Good morning, Bangkok!
Hopefully, you’re enjoying a magical Sunday in this glorious city. If not, perhaps have a lie down in a dark, silent room for a few moments and try to accept the futility of existence.
Ahem. Anyway.
It feels like a relatively uneventful week as far as news goes – save for the US upgrading Thailand to the ‘Tier 2 Watch List’ for Human Trafficking, up from the lowest category of Tier 3, while simultaneously downgrading our Burmese neighbours.
In other news, the country lathered itself up into a furore when Microsoft mogul Bill Gates posted a Facebook photo of a very common Thailand phenomena – a mass of supremely tangled overhead cables in the streets.
Assuming the cause was people stealing power — instead of phone companies just installing individual wires as and when new subscribers sign up — a number of Thais, plus a handful of White Knights dedicated to defending Thailand online, effectively lost it as they slammed Gates’ ignorance.
So, yeah; pretty slow week.
Here’s the best of the week’s news, views and social media updates.
News
Breaking news: Thai women have comparatively quite small breasts
Apparently Thai women have been ranked 101st out of 108 countries according to breast size. The biggest honker accolade goes to Caucasian women in the US, while Filipino women came in 108th position.
If there’s one thing women love, it’s being ranked according to size.
Bangkok officially most visited city in the world
After years of coming in at #2, Bangkok has finally taken the mantle as MasterCard’s World’s Most Visited City, knocking London off the top spot.
With 15.98 million foreign tourists generating US$14.4 billion, Bangkok beat London, which had 15.96 million visitors generating US$16.3 billion.
Thailand to sort massive cable mess after Bill Gates’ intervention?
Back to Bill Gates again. Goody.
So embarrassed seemingly were the Thai government at the Microsoft founder’s post, that they’ve now resolved to speed up their scheduled overhead cable clean-up, kick-starting a 52 billion baht programme to relocate 127 km of the power lines underground. The project is slated to complete in 2020.
Blogs
What I fear the most when living in Thailand
Ribbing off a recent piece in the Telegraph which claimed the biggest fear for expat wives in SE Asia was their husband running off with a bargirl, the Thailand For Farang blogger runs us through a few of her more realistic fears living in the Kingdom. We certainly agree with a few of those, although would add separate categories for machete-wielding in-laws and perhaps slow death by dengue fever.
A female fighter’s guide to life
This blog follows Isaan Muay Thai fighter Nong Am, and her approach to fighting and life — including the dilemma of yielding mercy on an injured opponent, a lack of balance between fighting, studying and socialising, and the importance of her father’s support. Insightful and very human.
The pulse and throb of Bangkok
This is James J shares his beautiful photographs of the City of Angels, as well as a few observations on the energy of the city, calling it “the most beautifully choreographed chaos I’ve ever seen.”
We couldn’t have put it better ourselves.
Forum Discussions
Will all Thais be fat in 10 years?
Searing observations from the corners of the ThaiVisa forum this week, as members discuss the apparently increasing waistlines of the Thai natives as Western fast food outlets proliferate through the country.
Worrying that Thai people will no longer meet their expectations of aesthetic beauty, the original poster writes:
Now, I am not having a go at fat Thai people. Some of my best friends are on the pum pooey side but I never used to know anyone in the country who I had to be careful around lest they inadvertently stepped on my toe. Now there are tons. You see them everywhere.
These fatties, coming over here and stepping on our toes!
Lots of interesting responses, including this one, questioning why we even spend so much time posturing on such topics:
What’s your dating criteria?
We’re staying with Thaivisa again as members discuss what they’re looking for in a Thai girlfriend.
Perhaps inevitably, standards are generally scraping the barrel. The posters specify that out of the various things they could look for in a girlfriend, they want no penis, no freeloading, and — in the case of one poster — “medium size upstanding breasts”. We assume these are the breasts that serve with integrity and do voluntary work at the weekends.
Another man has quite a lengthy list:
Only women with dead mothers need apply.
YouTube
Beautifully made vlog…
My taxi literally has a machete hanging over the rear view mirror, as a good luck charm I presume. #Bangkok #TiT
— Signore Sammy (@signoresammybkk) June 26, 2016
#Gaggan making friends again #bangkok pic.twitter.com/DPrsOrcELT
— Tim Footman (@CulturalSnow) July 2, 2016
A poisonous snake got into the house and everybody asked mum about our house number because they want to buy lotto tickets. #thailandonly
— Ryn C. (@Ryn_writes) June 30, 2016
A photo posted by What’s up, Bangkok (@its_bangkok) on
That’s been The Week On Sukhumvit — see you next time!
Featured image is by photonetworkgroup . and used under a Creative Commons licence
Facebook image is by Roberto Trombetta and used under a Creative Commons licence
