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Bardeh posted:he was foaming at the mouth and just lying on the floor twitching. Still a better planned and more engaging lesson than any of the hundred I've seen this year.
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Aug 14, 2015 00:28
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Retired French cop vows to catch man stealing his bananas
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Aug 14, 2015 20:45
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Ambitious trip! I've traveled like a lunatic for the last decade or so and that's just how I'm wired, so don't mind the short stays in the cities. Arrive in Delhi on Dec 14th (after a nice daytrip in Frankfurt; gently caress you Heathrow tax) Fly to Chennai on Dec 18th Fly to Siem Reap via Bangkok on Dec 21st or 22nd depending on available flights (may have a morning/early afternoon in Bangkok before flying out, may do an overnight) Fly to Singapore Dec 26th Fly back to USA Dec 28th Primarily, I'm looking for reasonable flight options for that area that I may not know about. I've done Kayak and some AirAsia searches (explaining the Bangkok stop to Siem Reap). Overall, the first leg to Chennai is going to cost me about $60, then after that it's about $120 each (with Siem Reap being ~$210 because they're two separate flights). Also, of course, I would greatly appreciate any suggestions on Siem Reap. My friend warns me that it's very touristy, but that can't really be helped. I lose it when seeing massive complexes or buildings built centuries ago, so I'm going to Angkor Wat. Blinkman987 fucked around with this message at 12:04 on Aug 15, 2015 |
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Aug 15, 2015 11:33
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Your best temple photos will be near dawn and dusk because the horizontal light makes for stronger shadow contrast in the carvings / buildings. If it turns out you don't like Siem Reap much you can just blow yourself out on the temples. Make sure to get a motorbike guy for the day, don't do something dumb like bicycle around. The last time I was in Siem Reap was like ten years ago so I can't comment on how touristy it is now. Back then there was one street with like six bars and that was about it for "toristy" but Cambodia had changed massively since then. When I went there wasn't even a road connecting Siem Reap to Bangkok -- if you took a bus (which I did, lol) it went through peoples fields and on dirt roads and poo poo in Cambodia for a long time. There's a nice paved road now.
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Aug 15, 2015 18:25
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Bardeh posted:Yeah I've never seen nicotine gum in a 7-11, but I've also never lived in a place where there are so many pharmacies.
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Aug 15, 2015 18:28
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ReindeerF posted:Yeah I don't know how many people - especially Thai people - I know who take alprazolam and other variants as sleeping pills here. You try and explain that these are really serious and also you won't experience really restful REM sleep and it's like YAH BUT I NEED TO SLEEP. It's sort of like some bizarro world where everyone is an investment banker's wife, but without the money, necessarily. Heh. Sounds kinda like the couple of homestays I had back in Granada. When I one day opened the medicine chests at two different places, I can't even remember how many -pams I counted. This should be a fun trip!
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Aug 15, 2015 19:54
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ReindeerF posted:Yeah I don't know how many people - especially Thai people - I know who take alprazolam and other variants as sleeping pills here. You try and explain that these are really serious and also you won't experience really restful REM sleep and it's like YAH BUT I NEED TO SLEEP. It's sort of like some bizarro world where everyone is an investment banker's wife, but without the money, necessarily. I stumbled into the benzo thread in TCC here one day, and it convinced me to never, ever take them.
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Aug 15, 2015 20:00
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'Tis the season again, here in Bangkok.
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Aug 17, 2015 14:09
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Hope all you bangkok goons are ok...
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Aug 17, 2015 14:26
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what's going on?
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Aug 17, 2015 14:31
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CNN is deeply confused by Buddhists worshiping at a Hindu shrine.
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Aug 17, 2015 14:37
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lemonadesweetheart posted:what's going on? http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/17/bangkok-rocked-by-explosion-at-busy-road-junction Ugh, it's not one thing it's another. Stay safe, folks in Bangkok.
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Aug 17, 2015 14:55
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Oh, poo poo. That's not good. Hope everyone is ok.
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Aug 17, 2015 15:25
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 It's very unlikely this is a deep south thing because the furthest they've ever ventured was Samui, so is this another reaction against Prayuth and co?
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Aug 17, 2015 15:29
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 What's the word on the streets? Western outlets are saying this was a targeted attack on foreigners.
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Aug 17, 2015 16:02
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engineered by someone to ensure continued acceptance of martial law?
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Aug 17, 2015 16:05
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Fuuuuucckkkkk
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Aug 17, 2015 16:26
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Whip Slagcheek posted:
That shine is incredibly popular (with Thais, it looks from the article that Chinese tourists always hit it up too) and busy and its literally a golden idol in a highly visible and accessible location next to every possibly image of affluence and modernity Bangkok has to offer. It's the obvious target for Muslim extremists in Bangkok and would make an easy but less-than-clear message sending device toward the current government. I expect this is actually the Muzzies though as there are at least a few obvious government related sites that I would assume would get targeted ahead of the shrine if it was some Thaksin loving extremist or some wealthy person shut out of Prayuth's graces. Also anyone targeting foreigners (by that I mean farang, which is white foreigners) would obviously go after Khao San Road or possibly Nana imo.
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Aug 17, 2015 16:27
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Negligent posted:engineered by someone to ensure continued acceptance of martial law? I think the current administration already had a lock on that. This seems like a very non tinfoil "Muslim insurgents finally got to the capital" bomb to me. There have been other bombs recently that were more sophisticated and further from the southern Muslim provinces than ever, so either a splinter group has developed or one of the Saudi funded imams down there stirring the poo poo has shifted what he's exhorting his 18-20 year old sycophants to do.
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Aug 17, 2015 16:31
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Let's hope it isn't terrorism in the heart of tourist areas. I can't imagine a worse thing happening at this juncture. Praying it's a crazy guy trying to destroy the shrine again.
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Aug 17, 2015 16:47
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Is Thai still majority Buddhist? I was under the impression the Muslim insurgency is pretty small and underdeveloped.
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Aug 17, 2015 16:54
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Fuckin rear end in a top hat, whoever it was. Let's hope it remains isolated. (It won't. On a long enough timeframe, they never are  )
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Aug 17, 2015 16:55
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Whip Slagcheek posted:Is Thai still majority Buddhist? I was under the impression the Muslim insurgency is pretty small and underdeveloped. yes it is still majority buddhist. the Muslim insurgency is largely relegated to the South. There were some domestic terrorism in bangkok attributed to them, but none were as huge as this
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Aug 17, 2015 16:59
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Supposedly at least two more devices were found that didn't go off. They were basically pipebombs with 2-3kg of TNT in them using electronic detonators.
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Aug 17, 2015 17:08
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27 dead now with 50 or more injured
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Aug 17, 2015 17:09
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gently caress, that's horrible news.
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Aug 17, 2015 17:15
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Sheep-Goats posted:Also anyone targeting foreigners (by that I mean farang, which is white foreigners) would obviously go after Khao San Road or possibly Nana imo. Anyone targeting low class foreigners that no one would care about. Rich foreigners across the street from Gucci and staying at the Continental? Welp.
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Aug 17, 2015 17:27
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XyrlocShammypants posted:Anyone targeting low class foreigners that no one would care about. Rich foreigners across the street from Gucci and staying at the Continental? Welp. So you think a bomb going off on KSR and killing a bunch of blonde 22 year old girls from the various nations of the earth would be foreigners that no one would care about? I'm sorry but KSR is a dream target for anyone who wants to send a message about foreigners in Thailand. The main reason we haven't seen a bomb there is that the southern insurgency doesn't care about foreigners in Thailand, nor is there a right wing element that seriously wants them out. At one end of KSR there's an Israeli depot that serves food, offers cheap buses, has internet, etc. When I was first in Bangkok they also had a big blue star of David on the roof. That was covered with garbage bags and eventually taken down by order of the police. The reason being, of course, that it had the potential to draw the attention of Southern insurgents to KSR who would have otherwise left it alone.
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Aug 17, 2015 17:37
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There is no way on planet Earth that KSR is a juicier target than Central World. Edit- OK, so to be clear, KSR could be another target, but I think the primary targets would be the Centrals, BTS, airport and then major temples. KSR is down the list. Shammypants fucked around with this message at 17:48 on Aug 17, 2015 |
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Aug 17, 2015 17:43
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Tell me more about these blonde 22 year olds. 
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Aug 17, 2015 17:47
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Hope all you se asia goons are alright. Been lurking this thread for years and occasionally used it for travel advice and you're all a bunch of swell people. I was at that shrine two years ago and there were a lot of people around it, like, a lot of foottraffic compared to other places I were in Bangkok. So the story is that it's the muslim insurgency from the south that finally came north to the capital? Any qualified guesses as to how this will play out?
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Aug 17, 2015 18:16
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XyrlocShammypants posted:There is no way on planet Earth that KSR is a juicier target than Central World. Down the "places to blow up foreigners" list? Ok...
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Aug 17, 2015 18:16
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prinneh posted:Hope all you se asia goons are alright. Been lurking this thread for years and occasionally used it for travel advice and you're all a bunch of swell people. I was at that shrine two years ago and there were a lot of people around it, like, a lot of foottraffic compared to other places I were in Bangkok. So the story is that it's the muslim insurgency from the south that finally came north to the capital? Any qualified guesses as to how this will play out? We don't know for sure who did it and probably never will, the Muslim insurgent thing is my opinion as a non-loony. There are other rational people who will feel it's agent provocateur actions or some kind of anti-government thing. Most of the crazies, some of whom live there, will think it's definitely the government blowing up is own people as a reason to blah blah blah blah blah As for how it will play out I expect about three weeks of increased attention at the airport from official staff, some pronouncements from the government that don't mean much, and then pretty quickly a return of everything to as it was before. If there's another incident like this within six months we might see an actual long term shift of some sort but honestly I think everyone has been surprised that the capitol hasn't been bombed by southern insurgents until (possibly) now. In general they all have an intense (usually justified to varying degrees) dislike of the central government which makes no bones about being symbolically and practically in Bangkok, in being Buddhist, etc. I know this wasn't a Buddhist shrine but it's certainly the number one place Thai people go in Bangkok (sometimes visiting this shrine when they come to to capitol from other cities) simply because it has a rep for reliably granting requests. I mean, if this were Family Feud and the category was "Places the Muslim insurgency really should have bombed by now" the Erawan shrine would be #1 or #2 without question. They're bombing stuff in the South with a frequency that is frankly appalling and its been a real mystery as to why they haven't branched out much. raton fucked around with this message at 18:33 on Aug 17, 2015 |
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Aug 17, 2015 18:20
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About 12% of all terrorist events in the last 25 years went without someone claiming responsibility. If no one claims responsibility here I will be suspicious that it was the insurgency.
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Aug 17, 2015 18:26
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The Southern insurgency has avoided the city so far (using it, in some cases, as a low-visibility place to stash their people when the RTP are after them), so if they're behind this it signals a seriously new development. It's possible, of course. Whether it's religious insurgents or redshirt insurgents, the point is: it's hard to say what this is going to mean right now, and how things have changed, because it must have been affected by stuff we don't get to see. Southern negotiations or palace intrigue.
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Aug 17, 2015 18:34
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Where's Reindeer? Please come back and post
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Aug 17, 2015 18:35
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Chantilly Say posted:The Southern insurgency has avoided the city so far (using it, in some cases, as a low-visibility place to stash their people when the RTP are after them), so if they're behind this it signals a seriously new development. It's possible, of course. Your typical redshirt loves the Erawan shrine. Of course a lot of the people in charge of that body aren't typical, but it's a target that their base would heavily disagree with attacking.
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Aug 17, 2015 18:39
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Does someone have a link to a good explanation on the red shirt/yellow shirt thing? I think I have somewhat of an understand but it'd be good to know more.
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Aug 17, 2015 18:41
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I didn't realize some dude got beaten to death a few years ago for destroying the shrine partially. I wonder if some crazy sect just has problems with it for some reason.
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Aug 17, 2015 18:48
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Doesn't exist to my knowledge and its fairly complicated. I've tried to explain it a few times in this thread but I also post a lot of jibberish and sorting through my posts for that one is going to be a chore. At its roots these days they are two large diverse parties, each composed of people with widely variant interests who might well have joined the other side given a slightly different timeline. The yellow shirts are royalist militaristic Bangkok-centric elites except they are genuinely concerned with their nation and most of the educated and middle class also belong and they all love the king very much. The red shirts are country rear end poor farmers who want democracy but also happen to be attack dogs for upstart billionaires who don't care about the nation overly much, whose actions are often at odds with their stated philosophies, and they all love the king very much. How things have gotten to this point is a long story and has a lot of specific turns and twists that can't be summed up generally. Both parties are completely capable of creating a scene in order to antagonize or shame the other, even if it means hurting their own to do it. I don't have any particular reason to think this is what has happened but both sides have accussed the other of as much in the past, one or the other or both have shot grenades at eachother including in very public spaces, etc. raton fucked around with this message at 19:30 on Aug 17, 2015 |
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Aug 17, 2015 19:00
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