Bangkok Guru

Nothing beats a good can of beer particularly when you’re in Thailand trying to relax in the stifling heat. Generally speaking, most beers are available somewhere in a bar but since you are unlikely to visit the same bar all the time, why not just discuss the most readily available beers in Thailand i.e. those you can buy at any 7-eleven.

In Thailand, there are two local brewers: Singha and Chang. Singha’s also got a cheaper brand called Leo. In addition, there are the foreign brands Heineken and Tiger which are brewed by Thai Asia Pacific Breweries who have recently introduced a new lower end beer named Cheers.

Singha Beer

Singha is by far Thailand’s oldest beer and used to enjoy up to 80% of the market share unti Chang came along. The gold and white can looks fine with a lion sign, the colour of the beer itself is said to be medium yellow with more than enough bubbles in there. As far as taste goes, it is pretty normal which means it could go for nearly any other beer brand out there and there is no distinct character for it.

Chang Beer

Now this is what a lot of real drinkers call beer, weighing in at a wicked 6.4% alcohol it’s bitter and strong. The can displays two elephants though the colours look a bit cheap. The colour of the beer is relatively dark which helps explain the bitterness and very strong taste. The get hammered quick factor coupled with their rock bottom prices has made Chang the most popular beer in Thailand. In hi-so bars people frown upon it so it ain’t sold in there but as I said earlier the criteria here was 7-11 availability.

Leo Beer

Singha’s second brand is aimed at the lower market end and they surely made it taste like this. Adding shit loads of bubbles to conceal the real taste - chemical and watery - does not fool anyone. That said, it’s perfect for getting those shitty strains out of your expensive carpets and removing dirt and dust from your windscreen.

Heineken Beer

No further introduction to this one. Heineken is widely promoted as a somewhat premium brand and became excessively popular especially among more financially able drinkers thanks to their good marketing. In fact, it’s classified as a local beer as it’s brewed under the name of Thai Asia Pacific Breweries.

Cheers Beer

This newcomer on the Thai market meant to get a chunk of the lower end of the market. The taste is not that bad though opinions do offer of course. Fruity, smooth or sweet are terms to describe it perhaps. The can looks rather simple, bright blue with the writing Cheers on it. I couldn’t agree more. Why all these silly names? Cheers mate!

Tiger Beer

A few years back Tiger was gobbled up by Thai Asia Pacific Breweries and it now serves as their middle market beer and rightly so. Another beer with a predator on its can which seems to go well with the public in Thailand. The taste of the beer is a bit bitter than Heineken but not as bad as Chang. My mate finds hangovers from Tiger to be the worst so be careful.

The former Thai PM Thaksin Shinawat has been found guilty of corruption by the Thai Supreme Court and sentenced to two years in prison. The ruling was the very first against the former PM since he was sensationally outsted by a military coup two years ago in 2006 following accusations of abuse of power and corruption.

Obviously, Thaksin was nowhere to be seen for the ruling having buggered off to England two months ago. He faced charges of corruption, abuse of power as well as conflict of interest for facilitating his wife Pojaman’s purchase of lucrative Bangkok land in Ratchada (not soi 4!) from a state agency in 2003 while still serving as prime minister.

Pojaman who was also tried with Thaksin was acquitted but never mind because she’s already been convicted of tax fraud and sentenced to three years in prison. She is too currently living in exile in London. Thaksin still faces a couple other corruption related cases all of which he insists are politically motivated.

After the court verdict, Thaksin told Reuters news agency he was not seeking political asylum in the UK. Meanwhile the chief prosecuter said he wanted the British government to extradite Thaksin as soon as possible. Of course they ain’t going to do that you bloody fool. With the ongoing global credit crunch, they will welcome Thakin’s millions in UK banks with open arms.

Anyone see my anti-depressants?

Have you ever been to a Muay Thai boxing match? And have you ever taken Viagra? You might ask how these two questions can ever be related or what is Tom on about here? Check this Thai TV commercial out and all will become clear

Have a fine weekend!

Some time ago I wrote a post on a transexual toilet in a Thai school somewhere in Esaarn. Today I came across another hilarious public toilet in Thailand. This one is in Bangkok though I don’t know for sure where it might be:

The Ladies

The Gents

This certainly is a good piece of art in public. When I saw it I thought it was bloody hilarious. It reminds you of peeping Toms (not me!) in your toilet and is sure a funny sight. It can make anyone laugh their head off when using the loo. What’s better is those in a real hurry and failing to first look around will certainly be in for a huge, huge surprise.

Quite honestly, I think this kind of art is cool and much more joyous than the shitty graffiti you come across every now and again. You could even look back at one of those smiling faces when at the job too. You will let out a smile, a big one. Whoever says visiting a public toilet equates to a brief act completed in a rush is simply wrong. Now anyone can go in and enjoy their laugh while completing their business.

If any of you knows where this cool public toilet might be, please let us know because it’s sure worth checking out. Thanks!

I don’t know about you guys but personally speaking I very rarely eat out. I normally get my food from my local restaurant or sometimes take delivery of shit food from those unhealthy fast food chains. Anyway, on Sunday I was invited to an evening dinner by one of my blog readers who is visiting Thailand for two weeks. I took a friend and went to meet him at Kinnaree Restaurant on Sukhumvit soi 8. Despite not feeling my best, I thought the food and conversation we had were so good and worth mentioning here

Hidden away amongst lovely sculptured gardens, Kinnaree has a small open bar by the entrance and the restaurant itself has bay windows which give an airy and open feeling evening. The true wonder of good Thai food, as far as I’m concerned, lies in its ability to dazzle and expose all the senses. Kinnaree scores an absolute belter here with its ability to present fine dishes as a feast for your eyes. Quite a bit of thought has deservedly gone into presentation with the right garnishes, condiments, containers and even cutlery carefully chosen to complement the impressive visuals of the actual food. And for a relatively high standard, you can tell all ingredients are used to their absolute optimum.

We had Tom Kha Kai (Chicken in Coconut Milk Soup), Pla Tord Kratiam (Deep Fried Fish with Crispy Garlic), Kang Keaw Wan Gai (Vegetable Green Chicken Curry) and Banana Flower Salad with Shrimp. Even though I was ill and couldn’t eat too much I still thought they were all good. The food was good and conversation interesting. So my thanks to Peter for treating us to such a lovely meal - it was appreciated.

Last Friday I was going to see some friends in RCA but they changed their mind and went to Khao San Road instead so I ended up joing a groud of new friends I met in a club the other week. I went to join them in Slim, RCA and as expected it was so, so busy. Not too long after I arrived, we heard there was a police raid in Flix bar next door and although it wasn’t going to affect anyone in Slim we thought it’s high time we buggered off elsewhere as it wasn’t that long before the whole premises was going to close anyway.

We left Slim and headed off to Bangkok’s favourite late night joint of the day - yeah bloody Karafun Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be our night as we only lasted about 10-15 minutes in there when we were told by an insider that the police were on their way to the club soon. Gutted to bits, we left the club and waited outside to see if the guy’s claim was of any substance. It bloody well was. Within minutes after we left, three pick up trucks full of coppers arrived and before anyone knew it the police stormed off to the main entrance and locked the hundreds of ravers in.

Then we saw a huge crowd rushing their way towards the closed door and much to the surprise of everyone, they managed to forced their way through the door past the much smaller police line. After that it was all crazy stuff with people trying their best to escape from the club soon to be locked by the police again. I was watching this in awe and saw two girls, probably drunk or something, falling down to be walked over by a couple of fellow ravers. Some mental stuff there to be brutally honest.

I was stood there without realising that all my friends were long gone and that one of them had my mobile with her. As a result I was stranded outside by the road for a bit until things calmed down and they returned to pick me up after which we went back to theirs for a bit of a private session. Then I learnt from one of the girls that on that night there was a police raid in all major after hours joints from Karafun, Scratch Dog to Casanova, Red Zone, Renovate etc.

Anyway, I spent the rest of the night as well as morning with them before going home to an absolutel knock out. The next thing I remember was being woken up by a call from these same crazy birds who convinced me to come out again despite the shitty state I was in. Fortunately enough there was to be no raid of any sort again this time round so we all had a lot to make up for the previous night and stayed awake until 8 o’ clock in the morning.

All in all, it’s by far the most mental weekend I’ve had in recent months. I’ve got to say going out this way with crazy people is sure incredibly fun but it is absolutely knackering and unhealthy. What about you? What did you get up to over the weekend? Were you in any of the raided clubs on Friday? Did you get to witness any mental stuff like I did? I hope not!

If you’re one of the many farang men living outside Thailand with a Thai missus, you probably know that keeping her happy in Farangland is no easy task unless she has a Western education or understands the culture well enough.

Good news though. Things have just got a bit easier thanks to the internet. Thai television is now available online - it’s absolutely live and free. All you ever need is a decent broadband line and you get access to all those terrestrial Thai channels as well as a couple of other goodies. Here’s the link

Your missus can now have her daily dose of teen romance bollocks, pointless cross-dressing tosh and overblown bitch-fights

Many people insist you need to get drunk and/or high in order to get yourself going on the dance floor but this young girl has just proved otherwise. Find out how

I’m not the biggest fan of food court. However, MBK food court aka the 5th Food Avenue is something rather different. The cuisine here is restaurant standard with qualified chefs preparing your meal. The prices are also cheap, well compared to Western prices anyway. You can easily find international cuisine here ranging from Chinese, Indian, Italian, Japanese etc. They also have halal meat for Muslim diners. The local Thai food is great particularly the pad Thai.

The ambience is pleasantly relaxing and comfy with functional air conditioning. They also have live bands playing but I have yet to see any of them because I always eat there at the wrong time. Of all the many food courts and restaurants in MBK, the Fifth Food Avenue has got to be number one.

The system here is relatively interesting. Once you enter the food court, you’re given a food credit card. The card is swiped each and every time you buy something. After your tummy is full and well satisfied, you hand your card to the till at the exit and pay your bill with a 5% surcharge. I don’t have favourites in the Fifth Food Avenue but for the prices they’re all simply good.

Right, the next time you hit MBK, have a good appetite and indulge yourself. Yummy, yummy you will get love in your tummy

Today was terrible. Dozens of people were injured after riot police used teargas to break up a blockade of parliament. A couple of protesters were injured including one guy who had his left leg completely blown off at the knee from the blast of a teargas grenade. Nevertheless, the government has come out and defended the use of teargas while denying any other lethal weapon had been used. They said it’s conventional practice in dispersing a crowd and that no disproportionate force was used.

Not long after the rally dispersed, thousands of protesters regrouped to shout down the very first policy speech by the new prime minister Somchai Wongsawat, Thaksin’s brother-in-law. They blocked all entrances to the parliament building, effectively locking ministers and MPs inside and cutting off their electricity and water supply with surprisingly the help of some sympathetic utility workers.

Apparently the PM and a few other MPs had to crawl through a fence to escape from the besieged parliament. And later on, a bomb exploded in a jeep killing a woman believed to be a PAD protester. She was sat in the jeep at the time of the explosion.

I’m appalled, absolutely appalled. I’m also speechless, horrendously speechless. I said before this wasn’t going to end happily but really didn’t expect to see anyone dead or so many seriously injured. Whatever the government is trying to say, there is absolutely no excuse for using such disproportionate force against unarmed protesters.