thaiophilus

but if you're in Bangkok and you really really really want a cast iron statue, here's the place: (Google Street View) and there are two more floors of the stuff inside... 😵

Green awning and a red sign saying "ผักบุ้งลอยฟ้า SEAFOOD" on Second Road, with an alley from Soi 13/3, looks like this?

Maybe he means 100 USD per month?

Issuing modern polymer notes helps. From the Bank of England: "In the first half of 2023 typically less than 0.0031% of banknotes were counterfeit, that is less than 1 in 30,000 banknotes. Some 73,000 counterfeit Bank of England banknotes with a nominal face value of £1.5 million were taken out of circulation. At any one time, there is around 4.6 billion genuine banknotes in circulation, with a notional face value of £82 billion." https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/banknotes/counterfeit-banknotes

Suvarnabhumi (Golden Land) was the grandiose name of PM Thaksin's vanity airport project. Unlike the well-chosen site of Don Muang (City Hill - the clue is in the name!), Suvarnabhumi was built on an area known as Nong Nguhao (Cobra Swamp). Hence the nickname.

I'd be very surprised (and it would be headline news) if I turned up to Gatwick to board EK016 and it turned out to be any Boeing aircraft 🙂.

... and just like that, the Tumblr site has been nuked ☹️. It had loads of posts going back several years, so why should it get removed now? Maybe a rush of new viewers triggered the Tumblr censors...

While trawling Tumblr I tripped over this: https://gaykohsamuithailand.tumblr.com/ Mostly it seems to be advertising "Emerald Green Mens Club" but there's some eye candy (not all Thai) too. Not sure where the Parthenon fits in, though. For an overview see https://gaykohsamuithailand.tumblr.com/archive Disclaimer: I have had no dealings with the listed businesses, so this is neither a recommendation nor the opposite.

If it really is one-way, most of the commuting locals are in for an unnecessarily long ride at the anticlockwise end of their day 😕

But can you guarantee they won't be Chinese penguins? 🐧🐧🐧

Assuming you used an official airport taxi,, they are supposed to be subject to certain rules... like using the meter without haggling, and I can't remember the last time I had that problem. I hope things haven't changed for the worse since I last used them in 2020. You used to be given a form with the driver's name and vehicle registration, which you can use to report them if there are problems. Never heard of a "baggage fee", but there is a 50B airport surcharge which is added to the meter.

I don't think there's more than one that fits our collective description (key points being coupon and cheap!) and it's definitely not in the basement. More here: https://thaiest.com/thai-food/reviews/food-court-at-bangkok-suvarnabhumi-airport

Aha! The secret for eating at Suvarnabhumi is the Magic Food Point on level 1 landside. It's a food court catering mainly for airport employees (but open to all) and priced accordingly. Naturally it is not advertised on the airport website.

I'm no oenologist but I'd have thought a sweet Cabernet Sauvignon would be highly unusual. Maybe the donor adulterated it with something else? 😉 🍷

First, define "gay hotel". Some would say the only truly "gay hotel" in Bangkok was the now-defunct Babylon Barracks...

This Austrian village was renamed a few years ago, so now it's

Probably named after this town in Bavaria.. .

Pockets, plural. Like @vinapu I have many 😄

A friend of mine who died recently (UK) went for a natural burial. It took place in a nature reserve, with biodegradable (wickerwork) coffin, shallow grave, no headstone, just wild flowers.

Tails on for กุ้งแช่เย็นน้ำปลา, my favourite Thai dish, so you can pick them up without getting fish sauce on your fingers. https://www.sgethai.com/article/5-สูตรเด็ด-กุ้งแช่น้ำปลา/

So far as I can tell, the museum owner's alleged religion, ethnicity and nationality are irrelevant to a cooperative discussion of "Patpong comings and goings", but they are exactly the kind of thing often used as dog-whistle codewords by people not debating in good faith.

Maybe, but in most countries "transit" is not "entry", and passengers in transit to a third country are not required to go through immigration checks if they remain airside. Certainly I have passed through airports in France, Germany, Italy, Dubai, Jordan, Abu Dhabi and Qatar, to name a few, without immigration checks. Only in the USA was it different.

Not at all. Over here, billiards is perceived as a game for gentlemen, whereas snooker is something played by the lower classes (or even, shock horror, by professionals!) PS we generally refer to Ms Braverman as "Cruella".

Not that it matters, but that's incorrect. There's a big difference between true air speed and indicated air speed. True air speed (TAS) is the actual speed relative to the surrounding air. Indicated air speed IAS is (by definition 🙂) the speed indicated by the air speed indicator (ASI), which derives a speed from the pressure at the pitot tube, assuming sea-level air density. At altitude the density is lower and so the IAS reads (a lot) lower than TAS. Sorry, CNN.

Not "homosexuals"; that word couldn't stand on its own. It was always "practising homosexuals", "predatory homosexuals", "avowed homosexuals" or some such Homeric epithet 🙄. And they never had friends, only "rings" .