Bushcraft

Nice one, had me laughing. Amazing how many Indian tourists think it's ok to wander around with 40k baht gold necklaces

Nice one, lightened the generally gloomy mood around town.

Saw this one today. We used to have empires run by emperors. We used to have kingdoms run by kings. Nowadays we have countries run by ....

Stay below the radar, use a VPN and don't advertise your service if you provide one. You'll be fine on a retirement visa.

Happy birthday Adam, see you later.

Had me laughing, keep it up mate.

Nice one this month, thanks for the monthly updates on this mad town. You missed one news item: A large sinkhole has opened up on Soi Kopai. Police are looking into it.

Nice one, your comments on choice of clothing rang a bell with me. Any male over the age of 30 who wears a baseball cap backwards is a prat, never mind sandals with socks or a manbag. Sunglasses perched on a bald head late at night. And the choice of shirts some people make ... you could be forgiven for thinking the circus is in town.

I had an appointment at Bangkok Pattaya Hospital yesterday afternoon, knew nothing about any earthquake and was amazed to find Building B completely devoid of staff or patients, and lots of nurses etc. evacuating patients from the main building. Nothing for it but to go home, where the TV told me why. One has to ask how come one high-rise under construction in Bangkok collapsed owing to an earthquake with an epicenter 600 miles away, while other buildings were just damaged. Pity the poor buggers who were working in it, there can scarcely be any hope for them.

Excellent, thanks and happy new year mate.

Thanks Jacko et al, I was using a different link which took me to a useless user interface, not the one above. This one worked fine right away with my existing PW.

So when you log in do you input a new password (OTP) every time, or use the same password all the time?

Can anybody who does online 90-day reporting help? Last time I did my 90-day report online, no problems. This time, attempting to log in to the site, the password I created and used isn't accepted and I can't get in. Contrary to the instructions on the website, there's no 'forgot password' box that I can use to reset the PW. Is the PW I originally registered still valid (they call it an OTP), or do I have to create a new password each time and send it in by clicking the send button? Can't imagine the latter but need to ask. The wording on the form is ambiguous.

Blimey, free entrance in Thailand (even for farang)? Gift shop? Coffee shop?

Not a single aircraft actually designed and produced by Thais, ok for aviation history buffs I suppose, and ok for extracting baht from visitors, but it's hardly RAF Duxford. Personally I think I'd have more fun in the Swiss Navy Museum.

I don't know anyone who pursues and pays for male Thai company (admittedly with a few doubtfuls who like cocks with frocks), but where the females are concerned, I suspect that most of us are less interested in quality of conversation, wit, insight, worldliness, etc. and extremely interested in physical attributes plus willingness and experience. As the saying goes, we pay them to leave, as meaningful conversation is not the strong suit of most of these girls. We don't look at the mantlepiece when we just want to stoke the fire.

I'm afraid I take exception to the Auschwitz tour item, as my German uncle (my mother's brother) sadly died in a concentration camp in 1943. He got drunk one day and fell off his watchtower.

It’s 1926, the Governor General of the Fiji Islands is retiring, and his successor has just arrived to take up his duties. Both are sitting in the garden, and the outgoing GG is briefing the new one about current events. “I also want you to meet Carruthers, who has been my ADC for many years, and is now yours, and is a most competent officer with a splendid military record.” Carruthers is duly summoned and makes his appearance. He’s a shocking sight - less than 5 feet tall, a bad limp, completely bald though not above 35, and has a grossly disfigured face strewn with blotches, sores and with a distorted nose and ears. “Carruthers, meet the new GG, and please tell him about your military record.” “Well, after graduating from Sandhurst where I passed first in my class, won the Golden Sword and was fencing and heavyweight boxing champion, I was commissioned into the Coldstream Guards, won the Military Medal on the Khyber, then took part in several battles during the last war and won the DSO and bar. Severely wounded, while recovering, I gained a doctorate in philosophy at Oxford before returning to duty and being posted here as ADC …” "Alright Carruthers, that’ll do, now tell us about the day you told the witch doctor to go and f*ck himself.”

Just come back from Immigration in Soi 5 after a nightmarish 1 hour arguing with sullen staff who don't give a damn and of course can't be in the wrong. Plus having to fill in a form and have photocopies made. I last went there on October 6 for 90-day reporting, and notified them that I had recently changed my address. My passport was duly returned with a slip confirming notification of the new address, and I thought no more about it until today, when I worked out that I was about due to report again and turned up to do so. Big problem, apparently and amazingly, reporting a new address is not the same as reporting your address under the 90-day procedure, even if done on the same day, and you need to do these separately at different desks under the chaotic new system in the new building. Nobody told me this at the time of course, I thought I had done my 90-day reporting with my new address, as I've done in the past after a move. All my own fault, not theirs of course, and it's cost me a fine of 2000 baht for failure to report. This takes the biscuit for bureaucratic stupidity, and there's no appeal, arguments fall on deaf ears. You either pay up or eff off to face more serious music later. Sometimes, after 15 years, I rather dislike this country's way of doing things.

Excelled yourself this month! Thanks for the laugh.

Not in the least, I take it as a good-natured dig 🙂

How's this one: I used to think my brain was the most sublime organ in my body. Then I realised who was telling me this.

There's a prominent sign reading "90 Day Reporting" outside the new building, but on entering you also see a couple of desks on the right for other visa matters. Either way, the new facility is a big improvement on the previous crush in the main building.

Heavens Above on Boomerang is also non-smoking now.

That's good, those ears are famous - like a taxi with its doors open. Also, he's one of those chaps who can stare at you through a keyhole with both eyes at once.