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The following appears in PATTAYA ONE: _____ 30 Cocktail Bars Shut Down by Banglamung Licensing Officials Thai-style cocktail bars are popular with local Thai’s and there are more of these small bars opening up every week. Many will open after their permitted time and the majority do not even possess licenses to sell alcoholic beverages. The Banglamung District Licensing Unit are well aware of these cocktail bars and in the early hours of Saturday Morning, Khun Pongsit, the Deputy Chief of Banglamung District assisted by civil volunteers conducted raids on over 40 bars which were all found to be open well after their permitted opening times as stated on their licenses and 30 bars were found not to possess any form of license. These establishments were ordered to shut down pending further investigations, the others that were licensed but open late are now also under investigation and some licenses are expected to be revoked according to Khun Pongsit.

All kinds of things happening in June . . .

I love all the advice. Of course not one response told me what I want to know. If I was back in Florida you know what I would do? I'd scatter them along the beach. That way, all the old farts with their metal detectors would have a field day. So far all the advice is telling me that I have to give it away (If I don't, now I'm a miser), weigh it, just keep it, or even drown myself with it. Well, if there really is no way to cash them out, I guess I might as well keep them. Then, about 300 years from now they'll have value to coin collectors. I thought about weighing it, but not all the coins are the same. I suppose I could weigh the can. I tried getting on a scale myself, seeing how much I weigh, then doing the same thing while holding the can and figuring the difference. The trouble is, when I get on a scale a card always pops out that says, "One at a time."

I imagine others who live in Thailand end up with the same little problem I have. Every time I get those little satang in my change, the ones that are worth half a baht or so, I just put them into an empty coffee can. That coffee can is starting to get full. There must be a a few thousand baht worth of them in there. The problem is getting rid of them. The banks don't want to fool with them. I'd put them in a plastic bag and donate them to charity or just give them to one of the boys, but with the amount I have in there, I'm not only curious as to how much I actually have, but if it's a few thousand baht, selfish old me - I want it! Does anyone have any idea where all those satang can be exchanged?

The closest I've seen is a type of flounder from India that is sold at Carrefour. Of course, it's not a cold-water fish, but I don't recall seeing any kind of cold-water fish sold at Thai grocery stores. So far, the best fish & chips I've tried in Pattaya is at Simon's Fish & Chips at Jomtien Complex. Maybe some restaurants have a better version of it, but someone else will have to make the recommendation if anything better is available in Pattaya.

June 1~15 Gourmet Set Menu House Champagne *** Amuse Bouche *** White Wine Cackle Berry Chardonnay, Australia 2004 Marble of Goose Liver and French Vegetables *** Crabmeat and Guacamole Crespelle *** Homemade Tagliatelle Noodles creamy Black Forest Ham & Cepes Mushroom Sauce with fresh Rosemary *** Apple Sherbet *** Red Wine Chalk Hill Blue Angoves, Shiraz Cabernet, Australia,2007 Pan seared Scottish Salmon on Shrimp enhanced Fennel Cream Sauce and braised Celery or Slow roasted Duck Supreme, nestled on Potato, Onion & Egg Plant Tart Topped with braised Artichokes and roasted Mushrooms Spinach Coulis & Cinnamon Jus *** Red Wine maserated Prunes with Vanilla Ice Cream and Grand Marnier Zabayone or Selection of premium international Cheese *** Coffee or Tea Calvados, Grappa, Remy Martin, Williams Food only 1,550 Baht net (36.50 Є), Menu with Unlimited Beverages 3,100 Baht net (73.00 Є) http://www.restaurant-pattaya.com http://www.condo-pattaya.com

On the Ting & Tong's Gay Thailand board, Oogleman has posted a series of reports and photos of several of the various bars in Jomtien Complex. You might want to have a look: http://www.gaytingtong.com/index.php

There is another way, with no limits. I posted the following in a different thread: _____ It's because the forum limits image space. There is an alternative method. Place your image on Photobucket. If you don't have an account with them, it's free. http://www.photobucket.com . Underneath your photo you will see a set of codes. One of them, the bottom one, says IMG code. Simply COPY the contents of the box, and then PASTE the code into the message you're writing. After you submit your message the photo will appear within your posted message. You can do that as often as you like without the message board limiting you.

That's a very nice post, but you're using abbreviations with which I am not familiar. I don't know what you mean by BMs. What is that, Bowel Movements? I don't have any idea. The same goes for BFd. Boy Friend? Butt Fucked? I wish people wouldn't do that. How much more effort is it to just type out the words? I don't mean to single you out, but people keep using abbreviations and acronyms in their posts and assume everyone else knows what they're talking about. Maybe they do, but I, for one, don't have a clue. Can you translate those into English please?

Not really, but it would be nice for a change.

Sheeeeeeesh! Great! Now I'm much more confused than I was in the first place.

Don't thank me. Thank Oogleman. As far as I know, he's the first to discover this web site and post about it. I had no idea of its existence until I saw Oogleman's post. I had heard that Happy Boys is now charging that 150 baht fee, but this is the first confirmation I've seen. I haven't been there myself in a couple months, so I had no first-hand knowledge. I have mixed feelings about that fee. However, I do think it's fair and reasonable if, and only if, that fee or at least the major portion of it goes to the boys. It is well known that the goings-on on the upper level can get quite hot and heavy. Often, the farang customer gets away with giving the boy(s) paying attention to him a very small tip. Sometimes the boys don't get any tip at all. Also, since many customers get "satisfaction," that means the boy loses being taken off and loses the potential for a much larger tip and it also means the bar loses money they could be making with off fees. I doubt that anybody likes the idea of having to fork out 150 baht to sit upstairs, but considering the price of the drinks and what goes on up there, I don't think it's unfair for the bar to charge for it and I don't think it's an unreasonable amount.

I wish you folks would stop using acronyms and merely assume everyone knows what you're talking about. I don't. "ACH" What's that? I don't have a clue. Meanwhile, we seem to have several interpretations as to how PayPal is going to work with regard to Thailand and just what is and is not lost when transferring money. To me that means PayPal has done a poor job of making it clear to their customers. Is it really a good deal or is it a rip-off, as Western Union is? I don't think we're going to know for sure until a few people begin using it and posting the actual results.

I can't take credit for this one. I spotted this from a post Oogleman placed on the Ting & Tong board. Someone, and I have no idea who, has opened a very good current information web site devoted to Sunee Plaza, complete with photos of every bar. Have a look: http://www.suneeplaza.info

Here's an off-the-wall technical question . . . in another thread it was mentioned that US citizens have to file a report if they have more than US $10,000 in a foreign bank account. Not that I have even close to that kind of money, but suppose you put that same money into PayPal and leave it there. Would that be considered a foreign bank account?

The way I'm reading it, if funds are transferred from PayPal into a Thai bank account there is no fee at all, with the exception of the 2.5% deduction for currency exchanges. It also appears to say that when someone withdraws money, if the withdrawal is less than 5000 baht, then you pay a 50 baht fee, but no fee at all if you withdraw more than 5000 baht. So, unless I'm misunderstanding it, the least expensive way is to transfer from your PayPal account directly into your Thai bank account and make withdrawals of 5000 baht or more. That, and the 2.5% currency conversion fee seems reasonable to me. I don't see anything about a debit card either, but I would think the 150 baht ATM fee would apply to the PayPal debit card anyway, which in many cases would defeat the purpose of using PayPal in the first place. If it takes a few days for funds to appear in the Thai bank account when money is withdrawn, it seems worth the wait to save a lot of money in the long run. PayPal is noted for charging very nominal fees. I don't see anything here that indicates anything particularly different. It certainly appears to me to be a hell of a lot less expensive than using foreign ATM cards at 150 baht per transaction. It's not free, but PayPal isn't in business to be free. But as far as I can tell, it offers an excellent alternative. I think we'll get it all figured out once people start using it. Mlomker, maybe you can answer this one: If I understand correctly, then if US $100 is put into my PayPal account, then I will be able to send US $97.50 to my Bangkok Bank account, minus the additional 50 baht fee for transactions under 5000 baht, since a 2.5% fee is charged. Am I understanding that correctly?

On the 'ATM Cards' thread I mentioned that this evening I was told that you can now set up a PayPal account with use of your Thai bank account. I just tried it. It works! When I went to set it up, there is an option to select your country of residence. Of course, I selected Thailand. Then there is a button to click to select either Thai language or English. I selected English, of course, and everything does appear in English with one exception: When you go to select which bank holds your account, all the bank names appear in Thai. Don't panic. If you click on any one of the bank names, on the next screen the name of the bank appears in English. That screen allows you to either confirm the bank name and your account number or you can click "Edit." If you click edit, it takes you right back to the Thai list of bank names. So, all you have to do is go through each name on the list until you finally get to your bank, and then confirm. By the way, the first bank name on the list is Bangkok Bank. Now that PayPal finally works in Thailand, that can solve a lot of problems. For example, now instead of having to pay that 150 baht foreign ATM card fee, you can simply transfer money into your Thai bank account via PayPal, which charges only a nominal fee, and then use your Thai bank's ATM card when you visit Thailand. Then, when you return home, you can transfer whatever funds remain right back into your own domestic account. You can also have your boyfriend set up a PayPal account. Now you will be able to transfer funds via PayPal into his account whenever you wish to give him money. Someone asked about how you can pay bills in your home country if you are going to reside in Thailand and have your retirement benefits direct deposited to Bangkok Bank. Now that you can use PayPal, that problem is solved. You'll be able to transfer funds from your Bangkok Bank account into PayPal, and then transfer from your PayPal account into your home country account, and then use online banking with your home country account to pay your bills back home. Finally! For a long time PayPal did not service Thailand. Now it does and I think that's going to solve a lot of headaches for many of you.

Check with your pension source. You can probably have whatever portion you want sent to Bangkok Bank and the rest sent to your US bank account. If your pension source won't split up your benefit, then unless someone has a better idea, you would have to receive your money into your Bangkok Bank account, and then wire some money into your US bank account and pay your bills via online banking. I'm not certain, but I was told just this evening that you can now send and receive money with PayPal with Thai bank accounts. If that is true, then you would be able to pay your bills or put money into your PayPal account via your Thai bank account, and then transfer money to your US bank account via PayPal for a nominal fee. You might want to check into that. Also, if that is true, it could solve a lot of the problems people are having about the 150 baht foreign ATM card fees. Again, I was told this about PayPal only a couple hours ago and I have no idea whether that information is correct or not, but I would certainly check into it.

Mushroom, on Soi Day-Night.

In my unfortunate case I don't have to wait for Siberia. I already do . . .

What about hotel restaurants? What time do they open for breakfast?

Ok, we'll go in mid January. Talk about getting cold-cocked! Maybe we'll open a go-go bar there. That way the boys will have an excuse to get on the stage and just stand there. They'll be frozen solid. That, alone, will remind us of most of the go-go boys in Pattaya . . .

California High Court Upholds Same-Sex Marriage Ban SAN FRANCISCO, California (CNN) -- The California Supreme Court upheld Tuesday a ban on same-sex marriages that state voters passed in November, but it allowed about 18,000 same-sex marriages performed before the ban to remain valid. The split ruling was met with chants of "shame on you" from a crowd of about 1,000 people who gathered outside the court building in San Francisco. "It's nice that my marriage is still intact, but that's not the point," said Kathleen White, who married her partner in 2008. Opponents of the ban argued that the controversial Proposition 8, which state voters passed, 52 percent to 48 percent, in November, improperly altered the California Constitution to restrict a fundamental right guaranteed in the state's charter. But the court -- which had allowed same-sex marriages in a 2008 decision -- found the measure was narrow enough to pass legal muster. Attorneys for the opponents also said the proposition, which removed the "marriage" label from same-sex unions, effectively deprived same-sex couples of a fundamental right guaranteed them under the equal-protection clause in the U.S. Constitution. The passage of Proposition 8 made California one of several states to ban same-sex marriage in the November 4 elections. But unlike others, California had been issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples since the state Supreme Court ruled in May 2008 that the unions were legal. Four states -- Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts and Iowa -- allow same-sex marriages. A Vermont law making such marriages legal will take effect in September. On May 6, same-sex marriage became legal in Maine as Gov. John Baldacci signed a bill less than an hour after the state Legislature approved it. In April, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled unanimously that it is illegal to discriminate against same-sex couples by denying them the right to marry. The first gay marriages in the state took place April 27. The District of Columbia voted May 5 to recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere, though it does not itself give marriage licenses to same-sex couples. In April, New York Gov. David Paterson introduced legislation to make same-sex marriage legal in his state. New Hampshire's move to legalize same-sex marriage hit a road bump Wednesday after that state's House of Representatives did not agree to legislation changes made by the governor. Both the House and Senate already had approved allowing gay couples to marry. But Gov. John Lynch, a three-term Democrat, said he would sign a same-sex marriage bill only if it provides "the strongest and clearest protections for religious institutions and associations, and for the individuals working with such institutions." The House on Wednesday fell two votes short of approving Lynch's language. The chamber then voted to send the legislation to a committee to be considered further.

No happiness in Siberia? Damn! There goes my holiday plans . . .

That's exactly what I was going to suggest. Get two accounts. Make sure he has access to only one of them. That way, from your other account you can keep whatever amount you want in it and transfer whatever amount you're going to give him online from any computer in the world. You'll still be in full control over how much he gets. I think that's the best idea. If you put 30,000 baht into an account he can access, I give it less than two weeks before every baht of it is gone. Maybe it's a pain-in-the-ass, as you say, but unfortunately it's also the best available alternative.