Butch

Love the gardens, and it just shows my lack of knowledge when I have to ask you where you can find them?!. Great pics Firth, you've got a good eye and the new camera is paying dividends.

A couple of British girls got very ill indeed from drinking booze which was tainted with methanol , in fact sadly one died as a result. Apparently adulterating the spirits with methanol is a practice observed in some areas of the world. We use methanol / water injection in race engines to reduce detonation and cool the combustion temperatures down, and it is also used as an additive to compressors during the winter months to stop the water freezing inside the lines. I can only imagine how fucked one would be if it was consumed. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2325963/Cheznye-Emmons-British-backpacker-23-dies-drinking-poisoned-alcohol-Indonesia.html Maybe a bit more extreme than watering down spirits though.

Whenever I order a jack coke, I order the can of coke separate from the JD, so I can mix it myself to taste and also see if the JD is not watered down. Of course as the night goes on I get less and less particular. As spirits are normally mixed, unless you have particularly sensitive taste buds, it is hard to tell. People's taste perceptions are also different, for example until this day I swear I can't tell the difference between Mekhong coke and Bacardi coke! (remember that taste and flavour are two connected but essentially different things). Substituting drinks for others is an age old practice. up until a few years ago even in the UK some unscrupulous Pub landlords or staff would swap Tesco's vodka for Finlandia or use other such substitutes. It might come as no surprise that one or more bars not only in Pattaya but across SEA as a whole have been guilty of this nefarious act. Regardless of who is at fault, Manager , staff or whoever, the bottom line is that we're the ones getting ripped off.

Not only a cad , Sir, but a scallywag and bounder to boot.

Gabor, is he someone you use regularly and can recommend? If so then I'll pass the link on to a mate who's heading out on the 16th.

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/authorities-baby-found-fire-jersey-roadway-175010843.html#aAfEyXu I'm not afraid to admit to tears rolling down my cheeks on this one. There can be no excuse. If I had my way, I'd take a fucking flame thrower to the cunt.

Left as you're looking at it from the front, or left as you're sitting inside?.

True. Andrew Drummond can at least take small comfort in the fact that many people respect him and his work , giving it credibility and his reports are not lost upon his readership.

I hope they get the fucking terrible slow, militant bunch of wankers at immigration sorted out, even if it is just for the cameras. I was actually watching Flightradar24 the other day, looking at the line / astern trail of 5 aircraft heading into SVB from Europe for arrival there between 0500 and 0630, all Thai Air including their A380. I reckon the line extends halfway down the runway after everyone has got off. Unless they have already done something about it and I'm ranting for no reason at all. Looking forward to watching the series though.

Outstanding airline, but usually stop off at their hub, Hong Kong, on the Asia routes. I don't think they go direct to Thailand. If it is direct then you'll probably find that it's going to be a code share flight with British Airways (BA 009) which leaves LHR at approx 15:00. We've had this before, booked Cathay LHR to MNL only to find that it was a BA 747 taking us to HK. However, they are our airline of choice when flying UK or anywhere to Manila. Excellent aircraft, great staff and good Customer Service, I honestly cannot really find fault with their economy service. We're FF's with them and although I'm not sure if they honour Avios miles like BA, their reward scheme is pretty much standard in line with other carriers. Mileage accrual lasts for 2 years iirc. they've phased out the 747s and now use 777-333's on most routes to Asia out of the UK. All in all possibly one of the best SEA Airlines out there, especially at that price!.

Good stuff Rhino, thanks for posting. I think the last pic is prime for a caption competition.

Gus mate I know Thai have upped their baggage to 30 but can't find anything for EVA (fb, website) have they done it on the UK-Los routes do you know?.

Nice one ikkrang, I've had the odd trip from the airport to patts done at 160 km/h and wondered if I was ever going to make it there safely. I use PT Taxis as they also have a lady driver and Mrs Butch prefers that and now insists on it. However, I'll certainly give her a look if we return and suggest as an alternative to any mates heading back that way soon. The English is a major plus and if she responds to emails promptly then that's always appreciated. When she gets the web page up mate, stick a link up.

Hi, Now we've seen the back of the 2 big events of "Peak season" , what is the general consensus about the state of play out there?. I think we can all agree it (I'm going by reports and stuff I've read, plus looking at the LK Metro Cams) has been exceptionally quiet, even maybe an anti climax (although I speak from the perspective of a non visitor). Is this due to the current political situation?, is this due to the general decrease in Tourism ? Some are saying less Russians, some are saying no change, some even say the slack has been taken up by Middle Eastern and Indian tourists, or is this due to a general decrease across the whole demographic?. It appears the bars are pulling out all the stops to get punters in, even flights have been reasonable and unlike previous years, from what I can gather, hotel occupancy has been down somewhat. We have recently seen numerous threads concerning the changes, so rather than dwell on the current situation, using this peak season as a yardstick, how do we see Songkran etc panning out?. BTW, is there no , or a severely scaled down Cobra Gold again this year?.

Thanks for the tips fellas, I also use rarbg.com as a source or an Extratorrent proxy as the ISP's in the UK have banned all the popular torrent sites.

Not sure if this is of interest to any of our BM's stateside, but announced on the EVA FB page from June 2015. https://www.facebook.com/evaairwayscorp.ph?fref=nf Details (schedule etc) http://www.evaair.com/en-global/news-releases/2014/taipei-houston.html You get to travel on a Hello Kitty Jet as well, so prepare for visual sensory overload.

Pardon my ignorance (and horrific geographical skills), I take it the complex is the old "Made in Thailand" market on Second Rd, and your Bar is situated at the Soi Bukhao end?. The reason I ask is because I didn't actually think it went all the way through to Soi Bukhao from Second road (We only went to a couple of bars in there last year, both relatively close to Second road side). Apologies for sounding a bit of a doofus, for some reason I thought the complex occupied the same floor area as the old "Made in Thailand" market area did which sold all the clothes, football shirts and bags etc. Anyway, Chinese curry sounds a good idea, be good to see some staff pics when you get up and running. Keeping up with, let alone ahead of the game in Pattaya is no mean feat, so best of luck.

Good luck with the venture. Last time I visited the complex there was a couple of parties going on and some very boisterous farangs. Returned the following night and it was like a ghost town. The place definitely needs a shot in the arm.

Good time, if any, to stick some dollar on Oil stocks. We might see the price of gold rising as well, which will be good news for me cos I've got a 2.8 pence per share punt on "Solgold" at the moment. I see also that the Swiss Banks will soon charge starting foreign investors negative interest rates, prompted in part by the Ruskies dumping huge deposits. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-30528404

Shush now MM, FFS.

Well firth I don't think you'll be disappointed mate. Canon make the best kit out there and for a test run, that's better than most of the stuff I end up with after 2 weeks!. looking again, that A380 Qantas, 3rd & 4th from last is pretty bloody epic! Out of interest how far away were you at the time?.

Nice pics Firth. Did you buy the body only or lens as well?. It always takes me a while to get to grips with a new camera. My last purchase was a Nikon Coolpix which , while being excellent, still took me the best part of a fortnight to get the hang of. (Sent it back for a refund after the lens cap refused to close ). Air Canada in flight is great, along with the BA 747 & Qantas A380 etc (nice spot of the Thai 747 as well, must have been around 1pm?). The BA planes lined up seems a little bright though. That seems a good spot for taking some take off vids as well mate, is that where a lot of the Youtube spotters film from?.

honestly BigD, I know we all have our foibles here but the Craigslist lot made me stop and think that the gene pool must be really struggling. Ah yes....the Xzyte incident...when I finally learned what a "reach around" was

Stuff I did at work today when I should've been doing other stuff but couldn't due to the heavy rain. a ) Argue / banter / reply with Jacko in his excellent "Religion" topic b ) Eat my sandwiches which had a peculiar filling of dried fish. How this happened I don't know, but Mrs Butch must have been thinking way way too far outside the box, especially as I distinctly remember asking for Cheddar Cheese and Branston pickle. c ) Spend time on Ebay, Hargreaves Lansdown and Reuters along with the Manila bulletin site. d ) On advice from a mate sat over from me, check out the "Thailand Craigslist" "Rants and Raves" section (amongst others). Jesus H Christ, Genuinely honestly and whatever other expletives spring to mind, What the fuck is going on with people there??. It makes us look like perfectly well adjusted and high standing pillars of the community. This is no lie, check it out if you wish, but someone with what can only be a poor choice case of OCD posts each of his "bowel movements", the time and how it went. we have people posting pictures of their fecal matter, ladyboys and requests for the banal. Back in the day, CG was fine for meeting hookers in an unfamiliar town, or maybe picking up a used motor, some appliances or even looking for work. Nowadays it seems the flotsam and jetsam of the entire WWW have washed up there. I've not been so shocked since I went for a piss in Xzyte and found a pair of hands massaging my shoulders...

I saw this link, worrying news for Russia. I didn't know they were facing a huge recession: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/oilandgas/11253322/Vladimir-Putin-seeks-Opec-oil-deal-with-direct-appeal-to-Saudi-in-Vienna.html