PattayaPete

Usually I am smart enough to stay home when the big rain is on. Unfortunately the wife decided to visit Central yesterday for a beauty appointment. At 7pm I got the phone call. No taxis so please come and get me. Arghhhhh. In the end she had to walk from Central to Third Rd because I just could not get through. Driving on third was a nightmare lots of water and lots of mad drivers. In the end we got home just after 9pm So 2 hours to go about 3 kilometers. Here is some of my dash cam footage of the trip.

I just ran BBC 1 for 30 minutes without it freezing. I did not use a VPN but I do have very quick fibre internet.

You can pay at the 7-11. I have yet to find a way to pay power or water online. I did once try to set up a direct debit which I am told is possible. I got the form from the bank and took it to the main power office off Sukhumvit. Stood in a queue for an age and then the cashier had no idea what to do with it. I left it with her but it was never activated.

You can now use Bitcoin to pay for your food and drink at the Pattaya Beer Garden. As far as I know we are the first business in Pattaya to accept Bitcoin for payment. Background Information Bitcoin got off to a rocky start in Thailand when the financial authorities declared it was illegal to use here. There was no law covering Bitcoin but an opinion was given and most people (including me) decided to wait and see. We waited and what we have seen is that the same financial authority came out this week and say it is not really illegal although if you were to buy Bitcoin in Thai Baht and convert it to some other currency then that would probably be illegal. On the strength of that opinion the Thailand Bitcoin exchange has resumed trading (bitcoin.co.th). I've said before that when it became legal we would accept it and so now we have. I am not going to discuss the benefits and pitfalls of Bitcoin here but would be happy to enter into discussion in the off topic section. I know most people don't know and don't care what a Bitcoin is or what use it may be. However for those of us who know and love Bitcoin it is important to provide opportunities to those who wish to use this amazing digital currency in the real world to do so. We put the We Accept Bitcoins signs up in the Beer Garden this afternoon and within an hour 3 different people approached me and said something along the lines of "I've heard of this Bitcoin thing but what is it and what use is it to me". Lengthy discussions followed :-) If you want to know more the internet is full of information. When you first start reading about it you are likely to go into information overload as the full concept and methodology used to create Bitcoin is extremely techy and not easy to understand. Just as the internet in 1992 was beyond most people and seemed like a nerds wet dream but not much use in the real world. Bitcoin has recently been described as the "internet of money" which I think is an excellent description. If you would like to know more, I'd recommend coinbase.com as a user friendly and not too techy introduction for the newbie. THE PROCESS In the Beer Garden we are using the Coinbase Merchant software. If you want to pay in Bitcoin tell you server when you are ready to pay. She will bring a tablet to your table which shows the amount to pay in Thai Baht and in Bitcoin and a QR code. Scan the QR code with your Bitcoin Wallet (which is an app installed on your cell phone) and send the payment. The server takes the tablet to the cashier who will enter the payment into our system and print your receipt, which the server will bring back to your table. Done! This is a bit new to our staff so please be patient with them as they learn the system. It can take a minute or two for the payment to clear so allow some time when paying this way. BTW the exchange rate from Bitcoin to Thai Baht is calculated by coinbase at the time of the transaction. You can read up on how they do this on coinbase.com if you are interested.

Left turn on red is allowed by default. It is only not allowed when there is a sign disallowing it. The signs in Pattaya have a red left arrow and some English writing that is very ambiguous. So, if no sign, proceed with caution. If there is a sign, regardless of what you think it might mean, wait for the green.

OOOh can I have a go too :-) I have studied color and correcting photos and videos for years. I still suck at it. It is very much a subjective subject but I think the more you do it the better you get. Looking at Patna's correction, he improved the skin tones but ended up with a harsher picture which I did not like. Therefore had to have a go myself. In my version I adjusted all the colors saturation level individually, used a noise reduction filter and sharpened the final result, all in photoshop. Learning color correction can improve you photos remarkably but it's a real rabbit hole than can have you fussing for hours over each pic. As Patna says if you have the RAW image to start with then you can do much better. Anyway here's the result of my fiddling. 1) Original Image. 2) Patna's Correction. 3) My correction.

This change is working for me. I pass through that intersection everyday and it is often congested with long delays caused by traffic merging at the next intersection - Pratamnak and Thappraya. If coming from Jomtien then a left turn into Pratamnak at the police box opposite Sugar Hut gives you a straight run to 2nd Rd with very little delay. If you are starting north of that intersection then a left turn at Thappraya and 3rd and a right turn at Pratamnak works well. Overall this has probably reduced my trip time by 3 - 5 minutes.

Gimmble, my apologies that our service was not up to scratch. We have a simple and straight forward rule at the Beer Garden and that is . . . . if you are not happy with any aspect of our service we will give you a full refund, no questions asked. This is fully explained in the "Guarantee" which is included in every menu. To get the refund you MUST ask to speak with the Duty Manager. One is always on duty. The Beer Garden is open 18 hours a day and serves well over 2,000 meals every day. That's a lot of hours and a lot of meals. It is not possible for me to personally be there checking everything all the time. However when a refund is requested I will know about it and do investigate the cause. We have over 20 chefs most of whom have been with us for several years or more. The day time head chef has been with us since we opened 6 years ago. No excuses, but at this time of year we do get very busy and sometimes things go wrong. If they do please allow us to fix it or refund your money. I will be investigating your specific complaints.

It's on Soi 16, South Pattaya Rd. Drive down South Pattaya Rd towards Sukhumvit. Past Third Rd, turn left on Soi 16. It's just inside the Soi on the right. Can't remember what the sign says but it's a standard Thai foot and oil massage place downstairs. Nigel operates from a much bigger room upstairs. Best to phone for an appointment first.

Many years ago I injured my back in a drunken fall. Tried many things to get rid of the pain to no avail. I then reluctantly tried a chiropractor who magically fixed it in less than 10 minutes. So I'm now sold on the idea. Ever since then the pain returns every three years or so and another visit to a Chiropractor sorts me out for another 3 years. The I moved to Pattaya. Three years on and I'm in need of an adjustment so I searched out and found David Peck. I instantly did not like this guy. As mentioned above his bed side manner is horrible but I could live with that if he could fix my back. Sadly he could not. Frankly he seemed incompetent. His adjustments did not have the snap effect I'm used to and instead of one visit I tried 3 or 4 to no avail. So with my back hurting I looked for another alternative and found Nigel. http://www.pattayasportsclinic.com/ Well Nigel's phone manner really sucks. Could not get an appointment for about 10 days and he sounded extremely dis-interested in helping me. When I turned up his actual bedside manner was worse. The guy is huge and scary looking. Lots of tats, black muscle singlet and total disinterest in hearing the details of my problem. He led me upstairs to his massage room and gruffly told me to get on the massage bed. He did a short investigation of my back, said he'd identified the problem and then tortured me for about 10 minutes and said we are done. I asked him about a follow up appointment but he just shrugged and said I didn't need it. Guess what? He was right I didn't need another appointment. My back has been fine since then. If it starts hurting again I know where I'll be going. He may be a little off putting but if massage is going to fix your problem then Nigel is the man. I have heard similar stories from many other farangs as well.

The blueish one is Baan Hadd U-Thong condo and the white one is an hotel with mainly russian and korean guests.

You can catch a baht bus on Pratamnak near Soi 5. They are less frequent than Thappraya Rd but I'd guess no more than a five minute wait. It's not on the published route for coming back. You'll need to hire one specifically - cost 150 - 300 baht. There are plenty of 7/11s close at hand. The nearest supermarket is on Thappraya near Theprasit Rd. Maybe a 15 minute walk. Soi Diamond to Soi 5 would be about a 25 minute walk. A lot of it up hill.

It's a question as old as this board. Relying on what others say is bound to get you into trouble because the cost varies according to YOUR attributes. I've come up with this handy table to help you calculate the correct amount. All calculations are based on long time. For short time you should pay 66% of the calculated rate. Base Charge 1,000 Upmarket bar add 500 Downmarket bar subtract 200 Girl 1 -5 add 0 Girl 6 - 8 add 300 Girl 9 - 10 stunner add 500 You are over 70 add 500 you are over 50 add 300 you are under 30 subtract 200 You are fat add 300 You are skinny add 300 You wash often and smell good subtract 200 Your personal hygiene is not a priority add 500 You are drunk add 500 You are the life and soul of the party subtract 200 You are boring add 500 You dress well subtract 200 You dress like a slob add 300 You are generous with lady drinks subtract 200 You buy one lady drink and then want to go add 200 You buy her friends a drink subtract 100 You don't buy her friends a drink add 100 You want to take her out partying subtract 100 You want to go room now add 200 You speak Thai subtract 100 Today is your first day in Thailand add 500 This is your first trip to Thailand add 300 You are an expat subtract 200 You stay in an upmarket hotel add 200 You stay in a guest house add 200 You own your own house subtract 200 You are good looking subtract 100 You are ugly add 200 You are disgustingly ugly add 500 You have facial hair add 200 You have a big dick add 300 You have a small dick add 200 You smile a lot subtract 100 You frown a lot add 300 You believe tables like this can tell you how much to pay add 1,000 A gogo girl can do these calculation within 2 seconds of meeting you. It's a good idea to memorize all criteria and work out in advance how much you should pay. If you get it wrong then you miscalculated one of your attributes.

Well we did not make our Saturday opening target. It was always an ambitious target to finish it in 6 days but I didn't want to extend the target as we would undoubtedly have missed any new target as well. Things are looking good for re-opening the kitchen tomorrow (Monday 19th) around 6 pm. I'm actually very pleased with the work done and the staff are looking forward to getting to grips with all the new flash equipment. Monday night service might be a little slow as we bed in all the new gear and the new menu.

Wine is expensive in Thailand because of a very high tax. Having said that we try real hard to find good wine at reasonable prices and our markup on wine is very low. Over the last few weeks I have made the extreme sacrifice of tasting over 30 bottles of wine (provided free by our suppliers) to try and find some bargains. We do sell by the glass at 110 baht and bottles range from 750 to 1,380 although we do also stock Moet and Chandon Champagne for 4,950 baht a bottle.

Yes, it's a completely new wine list although at the lower end of the price bracket. Some very nice Aussi wines and a great New Zealand white too.

After months of planning and hair pulling we will be ripping the old kitchen apart this week and installing a better bigger version. The work starts in the early hours of Monday morning and if the Thai gods are willing will be completed on Friday 16 September. The brand new kitchen should be in full operation again on Saturday. We have always struggled to meet demand in the high season but with the new bigger kitchen there will be 4 more cooking positions and more space for preparation and refrigeration. With the extra staff and equipment we hope to provide a better service this high season. We have also taken the opportunity to revamp and extend the existing menu. There are a few more farang dishes, a lot more Thai dishes and most interestingly a whole new selection of E-Sarn food. While you probably don’t care much about the E-Sarn food we are hoping that your girlfriend will care a whole lot! The staff is certainly excited about the addition of the E-Sarn dishes. We are also replacing the false floor on Balcony number 1. The floor on balcony number 2 cracked up last year and had to be replaced. Number 1 is starting to crack as well so I thought we might as well fix it now rather than wait for it to become unusable. Sadly the new menu will see some modest price increases. We have not adjusted our prices for three years now and the additional costs of food and liquor have been quite large during that time. In the main increases have been kept to 5 or 10 baht with a few minor exceptions where cost prices have increased quite dramatically. The bar will remain open throughout the renovations but we will not be serving food. I apologise for the inconvenience during the renovations but we will I hope end up with an even better Beer Garden.

The latest craze sweeping Thailand is the band Turbo and their song "Itchy Ears". The title and the actions may seem a little at odds with each other unless you know that the vulgar Thai word for a females genitals is "hee" and the Thai word for ears is "hoo". Hoo is often used as an euphemism for hee. Now enjoy the video :-) Nine million hits and counting . . . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkjbnjJlFDk

Suicides happen everywhere and in far greater numbers than you probably realize. The western media do not report suicides generally as it is something which engenders copy cats. Thai media has no such qualms so you hear far more about it here. The Thai police do not usually cover up murders unless they have some financial involvement. One case I have never forgotten was an acquaintance of mine who was found dead in his room. He had a plastic bag over his head and his hands were handcuffed behind his back. Police verdict, suicide - forum opinion, obviously murder. The reality was that he had sold up everything he had back home, run up huge debts, maxed out all his credit cards, wrote to his family apologizing for his actions and left a suicide note. He actually came to Pattaya to do the deed after he had used up all his funds. That was his plan from the start and he was partying here for over 3 months. I know all the details because his family contacted me through this website. The plastic bag and handcuff method is quite common. The bag asphyxiates you and the handcuffs stop you from chickening out . Sad but true. The case of the NZ girl is still a mystery. Obviously not murder but something killed those people and I salute the father doing his best to find out what.

Thanks for the feedback. I apologize unreservedly for any aspect of our service which has not been up to standard. As always if you are not happy with any aspect of the service at the Beer Garden then we will happily refund your money. Our guarantee to that effect is printed in every menu and all managers know they must honor it. Secondly I'd like to assure everyone that I am as involved as ever in the operation and have no intention of selling out or lowering my involvement. I believe we produce a consistent product most of the time but I know we do slip up occasionally. I am happy we do a good job most of the time but I am not complacent or happy when we do not live up to expectations. I can understand why some people might think I have not done anything to address some of the problems mentioned here as similar complaints have been made in the past. A little history might help you understand the amazing improvements we have achieved and why we still get it wrong occasionally. From the beginning we struggled to meet the demand. We set up with the idea we would do about 100 meals a day (covers). From day 1 we were doing over 200 covers a day. Our first high season 08/09 saw us struggling seriously to keep up with demand which rose to around 400 covers a day. To meet this incredible and somewhat unexpected demand we made a lot of improvements to the system. This included doubling the number of chefs, doubling the number of service staff increasing the machinery in the kitchen and employing extra duty managers and and assistant managers to monitor our service quality levels. Things ran fairly smoothly through 09 and high season 09/10. Service delay times were still slower than I was happy with from November 2009 - January 2010. The number of daily covers rose to around 700 during this time and we again increased the number of chefs and service staff. With the extra staff and improved systems we managed pretty well through low season. Knowing the big increase in customers we have through the high season we got ready for November 2010 - January 2011 by advising all staff that no leave would be approved during this period. We also pay all staff an additional 1,000 baht a month bonus provided they do not take any unscheduled leave. We do this because it is not possible to add any more staff as the kitchen is at capacity and additional people would just get in the way. We need everyone to turn up. Our average number of covers rose to over 950 during this time. I think we handled it pretty well although there was the occasional times when problems did occur. If you know about restaurants you will understand that doing 900+ covers a day is pretty unusual for any restaurant and perhaps understand the logistical difficulties of serving that many meals. We were absolutely running at maximum capacity during this time and I was pretty proud of the what the staff achieved. Things unfortunately went a little pear shaped this month (Feb 11). The problem was the expected drop in demand did not happen and we continued doing over 900 covers a day. Staff who had not had leave for three months had leave request in which we had to honour and to be honest we just were not ready for this level of demand in Feb. The good news is that demand has dropped back to a more reasonable 750 covers this week which we can easily manage. For some unknown reason the peak of the high season lasted a few weeks longer than anticipated. Virtually all problems we have experienced relate to demand being more than we can handle. This was true when we doing 200 covers a day in 08 and remains true when we do 950 covers a day in 2011. As fast as I can improve things, demand rises to max out our capacity again. From a business point of view this is great but I am never happy if we deliver substandard service. I suspect we will not see much growth above 950 covers as there is a natural limit to how many people can physically be accommodated. It is possible to increase table turnover times which could see further growth however as these problems tend to occur only between 8pm and 10 pm I think we really are close to a maximum limit. The fact that we have not done as well as I would have hoped means further changes are in the pipeline. Really it came down to only two options . . . increase the kitchen size or increase prices to dampen demand. With the exception of a couple of dishes our prices have not increased since we opened. I'm really not keen on increasing prices as I believe a big part of the Beer Garden's success has been in providing a reasonably priced option for drinks and food in the Walking Street area. That means the only option is to increase the kitchen size. This is not an easy thing to do as the kitchen is bounded on one side by the toilet block and the other side by the sea. Nevertheless the decision has been made and by some clever design the kitchen size will be substantially increased in June. It means closing down the food operations for a week which is why we have scheduled the work for the bottom of the low season. For now I think we are back to more reasonable demand levels and we should cope well until the kitchen is modified and extra staff can be employed. BTW the kitchen staff has been amazingly consistent throughout the last year. Interestingly the OPs complaint about the difference between the way day staff and night staff produced some meals may have lead to his latest complaint. We had a meeting with the cooking staff some weeks back and put in place extra procedures to ensure the meals were the same regardless of which chefs cooked them. It seems they standardized on the way the OP didn't like. I'll look into that again. These problems are my problems and not our customers. I assure you all we are never complacent and never happy to deliver less than stellar service. If you are ever unhappy at the Beer Garden I apologize and encourage you to seek a refund - it will be given without any drama. Meanwhile we continue working towards making the Beer Garden as good as I know it can be. Pete

Joe you are struggling with this one. Who told you most people want a bill with itemized tax and service. If that were true then all the other businesses around would do that as well. The butcher, the baker the candle stick maker, the supermarket the book store, the go go bar even little Noi's Som Tum stall on Soi Joesadreamer. Restaurants and hotels are not a special category as far as billing and tax goes. They are under the same law as every other business. They are not providing a service by doing this but duping their customers into believing that prices are cheaper than they really are. The reason some hotels and restaurants do it is they see tourists as easy marks who won't complain I have the ultimate bill for you here Joe. This is the logical extension of your argument . . . . The Menu Eggs Benedict Free Orange Juice Free ++++++++++++++++++ The Bill Eggs Benedict 0 Orange Juice 0 Cooking charge 50 Purchase Eggs 20 Juicing charge 20 Electric 10 Cooks wages 30 Share of rent 5 Purchase Oranges 10 Servers wages 5 Service Charge 30 Sub total 180 VAT @ 7% 13 Total 193 People want to know what something will cost them. Not some fancy list of additional charges that is kept a secret till they pay or written in small print at the bottom of the price list.

I think as I live here and run a restaurant my understanding maybe a bit better than yours Joe. Yes we have to pay VAT and taxes. As you rightly say 7% vat and normal company tax. However we do not add this to a customer's bill or deduct the amounts from the menu price list and put a little ++ at the bottom of the page. Like all responsible, honest businesses we calculate our prices knowing that we will have to pay VAT and tax. Our price on the Menu is what the customer pays. We take care of the tax. The first + in your "not shit hole establishment" is the vat, the second + is the service charge, which is not a tax but money collected for the service you receive or in other words a mandatory tip. As most of these place then keep the service charge as part of their general profit they are ripping you and their staff off. The reason they do it this way is that it makes their prices look less than they are. It's a marketing decision and nothing to do with the fact that all retail businesses in Thailand pay VAT.

Mr T's service was fine by Thai standards. The OP made the common mistake of assuming service in Thailand would be the same as his home country. It's not! Lesson learned I presume. Most taxi drivers in Thailand have no idea where anything is. That's why you can get a taxi to take you 120 kilometers for $35. How much would it cost in the US. Much more but then you would expect the driver to know how to get you anywhere. You get what you pay for! The only taxis I use are in Thailand are the Bangkok ones. I do not get into one unless I know where I am going and how to get there. I go so far as to tell the driver what way to go. I remember in my early days in Thailand getting a taxi outside Pantip Plaza and wanting to go to Sukhumvit. That's about a 3 kilometer journey from the famous computer mall to the most well known street in Bangkok. The driver had no idea how to get there. Chatting with the drive I discovered he had just arrived yesterday from Isaan and this was his first day on the job. On the job training consisted of the owner handing him the keys and pointing to the street and saying "Go get'em!" I doubt he was able to find his way home. TIT.

I was raised in New Zealand where tipping was virtually unheard of. It's changing a little now and is more common as this pernicious habit spreads from other countries. I hate the American system and think it is fundamentally wrong. People should be paid a fair wage for a fair days work. Tips should be recognized as a bonus received for exemplary service, not part of making a basic living. If someone is paid half the minimum wage then the whole concept of a minimum wage is a joke. Clearly the minimum wage is not the minimum wage. Once I started traveling I was very uncomfortable with tipping as it just did not feel right to me. I did tip when it was expected but always felt awkward and worried that I'd tipped too much or not enough. In the US I felt very uncomfortable when time came to pay the bill. Sometimes I'd forget to tip and then notice evil dagger looks from the staff as I was leaving. Often causing me to rush back and fix it although sometimes I couldn't be bothered, particularly if I knew I'd never be back. I have now spent more time away from New Zealand than living there and so have a more worldly attitude to tipping. I do it as I understand it's expected and service staff often need tips to earn a minimum wage in places like America. I'd still far prefer the staff were paid a decent living wage and the extra cost was added to my bill. I can't change the world but I don't have to like it. I am quite comfortable with the situation in Thailand. I tip what I want when I want and have never encountered a bad attitude from anyone because i did not tip. People here earn small money and a tip is accepted for what it is (bonus for good service) with gratitude. In the beer garden most people tip and the staff appreciate it. If someone does not tip no one feels bad or angry and the non-tipper will still be welcomed with good service should he return. We have a very wide variety of customers from all over the world and different cultures tip differently. It would be fair to say that Americans are often the most generous. We also have a big mix of Thai customers. Freelancers and bar girls when paying the bill themselves usually do not tip. No one expects them to. Wealthy Thais on the other hand are often very generous particularly if they have attractive women with them. I think Thais that can afford it, like to flaunt their wealth a little particular to impress the girlfriend. There is one rule of tipping here which I have noticed and adhere too and that is in go go bars. If you have been taking extreme liberty with a go go dancer- kissing - diddling etc. then you should tip 100 baht or more. No tip is acceptable but a 20 baht tip is viewed as an insult. I have seen girls throw a 20 baht note on the floor and walk away. So don't tip at all or dig a little bit deeper and come up with 100. Apart from that I think its very acceptable to tip as much or as little as you feel comfortable doing. A last thought on service charges added to the bill in Thailand. In just about all cases these charges are just bill padding and the staff do not receive anything from it. It's not very prevalent here but its becoming more common, particularly in up market establishments. When I see it done I try to avoid ever going to those places again and if possible tell management why I won't be back. So far no one seems to care

All truth passes through 3 stages First it is ridiculed Second it’s violently opposed Third it is accepted as self evident That’s a quote from the movie documentary “House of Numbers”. A film that looks at the current and previous state of Aids research through the eyes of many notable and well qualified researchers. The film reaches no conclusion on the validity of Aids as we currently see it but it clearly shows there are very divergent opinions among those who should be in the know. I’d thoroughly recommend that anyone with an interest in Aids watches this documentary. It is availably as torrent on piratebay at House of Numbers I have had my doubts about Aids for a long time. It’s not that I don’t believe it exists but more that I have always felt we (the public) are not getting the full truth. I’ve posted about this before but always in a way to encourage others to do their own research rather than as a full doubter. The problem with researching Aids yourself though is that it soon becomes evident that there are many differing opinions even among the medical community directly researching the disease. If paid medical researchers, doctors and Phd’s, some with Nobel Prizes, can’t agree then how could a lay person like me ever work it out. The truth of the matter is that I can not. I simply don’t have the medical training to evaluate the different arguments. What I liked about the documentary is that you get to see these eminent researchers clearly in their own words, mislead, obfuscate and plain lie. I can make this judgment even as a lay person simply because the stories of these people are so different. One or other of the various groups must be lying. There is no other conclusion. As to which group are the liars . . . well you must decide for yourself but I think it is pretty damn obvious. My reasons for being a doubter of the Aids story as we know it today stems from my own personal experience living here in Pattaya and operating several bars. I first moved to Pattaya to live in 1997. At the time HIV/Aids was big news in Thailand. Thailand had one of the highest infection rates in the world. It’s pretty obvious that the Pattaya life style should make Pattaya one of the highest risk places in Thailand and therefore the world. As I was operating a bar where ladies of the night were available I felt some responsibility to take whatever precautions I could. I believe we were one of the first bars to require mandatory HIV tests for all the girls, from a doctor we nominated and felt sure would not falsify the tests. We also instructed all new girls on the use of condoms and provided them free of charge. Despite this I knew many of our customers asked the girls not to use condoms and the girls often complied with their wishes. Surely a recipe for disaster. I also ran this forum where many punters discussed life in Pattaya. Over the years the Aids subject has been raised many times and many of the members have openly admitted they do not use condoms with the girls. Around the year 2000 the story broke that you could get Aids from oral sex. It was big news at the time and it shocked me. I had always been “safe” in my own sexual activities but had never used condoms for oral sex. Clearly I was now also at severe risk. An Aids test quickly followed and I was relieved to get a negative result. I don’t know about you but for me a covered blow job just does not cut it. So I had some hard decisions to make about my own lifestyle. That led me to first do my own internet based research on Aids and particularly the possibility of getting it through unprotected oral sex. I was pretty amazed to find that there were no documented cases of anyone being infected through oral sex alone. All reported cases had also indulged in other “unsafe” sexual practices. Then it turned out that in the case which led to the oral sex headlines the victim had lied about his sexual activity. Originally claiming to have only ever had oral sex but it was later discovered he was gay and had anal intercourse with other gay men. After this false alert I started to have some doubts that we were being told the whole truth about Aids. That story also got me thinking how strange it was that in all my time in Pattaya I’d never met anyone with HIV and none of the girls had ever tested positive for it. Possibly the riskiest place in the world for HIV infection and yet no one I knew was infected. I have met thousands of men and girls in Pattaya over the years. I have seen the medical tests of hundreds of girls. Not a single case. Not one! There have been the odd reports on the forum of a friend of a friend having contracted the disease in Pattaya but like all friend of friends stories, impossible to verify. I do however know three people who are HIV positive. Gumlye lives in the house next door to my Isaan house. She first tested HIV positive in 1997 during a routine test during her pregnancy. Her husband was also tested and found to be positive. The child, Top also tested positive after he was born. Her husband died shortly thereafter presumably from full blown aids. Gumlye is poor, uneducated and generally ostracized in the village. We have always been friendly with her and she takes care of our Isaan house as we are not there most of the time. She does not take any Aids drugs despite my encouraging her to get them. They are available free from the main hospital but that’s 30 kilometers away and not “very convenient”. Gumlye lives a relatively comfortable lifestyle these days. We pay her for taking care of the house, she has a small farm which provides a lot of the food she needs and she has a new man in her life (also HIV positive). So here we are in 2011. I have lived in possibly the most dangerous place in the world for HIV infection for near on 14 years. Gumlye and her son remain the only HIV victims I know and guess what. She is perfectly healthy as is Top. They were just here in Pattaya visiting us and Top is now 13 years old and a big strapping boy. Gumlye seems to have aged better than many of the village Thais I know. So what does this long winded post mean. To me it is obvious that something is wrong with the Aids story as we have been told it. I would never say it is a total fabrication and I am well aware of the great work places like the Camillian Center in Rayong do for Aids victims. (Camillian Center Website) However the whole Aids story just does not make sense. Clearly there is much more going on here than we are led to believe. Doubters and conspiracy theorists are often nutty but I really have approached this issue with as open a mind as possible. I don’t think I am nutty but I have very strong doubts that we have heard the full story on Aids. I do believe if you took poverty and anal sex out of the equation then Aids statistics would look very different. I do believe the medical research arena and big pharmaceutical companies are well served by the situation as it exists today and have no interest in changing our views on what HIV/Aids is, how it’s contracted and what should be done about it. I believe a few other things too but I’ll keep those beliefs to myself for now. If you are interested in this and have an opinion I’d like to read it here. Please try not to be too nutty and do watch the documentary first.