PeterRS

A simple question. I am frequently asked for my passport when visiting banks and some other businesses (phone company, TrueVisions etc.). Copies are then made of the details page and the visa page. Are laminated copies acceptable - and have you also laminated copies of your visa?

Americans, certainly those who voted for Trump, tend to forget that one of his key mentors was "one of the most reviled men in American history." He came to fame as chief counsel for the fiercely anti-communist Joseph McCarthy's Senate sub-committee in the 1950s. A lawyer of the most notorious kind, a tax cheat and swindler, he counted mobsters as well as Presidents among his clients. He was indicted four times for stock-swindling, obstructing justice, perjury, bribery, conspiracy, extortion, blackmail and filing false reports. Three times he was aquitted and the fourth ended in a mistrial "giving him a kind of sneering, sinister sheen of invulnerability." Robert Cohen, a lawyer at one of his firms said, "He was the man to see if you wanted to beat the system. He did whatever he wanted, and felt he was good enough at everything to get away with it, and he did it for a very, very long time." Another attorney in his office said, "Roy couldn't have given less of a shit about the rules." Cohn himself once was quoted in Penthouse magazine, "I decided long ago to make my own rules." The quotes above and below are from Politico and come from a documentary made about him in 2019. The article continues - He didn’t pay his bills, all but daring his creditors to sue him for what he owed—tailors, locksmiths, mechanics, travel agencies, storage companies, credit card companies, stationery stores, office supply stores. He didn’t pay people back, “friend or foe,” wrote his biographer, Nicholas von Hoffman, who reported that a captain of his yacht called Defiance “had a mental map” of “ports we couldn’t go into because we owed thousands of dollars.” He didn’t pay his taxes, either, racking up millions of dollars in liens. Taxes, he believed, went to “welfare recipients” and “political hacks” and “bloated bureaucrats” and “countries whose people hate our guts.” He ceaselessly taunted the IRS, calling it “the closest thing we have in this country to a Nazi or Soviet-type agency”—subpoenas from which, he said, went straight into “the wastebasket” . . . Cohn became for Trump something much more than simply his attorney. At a most formative moment for Trump, there was no more formative figure than Cohn . . . Deflect and distract, never give in, never admit fault, lie and attack, lie and attack, publicity no matter what, win no matter what, all underpinned by a deep, prove-me-wrong belief in the power of chaos and fear. Trump was Cohn’s most insatiable student and beneficiary. “He didn’t just educate Trump, he didn’t just teach Trump, he put Trump in with people who would make Trump,” Marcus, his cousin, told me. “Roy gave him the tools. All the tools.” Roy Cohn, this extreme gay-bashing homophobe was secretly gay himself and was to die of AIDS aged 59. Six weeks earlier he had finally been disbarred as a lawyer. Trump certainly is not gay but in every other respect he is the near spitting image of hits mentor. https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/09/19/roy-cohn-donald-trump-documentary-228144/

For at least a dozen years I did the annual executive check-up at Bumrungrad. It was a bit like a production line. You arrived around 07:00, changed into the hosptial gown and then went from one station to another ending up with a rectal prostate examination. After finally being able to eat something, you received the detailed report in print and a CD. I did my last one just before I changed my medical plan around 2012. Since then, I have realised that these check ups involved no CAT or MRI scans, merely ultrasound of the abdomen. There was all the usual blood work which is obviously useful in preliminary checking for some cancers and prostate problems. But the entire test was not anywhere as good as I now believe it could have been. I now visit two hospitals when required - BNH and the King Chulalongkorn Public Hospital. I think BNH is a better hospital and considerably less expensive than Bumrungrad - only my opinion! With covid having eaten massively into profits, four years ago it had very large discounts of over 60% for double procedures. I purchased two - heart MRI and corotid artery ultrasound, and endoscopy coupled with colonoscopy. BNH continues to offer package discounts but they are normally in the first 2 months of the year. Difficult if not impossible for visitors to register for the public hospital but I was really surprised that it was there a few years ago that a simple CAT scan revealed a very small cyst on the pancreas. That had been missed at a previous scan at Bumrungrad (although to be fair I have no idea if cysts develop quickly or not)! With pancreatic cancer being difficult to diagnose due to its placement behind the stomach and one of the most deadly, my excellent doctor (who works at a private hospital two days a week) said she wanted an MRI done to check if anything was going on under the cyst. I have since had these done annually and the next one is due end of next week. Thankfully nothing has ever been found. But I often wonder why at least CAT scans are not included in executive check ups at most hospitals, especially for older people. Certainly checks for any pancreas problems should be included.

Methinks the Emperor's new clothes are becoming rather obvious.

From today's BBC website Putin begins biggest Russian military call-up in years President Vladimir Putin has called up 160,000 men aged 18-30, Russia's highest number of conscripts since 2011, as the country moves to expand the size of its military. The spring call-up for a year's military service came several months after Putin said Russia should increase the overall size of its military to almost 2.39 million and its number of active servicemen to 1.5 million. That is a rise of 180,000 over the coming three years.

Understandable perhaps, but then were you not the one who disregarded "facts" when forming your "opinions" about the farmer who held on to his land at Narita?

I was first aware of Russian roulette when I watched Michael Cimino's movie "The Deer Hunter" in an open air cinema in Penang almost 25 years ago. At the time I merely thought what a senseless game. I still consider it senseless unless one has a burning desire to play games with death as the ultimate outcome. Although, as this British man discovered, death can be delayed with perhaps decades of impaired living ahead of him.

Given the extensive posts on Myanmar in another thread (yes, I'm guilty!), I suggest we should start a new one since a lot is happening in that country. First, there is a massive amount of reconstruction required in various central parts of the country. The new capital of Naypyitaw was the second most badly hit after Mandalay with the Prediential Palace, the Parliament Building, the War Office and other buildings badly damaged. Since the capital is only around 20 years old, the junta leader has ordered those who constructed the buildings to rebuid them! Yet, he has also awarded a contract to Aung Pyae Sone who just happens to be the junta leader's son, to rebuild damaged military structures. "In Myanmar military parlance, GE officially refers to the work of military engineering units responsible for construction, fortifications, logistics infrastructure, and other engineering support for combat and non-combat operations." Aung Pyae Sone is the owner or a director of quite a number of different companies. Sky One Construction Ltd. is one of them. Is it merely coincidence, I wonder, that SKY, under its Chinese name Xin Ke Yuan, is the company being investigated for inferior steel suppplied for the building in Bangkok which collapsed during the Myanmar earthquake? Could the Myanmar and Thai companies somehow be interlinked? Frankly I do not know. I merely throw it into the pot of speculation. https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/firm-owned-by-myanmar-junta-bosss-son-reportedly-tipped-for-quake-reconstruction.html Second, Al Jazeera has reported that with the junta's conscription drive now nearing the end of its first year, it is likely to be close to hitting its target of 60,000 for drafting into the army. But the junta has changed its rationale for enlisting new troops. Richard Horsey, a senior adviser on Myanmar for the International Crisis Group, said new conscripts are getting harder and harder to round up. While some answered the draft willingly in the first few months of it coming into force last year, that has changed. “Over time, the authorities have had to resort to ever more draconian measures to get conscripts, including abducting young men from bus stops and other public places,” Horsey said. “Local officials have been extorting money from potential conscripts in order to avoid the draft. Some officials have been killed when they entered communities attempting to compile draft lists or enforce conscription orders,” he said. And instead of being posted to guard duty around military bases or other posts behind the front lines as first intended, many of the draftees are said to be getting some of the riskiest battlefield assignments. “There are many reports of conscripts being given the most difficult and dangerous duties that more experienced soldiers are reluctant to do, such as being airdropped behind enemy lines. They are unsurprisingly failing at these tasks – either being killed, defecting or fleeing if they have the chance,” Horsey said. The conscripts are also being rushed into battle with far less training than the soldiers they are joining or replacing, in some cases as little as three months, and treated more like cannon fodder than fighters, said Kyaw Htet Aung, who heads the conflict, peace and security research program at Myanmar’s Institute for Strategy and Policy, an independent think tank. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/4/11/myanmars-military-drafts-thousands-in-first-year-of-conscription-drive

An article in today's Guardian newspaper suggests that the days of airline boarding passes may be over in about 3 years. The International Civil Aviation Organization is working on plans for a major shake up in air travel with the introduction of a "digital travel incentive." The changes would mean the end of boarding passes and checking in for flights. Instead, when booking a flight, the information will be downloaded on our phones and updated if necessary. This will be then be linked to our passport details also on the phone. Together these will be called "journey passes". Valérie Viale, the director of product management at Amadeus, the travel technology company, has said the changes are “the biggest in 50 years”. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/11/boarding-passes-and-check-in-to-be-scrapped-in-air-travel-shake-up-plans

How valuable these polls are is always questionable. Yet Skytrax has gained in popularity if only because its voters are (mostly) real travellers and it has a huge respondent base. So here are its 2025 top 10. 1. Singapore Changi Airport 2. Doha Hamad International Airport 3. Tokyo Haneda Airport 4. Seoul Incheon International Airport 5. Tokyo Narita International Airport 6. Hong Kong International Airport 7. Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport 8. Rome Fiumicino Airport 9. Munich Airport 10. Zurich Airport Not really surprising that the top six are all in Asia. Nine are in Europe. The only one from North America is Vancouver at #13. Top US airport is Houston Hobby (never head of it! It seems it has just one international route to Dusseldorf - and so I have to wonder how did it gain so many votes?). Houston George Bush comes in at 33 but pipped by New York's LGA at #29. Perhaps not surprisingly JFK is way down at #89. https://www.worldairportawards.com/worlds-top-100-airports-2025/

I believe I am correct in adding under Thai law passports have to be carried by non-Thais at all times. I know some members here take photo copies rather than actual passports which ought to be of the details page and the page with the visa. Even if you decide not take take actual passports during Songkran, take the photocopies in your plastic bag with the phone. Yes, I am sure some plan to take photos with the phone rather than carrying a camera. That said I assume the police are lenient during the Songkran Festival, unless you inadvertently get into some melee.

I assume that is a joke. Even if there are several ways of shaking hands, westerners learn these as they are growing up, much the same as Thais learn the wai - which does have several important position.

I have been shopping at several different TOPS for years. In the last few years I have noticed that this supermarket chain has got worse at its stock taking and refilling items that are sold out. I accepted that the pandemic must have caused major supply disruptions. But the situation has been normal for well over a year. Not replenishing stock for a few days or even weeks I can understand. But sometimes certain items disappear for six months before returning to the shelves. At one of its main stores in Central Chidlom I asked a supervisor why a certain item had been absent from the shelves for months. After checking she replied the supermarket would no longer stock it. A couple of months later, it was back! Another item of frozen food has totally disappeared and been replaced by a different brand which costs 35% more!

I'm rather shocked that no passengers saw what was happening and reported them to the flight purser.

I have not been to the Park but you may be right. Depends I suppose where the entrances are.

I think I'm right in suggesting that the Queen Sirikit MRT station is the closest to the Park. Asoke BTS/Sukhumvit MRT a cose second.

I'm certain you must have enjoyed Italy. I have a good friend slightly older than I who used to work for the large Beaverbrook Group of newspapers in the UK. In 1974 - yes, as early as then - even journalists with just a couple of years there were offered early retirement if they voluntarily left the organisation. Charles, who had always loved Italy, took the cash and moved to Piacenza not far from Modena. All his career he taught English. Whenever I started visiting Italy he would try to meet me. One of the joys of those meetings was his deep knowledge of wherever we met. Another was his even deeper knowledge of Italian cuisine and restaurants - not the expensive or even moderately expensive places. The simple ones where you could visit the kitchen, chat with the chef and jointly decide what we'd eat. I recall in partcular one vsit to Venice where we had a very large 4-hour lunch accompanied by two litres of wine! We last got together when I visited him in 2019. He took me to a town about 30 minutes from Florence which he calls one of the loveliest in the country, Pistoia.

Sorry guys, not the size you think the title means. There was a programme on tv last night about the construction of the Merdeka Tower 118 in Kuala Lumpur. Malaysia proudly tells everyone that this is the second tallest building in the world at 678.9 meters above ground. Yet, in my view, it is nowhere near that! Opened in 2024, it boasts a spire of 160.7 meters. True, some people can go up into it to access a small observation deck. But take away that spire and the height of the building is actually only 515 meters. The top habitable floor is 485 meters up. The Shanghai Tower which has no spire is 632 meters high and has 10 floors of habitable space more than the Merdeka 118. Merdeka 118 is actually the 10th highest in the world. Presently New York's World Trade Centre sits at No. 10 but it has a spire of 124.3 meters - so it slips further down the list. It reminds me of a feud between two of Hong Kong's top commercial banks. When HSBC opened its then new Norman Forster-designed headquarters in 1985, it was regarded as an iconic building in terms of the way it was constructed. Its height is 180 meters. Next door is the Standard Chartered Bank sitting on a vastly smaller land footprint. When it opened its own new HQ redesign in 1990, its tapered design reached 191 meters. Pure one-upmanship! (In the photo you can see the tiny stepped building next to the very large HSBC HQ.) One wonders when skyscrapers will boast ever larger spires. What sort of bragging rights does having the 2nd largest skyscraper in the world give to Malaysia when it is not even true?

Living here for more than a couple of decades, that is always what I have been told! Interesting that she mentions "Keep the displays of affection private". There was a thread on this issue some years ago with some posters basically saying, more or less, I'll do what I want. Part of the conversation dealt with 2 guys kissing in a very public place. Not a peck on the cheek but a full blown lengthy French kiss on a Skytrain platform. Some felt that this should not cause any problem as Thailand is a tourist-oriented country and should accept such behaviour, even though it is not what Thai's would do. I totally disagree. In a pub, club or disco, OK. But respect for and an understanding and acceptance of local sensibilities is important re tourism in all countries. When in Rome . . .

After more than 30 trips and with good friends in one of the coastal cities (New York) and in middle America (Louisville) whom I have regularly visited, I now have no desire to return. Loathing of Trump and his actions is only part of the reason, the ghastly and increasing profliferation of guns being one other. Scenically there are still parts of the country I would like to see, but there are also other parts of the world. I'll concentrate on those.

If you want to find a party scene in Chongqing or Chengdu, I really suggest you hook up and get to know a local first. Also bear in mind that the Chinese have some expectations of foreigners. May I suggest that you first read the Gay China forum and also watch the video I posted in there.

Last Friday US Secretary of State Marco Rubio made the most inane of comments: “'If you’re not coming to the United States to join a Hamas protest, or to come here and tell us about how right Hamas is, or … stir up conflict on our campuses and create riots in our streets and vandalize our universities, then you have nothing to worry about,' he told reporters in Brussels." Funny! I was always taught that in making public statements about any touchy subject you rolled out only good news - even though it may not be not so good! Rubio's stupidity has not stopped the fall-off in tourists from Europe to the USA already furious at Trump's behaviour in office aligned to his tariff tactics. Fear of detention by US Immigration authoriites has only made the situation worse. "After forecasting a 5% dip for inbound travel to the US this year in February, travel forecasting group Tourism Economics has revised its projections, telling CNN Travel that it now expects that figure to almost double to 9.4% . . . Summer hotel bookings from European travelers for Accor properties in the US are also down a whopping 25%, CEO Sébastien Bazin said in a recent interview with Bloomberg TV. Jean-François Rial, CEO of France’s leading luxury tour operator Voyageurs du Monde, said that ever since Trump’s inauguration in late January, bookings for US travel among his wealthy French clients have dropped a “colossal” 20%. In the 30 years I’ve been in this business, I’ve never seen anything like this for any destination. It’s huge,” he told CNN Travel. It's not just that Europeans are chosing other destinations. Many who have already booked, have cancelled those bookings despite losing their siginificant deposits. Yesterday Forbes also highlighted the fact that European tourism to the USA was down 17% in March compared to the same period last year. The US National Travel and Tourism Office is no more optimistic. “'Trump Administration policies and pronouncements are resulting in a negative sentiment shift toward the U.S. among travelers,' wrote analysts at Tourism Economics, which revised its 2025 forecast for a 9% loss of inbound foreign tourists after initially predicting a 9% jump. That 18% swing could be the beginning of a long-term decline, with the analysts adding, 'We expect the negative impact on international travel to the US to be strongest in 2025, but it will likely persist in degrees through the remainder of Trump’s second term.'” https://edition.cnn.com/2025/04/09/travel/european-travelers-skipping-us-trips/index.html https://www.forbes.com/sites/suzannerowankelleher/2025/04/09/european-travel-to-us-plummeted-in-march/

When will Trump realise that he cannot win in a trade war with China. He can hike tariffs as much as he wants but China will brave it out. At the same time, the US consumer will lose out - at least in the short term. WIth his ridiculous list of tariffs announced prior to his backing down, five top tech leaders who supported him have collectively lost around $1.8 trillion since the start of the year. https://edition.cnn.com/2025/04/09/tech/tech-leaders-supported-trump-lost-money-dg/index.html Similarly, he backed down not for the stated reasons but because his Treasury and Commerce Secretaries had warned him of the danger of a sharp sell-off of normally safe US government bonds. As CNN reports, Trump's threshold for political pain is precisely one week! https://edition.cnn.com/2025/04/09/politics/trump-tariffs-retreat-bond-market/index.html

To round off my contribution to the Myanmar debate, let me just thank @Raposa for his contribution, something I should have done yesterday. He clearly knows a lot more about the country than I had at first assumed and I should have recognised that. I hope others may now know at least a little more about that blighted country, how complex the situation is there, and how difficult a solution to the ending of endless civil war and leading the country forward will be. I do hope that anyone interested in learning more will read Thant Myint-U's excellent "Hidden History of Burma." As one reviewer wrote: "Thant Myint-U is the one indispensable author on Burma. This is an accessible, understated but powerful story of modern Burma's journey from hope to tragedy." If ordered through the UK or USA amazon sites, there is a Kindle edition at £5.03 or $8.51.

Yes, the remains of the KMT in Yunnan which were unable to flee with Chiang Kai Shek to Taiwan did cross into Burma's Shan State in 1950 and were supported by the USA through the CIA, the ROC from Taiwan and Thailand. But they were not welcomed by the Burmese military, the Tadmadaw. One reason for its anger was the KMT had become involved in the lucrative opium trade. Another was its presence on the border with China compromised Burma's declared policy of neutrality. Having refused to depart the country after many requests to do so, in 1953 the Tadmadaw launched Operation Nagar Naing against the KMT forces. This resulted in a defeat at the hands of the KMT forces. The Burma government then complained to the United Nations about the KMT invasion of its territory. The UN told the KMT to withdraw. They did not. Like Chiang in Taiwan, those KMT forces in Burma intended to build up their forces and then help to invade communist China. Early in the following year in Operation Bayintnaung, though, the Burmese army managed to force much of the KMT out of the country into Thailand. That May these KMT forces were flown from Chiang Rai to Taiwan. About 6,000 KMT forces remained in Burma, but merely a rump of those who had invaded. Most of these remained on the Shan State border with Thailand - and sometimes across that border. Some have argued, as @Raposa has, that this group helped build the Burmese army into a true army that enabled the 1962 coup. But far from all agree with this. Some commentators have argued strongly that this is based on propaganda emanating from Taiwan. Having looked at various sources and their authors, I believe in this propaganda theory.