SAGuy

Tourist to NYPD beat cop: "How do I get to Carnegie Hall officer." NYPD officer: "Practice lady, practice." To be able to see the more interesting threads and topics you need to have made a minimum of 5 posts. I also recommend that you review the newbies section as there's lots of info in that thread. Enjoy. SAG

Backstory My work requires meticulous planning, but when it comes to social occasions, the average Thai has better planning skills than me. So here I was at midday on Christmas Day, nursing a hangover and thinking where can I go for Christmas Lunch? I live on soi 13 and whilst having a lung torpedo on the balcony, I looked down to the soi for inspiration and saw two very easy options - The German Beer House or the Red Lion... OK that was easy, Red Lion it is. Crimbo Lunch By the time I got myself together it was around 1700, which was fine, as by my logic, most Brits eat Christmas lunch around 1500, so there should be some tables free. I crossed over the soi and walked in and luckily the theory was right. They also served until 2000 that night. There were 2 options: main course only for THB 595 or 3 courses for 895. I decided on the latter. The food options harkened back to the 1970s, which was fine by me, so I chose the prawn cocktail to start, washed down with a bottle of water as I couldn't face any more booze. For the main course they offered turkey and ham with all the trimmings. It was served on a very large plate, so what looked small,, was actually very large. You could not fault the serving size or the quality of the main course. For dessert I had the traditional Christmas pudding and another bottle of water. Service was excellent, it was busy and I was lucky to get a table, as it filled up with what seemed like a second sitting around 1730. I'd give it 8/10 for what was a last minute decision. Very good value and close(ish) to original food, as I remembered it. They also have a happy hour every day up until 2000 with cheap beer and they serve Baht Buster breakfasts, which I will give a try over Christmas, as they are served up until midday. The only 2 negatives I had (which were minor) were a. The prawn cocktail had onions in it, which I've never come across before and the raw onions overpowered the taste of the rest. b. The Christmas pudding was served as a slice. I have never seen that before either. I'd recommend the Red Lion overall and now have a go-to Christmas place for next year! SAG

Christmas Lunch 25-Dec-24 In what seems to have become a Christmas tradition, I decided to book lunch at the Red Lion on soi 13 again. The Red Lion is a traditional English pub that has become quite an institution in BKK over the years. They were running 3 sittings: 1300, 1500, 1700 and so I opted for the 1500 slot. (I fully understand why businesses have a sittings system for busy event days, but I always have a sense of trepidation, as on occasion this has been problematic. Luckily the people who were at our table had finished and left, so all was well). Just like last year, there were 3 courses and also a welcome drink. The 3 course option was priced at THB 950, which was very good value and considering that the Red Lion is just minutes away from where I live, the choice of venue was a no-brainer. For the welcome drink they offered Cava, Bucks Fizz, and Beer. After 3 heavy nights in a row, I couldn't face drinking again, so opted to give 2 glasses of Cava to my Christmas companion. The starters were similar to last year: pea and ham soup, prawn cocktail and a vegetarian option of Camembert spring rolls. There were 4 main courses: traditional turkey and ham, steak, salmon and a vegetarian cauliflower cheese. Desserts were limited to traditional Christmas pudding and trifle. The portions were very generous and the food was both authentic* and good quality. I really enjoyed the lunch and even my Thai LB companion, who was fearing the worst, seemed to enjoy it, although she struggled with the sheer volume on the plates. I placed an asterisk next to authentic as some of the ingredients on my plate brought a smile to my lips. I remember endless annual arguments between my sisters and parents about whether peas and Yorkshire pudding were traditional for Christmas lunch. My parents had a Victorian colonial outlook and it was considered heresy to serve Yorkshire puddings with anything other than roast beef. Thankfully traditions do change with the times. If you are in BKK next Christmas and at a loss as to where to celebrate on the 25-Dec I would highly recommend the Red Lion. This pub also serves very good all day breakfasts as well as other standard British pub food. I was last in there for a Scottish Breakfast about 2 months ago with @Kingdomguy and he gave the Lorne sausages two thumbs up. Photo 1 - Starters Photo 2 Main Courses

Last Monday I took one of my LB friends out for an early dinner, as it was her birthday. She is from Trang, which is in the South of Thailand, so I thought it would be nice to take her to a restaurant that specialises in Southern Thai cuisine (spicy!). Prai Raya is located in a house at the far end of Soi 8, on the left hand side, if walking from Sukhumvit. It is a bit before the Citadines hotel. I had been there before pre-Covid and remembered that it was very good. It was about 1/3 full at 1800 on a Monday night, so if you visit at a weekend, its probably best to make a booking. The restaurant is very big, and probably seats 150+ in all of the various rooms. I let the LB do all of the selections and she mainly stuck to the specialities at the front of the menu. Service was excellent and so was the grub. I think we ended up with 5 different dishes. Two were volcanic, as to be expected, and three could be enjoyed by myself. Would I recommend it? Yes for sure! Southern Thai food has a well-deserved reputation for being the spiciest food of all the Thai regions, but there was plenty available for farang tastes also. Its a very nice place and the bill came to about 1,800 all in. I thought it was very good value. If you visit on a birthday and pay by cash they will even give you a 5% discount! Apologies, there are no photos, as I had left my phone at home and my companion must be the only LB in the universe that doesn't take photos of what she is eating! Her summary was very that it was authentic and she really enjoyed all the different dishes. She gave it an 8/10 and as 99% of the guests were Thai, I think the place has a very good reputation amongst the locals. The face book page is: https://www.facebook.com/PraiRayaPhuket/?locale=th_TH Cheers SAG

I think a guide of the regional cuisines is a great idea @Genghis As you have stated, the Thais/Laotians/Cambos are very proud of their regional dishes and so it would be a really useful roadmap for us farangs to give them all a go. I always like trying new foods and was lucky enough to be at Balloons birthday party at the old WN20 a few months back with @taaseesanuk Loukpla, Milky and Annie had put in a lot of effort to make northern food, which was very tasty. Milky, from Lampang, is a very good cook and has promised to make northern grub again for her birthday in February. As for the southern style food, I put a brave face on it for a few of the dishes, but the ones that are 'farang-friendly' are really nice. I've only tried this regional food a couple of times before, but if I can find my passport, I'll make the trek to Chatuchack! Cheers. SAG

I'd say MBK is your best first port of call for this as there are many stalls doing this kind of thing on the upper floors. Plus it is easy to get to from Lower Sukhumvit. SAG

Maybe try LB Pharmacy near to soi 5, as they tend to have a good selection of 'gentlemen's necessities'. The name is pretty memorable, but unfortunately I have never spotted a LB working there! SAG

Hey there @mangatanga If you are staying in Lower Sukhumvit, then a good bet would be to visit the Times Square building near to soi 12. The second floor and upwards is primarily clinics which provide laser services, so you can easily compare them in one visit. I don't have any recommendations, as that's not my thing, but another option is to ask the girls in the bars where do they go? The majority of the LBs do go for laser treatments, so may have a good recommendation or two. Cheers SAG

There is an interesting article on the cnn.com website about English breakfasts, which I thought I would share, as I learnt a lot from reading it https://edition.cnn.com/travel/full-english-breakfast-britain/index.html From my own personal experience, I first came across the 'Full English' as a young lad literally straight off the boat, visiting my two uncles in the UK. They were both professional chefs and hoteliers and also traditionalists. I remember learning about the 'Rule of Seven', which meant that a Full English should always contain 7 ingredients. I mentioned that they were both 'old school' traditionalists and so a 'proper' Full English would NEVER contain the following: Baked Beans Chips Hash Browns Beef Burgers(!) It is interesting how tastes have changed since the 1960s/1970s but one thing has persisted - the Rule of Seven. If you look at the photos of the Patts breakfasts, most contain 7 ingredients, not including the tea/coffee! HP sauce was always an option, but it was only served in a ramekin, and if the diner insisted, they would also serve tomato ketchup! The Full English: How a greasy feast came to define and divide a nation By Will Noble, CNN 9 minute read Updated 9:29 AM EDT, Tue October 15, 2024 The full English breakfast is a national classic. Even if the nation can't always agree on the right ingredients. Mike Kemp/In Pictures/Getty Images LondonCNN — Picture something extremely British. Now double it. Did you imagine the Beatles, striding across Abbey Road — the twist being that their classic album cover is rendered in the contents of a full English breakfast? In 2012, food artist Paul Baker cooked up this exact scene. John is the (scrambled) eggman, while vegetarian Paul is tastefully made out of mushrooms. Abbey Road is re-surfaced in baked beans, a bacon Volkswagen Beetle pulled up on the side. Slabs of white and brown toast form the marked crosswalk. In one fell swoop of edible absurdism, Baker’s artwork demonstrates the cultural heft of the full English breakfast. Devoured in the nation’s “greasy spoon” cafes and motorway stop-offs — not to mention some of its ritziest hotels and restaurants — this gut-busting symphony of bacon, eggs, sausage and various other cooked ingredients (invariably sluiced down with a steaming cup of tea or coffee) has become shorthand for Britishness. It is as big as the Beatles, bigger. Like “Abbey Road” itself, the full English — or “fry-up” or “full monty” or “cooked breakfast” — is both revered as a thing of godlike genius, and has its sour-faced critics; those who claim it is too chaotic, too self-indulgent for its own good. So where did the full English originate? How did it come to define a nation? And come to think of it, what exactly is it? The evolution of the full English breakfast Full-fat Fab Four: In 2012, food sculptor Paul Baker made this recreation of the Beatles' "Abbey Road" album cover using full English breakfast ingredients. M Y Media/Shutterstock Historically, English breakfasts were a modest affair. For Britain’s Roman invaders, it was the least important meal of the day. Its medieval Norman conquerors were happy starting the morning with a hunk of bread and a slurp of weak ale. It’s true that meat was sometimes eaten first thing (in 1662, diarist Samuel Pepys recorded “a breakfast of cold roast beef”) but the genesis of the fry-up wasn’t really sparked until the Victorians came along. As Kaori O’Connor writes in “The English Breakfast,” “Large breakfasts do not figure in English life or cookbooks until the nineteenth century, when they appear with dramatic suddenness.” It was in the grand houses on country estates that these languorous, buffet-style breakfasts made their debut — the kind depicted in shows like the Edwardian-era “Downton Abbey”, where diners help themselves to hot viands piled high in silver chafing dishes. Aristocratic socialite and writer Lady Cynthia Asquith recalled breakfasts with “crisp, curly bacon, eggs (poached, boiled and fried), mounds of damp kedgeree (made with salmon), haddocks swimming in melted butter, sputtering sausages and ruddily exuding kidneys.” As well as being an indulgent display of wealth, writes O’Connor, the English breakfast was a robustly patriotic retort to the hors d’oeuvres-loving French: “There were no such things as a French breakfast… So breakfast time became the bastion of Englishness, and breakfast emerged as the national meal.” Victorian era cookbooks, like Isabella Beeton's "Book of Household Managment," helped popularize the concept of a cooked breakfast in the UK. Hulton Archive/Getty Images; Alamy Stock Photo The middle classes soon cottoned on, encouraged by celebrity cook and domestic goddess Isabella Beeton. In 1861 Beeton published her “Book of Household Management,” which featured recipes for breakfast dishes including “fried ham and eggs” and “broiled rashers of bacon.” A trend soon emerged in the publishing world: “The Breakfast Book” (1865), “Handbook for the Breakfast Table” (1873), “Breakfast and Luncheon at Home” (1880), “Breakfast Dishes for Every Morning of Three Months” (1884). In 1874, the Edinburgh Evening News wrote of “An English Farmer’s Breakfast,” consisting of rashers of bacon “bubbling with grease and laid on thick slices of bread.” Other publications from the time carried ads for bacon and sausages. “For first-class breakfast bacon,” ran an ad in The Blyth Times in 1890, “try Thompson’s English rolled flitch.” By 1921, a Lady Jekyll was telling readers of The London Times that “no breakfast table is complete without eggs and bacon.” What exactly is a full English breakfast? It’s easier said than done to spell out what a full English is. While various components (fish, marmalade, kidneys) gradually fell by the wayside, others were tacked on. Heinz beans — canned haricot beans in tomato sauce considered by many now to be an integral element of the fry-up — arrived in 1886, when the young entrepreneur Henry Heinz sold five cases to London department store Fortnum & Mason: “I think, Mr Heinz, we’ll take the lot!” HP Sauce — a spicy brown ooze, its bottle emblazoned with the Houses of Parliament — registered its name in 1895, and has smothered sausages the length and breadth of the country ever since. The many nuances of the full English are best appreciated by gazing into the window of any given greasy spoon, where you’ll be greeted with variations along the lines of: “Set 1: Egg, Bacon, Beans, Sausage, 2 Toast, Tea or Coffee “Set 2: Egg, Tomato, Sausage, Mushroom, 2 Toast, Tea or Coffee “Set 3: Egg, Bacon, Tomato, Sausage, Mushroom, Toast, Chips, Tea or Coffee…” A calorific Enigma code: A menu outside a London cafe displays the variety of breakfasts on offer. Barry Neild/CNN On and on it goes, like the workings of some brainiac trying to break a calorific Enigma code. The mapping of a fry-up becomes all the more convoluted when you take into account its Celtic cousins, the full Scottish (with the addition of haggis, and traditional sausages switched out for square Lorne sausage); the full Irish or Ulster fry (often featuring soda bread and white, rather than black, pudding); and the full Welsh (where leftfield laverbread and fresh cockles get a place at the table). Even more confusingly, despite being called a fry-up, these days the ingredients are not necessarily fried. At least some aspects of the breakfast are easier to pigeonhole. Sausage, bacon and egg are usually a given, as is some form of bread with which to mop up the residue. Black pudding (aka blood pudding, a favorite of the late Anthony Bourdain), mushrooms, tomatoes (fresh or tinned) and chips regularly feature, but tend to be the diner’s choice. Every Brit has their own dream team of ingredients, their own thoughts on each ingredient realizing its full potential. Eggs might be fried, poached or scrambled. Bacon smoked or unsmoked. Bread could be fried, toasted, or left as is. A dollop of tomato ketchup or brown sauce may or may not adorn the side of the plate. In the sitcom “I’m Alan Partridge,” the eponymous local radio host provides a pompous postmortem on his Ukrainian girlfriend’s stab at a cooked breakfast: “Bacon, 10 on 10. Button mushrooms, bingo. Black pudding, snap. Minor criticism — more distance between the eggs and the beans. I may want to mix them but I want that to be my decision. Use the sausage as a breakwater. But I’m nitpicking. On the whole a very good effort. Seven on 10. Let’s make love.” Some ingredients should be disqualified altogether, argues Guise Bule from the English Breakfast Society, a group of volunteers who celebrate the history and tradition of the English breakfast. “Reconstituted potato hash browns are a lazy replacement for bubble and squeak,” he announces, with the air of scientific fact. Onion rings are another component that have elbowed their way onto British breakfast plates in recent times, in a move that many traditionalists consider sacrilege. One thing most fry-up lovers can agree on is that the breakfast should be heavy on the stomach, light on the wallet; something “Kitchen Nightmares” chef Gordon Ramsay is now painfully aware of since diners chided him for charging £19, or nearly $25, for what they perceived to be a particularly stingy spread. Rock musician Pete Doherty pictured demolishing a "mega breakfast" at the Dalby Cafe in Margate. Courtesy Dalby Cafe Such accusations cannot be leveled at the Dalby Cafe in Margate, Kent, which went viral after local rock star Pete Doherty demolished its infamous “mega breakfast” in under 20 minutes, earning himself a place on the coveted wall of fame. And you thought biting the head off a bat was rock ‘n’ roll. The fried breakfast today Like most English inventions — the flush toilet, the iron bridge, the hovercraft — the fry-up has not always enjoyed an easy ride. World War II brought severe food rationing, a broadside that took the fry-up years to recover from. Nonetheless, as mass-processed foods like sausages, battery-farmed eggs and sliced bread rocketed in the 1950s, the English breakfast became a national obsession. Any cafe or hotel worth its salt cooked one. Brits visiting the Spanish package vacation resorts of Benidorm and Majorca demanded eggs and bacon served beachside. In 1953, when thieves broke into a west London secondary school, they made time to fry themselves a few eggs and brew a pot of tea. But in today’s age of kale smoothies and overnight oats, the iconic breakfast faces a fresh reckoning. “To eat well in England,” the playwright Somerset Maugham once said, “you should eat breakfast three times a day.” Yet recent research shows younger Britons are eating just two or three fry-ups a year. In an acutely health (and time) conscious society, some are beginning to ask if the full English is dying out. If that is the case then British society is making a good job of hiding it. TV broadcasts constant reruns of “Four in a Bed,” a low-budget reality show in which bed-and-breakfast owners judge each other on the freshness of their duvets and the standard of their English breakfasts. Seaside resorts hawk miniature English breakfasts in hard candy form. On most high streets in the country you’ll find a branch of low-cost pub chain Wetherspoon slinging bacon, sausage and egg for as little as £2.99 a pop. The upscale Hawksmoor restaurant offers a refined version of the popular breakfast. Courtesy Hawksmoor At the other end of the restaurant spectrum, where Gordon Ramsay flubbed his lines, others have got the memo. The Hawksmoor restaurant chain recently reinstated its redoutable take on an English breakfast following public outcry when it was briefly paused. “We’ve never been so inundated by requests to bring something back,” explains Huw Gott, one of Hawksmoor’s co-founders. Every Saturday, Hawksmoor branches in London, Edinburgh and Liverpool pile up 50-80 plates with sugar-pit bacon chop, Victorian-style sausages, Moira black pudding, hash browns, grilled bone marrow, trotter baked beans, fried eggs, grilled mushrooms, roasted tomatoes, unlimited toast, and HP Sauce gravy. “Warning,” runs the breakfast’s tagline, “Not for the faint-hearted.” Far from simply being a ritzy take on Dalby Cafe’s angina-inducing food challenge, Hawkmoor’s breakfast is a paean to the early days of the hearty English breakfast. “We use a recipe from the Victoria era for our sausages made with pork, beef and mutton with plenty of herbs and spices,” says Gott. Elsewhere, the English breakfast continues to evolve, just as it always has. In April 2024, home appliance manufacturer Breville opened a “Grease-Less Spoon” pop-up, showing how ingredients could be cooked more healthily in an air fryer. Veggie and vegan options now appear on many breakfast menus. A brand established by Paul McCartney’s late wife, Linda, does a roaring trade in meat-free sausages, many of them ending up at the breakfast table. Something else hints at the fry-up’s immortality; who’s ordering it. The fried breakfast has become a meaty calling card for Brits. Dukas/Universal Images Group/Getty Images “We have people from all over the world coming along hunting out a perfect British breakfast,” says Hawksmoor’s Huw Gott. Social media has ratcheted up this appreciation a notch or two. On TikTok, Francophile twists are attempted on this most British of breakfasts. American food presenter Adam Richman of “Man Vs Food” fame recently traveled to Bury Market in the north of England to savor lumps of Chadwick’s famed black pudding. The English breakfast was created as a statement piece, and in many ways it remains just that. A meaty calling card for Brits. A delicious tourist attraction. Something for foreigners to gawk at, sometimes bungle horrendously when they have a go at it themselves — but ultimately, relish and applaud. So long as there’s tourism in Britain, you can be sure the fry-up will follow. Just as, while there are Brits vacationing in Benidorm, the scent of sizzling bacon will continue to waft along the esplanade.

I sometimes feel it is like Groundhog Day... "Can I take a LB to my hotel on Soi 4?" "How much is ST/LT/BF/LD?" "Where are the LB bars?" Rinse and repeat... SAG

Thanks for the heads-up on Insaf Court @ryeantpsychoaquarius I'll go for a look next month, as I have never seen it before. Cheers SAG

Same-same but different... SAG

The sea food joint on the corner of Sukhumvit and soi 11/1 is always very busy, often with queues waiting outside. I've never bothered to go in there, but the Cambo girls from CS11 really rate it. The Swan on soi 4 across the street from WN04 is also very good Thai food and great value. I've been there lots of times either before/after visits to WN04 and every time I have taken a girl there, they have always enjoyed it. Finally, Kinaree in the New Business Inn on soi 11, near to Sukhumvit Road looks like a farang diner but has very good Thai food. In fact the Thai food is better than the farang food. Never had a complaint in the 10+ years I have been going there and it is open 24/7. Cheers SAG

Thanks a lot Dan, that recommendation is much appreciated and I will check out iloveimg.com As for the photos, @Singter1 does the hard part - taking the pics and editing them etc. I just add the watermarks and post them, so its not too time consuming. It's my little way of trying to keep Iain's memory going. Cheers SAG

I have taken over the Why Not Bar photos management and so need to find user friendly watermarking software. Can anyone recommend software that can be used to add the Why Not Bar logo to the photos that get posted on their thread? Requirements are: The software needs to be a free edition. User-friendly Does not require the software company's logo to also be watermarked onto the photo Can handle bulk photos, not just individual pictures. Runs on a PC, not a smartphone app. There appears to be 101 different vendors selling these applications, so I am looking for any recommendations from BMs who have experience with this. Thanks very much for any suggestions. SAG

Thanks for the clarification @CJ-BLF I remember being really irritated by this but they did assure me it wouldn't be a problem, as it was just a few days and they even acknowledged it was stupid, but made me pay nevertheless. Good to hear that they have now made it more logical and the land crossing is the same validity as an airport entry. SAG

Be very careful and double check the fine print. About 10 years ago I came in on a 30 days VOA and on day 3 took a 1 week trip to Cambo and then came back to BKK and flew back to DXB on day 28. All OK right? No, not OK! If you cross by land, the visa is only good for 15 days, so when I got to the airport, even though the VOA was for 30 days, I was considered an "overstayer" and had to go to a room and pay THB for every day I had stayed beyond the 15 days! (I think it was 3-4 days). I think it was around THB 100 per day. So if you fly in and out around SEA, its all OK. But if you cross by land, it's only 15 days. Very strange! I don't know if this anomaly will change with the new rules, but best to check and avoid any overstay fines. SAG

I think this is a great topic for @Kingdomguy to answer, as he is the uncrowned 'Legend', with up to 5 liaisons in a day! SAG

Welcome on board! The forum is a great resource for almost all aspects of our 'niche' interest. The BMs are also generally very helpful, so there is no need to ever feel reticent about anything. Enjoy! SAG

I go to MedConsult clinic on soi 49 for all my medical requirements (vaccinations, medicine, tests) as they have farang doctors, are cheap and have a great reputation. Just by coincidence, I received this email from them recently, which you may find to be of interest: View in browser The Pre-Songkran holiday sexual health series Have you heard of DOXY pep? Hey there! With the holiday season around the corner, it's time to talk about something super important: sexual health! Yep, that's right, because let's face it, holiday times can sometimes bring unexpected adventures, and it's crucial to keep your sexual health in check while you're out there having fun. First off, let's talk about safety. Whether you're with a longtime partner or meeting someone new, make sure to practice safe sex. That means using condoms or other barrier methods to protect against STIs and unintended pregnancies. It's like wearing a seatbelt for your sexual health – just a smart move all around. Doxycycline as PEP primarily focuses on its effectiveness in preventing sexually transmitted infections (STIs), particularly chlamydia and gonorrhea, rather than HIV. Studies have shown that daily or intermittent use of doxycycline can reduce the risk of acquiring these bacterial STIs among individuals at high risk. The guidelines state that a single 200mg dose of oral doxycycline taken within 72 hours after oral, anal or vaginal sex. Prevention of HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP): PrEP involves taking a daily medication (usually a combination of tenofovir and emtricitabine) to reduce the risk of acquiring HIV through sexual contact. PrEP has been shown to be highly effective when taken consistently, offering an additional layer of protection for individuals at high risk of HIV infection. PrEP on Demand" is a dosing strategy for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) that involves taking medication around the time of sexual activity, rather than on a daily basis. This approach is based on clinical research showing that PrEP can be highly effective when taken as needed, particularly for individuals who engage in infrequent or episodic sexual activity. Taking PrEP pills only when you are at risk for getting HIV is known as “on-demand” PrEP. It is also known as “intermittent,” “non-daily,” “event-driven,” or “off-label” PrEP use. The type of “on-demand” PrEP that has been studied is the “2-1-1” schedule. This means taking 2 pills 2-24 hours before sex, 1 pill 24 hours after the first dose, and 1 pill 24 hours after the second dose. MedConsult GP Clinic Floor 3, Building 2 of The Racquet Club, Sukhumvit 49/9 Alley, Khlong Tan Nuea, Watthana, Bangkok 10110, Bangkok Thailand

I was just there this morning, by the outdoor smoking section. I used that as a cut through to walk a girl back to her bar. I didn't see any dealers or 'Rolex' vendors this morning, but there were two Indian fortune tellers working over a farang. They were trying to convince him that he was going to be very rich, if only he would make a small donation to a childrens charity... SAG

Background I was at Bangkok Hospital earlier this week and the doc was a very chatty fellow, with good English. He asked if I'd had the 'flu jab yet and I advised I had it in SA in March. It seems that they are expecting a much higher prevalence of 'flu this year in the LOS and have imported extra supplies. In the northern hemisphere the 'flu season is the winter, but in the LOS it coincides with the rainy season, which will start in the next few weeks. (He advised always get the 'flu jab between Jan-May each year, as it takes up to 4 weeks to become effective). The conversation then moved on to Covid-19 and he advised there had been a spike up to 1,000 new cases a day during Songkran and so they are also expecting an increase in the rainy season. He advised if you are 60+, haven't had a jab, or haven't been infected in 6+ months, then you should also get a booster. I did some Googling and found this article: https://www.nationthailand.com/thailand/general/40027083 The Experience They are also running the same scheme at CentralWorld, but the times are 1500-2100. I decided that MBK would be a better option, as hopefully there would be less people during the day. MBK is very easy to get to from the 'Combat Zone'. Take the BTS to Siam. Change trains and take the train to National Stadium. Then follow the signs to MBK and there is a direct walkway which takes you onto the 2nd Floor. Take a lift or escalator to the 6th floor, which is spookily deserted. Walk to the far end and you will see the temporary vax centre. Present you passport. If you are a local or a resident visa holder its free. I was the only farang; but there were quite a few Asian tourists and they have to pay a nominal fee (THB 490? I'm not certain). You fill out a form, in English (that was impressive) and then walk in. You take a seat and then called to another room and get jabbed. Then on the way out you have to hand in the form and are directed to a "recovery room" for 30 minutes. Don't skip this, as I was tempted to. This is where they print and give you the certificate. I visited today and it was a 50 minutes process - 20 minutes for the actual execution and 30 minutes for the 'recovery'. I deliberately chose 10.30 to avoid crowds, and it was not busy. The vax is intended as a booster and is the Moderna version with the Omicron strain. All of my previous 3 Pfizers were for the previous strain, hence why I went. I'd recommend doing this if you believe in the vaccination route and the process was well organised and ran smoothly. They are geared up for large volumes, so it was a pleasure today. They are running this daily until Friday 12 May, 0900-1500 and then for the 2 weekends after the election. If you have a full time job, CentralWorld is doing the same days, but 1500-2100, so that may fit better for you. Cheers SAG

"I yam what I yam and dats what I yam!" Popeye. The Nana Hotel has had a refurb in parts, so I heard. The sights and sounds from staying there make it priceless! The hiso boutique hotels tend to be soulless and you could be anywhere. If staying at the Nana, then you know exactly where you are! @Eddyseybrew the Miami Hotel on soi 13 has had a total refurb, but due to its location around the corner from The Thermae and all of the streetwalkers on Sukhumvit, it is also still full of hookers! SAG

I once stayed at the Peninsula down by the river. With the floor to ceiling windows and outstanding views of the river it is very hard to beat. They have a private ferry that takes you to other side of the river. Not something i would ever pay for myself, but I was speaking at a 5 day conference, all fees paid by the organisers. I'd rate the Peninsula in the top 3 hotels worldwide I have ever stayed at. SAG

Hahahahaha There's a few I recognised and a few that had all of the telltale signs of a LB FL on a mission... SAG