Hefe

Looks like part of the Roman Forum...

Manhattan is rapidly evolving into an island of only expensive hi-end condos & corporate businesses, no one who isn't a trust funder or banker can live there now mostly. Brooklyn has gentrified all the way to Bushwick. Ridgewood is where you have to go in Bklyn to escape white hot prices & that's a bit of a ride on a shitty line to & fro. You'll have to look in Washington Heights or Queens for a reasonably priced place now, maybe Harlem but that's gone upscale largely too. I'd suggest western Queens past LIC on a subway lineis your best bet for a visit here now. 10 years from now Manhattan island will be like Monaco with rats.

Here's a few I like:

Everybody... it's the season so let's Christmas polka with Dylan!

Nicely put, I think this is perhaps the beginning of wisdom grasshoppers...

Yeah... I go back & forth on that one as the decades change, in recent years I am with you. But I do wish that sites that were more militarized were targeted instead of civilian populations... By definition war is the opposite of civilization.

Little Kim has declared that that movie, "The Interview", is an act of war.... you can't buy that kind of worldwide publicity. Let's hope that they don't go full jihad on Rogan & Franco.

It really stunned me as well, I couldn't stop watching the tv with tears in my eyes, it was nice that he released his best album around that time.

Well, I suspect a lot, if not most farang go to the bars solo, at least initially, you only become chum when you want to be bitten. (Or had too much rice whiskey) One of the advantages of this forum is the ability to meet up with like minded chums when you are in country. What, if any, is the ladyboy scene like in your part of China? I know there was a tradition in the past & I wonder if it has revived/survived?

That wouldn't be the castle in France that had a big part in the DaVinci Code would it? (Didn't read the book so don't know names.) I seem to recall it was on a bluff too.

Rikers, by all accounts, is a nasty place. I can't imagine a young tg being sent there for some minor offense, or being set up, & having to live in the male population... This is a welcome development.

Austin is one of the 5-6 places in the US that I think I could happily move to & stay, tho I have to say this is theory since I've never actually been there ... The rootsy music is exactly the kind I have listened to for decades now & it's a magnet for good musicians to live there who are more alternative than Nashville, probably a legacy of western libertarian culture vs southern conservative culture. Mexican food & barbecue, the laid back "Keep Austin Weird" vibe... It might even compensate for being in Texas which otherwise doesn't appeal to me in any way.

Sam you probably already thought of this but.... book your RT BKK - CAN with a return date at a probable time for your next trip to BKK, say in 6 months or whatever. You can always trash the return or pay the fee to fine tune the date you actually want to return. I found the RTs are always cheaper than OW. It used to be cheaper to book RTs from BKK with a decent travel agency, I used to use one near the Nana Hotel, but that was a long time ago & things probably have changed. (Oops, read your original post & see you booked it already....)

Slovakia?

Seeing airfares $625 - $675ish through March, for US to Bali return all in. I was able to find one for $625 for 1 month with a 2 week layover in Singapore (to enable trips to nearby territories). There was a similar fare to BKK from LA/SFO last week, hopefully this is the beginning of a trend of cheaper fares for 2015.

We named the park we alway hung out at as teens "Itchykoo Park" after we discovered stimulants & such. "What did you do there?....."

But the music there is better than anywhere in Asia...

My next colonoscopy I'm going to insist on dinner & flowers from the doctor first!

Occasionally, especially when stuck during winter, I like to watch this guy's superb videos, this one has some ritual (old) ladyboy priests towards the end. There are a number of his vids of Thailand & various places around the world.

I second both of these recommendations (Cap 1 360 & Bogleheads) for those watching their pennies wisely. Also rec Ally Bank (online only).

I actually have the vinyl of Tyrannosaurus Rex, their name on the first album when they were more of an acoustic folkie unit, haven't listened, or seen it in decades, but it is sitting somewhere on the shelf about 7 ft. away from me right now (probably right next to P Floyd's Piper at the Gates of Dawn)... I liked the T Rex band as well. Their music was used quite a bit in Dallas Buyers Club, but that's not Sam's flick I reckon.

There's probably an all points bulletin out now for a man who smells springtime fresh.

I hope this wasn't Major Cox!