Gaybutton

Depending on one's use of the word "chicken," there are unfortunately a few farang around who seem to like the same thing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Spaghetti_Monster

I guess that depends on what they want to eat . . .

It's mainly farang with Thai. Just go alone. People keep telling me the best time to go is between 5:00 and 8:00pm. If it's a halfway decent day, you won't be alone for long. You are very likely to be approached by a Thai young man. One thing people do is go to one of the privacy rooms, leave the door open, and just wait inside. If there is a good number of people in the sauna that day, your wait won't be very long. Don't be shy. It will take you about ten minutes, if that long, to catch on. Don't forget, everybody in the sauna is there for the same reason you are.

He also has "big money" compared to me. I shudder to think how he earned it.

You know what made me laugh? There's the new mall, with all these restaurants and food courts. Meanwhile, there is also a KFC and it was filled with Thais eating in there. Unnnnnnbelievable! Did you have any luck in that restroom?

That's good. I stand corrected. When I went they had it blocked off. Maybe they were repairing something.

The following, with quite a bit of detail, now appears in the PATTAYA DAILY NEWS: For photos, see: http://www.pattayadailynews.com/shownews.p...NEWS=0000008325 The photos alone may explain why this man neither ceased his behavior nor tried to leave Thailand. If one picture is really worth 1000 words, this guy is nuts! The article seems to confirm that notion. Just why the courts permitted him to remain free goes beyond me. That fact gets high ranking on my "I Don't Get It" list. _____ BRITISH PAEDOPHILE JAILED FOR 14 YEARS FOR CHILD SEX ABUSE IN PATTAYA Thailand‘s Supreme Court on Wednesday, 28 January 2009, ordered an elderly British man convicted eight years ago of abusing underage girls to start serving his 14-year prison sentence, a court official said. John Maurice Praill, 78, was arrested in Pattaya in mid-2000 on charges of sexually abusing the girls, aged 12 and 13, but has been free for most of the intervening years. He was convicted and sentenced by a criminal court in 2001, but released pending appeal. An appeals court in 2004 upheld the sentence, but the Briton was again freed on bail and allowed to take his case the Supreme Court, which Wednesday ruled that Praill must start serving his jail term. The Supreme Court has upheld the sentence by the regional Court of Appeals to sentence the convict to 14 years in jail. He was sent to Chonburi provincial jail Wednesday to start serving the sentence. Judge Charoenchai Assawapirya-a-nan confirmed a sentence imposed more than eight years ago. He said there was no way the child victims could have lied because they gave so much detailed evidence including how Praill cut up his Viagra tablets and his use of KY jelly. 'Paedophile - I don’t use that word,' he said. 'I pay to feel. The girls were paid'. He said he was stunned at the verdict and insisted that the elder of the two victims, aged 14, wanted to marry him afterwards. 'I expect I will die in prison if I do not get a pardon.' He insisted before being led away in a blue prison bus: 'I just like helping young people, sex or not, never mind, it was not the main thing’. For the first few arrests in the 90s, he just ‘paid fines ‘at the local police station, and paid the victims. But then he was sentenced to 14 years in December 2001 on the rape charges of two girls aged 13 and 14. He had been able to stay free by getting bail while petitioning the Appeal Court, which confirmed his sentence, then he went the country’s Supreme Court, a total eight-year process. Meanwhile Praill was arrested again in 2007 for the rape of two girls aged 11 and 9 and again given bail. That case has not gone to trial. Praill's latest arrest was on 18 March, 2008, he was arrested in Pattaya for abusing an eight-year-old boy, and that case too awaits trial. Praill, was nickname PEE or ‘The Ghost’ because of his frightening appearance, said Sudarat Sereewat, Director of the FACE (Fight Against Child Exploitation) Foundation, and a member of Thailand’s National Child Protection Committee. When he first arrived in Thailand Praill kept a diary, now with the FACE Foundation, which detailed his attempts to buy up schoolchildren as his ‘wives’. He fortified himself with the sex drug Viagra and Vitamin C capsules and trawled three locations in Pattaya, the Royal Garden Centre the Siren Bar and the ‘Made in Thailand’ market, where he knew young girls hung out and found a 12-yr-old called Lek. He wrote how he provided ‘lacquer’ for Lek and her friends , who sniffed glue in his front room, and of his desire to conquer her. But each time he tried she complained: ‘I don’t want to’ or ‘It hurts’. 'She makes me horny. How long can I take this?' he asked his diary. Then on Wednesday May 6th 1992 he announced in triumph that his grooming had been successful: 'About 10 p.m. I have the best session ever. She seems to enjoy it.' Praill went on to marry Lek and had employed the girl’s parents as his household staff but his marriage lasted only three months. Mrs.Sudarat Sereewat, director of the child protection group Fight Against Child Exploitation, welcomed the court's decision. "We are very pleased that the Thai judicial system is finally aware of the child sexual abuse and have handed down justice," she said, according to AFP. "This suspect should have been in jail for a long time."

At the moment, you can only enter and exit the car park on Second Road.

I haven't seen it and based on your review and other reviews I've read, I don't intend to. Have a look at the following: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1224455

I doubt I will ever try it. I know me. I'll pay 600 baht for myself and 600 baht for a boy. Then I'll promptly fall asleep.

I'm talking about the Central Department Store. As far as the aesthetics are concerned, it all seemed fine to me, but maybe I'm easier to please. When I go to a shopping mall, new or many years old, I'm really not concerned about tile scuff marks or whether the windows could stand a wash. I don't even notice things like that. It certainly wouldn't prevent me from patronizing the mall.

Of course they have to date it from today's date. Today is January 29. Suppose your old passport expires May 29. What would you use for a passport between today and May 29? That's why it has to be dated from today's date, otherwise you would be holding a passport with no validity.

Good guess. That's exactly what it means.

I don't know. Have you seen the price of booze lately?

We have no way of knowing whether this man had 'big money' or not. I have been told that in most cases in Thailand, if someone is going to be able to buy his way out of trouble the arrangements have to be made before his name goes on a court docket. This guy is 77 years old and he has been sentenced to 14 years, which is probably tantamount to a life sentence. And he still has those other six charges. I have no idea whether those additional charges are going to be pursued. I have no idea whether he will have to serve the full 14 years. Maybe his attorney told him he can expect some sort of clemency due to his age. Here's something else I know: Farang trying to figure out how things really work in Thailand, why things work the way they do in Thailand, or the logic behind virtually anything is an exercise in futility.

You can easily find out for yourself. Call the US Embassy, passport division at 02-205-4040. They will be glad to tell you how they handle it.

I wondered about that too. Maybe his passport was being withheld. Maybe he was convinced he would win his case. Maybe his attorney assured him he would only have to pay a fine. Maybe, since he had been getting away with it for eight years, he couldn't resist the urge to continue as long as he could. He was caught six times over that time period. The article doesn't say anything about whether he will be tried on those charges too. Lord only knows how many times he was at it and didn't get caught. Whatever his reasons, the fact that he was caught so many times and yet was allowed to remain free, apparently there is more to the story than the media reported.

My mom told me I would grow hair from my palms. I didn't believe her either. Now I find it rather inconvenient to have to shave my hands every morning.

I'm not sure that this really has any relevance. My father was a dentist. Many years ago, one of his patients was a high ranking executive with a high powered advertising agency. My father said to him that he simply cannot understand why television commercials are so insulting to one's intelligence. He finds them terribly annoying and makes a point of refusing to buy the products being sold. The executive told my father that the advertising business knows what it's doing and the way they do things really works. Otherwise, they wouldn't do it. He made a gentleman's wager with my father. He told him to watch television that night and make a written list of the advertised products he would refuse to buy. Then inspect the house. My father really did sit there and make a list that included every commercial that made him cringe. Later we looked around the house. Every single product that he would refuse to buy . . . all of them . . . were in our house, most of which he had purchased himself.

I suppose anything is possible, but I fail to see why customs officials would consider that someone's name, whether common or unusual, would have any relevance or bearing upon the likelihood that someone might be carrying something illegal. Whatever reasons they may have for stopping you, it's difficult to believe your name would have anything to do with it, especially since you didn't even choose your own name.

Under the heading "BUY," look at the subheading "Sight." That's the approximate rate you'll get.

As many of you know, when I post exchange rates I always use the Bank of Ayudhya web site. That's because they give you the exchange rate you'll receive when you exchange money within Thailand and because they're the only bank that posts updates several times each day. For those of you who check the rates, Bank of Ayudhya had changed the URL for their web site. Now it is: http://www.krungsri.com/en/foreign-exchange-rates.aspx

I'm a little worried too. My worry is if he was convicted on that kind of charge, and then was arrested on similar charges, several times yet, then why on earth was he allowed to remain free to do the same thing for eight years? That earns a spot on my "I Don't Get It" list. I can't help but take note of the fact that the same boy he abused is still under age eight years later. Well, I guess for the next several years he can look forward to midnight conjugal visits from some big mongos that he doesn't want one from . . .

Today was my first visit to the mall. All I can say is 'wow!' This is quite a place, far beyond my expectations. It takes quite a bit to impress me, also the friend I was with, and both of us kept remarking about how impressed we were. In my opinion, Pattaya's new Central Mall is second only to Bangkok's "The Paragon." The mall is high tech and very well designed. If I were to be critical about anything, it does lack in facilities and ease for the handicapped, but that would be my only real criticism. The parking areas are tremendous, with plenty of parking for even the busiest days. There are no parking fees . . . yet. Motorcycle and car parking are in separate facilities. There is plenty of security and they are quite helpful. For those of you who ride the baht buses, getting there is easy. From the Boyztown area, just get on a baht bus heading north on Second Road. Start looking for it, on the left, soon after you pass the Villa Market/Cineplex. You can't miss it. There is also an entrance from Beach Road. The mall has both escalators and elevators (moving stairs and lifts for the Brits) and plenty of restroom facilities. There are six floors, plus a raised floor that houses the movie theaters. Admission prices range from 120 baht to 600 baht, depending on the kind of seat you want. They have everything ranging from "regular" seating to very impressive VIP seating. That's a hell of way to see a movie! Every floor has restaurants. I do think the mall is overdone with Japanese restaurants. I didn't count them, but there are at least 15 different Japanese restaurants, many of which are on the top floor. There is one that definitely caught our attention. It's the Sabushi Restaurant. It's quite unique. You pay a flat fee of 239 baht. They do add a 10% service charge and a 7% VAT, which brings the price to about 280 baht by the time you're done, but the way it works is you sit at a counter. There is a conveyor belt that constantly goes by with dozens of different Japanese dishes. You simply take whatever you want and as much as you want. You get 1 hour and 15 minutes to eat. If you stay longer, the price goes up, but since there is no waiting for food, I can't imagine why anyone would need to stay there even that long. We didn't eat there, but soon we will. Also, oddly enough, Pattaya is sorely lacking in good Chinese food at reasonable prices. The Chinese restaurant in the Montien Hotel is excellent, but expensive. The Canton House restaurant on the top floor serves very good Chinese food at very reasonable prices. I love dim sum. They start serving dim sum at 11:00am and it's available up to 11:00pm. The price is all of 15 baht per selection. They give you a picture menu. The English on the menu was flawless. They also have plenty of other Chinese dishes if you prefer. The service is quick and the food is very good. If you prefer food court eating, no problem. There's one food court on the top floor and another on the basement floor. They're not limited to only Thai dishes. There are many Western selections too. We had a look at each of them. Geezer, if you are reading this you'll find one of your favorites, spinach soup, at the top floor food court. They gave us a sample. Deeeeelish! There are great looking sandwiches too at both food courts. Some of you may remember that about a year and a half ago I wanted to find a bread machine, the kind that you use at home to make your own loaves of bread. I think I searched every store in Pattaya and found nothing. Someone had posted a message that he had seen some at The Paragon in Bangkok. That's where I bought mine. One of the first things I did was to check out the kitchen electronics area on the top floor and they do carry bread machines! They have only one brand, but the price is 4000 baht less than I paid for essentially the same thing in Bangkok. There are plenty of other high quality kitchen electronics that you just don't find anywhere else in Pattaya. The mall is filled with clothing stores, shops that sell high quality merchandise, and just about anything you can think of is available in this mall. I used to have to go to Bangkok to find what I was really looking for. Maybe for occasional items I would still have to go to Bangkok, but those trips will now be quite rare. This mall probably has just about anything you would want. There are plenty of western restaurants too, everything from a Sizzler to a Pizza hut. There are computer shops, mobile phone shops, electronics shops, book shops, and even full banking facilities. I spotted a Kasikorn Bank, Siam Commercial Bank, and a Bank of Ayudhya, all three right next to each other. A Toys-R-Us will soon open in the mall. If you like, you can even climb a mountain while you're there. You'll just have to go and have a look to see what I mean. The basement level features Thai silk shops and home decor shops. As lvdkeyes pointed out, there is also the Tops grocery store on the basement level, but it's nothing like the other Tops in town. It is very high quality. It not only rivals the gourmet grocery store at The Paragon, but even resembles it. There is everything ranging from fresh breads to a fully stocked liquor store. The prices are on par with grocery stores such as Big-C, Lotus, and Carrefour. Everything is high quality, the kind of quality you would expect at Villa Market, but at much lower prices. You'll still have to go to Villa Market to find western items nobody else carries, but you'll probably find most of what you're looking for at the grocery store in Central Mall. Unfortunately it's not open 24/7 as Villa Market is, but it's definitely fine shopping. Also, if you have a car, elevators to the parking lots are right there at the grocery store exit. We spent over three hours looking around and still didn't see everything. Those three hours just flew by. We were amazed when we realized how long we had been there. This is quite a place, folks. It certainly impressed me, and that's not an easy thing to do! Central Mall definitely fills a need Pattaya has had for a long time. Here's a copy of the flier the Canton House hands out. It's only a small sampling of what they offer, but you'll get the idea: