Gaybutton

I'm guessing you are talking about the Residence Certificate. Assuming this requirement is being applied universally, it's something new to all of us. I've seen nothing about it on other web sites and have not heard anything other than what has been posted here. It's too early to know what is going on or what is and is not acceptable. It's going to take several people going and reporting their experience before that question can be answered. For the moment, I would say to take it with you, along with other documents that are likely to be acceptable and ask. I would first try to report my address as I always have and see if they even ask for any proof. If they do, try the Residence Certificate. If they accept it, you have your answer. If they don't, then we'll know that alone is not enough.

For the past few nights, the Birdcage bar has been closed. Recently, rumors were rampant about the imminent demise of the Birdcage. I haven't heard anything. I'm wondering if anyone knows whether the closings over the past few nights is something temporary or whether the Birdcage has passed into history.

There's always one jerk who manages to make things difficult for everyone else. To tell the truth, I'm surprised they didn't always require documentation. If you are living here legitimately, it should be no problem, as long as you don't forget to take the documents with you when you go in to submit the report.

If you are staying at the Tarntawan, I think the best thing for you to do is check with them personally when you get there. They have all the latest information and they will be able to give you the best advice. Also, Utopia Tours operates from the Tarntawan. They are the best for showing you around and their guides speak English.

Thursday, July 17 and Friday, July 18 mark two major Buddhist holidays in Thailand. July 17 is Asalaha Bucha Day. July 18 is Khao Pansaa, the more important of the two holidays. Khao Pansaa is the beginning of Buddhist Lent. On both days banks and government offices will be closed. Alcohol sales will not be permitted. I have no word yet as to whether the bars will be allowed to remain open if they serve only non-alcoholic beverages.

U.S. Citizen Consular Outreach Visit to Pattaya Friday, July 18, 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM Dusit Thani Hotel The Consular Section of the American Embassy in Bangkok is pleased to inform you of the addition of a consular outreach visit to Pattaya. Please come if you can! Consular staff will be available to provide consular services at the following date and location: Friday, July 18, 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM at the Dusit Thani Hotel in Pattaya. Please look for signs in the hotel lobby pointing to the location of the outreach. The following consular services will be available during our reach visits. Please bring exact change. * Passport renewal applications ($75.00 or Baht 1550 for adult passports, and $85 or Baht 2890 for a child’s passport) * Notarial Services and Certified Copies ($30.00 or Baht 1020) * Absentee ballot application and voting abroad information * Social security, VA or other federal benefits question will be limited, but we will try to provide forms and answers NOTE: Unfortunately, we cannot process extra visa pages during our outreach trips. We can accept applications, but the passports will have to be brought back to the Embassy for final processing the next day. The passports will then have to be picked up in person (or by a friend upon presentation of a letter of authorization signed by the applicant) at the Embassy. We regret any inconvenience caused by this change in procedure, and we are still working on gaining authorization to begin mailing passports back to applicants. Additionally, Consular Reports of Birth cannot be processed during consular outreach trips. If you have any questions, please e-mail: acsbkk@state.gov or call the American Citizen Services Unit at: 02-205-4049. We look forward to seeing you in Pattaya on July 18, 2008.

Not me. I say bring him on! I think it would be wonderful if he gets caught fondling a boy on the CCTV cameras or, better yet, gets arrested for having sex with an under-age boy. Now that's something I'd love to see . . . . . I think it would be poetic justice if he ends up on a shit list because he is a middle-aged male who visited Thailand. Come to think of it, he's already on a shit list or two, isn't he? He certainly made it to the top spot on my "I Don't Get It" list.

Deed poll? That is a term unfamiliar to me. What does it mean?

Can you please post the URL's?

The baht buses can get you as far as Central Road (Pattaya Klang) and Sukhumvit Highway. From there, you're going to have to use a motorcycle taxi. You can also contact me. If you want to eat with me, I'll be glad to meet you somewhere along Central Road, or I'll even come and get you where you're staying if you don't mind chipping in a little bit for gas. Not that I'm a cheapskate (some would disagree with that), but gas is awfully expensive these days and I would have to drive from where I live all the way into the city to get you, then drive all the way back out here again, and after dinner I'd have to drive all the way back into the city a second time, and then all the way back out here to go home. In other words, folks, I don't usually ask for contributions to the fuel fund, but at these prices and the number of people who ask for rides, since I'm one of the few farang who has a car and is also willing to take people where they want to go, I'm all through being a free chauffeur. It's just too expensive anymore.

I find that a little difficult to believe. Where did you read this?

I agree. Fascino is a reliable pharmacy that isn't going to give you counterfeit pharmaceuticals. There is another Fascino pharmacy, a small outlet, located in the small Lotus store, east of Sukhumvit Highway. If you know where the Bangkok Bank is on Sukhumvit, just north of Central Road (Pattaya Klang), simply enter the soi that leads to the parking lot, but keep going. It takes you right to the Lotus. When you go to Fascino, ask for their membership card. It's free and with it you get a 10% discount on meds.

I think you are talking about the Maela Seafood Restaurant. That's actually on Soi Siam Country Club. That restaurant is also listed in the Door-2-Door menu.

The Lek Hotel, across the street from Villa Market, has an inexpensive breakfast buffet. The quality had gone downhill, but I'm hearing it has become good again, although I haven't tried it myself yet. The Diana Inn also has an inexpensive breakfast buffet, but it's been a good three years since I last tried it. The breakfast buffet at the Hard Rock Hotel has gotten good reviews. I understand the Areca Lodge, on Soi Diana Inn, also has a good breakfast buffet. Other than those and the major hotels, I'm not aware of any.

I just discovered that the Sure Park restaurant has an online menu, photos, etc. Here's the link: http://www.sureparkpattaya.com/menu1.html

I don't think that's an aside. I think it's a major issue. I didn't know that. I had no idea that a person who has no intention of entering the USA has to do so, technically, anyway just to change planes, even when the plane on which he arrived came from another country and his destination is another country. What happens if the arrival plane is also the destination plane, and there is no need to change planes? Do other countries operate like this? For example, when I would come to Thailand from the USA, I clearly recall having to go through an inspection of carry-on luggage in Japan, for a second time, and having my passport checked at the departure gate. I guess essentially that's the same thing, since somebody is checking, but you don't have to clear customs or passport control. Personally, I think all these rigid checks and controls have gone way over the top. When I returned to Thailand from the USA just a few months ago, they confiscated a tube of toothpaste, for crying out loud. A tube of toothpaste! What did they think I could be hiding in it, Dirty Harry's .44 magnum? They said a smaller tube would be permissible in carry-on luggage, but not the size I was carrying. I even asked if I could squeeze a little out into a small container so I could at least brush my teeth en route. Of course, the answer was no. These days you are lucky if you can travel by air at all. No liquids. Take off your shoes. No, you can't have this or that in your carry-on luggage. Stand over there for a pat-down. Tell us about everything you've done and everyone you've ever met since birth. We're going to start charging for carry-on. You have a camera? A flash disk? Give it here. We're going to check it. Aha, you have a computer. We're going to check it to make sure you don't have any porn or plans for building a neutron bomb. Well, now we're going to keep your computer, but don't worry, you'll get it back a few days before it becomes totally obsolete. Hey, are those pirated DVDs you've got there? What's that, a mobile phone? Any porn on it? Is that Bin Laden's phone number on your speed dial list? Tickets are getting so expensive that you can hardly afford to travel by air anyway. Ok, you're clear. Now go on board, strap yourself into a seat that's half the size you are, get some sleep in a seat that reclines just enough so that you're not quite completely upright anyway, and enjoy a dinner consisting of the most miserable excuse for food since your gourmet dinner at Al's Greasy Spoon and Car Wash. What fun.

The following appears in the BANGKOK POST: _____ Bush to Visit Again BangkokPost.com US President George W. Bush will visit Thailand next month to celebrate the 175th anniversary of diplomatic relations. US officials confirmed on Friday that Mr Bush will visit Thailand and South Korea on his way to China to attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. The exact date of the visit is not yet set, but it will be within the first week of August. According to an official White House press release on Friday, Mr Bush will first visit South Korea. "The President will then travel to Thailand to celebrate 175 years of the US-Thailand relationship and to discuss issues bilateral and regional issues with Prime Minister Samak," the statement said. After that he will proceed to China for the Aug 8 opening of the Olympics. Mr Bush visited Thailand and also attended the Apec summit in Bangkok in December, 2003 His stop in China will come as part of what may be his farewell trip to Asia, with stops in South Korea and Thailand, though the White House has yet to announce the dates for his departure from Washington or his return. The White House had said earlier this week that Bush would be in South Korea August 5 and 6, but Perino later retracted that announcement as "premature" but "not inaccurate" while offering a "little bit of an apology" to Seoul. In South Korea, Bush and his counterpart Lee Myung-Bak will discuss efforts to get their respective legislatures to ratify the US-South Korea free trade pact, amid violent protests in South Korea against a deal to resume US beef imports, said Perino.

The east side of Sukhumvit Highway is known to the locals as the "Dark Side." I've never posted about the restaurants out there because I know most of you will never get there. After all, within Pattaya City there are plenty of wonderful restaurants and you would have to stay in Pattaya for months before being able to try them all. However, they're not the only restaurants. There are plenty of wonderful restaurants out on the "Dark Side" too and perhaps you might like to get out there some time for a change of pace. Several of these restaurants border the Lake Mabprachan reservoir. You would have to go out Soi Siam Country Club to get to those. If you are heading south on Sukhumvit Highway, Soi Siam Country Club can be a little difficult to find if you're not familiar with the area. About 1/4 mile before you get as far as Central Road (Pattaya Klang), from North Road (Pattaya Nua), there is a Bangkok Bank branch on Sukhumvit Highway. The trouble is, you have to make the left turn onto Soi Siam Country Club just before you get as far as the bank. However, if you miss the turn, just enter the soi that enters the bank's parking lot. You won't miss that one. Follow it past the bank and you'll find yourself in the parking lot for a small Lotus store. Go to the end of the parking lot, turn left, and the soi dead ahead is Soi Siam Country Club. Turn right on that soi and go on out to the lake. Continuing past the bank, still on Sukhumvit Highway, but just before you get to Central Road, is Soi Neurnplabwan (that means 'sweet plum,' but I have yet to ever find a plum tree on that soi). Some of the restaurants are located on that soi. Continuing south, after Central Road, the next left you'll come to is Soi Khaonoi. Some of the restaurants are located on that soi. Continuing south, the next major intersection, left turn, is Soi Khaotolo and several of the restaurants are out there. If you are coming from Tepprasit Road, you turn left onto Sukhumvit Highway and then make an immediate right. That's Soi Khaotolo. If you click on the link below, you're going to find 19 pages of posts about these restaurants on the Thai Visa web site. 19 pages, and that's just so far! Start with the 19th page and work backwards. The last page is the most recent. I live on the "Dark Side" and have been to a few of these restaurants. Actually, I haven't been to very many because everybody lives in the city, so when I go out with friends, we usually go somewhere in the city. But some out my way are so good, I think I'll be eating in the city a lot less often. Two "musts" if you decide to go to any of these restaurants, are the Sure Park Steakhouse and Ann's Garden. You don't want to miss either of them. They're inexpensive too. I doubt that you'll spend more than 250 to 400 baht for dinner unless you are ordering drinks or wine. If anyone wants to join me at any of these restaurants, all you need to do is contact me. Ok, here's the link. Get set to spend some time reading: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Dark-Side-t172786.html

If you are looking for a good, and very inexpensive buffet, you might want to try the LK Kitchen on Soi Buakao in Pattaya. I've been there with friends several times, and we really like it. There is a small salad bar, a fresh fruit bar, two soup selections, garlic bread, five or six Thai food selections, five or six 'farang food' selections, spaghetti bolognese, and even a barbeque grill where you can order large prawns, all you want, along with various satays and kebobs. The 'farang food' dishes usually include beef, chicken, pork, and fish selections. The selections change nightly. They also include potatoes, white rice, and fried rice. There is even a wonderful coffee machine that dispenses choices such as cappuccino, cafe latte, cafe mocha, hot chocolate, a couple other coffees, and even plain old coffee! The coffees are good too. I don't know how they do it. How much for all this? Would you believe 189 baht? Incredible. They also serve a breakfast buffet for 125 baht, although none of us have tried it yet. Getting there is easy. As you can see from the map below, the restaurant is located at the LK Suite hotel, very close to the Central Road (Pattaya Klang) side of of Soi Buakao. Probably the easiest way to get there is to take a baht bus or motorcycle taxi down Soi Buakao (That's the first intersection past Center Condo, heading toward Sukhumvit Highway. Left is the only direction you can turn.) You won't miss the hotel. It will be on the right side. Their trees and shrubs are decked out in an array of small lights that resemble Christmas lights. On the other side of their soi, heading toward Central Road, there's a Family Mart. If you get as far as Central Road, you went too far and will need to backtrack by a block or two. We really enjoy it there. For 189 baht, you can't beat it!

The following appears on CNN: _____ YouTube Ordered to Reveal Its Viewers NEW YORK (AP) -- Dismissing privacy concerns, a federal judge overseeing a $1 billion copyright-infringement lawsuit against YouTube has ordered the popular online video-sharing service to disclose who watches which video clips and when. U.S. District Judge Louis L. Stanton authorized full access to the YouTube logs after Viacom Inc. and other copyright holders argued that they needed the data to show whether their copyright-protected videos are more heavily watched than amateur clips. The data would not be publicly released but disclosed only to the plaintiffs, and it would include less specific identifiers than a user's real name or e-mail address. Lawyers for Google Inc., which owns YouTube, said producing 12 terabytes of data -- equivalent to the text of roughly 12 million books -- would be expensive, time-consuming and a threat to users' privacy. The database includes information on when each video gets played, which can be used to determine how often a clip is viewed. Attached to each entry is each viewer's unique login ID and the Internet Protocol, or IP, address for that viewer's computer. Stanton ruled this week that the plaintiffs had a legitimate need for the information and that the privacy concerns are speculative. Stanton rejected a request from the plaintiffs for Google to disclose the source code -- the technical secret sauce -- powering its market-leading search engine, saying there's no evidence Google manipulated its search algorithms to treat copyright-infringing videos differently. The court has yet to rule on Google's requests to question comedians Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert of Viacom's Comedy Central. Viacom is seeking at least $1 billion in damages from Google, saying YouTube has built a business by using the Internet to "willfully infringe" copyrights on Viacom shows, which include Comedy Central's "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and Nickelodeon's "SpongeBob SquarePants" cartoon. The lawsuit was combined with a similar case filed by a British soccer league and other parties. Together, the plaintiffs are trying to prove that YouTube has known of copyright infringement and can do more to stop it, a finding that could dissolve the immunity protections that service providers have when they merely host content submitted by their users. Though Google said giving the plaintiffs access to YouTube viewer data would threaten users' privacy, Stanton referred to Google's own blog entry in which the company argued that the IP address alone cannot identify a specific individual. In a statement, Google said it was "disappointed the court granted Viacom's overreaching demand for viewing history. We are asking Viacom to respect users' privacy and allow us to anonymize the logs before producing them under the court's order." Google did not say whether it would appeal the ruling or seek to narrow it. Stanton's ruling made only passing reference to a 1988 federal law barring the disclosure of specific video materials that subscribers request or obtain. Kurt Opsahl, a senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said Stanton should have considered that law along with constitutional free-speech rights, including a right to read or view materials anonymously. He said a user's ID can sometimes include identifying information such as a first initial and last name. Viacom said it isn't seeking any user's identity. The company said any data provided "will be used exclusively for the purpose of proving our case against YouTube and Google (and) will be handled subject to a court protective order and in a highly confidential manner." This is not the first time Google has fought the disclosure of user information it had been stockpiling. While gathering evidence for a case involving online pornography, the U.S. Justice Department subpoenaed Google and other search engines for lists of search requests made by their users. After Google resisted, a federal judge ruled that Google was obliged to turn over only a sample of Web addresses in its search index, not the actual search terms requested.

I haven't met one yet who can't come up with a quick, plausible answer when confronted. He took your camcorder without asking. To me, that's stealing, no matter what his reason was. Was there anything else of value he could have easily taken, but he left alone? If yes, then I suppose it's possible he's telling the truth, but I still wouldn't want to bet the farm. You said he already has gotten 25000 baht out of you. I guarantee that no matter how much you give him, it isn't enough. If you get your camcorder back, that will be a pleasant surprise. But whether you do or not, he broke your trust. I learned a long time ago, when one of these boys breaks your trust, the best thing to do is get rid of him . . . fast.

Obviously he was treated badly, but the one question still on my mind is why? What had he done? Why was he on the shit list?

Well, if you look at my headline, I got it wrong a little bit myself. I misread it and thought it happened at Sunee Plaza. It actually happened in the Yensabai Condo parking lot, which might as well be Sunee Plaza, but it isn't.

You don't have to find low fat cream cheese. Just use half as much . . .

But he did leave the international area. It wasn't voluntary, but he left. I suppose leaving in chains, by force of gunpoint, constitutes leaving the international area. Again, solely on the face of the article, it makes about as much sense to me as saying something like, "The 'Flying Farang' wasn't killed because he jumped off the roof at Center Condo. He was killed because he hit the ground."