Welcome to Sunday, Bangkok!
Another weird week for news in Thailand — the government’s space agency announced they planned to send durians into space, Bang Sue Grand Station was revealed to become the largest train station in Southeast Asia when it opens in 2020, and tragically, a whale was found dead in South Thailand after swallowing 80 plastic bags.
It’s time to cut down on plastic.
Let’s see what else has been enraging and entertaining Bangkok this week…
Post Contents
News
Nude German arrested while masturbating on electric unicycle in Pattaya
We don’t think this headline needs expanding upon at all really.
At least the 56-year old maverick was wearing a helmet 🤷🏻♂️
Bangkokians encouraged to wear yellow throughout July
City Hall this week announced that they were encouraging Bangkok residents to don the colour yellow throughout the entire month of July as a symbol of respect to the King, whose birthday the country will be celebrating.
King Vajiralongkorn will mark his 66th birthday on 28 July 2018. Yellow is his heraldic colour, just like his father, the late King Bhumibol.
Trans women fined after posing nude for Chinese tourists
Three Thai trans women were interrogated and forced to apologise for tarnishing the image of Thailand after nude photos and a video, reportedly taken without their consent back in 2013, were published this week.
Apparently the women were asked to take off their clothes to show their post-op bodies in a Pattaya hotel room, at a party they were paid to attend with a number of Chinese tourists. They were each paid 4,000 baht for their attendance.
They were charged with acting in an obscene manner and fined 5,000 baht each this week.
Blogs
The changing face of Pattaya
An interesting post here on whether Pattaya’s sleazy reputation is truly deserved anymore now that the government is apparently cracking down on a clean-up operation. According to the author, Pattaya 4.0 is a reality — not just an image projected into the media — what with a declining nightlife scene and increasing numbers of Asian tourists and families.
The author attributes this to the growing middle class in Thailand and general economic growth in the country. Whether the effect on Pattaya is a good thing or not is in the eye of the beholder.
Are the expats who work in Thailand really any good?
A post here on the Dan In Thailand blog about the calibre of expats working in Bangkok. Dan, who is based in Pattaya, seems surprised when a fellow entrepreneur slams the quality of foreign expats in the city — he assumed that there’d be better workers in the city’s capital. But, as many expats who have been living here a while can attest, there are very few impressive foreign employees (or employers, for that matter) working here, and those that are tend to leave quickly. This isn’t a city for productivity and aspiration.
Call for Volunteers
Thai Street Paws needs you!
Are you able to fly down to Songkhla to help a dog rescue in desperate need?
Thai Street Paws Rescue is currently in the middle of moving 40 dogs from foster homes to a brand new shelter, which is still being built. Down to just 2 volunteers, they are in great need of people to help with the dogs, move belongings to the new shelter and even assist with the building operation.
See this Facebook post for more details.
Forum Threads
The huge Facebook groups for Thai girls to check on farang fidelity…
Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the past few years, you’ll likely already be aware of the huge Facebook groups boasting 30,000 + members of Thai girls, all sharing stories and photos of their farang boyfriends and general hook-ups.
Described in this Reddit thread as ‘Yelp for potential farang BF’, the groups are designed to check that no one else is hooking up with their men and to exchange scare stories. Some of the men on the thread recount how they’ve been blasted in these groups, including with lies about their behaviour and health status and how it affected them.
Is online dating in Bangkok getting harder?
A Thaivisa thread here on how online dating in Bangkok is not quite the ‘world is your oyster’ experience that it once was. The poster complains that despite going on plenty of dates, there doesn’t seem to be anything more on offer, and he wants to know if this is a general trend and whether Thai women are simply pickier over who they date nowadays.
The response is inevitably mixed, with some people understandably saying that there’s little hope if you’re not able to hook up with someone online, while others bemoan the existence of online dating as it is. Many posters reference the prevalence of prostitutes on these dating apps, which makes finding a ‘good girl’ somewhat more troublesome.
YouTube
A trail of ants came into my house to eat a pastry I left on the dining room table. I put some ant poison down this morning, problem is already solved. My wife just told me “You can do this because Jesus forgives, but Buddha wouldn’t forgive me for killing all those ants”.
— Derek Hopper (@derekmhopper) May 28, 2018
Some of the books I’m finding in pre K are a wild ride. pic.twitter.com/x7QPK2hfaR
— Ally (@ohmyal) May 31, 2018
🤦🏼♂️ is my new favorite emoticon.
Examples:
1.Forgot my raincoat during rainy season 🤦🏼♂️2.Drank too much last night 🤦🏼♂️
3.Moved to a country where i have a remedial grasp of language and culture 🤦🏼♂️
— Matt Lucas (@mattlucas1968) May 31, 2018
Rainy season travel in Thailand’s Andaman region is just awful. Look at this horrid weather in Railay today. pic.twitter.com/hPyrOuqudQ
— David Luekens (@DavidLuekens) May 30, 2018
Meet ‘dino’, ‘Minnie’ & ‘Kumamon’ traffice cop in Nakhon Nayok
Photos @tiny.NakhonNayok, Tanit Bussabong FB accountshttps://t.co/Qd3teimFXu pic.twitter.com/53IUa0rGf0
— Bangkok Post (@BangkokPostNews) May 29, 2018
#bangkok morning storm incoming!! @StickboyBangkok pic.twitter.com/L960m6Uuiv
— Bangkok.eye (@krungthepeye) May 29, 2018
Another electric night in #Bangkok⚡️ pic.twitter.com/OrW6XDGw1M
— 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘮𝘢𝘯 (@NeilShelley) May 24, 2018
Wife had fun this morning … called the snake catchers … she thought it was a king cobra but they said it’s not … is this a kind of big rat snake? pic.twitter.com/yqPG7mKC9N
— Jamie in Phuket 🌴 (@jamiemonk) May 31, 2018
The left handed bum gun… always a challenging affair. pic.twitter.com/CTFgPscSGh
— Stickboy Bangkok (@StickboyBangkok) May 31, 2018
Farangs who pronounce Pattaya as ‘Pa-tie-ya’ Have you never heard a Thai say it?
— Phil / Ajarn.com (@Ajarncom) May 30, 2018
Farang who try to speak to me in Thai.
No.
— Lucky Erawan (@LuckyErawan) May 30, 2018
And that’s been the Week On Sukhumvit — see you next time!
Featured photo by Courtney Clayton on Unsplash
