Skytrooper

Having read so many mixed reviews of the Nana hotel, I spent two nights there in May. The only room available on short notice was a standard and I was surprised it wasn’t as bad as many folks reported. I only saw one cockroach as opposed to two such bugs at the more expensive Omni Tower later during my trip. I was especially pleased at having a large bathtub with genuinely hot water; something more expensive hotels in Thailand often lack. I wasn’t as impressed with the Nana’s included breakfast buffet as some members are, but it’s still better than the limited menu breakfast available complimentary to guests at Omni Tower. The Nana hotel’s location is definitely hard to beat. ___________________________________________________________________ Right is right, even if nobody does it. Wrong is wrong, even if everybody does it. — Sathya Sai Baba

I can't vouch for whether this hotel is "guest friendly" or not, but I found it to be so outstanding for the price that I wish to bring it to your attention. A few weeks ago, I stayed at the Rydges Amora Tapae hotel in Chiang Mai. This is one of the newest hotels in town, located directly adjacent to the Old City and about a 15-minute walk to the Night Bazaar (halfway through that walk takes you to an area of beer bars). My room was spacious, modern, fully-equipped, and (unlike so many Thai hotels) there was plenty of hot water for the bathtub/shower. Booking using www.sawadee.com for a minimum of 3 nights, I was able to get a daily room rate of 1,000 baht, including taxes, service charges, a fantastic breakfast buffet, and round-trip airport transfers. The only minor negatives I noticed are they charge a fee of around 100 baht a day if you use the in-room safe and there's no English language news station among the numerous TV channels. I wish I knew of a hotel as nice with such a great breakfast buffet and transfers for twice that price in Bangkok and/or Pattaya. I really think it would be worth checking with the hotel for their policy on unregistered guests. Regardless of their official policy, I suspect a tip to the security guard at the hotel entrance would preclude any problems.

I just returned from LOS a few days ago. One morning, I tried the breakfast buffet at the Lek hotel when (around 8 AM) a pile driver operating behind the hotel started up. I don't know how long the noise lasted during the day, but it made me appreciate my decision to stay at the Residence Garden.

Originally posted by Flash_Basbo (resident Sicilian-American statist, liar, and coward): The word you're looking for is "paranoia." Paranoia (noun): a psychosis characterized by systematized delusions of persecution or grandeur usually without hallucinations; a tendency on the part of an individual or group toward excessive or irrational suspiciousness and distrustfulness of others. Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition. Here's a word you have down pat — Coward: one who shows disgraceful fear or timidity. Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Every collectivist rides in on a Trojan horse of “emergency.†It was the tactic of Lenin, Hitler, and Mussolini. In the collectivist sweep over a dozen minor countries of Europe, it was the cry of men striving to get on horseback. And “emergency†became the justification of the subsequent steps. This technique of creating emergency is the greatest achievement that demagoguery attains. — Herbert Hoover All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. — Edmund Burke The whole of the Bill [of Rights] is a declaration of the rights of the people at large... It establishes some rights of the individual as unalienable and which consequently, no majority has a right to deprive them of. — Albert Gallatin, 7 October 1789

Originally posted by wombat: Per Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition, it's spelled "reeducation." I don't instruct Aussies in how to get drunk, belch, scratch themselves, use vulgar language, speak with a bizarre accent, raise inferior grade beef, or engage in "unnatural" acts; kindly don't seek to give me advice on correct English usage. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The ability to cope with the unforeseen is the measure of a man. — The Guru One conclusion we drew in Columbia is that crime does pay—as long as the victim wants it to. As long as millions of Americans will pay any amount of money in order to poison themselves, there will be people who will furnish them the poison. The evil lies with the consumer. Without him, the drug kings would be shining shoes and washing trucks. — Jeff Cooper, 1987 Traveling unarmed is like boating without a lifejacket. — The Guru

Originally posted by tazzydevil: A target range holds the same appeal for Flash_Basbo as a libertarian book store or a military recruiting office. Originally posted by Flash_Basbo (resident Sicilian-American statist, liar, and coward): 1. So you're visiting your comrades and political bedfellows in Vietnam; what a surprise. Be sure and visit the former "political reeducation camps" where Vietnamese who weren't keen on living in your idea of a "modern society" were imprisoned, tortured, and often killed. You'll get a kick out of it and perhaps bring some fresh ideas back to the People's Republic of Illinois with you. 2. Be sure and drop by Havana on your way home and share a cigar and rum with your statist colleague, Fidel. 3. "Places to avoid?" Anywhere within ten grid squares of any former Cav troopers, recondos, paratroopers, or other RVN combat veterans or the victims/next of kin of the tyranny you advocate would be a good idea. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nothing is unchangeable but the inherent and inalienable rights of man. — Thomas Jefferson Since the protection of individual rights is the only proper purpose of a government, it is the only proper subject of legislation: all laws must be based on individual rights and aimed at their protection. — Ayn Rand Three millions of people so dead to all the feelings of liberty as voluntarily to submit to be slaves would have been fit instruments to make slaves of the rest. — William Pitt

Originally posted by nidnoyham: If I see a lion, Cape buffalo, grizzly bear or even Herb chasing after you, I'll keep your opinion in mind and conserve my ammuntion. Unlike BATF agents, to the best of my knowledge, a whale shark has never betrayed its sworn oath and/or deprived any person of their unalienable individual liberties. Originally posted by raykaytat: Stan is really a stock market tycoon who (probably to confuse U.K. tax officials) just pretends to be a poorly-educated working stiff. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There is no crueler form of tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of law and in the name of justice. — Baron de Montesquieu

Phuket is the center for the best diving around Thailand. As drpaul854 mentioned, a live aboard will cut into your other activities, but it's the best choice for a serious diver. I actually prefer the diving around Hin Muang (Purple Rock) than the Similans. Encountering a whale shark is sheer good luck, but I did get to swim alongside one by Hin Muang in 1996. There are some decent day trips to dive sites out of Phuket, but the visibility often isn't too great. I'm not sure what effect, if any, the 2004 tsunami had on some dive sites. If you're going to LOS for diving, it's important to time your visit to coincide with the best weather for the area in which you're diving.

leemo, Thanks to the Flash_Basbo types, I'm in no position to send you money, but I will pm you with a list of recommended programs, mostly freeware.

Originally posted by greenhorn: The U.K. hasn't made more than a dent in its WWI debt to the USA, let alone paying off WWI and WWII debt "this or next year." Don't let reality intrude into your posts, however. Originally posted by greenhorn: I never said Commonwealth servicemen didn't use U.S.-manufactured tanks. Don't let the fact I never said or remotely thought that keep you from attributing it to me, however. Brits were delighted to get U.S.-made tanks. Considering the alternative was using British-made tanks, I understand their rationale. If you seriously want to examine some real cracker box "tanks," check out the pathetic examples cranked out by Flash_Basbo's Italian brethren. Italian tanks made Japanese tanks look good. Originally posted by greenhorn: I guess you just forgot to explain why the Russians begged for those 4,000 inferior M-4 Shermans. Originally posted by greenhorn: "Rust buckets?" Oh, you mean those 50 WWI era U.S. destroyers you blokes begged FDR to send to England, partly because you desperately needed more destroyers and partly because you sought to embroil the USA in your war (just like you chaps did in WWI). Originally posted by greenhorn: "Revionist?" [sic] In the unlikely event you seriously want to learn about "old [evil and gullible] Woodrow," I invite your attention to The Illusion of Victory by Thomas Fleming. Wilson was aghast at the British/French terms for the Treaty of Versailles. He was also a human vegetable due to stokes at the time the treaty was signed. While not one American in a thousand (then or now) is aware of it, Wilson's doltish wife and her cronies ran the U.S. government for months. You, "ignorant?" I can't imagine an ignorant member on this board of rocket scientists. Next, you'll be suggesting there's a resident collection of liars, vulgar knaves, and/or amoral statists. Originally posted by greenhorn: Do you have a world map handy? Check out the proximity of France and the U.K. to Germany then locate the USA (BTW, we're on a different continent across all that blue space). Ignoring which countries were directly responsible for the Treaty of Versailles, which countries were at more risk from a rearmed Germany with Adolf Hitler at the helm (a little Navy lingo for the ex-squids)? If you can't figure this out for yourself, ask a Yank tourist or a reasonably bright child. That's right; when Americans mind our own business, we're "isolationists." When we intervene overseas, we're war-mongering imperialists. Unless, of course, we're rescuing Limey/Frog/Belgian/Dutch/etc. bacon. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you study the domestic polices of the Herbert Hoover and Franklin Delano Roosevelt Administrations, and compare them with the policies of Adolf Hitler and his mentor, Benito Mussolini, you will eventually come — however reluctantly — to the conclusion that World War II was not a conflict between fascism and something else, as advertised, but a conflict between competing brands of fascism. — L. Neil Smith, 15 June 2003 Government, today, has grown too strong to be safe. There are no longer any citizens in the world; there are only subjects. They work day in and day out for their masters; they are bound to die for their masters at call. Out of this working and dying they tend to get less and less. On some bright morning tomorrow, a geological epoch or two hence, they will come to the end of their endurance, and then such newspapers as survive will have a first-page story well worth its black headlines. — H. L. Mencken, 1925

Originally posted by greenhorn: Are you referring to the WW2 started as a consequence of the unconscionable Versailles Treaty imposed by Great Britain and France? The same two countries which sat idly by while a brutal tyrant came to power in Germany and rearmed its military forces? The same two countries which watched placidly when the Rhineland was reoccupied and Austria was annexed, which sold out the Czechs, and which ignored the U.S.S.R. invasion of Poland while declaring war (years too late) on Nazi Germany? Originally posted by greenhorn: Besides invading Finland in 1939 and Poland in 1940? Depends on which Russian you're referring to. Stalin was cursing himself for letting his treaty partner attack the U.S.S.R. one year before he planned to invade Germany. In 1940, many Soviet citizens welcomed the Germans as liberators. If Flash_Basbo's pals, Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler, hadn't made some spectacular blunders in 1940, Russians would now be speaking German. Originally posted by greenhorn: Between 1939-1941, the overwhelming majority of Americans were minding their own business. When we do this, people like you call it "isolationism." When we needlessly interfere overseas, people like you call it Yankee imperialism and aggression. FDR, however, was actively violating the U.S. Neutrality Acts (and, as usual, lying through his teeth to the gullible American public) and seeking to embroil the USA in another foreign war. Eventually, he succeeded. And were you Brits ever happy! There was as much chance of Japan, Germany, and Italy invading and conquering America as there is of the U.K. ever repaying its WWI and WWII war loans to the USA. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Although Roosevelt and the New Dealers failed to end the depression, they succeeded in revolutionizing the institutions of U.S. political and economic life and in changing the country's dominant ideology. Even today, sixty-five years after the New Deal ran out of steam, its legacies remain and continue to hamper the successful operation of the market economy and to diminish individual liberties. "People in the mass," wrote H. L. Mencken, "soon grow used to anything, including even being swindled. There comes a time when the patter of the quack becomes as natural and as indubitable to their ears as the texts of Holy Writ, and when that time comes it is a dreadful job debamboozling them" Sixty-five years after the New Deal itself petered out, Americans overwhelmingly take for granted the expansive, something-for-nothing character of the federal government established by the New Dealers. For Democrats and Republicans alike, Franklin Delano Roosevelt looms as the most significant political figure of the twentieth century. However significant his legacies, though, Roosevelt deserves no reverence. He was no hero. Rather, he was an exceptionally resourceful political opportunist who harnessed the extraordinary potential for personal and party aggrandizement inherent in a uniquely troubled and turbulent period of U.S. history. By wheeling and dealing, by taxing and spending, by ranting against "economic royalists" and posturing as the friend of the common man, he got himself elected time after time. For all his undeniable political prowess, however, he prolonged the depression and greatly fostered a bloated, intrusive government that has been trampling on the people's liberties ever since. — Robert Higgs, Against Leviathan: Government Power and a Free Society (2004)

Originally posted by Barrington_Tenchanall (a.k.a. Exhibit K): Troll? You're the bloke (a little Limey lingo for you) who entered this thread with a gratuitous insult directed at Americans. Originally posted by Barrington_Tenchanall (a.k.a. Exhibit K): Indeed you are; although I submit "pathetic" would be even more accurate. Originally posted by Barrington_Tenchanall (a.k.a. Exhibit K): "Hidden behind?" Been at the booze again, eh? I wasn't aware that John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Ayn Rand, John Locke, Thomas Paine, Samuel Adams, Lysander Spooner, James Madison, Vin Suprynowicz, L. Neil Smith, et al. were "racists, war criminals and general all round fucked up goons." It's not unexpected for you to demean people whose shadow you're unworthy to stand in. It's also no surprise you endorse a person being imprisoned, denied bail, counsel, a jury trial, etc. simply because he exposes your vulgarity and lack of wit and character. BTW, are you ever going to explain who "Austin" is, how you plan to "bust my chops," or where you got the delusion we'd ever met? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Must the citizen even for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. — Henry David Thoreau, On the Duty of Civil Disobedience (1849) We, the delegates of the people of Virginia, duly elected,... in behalf of the people of Virginia, declare and make known, that the powers granted under the Constitution, being derived from the people of the United States, may be resumed by them, whensoever the same shall be perverted to their injury or oppression; and that every power not granted thereby, remains with them and at their will: that, therefore, no right, of any denomination, can be cancelled, abridged, restrained, or modified. — the Virginia Act of Ratification of the United States Constitution It declares that all powers granted by the Constitution, are derived from the people of the United States; and may be resumed by them when perverted to their injury or oppression; and that every power not granted remains with them, and at their will; and that no right of any description can be cancelled, abridged, restrained or modified by Congress, the Senate, the House of Representatives, the President, or any department, or officer of the United States. Language cannot be stronger! — John C. Calhoun on the above resolution

Originally posted by Barrington_Tenchanall (a.k.a. Exhibit K): Are you functioning under the misperception that your obscene language is a satisfactory substitute for your lack of intellect and an adequate vocabulary? BTW, are you drunk again and having trouble with your Caps Lock key? "Sherman land?" Are you referring to the U.S.-manufactured Sherman tanks which American soldiers used to save your Limey bacon in WWII? BTW, the silly game you're referring to is soccer. Football is an entirely different silly game. Originally posted by Hammer: It's exceedingly unlikely Barrington_Tenchanall (a.k.a. Exhibit K) has any American friends. I'm sure he can find some vulgar, amoral forms of Eurotrash to chum around with. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the transfer society, the general public is not only poorer but also less contented, less autonomous, more rancorous, and more politicized. Individuals take part less often in voluntary community activities and more often in belligerent political contests. Genuine communities cannot breathe in the poisonous atmosphere of redistributional politics. Most important, the society that allows its government to redistribute income on a large scale necessarily sacrifices much of its liberty. Finally, one must recognize that, notwithstanding what some regard as the institutionalization of compassion, the transfer society quashes genuine virtue. Redistribution of income by means of government coercion is a form of theft. Its supporters attempt to disguise its essential character by claiming that democratic procedures give it legitimacy, but this justification is specious. Theft is theft, whether it be carried out by one thief or by a hundred million thieves acting in concert. And it is impossible to found a good society on the institutionalization of theft. — Robert Higgs, Against Leviathan: Government Power and a Free Society (2004)

Originally posted by johnh101: I "know" you (and your ilk) never pass up an opportunity to denigrate the USA, just as you did in your post I responded to. You love to dish it out, but you sure can't take it. Who was it who wrote: "Having eaten mexican food in the States I can understand why !" Oh, I remember; it was you. And who wrote, "Always a good idea for the shermans to go all the way to Thailand to find a good mex restuarant"? One of your ilk. Your habit of posting vulgar, gratuitous insults is exactly the behavior of a "socially inept" person (and that's being polite). BTW, it's "Mexican," not "mexican." And "slander" is verbal; libel is written (and the truth is never slander or libel). You might ask a reasonably bright child to help you with your posts. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add “within the limits of the law,†because law is often but the tyrant’s will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual. — Thomas Jefferson Liberty is not a means to a political end. It is itself the highest political end. — Lord Acton

My votes go to PIC Kitchen and the dinner buffet at the Marriott. Originally posted by johnh101: Count on a skirt-clad Scotsman to eat at a Taco Bell and base his opinion on that. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It is sobering to reflect that one of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the struggle for independence. — Charles A. Beard A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves. — Edward R. Murrow Liberty is the only thing you cannot have unless you are willing to give it to others. — William Allen White