thaiophilus

(usual disclaimer; in "normal" times these were all straightforward but I don't know about the present, so check before travelling.) Khao Yai: From Bangkok it's the most accessible national park - 3 hours or so by bus, minibus or train to Pak Chong. Hotels provide guided jungle tours and transfers from the bus/train station. The usual deal is a 2-night stay: arrive afternoon, take afternoon/evening tour including millions of bats leaving their cave at dusk. The following day take an all-day tour. There are longer options including overnight camping. See for example Bobbys Jungle Tours.

I too visited the museum not long after it opened and had a personal guided tour conducted by "Sucky" Kriengsak, a former colleague of "Cowboy" Edwards (yes, that Cowboy, as in "Soi Cowboy".) Most enjoyable.

... but without the Irish charm?

Yes. Like you I think I have a better understanding of the probabilities than when I first visited in the 1990s, but there is still a slight possibility of having an ill-chosen visitor. We all three (hotel, me, visitor) know perfectly well why the visitor is visiting, but since in Thai culture actually mentioning it would cause loss of face to all of us, that won't happen. SInce having the hotel check ID might prevent some unpleasantness (even if it's unlikely), and there is no downside, I think it's a good thing.

That wasn't there when I last went to Nonthaburi! Thanks for the tip. Not strictly "skytrain", that would be the BTS. Actually it's the new MRT Purple Line which runs to the Bang Sue district and connects with the underground Blue Line at Tao Poon - very close to the Joncharoen swimming pool someone mentioned recently!

Take the Chao Phraya Express (ordinary orange flag, not the tourist boat) from Sathorn (Saphan Taksin BTS) to the end of the line at Nonthaburi, enjoy the scenery on the way, lunch in a riverside restaurant, return. (caveat: I don't know if the tourist-oriented restaurants are currently open but it's a big non-touristy town so you won't starve.) Cost: 2x15B plus whatever you spend on lunch.

They have other failure modes, too. I had a key in my wallet which made a tiny nick in the edge of a Malaysian polymer note, and that was enough to start a tear. Suddenly I had two half-notes. Fortunately the 7-11 had some tape...

Looks OK from here: http://www.thaimassageboy.com/homepage/

Transliterate it any way you like, Google Maps says it's in Bang Sue district, at 666 ถนน ประชาราษฎร์ สาย 2 แขวง บางซื่อ เขตบางซื่อ กรุงเทพมหานคร 10800 (666 Pracha Rat Sai 2 Rd, Bang Sue, Bangkok 10800) And here's the entrance, via a car park and a handy chicken biryani shop

That picture is misleading - the "new route" in red is the polar route via Alaska, not the "south of Russia" one described above. It's there to link to the discussion of how ETOPS relates to the long Atlantic segment. (For the geographically challenged, the white route runs roughly west-east 🙃)

Ban (บ้าน) and bang (บาง) are distinct words in Thai: different tone, different final consonant. Ban means house or village; bang is a waterway or a locality along a waterway. As you might expect, the one in Bangkok (บางกอก) is the latter and still exists in the names of the districts Bangkok Yai and Bangkok Noi in Thonburi.

Scowling may also sometimes indicate a trip to the optician...

Such things have a long history under the name of "poses plastiques". Once popular as Lady Hamilton's "Attitudes", they were nearly the downfall of the Earl of Euston in the Cleveland Street Scandal.

The one advantage the gogo bars still have over the apps is that you can examine the goods before committing yourself and see the real thing, not an outdated photo of somebody else. Of course if they parade fully clothed it's less appealing. In the Good Old Days it wasn't so much the gogo dancing that appealed to me, nor even the shows, so much as the whole atmosphere of the bars, with the boys spontaneously interacting with each other as well as the punters.

But can you say it in one breath, without written notes? 😀 Or sing it?😎 FWIW the province name (OK, technically it's not a province but a Special Administrative Area) on car licence plates has been กรุงเทพมหานคร for as long as I've been visiting.

Dead as in "and the land has been sold".

Not so much sarcasm as self-deprecation? I expect there's a web page somewhere that will try to explain the British sense of humour...

The issue is not so much length as girth. They are made in different diameters. Too loose, it may slip off; too tight is very uncomfortable. I recall somebody recently posted some information about this: search this forum for "condom AND size" and you should find it.

Since the author is a retiree with a bald head and expanding waistline I'm not sure where the condescension is here.

Yesterday I received an email with a malware payload purporting to be from the Malaysia Hotel. I don't suppose the hotel has anything to do with it, but it looks as if their email system or website may have been compromised. If you receive anything similar, don't open (as if you would!) the attached spreadsheet.

That's unusual if your flights were both on Emirates but to be expected if you arrived on another carrier. At Dubai, Emirates use Terminal 3, other major airlines use T1, low-cost carriers like FlyDubai use T2. T1 is a train ride away from T3, T2 is a long bus ride. When I've travelled LGW - DXB- BKK it's been a short walk and security check, no train required. I'd second Gerefan's comments on the A380 business class experience. The only caveat is that there is a distance limit on the business class free limo service, with rules that differ from country to country. Unfortunately Pattaya is just out of range.

Andrew MacGregor Marshall has a fuller version of the story here. Not much seems to have changed in the last 12 years.

I had the opppsite experience at the Flamingo in Pattaya. Because there was an awkward corner they had joined two nearly normal sized rooms to make what was effectively a suite with two entrances from the corridor. I checked in, unpacked, went out. When I returned, my toothbrush etc. had mysteriously disappeared from the bathroom. Had the maid moved it? if so, where to? It took a while for me to realise that because of the history of the room, not only were there two entrance doors, there were two identical bathrooms and my things were in the other one 🙃

What's the Thai for Streisand Effect?

Yes. Since switching from employed-and-saving mode to retired-and-spending, when contemplating something expensive but affordable I often find I have to say to myself "can you really not afford it?" with an incredulous inflection. (Precise choice of words, word order and intonation are important here; if your first language is not British English you may not get the exact sense.)