PeterRS

Do you know if there is any reason for so many using drugs? Did you detect any sense of helplessness? No jobs? I wonder why so many are addicted.

The balcony hammocks are ready. Do you take tea or coffee in the mornings? Or something stronger? There used to be quite a few gays in my condo. On my floor 4 of the 6 apartments were occupied by gay guys. Sadly times have changed and I am the only one left. So a morning quickie will be out of the question, sorry.

So true. Over 20 years I was taking week's vacations and long weekends in Bangkok more often than I can possibly remember. Those were great days.

Well, I do fall into that elderly category. I suppose I have views both for and against. Firstly, I am surprised it has taken the world so long to discover that smartphones can do so much. Twenty years ago almost to the month when on a regular visit to Tokyo, I fell for a young Japanese student. Happily I was visiting Japan monthly and so we met over many months. He, like most Japanese it seemed, had a flip phone which seemed to do everything. Perhaps surprising to some he did not use it much for texting. He still preferred aural communication. But he used it for virtually everything else including payments, booking train tickets, paying at convenience stores, checking latest timetables etc. I never thought this would catch on elsewhere. Wrong! Now, with many in Bangkok using phones for payments, I am frequently somewhat pissed off when checking out at a supermarket. I have lost count of the number of times when a customer before me seemingly has to open several pages before she (almost always a woman) gets the right one to pay for her purchases. This usually takes between 2 and 3 times longer than paying by cash or with a credit/debit card. That certainly pisses me off. On the other hand, the more recent automatic check out machines make it easier. But even these go wrong more often that they should, especially on items which have been discounted. But that's another story.

Sure - he can keep the crows company!! LOL

If taxis are going to all those in Bangkok who have me on ignore, I'd better just get a motorcy or walk! Either that or get @Olddaddy to give me a piggyback. 😃

In a region already hard hit in the last couple of days from torrential rains from the dying Typhoon Kajiki, expect more bad weather over the weekend. Four pepole were killed in Chiang Mai and another in Mae Hon Son in weather-related incidents in recent days. Now tropical depression 20W presently off the South China Sea is tracking westwards and is expected to hit the north and east of Thailand over the week-end. https://www.nationthailand.com/news/general/40054722

I don't really understand that comment. You mean they might be going to visit friends or pick up friends? Of course that could be a possibility - but six taxis all going to pick up friends at the same time? No way. I realise that taxi drivers particularly in Bangkok want long rides. They have to make money. If they stop, wind down the window, find out where you are going and then say "no", I kind of understand. Simply not stopping is frankly unacceptable. It is also illegal. Each taxi used to have a complaints number pasted to the back of the front passenger seat and, assuming you actually get inside, they can be reported to the relevant taxi authority. Even if you don't get inside, as long as you are quick off the mark, you can take a photo of the licence plate, one of your watch to denote time and one of the area. That can also be reported. I can't imagine many will be bothered with that route, unless stuck in a monsoon storm. I do accept that fares are low! But when taxi fares last went up, that came with a warning from the relevant authority that taxi drivers had to realise they are providing a public service and not stopping or not taking a passenger where they want to go could find the driver facing a penalty. As I have stated, the situation has actually got worse. Although it probably doesn't concern readers of this board so much, it certainly affects residents and tourists from countries where English is rarely spoken.

It's definitely a result of diet and all the heavy spices most Indians like to consume. That translates into sweat in the same way that those from other countries' sweat smells to a certain extent of what they eat. https://health.clevelandclinic.org/how-7-different-foods-affect-your-body-odor

I'll have the money boys - you can keep the crows and cobras. This is a photo of the bugger who woke me at 5:50 this morning.

I can't imagine any of the women that seem to make up the audience in that bar would have much attractuion for you either, dear @vinapu!

Oh! Come now! I am sure @Olddaddy has certain hidden charms - only I cannot offhand think what they might be!

All those reasons are in themselves perhaps understandable. However - 1. As far as my own location in a Bangkok residential district is concerned, not to stop for a prospective passenger laden with supermarket shopping bags is hardly going to be a "scam". 2. Already hired is a valid excuse, and the use of more "In Use" illuminated signs will help that. Again, though, there are with respect not enough people hiring taxis in my area - almost everyone has cars! 3. I know only too well from decades in Hong Kong that many taxis drivers are on shifts and have to return to a point of origin at a certain time to hand the taxi over to other drivers. Try getting a taxi in Hong Kong between 4pm and 5pm. Good luck! But to suggest that six empty taxis all passing by at 2:00 pm in the afternoon is stretching that argument too far, the more so when the 7th gladly stops! 4. I have never once had an issue with communication. I know my address in Thai and how to get there by the quickest route. I have seen quite a number of tourists, especially those from the sub-continent, trying unsuccessfully to communicate with a driver. When a driver winds won the passenger window to find out where I am going, I have found at least 90% know exactly where it is without my explaining. 5. The "culture" factor certainly could be a factor, especially with drivers not born in Bangkok. But I do not accept this as a valid argument when six empty taxis simply pass me by. As I said in my original post, the stuation is getting worse.

I have enjoyed many of director Ridley Scott's movies. Now 87 he is still directing movies and is even in the planning stage for a Gladiator 3. Years earlier he became known for turning down a $20 million fee to direct Terminator 3. How many more years will be in front of him, not even he knows. But in a Q&A session in today's Guardian the first question is "Who's up there?" We may all have different views on who/what's up there, if anything, but we surely cannot disagree with his comments about the disaster we have made of our world. I am glad I have no children and am concerned about what kind of world my nephew's two teenage boys will inherit. "Who’s up there. He’d better show himself shortly, because we’re getting into a terrible mess down here. I mean, we are the fucking plague, 7.5 billion people, we can’t handle the planet. As you get older, you do wonder: is it going to be a guy with a long beard and long, flowing white robes, or is it just going to be a void? I don’t dwell on it." https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/aug/28/i-turned-down-20m-to-do-terminator-3-i-cant-be-bought-dude-ridley-scott-on-directing-daleks-and-cherry-jam

I have written this before, but "Get A Life" has to be the stupidest, most idiotic thing anyone can say about another. It means precisely nothing, and merely demeans the writer, not the one he is writing about. We all have lives and we all, thankfully, choose to live them in diifferent ways. For one person to assume that another's life should be more interesting/productive/sexy - call it what you like - is childish arrogance, pure and simple!

My beef with taxis is only very occasionally being quoted a fixed price rather than taking the meter, a price that is normally 3 times what the meter would charge. I just walk away. My main beef about Bangkok taxis is something that I notice now more than ever before. My main supermarket is less than 1 km from my home and at the bottom of a main soi. My sub-soi is half way up that main soi and the meter charge is almost always only Bt. 37 so I give the drivers 40. I am losing count of the number of empty taxis going up the main soi pasing me by without even stopping to check where I am going. Almost every time I would be giving them an fare which otherwise they will not have. I have found this also on Ploenchit even outside rush hours. Empty taxis not stopping when waved at. Some taxis now have an "on call" sign on top and hopefully more will get them. But to sail past without even checking the destination is now far too common.

Thank you. Lots of good ideas there. I think my one concern is the balcony rail is just about 30 kms above the height of the bottom of the wndow and I have a great view (yes, even in Bangkok). So anything that disturbs that view will definitely look unsightly. On the other hand, if needs must . . . . I bought some engine oil yesterday and smeared it along the top of the balcony rail. The crows are still there today, alas, but thanks for the thought.

I have not been to Pattaya for at least 7 years. There with Australian friends, we briefly visited Nice Boys and found virtually all the boys in shorts or underwear and all anxious to show their wares either when trying to make moves to dance or sitting at the side of the stage eyeing customers. I cannot now recall how many customers were there. But if the boys are now fully clothed I would imagine that has to be a recipe for closure relatively soon. What on earth would make any bar owner consider this a way to increase profits?

Thank you. I will try. But their talons are quite large and the balcony quite thin. But worth trying.

I realise this is one of the most unlikely subjects for this forum, but it is driving me mad! Any suggestions from members which will help solve the problem will be extremely welcome. I have lived for 24 years in a top floor apartment in an 8-storey condo building close to the centre of Bangkok. It is in a quiet residential area and one of its attractions is that peace you get with virtually no traffic. Now a much more annoying noise has appeared. About 6 weeks ago, I was wakened at 6:00 am by a knock on the bedroom window. Shocked that there might be someone on the little balcony, I soon realised what it was - the wing of a crow which had hit it, settled on the balcony rail and then started an incessant "craw, craw, craw." Soon during the daytime a crow started appearing on the outside of the sitting room on the same balcony which spreads across the lenrgth of the condo. Same banging on the window followed by the same crowing. Friends advised me that crows do not like certain smells and I should put mothballs on the railing. Internet sites agree and add things like garlic. So I also have little bags of garlic along the rail. Nothing stops these very annoying creatures unless I myself go close to the window. What I find so strange is that I can't recall ever hearing a crow at any other time in nearly a quarter of a century. The condo management has checked for any crows' nest on the roof. Nothing. If anyone has any prior experience of how to get rid of them - bar shooting them as I'd have to shoot through the window and I do not have a gun! - I'd love to know.

I have ceased to communicate on this issue with Putin's Propaganda Puppet @Moses

Is that not taking "insulting" a little too far? I was brought up in the UK and was taught by my parents to be considerate of others. For example here in Thailand, if I am going into or out of a door and know there is someone behind me, I hold it open for them. In Europe, this generally, although not always, meets with the equivalent of "thanks". I do the same in Thailand. In nearly a quarter of a century I can count the number of "thanks" (in English or Thai) on one hand. In the same vein, when I am behind someone, they will rarely hold the door open for me. It seems to be part of the culture. For whatever reason it never worries me in the slightest. Perhaps I need a stronger deodorant!

Thanks everyone. I had never heard of a yahoo browser but in the 30+ years I have owned a mac, when using safari all I have needed to do to search for anything was type in some info. A search site has always opened up. I will take @daydreamer's kind suggestion and use Firefox or Chrome. I'll also take a screen shot of the yahoo page to the main Apple store in BKK to see if they say it is spam or some form of error.

On my last visits to Moscow and St. Petersburg several years ago, I saw many very handsome/cute Russian guys. Some were waiters in the bar at the top of the Swissotel and at least two were gay. I only know that because everyone in our group of four were gay and they eventually admitted they were also. In St Petersburg one of the train stations en route to Catherine's Palace is at some form of Technical University. There were many very handsome guys getting on and off at that stop. I have absolutely no idea if any might have been gay but the eye candy was great! Also at our hotel on Nevsky Prospekt, the only guy in the Executive lounge was a stunning young 18 year old. Unfortunately I guess that most of those we saw would not have enough cash to visit Thailand even if they wished to.

I just had a message on screen that Yahoo has ceased Search operations in Thailand. Yahoo ได้ยุติการให้บริการค้นหาในประเทศไทยแล้ว I have been using it for years. This seems very weird. I suspect it is some sort of spam. Has anyone else had this message? And if so, can you kindly advise how I change the search engine?