Rogie

As a non-technical person the obvious question in my mind having read that is "what about oxygen masks?" In a serious event such as a fire on board, which I would assume would start slowly enough for the cabin crew to initiate the masks, and assuming the plane was able to make an emergency landing in one piece without any casualties owing to the fire itself (rather than the smoke), I wonder how long the oxygen supply would last.

"Time-lapse footage shows an Egyptian statue moving in its glass display cabinet, according to a Manchester Museum. The museum says it installed a stop-motion camera after reports the carving had started changing position, despite apparently not being moved by human hands for 80 years." http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23029507

That's reasonable. We saw in another thread developments in places such as Udon Thani. http://www.gaythailand.com/forums/topic/8935-issan-booms/#

If Starbuck's are planning to double the number of their stores in Thailand, I wonder who their projected customer base will be? Ex-pats (Including foreign visitors from countries already awash with their stores), coffee virgins, seduced by advertising, including Thais and other Asians who've up till now only known the delights of 3 in 1 or similar, or a general mix? Alternatively, maybe no advertising is needed, maybe there's a ready audience out there just dying to see a branch open up round the corner from them. As somebody who seldom drinks coffee, and has never drunk Starbuck's coffee, in one sense I couldn't care less what they do but I am curious what it is that's made them so successful. From what others have written, it seems they are either very very successful or a flop in any particular country. Without meaning to be nasty, one thinks of the opportunistic attitude of cigarette companies denied ever increasing profits in their home country, owing to people giving up smoking, who latch on to 'emerging markets' to fill their coffers. I'm certainly not equating coffee with nicotine, just the marketing aspects, although quite obviously I have no idea what goes through the minds of Starbuck's executives, so this is all speculation on my part, but sorry to say my cynical attitude just mirrors the behaviour of this and no doubt many other large corporations. http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2013/03/05/a-closer-look-at-philip-morris-asia-opportunity/

Thank you Christian for part one of your report (in a separated thread). I look forward to seeing more of Bang Kachao. If you had to choose Christian, what would you rather do, write up one of your trip reports or venture forth to somewhere intriguing like the so-called 'Fishbowl'? I remembered I'd read about Bang Kachao in Alex Kerr's Bangkok Found, which I started reading last month and still only halfway through. On page 57 he writes: "I've never been there, and I don't know anyone who has". For someone whom I'd assumed had covered every square inch of Bangkok, that comment comes as quite a surprise to me.

That's a great photo in that Sun article. They're both dressed nicely, DiCaprio in a good suit and tie, althought his shirt looks ordinary, Lumley in a lovely dress. DiCaprio's left hand looks awkward. It should be on her leg, not his! Yes, Lumley is a National Treasure. I first fell in love with her as the delightful Avenger's girl Purdey.

I am pleased to see Emirates 'up there' but a bit surprised as they only feature twice in the cabin class rankings (#3 in first class and first class seat). I prefer them to Etihad, but say that from an economy perspective not having flown in a 'higher' class. In economy one has to be thankful for small mercies, so it's often the small things that matter, for instance the stewardesses come round with the hot towels soon after boarding. It seems to be common practice now to allow you to choose your seat at the same time as you check-in online. For economy at any rate this cannot be done until 24 hours before takeoff. If the seating is the usual 3-4-3 or 2-4-2 a strategy I often use is to book an aisle seat in the centre and more often than not there won't be anyone next to me so I get more space. Declining to recline? Here is a snippet of an interesting article from the BBC website. He goes on to discuss an aspect (flying economy as I always do) I hadn't thought of: And maybe Fountainhall can corroborate this? And here's another wonderful sight: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23002635

Bangkok Fishbowl: Exotic species swim free in abandoned mall One for our intrepid Christian perhaps? "A few blocks away from Khao San Road sits New World, a four-storey, roofless, abandoned mall on the corner of Banglamphu Intersection. The building’s flooded basement now serves as a home for thousands of fish and is arguably home to the most exotic underwater species in Bangkok. How was this new world created inside New World? It’s a long story. Back in the 80’s, Kaew Fah Plaza Company Limited built New World as an 11-storey mall. The company was later found in breach of a building law after it constructed seven more floors on top of the approved construction blueprint. The mall was shut in 1997, and an unfortunate series of events occurred thereafter. The mall was set ablaze in 1999, causing some casualties and in 2004, one person was killed from collapsing debris during a partial demolition. The mall’s fifth to eleventh floors were eventually dismantled to be in line with the original plan and New World has been roofless ever since. With no roof, rainwater unsurprisingly collected in the basement. The pool of static water reared mosquitoes. Mosquitoes annoyed vendors in the neighborhood. To fix this problem, some vendors released a bunch of fish into the pool so as to curb mosquito breeding. Quickly, that bunch of fish reproduced into thousands." "In 2011, New World closed its doors after a huge number of locals visited the mall to sight the unseen, 500-square-meter fishpond… but Coconuts photographer Kajornsak Intarapong recently took a top secret trip to investigate the site . . . " http://bangkok.coconuts.co/2013/06/19/bangkok-fishbowl-exotic-species-swim-free-abandoned-mall

Hamlet may still be with us (I hope so as it spawned some classic ads on TV!) but I am afraid to inform our august readership the Bobby Charlton comb-over is widely assumed to be extinct . . . (*) (*) although just because I haven't spotted one doesn't mean there isn't the odd sad individual working for Starbucks, Google, Apple or Amazon.

Thrillers are almost always a good read by definition, at least those billed as 'best-sellers' or whatever. No harm in that, and good you enjoyed the book. But, when 203 people have lost their lives through no fault of their own then surely it is owed to them to be respectful. Writing a novel based on that in which the author embellishes as he thinks fit to appeal to his perceived thriller readership is wrong IMO, especially when the full facts are blurred. Conspiracy theories are tempting to expand upon, but why risk further upset to the victim's families. Yes, it might take a while, but leave the speculation and the eventual credible explanation to the professionals. I must add I haven't read this book and knew nothing about it until Koko mentioned it. I may have misunderstood the merits or intention of the book so apologies if so.

(my bold) I don't know enough about Asian coffee-drinking habits to comment on that, but I do know to many Thais instant coffee means just that - 'instant'. Add boiling water and Bob's your uncle, a cup of sweet milky ughh - to be polite I'll call it a beverage. A visit to see a friend not long ago had an unhappy ending. I normally drink tea In the morning but he didn't have that, so he enquired "3-in-1 ok?" almost as a matter of fact. As it was either that or nothing, I convinced myself the sugar entering my bloodstream early in the morning must be good for something!

As already mentioned, the expectation to tip for services rendered in the USA hasn't always been accepted. It is now but that doesn't mean it can't change again. I wouldn't want to do away with tipping altogether, and let's not forget the list of people you may wish to consider tipping extends far beyond restaurant waiters. IMO an ideal situation in a country where tipping is entrenched is that it should be much more flexible, so as others have said good service ought to get a better tip than poor service. And, sticking with restaurants, I still haven't worked out the economics of what's going on here . . . if it's routine for waiting staff in the USA to get a very low basic wage, surely that's skewing it greatly in favour of the restaurant owner. It would come as no surprise to me to learn that, rather like the tuk tuks and taxis in Phuket or the baht bus mafia in Pattaya, they're perfectly happy with the status quo, thank you very much!

(my bold) Like Koko I thought that most apt, indeed a wonderful play on words (two kinds of slang 'happy end(ing)' and 'peter') There are a few other male names that have a rude slang meaning, eg. John Thomas Percy seems to feature a few times in slang terminology. Genital warts is one. And in cockney rhyming slang it means a grower rather than a shower. I would be very surprised if a non-Brit knew the reason for that!

I agree annoying to spot a painting you like and see somebody beat you to it, but at least the SOLD sign alerts you and avoids the embarassment of saying you will buy it only to be told "sold already". I don't quite understand your analogy of the painting and the under-age boy. He is not offable rather than being already offed. To take it a stage further into the realms of the absurd, it indeed would be frustrating to see somebody you liked who to all intents and purposes looked offable, only ot be told "sorry that man in the corner offed him an hour ago but is one of our best customers and loves to watch other men ogling 'his' boy".

An interesting and wide-ranging discussion on the main forum started off about the terrible fate awaiting stray dogs in Thailand and went on to consider many other instances of cruelty to animals in particular those bred for their meat, together with the pitfalls of factory farming such as overuse of antibiotics. http://www.gaythailand.com/forums/topic/8918-smugglers-drive-thailands-grim-trade-in-dog-meat/ Some people are persuaded to stop eating meat once they are made aware of how some animals are cruelly mistreated, but many meat-eaters turn a blind eye to horrific scenes of animal cruelty, perhaps thinking - like me - such cases are the exception rather than the rule. So what would make me stop eating meat? As I mentioned in a post in the thread referred to above "If anything would stop me eating chicken, beef or pork it'd be because I didn't trust what I was eating was actually safe to eat, or was proven to have been produced using the worst kind of factory-farming practices". As there's always an element of doubt about most things involved in the food industry - (can we ever really trust every aspect of the food chain?) - I'd always like to think I am on the lookout for alternative ways of doing things, so if somebody came up with a meat substitute that was indistinguishable from traditionally produced meat would I be interested? Yes, definitely. If it cooked easily and tasted good, then why not? So, how near are we to being able to eat such food? A report by the excellent science journalist Michael Hanlon is headed: Fake meat: is science fiction on the verge of becoming fact? The race to make fake meat just got interesting. Two scientists on opposite sides of the world both claim to be on the verge of serving up the first lab-grown hamburger – and saving the planet in the process. The new reality is so close, you can almost taste it First, a bit of what I would at one time have termed propaganda, but is irrefutably true: Like any good 'race', there are two rival camps! So, what is Brown doing? His approach "is to manipulate plant material to create a meat-facsimile". Hanlon got to try some but as he had to sign a confidentiality agreement this is as far as he can go: And what about his rival? So how do you grow meat in a vat? http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/jun/22/fake-meat-scientific-breakthroughs-research Science fiction or eventual science fact? One thing is for sure, even if fake meat could be perfected it would face a huge uphill struggle to get off the ground and onto supermarket shelves. The global meat industry is very powerful and won't want to see people like Brown or Post succeed. Who knows? Maybe in years to come the market for dog meat will be catered for by 'meat' grown in a lab. That would surely be good news for many of Thailand's soi dogs.

(my bold) Whenever I am researching flights from the UK to Thailand, BA is never the cheapest. So the last few times I've flown to Thailand I've used Emirates or Etihad. They both fly from Manchester (changing in Dubai or Abu Dhabi) thus avoiding London altogether. Whereas using BA I would get an internal UK flight to London, change terminals and from there fly to Bangkok. I don't have the paperwork to hand, but I seem to recall when breaking down the total fare that the tax component of the middle eastern airlines was a lot less than when flying with BA. In other words the basic cost for BA was lower, but by the time tax was added the total fare was higher. Returning to FH's point that I quoted, I am wondering if my experiences have anything to do with flying from or through London?

Yes, good word. Means a fee for (professional) services rendered. So if the transaction was amateurish then no fee, or a smaller fee might be in order. And why delicate? Not everybody wants delicacy. Yes maybe at first glance it would seem so, but as FH pointed out there are different kinds of business class, at least as far as BA is concerned. It seems you really do have to know your onions even in business!

Re: scattering . . . sounds like good advice! Not being a pet-owner I've never thought about this - what happens to their bodies? Some dogs are massive! It would seem some are cremated going by the article in post #28. Has anyone done that, had their pet cremated, and what happened to the ashes?

Many people profess to be quite unconcerned about what happens to them after they die. Assuming he is cremated, then a loved one may be asked to scatter his ashes at some suitable location that meant something to the deceased whilst he was still alive, or for an urn containing them to be buried or placed in some appropriate place. Anyone ever thought of taking a 'holiday' as a life-like cadaver before your bodily remains become cremains? Apparently you will be well-treated using the latest techniques: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-22908661 Back to ashes, something closer to home (for me): http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/timeless-fells-hosts-of-golden-daffodilsand-piles-of-ashes-lake-district-park-authority-urge-mourners-to-dispose-of-remains-carefully-8657861.html

Probably most people just play along with the kind of tipping culture they grew up with, maybe a few grumbles from time to time but basically anyone querying it'd just get a shrug of the shoulders. However, reading that BBC article I was fascinated to realise America's attitude to tipping has seesawed quite dramatically over time. Plus there's the master/servant, white/black and tip yes/tip no dichotomies. I don't eat out much but I think if I lived in New York I'd eat in a helluva lot more than dining out. Many restaurant-owners must be laughing all the way to the bank getting away with low wages to their staff but charging similar prices (that's an assumption, I may be wrong) to an equivalent restaurant in a country where the tipping culture is frowned on, eg. Tokyo. Prices at some American eateries such as a steak house seemed quite good value to me and the portions are usually very large, but it is many years since I last visited the States so I have no idea whether they'd still come across as good value to a tourist. Or maybe the restaurant bosses are not laughing in New York, maybe there's some other leveller (local taxes or some other tax on profits) I am not aware of. I think visitors to Thailand are lucky. I've been shouted down about this in the past when I've quoted the veteran Lonely Planet author Joe Cummings but this is what he writes "Tipping is not generally expected in Thailand . . . At many hotel restaurants or other hi-so eateries, a 10% service charge will be added to your bill. When this is the case, tipping is not expected" (11th ed, 2005). He says if your restaurant bill comes to 488 baht and you pay with a 500 baht note "some Thais and foreign residents will leave the 12 baht coin change". The implication is that if the meal was 480 baht and the change was a 20 baht note they would keep the change. Even I think that's a bit mean!

For comparison: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22856586

You might not be the only one KT!. . . http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/2133961.stm

Although as I said earlier, I love a good steak, I can do without quite happily, in fact a steak like a T-bone, rump, Sir Loin, etc is rather a treat for me (being of stout merrie Englande stock I enjoy my roast beef and Yorkshire pud rather more often). Vegetarians in the UK sometimes got called cranks, and indeed there was (and maybe still is) a restaurant of that name in London (Tottenham Court Road was the one I recall) and I ate there a few times and was happy with the food. Having checked out the link above, I like the look of the place KT mentioned, Anchan. I would happily go there if i was visiting Chiang Mai. There is a nice veggie restaurant on one of the roads off Suan Phlu in central Bkk. It is the road that leads to the new Sukhothai buiilding which is right next to Babylon on soi Nantha Mozart. I haven't eaten there for many years but you could get a tasty lunch for 30 baht. Probably costs more now. It's only open lunchtimes.

Now Phuket has entered the fray.

Bolshie, they're still bolshie. What the country needs now is another 'revolution'. One of common sense. Russians are proud people, and no harm in that, but they have to realise the days when they could go nose to nose with the Americans has long since past. No doubt us Brits took a while to cotton on our Empire was disintegrating too, so I have some sympathy, but not much. The longer they take footling around, the farther behind Russian society will fall. First communism and now fascism. We are only 4 years away from the 100th anniversary of the 'red revolution'. It is fascinating to think what would have happened in Russia if only the tsars had modernised and not kept their heads stuck in their ivory towers. Russia up to 1914 http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/higher/history/russia/tsar/revision/1/