are worth virtually anything. Two works currently exhibited in the Venice Museum are by Severin and Bissler (never heard of either!) I suppose at least the Severin is colourful! I tend to view contemporary art (most of which I loathe!) rather like contemporary classical music (at least a handful of works which I do like). Most surely will just not last the test of time. But then if you are a billionaire with millions to spare, I suppose purchasing a contemporary work of art may mean you hit a financial jackpot some years down the road. But then none of us will survive to know which if any do. I can't help comparing some contemporary art with arguably my favourite painting now hanging at London's lovely Courtauld Gallery. A Bar at the Follies Bergere was painted by Edouard Manet in 1882. It last sold for $4.4 million in 1994, a price that seems to me incomparably cheap. No doubt it is now vastly more valuable. When I first saw it 8 years ago, I spent at least 15 minutes gazing at the painting and all its quite amazing detail as well as trying to work out who the figures are and why Manet chose the background to be a reflection in a curved mirror. Interestingly the original painting was purchased by the composer Chabrier whose work Espagna is known by almost everyone!

Twink Edited by Admin (no nudity in this forum)

I was talking to friends last night about the James Bond movies and who might be taking over from Daniel Craig. It reminded me of "Dr. No" which had an 'in' joke in which Sean Connery is about to go up a staircase when he spots a famous painting. The Duke of Wellington by Goya had been stolen a year earlier and disappeared. It eventually was recovered 3 years later. Photo: United Artists It started us discussing not merely art theft but stolen art (of which the Nazi hierarchy were probably the best) and art which is kept from public view in the homes of the mega-rich. Many major stolen artworks have never been recovered. These include works by Picasso, Rembrandt, Caravaggio, Van Gogh, Raphael, Cezanne and Monet. Indeed the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre in 1911 and lost for 2 years before turning up in Florence. From there the discussion became complicated over what constitutes great art. The work of so many artists which fetch tens of millions of $$ at auction nowadays was worth cirtually nothing when it was created. Indeed, some was given away as a means of paying off debts. And the provenance of some is not even absolutely certain. The world's most expensive painting is the Salvador Mundi which sold to an anonymous buyer for over US$450 million in 2017. It's currently displayed in the Louvre Gallery in Abu Dhabi. It reached that price because it was one of the only available paintings by Leonardo da Vinci. But did he paint it? Experts are split. Most seem to agree that his students painted much of the work with Leonardo adding in only certain parts. The second most expensive painting is Willem de Kooning's Interchange. It cost US$300 at auction in 2015. When finished in 1955, de Kooning sold it for $4,000! What makes this worth such a monstrous amount, I have not the faintest idea. A child could surely have painted it. Although owned by a private individual, the public can at least view it as it is loaned to the Art Institute of Chicago. Artefacts are similarly in private hands, only some available for viewing. I remember my first visit to New York in 1978. On my list of things to do was a visit to the Forbes Building (since 2015 part of New York University) where 9 of the exquisite Faberge Eggs were displayed behind glass in the lobby. Faberge was one of the most lauded jewellers of his or any time. The last 2 Tsars had commissioned him to make a special Egg as an Easter gift for their wives. Many contained other jewelled trinkets, one including a working tiny train. Anyone could go in to the Forbes Building to see them. I have been fascinated by these creations since I first became aware of them and have seen several others, including the 3 in the British Royal Collection. I always wondered why the Soviet Union allowed these treasures to leave the country. It turned out that about 10 years after the Revolution Stalin was desperate for foreign currency. So he raided the country's treasures which had been crated up after the Revolution. One of his friends was the oil billionaire Armand Hammer. Thus Hammer came into possession of many of the Eggs along with a large number of other treasures at virtually knock-down prices. Originally the Eggs were regarded as little more than mere trinkets. One sold for just US$500. As the value of the Eggs plummeted further during the Great Depression, one of Hammer's friends rather ironically observed that whilst indisuptably beautiful, you could not eat them! I have no idea where Forbes got his Eggs but it is known that Stalln's thugs sold 14 of them. Photos: wikipedia By the time of Forbes' death, he had added another 3 to his collection, But his sons did not want them and put the Eggs up for auction. Before the sale, a Russian oligarch purchased the lot for US$100 million. In 2013 he opened a Museum in St. Petersburg where they are now displayed. It boasts more than the 10 which remain in the Kremlin Museum in Moscow. Our discussion had been started as a result of an article in yesterday's Guardian newspaper about a squillianaire Stefan Soloviev who finally opened the door to the private New York art collection mainly purchased by his late father. At 9 West 57th Street, a small group waited to be ushered in to see a treasure trove that includes masterpieces by Picasso, Matisse, four by Cezanne, three by Miro, a Henry Moore statue and other paintings by Giacometti and Van Gogh. Many of the artworks are owned by a non-profit Foundation which means they are suppposed to be exhibited publicly. Until yesterday, they could only be seen through thick windows, unlike the Forbes Faberge Eggs which were very tastefully lit behind almost invisible glass. Many more existing private collections avoided tax through the Foundation route. Hopefully more of their artworks wil be displayed publicly sooner rather than later. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2023/jul/11/soloviev-collection-billionaire-private-art-museum-new-york

Believe this if you will. It just happens to be true. Burger King has a new offering - a Cheeseburger. No, not the usual burger with cheese on top. A burger with ONLY cheese within the bun! Up to 20 slices of fattening processed American cheese! Even better - perhaps! There is a limited time 'opening' offer of 109 baht compared to the usual 380 baht! News has apparently gone viral on social media but reports from those who ordered the new burger have not been flattering. Now why is that not a surprise! https://edition.cnn.com/2023/07/11/business/thailand-burger-king-cheeseburger-intl-hnk/index.html

Another relatively hidden beach worth a visit is Nui Beach on Phuket's south west coast. When I went more than a decade ago it was only possible to get there by long tail boat. Now there is a small rather steep dirt track road but you have to wait for a vehcle to take you down. It will also cost 200 baht for the return journey but with no guarantee of the time of your return. Best to arrive by boat and arrange a retune time with the boatboy. Situated almost half way between Kata Beach and Nai Harn Beach, it's a small beach and the sand is not especially fine. But it is wonderfully quiet and the water is great. There is a shaded restaurant and beyond the beach ladies offering Thai massage. There are also some basic toilets. But few beachchairs and only a few umbrellas. Apparently it's great for snorkelling but take your own equipment.

It seems particularly true in the hothouse entertainment business. The pressure these kids selected for the K-Pop groups is intense and never ending. It seems few are able to enjoy any form of life of their own. Little wonder, perhaps, that some feel so trapped the only way out for them is suicide. China As worrying, suicide rates among young people in China are on the rise. Figures suppllied by the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention show that in the 5-14 year old age group, suicides increased by 400% between 2010 and 2021. Among the 15-24 age group, there was actually a drop of 6.8% from 2010 - 2017. But thereafter it has surged at an annual rate of 19.6% up to 2021. That is not China's only problem with young people. Youth unemployment hit a record high in April with 20.4% of those in the 15-24 year old group unable to find work. Add to that the more than 11 million students who graduated from Chinese universities last month. How will they find work? Having a degree from an international university used to be a passport to success. No more. President XI has a lot more to worry about than Taiwan! The communist party needs the endorsement of the people. Young people may soon wonder if that endorsement is worth it. https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Caixin/Chinese-youth-suicide-rate-quadruples-in-over-a-decade https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/01/china-graduates-jobs-market-youth-unemployment

Clearly they are like bees to your honey pot!! 😁

Yesterday evening part of the Onnut-Lat Krabang expressway which is under construction collapsed when a crane raising a four-lane road section overturned. The Bangkok Post states 2 were killed and 10 injured. The collapse is captured in a short facebook vdo on the Bangkok Post page. https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2609423/2-killed-10-hurt-as-elevated-road-collapses-in-bangkok

I have been asked numerous times why I live in Thailand when I could have stayed in Hong Kong or moved somewhere with a more pleasant climate etc. etc. I always reply: where else would I just be able to walk down virtually any street in any town or city and see several adorable young guys whom I would love to bed, whom I smile at and who give me a heart-melting smile back? The smile itself is one of the joys of life!

Last week the very popular Hong Kong singer Coco Lee committed suicide. She was just 48 and had been suffering from depression. This follows what seems to be a sad trend among Asian pop singers and pop idols. Just a couple of months ago K-Pop singer Moonbin of the ASTRO group was found dead in his apartment aged 25. Also this year Haeso died after leaving a suicide note in her apartment. One of the first Korean artists to die was in 2004. 22-year old Seo Jae-ho was killed when his car crashed into a truck in an action that was assumed to be deliberate. Since then there have been more than ten suspicious deaths of pop stars when driving cars or motor cycles. In 2008 actor Ahn Jae-hwan took his own life. A month later his good friend Choi Jin-sil, one of the country’s most in-demand actresses, also committed suicide. In what became a family tragedy, two years later Choi’s younger brother killed himself. Three years later, her ex-husband and the father of her two children also killed himself. Much more recently, the industry has lost Hara, then Sulli, Goo Hara and Cha In-Ha - three singers who all died within two months of each other - Song Yoo-jung, Jonghyun and Jeon Mi-seon. All died in suspicious circumstances. Jonghyun had been the lead vocalist for the group SHINee for 9 years. A note made public after his death read, “I am broken inside. The depression that gnawed on me slowly has finally engulfed me entirely.” Jyonghyun The saddest death was surely that of 24-year old Lee Ji-han who died last year in the Itaewon crowd crush which killed 153 mostly young people.' Lee Ji-han A star in Indian movies, actress Jiah Khan hanged herself aged 25. Popular Chinese actor Kimi Qiao Renliang took his own life in 2016 aged 29 after a long battle with depression. Jonghyun’s note about depression has seen echoes not only in the K-Pop industry but in other parts of Asia. Unquestionably the most famous actor/singer to commit suicide was 46-year old Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing in 2003. Massively famous around the world and not only in Chinese communities, Leslie seemed to have everything. A record of 33 consecutive nights of sold-out concerts at Hong Kong’s 10,000 seat Coliseum, twice nominated as Best Actor at the annual Cannes Film Festival Awards, a steady banker boyfriend since his childhood years – yet unknown to all was a creeping, insidious depression that engulfed him in his last years. In his suicide note, he wrote, “In my life I have done nothing bad. Why does it have to be like this?" Leslie (left) in a poster for one of his first films. Also in the photo is Danny Chan playing the violin who died of an overdose in his mid-30s and Paul Chung who committed suicide aged 30.

A worthy effort indeed. The article dealing with the political situation illustrates just how well the army generals did in the last constitution to ensure the longevity of their own position and to deny the will of the people. The comments from two of the army appointed senators (all 250 are army appointed) are utterly disgraceful. The attempts to disqualify Pita from the Premiership on the basis of ancient (in parlimentary terms) ownership of shares in a media company is appalling and shows just how far into the sewer the elite will go to ensure they stay in power. Did not Thaksin senior own a massive number of shares in his own media company? And did he not bribe the Constitutional Court to ensure he was elected Prime Minister when he should never have been allowed to assume the post after his gardener and housekeeper were found to own millions of those shares? I think someone posted this Tom Lehrer song relatively recently. It deserves a second airing, the more so when you substitute Thailand for Amerca and corruption for pollution.

Anyone know if this new cinema is in fact a reincarnation of the RCA indie movie house off Rama 9 close to the Bangkok Hospital? I see RCA is now closed. We only once went to RCA when it was showing "Call Me By Your Name". The movie, despite a few small cuts, was extremely popular and ran for weeks and weeks.

Excellent news. This should make an ideal replacement for the much lamented Bangkok Screening Room just off Saladaeng Soi 1. This offered a variety of interesting movies and documentaries in a small cinema off a bar with drinks and snacks. Sadly it closed 2 years ago.

Or maybe it could be a new budget business class!

I see I have joined @scott456 on @Olddaddy's blocked list! 🤣 @scott456 had made an innocent comment as a bit of banter which led to @Olddaddy taking umbrage. Funny that, since he wrote some months ago: "Scott, don't take that personally , posters are just having a joke , and a bit of banter 👍😅" Funny too that sometimes his own comments are the total opposite of his earlier comments. In August 2022. @Olddaddy wrote: "If I was old lonely ( which I am😂)" Yet the next day "My Filipino BF here in Australia wants to marry." On this thread, he wrote about a farang being in another bar - Yet in July 2022 he wrote of an experience in another bar: "Now I saw other farangs kissing boys next to them ,one in particular didn't look like he was enjoying it but on leaving the Farang must of left a small tip because the boy never even said goodbye to him and opened the folder and turned his back on the Farang . . . I noticed he had been deep kissing him for like 20 minutes" Aha! In company of others for at least 20 minutes! As for travel, almost a year ago he wrote: "I am poor!!! Despite being over 60, I still fly economy". Oh really? Funny that because the very next day he wrote: "I can't fly anything else other than business for long trips ." Prefers to be alone. Happy when the one other farang departs: And yet tolerant of other farang in another bar at another time when sitting amongst them for at least 20 minutes! Make of it what you will for I am blocked and he will not respond!

The Chinese peoples have a particular reverence for their ancestors. All around the country there are graveyards or merely simple gravestones, usually slightly circular with a concrete pllnth where descendents can place their offerings of flowers, fruit and the departed's favourite dishes. Hong Kong has several, the large ones in the built up city areas, the individual ones dotted around what used to be called the New Territories. But as one of the most densely populated parts of the planet, land for graveyards ran out years ago. As a result, many families kept the ashes of their ancestors in urns given a special place in their homes. But as the size of family homes has become smaller and smaller, other solutions have had to be found. One of the city's zillionaires who made her money in jewellry and property, Margaret Zee, is the latest to jump on this money-making bandwagon. She has constructed a 12-storey building specially designed by a German architect to store the remains of loved ones in the best possible way. Shan Sum offers a resting place for up to 10 years at a starting price of $53,000 - US$ that is! Not that all you get is a hole in the wall measuring around 1 sguare meter! The building can accommodate urns for 23,000 of the departed. This facility is both air conditioned and humidity controlled, it has a roof garden and greenery lining its stairwells and other areas. What happens after 10 years is up in the air as such facilities are subject to government regulations and the maximum at present is 10 years. Perhaps renewal will involve some sort of discount. As Ms. Zee claims, the space is as much for the peace and enjoyment for living relatives as for the dead. Not that Shan Sum is the largest or most expensive repose for the dead. A spot in a temple-like complex close to the Chinese border presently sells for US$66,000. But that is not all. Annual Management fees per urn space are a whopping US$25,000! If you do not belong to the class of the rich and famous, the government is trying to increase the construction of a similar number of facilities for the dead. A 20 years lease on these far simpler plots costs US$300 but competition is fierce with long waiting lists. Hong Kong land values have always been monstrously high and continue to skyrocket. I can remember back in 1996 the car park spaces in the three underground levels of my 34-storey apartment building (which I rented) were put on sale for US$96,000 each - with a management fee on top! https://edition.cnn.com/2023/07/07/asia/hong-kong-columbarium-real-estate-price-intl-hnk-dst/index.html

A very good point. For decades I had an annual travel insurance policy valid everywhere in the world. It had several general exceptions for personal accident - like winter sports - but nothing as far as I can recall regarding individual countries unless the British government had given specific warnings in advance of travel. Having given that policy up due to cost and reduced travel, like @unicorn I find short term policies do request a list of countries visiting, although not the airline.

I readily apologise if I am in the wrong and am happy to bury hatchets when posts of mine are considered to have caused some offence. In the case of @Olddaddy, I have nothing to apologise for and no reason whatever to take part in a "truce"! What on earth was the point of his rant against me above? Did I describe @Olddaddy as a 115 kg loner (he told us his weight in an earlier post) who is virtually a hypochondriac given all the various maladies he has informed everyone reading this Board he suffers from - or believes he suffers from? Nope! Did I say he refused to consult a doctor? Nope! He did! Did I call him "sometimes nasty and spiteful"! Noper! He did! Have I asked why last year he wrote two contradictory things about himself very soon after each other - 1. that he lived alone, and 2. that he lived with his Filipino boyfriend? Nope!

How very funny! This is the second time @Olddaddy has written almost exactly the same post about my replies to his posts. Even thereafter, though, he has clicked "like" on a good many of them! He needs to get his thinking into some sort of order, and I wish him well.

I've been discussing Thai law, as I stressed in my post. If as @forky123 points out a British court would take the case, which in itself must be doubtful in the absence of a mountain of paperwork about the event itself, witnesses affirming the state of upkeep of the hotel and the stability of its balconies, any previous similar cases, the activities of the young man and his friends througohut that evening, whether they had been drinking and what the young man's blood alcohol level was on arrival at hospital, in addition to calling several expert medical witnesses which it might be impossible to pay for from Thailand, the family might perhaps have a case, I expect. Under Thai law, though, the family could find itself very much deeper in debt. They'd be spinning some form of roulette wheel with the chances of it stopping at the right number all but zero. Unless you know a bit more about Thai law than I. Then there could be a secondary but equally important issue. If their number did in fact come up and it was proven beyond a reasonable doubt in a UK court that the hotel was at fault, the chances of the family actually getting the monetary award out of Thailand would be quite another matter. All but impossible, alas!

Bars and boys are there to serve customers - plural. If you want to avoid other people, either get a boy from the apps and organise something in your room, or don't go to bars. I'd have thought that is self-evident. Being selfish in such a situation does, I suggest, illustrate somewhat nasty behaviour.

It seems that MYAirline is using both terminals at KUL - i.e. the full service terminal and the low cost terminal, both of which are branded as KUL. It's important to note that it can take up to 30 minutes to get from one to the other, so check on booking which terminal your flight will be using. The half-hourly airport express train from/to the city stops at both terminals. Similarly the regular limousine service from KL Sentral station stops at both. Surface transport between the two terminals is by bus which departs every 15 minutes. I have no idea what happens if you are entering and departing on international flights using both terminals - e.g. Singapore to KUL using one airline arriving at the full service terminal and KUL to BKK using another airline at the low cost terminal. I assume there has to be a way of transiting without having passports stamped. Best to check.

I'd have thought at the present time that would send most farang out of the bar. Hardly surprising that the one farang you mentioned soon disappeared. Doubt if that did the bar many favours.