maipenrai

Was coming down pretty good for a while today, I walked from Jomtien to Pattaya and was at the corner of WS Soi 16 and Pratumnak @12:05 when it really hit - took cover under a 7-11 awning with the underground utility crew who were working right there for about twenty minutes before I was able to carry on my way. 

3 hours ago, KWA said:

Streetview history shows it as changing colour between Feb 2022 and Oct 2023 and expanding its role to become an art gallery, cafe and cannabis shop.

All the more reason to wonder why the whole complex was razed to the ground - I do recall them working on the place for years while they were building it. 

On today's long walk I spotted this vacant lot at the corner of Soi 9 and Jomtien 2nd Rd - it jogged my memory as I seemed to recall a fairly ornate building that had been there before:

So I thought I'd look through  my old photos and see if I could find a photo of the building and by sheer luck I picked the right year to check - here's a shot from 2015 that shows the building almost finished after they had been working on it for years and it became an art gallery:

When I was in TukCom buying a newer IPhone last year I spotted these lighted charge cables and picked up a couple - I've had one going almost full-time for over a year now and it's just as bright as ever - they make a  good nightlight both at home and in hotel rooms and condos:

A couple of old Mercedes cars I saw in a repair shop during my stroll down Sukhumvit today:

Before I left home I was in the pub one night with friends, one of whom is a "Harley boy"; he asked me if I could pick up two XL Harley shirts from the dealer in Pattaya; he opened Google maps on his phone and showed me where the local dealer is, way out on Sukhumvit a little way past the south junction of Jomtien 2nd Rd and Sukhumvit. I told him I could get Harley-related shirts much cheaper from the market or street vendors, but oh no, he wanted the "real thing". I asked a local bike-riding expat about getting shirts at this place a couple of weeks ago and he replied "good luck with that!" so I wasn't expecting any miracles. 

Anyway, I figured I'd work a good walk into this task so I caught a baht bus to the corner of Jomtien Beach Rd and Soi Chayapreuk and then headed out on foot all the way down Chayapreuk to Sukhumvit and then along the main drag. I found the place easy enough and entered it as the only customer; the Thai staff, one female and three males in the showroom, did not even raise their eyes from their phones as I went in and headed over to the clothing section. I poked around there for a while and found a design that didn't look half bad but after going through about 25 examples of same, all they had was one shirt in XL and it was  a light grey colour, made in Nicaragua and not really impressing me with its feel. The price, you ask? 1790b, bloody ridiculous and I just shook my head and left the building.

I then walked all the way down Sukhumvit to Soi Boonkanchana with the hopes of finding a place to wet my whistle, only to find that a bar complex I had visited before Covid has been plowed and is now just another construction site. I had to walk almost all the way to 2nd Rd to find a place that was open and had a fair thirst on by that time; after taking care of that I carried on to Rompho and had a haircut and bite to eat and then home to the condo - 12.5km altogether and I did enjoy the walk. I'll look around Soi Buakhow market for a Harley shirt or two and if they are not good enough for buddy at home, I'll just give them to someone else.

5 hours ago, Butch said:

Not only has it been wrapped, it's got horrid black wheels which don't match the colour either. Yuk.

If I was given the keys to that for a week, I'd hand them back.

Yeah, I don't understand why people would put black wheels on anything - they're not attractive IMHO and damned near impossible to keep clean...

6 hours ago, SteveBC said:

I would say it's likely a wrap, but i fully agree with you Pump'.

You can imagine the type of person who would choose such a thing.........

Yeah, I guess the car itself doesn't garner enough attention so you have to gild it as well...

16 hours ago, lazarus said:

I rode in one of these back in the 1970s. One of the rarest care ever made...
1966 Toyota 2000GT  -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_2000GT

. . .

Good one - did someone put you in with a shoehorn? Apparently they are very small inside. I'd much prefer to see it with the stock wheels and tires, seems nothing is sacred these days when it comes to "rest-mods".

I don't bother with pools - I never developed a liking for water considering the natural water in my part of the world is not much above freezing even in mid-summer; and my parents never enrolled me in swimming lessons when I was a child so I still can't swim a stroke. I was never one for lazing around on beaches either, I'd rather be walking.

1 hour ago, Glasseye said:

Zilch importance.

 

In Thailand they are potential electrified death pits.

How you do go on sometimes.....lol....more chance of getting shocked in your Thai home shower, methinks....

Here's another favourite of mine - 1970 Chevelle SS 454; there was a fellow in my town who ordered one of these with the LS6 option, 450hp with 4spd gearbox and 4:11 posi differential, and I have never seen a car before or since that could lay rubber like that car could:

A couple of years ago I converted all of the fluorescent lights in my house, almost all 4' double fixtures, to LED bulbs - ordered a box of them from Amazon and just worked my way through the fixtures, cutting out the ballasts (what posters are referring to here as "starters", I believe) and rewiring to suit, very easy to do and what a difference in light -  I'm happy to say that I haven't had any of these bulbs fail yet; with the fluorescent bulbs I was always having to keep after them. 

Picked this up the other day in Dave's store, been a while since I have read any of this series, the Vincent Calvino private eye books; I always enjoyed them since there was usually mention of the old Washington Square bars in BKK and some of the real-life characters who hung around in them, some of whom I actually met and interacted with myself back in the day. This one, the 16th in the series, takes place after the demise of the square. 

2 hours ago, boydeste said:

I have had a tick on my scrotum whist fishing in Slovenia. You have to remove them by rotating them anticlockwise. This will spin their heads out, otherwise you risk snapping their head off and leaving it buried in the skin.

I had a course of meds for Lymes after because I fell quite sick. I didn't get the usual ringed rash, but had a swelling around the bite. 

Lymes is mostly prevalent in countries with deer.

We have also removed ticks from a couple of my mates whilst fishing in Canada too.

 

Thankfully this is another pest that doesn't really occur in the north - some of the deer species do carry them and these varieties can  cause health problems amongst these species - mule deer and elk mostly - but they pose no threat to humans. 

This one's for forcebwithu:

Just now, Glasseye said:

You probably don't have many drunken Cheeseheads up there either. lol

Plenty of other varieties....

23 hours ago, Glasseye said:

 

Yes. lol

 

More typical would be a drunk Wisconsin Cheesehead doing 90 through a hilly farmland and encouter a wire fence while playing snow cowboy.

We don't have enough farmland in my neck of the woods to make this a real issue, it is the guys doing crazy jumps and stunts up in the mountains who tend to injure themselves, and the odd drunk running into immovable objects in the suburbs. 

32 minutes ago, lazarus said:

Acid Rain... 

. . .

"Department of Science Service Director General Rungrueng Kitpati warns on Tuesday people, particularly children and the elderly, should not expose themselves to rain in Bangkok at this time yet as it is acid rain, a result of the accumulation of pollution during the end of the cool and dry season. The warning came after netizens posted photos of white foams after the rain on pavements and roads over the past few days."

https://www.facebook.com/KhaosodEnglish

As if the thick air wasn't bad enough in itself.....

6 hours ago, Glasseye said:

 

Known of some pretty bad accidents on those things. Sorry to be Mommy like, just saying.

Judging by the mostly flat terrain that has been shown in his previous  trip reports, and the size and power of the machines he will be using,  I would say his risk of having a "pretty bad accident" is basically nil - he's not burning up the mountains on a 200hp super sled - yes, you are being "Mommy like", lol...

2 hours ago, galenkia said:

That’s a really nice looking bike. Love the yellow. Looks like the 400 but could be the 650.

I totally get your worries, motorcycles can be risky, but it’s just down to the rider and the idiots on the road. Personally I have really calmed down speed wise, not like I was in my younger days. But bikes will always be in my heart, it’s just something I will never lose the passion for.

To survive on the street you basically have to be paranoid and think that every car driver is out to get you, and you need to pay attention at ALL times because there are some really, really bad car drivers out there who are NOT paying attention; especially cars that are about to turn across your path. It's one reason I used to love ripping things up offroad a lot more - all I had to worry about 99% of the time was just what was in front of me. 

8 minutes ago, boydeste said:

Packing.

Your favourite activity, it seems....happy travels.....

17 hours ago, Glasseye said:

 

I have never tried these. I will definately give that a go.

 

As long as it is not like Balut (In the P.I.), fertilized embryo. That is a line I will not cross.

Not even remotely similar to balut, which they also eat in much the same form in Cambodia - I have tried it once there in the past and don't intend to again. 

Here's a shot of an egg vendor for stillearly - note the snacks in the front basket topped with a bowl of quail eggs, with the chicken eggs kept warm on the rear basket over charcoal:

4 hours ago, Daveo said:

Sold over 100 copies of my book @ Canterbury tales bookshop - Pattaya.

Anyone read it? any feedback?

Just finished my copy today, actually, and found it quite entertaining; not the best job of editing which you admit yourself in your brief foreword, but if even half the stories in this book are based on actual events, then you have lived a much more interesting life than me, for sure. You certainly lend credence to the old adage that revenge is a dish best served cold...

7 hours ago, Glasseye said:

 

I actually prefer an empty room fridge. The first thing I do after checking in is stock up.

Yeah, but what if you are only there for a couple of nights? I used to like checking in after arriving from my long overseas flight and having a cold beer from the fridge - now I'm expected to run out and buy my own instead, and the nearest place to do so is the 7-11 back on Soi 4. 

Cross country skiing is very popular where I live and we have some world-class trails quite close to town but I never really got into it myself.