Evil Penevil

There was (is?) an Uncle Sawai or Swai. You can read about him here: Lung Sawai Seafood Restaurant. Evil

Blame it from the beginning on the Romans, French and English monks, but most of all on the failure of English-speaking countries to develop formal institutions capable of bringing spelling in line with modern pronunciation. English is stuck with a spelling system that goes back over 1,000 years and is now massively out-of-date. During the days of the Roman Empire, the classical Latin alphabet had only 23 letters (J, U and V weren't added until much later). There simply weren't enough Latin letters to express all the vowel and consonant sounds of the Anglo-Saxon languages, so early English monks who functioned as scribes used characters borrowed from runic alphabets to express the extra sounds. These characters (thorn þ, eth ð, and yogh ȝ) were later replaced with two-letters combinations (th, sh and gh). Then came the Norman conquest of Britain and the French language was mixed into the equation. Scribes, both French and English, had to find new ways of expressing the sounds of new words borrowed from French. A lot of the craziness with inconsistent pronunciation of vowels and vowel combinations, stems from this period. Add to this the staggering number of local variations in pronunciation at the time and the scribes had indeed a monumental job in deciding on how to spell English words. The final factor - and many would argue the most influential - was the Great English Vowel Shift that took place between 1350 and 1700. The major difference in the pronunciation of words in Middle English and Modern English occurs with long vowels. The introduction of the printing press in the 1500s meant that English spelling was undergoing standardization, but spelling wasn't keeping up with pronunciation. That why we have ended up with words like "bow," which has half a dozen different meanings and two pronunciations (bo and bou) as well as "bough" which has the same pronunciation as one of the "bows," but a totally unrelated meaning. The plethora of ";silent"; letters in English is also a result of the use of Middle English spelling for Modern English words. Try to say this sentence: Though the tough cough and hiccough plough him through. And how do you pronounce "Loughborough?" A minor, but no less irritating, source of inconsistencies between spelling and pronunciation was the attempt by earlier lexicographers to indicate the original of the word through spelling, i.e., the silent "b" in "debt" and silent "s" in "island" to tie them to Latin words. The use" of "psy" in words like "psychology" pointed to Greek origin. Beginning in the 1700s, most other major languages acquired national academies, such as Académie française in France, to regulate the language and reform spelling. But English-speaking countries never did, so there has never been a formal body with sufficient authority to undertake reform of English spelling and enforce its decisions. This failure on the part of our forefathers has left us with an orthography in English that is very confusing and a nightmare for native and non-native speakers alike. There have been private attempts at reform of English spelling, but only one has been a partial success: Noah Webster and his An American Dictionary of the English Language in 1824. Americans can thank Webster for the elimination of "u" in words like "color" and "labor;" dropping the extra consonant in words like "travelled" and "waggon;" "defense" instead of "defence;" and several others. But Webster wasn't entirely successful. He wanted "tongue" spelled as "tung;" "ache" as "ake;" "soup" as "soop;" and "women" as "wimmen," but those reforms never caught on. Newspapers, which needed to keep headlines short, tried with variations like "nite" and "thru," but they never gained general acceptance as "proper" words. Some have argued that computers and the Internet will eventually enable the reform of English spelling. It's possible, although I'm doubtful; those spelling rules from the 1300s have proved very resistant to change. Evil

Whenever the best restaurants in Pattaya are discussed, Mum Aroi is quickly mentioned. It's a mega-seafood restaurant on the beach in North Pattaya, more precisely on Naklua Road Soi 4. Depending on traffic, it can take 20 minutes or more to get to Mum Aroi from Central Pattaya by taxi or chartered baht bus. -- Most of the diners are Thais and other Asians, which is usually a indication the food is good. There may be seafood restaurants in Pattaya that hold the same standard as Mum Aroi, but none that is better, especially when it comes to the sheer number of dishes on the menu. And like several other restaurants in Thailand, you can even order fried horse crap - with lime! I've never attempted to count the number of tables at Mum Aroi, but I've read it has about 100 and can easily handle 500 guests at once. Even with this high capacity, it's often full during peak hours between 5.00 pm and 7.00 pm. If you aspire to a seaside table that gives the best view of the sun setting over the ocean, you should make a reservation. Mum Aroi is all about seafood done Thai style. If you're looking for some other type of food, you'd better go elsewhere. I didn't notice one single farang dish on the menu. The service staff speaks very little English, so if you don't speak Thai and aren't content to order by pointing to the pics, you should have a Thai speaker with you. Although busloads of Japanese, Korean and Taiwanese tourists visit Mum Aroi every night, farang diners remain a small minority. I believe this depends to some degree on Mum Aroi's location, but also to the fact that many short-term vacationers simply don't know it exists. The flavor of the dishes can't be faulted, but they tend to arrive in no particular order. If you want the dishes to arrive in a set order and spaced out over time, order them separately. That is, when you're half-way through the first two dishes, order the next two. When those dishes are close to finished, order the next dishes and so on. The meal we had the night before I flew to the U.S. was relatively simple. Crab: Fried whole fish: Squid with preserved eggs, a personal favorite of mine: Seafood stir-fry: There are a few Thai dessert dishes on the menu, but if you want ice cream or cake, there's a little place attached to Mum Aroi: The total bill, including a large Singha for me and Coke for the lady, was 850 baht. I have more pics from earlier visits to Mum Aroi, but they'll have to wait until I'm back in Pattaya at my PC. Bottom line: Visit Mum Aroi if you want great seafood. You won't be disappointed. Evil

Actually, I don't mind the dragon-like stewardesses; I regard them as "waitresses in the air" and I've never had problems with them bringing me my meals or drinks. More I don't need from them. I also stick with United because of the FF miles. United has one of, if not the best, frequent flyer programs. I haven't flown cattle class on a trans-Pacific or Atlantic flight in over five years (on Continental before the merger) because of the upgrades. And on the ground, United has been extremely helpful when there have been flight cancellations (not often, but it happens because of weather or congestion at NYC airports). Along with 15,000 other travelers, I was trapped at Narita by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. The onward United flight to BKK was canceled, but a hard-pressed United agent got me onto a Air Nippon flight leaving that same night from Haneda. I was delayed in getting to Bangkok by only eight hours, remarkable under the circumstances. I heard about passengers on other airlines (some of them major airlines) who had been stuck three days at Narita before getting out. The Thai flight to Frankfurt was on an Airbus 380-800. I need more adventure in my life. Evil Some pics of the biz meals on United. Pretty decent! Smoked salmon appetizer: Salad: Beef tenderloin with spaetzle: Cheese, fruit and port: Caramel sundae: Pre-landing:

Best of luck to everyone in their new roles! I look forward to visiting both Secrets and Baby Dolls when I get back from the U.S. I wonder if Larry will miss his role as Xenu, the head of the secretologists. Are there any plans to start a cult of Baby Dollogists? Evil

Many thanks for your pics! One feature I really liked was the the roomy storage bin under the window. I could stash my laptop there along with reading material and other items I needed in-flight without having to open the overhead bin. I have some more pics I'll post of the United flight between Frankfurt and Newark. It was supposed to be in Global First, but United switched planes to two-cabin metal and I ended up in biz. It wasn't bad, the United biz seats are lie flat and very comfortable, but the service didn't come within light-years of Thai's. Just one illustration: the boarding card I got for the FRA-EWR leg didn't have the departure gate. The lady in the Lufthansa lounge gave me a gate number that didn't exist. When I realized this, I asked a United employee who was standing nearby if she knew the departure gate for the Newark flight. She barked at me, "I don't know, I'm meeting arriving passengers," and demonstratively stepped away. It was easy to find the departure gate by looking at a monitor, so no real harm done, but the United staffer had a piss-poor attitude. For my return flight in a week, I'm booked on Asiana in one of their first-class suites where you can close a door for full privacy. JFK to Inchon (first), then Inchon to BKK (biz). And in December, I fly between Narita and Denver on the Boeing Dreamliner. The upgrade situation isn't clear yet. Evil

It cost me US $71.32 - and 70,000 frequent-flyer miles. But if you pay for all of it in hard money, I believe the cost is about US $13,000. Evil

Thank you! I landed at Newark Liberty a few hours ago and am now safely ensconced in my hotel. She had asked me if I had wanted to be woken up two hours before landing so I could eat breakfast. I said yes. I noticed a few other passengers in the first-class cabin had elected to sleep and were woken up about an hour before landing. Evil

I'm posting this from the transit lounge of the Frankfurt airport as I await my flight to Newark Liberty. I flew in Thai Royal First from Bangkok. It was quite an experience. I'd never flown first class on Thai. I have flown in first class on other airlines, but it was nothing like first class on Thai. At Swampy, as soon as I entered the Royal First check-in area, I got my own "assistant" who took care of my suitcase and carry-on bag. You don't stand at a counter to check in, but the assistant takes your passport and you sit in an armchair and are served a botle of water. In a few minutes, the assistant came back with my passport, boarding passes and luggage claim. He then took me through the Premium Lane security check immigration control, then put me on an electric cart that scooted me to the Royal First lounge. There I had a room to myself (!) and was served a meal of snacks. I watched TV and surfed the net until it was time to board. Again, the assistant carried my hand baggage and an electric cart delivered me to the departure gate. The first-class seats are full recliners. Unfortunately, I didn't get a good picture of it. From the Thai Web site: Edit in: I'm doing stream-of-consciousness posting. They called my name in the departure lounge and I thought there might be something wrong with the onward flight as it was too early for boarding, but it turned out to be a really trivial matter. Boarding starts in about 30 minutes. The in-flight dinner began with Russian caviar and a shot of vodka: Then prawn salad with pesto: Main course was jaegerschnitzel and spaetzle (German dumplings): Followed by cheese and fruit: After dinner, I watched a movie, then went to sleep until the stewardess woke me up for breakfast two hours before landing. The breakfast: A parting gift from Thai Airways, an orchid and a deck of playing cards. But the first-class treatment didn't stop even after landing. Another assistant met me at the gate and escorted me to a Lufthansa lounge to wait for my flight to Newark. If you have to fly, this is certainly the way to do it! Evil

To night at Bachelor Club (LK Metro), 125 baht; Crystal Club (LK Metro), 110 baht; and Sensations (WS), 135 baht. All three were doing well with plenty of customers. Evil

EDIT IN (Oct. 30, 2013): The Rockhouse has lost its cook and has suspended its food service until a replacement can be found. The Rockhouse, a popular watering hole on LK Metro, began with food service in July. It offers wide range of well-prepared "pub grub," plus a selection of Thai dishes. You can get everything from a giant Hungry Horace breakfast through burgers, curries, steak, meat pies, toasties, chili con carne and more. Prices are reasonable.[/size] [/size] I've eaten there quite a bit in the past few month, usually before an evening in the LK Metro go go bars. All the food I've had has been good and some dishes have been delicious, better than you get in a lot of full-scale restaurants. The emphasis is on quality ingredients and preparation.[/size] Make no mistake. The Rockhouse is a bar with food service, not a restaurant. You sit on bar stools at tables or at the bar counter and most of the other customers are there to drink and chat with the hostesses or each other. But wholesome "comfort food" to guests who are hungry as well as thirsty is a welcome option. I've seen several guys come in for a meal while watching football matches on the wall-mounted TVs.[/size] This is the lady who does the cooking. She has experience in preparing both Thai and farang food. She often comes out of the kitchen to ask customers how they want their food done.[/size] [/size] Food is available from about 8.00 a.m. to 9.00 p.m.[/size] I've eaten most of the dishes in the photos. I'll note the ones I haven't tried personally.[/size] [/size] [/size] I didn't try the Super Double Everything Burger above (two patties, egg, bacon and cheese), but a friend did. He thought it was very good.[/size] I had the regular cheeseburger:[/size] A very nice breaded chicken breast with mashed potatoes and peas. The gravy was served as it should be, in a boat on the side.[/size] [/size] [/size] Bangers and mash (not a dish I tried):[/size] [/size] One of the most popular dishes at the RH - chili con carne with rice and chips:[/size] [/size] Gammon steak:[/size] [/size] Fish and chips:[/size] [/size] Mince and onion pie (very difficult lighting):[/size] [/size] [/size] Sausage sandwich (not a dish I tried:[/size] [/size] Ham and cheese toastie:[/size] Sirloin steak (I didn't try this and the diner requested an order of batter-fried onions with his steak. It's not a standard side):[/size] Chicken tikka masala:[/size] [/size] [/size] Penang curry:[/size] [/size] [/size] Fried rice with egg:[/size] [/size] [/size] Some Thai dishes:[/size] [/size] Apple pie with custard, although in the U.S. we'd probably call it apple cake:[/size] Evil[/size] I don't eat a farang breakfast any more, so I don't have any pics. But here's the description from the RH menu:[/size] Breakfast Menu[/size] 1. English breakfast : 150 Baht.[/size] Consisting of 2 eggs any style , 1 fatboy pork sausage , I slice of middle cut bacon , 1 slice of black pudding , fried tomato , fried mushrooms and baked beans . 2 slices of toast , butter and jam .[/size] 2. Hungry Horace breakfast : 240 baht.[/size] Consisting of 2 eggs any style , 2 fatboy pork sausages , 2 slices of middle bacon , 2 slices of black pudding , fried tomato, fried mushrooms and baked beans . 2 slices of toast , butter and jam .[/size] 3. 2 eggs any style : 80 baht .[/size] Fried , scrambled , boiled or poached on 2 slice of toast . For those looking for something ligh .[/size] 4. Omelette selection :[/size] Plain omelette 70 baht , Cheese omelette 90 baht , Ham and cheese omelette 110 baht . Ham , cheese and onion omelette 120 baht . All omelettes served with 2 slices of toast , bread and jam .[/size] 5. Put it on a bun :[/size] Create your own morning roll by choosing from fried egg , fatboy sausage , middle bacon and do it your way . Sausage 60 baht , bacon 60 baht , fried egg 50 baht . Sausage and bacon 100 baht . Sausage and fried egg 90 baht . Bacon and fried egg 90 baht .Go the whole hog and have all 3 only 120 baht .[/size] 6. Baked beans on toast 70 baht . [/size]

On Friday, FLB was offering draft beer at 49 baht a mug and bottled beer at 105 baht. Given it's an air-conditioned hostess bar on WS and features live music on weekends, that has to be one of the best valu-for-money deals in town. Evil

I only drink SML, so I don't know about Singha, but I'll keep my eyes peeled when I go to WS tonight. Evil

Maybe someone who knows the former owner of the Blue Parrot will be able to give a definitive answer. According to what I've read elsewhere, the former Blue Parrot owner isn't involved, but the same cook is/was involved to some degree. The menu is supposed to be almost identical, at least in terms of the Mexican dishes. Evil

At quite a few U.S. airports, there's a special Global Entry lane to clear the CBP control. That really saved me a lot of time once at Seattle-Tacoma and once at Newark Liberty. I bypassed huge lines on both occasions. I doubt I'd have made my connecting flight in Seattle if I hadn't gotten through as fast as I did. Evil

Sue's Place is a small Mexican restaurant on Soi 13/4 (Pattayaland 2) off Beach Road, about half way up the block on the left side as you walk towards 2nd Road. The food was very good and I took the unusual step (for me) of eating there on two consecutive days. I don't know if it's the weather or low season, but on both days (Wednesday, 6.30-8.30 pm and Thursday, 5.30-6.30 pm) I was the only farang customer. There were some Thai women eating and drinking at the same time, but they appeared to be either employees or friends of the boss. It's unfortunate, because Sue's Place deserves more custom. Perhaps the location is a factor. Pattayaland 2 was pretty dead, with very little foot traffic past the restaurant while I was sitting there. The menu features an assortment standard Mexican dishes plus some combination platters and Thai dishes. I'm sure Gordon Ramsey would approve, as he often urged small restaurants to do a few dishes well rather than attempt a lot of mediocre dishes. I can't be bothered to look it up right now, but If I recall correctly, Sue's Place took over the menu and perhaps the cook from its defunct neighbor, the former Blue Parrot. I started my meal Wednesday with a margarita. It was fresh-tasting with a good shot of tequila. I followed with a combo platter of a beef taco and a beef chimichanga, basically a deep-fried burrito. It came with rice and refried beans as the sides and two small dishes, one with salsa and the other with hot sauce. It tasted fine, equal to what you'd get in a decent Mexican restaurant in the U.S. It cost 235 baht and a bottle of San Miguel Light was 80 baht. Thursday night I went for the grilled steak fajitas, which were served with onions and green peppers fried together. It also comes with two flour tortillas and small dishes of salsa, sour cream and hot sauce. It was brought to the table sizzling on a metal platter on a wooden tray. You spoon the meat, veggies and condiments onto the tortillas and roll them up yourself. Again, a very tasty dish with the fajitas seasoned properly. It cost 265 baht. The women at the adjacent table kept toasting me and eventually asked me to join them. I did so and we had a lot of laughs. I gave one of the women a teddy bear, which made her happy indeed. I also gave a little girl in restaurant a bear and she played with it a long time, although she wasn't eager to have her picture taken. Her mother tried to get her to smile, but she wasn't having any of it. I think my camera and flash frightened her a bit. One of the walls featured an interesting collection of stickers, of which one stuck out. I must be a real antique, I haven't seen one like for many years. On my first night, I noticed a cat sitting on the first-story roof across the street (marked by the yellow arrow in the pic). I wondered what the cat was doing on the roof. I thought it might be delivering gifts but had its dates mixed up. After all, a cat that lives on the beach has to be sandy claws. The next afternoon, there was whole tribe of cats on that roof. I wonder how many of them get fired by the electrical wires. Evil

. Yes, I wondered a bit about that, too. To m4321: ALL bars of any stripe depend on the sale of alcohol, so there's no place with dancing girls or hostesses that doesn't serve alcoholic. The sale of drinks isn't a big factor at massage parlors, but they are hardly places to go to socialize with other non-drinkers. Most restaurants in Pattaya serve alcohol, but drinking isn't a big factor at most of them. If you already have a circle of friends, there are hundreds of restaurants where you could arrange to meet them, but in terms of getting to know non-drinkers on anything but a random basis, you don't have many options. There aren't any alcohol-free nightlife venues in Pattaya. Evil

She was the cook and kept things hot and quite spicy for me! I've eaten at Hajime a number of times and the temperature of the griddle has always been controllable through a dial built into the table. You could adjust the temperature from very high to very low and vice versa. It's certainly possible the dial for one griddle might not work due to some fault, but there are two griddles at most tables. In the unlikely case both didn't work, it's just to ask for another table. Here's a pic in which I've pointed to the position of the griddle control with a bolt of lightening: Also, if you ask for spicy sauce and other condiments, the service staff is happy to bring them. If you want more rice or any other "side dish," you have to order it through the monitor on the table. A lot of first-time visitors to Hajime don't understand this or forget to push the confirm button when they place the order, so it never comes. There are only two types of soda available (Coke and Sprite), but there are a half dozen other soft drinks (fruit juices, green tea, etc) on offer. The majority of Hajime's customers are Thais and other Asians and the menu caters to their preferences. Evil

Hajime is divided into twp sections: one that features teppanyaki cooking on the table-top griddle, with ingredients and some prepared dishes ordered from an a la carte menu; and a much bigger section where ingredients are plucked from a conveyor belt to be cooked table shabu shabu style in a pot of boiling broth. The shabu shabu variation goes for a flat rate of 300 baht per person and includes a fairly extensive buffet: prepared dishes (tempura, noodles, soup), sushi, a salad bar, Asian desserts, fruit, etc. After trying the teppanyaki variation several times and the novelty of the samurai robot server having worn off, the young lady with whom I often dine wanted to try the shabu shabu option. After a huge meal involving 25 trays plucked off the conveyor belt and healthy portions from the buffet, she said she liked the shabu shabu style better. I couldn't believe how much she ate for such a thin girl. It was double what I knocked back and I'm no slouch when it comes to the table. Some pics: Trays of many kinds of raw ingredients: seafood, pork, beef, chicken, vegetables, herbs, etc. The first round of trays (and there were several more rounds for us); Some of the food from the buffet: Cooking shabu-shabu style: The first bowl of the finished product: I wasn't as enthusiastic about the shabu shabu meal as my companion. I didn't think the boiling in the hot pot brought out the flavor of the ingredients as well as the teppanyaki cooking had. Also, tempura doesn't really lend itself to buffet-style serving. It goes cold too fast. But at a total cost of 658 baht for two (300 each for the food and 29 baht each for unlimited non=alcoholic beverages, it was certainly value for money considering she dumped at least six trays of shrimp into the pot. Evil