60 years ago.

It almost seems like yesterday to everyone.

They first denied humanitarian groups access to the stricken areas and now have been accused of stealing emergency supplies from the United Nations. Aid workers are being turned away at the airport and the military said they are the only people capable of handlign the relief efforts to the nearly 1.5 million people affected by the massive flooding.

Horse paddy.

This resistance to the outside world’s charity is simply another weapon to suppress their captive population and earns SLORC #1 worst government in the world.

For #2 Robert Mugabe has to win the silver.

The field for the bronze is wide open.

Where is everyone else?

Ten years ago Pattaya’s population was roughly 90,000. Wikpedia lists the 2007 number of registered Thai residents as 100,000, although it is widely suspected that another 200,000 to 400,000 inhabitants crowd the coastal city. They don’t really count, being Thais listed in other provinces or even less important long-time western visitors.

Basically 3 of the 4 people you see in Pattaya don’t exist to the city officials, which is why municipal authorities claim there is enough water for the populace and ignore the traffic congestion.

The people simply aren’t there.

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I’ve driven through Colarado City, Arizona twice. Route 389 bisects the isolated community without a single 7/11 or gas station in sight to entice the traveler to stop for gas, potato chips, or information. This town has turned its back on the world to avoid curiosity seekers interested in the biggest polygamy sect in the USA, The Church of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints.

Town demographics list that there are an equal number of men and women, but not that only a few men are married to most of the females and they also have families in other polygamist conclaves. One man has over 20 wives in Colorado City and another 21 in the recently-raided Texas commune.

Mia Nois galore, except a large percentage of their wives are under age and this means some FLDS husbands will be facing serious jail time in the near future, despite the multi-lotharios stating that polygamy is not the problem. “Human judgment is.”

Federal authorities are contemplating a raid on this town, but have no idea what such an endeavor will reap and the FLDS members are slowly fleeing to more secluded locales to avoid the dismemberment of their sect, although those funny dresses are a dead giveway.

I’m related to Joseph Smith on my father’s side.

And I’m no bigamist, but I do believe in many mia nois.

Only one of them.

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http://www.mangozeen.com/marriage-ala-pattaya-2.htm

Laos in the 1960s was a bucolic sideshow to Vietnam with the various factions locked in a determined stalemate. The Pathet Lao and the Lao Royalist Force Armee Royale or ‘fast army running’ as the units were known to the CIA insiders, had no intentions of fighting each other. Their leaders were related by royal blood and combat consisted of shuffling strategic positions according the the weather, until Washington decided to arm the Hmong tribespeople to stiffen the resolve of the lowland anti-communist troops.

The entire operation was run by Bill Lair who picked Vang Po to lead his tribesmen against the enemy. The Hmong were a superstious people who fire guns during lunar eclipses to sacere the celestial frog from swallowing the moon, but they could effectively harass the Pathet Lao. Unfortunately they never had the numbers to destroy those forces, especailly once they were reinforced by North Vietnamese regulars protecting the threatened Ho Chi Minh Trail. Mr Lair promised the Hmong a refuge to the west should all hell break loose and SHOOTING AT THE MOON records the unfolding tragedy, as CIA higher-ups raise the ante in Laos with deadly results, most culpably station chief Theodore Shackeley and CIA Director William Colby. As one agent said, “It doesn’t matter how horrible you are, as long as you take care of your people.”

And no one took care of Laos, which was bombed more ehavily than germany in WWII,

Mr. Warner purports that this war was a success as long as it was small, a theory of soft force Pentagon planners should research for their present quagmires in Afghanistan and Iraq, but those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it and usually more than once

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Thai transvestites start taking hormones as early as the age of 12 and some even undergo castration in their mid-teens to prevent further masculination of their bodies. Beauty doesn’t come cheap either, but it’s the dream of every ladyboy to compete in this contest. Not for the money, but the glory.

Well, also for the money.

I think it’s almost a million baht this year.

Hell, if I was pretty I’d give it a try.

“I feel pretty. Oh so Pretty. Oh so pretty and witty and gay.”

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Mostly I frequent What’s Up on Soi 15 and Heaven Above.

For a good review of the bars check out this URL

http://www.pattayagogos.com/nllatest.htm#High_Bar_Fines

From Thai Anxiety

I’m too lazy or drunk to do it.

For a further list of these scams click on this URL

http://www.scams-in-pattaya.com/

But the flow of betrayal is not all one-way for the other day at the Welkom Inn a young girl came into the bar aglow with success. She was a millionaire. After ordering a round for the bar she explained that a client had given her about 50 million Turkish Lira.

Turkish Lira.

“Those bills are old. Have you tried to cash them?” Fabo asked with a Heiniken in his hand.

“No, but they are very big. Same dollar.”

“Actually you didn’t do to badly. 1000,000 Old Turkish Lira is about 25 baht. So 25 times 50 is_______”

“I know what it is.” the irate girl shut up Fabo’s calculation, not wanting to let her friends know her bonanza was the same price as a short-time visit to the Welkom Inn’s back rooms. Even worse she would find out that almost no banks will cash these bills. maybe in bangkok, but not pattaya, so they were basically worthless.

Touche for the sick buffalo.

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The Thai and USA governments have been partners ever since the War in Laos, where over 15,000 Thai soldiers served as para-military support units for anti-communist Hmong fighters. despite that losing effort the USA respects the Thai’s effort in the cause of freedom to go so far as to having honored Thailand with its very own rendition camp to hold Islamic fascist terrorist suspects for questioning under the GW Bush rules of human rights.

The exact location of this detention camp has been an unknown to two detainees, who claimed to have been jailed in the Land of Smiles according to the Washington Post, although most experts agree that the probably site was the old Udon Thani airbase from which the USA conducted its bombing campaign against the Pathet Lao and NVA during the Viet-Nam War.

No elephant rides or trips to go-go bars for these boys.

Strictly business as taught at the School of Americas in Newport, Rhode Island, where they get information the old fashioned way. By beating it out of you. Unfortunately for Thailand a former PM adopted these techniques to deal with insurgents in the restive south with the unexpected result of stirring up even more violence.

The CIA supposedly closed these secret camps in 2006 and we know we can ebleive anything they say, because we don’t have any other choice.

For more information click on this URL

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/southeast_asia/ja25ae01.html

The war against terrorism TWAT keeps chugging on.

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Few people understand the process of transforming silkworm cocoons into silk. Cultivators feed hordes of caterpillars on mulberry leaves through four shredding of their skin before they actually begin to weave the valued cocoons in thousands of triangular-shaped figure eights from the liquid silk filling their bodies in a 4-5 days process. Afterwards the cocoons are placed in a vat of boiling water and the Isaan silk farmers love their part of the procedure as they find the broiled pupa especially tasty, saying it tastes like corn.

The silk fibers unraveled from the coons is generally golden in color and can extend almost 500 meters in length, taking up to 8000 cocoons to make a single dress. Threads are dyed according to need by synthetic dyes, which hold the color better than vegetable dyes, but convey a natural feel of Asia unlike sophisticated Italian silk or the smoothness of Chinese silk.

The Thai silk industry is centered in the Khorat Plateau, although the weaving takes place in Chiang Mai, especially close to the Sankampaeng factory district, where visitors can view the process from beginning to end. Tourists are sometimes unsure of whether Thai silk is actually silk, because of their ignorance of different countries’ silk techniques and they should feel free to ask questions of the factory representatives to expand their knowledge of this ancient material.

In order to assure the authenticity of your silk purchase buyers should be able to recognize the real thing by firstly price, since imitation silk is about 90% cheaper than real silk. Secondly the weave of true silk will show handmade faults in the threads along the warp and weft. Polyester imitations will be perfect in comparison. Luster is third determinant of validity, because Thai silk is designed with one color for warp and another for weft, bestowing a luxurious glow to the natural fiber, so that when you hold a piece of 100% silk to the light the color will differ due to the angle of the light. The imitation with shine only white.

Fourthly look at the print. 100% Thai silk will only have the imprint of the design on the other side and only the full-print side will change color when subjected to the light.

Finally there is the famed Burn Test.

Taking a match to a single thread will burn the material to a dusty ash and smell like burnt hair. Imitation silk will sputter like burning plastic.

As with most purchases the buyer must be aware of imitations and not succumb to his own desire to get a good deal at the expense of buying the real thing.

Thai silk was popularized by the American Jim Thompson, perhaps the most famous of the vanished men in Asia. His disappearance has been a source of novels ever since he went missing from the Cameron Highlands in 1967, leaving behind his wonderful house in Bangkok, which has to be a must-see while visiting the Thai capitol. His devotion to the Muslim Cham weavers exposed the world to the diamond brilliance of their fine work and he assisted many of these poor workers to achieve greatest through maintaining traditional skills in an ever-changing world. The Jim Thompson House in Bangkok is rightly listed as the second most popular attraction next to the Imperial Palace.

The Jim Thompson House is located on Soi Kasemsan (2) Song, opposite the National Stadium on Rama I Rd.

Opening Hours : 09:00 to 17:00 everyday with the last Guided Tour at 16:30*

Getting to the Jim Thompson House : Located in the center of Bangkok, it is conveniently reached by car, taxi, Tuk tuk, or the Sky Train (Bangkok Transit System).

Admission: Adult 100 baht; Students 50 baht

* Compulsory guided tours around the house.

Contact information:
Jim Thompson House
6 Soi Kasemsan 2, Rama 1 Road, Bangkok
Tel: (662) 216-7368 Fax: (662) 612-3744

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