PeterRS2

Many thanks. Unfortunately he enjoys peace and quiet and I see this restaurant has a singer and a live band. I know that Baan Rim Pa used to have a pianist named Tommy Doyle who was one of the finest cabaret-type pianists I had heard. The playing was always gentle, sometimes hardly noticed. The Boathouse years ago sometimes had a flutist or a gentle acoustic guitarist. Neither interrupted the ambience nor the sound of the waves gently splashing on the shore.

Re my earlier post, I will no doubt be accused by some as having a bias against Willie Walsh? Think so? Well I do! He took over from one of the most astute minds in the arline business. Sir Rod Eddington had been Managing Director of Cathay Pacific until his appointment to BA in 2000. He got rid of a number of his predecessor's unpopular initiatives and brought a degree of class back to the front cabins. His successor Willie Walsh was basically a low cost carrier believer as became obvious throughout much of his tenure. A pilot himself, he clearly knows the business inside out, but I still believe his loyalties lie in the low cost carrier model and far from that of legacy airlines. I stuck with BA for 15 years for one reason only - it took far fewer flights and considerably less expense to reach its Gold Executive class status compared to Cathay Pacific. Then in 2015 I took return flights from Berlin to Chicago via LHR which were dreadful. I tore up my BA card and donated remaining Avios miles to charity.

Wow! So you suddenly aged about 20 years? 😃

Thank you for the link. What Willie Walsh does say is that the 11% margin is just below the 12%-15% margin demanded of IAG members. It is just 1% below and the airline's measures are being taken to bring that percentage well within the required margin. He did not state failure to do so would lead to closure. He said failure to make cuts COULD lead to the airline being shrunk substantially OR it could be closed down. But let's take a moment to look at IAG and Willie Walsh's record as its CEO from which he resigned in 2020. Before then he was the CEO at Aer Lingus and then BA. When he ran BA, he encountered/created a lot of problems including computer blackouts and strikes. In flight services were also sometimes cut, and I recall an inter Europe flight in business class when all we were offered was a bottle of water handed out at the door. I can recall the old days of its rival British Caledonian which served full meals on its inter-Britain services and whose in flight long-haul services were far better. BA, prior to its merger with BEA, then killed it. Let's also recall that IAG only has four airlines in its group - British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus and Vuellig. That hardly makes Willie Walsh the unbiased expert he always likes to sound. Let's also recall that IAG is only the 5th largest airline group globally in terms of revenue and the third largest in Europe. Aer Lingus could, if it so wished, apply to move to one of the two larger groupings of Lufthansa or Air France-KLM. That Head for Points article adds and omits several issues. Walsh's comments are no doubt Willie Walsh practising a degree of self preservation for BA. He has always believed BA should have a monopoly of routes to North America. But he forgets that the passenger levies and taxes out of Dublin are vastly lower than those charged by Heathrow, so it can offer lower fares. Dublin's passenger duty is the lowest of any capital city in Europe. From next year Dublin will charge €8:85 per passenger. Three years ago Heathrow wanted to increase taxes from €37 to €47. Government regulators forced a decrease until the end of this year when they will rise again. Let's also remember that Willie Walsh mandates cuts at Aer Lingus - because the airline is not profitable. Yet it is one of the more profitable airlines in the world. The Irish Airline Pilots’ Association believes that Aer Lingus is the ninth most profitable airline in Europe with the fifth-highest operating margin . . . Whilst bad, especially in terms of staff numbers, the route cuts are not as harsh as some people feared. Losing just three of the 20 long haul routes to North America is at the lower end of expectations. Hardly the sort of figures of airlines which are about to close. Let's not forget that Willie Walsh has had problems in the past with other airlines under his banner. When he took over Aer Lingus, he turned it into a low cost carrier. When he took Iberia under IAG's wing in 2011, that airline was in a dreadful financial state - far worse than that facing Aer Llingus now. This became a huge drag on IAG's profits and resulted in major losses in 2012 and 2013. Why he is moaning on about Aer Lingus now shows he has conveniently forgotten his earlier near disastrous financial mistakes with iberia.

I used to go to Phuet at least once a year, but have not been for more than a dozen. A friend is going there in October and has asked for a nice quiet Thai restaurant recommendation. My favourite for years was Baan Rim Pa on the cliff just north of Patong Beach opposite the Novotel. Long before that, it was the restaurant at the Boathouse on Kata Beach. But whereas Baan Rim Pa suffered no damage as a result of the tsunami, the Boathouse was destroyed. I realise it has been up and running again for quite a few years. I wonder if anyone has had dinner there. Enjoying dinner with the waves lapping on the small sandy beach outside used to be a really great experience. I gave that one up when it introduced quite loud live music.

This finger print business is a bit like the old days of arrival cards. The reason they were stopped was because no one in Immigration had time to check them. It was revealed that hundreds of thousands of them - or probably more - were stored in a warehouse - all unread!

Yet again no link - and I can not find even one that confirms this supposed news that the airllione may be closed. Please provide the link. Besides, Aer Lingus remains profitable with an operating margin last year of 11% and flew to 93 destinations with a passenger load factor of 79%. This is greater than many European airlines! Like many airlines it is cutting a few routes. These are to Denver, Minneapolis, Las Vegas and Seattle. They represent a mere 6% of its route structure! It continues to fly to a host of US cities including New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Miami, Cleveland and Seattle And as Finnair has been doing for years, it is reducing less than a handful of European routes to summer only. One route from Dublin to Split is the only one cancelled in Europe. https://www.rte.ie/news/analysis-and-comment/2026/0716/1583733-aerlingus-cuts-analysis/

+1

True, but how many customers would bother. It would not matter to them if the kitchen was the size of a toilet or a temple. I'll bet no one in that conflagration even looked at the kitchen. In any event, the bar had passed the BMA inspection in April and had been open as a place of live entertainment since 2023. I suspect many in the bar at the time of the fire were regular patrons. As mentioned in my earlier post, the issue goes all the way back to Thaksin's dreadful Interior Minister, his old crony, Purachai Piumsombun decision in 2001 limiting places of entertainment to three zones where much stricter regulations apply. Thereafter both the government and the BMA are both negligent and guilty for not updating the regulations, the more so in the light of other fires over the last 25 years.

If anything happens re cancellation of my RJ flight, I will do that. I have flown Chinese airlines quite a few times and have found them very efficient and comfortable. Normally I would try for a ticket on Cathay Pacific, but their prices have been soaring recently.

Some additional background. Mention of Lloyd Webber inevitably brings up two issues: his fortune and his losses. After Evita, CATS and Phantom, it was assumed he could do nothing wrong. That nothing proved to be Sunset Boulevard. Frank Rich, theatre critic of The New York Times estimated its total losses incuding the various touring productions in the USA at $20 million. I saw one of the previews in London. These were delayed by several weeks due to the scenery. The main set was a vast drawing room with a large semi-circular Gothic staircase in LA where Norma Desmond, the famous silent movie star, lived. This weighed a massive 60 tons! During the show this entire set then had to be raised and lowered several times in view of the audience to reveal the car park underneath and then the swimming pool at the end. In London some computer glitch resulted in the set having a life of its own. When a certain taxi rank was called, the set would move of its own accord. The glitch took 3 weeks to fix at considerable expense. But casting was an additional costly problem. The show had 3 openings. Being based on the famous Billy Wilder movie, Lloyd Webber wanted it to open in Los Angeles. There, with Glenn Close (no mean singer) as Norma Desmond, it was a big hit. At the same time, the London and subsequent New York premieres were being planned. He engaged the reigning Queen of Broadway Patti Lupone to open in London. She agreed provided she also opened in New York. But when the show opened in the UK, Lloyd Webber was unhappy with Lupone and fired her from opening on Broadway. That was lawsuit #1 which saw Lupone walk away with a $1 million settlement. As Close was such a success in LA, he offered her the premiere on Broadway. But since LA was still doing great business, he decided to keep it open and find someone to replace Close. Broadway had a substantial number of out of work stars, any one of whom could easily have taken over. Instead, he chose Faye Dunaway, an actor who had never sung a note in any movie and everyone said could hardly sing! The ever truculent Lloyd Webber disagreed. His team would teach her how to sing. He had her coached for two months. Right up to the final week of reherasals when it was obvious to everyone in the cast that she still could not sing the role, Lloyd Webber was praising her. A couple of days later he fired her and closed the Los Angeles production, even though it had advance ticket sales of $4 million. Lawsuit #2. Dunaway walked away with a settlement that must have been larger than Lupone's Glenn Close opened on Broadway and received great reviews and a Tony Award. Lloyd Webber was left to rue his break with London producer Cameron Macintosh, producer of CATS and Phantom, simply because he wanted his own company to do future productions. Mackintosh was one of the legendary and most accomplished hands-on producers whose other successes included Les Miserables, Mamma Mia and Miss Saigon. Mackintosh, whose only desire as a child was to work backstage in musical theatre, is now worth an estimated £1.25 billion, whereas Lloyd Webber's net worth has reduced from its high of over £1 billion to £516 million.

WIth Trump comitted again to the war he stated he had ended a couple of months ago, I wonder if any member has had his flights ex-BKK to Europe cancelled or rescheduled? I am booked on Royal Jordanian flights to Europe in early September as Jordan was initially not caught up in the attacks from Iran. Now there is news of Iranian attacks on US bases in Jordan. Since I have 6 other pre-paid flights within Europe, I am getting concerned that my RJ flights might be cancelled.

Seems like you are merely repeating the argument i made in an earlier post!

As my earlier posts have suggested, I could not agree with this. As far as we know at present, the owner had done nothing wrong because the government and BMA rules specifically do not cover pubs outside the three Entertainment Zones. And that pub was not in an Entertainment Zone so there is strong reason to believe he had no idea what rules covered those within the Zones. How, then, could he "wilfully" choose to ignore them? You could blame him for not using a bit of common sense regarding blockage of exit doorways. But lack of common sense is I believe rarely a legal liability.

Deciding to make those who died and were terribly injured victims through their selection of pub would, I suggest, be completely missing the point. DId they know about Thaksin's Entertaining Zoning, a decision made 25 years ago? Did they know that the pub was not subject to more stringent fire precautions? The answer in each and every case will I am certain have been "No!" If a tourist goes to a pub in any city, they have a reasonable right to assume they will be safe. I agree as stated in my earlier post that each customer should undergo some simple checking. But let's face it, most don't. The blame here lies almost totally with the government and the Bangkok Metropolitan Authority. As for calling the owner a "murderer" there is possibly a valid reason. There are many bars in Bangkok whose owners, having obtained their safety certificates, then deliberately forget about them and go back to their old ways. Most fire experts have zeroed in on the foam sound insulation material on the ceiing. As reported in The New York Times - “Once the fire starts, the foam basically will make a small fire an inferno,” said Xinyan Huang, an associate professor and fire safety engineer at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Mr. Huang said this kind of foam has accounted for a sizable chunk of the deadliest nightclub fires around the world in recent years. The problem is so bad that Steven Badger, a lawyer based in Dallas with expertise on cases involving indoor fires, said that whenever he sees foam soundproofing in a venue, he immediately leaves. “People putting up the foam don’t know how dangerous it can be. But the building officials from the government should know,” Mr. Badger said. “It is surprising to me that any code official, who goes into a building, would not identify the presence of these materials, and ask that they be removed.” https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/14/world/asia/bangkok-bar-fire-flammable-foam.html

I have noticed cars not giving pedestrians right of way at these supposed pedestrian crossings. And I have spent time in taxis looking ahead trying to see where the crossings are. The fact is that if the car is going at a reasonable speed - not fast! - it is often quite difficult to see small humps or even no humps on the road with paint on them. A driver's eyes are primarily looking forward and to the side for traffic. If Thailand had the same system as the UK there would be warning lights at driver's eye level. Then you don't need these ridiculous humps. Warning lights plus large white/orange striped crossings work far better. But then there is also the issue in Thailand of the police doing precisely nothing about protecting pedestrians. They spend vast amounts of time making a mess of traffic congestion and pedestrians are just an inconvenience.

As usual in Thailand there are loopholes. After the dreadful Santika Club death toll, the BMA did carry out improvements. From 2012, all nightclubs had to use fire resistant materials for sound insulation, have wider exits that opened outwards, and power backup systems that would keep exit signs illuminated. For larger clubs with a capacity of 500 or more, sprinker systems were mandated. The loophole is that these new regulations only apply to venues in designated entertainment zones - the ones estabished by the first Thaksin government and his ultra-religious minister of the Interior. In Bangkok that means just three - parts of Silom, RCA and Khao Sarn Road. Most pubs are outside these zones and so are categorised as restaurants permitted to have live music. The regulations in the previous paragraph did not apply to the Rong Beer Na Ladprao pub. Consequently, it may be - but this is a guess - that those who inspected the pub in April did in fact ensure that the pub was operating legally. At his press conference, the BMA Governor said - "From now we will apply the stricter standards to venues like these. Even if we do not have full legal powers we will make suggestions. If they don't follow these, we will try to find ways to stop them from operating. We must be able to shut them down if there's a risk." https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd6e68n3jz5o It is perfectly obvious that the zoning laws have to be changed. At present there can be no pub within 2 kms of a temple or a school. That is a near impossibility in a city like Bangkok. But - there's always a but in Thailand - the number of such establishments is well in excess of 1,000. But these are just words! Where will the BMA find the staff? And how will it deal with the endemic corruption that will result in certain police and officials turning a blind eye? The owner of the Santika Club was given 3 years in jail, but was able to remain a free man for six years before serving his sentence. And it is interesting that the Prime Minister in his recent press conference was asked this - When asked by a reporter Prime Minister Anutin in his [previous] capacity as Minister of the Interior, whether he should resign given the large number of deaths, he laughed and said - "That question is designed to provoke emotions; it should not be asked." So the snake just laughed!! https://www.thaienquirer.com/72103/thai-enquirer-news-summary-july-15-2026/

Didn't it amalgamate recently with Golden Cock? I assumed this would mean more boys, although the narrowness of the space and limited tables might make this difficult.

I have enjoyed so many musicals since my first aged 17 and would hate to think that the genre is dying. Although I have to admit that when I saw one of the most popular - Wicked in New York - I disliked it so much I walked out at the intermission. A composer who has warned that the Broadway musical is in "dire danger" is none other than one who has made tens if not hundreds of millions of $$ from his shows worldwide - Andrew Lloyd Webber. His reasoning? “The painful truth is that, with things as they are, bringing almost any new show to Broadway makes little financial sense,” said Lloyd Webber. “The costs are immense. Creators, writers and directors are often forced to accept minimal royalties simply to get work staged . . . The situation is scarcely better for investors. Many count themselves fortunate if they recover even part of their money. Without investors willing to take risks, and artists able to make a living, where will Broadway’s next generation of shows come from?” Well, Lloyd Webber has always had a tendency to imbide a little more wine than perhaps he should, and perhaps his comments resulted from the fact that his latest musical is closing after only 5 months on Broadway. I suppose he's more than a bit miffed considering Phantom of the Opera ran of Broadway for 35 years and CATS for 18 years. His royalties from these productions alone made him a gazillionaire. Mind you, the show that is closing had a lot going against it. First being named Cats: The Jellicle Ball will likely have put off the millions who had seen the original CATS productions. However, far more likely was the ghastly more recent movie version of the show which got some of the worst reviews ever for any movie. And then there is the fact that in December 2013, in an interview with Paybill he is quoted as saying, "I haven't had a hit on 20 years . . . I've written six musicals in that time." Following Phantom his next big blockbuster was supposed to be Sunset Boulevard in the early 1990s. Despite running for three years, he kept the show open despite its losing around US$6 million and the investors losing all of their cash. (USTV interviewer Barbara Walters lost all her investment of $250,000 on that one!) This was not helped by compensation he had to pay out when taken to court by actors Patti Lupone and Faye Dunaway. Broadway has always had its ups and downs. Rodgers and Hammerstein had a lengthy run of popularity, as did Lloyd Webber and his producer Cameron Macintosh in the last quarter of the last century. Others will arise and, as when the Sonheim musicals were in vogue, these will not need the massive Phantom-type scenery and such massive budgets. And Lloyd Webber might be wise to recall that his show's recent $18 million loss is almost peanuts against the $75 million loss on Spiderman: Turn Off The Dark! https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2026/jul/14/andrew-lloyd-webber-cats-jellice-ball-broadway

From the Han Dynasty and the opening up of the Silk Road in 121 AD through to the early 19th century, China was the richest country in the world. China's inventions and innovations during that period are quite staggering. Inevitably though, as the mandarins and those at the top got richer, many peasants grew poorer. Corruption, starvation and local wars persuaded many families to emigrate throughout the period, with South East Asian countries seeing Chinese populations from as early as 1,000 AD. But it was the prosperity resulting from trade that persuaded many Chinese families to settle outside the country. In those times most of the local populations under their Kings and Sultans in South East Asia were largely illiterate peasants. These Chinese are the ones who became increasingly richer as trade grew and many form the backbone of many South East Asian countries today. Others came later after the 1949 Revolution. Mao had promised the very large number of merchants and businessmen in Shanghai that they could continue without interference from his communist ideology. He first regarded them as necessary in developing the economy. But in 1951 he changed his mind. Some in the pre-war years had already been moving their money out of Shanghai, fed up with Chiang Kai-shek's massive corruption and fearful of the Japanese advance south. In 1951 when the communists broke their promise, that became a flood. While most of the businesses and the executives essential to running them moved to Hong Kong, others spread throughout Asia. Hence the major presence of very rich families with strong Chinese roots throughout this part of the continent.

In Thailand some form filling can be maddening. I have lived at the same address in Bangkok for 26 years. Yet I have to complete a 90 day form with that address, when overseas give my address on the advance of arrival form, and then again on a ridiculous form I have to fill in within 36 hours of arrival. I sometimes wonder if I ever inserted the wrong apartment anyone in the Immigration Department would ever notice.

As we know, many of those who proclaim themselves leaders of a devout Evangelical Christian Church are amongst the biggest sinners - thieves of masssive amounts of money, closet gays, prostitute-loving cheaters . . .

This is all so horrible. I wonder if there will be any fund established to help those who are now suffering so badly, especially the children. I'd suggest several more checks have to be made before anyone steps inside such an establishment. Lit and clearly visible Exit signs over every exit. Unlocked exit doors with no obstructions inside. The argument against this has always been that it will enable people to enter without paying the entrance fee. But all over the world there are exit door opening outwards that cannot be opened from the outside! Clear pathways away from the premises outside each exit. A reasonable number of visibly installed fire extinguishers. No flammable materials installed either permanently or temporarily. In the recent case, it seems that after the initial spark, the stage decor materials brought in for the band's performance immediately ignited and spread extremely fast. Similarly only non flammable materials installed for the venue's own decor. Temporary electrical switches and wiring checked by some responsible authority. As @Keithambrose points out, nothing will happen because Thai people will put this out of their minds in a few weeks. Instead, there should be a major demonstration outside the BMA headquarters demanding that new fire prevention rules are mandated for pubs and clubs, and then inspected before the licence to operate is handed over.

Apologies. That rate of $440 was a result of the date I selected being 10 days after the lunar New Year. By the end of February is has reduced to $230.

He's had three wives. I wonder if they all spoke/speak the Cantonese dialect. Mind you, speaking several languages is not uncommon. I had a friend in the UK who, though English, was a German teacher. He had married a French woman. By the time they were ten their three children were trilingual, sometimes switching languages as they chatted with each other.