Bob

Be careful, laurence, that "guy in white" is a dangerously insane relative of Hannibal Lectur (well, okay, that's totally untrue but I can tell you his first name begins with the letter "G").

When I was in Luang Prabang 4-5 years ago, there were two "gay" bars. We went to the first one (sorry don't know the name but it was 3-4 blocks southeast of Mount Phousi, the giant hill in the middle of the town) but litterally nobody was there and we left. Then we went to the other (again, can't recall the name but it was run by a Belgian guy and what I presumed was his Lao boyfriend and it's located about 1 block northeast of Mount Phousi) and had an enjoyable time talking with the owner (he even had us sample various flavors of ice cream he was making in the kitchen that night). I'd describe the bars as just bars. I saw no boys that appeared to be "offable" but, to be frank, I didn't really ask much about that as I was there with my Chiangmai bf. There was no dancing or stage or anything of the like. But the Belgian guy (maybe 55-60?) was very affable and was aware of everything going on in Luang Prabang. He explained to me that there was gay activity in the area but it was very subdued so as not to bring attention to the authorities. I got the impression that he could hook me up with somebody if I was interested (I didn't pursue that given the bf was sitting right next to me when that was said). Sorry, that's all I remember. The bartender at that bar (who I presumed may have been the bf of the Belgian guy) was a very handsome dude about (guess) 25-30 years old (and I hope he wasn't offended by my constant glances toward him...hehe).

Some _______________ are like sheep. Celebrity counts for a lot in ____________________. Monkey and Steve, you can fill in the name of almost every country in the world there. Sure, there are a lot of idiots in the US.........and I'd guess that it's about the same percentage as wherever you're from. P.S. Arnie has turned out to be a pretty damned good governor. I watched him rather coherently explain the other night on a CNN interview that, as governor, he feels it is his job to do and support what the majority of the people want and to ignore ideology from either his party (the Republicans) or the Democrats. Pretty smart for a dumbass weight lifter (which he really isn't). There's good reason he is fairly popular in California. When he was first elected, I was dumbfounded (thinking he was just a rather dense movie actor) but I will admit that he's surprised me over the last couple of years.

Presuming the 8-year-old did it and did it on purpose (it wasn't an accident or he wasn't reasonably defending himself), he ought to be charged with murder as that was what he did; however, he should clearly be charged as an 8-year-old in juvenile court as juvenile court was set up exactly for this purpose and with the proper thinking and resources to deal with kids like this.

Geez, GT, I must admit that this fantasy has never been on my list. Strange, dude, very strange...

Lol. And then I suppose we have to come up with a new definition of capital punishment.....hehe. Yea, ain't America great?!? They pay you millions of dollars in salary and bonuses to totally fuck up a company. Then, when you've done a great job doing that, they pay you millions more in severance pay to go the fuck away. God, ya gotta love it......

Heck, the individual in your avatar could have done a better job than George W! McCain did put up a good fight and is an honorable man; however, the selection of Carabou Barbie wasn't very intelligent and his switching positions on the tax cuts and immigration to please the right wing was not so honorable. Still a decent man.

Ah, Thai smiles. I have hundreds of photos of smiling Thais taken over the year and it's impossible to pick out even my favorites of the day. But I'll try a few (I do notice you didn't limit the number!). First, one of my favorites, some kids in Chiangmai having some fun: My bf's nephew who lives northeast of Chiangrai: A friend's nephew in the back of a pickup while we were touring Isaan: A Loy Krathong (Chiangmai) parade dancer with a big grin: Songkran revelers in Chiangmai: Another Songkran reveler/doll in Chiangmai: Whether the best smile or not, she's most definitely the best pad thai cook in all of Thailand (Corner Restaurant, Hua Hin): Finally, the infamous Chiangmai Twins, each with a different way to smile:

A buddy of mine always uses the "flight and hotel" deals offerred by Northwest....and he almost ends up spending less for that than the price of the regular flight ticket alone. Sometimes he actually stays a night or two (usually the first and last) in the hotel package included. So, often worth a look.

The worst flooding in Chiangmai that I've been aware of occurred 4-5 years ago and the Ping River came all the way up Taipei Road several hundred meters past the night market (Chang Klan, the night market street, had about 2 feet of water in the street - and you can imagine the destruction of the businesses that were downstairs there). In the last year, the government did some dredging of the Ping and they assert that a repeat is unlikely. Don't believe it for a minute. Any place within half a mile of the Ping River is at risk. Also, there has been some flooding on the west side of the city (water coming down Doi Suthep) although that's been somewhat rare. And, as somebody mentioned, anywhere near the southeast of the old city (where the original city was built and the temple area still known as Wiang Kum Kam) is prone to flooding. "Chiangmai" means "new city" and it consists of the what I call the old city (the part within the moat) that was built in 1296 by King Mengrai far enough away from the Ping to supposedly avoid the flooding problems annually encountered at Wiang Kum Kam. P.S. For those interested in ruins, there are many ruins of the original city that have been excavated in the last 30 years and are very interesting to see (well, at least to me). I was out there photographing the sites two weeks ago during my recent visit to LOS.

Well, before John goes back, he ought to have Sarah shoot a few meese (plural of moose....although Edwin Meese would do and would be about the same poundage) and then he can open up a meat market in DC to replenish the treasury. Let's see, you'd only have to sell 1200 pounds of moose meat at at little over $580,000,000 per pound to recoup the 700 billion bailout package.

Your right about that. Adding a single outlet in a room for a building to be built will add a $60.00 to $80.00 charge (and I, buying retail, can buy the box and dupex receptacle for less than $3.00)! Now, if you hired an electrician here to come to your house to replace the receptacle, you'd be lucky to only have to pay $150.00 (or damn near 5000 baht!).

Thanks for the photos....always nice to see (and thanks for the effort - I know the time it takes to sort them all and then get them posted on a site and linked to here). The one photo of the little boy and the one photo with the security guard and little boy are beyond precious. Edit: So precious, I've edited them a bit and will re-post (hope that's okay with you): (Look at the face of that Thai security guard. Could be a model if he wanted to be!)

While even expats who live in Pattaya enjoy the photos (see GB's comments above), they're even more valuable to us falang who visit on occasion and look forward to spending longer periods of time in LOS (i.e., wannabe expats). Being the latter category, I also enjoyed the photos (always do). Thanks for posting.

Now that's news!

Somewhat similar to the George Carlin story, the wealthy socialite, upon receiving her husband's ashes, dressed in a formal attire, lit candles at the dining room table, poured the ashes on the table, and then scattered the ashes all over the room by puffing several hard breaths at the ashes. "There's that blow job you always wanted, you bastard!"

This has been a problem in most countries for hundreds of years because society (mainly the religious element but some general cultural components) and the law have never come up with clear answers to some fundamental questions. Questions like what is the body - a chattel (piece of personal property) - and who the heck "owns it" after death? Practically speaking, at least in the west (likely applies elsewhere as well), one's Will isn't worth much unless and until a Court "admits it to probate" (which effectively means that it's the valid deal and controls distribution of the decedent's property) and that isn't done usually until long after we're taking a dirt nap (or have had our final "smoke"). This issue (rather simple really: who controls your carcass after your death and do you have the right to make instructions that this person must follow) will only be finally resolved when a legislature makes a law setting fixed rules. If and when a legislature takes up that issue, be prepared for a bizzare donnybrook of competing interests. Obviously, a surviving spouse ought to have the right to say how things work. But what if the spouses have been separated for 10 years and Mr. Dead Guy has been living with a girlfriend or his parents for that time period? What about a single woman who's parents are dead and she only has one sibling who she hates but has been living with a guy in a common law marriage for 25 years? And, of course, what about the guy/gal who's closest human companions for 30 years have no "legal" relationship at all? With respect to the next-of-kin rules applied by many embassies, my guess is that's based on historical practice and not any particular law of the home or host country. That ought to change but I'm doubtful it will anytime soon. This historical practice ("we do it this way because we always have done it this way") actually controls many things. It's only been in the last 20 years that most US states have adopted laws which allow a living person to designate somebody to make medical decisions for them after they were unconcious or incompetent. Rather incredible that it took until the 1990's for this issue to be codified, isn't it? I wonder what Thailand's rules are about who gets to make those choices (i.e., does Thailand have a Patient Advocate law that would apply to us and are we allowed to name our Thai friends to make medical decisions for us?). I wonder if anyone (GB?) might know something about this issue? For me, I have designated in my Will what is to be done (cremation and disposition down the nearest porcelain receptacle - a procedure my younger brothers fondly call the "terminal swirly") and have designated a close friend (who I've told what I want done) to handle things. But I also have 9 siblings who survive, a couple of whom probably just can't stop themselves from inserting themselves into the fray (in spite of my expressions to the contrary). Will things happen the way I want them to happen? Hell if I know (but, frankly, I probably won't fret too much myself about it at the time).

Maybe a story for the "hey, I don't make it up, I just report it" column? Sounds rather goofy to me..... I can understand how you can get hydrogen from water (you do the old electrolysis thing by running electric current through water and the water breaks down into it's two hydrogen molecules and one oxygen molecule - hey, that's why they call it H2O!) but the real difficulty is the quantity of hydrogen produced that way (absent 2000 pounds of equipment to produce enough) and, even worse, what the heck provides the substantial electrical current needed (perhaps another 4000 pounds of batteries that would need a substation to recharge themselves?). And I wouldn't even ask where the substation gets its power..... Maybe better stick to water buffaloes. Come to think of it, if one connnected plastic tubes to the backend of a water buffalo, we could burn methane to boil the water to run the steam generator to create the electrical current to run through more water to create the hydrogen to power the trucks needed to haul the tons of grass to feed the water buffaloes so they'll continue farting vast amounts of methane so we can heat enough water.....

Glad to hear that they've added wireless internet. I'd like that too. Unless things have changed, what I really liked about Tui's is the deathly quiet at night. During the day, it's just a gentle stroll out the front door to the gay beach area and it's just a walk to the corner to grab a baht bus to town. When around Pattaya (not very often anymore), I find the town itself a bit intense after a couple of days and staying at Tui's seemed to make the whole experience a bit more of a quiet/palatable beach holiday, at least to me. In the past, Tui pretty much locked up the place by 11PM but there's a security guard stationed outside who'll let you in after the place goes dark. Seven or eight years ago, when walking from the corner down to Tui's at 2AM or so, occasionally some soi dog acting like Cujo wwould scare the bejeebees out of you but the path lights started to calm that situation down. I've heard a couple of comments about security concerns walking down there late at night but I never felt any concerns (but, then again, if I was walking from the corner to Tui's at 1 or 2 AM, it was about a 95% chance I was slightly inebriated at the time....).

Lol. Do ever ask the bf to switch positions a bit just so you can get a better view of the TV?

Have stayed there several times before but last time was 2-3 years ago. They had zero internet access in the rooms and, to be honest, I don't even remember that they had a computer with internet access on the main floor that the guests could use/rent (maybe they do but I don't remember ever seeing it and I always used an internet shop elsewhere). Regardless, I am very fond of the place.

Hey, I resemble that!

Compared to long ago, China has made extraordinary strides, at least economically for some citizens (percentage-wise, it's a large number). "All were offended by America's attitude to their country"......"could not understand why Americans were always publicly so negative"....."no, they had not been brainwashed." Huh? I think your comments underscore your problem. Neither the average American nor the American government is at all negative about the Chinese people so I'm not sure where you/they got that idea. Have there been US governmental criticisms of some of the human rights issues in China (which would seem to imply we care about Chinese citizens, wouldn't it?)? Sure, and rightfully so. As for brainwashing, I suppose it's how you define it. Not allowing your citizens access to adequate information, I suppose, leaves one with the inability to know or compare (North Korea, of course, would be the worst example there). When/if China has freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and even a rudimentary form of democracy (the ability to have something to do with electing one's governmental leaders), perhaps then the 5-6 million elitists who run the place will be sent packing.

Hyperbole run amok.... The constitutional rights and protections given to the misdemeanor defendants tomorrow morning in my backward, dinky, US city exceed all the rights "enjoyed" by the Chinese people. The US has it's issues but to suggest in any manner that the freedoms (e.g., to say what we want, to print what we want, to have the right to not incriminate ourselves, the right to not have our homes searched without the judicial issuance of a search warrant upon a showing of probably cause, etc., etc., etc., etc.......) we enjoy are not expansive is simply inaccurate.

GT - way, way, way too much time on your hands....