Evil Penevil

It's been a few years since I stayed at either, but Nikom Court and Opey de Place on Soi Lengke both had 24-hour receptions. Also, you might want to check with the Drunken Duck about checking in late. Evil

I'm writing this in the CIP biz lounge at Swampy at 4.30 a.m. It took me 15 minutes to get through Immigration Control. It would have taken longer, but I got lucky. The single feeder queue was in place, but only two officers on duty. About 25 people were ahead of me, so I figured I'd have to wait at least 30 minutes to get through. It took me 15 minutes to get to the point the lady was assigning people to the short queues in front of each of the two officers. A Russian family - parents, three children and grandma - were ahead of me, but none of them had their departure cards filled out. The officer brushed them aside in an annoyed tone of voice and I nimbly moved up to present my passport to him. He cleared me in about 30 seconds. The Russian family hadn't even figured out what was happening by the time I was through. During that 15 minutes I waited, the size of the queue increased dramatically, possibly because the 6.00 a.m. United flight to Narita is fully booked. So if I'd entered the queue 15 minutes later than I did, I would have waited much longer in the snake unless new control booths had been opened. Ironically, United passed out fast track coupons to biz class passengers, but the fast track lane wasn't open. "Not working," the young man at the entrance said. But he grabbed my voucher anyway and directed me to the ordinary control area. I'm back to LOS in a week, so I'll see then what the arrival queues are like. The single feeder queue is a definite improvement as the Russians don't have any opportunity now to jump the line. One tried, but he was ordered back by a "queue minder." Evil

Together with an American friend and his TGF, I ate at PBG last night. All of us enjoyed the food. He had a garden salad and the Chicken Cordon Bleu and his GF had Thai food. I wasn't very hungry and just had the tuna melt for 100 baht. San Miguel Light was 75 baht. The food tasted good and came quickly. No complaints whatsoever from any of us. We were there between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. on a Saturday night and just about every table was occupied with diners. The bar area had a decent crowd but wasn't full. I only saw a few Flers, maybe five or so and none had much luck in attracting male attention, at least while we were there. PBG has established itself as a very reasonably priced restaurant with great views. I don't think it's had much success on the FLer front. Evil

Renting a jet ski isn't exactly high on my list of priorities, but it appears to be one of the experiences that are better indulged in the U.S. than Pattaya. So Pattaya for girls, Florida or California for jet skis. But for those who enjoy jet ski-ing in Pattaya, is there such a thing as a reputable, no-hassle renter of jet skis? Or is the entire branch an inherent rip-off? Evil

It's refreshing to see a bar owner stand up in this manner for his employees, especially the girls. Your action encourages me to visit X-Zone more often. It's pretty clear what happened. Shenzhenau got knocked back, but expected X-Zone's management to force the girl to go him. When that didn't happen, he tried to use Pattaya Talk to cause difficulties for your bar and its employees. It's just one more unfortunate example of a customer fabricating a report to try to get revenge against a bar or girl. I'm always suspicious of any new BM whose first post is to slam or pressure a business. Plus, Shenzhenau posts didn't make much sense. I knew he was leaving out a lot in his description of what happened. Happy Songkran! Evil

I agree 100%. It's totally understandable that girls often prefer to go with regular customers than take chances with unknown customers. Evil

You might want to check the Tools tab, then click Add-ins and Plugins to make sure Shockwave hasn't been disabled. If it hasn't, then it is indeed puzzling. That video shows up fine on my Firefox browser. Evil

It's probably a problem with the Adobe plug-in. Go to http://www.mozilla.o...US/plugincheck/ and run the test to see if your plug-ins are up to date and correctly installed. You should get a result like this: If you aren't running Shockwave Flash 11.2.202.233, it will show an orange bar that says "Update." Evil

Some foods don't look good in photos. Biscuits and gravy is one of them. Better pics snatched from the Internet:

You can get all the assistance you need, either from the airline or one of the Fast Track "meet and greet" service providers. You can read about Emirates' arrangements for passengers with special needs here. Evil

I don't know if there is really much point in responding to this, but what the hell. As they say in the Recon Battalion of the Pattaya Street Warriors - "Semper Fido." You and I have very different perspectives on Pattaya. It has nothing to do with a sheep mentality. For me, the glass is always more than half full; for you, only a little drop is left in it. Whether through skill, luck or the hand of Buddha, I have very seldom had any problem with starfish or runners. 99% of my experiences with the girls in Pattaya have been positive. And when I wrote the word "bad," I was using it in the sense of "not good," and "disappointing" in the sense of "not living up to expectations." To me, a "bad" experience would be one where the girl got too drunk or started in on a hard-luck story about needing extra money for a sick relative. To be sure, if that's the worst thing that happens to me in life then I'll have lived a very charmed existence. But those aren't good scenarios when you want to have fun with a lady. I honestly wasn't thinking of outright frauds, cheats and scams because I don't fall victim to them. There's a Scottish saying you should learn, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." I trust my experience and instincts. If I have any reason to suspect the lady won't be satisfactory, I just decline her services. And if a girl were to succeed in scamming me - shame on me, I should have seen it coming. I would indeed shrug it off in the sense I'd consider it an unlucky one-off experience like the heavy flooding in central Pattaya last September. It wouldn't make me bitter about all bar girls or suspect each and every one of them is trying to con me. Also, some of things you regard as frauds or scams I consider a option that I'm free to accept or decline. A bar fine of 1,500 baht or a lady drink at 180 baht isn't a crime against humanity, it's simply part of the bar's pricing structure. Maybe it will work for the bar, maybe it won't. But as long as no extortion is involved, I don't consider high prices to be a scam in and of themselves. And in any case, the solution is simple - ask how much drinks cost and how much the bar fines are before you order anything. That's a very natural thing to do in any bar you enter for the first time. Finally, there are bars where the ladies will never try to scam you. FLB is highly recommended in this respect. So if it's too tough for you in the go go bars, you might consider a gentler sphere of operation. I leave it up to you, Harris Black and the other street warriors to punish bar girls. In that particular conflict, I'll claim the status of a conscientious objector. That is such an absurd comparison I'm not going to bother refuting it. EP note to other BMs: The difficulty in framing an answer to Gabor's post is that he and I have radically different ideas about what constitutes a scam, fraud, rip-off, etc. To me, to qualify as a scam or rip-off, there has to be an element of deception or compulsion involved; otherwise, it's a matter of choice. I consider the Arab's bars in BKK to be scam operations, likewise the "European dancing girl" bars on WS. Best way to deal with them is to avoid them. If one day I encounter what I (not Gabor) consider a scam in a bar, I'll decide my response at that time. Maybe I'll shrug it off, maybe I won't. But for me, it's mostly a hypothetical question since it's not something I've encountered often and have virtually always been able to deflect immediately. Evil

There's only one test when it comes to price - if you're happy and the girl is happy, then the price was right. Don't pay more than you can afford, but don't worry about what anyone else says they pay or what they say you should pay. Your baht, your business. That's all that needs to be said on how much to pay the girls. Remember, too, there is no ISO standard for P4P performance, no union scale for compensation. A lot of it comes down to the luck of the draw. If you meet a good lady, be thankful. A bad one or disappointing experience, shrug it off and move on. There are thousands of other ladies in Pattaya waiting to meet you. Evil

I was also in Spanky's last night and the line up was back to what I saw on Friday last week. At most I saw 15 girls on stage at one time, but roughly as many more were sitting with customers or taking a pause between dance shifts. Evil

Airlines have responded to a decreasing number of passengers by reducing the number of flights rather than ticket prices. They are trying to balance supply with demand while maintaining profit margins at a reasonable level. High fuel and airport costs are a big factor in cutting back on flights. Evil

I went back to Spanky's last night and indeed, there were far fewer girls on stage than on Friday. However, the girls who had entertained me Friday were working Monday, so I had a great time again. But the number of girls was definitely down from my previous visit. There were about 10 other customers in the bar while I was there (about two hours between midnight and 2.00 a.m) and most had been there before I arrived. With the exception of a couple of guys, all had Spanky's girls sitting beside them. At Spanky's, the girl will continue to sit with you as long as you buy her drinks, although at some point she'll refuse further drinks to go back on stage to dance a song or two, then rejoin you if you so wish. That policy, while very good for the customer in terms of interactive companionship, does reduce the number of girls available to dance. The enthusiasm of the Spanky's girls I've seen/met is what keeps bring me back. They at least appear to be having more fun than a lot of girls in other go gos. Evil

I had a great time in Spanky's last night. The stage was indeed filled with fun-loving hotties and three of them spent several very interesting and interactive hours sitting with me. I'll be back, maybe as soon as tonight! Scott66 is the only one who can answer for sure about agency girls, but from what I could see, there weren't many, if any. Virtually all the girls danced topless and several were totally nude. All that I spoke with were available for take away and one even seemed a bit disappointed that I didn't bar fine her. Evil

Roll me up and call me tumbleweed - I know her, too! An excellent lady, deserves a spot in the P4P Hall of Fame. Evil

Has the single feeder queue (snake) become a permanent feature for both departure and arrival Immigration control or are they using it only when the queues in front of the individual checkpoints get long? Evil

Another nice meal at Le Petite Planete, this time a tomato stuffed with minced beef and served with a lovely tomato sauce, mashed potatoes and vegetables. The sauce was so good I asked for more. It cost 189 baht.

I decided to try the fish 'n chips at the P & W in Jomtien. It was another good meal. Fish 'n chips is a passionate subject for many posters on various boards. I don't claim any expertise when it comes to what is proper or authentic fish 'n chips. There a plenty of members who are better informed in that respect than I am. I can only judge by one standard - how it tasted - and it tasted good to me. That day, fish 'n chips was the daily special at 225 baht. The everyday price for the same meal was 270 baht, according to the menu. The fish fillet had a great batter - light and deep-fried just long enough to give it the right degree of crispiness. There was no oily taste or texture to it. Inside, the fillet was moist but not watery and flaked nicely. I don't know what kind of fish it was. The menu board said "white fish fillet." When I asked the waitress, she gave me the same answer. The co-star of the fish 'n chips duo - the chips - weren't quite as good as the headliner fillet. The chips, cut American style, should have been fried a bit longer. I don't know what the standard is for British chips, but in the U.S., real French fries should be given two plunges in the boiling oil. The first round of frying, in oil that isn't too hot, blanches the potato strips to get rid of rawness and reduce water content. A second shorter dip, in much hotter oil, gives the fries their crispy surface and makes them fluffy inside. The supporting player in the Pig & Whistle's fish 'n chip act - the peas - were very good, as was the extra - homemade tartar sauce. The peas had been boiled just long enough to take away rawness but not their flavor. They weren't overly soft. I prefer malt vinegar on my fish 'n chips, so I only tasted the tartar sauce. It was fine, tangy but not overpowering. I don't eat fish 'n chips very often, maybe a half dozen times a year, so I won't be rushing back to the P & W for another order. But when I do get a hankering again, the P & W will be on my short-list of acceptable restaurants for fish 'n chips. Evil

That's what I mostly do these days. There don't appear to be too many Russians queuing at Immigration at the times I usually arrive on flights that originated in the U.S., so sometimes I just chance it. It was in the morning and afternoon departure queues that the Russian cut-in effect was most noticeable and I always use Fast Track for those flights, with the exception of the 6.00 a.m. United flight to Narita. At 3.15 or 3.30 a.m., the departure queues are usually minimal. But even then, if you had been unlucky, passengers on a Russian charter flight would flood the Immigration check-point and engage in mad queue jumping. Evil

Very true. The Chinese are pretty good at queue-jumping, but Russians take the prize. I don't why they feel that if one Russian in their group is standing in line, all the others who come after that one have the right to cut into the queue. The security people at Swampy need to get a lot more serious with those who try to cut in line. Anyone who attempts it should be sent to the end of the line. Evil

Just to clarify - I didn't get a Bangkok metered taxi when I used the sidewalk broker. It was a local driver with the customary sedan car. Evil

I remember my mother saying that either cream or evaporated milk could be used in pumpkin pie, but that evaporated milk gives a better consistency as it isn't as sensitive to heat as cream, so the pie filling isn't as prone to develop cracks due to a slight unevenness in the oven's temperature. Sweetened condensed milk is a much different product. Very thick and highly sweetened, much like a pudding even straight out of the can. Sweetened condensed milk is a main ingredient in key lime pie. Evil

Steaks can look a lot of different ways, even in Texas. That night at the Lone Star it was fillet steak, which admittedly isn't a popular a cut in the U.S. As I said, visitors to Pattaya have to be realistic in their expectations. You'll probably never be able to find the equivalent of the really great steaks you get in the best steakhouses in the U.S. or Australia. Local Thai beef will always fall short of U.S. or Australian beef. But the fillet steak I had at the Lone Star was reasonable for the price. Apparently the restaurant has had some problems with consistency - some nights bad, some nights good and other nights so so. I plan to do a follow up visit to see if the owner has dealt with the problem points. Evil