Jump to content

Pottinger

Member
  • Posts

    337
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by Pottinger

  1. He's a funny-looking little fella, it's true. He could do with some starch in that collar or, better still, a new shirt. But he makes a very creditable stab at Thai, and one mustn't be overly ad hominem these days.
  2. The Thais do seem to be past masters at making their vehicles perform undreamed of contortions and acrobatics. I remember being in the Siam Society building on Asoke many years ago when there was an enormously loud crash outside. Naturally, being voyeurs almost to a man (and woman), there was a rush outside to see the spectacle. Someone had managed to land their car on its roof on the sidewalk immediately outside - independently it seemed, for there was no other stationary, damaged vehicle in sight.
  3. Excellent article on this ongoing fiasco just published by a certain Scottish journalist. Makes interesting reading.
  4. I know those buses. They're the type with thick plastic seat coverings that you have to be peeled off at your destination. They make for a very uncomfortable and somewhat sweaty journey - that is, if you arrive intact at all after a fourteen-hour journey with a maniac ya ba specialist at the wheel. And it's just right for a further fourteen hours onward flight, masked up and in damp clothes.
  5. Nothing quite as shaming as getting lubed up then busted in the act.
  6. Not exactly a warm welcome, but hey ho, somebody's got to do it.
  7. https://asiatimes.com/2021/07/everyone-is-dying-myanmar-on-the-brink-of-decimation/?mc_cid=029acf5b92&mc_eid=b535c38408
  8. This is a sobering possibility, the main reason being that the Myanmar-Thai border is as porous as a sieve and extremely difficult to plug, even with today's electronic surveillance tools. The COVID situation in Thailand's benighted neighbour is incrementally worse than here, with an almost non-functioning health system, and it shows no sign either of being tackled or any hope of improving in the short or medium term. This is very bad news for Thailand.
  9. It's not entirely clear, but if you can prove via visa stamps in your passport that you've spent two weeks in an amber or green country immediately prior, you may be able to enter Bulgaria, despite holding a UK passport.
  10. Problem is, they have dug themselves into a hole; there is no possibility that it can be openly admitted that existing plans are inadequate, and have been from the beginning, without it reflecting extremely badly on certain powerful people.
  11. "US pharmaceutical companies are said to have walked away from Thailand rather than contravene the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act." <Link to a potentially very risky article removed, you can Google the above quote>
  12. Yeah, it was the same at Wembley last night, all these over 75s pushing and shoving.
  13. Draw Excaliflare from these buttocks and thou wilt verily be crowned King of Ingerlan!
  14. Coming from normally mild-mannered Thai doctors, that is condemnation indeed.
  15. That's certainly not the case with Lazada, which encourages people to unpack their consignment to check the contents are as described while the delivery man is on hand, if possible taking a video while doing so, and only then handing over the COD if all is in order. Not convenient or particularly nice for the driver, but it does avoid the kind of ripoffs described by the OP.
  16. In other news, Deputy PM "Not on My Watch" Prawit has agreed to donate his timepieces to his imaginary friends, the next time he wakes up.
  17. I remember it well. I lost my job as the financial sector collapsed and consolidated, sending me spinning off first to South Korea then to Vietnam. It seemed at the time that the currency devaluations were following me around Asia - as soon as I arrived somewhere and changed some money, the value halved. Later in the same year, 1997, I was back in Thailand briefly, relatively impoverished and unable to take much advantage as the Baht for a couple of days traded at over ninety to the Pound. Would that I had been prescient, with pockets stuffed with USD or £!
×
×
  • Create New...