Bushcraft

Don't be too hard on the girl, that whole thing with Bill Clinton came about because of her dyslexia. As an intern, she apparently received a memo on the desk reading: The President wants you to sack his cook. The rest is history.

Do it yourself mate, the documentation is straightforward, and either way it's you who has to provide back-up material to show you have more than a passing relationship. That means a history together, lots of photos from all over the place, especially visits to her family, you with her kids etc. What they fundamentally want to be sure of is that she has a very good reason to come back to Thailand, not stay in the UK and join e.g. the massage scene.

What's missing in your test description is the 'spatial vision' test in which you press a button when you think two bars moving towards each other some distance away are aligned. I had to do that, as did the rest of my 'group', and I thought it was standard. Did you not have to do this test?

Words fail me .. a 22 year-old, able to drive and therefore in possession of her faculties, capable of an inhuman act like this? Poor little mite dying like that. And sickening for the first responders, who really see the shitty end of the stick every day.

Those spray cans hardly existed in Patts 2 years ago, you never saw hordes of vendors selling them from large boxes. Another perversion of an established NYE custom whereby on the stroke of midnight, people would fire party-poppers and maybe spray a can of stuff over the fellow-revelers in e.g. FLB, which was quite ok. These antics are quite over the top now. I'll put up with it for a few minutes in a bar where I'm drinking, but not frompuerile strangers when walking down a street way before and after the countdown. And certainly never in the face, that would certainly incur my wrath. The police should intervene to stop it before it becomes an established curse like Songkran.

Best cracker joke I ever saw was this: Who made the first unsuccessful powered flight? The Wrong brothers.

Words fail me, he'll hopefully get the Thai book thrown at him for this, how stupid can you get?

Amazing how tolerant the Thais are, I fully expected somebody to give him a fat lip when watching that. Disgraceful to be that drunk and offend all and sundry.

Great pics, and what a beautiful memorial. I well remember the news reports of the monk burning himself alive in protest at the stupid suppression of Buddhists by the Diem regime. It suddenly brought the attention of the whole world to Vietnam overnight. By then Kennedy had already ordered a reduction in US personnel, and complete withdrawal from Vietnam by US forces to be completed by 1965. He was already convinced that a war in Vietnam was unwinnable. Implementation was delayed and basically ignored by the military, who had other views more in line with the interests of the arms industry. That executive order was a contributing factor to Kennedy's assassination in November 1963.

Oooh lovely German bread within striking distance of my house at last. Must get myself down there, good bread is what I miss most in Patts.

Aw, it's just showmanship but very entertaining if not overdone and trotted out on every occasion, as Teelack suggests. They're always a formidable bunch of beef on the hoof anyway - I remember paying a business visit to New Zealand House in London as a young man, and sharing a lift with half the All Blacks team. Huge buggers to a man, I thought there was a total eclipse!

She sounds familiar Ikkrang ..

Ah Mr. Bond, licenced to thrill ..

I occasionally see one of these centipedes around the estate. Thais treat them with great respect, as a sting from one is apparently agonisingly painful and potentially dangerous - the pain lasts for days and nothing relieves it.

Loy Krathong is not what it was in Pattaya, unfortunately. 4-5 years ago you'd find many of the BGs sprucing themselves up with (usually rented) Thai costumes to celebrate, go to the beach to cast their Krathongs etc., but with very low seasons and not very busy high seasons, many just don't have the money to dress up as before. With a few exceptions, there's hardly a sign of LK in the bars nowadays, which is a pity as I think they look great with those costumes.

Or the Irishman trying to smuggle himself into the London Olympics as a contestant, without paying, and carrying a roll of barbed wire. When asked what event he was in, he replied "Fencing".

Oiks! Reminds me of the news report on TV in the '70s: The East German pole-vault champion is now the West German pole-vault champion.

Sounds like he performed a Pole-vault.

Great pics, thanks Firth. There's even more to see than when I was last there in the 80's. Spits, Hurrys, Stringbag, Mosquito, Doodlebug, V2 and much more. And malignly intelligent, strutting but ultimately ineffective Goering as nothing more than the figurehead of the German air effort, in constant conflict with the much more knowledgeable but disastrously wrong Erhard Milch, who actually ran the show. Brilliant display, a must-see if visiting England. Tributes to the saviour of Britain in 1940, Hugh "Stuffy" Dowding, and Arthur "Bomber" Harris belong there too, but are absent (?).

I very rarely see Pattaya and its sights in the early morning, but those lovely brown legs are definitely a turn-on - there's something very sexy about side-saddle. What I most like to see (when clothed) is Issaan girls dancing and singing to their Morlam music at parties - the one time when they are genuinely happy, no lies, no bullshit, just happy to be amongst their own in a far-off town.

Very good write-up Atlas, it was indeed a pleasure to meet up again and chat/marvel about the Thai scene. There were 2-3 farang with BGs or unaccompanied before you arrived, and Hammer dropped in for a couple as well, but I had hoped that more BMs would be there so that I had somebody to talk to in this very Thai environment. Nonetheless, it was a fun evening for all, and there was some delectable (though for me off-limits) Thai womanhood on show, getting steadily more pissed and fruity. For info: beers are 100 Baht, quite ok to order them one by one as in any bar. Most Thais order a bottle of scotch or Sangsom for around 800 Baht, with free mixers. This is shared around the table until empty, and another is ordered. The tips and drinks really flowed for the staff singers, they were well happy. Fah also hired a very well-known singing duo (one with the long legs, gorgeous), who really got the place going with their well-rehearsed songs and stage banter. Great time, we'll do it again!

No, I just fund the place, it's Fah's venture. Have I done something wrong in posting this in this category?

Another 86 year-old chap recently bit the dust with a massive heart-attack. For 60 years he had been in the habit of taking his wife upstairs for a leisurely bit of afternoon delight after Sunday lunch. With advancing age he had taken to timing his strokes to the chime of the local church bells. What saw him off? The Mr. Whippy ice-cream van turned into the street.

Rumours abound that there are karaoke joints/pubs devoted mostly to Thais. There may be BMs who would be interested in experiencing this rather different approach to the P4P scene, but are - like myself previously - wary of going in as a farang for fear of being unwanted. My mia runs just such a place called Bauw Issaan ("handsome Issaan men") in the Rompho bar complex opposite Soi 5 (2nd Road end) in Jomtien. She has 17 all-male staff, all of whom are really excellent singers and are there to part wealthy or sponsored Thai ladies/BGs from their hard-earned cash by chatting them up, getting boy-drinks, barfines etc. Farang are most welcome too, especially if they can sing, and more and more are bringing their barfines/girlfriends because they know the girls love it as a taste of home. There are always plenty of BGs/FLs as well, and they are as usual on the hunt for farang if any are there. Thais love having fun, and the atmosphere is very friendly - not a hint of 'us and them', they're a good bunch of lads who basically want what we want, but get paid for it. The pub has recently doubled in size and is celebrating a grand opening combined with my mia's birthday party on 18th September - all are welcome who would like a taste of food, drink and Thai sanuk. Around 9 pm til very late would be a good time, the pub is 3/4 of the way up the complex on the right-hand line of shops, to the right of the bars, when coming from 2nd Road Jomtien.

Very good that. Here's another one: When intending to turn left further on, don't plan ahead and change to the inner lane beforehand, do it from the outside lane when you reach the turnoff.