Evil Penevil

I use Nord. It has high-speed servers in 60 countries and extra safeguard options like Double VPN; Onion over VPN and P2P, which make your computer untraceable to the most determined hackers and even NSA. That level of security is overkill for ordinary surfing or to remove geo-blocks, but is useful when transferring money from a bank account or if traveling in a country like China. Evil

Up-skirt and down-blouse photos taken and posted without the subjects' consent have been illegal in Thailand and many other countries for several years now. The chances of a photographer actually getting punished for posting them have been small in Thailand, but in the U.S., several guys have gone to jail for such photos. Filming a girl puking in the street is, however, not illegal. Under the PDPA, posting it to the Internet would be. As you say, the guy is a top-notch wanker for trying, but he wasn't doing anything illegal at the time. However, he did something very stupid and disrespectful and could certainly have regretted getting into an argument with a moto driver. Evil

I was referring to the numerous times he's posted my pic on Facebook and on other forums when he was active there. The few times I've used Gabor's image, I've done so in a satirical style or as a parody. That was allowed in the past in Thailand and still is allowed in some countries, including the U.S. It's what's called the "fair use" exception to copyright protection. However, PDPA trumps copyright laws. Copyright laws protect the right of the creator to control how the work is reproduced; data protection laws protect the privacy of individuals. PDPA no longer allows "fair use" or at least makes it more problematic. It illustrates the type of change that PDPA could bring about. The photograph can have taken and posted to the Internet with the subject's consent, but if a third party finds the photo through a Net search and reposts it without consent, it is a potential violation of PDPA. However, it's not enough that the photo has merely been reposted, the plaintiff would also have to prove that his or image was either used 1) for the poster's commercial gain; or that 2) the reposting, as opposed to the original posting, caused harm. With PDPA and similar laws, legislation is catching up with technology. The Internet has been largely unregulated since its inception. People were free to post comments and images that would have been banned from traditional media or at least punished if they did occur. But on the Internet, people were able to make billions of such posts anonymously with no accountability whatsoever. Countless photos and videos of Thai girls have been posted without their permission and in many cases to their detriment. PDPA MAY be a means of addressing the most egregious cases. I say MAY because no one knows how strictly or vigorously it will be enforced. Thailand-247 has been ahead of the curve since its start in that it has never allowed the posting of shall we say provocative pictures no matter the source. If there are no pics, there can't be complaints about them. Evil

That's probably a good idea and I'll be happy to report him for the pics he's posted of me. Evil

I want to call attention to two paragraphs in the article I linked to in my previous post, particularly to the highlighted sentence. "Phongphan Polyiem, a lecturer and lawyer who specialises in human resources and Thai labour law, provided a few examples during a seminar on the PDPA that could result in fines of up to 500,000 baht and/or imprisonment for up to six months. "He said taking someone's photo directly off Google to edit and/or add messages, whether it is supporting or criticising the person, is considered a violation of the PDPA. Posting about someone's illness and health data on social media platforms or issuing a notice to a specific employee through a mass Line group chat with other employees in it are also examples of violations." It seems this could apply to some threads on Thailand-247. I don't think there is any reason to be immediately concerned, especially since the police have said they will mostly warn potential offenders during the law's first year of operation. But it's a situation which is worth watching for signs that Thailand is becoming in practice as well as theory more restrictive about photos posted on the Internet. I doubt the Thai police are going to be too interested in farang boards in English. The real question is what they will do if a farang reports a farang board for violation of PDPA. Will the police launch an investigation or will they simply shrug it off as too obscure for their attention? I also wonder how many farang residents of Thailand would undertake a civil lawsuit in a Thai court to have a picture removed and perhaps seek monetary compensation for the damage the photo did to their reputation? It's always struck me as best to keep as a low a profile as possible in Thailand with Thai authorities. Evil

From a background article in the Bangkok Post on the PDPA: It's very unclear what will be the exact effects of Thailand's Personal Data Protection Act. It's mainly intended to regulate data collection, use and storage in e-commerce and by entities like Facebook and Google. The Thai law is closely based on the E.U.'s European General Data Protection Regulation, which has been copied by a number of countries. The PDPA certainly has implications for social media posts by private individuals, but much will hang on how the law is enforced by Thai police and how it's interpreted by the Thai courts. A lot depends on the meaning attached to words like 'commercial gain" and "damage." There's been discussion elsewhere that the new law will shut down the numerous YouTube vloggers who haunt Pattaya's streets and bars. These vloggers seldom have the consent of the people they film other than those who sit for an interview. Here's the crucial question: on what grounds would the police take action? Because an image was used for commercial gain or because it caused harm? Neither is clear-cut. I doubt many of the Pattaya vloggers are making much money directly from YouTube. Many people believe that if an uploaded YouTube video gets a lot of views, it automatically earns money. That is NOT true. The channel must be monetized before it earns a cent and monetization involves an application process which is quite selective. I don't think YouTube permits monetization of "adult" channels such as those of the Pattaya vbloggers. I don't mean channels with explicit images; those aren't allowed on YouTube at all. I'm referring to channels focused on sex and prostitution. I could be wrong, though, on this point and some Pattaya vloggers may have achieved monetization for their uploads. But even without monetization, it's possible for vloggers to make money through "arrangements" with business owners. Whether the Thai police would get involved on the basis of that sort of "commercial gain" is unlikely but not out of the question. It's also important to note is that the PDPA does not forbid vloggers from taking videos in public places; it regulates how those videos can be used and in theory provides a remedy for anyone whose image is used "for commercial gain" without their consent. That is in fact an extension to the Internet of the laws which already protect the use of images in print and broadcast ads. In many countries, it's been the law for a long time that a model must sign a release form if his or her image is used for commercial purposes. Nothing really new there; it's simply the law catching up with new technology. Will the PDPA stop the farang vloggers? Yes. No. Maybe. It depends on how vigorously the law is enforced. I don't think it will shut down any channels overnight, but it could give the more aggressive stalker-style and hidden-camera vloggers reason to reconsider what they are doing. A more effective way to cause the vloggers grief is to report their videos to YouTube for promoting prostitution or for racist portrayals of Thai women. I don't watch the Pattaya vloggers' videos so I can't report them. But if a channel gets enough complaints, YouTube will take it down. The PDPA has some possible implications for boards like Thailand-247, but I'll deal with those in a separate post. Evil

The biggest problem was he was so maddeningly simple. I don't think he would score highly on the Verbal Quantitative Reasoning subset of Stanford-Binet 5 (or any other section or subset). He just couldn't grasp how a free market functions. His mindset was stuck in the days of Soviet-style planned economies when government ministries and party officials set the prices and everyone had to accept them. That's how he saw himself- the Commissar of P4P Prices in Pattaya and no dissent was allowed to his decrees. Anyway, to stay on topic, I'm reminded of this quote from a U.S. cult film. Add "keyboard" to the beginning and you have a call that resounds across all social media, not just the Pattaya boards. Evil

My participation on the Pattaya Boards has brought home the absolute truth of Heinlein's quote.

This is an approach that has been used with success by some other boards. In the days when Martin (RIP) ran Pattaya Talk, he would "spin off" the posts that got too political or harshly contentious into separate threads in a special section of the board while leaving the non-political, non-contentious posts in place. The guys who wanted to argue could continue to do so without disturbing what was a constructive thread on the main board or frightening away new posters. It struck me as curious that once the over-the-top posts were moved, the arguing almost always stopped. Evil

I occasionally ate at the Chill Inn back in 2019 and even mentioned it in this thread. It was OK and value for money at the lower end of what I consider to be good. However, things appear to have changed for the better (possibly due to a change in ownership or at least a different cook?). I don't recall seeing Serbian dishes on the menu in 2019, but I could have just missed them. Chill Inn is located on Soi Bukhao between LK Metro and Pattaya Klang. It's a stone's throw from the Bukhao night market and nearly on a straight line from Central Festival. From what I've read elsewhere, it has a number of good dishes at very low prices. Western main dishes go as low as 99 baht and Thai food is even cheaper. I'm posting parts of the menu from the Chill Inn's Website. You can see the full menu here. Edited Monday at 16:45 by Evil Penevil

Two of my favorite historical quotes come from the Battle of Thermopylae: When Xerxes I demanded that the Spartans surrender their weapons, King Leonidas replied: Molon labe ("Come and take them.") When told the arrows of the Persians would be so numerous they "would block out the sun," the Spartan soldier Dienekes replied, "Good. Then we will fight in the shade." Another quote I've always remembered is the motto of the House of Stuart, Nemo me impune lacessit ("No one provokes me with impunity").

Mae West had some great quotes. Everyone has heard, "Is that a gun in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?" but there were many others. “Good sex is like bridge. If you don’t have a good partner, you’d better have a good hand.” "His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork." "When I'm good I'm very good, but when I'm bad I'm better." "How tall are you big boy? Six foot nine inches! Let's go up to my place and talk about the nine inches!" "Marriage is a great institution, but I'm not ready for an institution."

The blank space is supposed to be there; that's "my complete list my complete list of all the farang YouTube vloggers who post interesting and informative videos about Pattaya's nightlife and bar scene." Evil

The post looks normal to me, I don't know what the problem could be. I embedded the YouTube vlog from The Officer Tatum as an example of a non-Pattaya vlogger I like. Evil

This is my complete list of all the farang YouTube vloggers who post interesting and informative videos about Pattaya's nightlife and bar scene: I am specifically referring to Pattaya-based vloggers reporting on the nightlife scene. There are other farang vloggers who do very good stuff on Thailand; @forcebwithu mentioned one in his OP. I never met him IRL, but we exchanged many messages and comments when both of us were active on Addicts. He speaks Thai fluently and knows the country and culture very well. His videos are worth watching. In the U.S., I like this guy a lot.

I was fortunate to get off so easily (knocking on the nearest piece of wood). But I lucked out in the genetic lottery. All my life doctors have told me I have an exceptionally strong immunity system. I haven't been sick often and tended to recover quickly from both illnesses and injuries. My niece, who's 30 years younger, had a much, much harder time with Covid than I did. She is prone to disease and got the swine flu a number of years ago. She said that was even worse than Covid and lasted a full two weeks. She was in such pain and misery she had wanted to be hospitalized, but the nearby hospitals had no available beds. They wouldn't take her unless the effects worsened, so she suffered at home. Evil

Last week I tested positive for Covid, despite all the vaccinations and boosters. It was very mild, no fever, coughing, headaches or body pains, just light sneezing and congestion for two days. I've had common colds that were far worse. However, the person I most likely caught it from had a much more miserable time for about three days, then it eased off. She was really exhausted, though, and needed bed rest for a couple more days. She missed ten days from work. Evil

Before he retired, a friend of mine worked as a doctor in a medical trauma center. He said most people don't realize the serious risks of dehydration and how many times it's linked directly or indirectly to the deaths of younger, mostly fit individuals. This is a tragic case in point: California family found dead on hike tried to send text, calls for help A California family who died from heat and dehydration during a hike in a remote area of the Sierra National Forest desperately tried to call for help but their calls did not go through because of poor cellular service, authorities said. John Gerrish, Ellen Chung, their 1-year-old daughter, Miju, and their dog were all found dead on Aug. 17 more than a mile from their car off Savage Lundy Trail after a friend reported them missing. The family's deaths were determined to be hyperthermia and probable dehydration due to environmental exposure. The Mariposa County Sheriff’s Office said the family had climbed the trail in triple-digit heat and an empty 85-ounce water bladder backpack was found with them. (MORE) People also tend to forget dogs need quite a bit of water every day and even more while on walks in hot weather. Evil

What would become FLB opened as Ann's Party Bar, a go go bar, in November, 1998. Ann was the wife of Pattaya Pete and the official owner. Pete changed the name and business model to The Freelancer Bar in mid-1999. However, it failed to attract many freelancers but was a big success as a hostess bar and the name was shortened to FLB in late 2001 or early 2002 (I'm not 100% sure about the year of the shift to the name FLB). Pete said he got tired of explaining to people why there weren't any freelancers in the bar. so he changed the name. In December, 2004, Pete sold FLB to Martin, an American who used the board handle MM. Pete went on to start the Pattaya Beer Garden, which also failed to attract many freelancers but became the most popular farang-oriented restaurant in town. Ownership of FLB reverted to the Thai (of Indian descent) landlord in 2014 when MM retired for health reasons. The landlord kept FLB running in a very abbreviated version until January, 2016, when it closed its doors for good and became a kebab shop. An interesting side note: Before Pete and Ann took over, the bar was called Europa and owned by a Bulgarian. It's business model was to offer Bulgarian women to Asians at huge prices, but it was never a success. Interpol issued a "red notice" (the functional equivalent of a warrant) for the Bulgarian proprietor on a murder charge. He was arrested and immediately deported by the Thai cops. His bar business collapsed overnight and Pete and Ann were able to pick up the lease.

I'm not a bar owner, but I will certainly say in big letters. I've used your restaurant maps much more than the bar hopping maps, but both have been useful. Just out of curiosity, do you still have a copy of the first bar map you did? This came up in a thread on Addicts. I found this map, but it wasn't dated. I'm guessing it is from 2001 or 2002. Another member found this map, a photo of a printed map. The file name is "PattayaBars2000," but it's not sure that's accurate. If you compare the earliest versions of the bar hopping map with the 2020 version, there are only four go go bars which have had the same name and location for the past 18-20 years: Tahitian Queen (Beach Road); Happy; Tim's (2nd Road) and Diamond (Soi Diamond). However, Diamond had been sold in 2019 to become first Sugar Baby and then Annabelle's, so the 2020 map wasn't up to date. Happy and Tim's have both closed for good, or at least that's what I have read. That leaves TQ as the true survivor among Pattaya go go bars, as it's been in continuous operation not just 20 years but since 1978. But on WS itself and in its immediate vicinity, there's NO go go bar which has managed to stay open 22 or even 20 years under the same name in the same premises. Correct me if I'm wrong. Evil

The pic of Hawaii Bob below had been taken by Big Brian, who passed away recently. Brian had been Bob's partner in a golf tournament and there was some sort of joke rule about playing the next round with pants down if a drive fell too short. Unfortunately, Bob's time in Pattaya wasn't entirely happy and his last days were very tough. RIP, Bob.

Yes it was a typo. I've corrected it in the post.

I had similar situation a few years back at a convenience store in NYC. I paid for a purchase totaling $4.37 with a $5.00 bill and a quarter, dime and two pennies. The young female clerk looked very puzzled and said I was paying too much. I replied I had given her the $0.37 in coins so I could get a $1.00 bill back in change. She said the change was 63 cents, not $1.00. I explained the change would be a dollar when the 37 cents was added. She just didn't get it. It was as though I had been expounding on Einstein's Theory of Relativity. I then tried a different approach. I asked her to change the $5.00 bill for five ones. I intended to give her four ones and the 37 cents. She got visibly alarmed and called the manager over. Both he and the girl thought I was trying to pass a counterfeit bill! The manager spoke very rudely to me and threatened to call the police. I told him to do so, but that was a step too far for him. In the end, I paid with the $5.00 bill and got 63 cents back in change. Evil

Yes, I went to the party at Cherry Bar. Both of them were very happy. I can't count the number of bar crawls in which both Big Brian and I participated. I chatted with him many times.

Homemade ravioli and meatballs slow cooked for five hours and topped with Parmesan cheese when done ... then served with asparagus and garlic bread.