In case you missed it, bikini thailand magazine vol5 is out.

Written in a language we can all understand.

Big Trouble in Tourist Thailand

Check out the the episodes here. Shown on Bravo UK.

What's up with the BNE tag? CNN & ABC don't know.

Here's a story ripe for the breaking... the mystery BNE tags that have shown up in Bangkok, New York, Tokyo, Madrid, San Fransisco and Prague. Who's behind it and what does it mean? Don't ask CNN or ABC.. they have no clue.



So what is this BNE tag? Here's some more photos. And more..



$25k Reward for his capture in San Fransisco. Even Not The Nation is getting into the jest:

BANGKOK – Canadian expatriate Jamie Redwood filed a police report yesterday after finding his entire one-room studio apartment plastered with BNE stickers.

For now, it seems no one has an answer to what's behind this global tagging moment that seems to date back to 2006.

Urban Exploration - Imperial World Lat Prao (Big C)

Having seen the defunct water park on top of the Big C Lat Prao many times on my way by, I was always curious about what was up there. Well last Sunday I got the chance.

First, a bit of background. The mall used to be called Imperial World Lat Prao, but as Big C is now it's biggest tenant, it's now called Big C Lat Prao. The mall has not fared so well, while it does have many shops, you can tell the mall management is not raking in the money. Many empty store fronts, and run down shops. It does have a cinema, bowling alley, climbing wall and ice rink and seems to be a good place to drop the kids off for the day. It is also a mini headquarters for Taksin's Red Shirt movement. Want to buy a framed panoramic photo of the Red Shirt gathering at Ramkamhenag Stadium, this is the place.

After trying a few stair wells, there was an opening thru the generator room and boom in all it's glory.. the defunct water park. Anyway have a look at the now rotting away amusement park and think Scooby Doo thoughts.



Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Also of interest on the Big C roof top, is this microwave dish, pointed directly at the Shinawatra Building you can see in the distance. A good way to dial into your head office.

Stem Cell donation: Private vs Public

If you are having a baby anytime soon, you'll be presented with the choice of extracting blood from the ambilican cord at the time of birth.  Most likely though, you'll only be presented with the option of private cord blood banking as this is where the money is made.  Private cord banking companies will, well, bank your blood as a bank would.  They deep freeze it in the case your baby may need the stem cells in the future to cure possible blood diseases they may encounter in early adulthood such a leukemia and red blood cell disease thalassaemia, or for other less-proven treatments for cerebral palsy and diabetic ulcers.  While this sounds like a great idea, you'll pay for this privelage - as much as 130,000 baht for the first 21 years of storage.  If this sum of money comes eaisly for your child's well being, then by all means this solution may be for you.  But as real world cures using stem cells are still a ways off, you might have to consider if 130k might not be better spent on quality health insurance, a learning vacation or a pony.

Your other option is public cord banking. The theory here is simlar to donating blood.  Everyone donates for the good of the people in need.  If there were enough types of stem cells publicly banked, when a need arose, you would likely be able to find a close enough match to your own cell type.  The other possibility is that if you do need to make use of your child's exact stem cells, there is the possibility that if still available, you could locate them in the public bank. 

  "The bigger the stem cell bank and registry the better. The great majority of bone marrow transplants use blood stem cells from a sibling, for which there is a 25-per-cent chance of a match. The chance of finding a match from a non-relative are about 1 in 50,000" more...

There is a public cord blood bank in Thailand run by the Thai Red Cross.  You will need to call and let them know you will be donating.  Then on the day of the birth you must alert them and they can come to your hospital as your baby is being born.  A needle is injected into the ambilical cord once the baby is out and there the blood is drawn and whisked away to the storage facility.

Contact: Red Cross HLA Lab
+662 263 9600 ext 1310 or 1312 

I Love Tuk La Dee

Cheap Thai and Western food, prepared with flair right before your eyes. Best vanilla milkshakes in town and gives you that old school diner feel. Located inside select Food Land grocery stores. Oh.. and if their menu bores you... you can go into the grocery store, pick out a fresh t-bone and they'll prepare it for you. Tuk La Dee = Cheap but good. Indeed.

Political marketing? Central's red shirt message

2Bangkok finds this:

This Central billboard has some rather odd, and certainly unintended, Red Shirt references. The picture contains a red flag, defiant-looking youth, one wearing a red cap, and a burning city in the background.
It reads: Armed equipped readily before the tournament for the best golf tournament of the year - See more than 80 brands of golf sport equipment with 70% discount - Receive maximum 19% discount from the Central 1st card

Fitness Centers 3rd, behind property and auto firms for complaints

Looks like the high pressure sales tactics finally attracted enough attention:

CPB secretary-general Niroth Chadhroenprakob said that finalising fitness centre contracts this year was its priority. During the first 10 months of last year, 297 complaints were filed about fitness club services not meeting commitments by sales representatives.

"Fitness centres rank third in complaints received last year. From November 2008 to March 2009, over 100 complaints were received with similar problems at eight centres,'' he said.

In the last fiscal year ending Sept 30, 626 complaints were filed against property firms. In second place were automobile and motorcycle firms, which faced 485 complaints related to unfair hire-purchase contracts.

More...

Blog hosting offer:139 Baht / year

As I have some extra hosting space, and hosting bills were due, thought I would throw this out there to my loyal readers. It's not exactly going to make me rich, but it seems like many people want to have a blog, and this is the perfect package to host your own Wordpress, Drupal or Blogger.

139 Baht per year gets you:

• 250 Mb of space
  
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Sign up here. Also if you join this month, 20% discount using the code: '20per' Payment with PayPal. Or post a reply and I'll give you my Thai bank account.

Funny Korean political cartoon

More...
Is this the way Korea sees the problems here?

Sondhi and car photos after the hit attempt

Batman sighting at the Red Shirt protests

More...

Tony Cheng of Al Jazera thinks he works for Fox News

Come on. Being a tad over-dramatic don't you think Tony? See his alarmist article here.

"The people of Bangkok wake to a city scarred with the wounds of war."

"These huge uncontrollable missiles smashed everything in their path from trees to an electricity pylon, which snapped and sent sparks on to the battle raging below."

"But the scars that now cross the face of Bangkok will take years to heal."

"Mayhem erupts"

If you read this article you'd think Tony was covering Iraq or Afghanistan. Not the same day most of the city was celebrating the Thai new year and I was out having a family dinner. What Tony fails to mention is that most of Bangkok went about their business and ignored this scuffle. Hardly a day of mayhem.

Siamese Cojoined Crocodiles

Slashdot coverage of ProtectTheKing.net

ProtectTheKing.net makes Slashdot:

"In a move that would make the old eastern German Stasi green with envy, the Thai government has modernized a system that allows citizens to snitch on fellow citizens. 'Internet users are being urged to show their loyalty to the king by contributing to a new website called protecttheking.net, which has been set up by a parliamentary committee. On the site's front page it is described as a means for Thai people to show their loyalty to the king by protecting him from what it calls misunderstandings about him. It calls on all citizens to inform on anyone suspected of insulting or criticising the monarchy.' An large unknown population of political prisoners are currently being held for 3 to 15 years in Thai prisons for being interpreted as insulting the monarchy."

Suggestion: Build a Park

Does Bangkok need another mall? The big empty lot next to Gaysorn Plaza would be perfect for a park.

SF World Cinema Fail

SF World Cinema Fail captured by Thanh-BKK. One thing to have a virus scan, another to be infected by a worm.

DTAC Pushmail :How To

Want Blackberry like functionality on your average phone? Check out DTAC's PushMail at dtac.co.th/pushmail or smart-sync.com. First month is free, then it's 30 baht per month.

Pretty easy .. here's how I did it for my Nokia 6300.

1. Get to wap.dtac.co.th on your phone's browser. (didn't work on opera mini)
   
2. Find the pushmail sign up.
3. Tell it which webmail (gmail, hotmail, yahoo) or pop3 act you will use.
4. Create pushmail username and password and enter your webmail username and pass.
5. Click register.

Yes, that did say give your email and password to them. As I am clearly not giving them my main email password, I created another Gmail account just for this purpose. Then I created a rule in my main Gmail account to forward messages based on a rule, that I want pushed to my mobile, to my specialy created email account.

You will be alerted of any emails via a Service Message. Kinda like an SMS, but goes in your service message inbox. The service message contains the subject of the mail you are receiving as well as the link to open the email in your phone's browser. If you open it, you'll but subject to the GPRS charges. The software scans your inbox every 15 minutes - so not quite as immediate as an sms.

Arab Nana vs. Nana Plaza

I wonder how it would be go grow up with the last name "Patpong" or "Nana". Guess if you're loaded .. who cares. Or ask Lek Nana.

Nana is actually split into two, and the South Nana of beers and bargirls is a world away from North Nana and its "Soi Arab," with Middle Eastern restaurants and shops that make up a sort of separate country within Bangkok.
Much of the land on which North Nana and "Soi Arab" now rests belonged to one family: the Nana family, a prominent business clan with Middle Eastern roots.

More...

BBC story on escape from Bangkok prision 13 years ago

Nice read about a prison escape from a Bangkok prison in 1996 by David McMillan:

I started at midnight with hacksaw blades that had been sent over in a care parcel, carefully hidden, so I took those out and began working on the bars.

In fact only one bar was cut, and only partially at that. So my Swedish friend, he was built like a Viking, he had to stretch the thing out, as I squeezed through, oiled up, wearing nothing but my underwear and a pair of trainers.

I just got outside, and then I used a plank to get out and across the yard. It was a bookcase, in fact everything in the room had been built to assist the escape. Furniture turned into step ladders and shower curtains disassembled into long bits of rope. Read more..