bkkguy

you obviously don't read a lot of history or news bkkguy

while rampant consumerism has certainly increased, most of it financed by increased personal debt, the level of house or land ownership amongst the rural (and urban) poor has decreased and while access to health services and education may have theoretically increased the quality of service in both sectors has declined in real terms - not really my idea of an improved life for poor Thais, and the "benefits" of rampant consumerism don't really seem to make the daily grind that much better! it is a pleasant change to be accused of making moral judgments - I am usually dismissed as a cynic! this is the bit I don't understand - "continued to pull a swifty and fooled us into thinking they were interested in improving the lot of us little people" is more like it and if they want to continue to lust in their little hearts for such "attention" then I think there is little hope for them and for Thailand of course the palace and the old elite are no more interested in improving the lot of the rural poor than Taksin and his cronies but as I say I'm just a cynic - and even worse a falung and a "guest in this country" and thus not really entitled to an opinion according to some Thais (and foreigners)! bkkguy

it is not how big the majority was, but how the election was run and won - history is full of large election majorities in tin pot "democracies" and banana republics. The fact is that every party that has won an election recently has been disbanded soon after by the Election Commission and while you may claim that this just represents the power struggle between the new and the old factions it does little to support the "legitimacy" of any of these governments and it is also what was done with the power gained - what percentage of the rural poor are significantly better off now than they were at the start Taksin's rise to power? an how does this compare with the profits made by Taksin, his family, his cronies and other members of the TRT and the other parties that rose phoenix-like from its ashes? if this is a grass roots social revolution then the grass roots have been fairly easily been sold a dud deal, but that is hardly surprising - they have been sold dud deals for as long as anyone can remember! and if it is not a cult of personality around Taksin why does he keep doing phone-ins and video links at all the major red shirt rallies? bkkguy

I am sure every bar owner worth his salt could stand with his hand on his heart and claim the he never procures for, and his staff never solicit for, prostitution - indeed I have personally heard many of them claim this with a straight face! bkkguy

this handy review of possible outcomes of the case should give you enough keywords for a google search to find the text of the specific laws involved if you are really that interested The Nation - The court's options in its ruling on Feb 26 bkkguy

either the shares were really owned by, the business was really controlled by, and the decision to sell the shares was really made by, the kids, maid, gardener and brother et al and they had no influence on government policy and thus the increase in value of the company and the shares that was realized at the sale was legit, or the offshore trusts etc really were used to hide shareholdings by a member of the government who influenced decisions that profited his company and who realized those profits by the sale of the shares either way the paper trail is unlikely to unraveled by the court decision next week - which reveals as much about the biases of the court as it does about the concealment skills of the other parties involved but to say there is no legal basis for any confiscation is a bit simplistic! bkkguy

There is a large one in Bangkok, so large it even has an "upper" and a "lower" house - Thais in the know refer to it as ศูนย์การค้า (sunkarnkha), the occupants - รัฐบาล (rathaban) - usually work there a few years then move on when they have made enough Baht for themselves! bkkguy

I don't think we do agree - you blithely state in some posts that the age of consent is 18 when it isn't and in other posts blithely say the "safe" age is 18 and I think this is confusing and counterproductive but I think I should just give up at this stage because you seem to think you are better at "clarifying" these things for the uninitiated! bkkguy

if no prostitution is involved than it is perfectly OK, and Thais do it all the time, but if a falung is involved then the police will almost certainly try to establish prostitution! read the original question and my reply - the question was "what is the age of consent", and my response was "15" which is correct. it is not just being technical or pedantic, "age of consent" has an established meaning in law and in general conversation and quoting from other laws and saying these define age of consent is just confusing. in the rest of my post I point out that most people are charged under prostitution laws and these had already been detailed in other posts, albeit somewhat confusingly understanding which law you are likely to be charged under is I think helpful! bkkguy

According to article 279 of the Thai Criminal Code the age of consent is 15 Most people answering this question refer to the Prevention and Suppression of Prostitution Act and Penal Code Amendment Act of 1997 Section 283 bis - while these acts have nothing to do with the legal age of consent they cover the sex related offenses most visitors and expats are charged with. bkkguy

and how long do you seriously believe this guy is going to spend in the Bangkok Hilton? I have read of many arrests with much fanfare, but few followups that confirm said person has actually ended up a Hilton guest. the age of consent in Thailand is actually 15 - it is the prostitution laws that specify different penalties for prostitutes under 15, under 18 and over 18 and are rarely enforced if the prostitute is over 18 just because the the local police will always assume prostitution when a falung is involved does not mean that we should be misleading or vague about which laws apply! bkkguy

lets hope that this guy is not right! The Day the Dollar Died

at least the 700 Baht is more into kissing than some of the boys

another graduate from the LMTU school of overselling - there may be a few places in Pattaya that could reasonably be described as "luxury hotels" but none of them are in Jomtien Complex, or Boyz Town for that matter! though to be fair, the venue itself has studied at the same school - from their website "A glamourous west end and broadway production is to be viewed in our comfortable showbar each evening." such abuse of the language must guarantee disappointment on arrival! bkkguy

if you use true, depending on the service package you have and the cache server you happen to get connected thru, this has been a problem for a while, either "Not Found" or the redirect to the leaf picture at a government web site the problem appears to be a badly implemented (or incompletely removed) block of the site that only seems to affect some true cache servers - use a vpn or proxy to get around it, it is pointless calling the true "help desk" (an oxymoron at the best of times) and trying to get them to do something about it! bkkguy

The latest figures from the Bangkok Post (6 Jan) are 347 deaths for the period down from 367 and 3,638 motorists convicted of drink driving offenses over the seven-day stretch Death toll hits 347 from 3,534 road accidents bkkguy

are you seriously saying you can see the difference between a 3 star and 5 star hotel and can see why the prices are higher but you cannot see any difference between say Copa and Happy Boys or Dream boys and Solid except for the price of the drinks? while I am also unlikely to be seen in Dream Boys at 300 Baht a drink I think to say that the only difference between all the go-go bars in town is the price of their drinks is absurd I judge bars by the quality of the boys (very subjective and personal), comfort, quality of drinks, location, quality of service, price, show/noshow etc and there are certainly 3 star and 5 star bars around and this is often (but not always) reflected in the drink price bkkguy

how much are the drink prices at the bars and restaurants at 5 star hotels? do they have to justify their rates to you as well? do Mercedes and BMW need to justify their car prices? businesses charge what they perceive the target market will pay and most people complaining about the prices are not in the target audience! "if you have to ask how much it costs you can't afford it" bkkguy

one plot involved liquids, now we can't take liquids through security; one guy had explosives in his shoe, now we take our shoes off going through security; this guy had explosives in his underwear - this could start to get interesting on another forum I saw a comment that full-body back-scatter scans cannot detect explosives or weapons hidden between rolls of body fat - the fat ugly old falung tourists may have a whole new career opening up for them!

An interesting read from a security "expert" on the pointlessness of "security theater" Is aviation security mostly for show? by Bruce Schneier bkkguy

maybe you should start four threads rather than just two to promote this?

Amor runs many special events, eg christmas, valentines, thanksgiving etc, and they all require special planning, extra staff, logistical problems etc but they are usually run because they increase sales and profits for the restaurant Amor also runs PGF charity dinners and faces very similar problems on these nights, so how do these fare after the set donation to charity? on a typical night at this time of year what net profit does Amor make, and what net profit will they make on this event - if significantly less then good for them for supporting the charity, if significantly greater then I suppose we should at least be grateful that the charity has received at least some money while the venue has lined their own pockets and gained kudos for helping the community one of the main difference between charity events organized by the charity and charity events organized by venues is that for charity events most people donate time, resources, etc as well as donations so costs are minimal and proceeds to the charity are maximized and costs and returns are usually available to the public, venues tend to donate set amounts from ticket sales, proceeds from raffles, etc with very little transparency thus almost invariably there are these types of discussions about profit by the venues I continue to be surprised that the PGF and venues do not learn from their experience and improve their transparency and accountability or find a better way of organizing such events! bkkguy

not all the bars in Twilight charge the same for drinks so what are the names of the two bars that have the same drink prices that you would like to compare for "boys", "service", "shows", "quality" and other expenses that may or may not justify their prices? and my point is that there is a range of bars and a range of prices and while some bars may be overpriced for what they provide comparing drink prices only is not a far comparison - Hotmale and Classic 2 I think have similar drink prices and are probably fairly comparable for "quality", "shows" and "service", Dream Boys prices are maybe 20% higher and you can easily see why, Solid's prices are 50% lower and you can easily see why! but for what you get for your money at Solid it is probably just as easy to say it is a ripoff compared to buying a drink at 7/11 as it is to say that buying a drink at DreamBoy is a ripoff compared to Solid And if Solid is such great value for money why is the percentage of occupied seats there often less then the percentage of occupied seats at the Twilight bars? I can't really comment on differences in rent and under the table payments in Twilight compared to Patpong so that makes a direct comparison hard but not many of the girl bars that I am aware of that have cheap drinks also have live sex shows or any show at all - while you may think the show at Hotmale or DreamBoy is terrible it is a cost that you can't just ignore. Also "lady drinks" at many of the Patpong bars are small are more expensive than the punter's drinks - at least you boy in Twilight gets a real bottle of beer for his 240 Baht! bkkguy

"C"razy Dragon is not to be confused with "K"razy Dragon, the latter being "whiter" than the former bkkguy

at one extreme some bars have 5-10 boys that get paid little or nothing by the bar, offer no shows and are in low rent, poorly maintained buildings in back sois with less "overheads" at the other extreme some bars have 40-50 go-go dancers and have to pay 30-40 performers per show two shows per night and spend significant amounts on bar fitout and maintenance on high-rent premises on popular sois with higher "overheads" in between are many bars offering different levels of service, comfort, staff, shows, etc so is it really that surprising that the drink prices are not the same in all bars? do you expect food prices to be the same at a food court and a top class restaurant, or the room prices to be the same at a backpacker dosshouse and a 4 star boutique hotel? while I agree that the soi twilight bars are expensive and many are not worth the money, if you are going to compare drink prices only then you are not being fair and are not comparing apples with apples! bkkguy