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Is something else going on with Beach Road now? Soi Buakhao has turned into a traffic mess the last three days. After what has been a relativity mellow couple of weeks except at rush hour.

Thailand has been cracking down on the ED visas for a while now.

The thing I notice in LOS, compared to home, is the amount of Styrofoam boxes used. The newer more efficient planes like the Boeing 787 get ~100 passenger/seat miles per gallon. Much more fuel would be used if one could drive. But one can't drive and a 8395 mile drive would suck if one could drive. So without burning jet fuel I certainly wouldn't be in SE Asia.

Since I buy 12 packs of water at 7-11 will be interesting to see how it goes with water. Villa Market has a sign at the checkout counters saying no more plastic bags and sells cloth bags for 20 baht. However they are still putting my groceries in plastic bags every time (albeit their somewhat biodegradable bags). I often do take a plastic bag with me to Villa or Friendship. Their packing of groceries often leaves me with one heavy bag for the walk home or just a overly packed bag. I balance the weight/volume, etc. 7-11 likes to put three bottles of Sprite in a small bag with a half loaf of bread. Grocery packing leaves a bit to be desired in Pattaya.

I only use bottled water as I'm lazy. 7-11 has 12 packs of 600 ml 7-11 Select water for 59 baht. The same 12 packs of Singha or Nestle water are 65 baht.

Is the Bier Garten still there? I thought it went the way of the tunnel behind the old CIB. But I don't go to BKK much. Last time I was in there weren't very many ladies. The Street View is only 16 months old so probably is still there: https://www.google.com/maps/@13.7417725,100.5550422,3a,75y,259.81h,87.97t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1suZ7pJCGIS833JqYuYoqO3g!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Lilly took a near perfect body and filled her ass up with silicon.

I guess the baht fell a bit more yesterday. If it hadn't fallen I would have been momentarily dazed and confused. My debit card has a US$1000 limit. I did a 30k baht (+220 baht fee) ATM withdrawal. I checked my bank account later and it was $999.88. It wasn't far from my limit that would cause a rejection of the transaction. But I did get caught on the wrong side a VISA FX currency rate swing. I would have done better with a cash rate. But it's worth it, for me, not carrying cash. In the US the limit on the inheritance tax was raised a couple of times. So not as big a problem for us.

The Base sort of seems to have started that trend in Pattaya. A one bedroom is 30 sq m. This is the living room:

Still a good place to check the rate of the big exchange houses in Bangkok: http://bankexchangerates.daytodaydata.net/default.aspx And the best place to exchange the USD might not be the best place for the Euro and Pound. TT Exchange in Pattaya usually posts their morning opening rate on Facebook.

I guess some people have a problem with Nidcha but I go in from time to time. Katty Bar is a better place to just hang out IMO. I can go alone and likely end up chatting with some other guys. Nidcha, just for drinking, is probably better done with a group of guys. Last trip I did end up getting a few crazy/weird Russians on the baht buses coming back to Pattaya late night from Jomtien. Makes the trip home a bit less enjoyable on occasion. The USD, on the street, is still barely hanging in above 30. I've seen below 30 on the street before (first time 2008). But that is nothing compared to the mess the ₤ and € are in at the moment. I guess the dollar would have to be down around 25 for me to feel that pain.

I one again have to draw the distinction between those of us that are and are not in a permanent relation ship with a LB. I will likely go to Katty Bar a number of times during the up coming trip. But I don't go because the beer is 60 baht. But in cheap charlie mode KINK is a rare example of a GoGo where I actually go that doesn't have a cheap draft. But even KINK is a lot better some nights than others.

I think most of the popular girls will probably move on. The Spot was great for what it was (FL hangout). But I don't see it as a great destination bar. Could be wrong I guess.

Wasn't sure I would ever stay there because of the price but if I did that would be the one of the three buildings I wanted to stay in. So now guess I don't like all three...

Guy seems to have been away from the US longer than six years. What a cunt! He does offer a few good insights.

I know these are old posts. But make up your mind. If China implodes, which I can believe can happen since they are turning their economic policies back to days gone by, the yuan will likely drop like a rock and there will be no challenger to the US Dollar. Unless Trump kills the dollar. I see the British got no near term help with the currency in Parliament today. As I see it the Kurds will eventually take over the world as they are the only ones with any balls!

The bar has been sold so something will still be there. Likely not a LB bar. The place never had whatever is needs to keep lots of customers in the bar. I've been in many times but often I was the only customer or one of a very few. Usually didn't stay very long as there just wasn't any atmosphere despite the bar being very nice inside.

At least until the vote tomorrow (Saturday).

I know someone that lives in Pattaya and when to a school. I'll have to ask him the name of the school. He got quite good at reading and writing but still has a lot of problems with speaking/listening. He seems to be unable to get command of the tonal part of the spoken language.

You get no commercials, can build play lists and you get more song skips. At least that is what I think as I don't have premium. Spotify sends me an Email every month or so trying to get me to sign up for Premium. I would guess that email has all the details. Here are the US plans: https://www.spotify.com/us/premium/?checkout=false#STOREFRONT-2 With free I get a couple of commercials maybe twice in the hour I spend at the gym. They are in English unlike yours that are in Thai and some are targeted to the geographical area where my VPN randomly connects in the US. I don't really want to make a playlist. Being an old fart I listen to the "Pure Rock and Roll" channel. They seldom play something I don't like/know but I skip a song on occasion. I think one is allowed six skips a day on free? They seem to change the songs up on a fairly regular basis so the variety is good.

I use Spotify Free at the gym in Pattaya on my long winter trips. When I first started using it a message would pop up on the screen that faded away too fast to be read. My account was setup in the US and I finally figured out the message said if I was going to be out of the country for more than 14 days I needed to change my address on my Spotify account. I changed my address to Thailand but Spotify still stopped working after 14 days. Two things that worked for me. #1 Uninstall the Spotify app and reinstall. This gave me a new 14 days but I had to repeat every two weeks. #2 Change address back to US, uninstall/reinstall app and use my VPN to pretend I am in the US. This seems to be a permanent solution but I have a VPN service that I can use on several devices and it has an Android app. Is your Spotify address in Thailand? If so does it still not work when you are in Thailand? If not you might try the uninstall/reinstall and login FWIW. *************************************** When in Thailand I've been using an AIS plan for unlimited data @ 1 Mbps speed for 30 days for 300 baht. *777*7153# I'll have to sort through the plans and see if there is anything I like better.

The thing the expats have been bitching about recently is if you go to say Hua Hin for the weekend, and your place of lodging in HH does an online TM30, your condo owner will have to do a new TM30 when you return.

I've never been to Jomtien immigration in anything but shorts. Last time I used a agent that was a Thai lady that was a former employee of immigration. I didn't realize when I went into her office that she was going to send me almost straight to immigration with a moto taxi guy being her person at immigration. It was laundry day and I was wearing a sleeveless shirt that did at least cover my shoulders. So it wasn't a total wife beater. She gave me a jacket to put on when they took my picture but it was small and I didn't have time to get it on before the picture was taken. No one really seemed to care although the ex immigration worker agent did feel the need to give me the jacket. I wear a pair of cords on the flights. As I don't live in SE Asia I would melt if I wore those in Thailand. Outside of to/from the airport I have never worn long pants in SE Asia. Often I wear shorts on the flights to/from BKK to/from my first stop. Or I change into them on the last leg into BKK (have in carry on). It's nice to say cool until I get to Hong Kong/Japan or be ready for the Thai heat/humidity. A couple of times I have worn shorts all the way back home from BKK. All trans Pacific flights don't seem to keep the cabin as cold as a refrigerator as it seems they did in the past, especially United.

I went in once with someone (Kim?). Much better for non gringos that want to build up their cholesterol in the morning...

After reading more I'm a bit more confused about who needs to do the TM30 app so I deleted most of it. It really only affects those that live in Thailand. I think...