Harvey

I'm flying into Pattaya in early October and coming in from Tokyo on Thai Airways as well. Their US website wouldn't let me see available seats too. And get this (I had booked this ticket four months ago), wouldn't let me pick my seat until like three weeks ago. When I ticketed, it just assigned me a seat (which I'm glad I changed). Like you, I don't like not having all the information I use to make booking decisions.

^ Goddamn! I don't get into Pattaya until October 4th. What crap timing -- I LOVE CHILI DOGS, Evil. Timing really sucks. I can only hope that they'll serve me one in early October. SMH

This still works. $616 r/t from Washington, DC to BKK (December 6-13)

I have this rule about work and business. I never trust any entity that can't send me a return email address with their own domain. Any business using Gmail (or yahoo, etc) is already hinkey in my eyes.

Okay, at the risk of sounding stupid, I hereby publicly admit that I had to google "catamites" to figure out what that word meant.

I used to bring a bag of fried grasshoppers to the old FLB (when Pete ran it) to share with the girls and go with a cold beer. They're pretty addictive. (They teach you to pull the head off and what looks like a spine attached to the head follows -- that always confused me because I thought all insects were invertebrates. But I digress). The big flat cockroaches they also sell are gross. And I couldn't get my mind wrappd around eating scorpions. But those fried grasshoppers go well with anything on tap that's cold. The Issan girls will sit there and happily eat them with youu too.

If you can wait until October 4, I'm checking into the Baraquda. It's about the same price (little cheaper), highly rated on Tripadvisor, located near the Avani. I can do a quick review of it to give you a guest-friendly option. Just an offer.

^ WHOA Poached Salmon in a Hollandaise Sauce, with Buttered Steamed Potatoes, Capers & Mixed Salad...looks outstanding. I'll be in town in about a month. Will stop by to see what's on the menu then.

By the way, the Baraquda is nearby, about the same price and quality, and is guest friendly.

I've stayed there when it was the original Marriott. Unless the Avani folks have changed the policy, I never was assessed a joiner fee. To MLC, when I book a room, I book for two adults even though it's only me. If hotel is guest friendly, it makes clear today there will be two in the room and any joiner fee behind work the third person in the room. Side note: I wish the Discovery Beach Hotel out near Soi 6 was guest friendly. Some of the Chic Tower rooms look nice

Here in the states, iced tea is my go-to soft drink with meals. I don't like soda and water seems to boring to me. Sweet tea in places in the south. Regular unsweetened iced tea everywhere else. But I have zero expectation that it'll be good outside of the states (at least in the forms I'm used to). I don't even try to order it in Pattaya.

Yup, as I'd mentioned Butch, my buddy got Hepatitis A and it apparently really did a number on his liver. He was laid up on the hospital feeling horrible. Before he got sick, we'd eat off the street at wet markets and via vendors all over Manila. Never again. In fact, it made us decided to put the Phils in our rear view mirror and we've not gone back again. Now, the only places I'll eat street food are in the night market in Taipei and oden stands in Tokyo and Yokohama. That's it. As i get older, not sure that my body can fight off food-bourne bugs like it used to in my youth.

LOL -- dude, just grab some fried chicken at Jolibee. I used to love street food from the wet markets in Phils, but my good friend got Hep and it got him good. Now, I'm kinda afraid of eating from anything that doesn't look industrial.

I fly ANA all the time (for the United points) and transit in Narita. (Just back last week from a 10-day trip with an HNL-NRT-MNL-IAD routing for work, all on ANA with the HNL-NRT-MNL leg a single leg, transferring in NRT on the way to Manila). Getting thru Narita security on international transit is never difficult for me, time-wise. I admit that I fly business class, so I de-plane quickly. But the security process is quick for me, they don't hold you up with shoe removal etc. They're quick. Moreover, ANA seems to arrive early unless there's an equipment problem. Check out their f

Agree 100%

I had read this article over the weekend. Link: http://news.thaivisa.com/article/4731/pattaya-go-go-clubs-and-bars-targeted-in-new-crackdown

Thanks for this. Quick question -- I was going to book a suite the next time I'm in town, but can't figure out how the living area was laid out (and there are not photos). It just looks like there is a single huge Thai bed in one corner and nothing else but empty space throughout the living area. Is that true? If not, what did the living area look like in speicifc? Was there a TV in there? Desk?

I have stayed there on points. No problem with a lady to the room. (I never tried to bring more than one to the room at a time, so I don't know if there's a joiner fee for the second girl).

The running play-by-play reporting of paving progress on this thread is hilarious..

A few of observations: 1. Dear ME guys.....don't throw punches like girls. It makes you look bad, like sissies. Don't come overhand with an open palm. Stay down tight, then fire hips, then shoulders, fist direct to jaw. 2. Was there a sale on those black and white design shirts that were 2-for-1? I don't think I'd go out drinking with my boys all wearing the same shirt like we're a bowling team. 3. If they had stuck around, I give the angry Thai ladies 2 to 1 that they'd have kicked the two guys asses.

That looks awesome!

And that's the entire point. United's own contract of carriage didn't allow for them to throw the guy off the plane because he wasn't violating any of their rules contained in section 21 of their own COC. (I don't get the minority of folks online who are defending United, btw). Last point -- the "united bucks" they offered people to leave the plane violated FAA rules. By rule passengers bumped must be given cold, hard cash (the amount dependent on how long of a delay they experience getting to their ultimate destination).

That's because United Airlines violated section 21 of their own contract of carriage. This is a legal document and the passenger was not violating anything associated with UAL contract of carriage that would have gotten him kicked off. Perhaps you'd allow me to link that contract of carriage for you here: https://www.united.com/web/en-US/content/contract-of-carriage.aspx

P.S. Regarding overbooking. Airlines and hotels seem to be the only industries where overbooking is okay. I live in Washington, DC and I own a pair of season tickets to the Washington Wizards NBA team. There are 20,308 seats in the Verizon Center configured for basketball. The Wizards cannot sell more than 20,308 tickets to a game. This is the way it should be for airlines too. If you have "x" seats on some 787, that's as many paid tickets that you should be able to sell.

I'm pretty old, so I remember when United was good. It was, originally, an airline that loved to fly -- its leadership and organizational culture appropriately tuned to building its business and market share based on a wonderful flying experience. (You still see traces of it in part of their marketing -- the sounds of Rhapsody in Blue behind scenes of a skyward bound 787). Those days are long gone, its management structure and culture focused like a laser beam solely on metrics on the cost side. It's why the fucked this up so badly. The simple, textbook solution to the problem was