Siam Sam

Jude Law

Nicole Kidman (28 day rule)

I've read those both too and they're brilliant. Ellis is a very talented writer and American Psycho has to be one of the most violently graphic novels ever written. Absolutely horrific in places. I've got Glamorama in my collection but I'm yet to read it. I have just finished I am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe which was also very good. It wasn't as good as his first two novels but it was still a great read. I'm currently reading On the Road by Jack Kerouac yet again, that's several times now but I never tire of this masterpiece which is one of my favourite novels ever.

Well in that case you can guarantee I'll be in there the next time I'm in town although at this rate that could be fucking years away.

Not any more they don't. I definitely won't be going there again then as I'm not a fan of the food in Retox although it's one of the best places in town to watch sporting events. Not a bad breakfast but the orange juice they serve is awful and it's often difficult to get a table on your own out the front. I'll have to give that a try as black pudding is an essential part of an English breakfast in my opinion. I wish you could get bubble with English breakfasts in Pattaya, I'm yet to find a place that does it. Robin's Nest do a good breakfast but it's a little more expensive than other places nearby plus I don't rate the service in there much either.

Flew with BA once in 2014 and wasn't impressed at all so wouldn't fly with them again.

Good photos that I really appreciate as I have spent so much time in these areas over the years. Things are changing so quickly these days on Sukhumvit. A shame about Cheap Charlies but great to see it has reopened in On Nut near to where I often stay when I'm in Bangkok. I know On Nut very well and will be sure to pop in to their new location the next time I'm in Bangkok.

I was warned about the service there and I also think "Cabbages and Condoms" has to be one of the most inappropriate and off putting names for a restaurant but despite this our experience was a good one. We went there with another couple that rated the place and I was pleasantly surprised. We only ate Thai food and what we ate was good although the service wasn't great. This illustrates exactly what I'm saying about Trip Advisor - a restaurant that is considered a "top" restaurant can be disliked by just as many people that like it, yet it's all about the reviews it gets on the website. I am disinclined to go to fine dining establishments in Pattaya because they always falls short when it comes to service, generally speaking restaurants in Thailand are so far behind the Western world in that respect. Bangkok isn't much better. For that reason I often prefer to eat in nondescript places as they often seem to have the tastiest food. Many of these places don't even feature on Trip Advisor. There is a place in a Soi off of Phratamnak Soi 4 (if you're coming from the hill road it's the second left after the 7-Eleven and then the restaurant is on the right, opposite Star Beach Condotel) that is absolutely brilliant and as far as I'm aware they're not on Trip Advisor. I really like Surf Kitchen in Jomtien, I think that place is great. I also like the Pattaya Beer Garden because they're so consistent - I went there probably thirty times during my last stay and never had a bad meal. One of the best places in Pattaya to sit during sunset. I also like a place called the Flying Boat which is also very simple, yet their food is excellent. The last time I was in Bangkok I took my missus, her sister and a friend to eat in the Blue Elephant which is supposed to be one of the best in Bangkok and has the Trip Advisor "certificate of excellence." It was awful, and at £235 hideously overpriced. Not far from there is the excellent Nahm which is one of the best restaurants I've ever eaten in and I highly recommend it. The head chef is that Ozzie guy David Thompson - an absolute connoisseur and expert when it comes to Thai food.

Years ago I stayed in a cheap hotel in Jomtien and did the same thing with some money and my passport, both of which sustained damage from something chewing at them which must have been rats. Fortunately these days I stay in places a little more upmarket.

The second night of my first trip I passed out on a Patpong bar girl with all of my valuables on display including my passport. She didn't take a thing, only the money that I'd agreed to pay her. I've come a long way since then and have still never been robbed, probably because I now take precautions like yourself. Generally speaking I'd say the better the hotel you stay in the less likely you are to get robbed. I always lock my valuables in the room safe and do my best to hide my laptop if I take it. If I do take a laptop I take an old one that I could live with losing. If I do have to leave large amounts of cash in the room before I get to the bank because I've arrived in the night time when the banks are shut, I stash it and I am the master of finding stash places. I have worn large pieces of Thai gold jewellery in the past but I have stopped doing it because most people that live in Thailand whom I speak to are amazed I haven't been robbed of any yet. When I go out I only carry a maximum of 5k baht and my Thai bank card with me, with the bank card stashed in a secret place. I also take a record of all emergency numbers, passwords, account numbers etc when I'm in Thailand.

I've read Private Dancer twice and I've often wondered if Leather has written other books that are based in Thailand so I may well check out the ones that are although I don't think he is that great a writer. Since I last posted in this thread I read The Blade Artist by Irvine Welsh which means I've now read all of his novels. I then decided I should read his four works of short stories because I'm such a fan so I read Ecstasy again which I read back in the 90's but had forgotten all about. I'm going to read the other three soon. The Blade Artist is good but it isn't as good as his finest (Trainspotting, Glue, Porno, Skagboys) which are some of the best books I've ever read. I'd give it an 8 out of 10. Ecstasy is also an 8 out of 10 for me. In characteristic Welsh style it is debauched and controversial, at times beautifully illustrating the rave / club and drug culture of the 90's so anyone who was part of that will appreciate this book. I'm currently reading I am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe. I'm a huge fan of Wolfe and I've already read The Bonfire of the Vanities, A Man in Full, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test and The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby. The Bonfire of the Vanities and A Man in Full are two of the best books that I've ever read which I recommend highly. I am Charlotte Simmons started off slowly but I'm now halfway through it and really enjoying it, Wolfe's writing is fantastic and if you haven't read The Bonfire of the Vanities or A Man in Full yet then I think you should.

I am a fan of Trip Advisor and I use this website to select hotels and restaurants all the time. I've written 170 reviews on their site too which makes me a top level contributor (level 6). One thing I have found with this site though over the years is that their site can sometimes be misleading and as Evil says, their ranking system is open to manipulation and has many flaws. Many times I have eaten in a so called "top" restaurant and it turns out to be a disappointment. Some restaurants or hotels seem to gather a huge following and feature high up on the list of the best when it seems totally unjustified. Once you're experienced with using the site you learn how to filter though the reviews and which ones you should take notice of which allows you to make a better judgement when you select hotels and restaurants. I've eaten in some on this list and the only one I'd disagree with is Retox. This is a great place to drink and watch sporting events but I don't rate their food. The ones that I have eaten in and would rate highly are Cabbages and Condoms, Pattaya Beer Garden and Surf Kitchen in Jomtien which is probably my favourite.

I concur with those that rate the Queen Vic on Soi 6 for an English breakfast as it's pretty good. I always used to like the Butcher's Arms on Soi Bhuakhao but that place has gone downhill over the years. When I was last in Pattaya and living there I tried so many different places for an English Breakfast and what became my favourite was the Irish Rovers on Soi Metro. At 129 baht the big breakfast has to be the best value around. You get two sausages, two bacon, two eggs, fried potatoes, black pudding or hash browns, beans, fried bread, toast, tea or coffee and orange juice. Their breakfasts are cooked really well too. The sausages and bacon are almost as good as you'll get back in England which is a rarity in Pattaya.

Shantaram is absolutely brilliant. People question much of what happened in the novel and I am of the opinion that it is highly embellished in places but that is what makes it such a great novel. I haven't read a book as good as that since I read Atlas Shrugged about eighteen months ago. I've wanted to go to India for years and reading this has finally made me decide that it is a place I have to go to. No more trips to Thailand for a while - we're going to Iceland next and then I'm going to India. I recently read Ask the Dust by John Fante. It was very good and I highly recommend it. Last year I got in to Charles Bukowski and Ask the Dust was Bukowski's favourite book so I had to give it a try. They both have simplistic writing styles yet they're such talented writers because they still manage to convey exactly what they want to even with simple sentences and small vocabularies.

The Great Escape

I haven't posted on the site for a while and in that time I've read some more books which were: My Uncle Oswald by Roald Dahl When I was a child Dahl was my favourite author and I had nearly all his children's books. Danny the Champion of the World is my favourite. I wish I'd kept the ones I had when I was young because I had to buy the ones I liked again. Until reading this book I'd never read any of his work aimed at adults. This was pretty good. It's a ribald tale of sex and adventure which was entertaining and, as with all his books, is testament to the wonderful imagination this man had. I didn't find it as good as his best children's books though. Dahl was well known for his benevolence as well as his writing talent and all those that knew him loved him because he was such a kind hearted and pleasant man. His books will continue to entertain and enthrall both young and old readers forever. The Sex Lives of Siamese Twins by Irvine Welsh I'm yet to read an Irvine Welsh novel that I didn't thoroughly enjoy. I'm not going to sing his praises too much this time because I've done it here many times already. All I can say is that he is a literary genius and a huge inspiration to me. I only have to read the last novel he wrote: "The Blade Artist" and then I've read all of them. Why I Write by George Orwell As well as the essay "Why I Write" this book also contains three other essays including the famous political polemic "The Lion and the Unicorn" which is about British politics and the threat of Hitler, written during wartime Britain in 1942. As with most of Orwell's work it's excellent stuff. When you read this you get a good understanding and appreciation of the thought processes that led to the writing of his 1949 masterpiece - 1984. White Fang by Jack London What a fantastic story. It reminds me of Roddy Doyle's Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha in the way that both of these novels are written from the viewpoint of somebody (or something) that has a completely different perception of the world to that of an adult male. In this case, through the perception of a wolf. I really enjoyed this novel and highly recommend it. The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli Finally I can fully appreciate the use of the word "Machiavellian." This book is a treatise about how to acquire and maintain political power. It was written in the 16th century but the fascinating thing about is that much of it is still relevant today. It just goes to show that no matter how much science and technology progresses, certain aspects of politics and sociology don't change and as far as I'm concerned, governments and politicians still use the dishonest and immoral principles that Machiavelli writes about. If you're anti-establishment like I am, then this is well worth a read. Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts One of the reasons I love to read so much is because I know that every now and then I'll come across a book that is so utterly sublime it won't just provide me with great pleasure, it will also have a profound effect on me that changes the way I look at life forever. Shantaram is such a book. It is, quite simply, a novel of exceptional beauty which is one of the best I've ever read. It is the story of Gregory David Roberts, an armed robber who escaped from an Australian jail and then lived as a fugitive in Bombay, India. There he lived in a slum working as an unofficial doctor before ending up in jail surviving in the most appalling conditions. On his release he then worked for the mafia, appeared in Bollywood films and fought in the war in Afghanistan for the Mujahideen, before returning to Bombay to continue working for the mafia. This amazing story is about life, love, ethics, morality, philosophy, religion, friendship, retribution, betrayal, survival in the face of adversity and the beauty of humans and human relationships. This is one of the most endearing and heart warming books I've ever read which has touched me on an emotional level so significantly that I urge everyone to read it at least once in their lives. Rather than keep using superlatives to describe this book I will leave you with the Daily Telegraph's highly appropriate and fitting tribute to this book which describes it perfectly - "it is a literary masterpiece."

Dr Warin on the Central Pattaya Road did some work for me that I was very pleased with. I made a thread about this earlier this year which is still near the top of the threads made in this section if you have a look. He's very good.

Cheers Martin I may well add a few of those to my reading list.