You all know how I like the Asia Times and I wanted to highlight an article from them and the subsequent banter I had with the author. I cannot think of another online publication anywhere, if someone know of one please tell me, that candidly talks about Thai politics, the players, the corruption and details not seen in any other publication online or in print. I am amazed they do not get blocked by the Thai internet czars. Anyway - after hours is still hopping with a treasure trove of ladies in the Tunnel. We keep hearing of some new places but have yet to find them.
I love after hours. I think you can meet all sorts of people. Girls included. Tunnel is my current favorite because you get a certain class of girls there that won’t go to Spicy, Lucky and so on. Last night we saw a Nigerian supermodel. Amazing. Sure there are working girls in there but it is not the dominant portion of the crowd and I keep seeing cute Farang girls as well. I think tues-thurs is the best. Tuesday being ladies night is also cool. Fri and Sat are just too busy in there to move - let alone dance. The other night almost the entire female staff from one of the Sukhumvit pubs was out partying. All dressed up, drinking and looking for action. Phone numbers collected.
Bkk22 sent this nugget in about a bar near Ramkhamheang University. I plan on checking it out soon and closing it down with all intentions of getting some nice uni girls to show us where the local after hours spots are. There must be some and intend to sort it out.
On to Asia Times. Shawn Crispin wrote this one a few days ago:
There was this quote in the article:
All of this, of course, is semi-educated guesswork. There are already unconfirmed reports circulating of heavy-duty money-politicking - where MPs are allegedly going for about 40 million baht (US$1.2 million) per head in the northeastern region - financial incentives that could result in shifting allegiances and mass defections in the run-up to the polls. Whom the smaller Thai Ruam Jai and undecided elements of the Saman Chan parties finally join forces with is still a wild card.
I honestly did not quite understand what the sum of money quoted actually was. So I emailed Mr. Crispin and surprisingly got a prompt and very interesting reply.
You can see that they used my email and answer for their online letters section:
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Letters.html
I will include it here since I don’t know how long they archive it.
The reference was to provincial politicians who are now reportedly selling their services to the highest-bidding political party. How a particular politician deploys those funds - for vote-buying, influence-peddling or personal enrichment - assumedly varies case by case, depending in particular on how hot competition is for a certain constituency. Once in power, provincial politicians have historically found ways to augment their paltry official salaries through skimming budgets and other misappropriation of funds. However, the money often flows in the opposite direction at the highest echelons of government, with ambitious and often business-linked politicians paying ruling-party bosses for coveted and potentially lucrative ministerial and state-agency posts. - Shawn W Crispin
Anyway. Interesting stuff. The political environment in Thailand never ceases to astonish and amaze me. It is all so much more complicated than what you see portrayed in the main press venues and I applaud Asia Times for bringing it all out. I just wonder for how long they can.
Mochalover sent this gem in off of Yahoo.
How to get a foreign man: A new guide for Thai women
Check this quote from the book:
Once you’ve found your boyfriend, follow these rules to make him fall in love and marry you: always look good, have sex with him whenever he asks, don’t be jealous of other women, don’t be too demanding and do all the housework.
I don’t think this book will be on NOW official reading list.
Okay last one folks. Had a frequent blog reader and Mango goer asked me a question about what SIM card to use when traveling around Asia and I did not have a good answer. If one needs to be in places like Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam for business but does not want to rack up extraordinary roaming fees - what are the options? I have a DTAC Sim card and I can turn on roaming since I have a work permit and such but it is expensive but the pre-pay SIMs don’t do roaming. In Malaysia and Vietnam I am not sure if it easy to buy a SIM card the say way it is in Thailand. Anyone have some suggestions?
Back to work…
I’m certainly not an expert, but I can report that on a recent trip to Hanoi with a young Thai girl as a travelling companion, we bought a pre-paid SIM card for her with no trouble, even without either of us speaking Vietnamese and the sales lady speaking no English or Thai. I don’t remember for sure, but I think we bought Orange network.
View all comments by werewolf
Every Smitty post includes the line “numbers were collected”.
He is wasting his time running bars and a popular web site. What he really needs to do is auction of his SIM card. I’ll start the bidding at 1000 baht.
Off to the wilds of Ramkhamhaeng Sois tonight, report to follow…
View all comments by Mochalover
Roaming fees are very expensive in VN. All telecommunication companies are either State run/controlled or “joint ventures” with the Commies. It is as easy to buy a pre-paid sim in VN as it is in Thailand.
View all comments by zingy
ml - I want details. Organizing my phone book is getting to be a pain. I have to prefix everything with street names or venue names. My mistake last night though was handing out a number but not getting one in return. May have to go back and rectify that imbalance.
z - thanks for the info.
View all comments by smitty
YOu can get a SIM in Malaysia for 20 Ringget (less than $10). A shop called Maxis sells them. Minutes are dirt chep also at another 10 Ringget.
View all comments by bkk
what is the cover for the tunnel on a saturday?
Im working till l8 tonite but may go for a couple of laps at the tunnel very l8 if the admission is not too much.
View all comments by tunnel
I think on fridays and saturdays it is 500 baht and gets you 2 drinks. Usually they close at 5 unless they get shut down early so I would not go super late.
View all comments by smitty
500….ouch.
View all comments by tunnel
windsor is 600…double ouch. spicy is 300 i think. lucky is 300 i think. could do 300 for decent. dont think spicy and lucy that good tho. and 500 and 600 is pretty sratospheric for a couple of laps.
View all comments by tunnel
for a couple of laps maybe but I avoid all these places on the weekend for the most part anyway. On non - weekend nights the tunnel is only 300 baht.
Spicy is cool but not on the weekend either.
View all comments by smitty
Asia Sentinel is also good, though it has a broader remit than just Thailand…
http://www.asiasentinel.com/
View all comments by Combover
I’ve always suspected that Shawn Crispin gets away with his commentaries in the Asia Times only because he writes in English and tends to use words of more than two syllables. That sets an impossibly high standard of understanding for Thai censors…….
View all comments by Old Asia Hand
You may be right but I think there is some history with Sean and the Thai government so may be more to it. Maybe someone on the blog knows what had happened to him in the past with a different publication.
View all comments by smitty
Opposite Ramkhamhaeng University is Soi 65, otherwise known as LadPrao Soi 122. As you head away from the University towards LadPrao you will pass the Chaleena Hotel on the right. If you keep going on for about 2 kms (and before the road bends to the right) you will see a couple of restaurants next to each other on the right side of the road always looking busy and with lots of outdoor seating. Plenty of TVs and big screens to watch the EPL soccer games. Behind these two restaurants are a couple of clubs. Sorry I don’t know what these places are called - all the names of these places are in Thai only. One of the signs for one of the restaurants has a picture of a lizard on it.
This spot is VERY busy, and full of young Thais mostly from the local Universities partying hard. With some farang friends we dined at one of the restaurants (very cute waitresses and beer promotion girls) and went into one of the clubs. The club was packed and had a great house band playing Thai rock. Everything was cheap and we were the only farangs in the whole area - and got a lot of attention as a result (with a few Thai guys volunteering to help us chat to girls). Don’t think there was a girl in any of these places over 25, and there were plenty of girls getting hammered. Thursday night is supposed to be very good here.
Not an easy spot to pick-up (everyone is watching you) but I think if you invested the time you’d get to know a lot of very cute Thai non-working girls. The whole area is full of small clubs and bars and tons of hot Thai girls walking around.
View all comments by Mochalover