ThaiImmigration.Com, The Truth

FROM STICKMAN'S BAG OF EMAIL:

Thailand's growing pains.

A good investment.

Singapore update.

Dodgy visa stamps haven't been forgotten.

Visa overstay penalty : Death

"It'll never happen to me…"

Sheba's in Soi Cowboy were caught "showing" in that recent Police raid and rumours suggest that they are going to be hammered with a 90 day closure…NINETY DAYS! This is serious and could be very harmful to business in the long term. Let's hope it doesn't eventuate.

Playskool Bar on the ground floor of Nana reopened last night much to the joy of their many regular customers. After that tragic fire it will take time to regain the momentum of their business, but given time I'm sure it will be rocking again. However, as with all bar closures it remains uncertain as to just how many of their girls will return. Only time will tell but you can be assured that the bar will receive a welcome return by its loyal farang following.

In Rainbow 2 in Nana Plaza, if a Japanese customer likes a girl who is dancing, the gogo dancer is permitted to leave the stage to sit with the Japanese customer. This is an unusual rule not implemented anywhere else, where the norm is that most the girls have to dance for the full "dance set" of songs required. But the Japanese in Rainbow 2 receive special treatment; a torch is flashed in the girl's eyes and she swiftly stops dancing to sit with the Japanese customer. Any Westerner wanting the same privilege is told quite clearly that he either pays the barfine immediately, or he must wait until the girl has finished dancing. Hardly farang friendly is it? But some guys insist that the girls are so lovely they still go in for a bit of "window shopping" occasionally. Most old hands know the situation in Rainbow 2 but it does seem to be getting worse. Be warned that Rainbow 2 is very much a Jap trap. What is perhaps most interesting is what one girl in Rainbow 2 said about their typical customers. "It's the rule of 4s, Stick", she said. "4 inches, 4 minutes, 4,000 baht." I'm not sure what that means, must be some sort of riddle or something.

And these bar closures are not just a Bangkok thing. Down in Pattaya, the popular Mistys gogo bar in Soi Pattayaland has been ordered closed for 30 days. Rumours abound that another bar in the street made the raid happen… Even though the boys in brown found nothing, they arrested 3 girls upstairs getting changed and when they got them to the cop shop made them sign a paper saying they were doing a lewd show. Strange because this bar doesn't conduct such shows… The closure order was for the 17th April – 16th May but they didn't serve it until the 21st April. All the girls and management are in Electric Blue on Walking Street for the time being. Mistys will re-open on the 17th and will have what promises to be a huge party all day. They also have a huge birthday party booked for the 20th May with a whole lamb roast and a pig roast along with a seafood buffet.

In what really must rank as the "week fo the bar closures", Tony's Bar in Cowboy who sponsor the where is this picture were closed for 10 days and just re-opened yesterday. They were charged with the very serious crime of "demeaning the Stickman website" by offering a minuscule 500 baht bar tab to the first person who states where the where is this picture is. The general who conducted the raid led by commandoes was reported as saying "This is the Stickman site, not some poxy little two bit website. Increase the prize to 1,000 baht or else." The bar owner wouldn't budge and the bar was closed for ten days. The bar owner decided to take his staff down to Pattaya for the weekend and despite all the long weekend holiday traffic they enjoyed the break with lots of food, drink and the obligatory banana riding, ooops, I mean banana boating.

Boss Hogg, or rather his building team, has knocked two huge holes in the side of Vixens. Will we see reasonable building progress this year?

Construction of the new beer bar opposite The Old Dutch looks well advanced. They are still serving food from the kitchen behind. Maybe it will continue as a restaurant in the day and become a bar in the evening.

The bars at The Pong are currently teeming with good looking dancers. In Pink Panther, both sets of dancers are above average in the looks department but the bar only had a small number of customers on Friday night, most likely due to the 110 baht drinks putting off the locals as they can drink in most Patpong bars for 90 baht. Down at SuperStar they are back to their old standard after replacing about 3/4 of their dancers with some very good looking girls. SuperStar are very busy, fulfilling that old adage "more good looking girls equals more customers". The only bad part at SuperStar is they have been "discovered" by the Japanese who are too cheap to stay on their soi and SuperStar waiters now have Japanese script writing the name Super Star on their bar vests. At Crown Royal, a soi 33 style bar that has always had great looking girls, several new attractive girls have joined the staff. Even at Goldfinger bar, not known for good looking dancers, there are now several good looking girls. Now is the time to give The Pong another look if you haven't been there in a while but remember things change quickly and it could revert back in a heartbeat.

If you're interested in dating a Thai lady but are not sure if she is available or not, be very careful if she says to you that "she is single". Even Thai women who speak decent English may think that single in English means the same as sot, the closest word in Thai, which it doesn't. Someone in Thai who is sot is unmarried. They might however be in a long term relationship. So, asking a Thai woman if she is single or not is akin to asking her if she is married. It won't establish whether she has a boyfriend or not – that requires a whole new question!

A friend went to send some money overseas this week was asked to produce not only his passport but his work permit too. Have the banking regulations been changed again or is this just another example of different bank branches enforcing regulations as per their own understanding of them?

Any friends or well-wishers are welcome to a free birthday bash of roast pig plus all the trimmings at the Shamrock Bar in Pattayaland 2 on Saturday 15th of May around 7 pm.

Award winning author Dean Barrett is the special guest at the Neilson Hays Library's Evening Talks Programme on Tuesday at 8 PM. A cunning linguist, Dean Barrett first arrived in Asia during the Vietnam war where his Chinese language skills were put to use by the US military. After completing a Masters degree in Asian Studies he returned to Asia and over the past 20 years his writing on Asian themes has won several awards including the PATA Grand Prize for Excellence. Dean has written five novels set in Asia and will speak about his writing and his new humour / travel book set in China, "Don Quixote in China: The Search for Peach Blossom Spring". The book has been described as a balance between serious, reflective travel and whimsical humour and entertainment. The Neilson Hays Library is located 195 Suriwong Road or you can call them on 02-2331731 for more details.

Some very sad news this week. Kim, who was Peter's partner in Woodstock in Krabi, sadly died of a stroke on Thursday. Kim was a friendly man who will be missed by many people.

One could almost be forgiven thinking that the rainy season had arrived early as traffic has come to a standstill several times this week when the city has been struck by torrential rain. No, the rainy season "proper" does not start for a few more months. And if revellers kept Pattaya awash during the madness of Songkran through April 19, it has remained wet thanks to daily rains since then. Girls and barkeeps continue to complain not only about the rain, heat and humidity, but also about dearth of customers.

Looking out of my apartment across the city, I have a good view of one of the city's expressways. This time last year one would expect to see the expressway at gridlock for perhaps 3 or 4 hours a day, peak hour time late afternoon, traffic moving at a crawl. I notice that it is jammed for about 10 hours a day these days. Traffic really is getting worse. I'd love to be able to go out for a spin occasionally, just for pleasure, but it seems in Bangkok, that just isn't possible with the state of the traffic.

I thought there was something funny going on with the phone system when I called a mobile number a few weeks ago and instead of getting the usual ringing tone, a song blared down the line at me. I thought that was odd, tried a few more times and got the same before I eventually gave up. It seems that this annoying feature is some new feature offered by one of the phone companies. Damned perturbing if you don't know what it is.

If you are a slacker like me and forget to pay our internet bill and the so and sos cut you off, all is not lost IF you have a TelecomAsia phone line. Dial in on 02-9000000 (assuming you are in Bangkok), set the username as "easy" and leave the password field blank. You are billed automatically to your phone bill at 9 baht an hour. Not quite as fast as CS Loxinfo, but a good backup nonetheless, especially if like me you start getting withdrawal symptoms if you can't check your email several times a day.

Just what on earth is this? At first glance it would seem that someone is producing fake copies of Jake Needham's top selling novel, The Big Mango", but on closer inspection it seems that they well and truly screwed the English up. Actually, it isn't English, but Hungarian. Jake's first, and still his most popular novel, has been translated into Hungarian and should be appearing on the bookshelves of stores in the Magyar Empire soon. So to all Hungarian readers, you too can now enjoy Jake's books in your native tongue.

It has to be said that some bars in Nana Plaza are getting too much like Patpong in their aggressive and greedy ways with customers. A friend also made an interesting statement that the price level of drinks in Nana does keep most of the cheapskates away, but perhaps in the big picture that is not a good thing as ultimately it results in less customers and thus more desperate touts and bar staff.

Mrs. Stick's Corner

Each week, Mrs. Stick answers your questions about Thai / farang relationships and general issues that baffle the average Westerner in Thailand. Mrs. Stick likes to think of herself as an open-minded Thai lady so go ahead, ask anything because you won't shock her. Please send questions for her, via me, at the usual email address. Two questions will be chosen each week and answered in the following week's column. The responses are hers and NOT mine although I may attempt to correct her English from time to time. Please note that I may not necessarily agree with what
she says. Unfortunately, she doesn't have time to reply to your inquiries via email. Questions for her should be limited to 100 words. Mr. Stick may answer the odd question in place of Mrs. Stick of he thinks he can do a
better job.

Question 1: I was curious on what some of my wife's odd behaviour over the years. We have been often apart over the last while because I'm trying to set up a nice life in the US for us before she comes here. I have dated a lot girls before and have noticed several suspicious behaviours or so it seems. I have told her almost anything is cool as long a I know so she seems semi-open to me, yet very secretive about what exactly she's up to at times. Her sisters who lives her always seem to be covering for her for some reason explaining odd behaviour in vague ways i.e. she (my wife) tells me she's been going to the disco a lot recently and has started drinking a little more. Her sister when I brought this up started attacking me asking why I always talk negatively about her. Is there cause for concern that she may be turning bad or I have I been reading to many readers' posts?

Mrs. Stick says: If she is going to a disco AND drinking regularly (i.e. the two together AND on a regular basis), then yes, you have reason to be concerned that there could be other men. You need to somehow get her to open up with you and let her talk to so yo can find out what is really going on. Now that you're worrying, you really need to get the communication channels open because a lot of worry can be harmful in a relationship. Many Thai women involved with farang men don't completely understand the farang man's thinking and many lead a nonsense lifestyle where they just take the money and security he provides but give back little. I'm not saying she is doing that, but you need to get the message through to her that she has to make some sort of contribution to the marriage too. There are symptoms of trouble here. You need to find out if there are any issues. And try and find out yourself, away from the sister.

Question 2: I consistently have bad experiences with a certain type of person. They are these middle-aged Thai females who are typically characterized by their huge bun of hair and bright-coloured, thick-rimmed glasses. Behind the wheel of their Mercedes Benz they'll block the road as they stop their car and block traffic while hollering to a street vendor to not only prepare, but also bring their 10 baht portion of fruit across the road to them. In stores they will push in front of you and go straight to the front of the queue, but not before I have let them know what I think about that. To a Westerner, their behaviour is downright rude. Do Thai people notice them? What do they think of their behaviour? Also, are there any words in Thai to describe these people?

Mrs. Stick says: There are no specific words for people like this in Thailand. We call older women "Khun Bar", but it is not specific to the type of women you describe here. Perhaps these women think that because they have more money than others, they consider themselves to be more important than others. We can see people like this often. I don't think there is any way to change them. They think that with money and power they can do almost anything and they think that they are always right. If someone wants to fight with them to express their feelings, or speak out freely, then so be it, but believe me, it won't change them at all. Be prepared for a nasty response! Having said this, I encourage you to fight because Thai people need to start to realise that such behaviour should not be part of out culture. No matter how important you think you may be, there are certain rules that everyone needs to respect. I always speak up in what I believe such as if I perceive I have been treated badly or receive bad service. If you say the right thing, they won't dare argue with me. It can be a good idea to embarrass these people in front of others and hopefully it will make them consider their behaviour next time. This must be done in a composed way, an explosion is not acceptable. In the case of the queue jumper, saying something like "you join the queue back there" and pointing behind you would work. Thai people lose face very easily and the people around you will support you, even though they might not say anything.

Another busy week comes to an end. I wonder how much longer these bar closures will remain an issue? The 90 day thing is especially scary for bar owners, easily enough to kill a business.

Your Bangkok commentator,

Stick