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Incredibly, while Bangkok was hit with such torrential rains on Tuesday, Pattaya had the driest day we've had in nearly two weeks. The following appears in THE NATION: _____ WET TUESDAY Staying Afloat Published on October 14, 2009 Cars Sink and Pedestrians are Marooned as the Heaviest Rains in Two Decades hit Bangkok The misery of traffic jams left Bangkok drivers wishing they could swap their cars for boats yesterday, as the capital's roads disappeared under water. The long and heavy downpour brought the biggest spike in rainwater levels for more than two decades. Bailing out After driving her husband to work along Srinakarin Road at 1.30pm, housewife Naphaphorn Chuenprasaeng witnessed one driver baling water from his brokendown car with a cup. "It was shocking to see the floodwaters so high. I saw dozens of breakdowns." "The journey from Bang Na to my home on Patthanakan 65 took two hours. Normally, it's only 30 minutes." Fon, a resident of the Thippawan community on Thepharak Road, said the flood level rose to 30 centimetres, forcing her to stay at home. The community was inundated from 7am until well into the afternoon. "The whole area looks like a canal. I had no customers at my restaurant as a result. In the past, floodwaters have subsided after a few hours - never before has the community been flooded for so long," Fon said. Never-ending journey Noon, a company employee in Bang Na district, said she left home in Lad Prao district for her office at 11.30am. "Usually, my commute by bus takes an hour and a half but it took almost four hours today. I've never seen floods as high in the three years of traveling to this office. In places the water was waist deep." She added that she witnessed pedestrians literally marooned on islands created by the rising waters. Students at Ramkhamhaeng University 2 had to hitch up skirts and trousers and paddle through knee-deep water to get to exam halls. At 1.30pm, the traffic around the university was gridlocked. Narong Airasubkunakorn, director of the city's Information Drainage Technology Department confirmed the rain had been the heaviest in 25 years. Other roads that suffered jams as a result were Sukhumvit, Rama 3, Rama 4, Rama 9, Phitsanulok, Lat Phrao, Ratchadaphisek, Ngarmwong wan and Vibhavadi and Rajdamnoen Avenue.

It's a sauce from one of the restaurants I review . . . By the way, for those who mucked me . . . You're all banned!!!!

Here is the information:

This morning a friend and I went for the breakfast. While it is still 99 baht, the breakfast is no longer all you can eat. Now it is set menus. The dinners are still all you can eat, but the breakfast policy has changed.

Can you tell us the dates for the next one? How do you get to and from wherever this is held once you are in Mandalay? Also, can you explain what a Nat is? I've never heard of that term.

Yes, it is. That's the height of the high season, so you should do just fine.

How much was the room and do you have contact information?

Umberto Gobambananzo

The following appears in THE NATION: _____ Swords, Spirits and Salad Published on October 10, 2009 Phuket's Vegetarian Festival kicks off in just eight days. Be there While tourists sunbathe on the white sandy beaches and swim in the deep blue sea, residents in downtown Phuket are busy gearing up for the annual vegetarian festival. Celebrated by the Chinese community on the island that's best known for its palm-fringed beaches, stylish and rustic-chic resorts and laid-back attitude, the annual Vegetarian Festival showcases Phuket's mystical side. A combination of vegetarian food, peaceful chants, ear-splitting firecrackers and mind-blowing processions, visitors to the island should make a point of heading into town to see a very different side to the Pearl of the Andaman. The Vegetarian Festival, which runs from October 18 to 26, has been an annual event merit-making for more than 150 years. It is believed to have started in the town of Kathu by a visiting theatre troupe from China. Struck down by a mysterious epidemic, the entertainers decided they had fallen ill because they had failed to pay proper respects to the nine Emperor Gods of Taoism. As penance, they erected Chinese temples and held a vegetarian festival to ward off any residual bad luck. According to local legend, the unorthodox remedy worked and the annual vegetarian festival has been held ever since. Abstention from sex and alcohol were added in later years for absolute purification. From next Sunday, the whole town will fly yellow flags to mark the beginning of the spiritual retreat. On the eve of the festival, a large pole is raised in each Chinese shrine, and the nine emperor gods are invited to descend from the heavens and take part in the ceremonies. At midnight, nine lanterns are lit and hung on the poles, meaning that the annual Vegetarian Festival has begun. Food stalls fly yellow little flags to indicate they serve only vegetarian food and devotees dress in white for the entire nine days to show they intend to remain pure. While vegetarian food is tempting and the Chinese shrines are gaily decorated, most visitors focus on the "maa song" or the mediums the gods enter during the festival. The maa song manifest supernatural powers and perform self-mutilation so they can absorb evil from other individuals and ensure good luck for the entire community. Each morning begins with processions through the town. At dawn, one can find scores of young men thronging the inner sanctums of the temples, preparing themselves for self-mutilation. At the base of the shrines, they go into a trance, begin speaking in tones and don colorful aprons with Taoist symbols, looking on as doctors make cuts at both sides of their mouths. The festival culminates with a procession of people deep in a trance, piercing their tongues, cheeks and other parts of their anatomy with spears, daggers, sharpened branches and anything else that comes to hand. Possessed by the spirits of nine deities, these ascetic devotees apparently feel no pain and show little sign of real injury. If you go

I certainly wouldn't want to disappoint the two of them.

Obama Awarded 2009 Nobel Peace Prize (CNN) -- President Obama was awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday. The first African-American to win the White House, Obama was praised by the Norwegian Nobel Committee for "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples." "Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future," the committee said. "His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world's population." The committee also said Obama has "created a new climate in international politics." In his short time in office, Obama has acted on a wide range of issues from the economy to terrorism and wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Obama is the fourth U.S. president to receive the award, joining presidents Jimmy Carter, Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt. This year's peace prize nominees included 172 people and 33 organizations. The committee does not release the names of the nominees.

In my opinion it isn't. I don't mind changing a little about the way I phrase things if I know the way I had been phrasing it is now considered insulting, but I also pay attention to who it is that is feeling insulted. It is starting to get ridiculous. For example, in the USA it is considered politically correct to refer to Indians as Native Americans. I don't know who came up with that, but for years I lived right next to a Seminole Indian reservation. You know what they want to be called? Indians. They dislike being called Native Americans. So who is this so-called political correctness for? So many words and phrases have changed because of this nonsense: Before - After trailer - mobile home toilet paper - bathroom tissue dump - landfill doctor - health care professional old - senior citizen used car - pre-owned personal transportation deaf - hearing impaired crippled - handicapped problems - issues midgets - little people shell shock - post traumatic stress disorder nervous breakdown - exhaustion The list goes on and on. Not long ago the feminist movement wanted a gazillion words that contained "man" changed to "person." I had no problem with much of that. It doesn't bother me to say "chairperson" instead of "chairman." However, I'll draw the line when CBS starts introducing their late night host as David Letterperson.

French Minister Says He Won't Resign over Sex with 'Boys' PARIS, France (CNN) French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand said Thursday he will not resign over his admission in a book that he paid to have sex with "boys" in Thailand. In an interview with French television network TF1, Mitterrand said he "absolutely condemn sexual tourism, which is a disgrace, and ... pedophilia," in which he insisted he has never participated. The minister described his 2005 book, "The Bad Life," as a mix of autobiography and fiction. In one passage, published by the French newspaper Le Monde Thursday, Mitterrand describes in detail a sexual encounter with a "boy" he said was called Bird. "My boy didn't say a word, he stood before me, immobile, his eyes still straight ahead and a half-smile on his lips. I wanted him so badly I was trembling," he wrote. Despite the use of the French word "garcon" in his text, Mitterrand has previously said the term did not mean "little boys." He said the males he paid for sex were his age, or maybe five years younger. It was not immediately clear how old he was at the time of the encounters he describes in his book. "It was, without a doubt, an error; a crime, no," he told TF1 anchor Laurence Ferrari. Mitterrand, who is openly gay, said he spoke with French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Thursday morning and said the president supports him. In a July interview with the weekly French news magazine Le Nouvel Observateur, Sarkozy said he had read Mitterrand's book, and found it "courageous and talented." Mitterrand's book has sparked fresh controversy in the wake of his recent defense of filmmaker Roman Polanski, who was jailed last month in Switzerland on a 31-year-old arrest warrant. Polanski had fled the United States for his native France in 1977 after pleading guilty to having sex with a 13-year-old girl. The culture minister told TF1's Ferrari that he was "too emotional" when he denounced the filmmaker's arrest in Switzerland as "horrifying." "To see him thrown to the lions for an old story that really has no meaning, and to see him alone, imprisoned, when he was going to attend a ceremony where he was to be honored, that is to say, he was trapped, it's absolutely horrifying," he said October 4, according to Agence France Presse. The far-right National Front organized an anti-Mitterrand demonstration in Paris Thursday evening. "Send this message on to everyone who will not put up with this indecency!" the party's Web site said. The party's vice president, Marine Le Pen, has demanded Mitterrand's resignation for what she termed his sexually deviant acts. Mitterrand responded, saying, "It's an honor to be dragged through the mud by the National Front." Mitterrand's acts of "sexual tourism" have left "a dark smudge" on the government, Le Pen said. The group is also gathering signatures on a petition, online and on paper, from those who want Mitterrand to step down. "We really hope he will resign," National Front communications director Julien Sanchez told CNN. "It's an embarrassment for our country, that our culture minister has done this. It affects our international image. It's not right," he added. On the other side of the political spectrum, the left-leaning Socialist Party suggested Sarkozy should consider Mitterrand's position. "It's up to President Sarkozy to decide whether or not we can be involved in the fight against child prostitution and sexual tourism, and whether or not the acts written in an autobiography -- written by a minister -- are acts of sexual commerce," said party spokesman Benoit Hamon. "If everything is relative and Mr. Mitterrand can be excused because he's famous, well, I don't excuse his behavior," Hamon said. Martine Aubry, the leader of the Socialist Party, said she would wait until she had read the book before making any judgment. Mitterrand told an interviewer in 2005 that assertions that he liked "little boys" were untrue. "It's because when people say 'boys' we imagine 'little boys,'" he said then. "How to explain that? It belongs to this general puritanism which surrounds us, which always makes us paint a black picture of the situation. It has nothing to do with that." Mitterrand was a television personality, not a government minister, when the book was published. It caused a stir upon its publication, as well, and has been the subject of heated debate several times since then. In the excerpt published by Le Monde newspaper Thursday, Mitterrand talks about visiting clubs to choose young male prostitutes in Thailand -- where prostitution is illegal and sexual intercourse with a minor is statutory rape and is punishable by imprisonment. "Most of them are young, handsome, and apparently unaware of the devastation that their activities could bring them. I would learn later that they didn't come every night, that they were often students, had a girlfriend and sometimes even lived with their families, who pretended not to know the source of their breadwinner's earnings," the book said. "Some of them were older and there was also a small contingent of heavier bruisers, who also had their fans. It was the artistic side of the exposition: Their presence made the youthful charm of the others stand out." Mitterrand, the nephew of the Socialist former president Francois Mitterrand, joined Sarkozy's center-right government this summer. Wikipedia, the user-edited online reference Web site, has locked down Frederic Mitterrand's entry, preventing changes to it.

One board?!?!? Is that all? Hell, I'm hated enough by some right here on this board! Well, somebody may get his revenge on the 12th . . . if I show up.

That's right. It's nothing new. Thai banks charge fees for transactions outside of your home service area. I have no idea where the boundaries are, but that's what these banks do. Considering that it is all centralized, I also have no idea why it's done this way, but there it is. Yet another item for my "I Don't Get It" list.

Pattaya

Now you can lend TAKE CARE!! a hand with PayPal For the past four years, TAKE CARE!! has been supplying Safe Sex Packs(two condoms and one lube sachet with a bit of educational information) to 30 or so venues in Pattayaland, Sunnee Plaza and Jomtien Complex. Dependably, every two or three weeks (whether high season or low season), 20 to 50 Safe Sex Packs are delivered by members of TAKE CARE!! to the participating venues to be available to staff and customers. In round figures, these Safe Sex Packs each cost about 10 baht. All funding for the purchase of the supplies that make up the Safe Sex Packs has been raised through donations from organizations and individuals concerned about the prevention of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections in our community. As the need is constant and in fact increasing, TAKE CARE!! feels that it is imperative to both continue with this distribution program and, if the funding is available, increase the number of Safe Sex Packs distributed. Toward this end, TAKE CARE!! has gone through the multi-step process to add a PayPal button to its web site < http://www.takecarepattaya.com >. Now you can easily lend a hand to this effort. You can assist once or set up a schedule for yourself to contribute periodically. Please visit the web site for more information about TAKE CARE!! While there, poke the button and lend a hand. TAKE CARE!!

Photos and details can be found at: http://www.pattayadailynews.com/shownews.php?IDNEWS=0000010590

Anyone can donate directly to PGF any time he wants. You don't need to go to a charity dinner to make donations. The charity dinners are there because many enjoy them and can make donations via these dinners and further contributions, if they wish, during the dinner and via the raffle tickets. Obviously enough people enjoy these dinners and are willing to pay the price. The host restaurants are up front about how much of the fee will go toward the charity. They keep the rest. Yes, they are going to profit. I don't see anything wrong with that and I don't care whether they profit by 100 baht per person or 1000 baht per person. As long as they are telling how much will go directly to the charity, I fail to see the problem or why the restaurants need to disclose anything else. It's all very simple to me. I know how much the dinner will cost. I know how much from that cost will go to the charity. Now I have all the basis I need to decide whether or not to participate. If I want to pay the price and go, I can do so. If I do not want to pay the price, then I don't have to go. If I want to make a direct donation I can do so. If I don't wish to donate to this charity, I don't have to. What's the problem?

Are these little puns going to go on fourever?

I'm sure they are . . . for the time being.

It interests me, for one, and so far it has interested 155 views. Muscle boys are not my type at all (Geezer can certainly vouch for that) and quite often I like the lady boys as much as I like anyone else. So, I hope you keep this thread going and post plenty more photos.

Another point is that for the PGF dinner the restaurant serves only the set of people who come for the dinner. The restaurant will have no other customers that night. Because all the meals need to be ready and served at the same time, I know that Richard calls in all of his staff, even the ones who normally would have that night off and they have to be paid. I don't know how much the restaurant has to take in to at least break even. I see no reason why the restaurant should lose money and I also see no reason why the restaurant shouldn't be entitled to make some money. Richard is the chairman of PGF. ANd Pattayamale is right. I know him very well, well enough to know that he is not trying to profiteer or rip off anyone. The bottom line seems simple enough to me. If you enjoy the PGF dinners and are willing to pay the price, then go. If not, then don't go. What's the problem?

Yes, I do know Richard quite well, but rest assured that my friendship with him has nothing to do with my position on this issue. I would have taken the same position no matter which restaurant was involved. There is no reason for anyone to refrain from discussing the issue here. I said I too think the price is very expensive and I'm not going to the dinner because of it, despite my personal friendship with Richard. For the record, my suggestion was not directed specifically toward lvdkeyes. I'm simply trying to convey my position that before anyone posts complaints about the price, they ought to at least contact the venue owner and ask why the price is as high as it is.

I believe that diner already went out of business. Maybe that's why.