I will start this post saying I have no amazing insights, no rumors and I hope this disclosure will keep anyone expecting otherwise from being to letdown. Next.
Anyone catch this in the BKK post about the teacher trading grades for blowjobs? Looks like there should be a Lolitas on the Thammasat University campus or something to prevent these teachers from acting out.
Anyone seen Iron Man yet? Freaking amazing but what I think is funny is this whole cameo debacle. Even Pattaya Rag missed it. The movie ends and cut to an awesome Black Sabbath tune with a cartoon background. Most people get up and leave. pmmp and I like the tune so we stay and then there is this cameo. Most people miss it because they leave. Well I saw the movie again today and they have cut out the music and almost cut directly to the cameo - seems too many people were missing it?
Anyone know if this cutting is happening elsewhere in the world?
Speaking of Movies. Thailand’s #2 movie guide just launched. Give us time to make pole position. This is why pmmp is not out much.
So anytime I talk about how business is going in Thailand - tons of people will tell me there is a condo boom, a car boom and so on and this means Thailand is doing great. Maybe with the rich Thais. Maybe with the middle class but I am not sure how to describe the other class - maybe the working class? People who do normal service jobs and so on.
In this group I am not sure if it is slow season or if it is inflation but something is hurting this group. I am seeing so many walk-ins for jobs. Farangs laid off from hotels. Girls laid off from factories. And office girls who are looking for part-time work because they say they need more money.
Could it be that inflation is finally making an impact - this from Bloomberg about Thai rice:
The benchmark export price of Thai 100 per cent grade-B white rice gained 10 per cent to a record US$941 a tonne this week, the Thai Rice Exporters Association said.
That is a huge increase. A friend of one of our employees who works as an accountant was telling me she has taking to weekly trips to Spicy to try and make ends meet. I know a blog reader is suppose to be submitting his tale of seeing his apartment building’s receptionist now working behind the glass at a popular massage joint. I have no big takeaways from this other than I think things are not as well as some would like you to believe. Word is some of the bars owned by a particular owner on cowboy are seeing an influx of office girls looking for part-time work as well. He told me that has not happened in many, many years.
Finally got my copy of Reefer Men - will read it after Funeral Casino.
Time to put the bar in the bar.
You may be asking yourself why smitty was seeing the movie twice? If you’re not and could care less feel free to skip the rest of this comment.
Was it because the movie was so good? Nope. It had to do with a promise he made his girlfriend, which reminded me of an old Seinfeld episode. It was the one where George was trying to convince Jerry to go see a movie that just came out called “Prognosis Negative”. Jerry however promised his other friend Elaine that he would see the movie with her. George breaks him down because Jerry really wants to see the movie that night and not wait a few days for Elaine.
Well, I was George in this case and broke smitty down because I was dying to see it with a bud and not a local who surely wouldn’t get most it. Watching movies with Thai girls is not my favorite thing to do btw. Anyhow, it turns out that smitty had promised his gal he would see it with her but he was dying to see it so he caved. It was funny watching him pretend yesterday in front of her how he hadn’t seen it yet. He did luck out though in that the movie is amazing, unlike Jerry who got stuck seeing a crappy movie twice.
View all comments by pmmp
I too saw Iron Man twice; once with a friend on Sunday and the second time on Monday with a girl. Good movie. I stayed to the end of the Black Sabbath song, but missed the cameo. No clues about what it was about?
On the balance of the post, I think inflation is biting hard. It’s the cost of basic items that is hurting working class Thais, I think. Probably good news for punters & mongers though.
View all comments by werewolf
Yeah, inflation is (way) up based on the 2,000 baht ST price just quoted me at the Soi 7 BG.
And the jump in the price of the Nana hotel burger from 100 to 120 while I was away in the (REALLY expensive) USA.
This is scary sh*t.
View all comments by Mr. Kotter
Inflation = better selection for us on the pussy market
View all comments by Big Wally
Seems your not the only person people don’t turn up to meet Smitty
“Vietnam’s government disputed claims that a cartel was close, telling the Bangkok Post that Thai negotiators scheduled to visit Vietnam to discuss the issue last month had not turned up.”
Full story - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7379368.stm
Found an old one about that normal beeb style, but also appropriate.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6360603.stm
View all comments by Young Royal
Mr. K: You noticed Nana Hotel prices too I see. I just ate lunch there this week and saw that all their prices went up significantly. Had three dishes and drinks and the bill was almost 800 baht. It was about $25 US for lunch at Nana Hotel for two people.
Their lunch buffet is still 200 baht but I had it a few weeks ago and it was the worse buffet I’ve ever had.
Not great news since it’s convenient eating there and the Thai food is actually pretty good but not worth it anymore for me.
View all comments by pmmp
‘Watching movies with Thai girls is not my favorite thing to do btw’…
No kidding..watching ANYTHING except Thai Soaps or KungFu flicks with local chicks is painful..try explaining ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ or ‘The Sopranos’ to them.
View all comments by bo
The first half of Iron Man bored me to tears, but to be true to the comic I guess it was necessary. The second half was awesome. RDJ is the man. He carried that film. I just didn’t understand how the bad guys built such a huge anti-Iron Man suit so fast.
View all comments by Matt
i read reefer men the other month. Really good book. Running one of the largest drug operations from super star in pat pong. Check out the authors other work, gangs.
View all comments by MSB
Why would ‘being a bar girl’ be the last thing to do? Maybe this is just becoming hype, whereas being an office girl is not? Just kidding
Obviously most of you saw Iron Man twice, then I can pass. No kidding.
I saw this article about this teacher trading grades for blowjobs. A real shame, but the funniest part was the advices that they gave to their potential student readers, on the side of the article, like “if someone asks you to suck to pass an exam, don’t do it!”
View all comments by Suk Psycho
ww - the cameo was by samuel l jackson and sets up a nice sequel opportunity.
kotter - u agreed with me? holy shit?
bw - I guess it does but kind of bites into my day to day which leaves me less for the playing around.
pmmp - that buffet was pretty bad.
matt- robert carried the film but I think a character like that called for it.
msb - thx. looking forward to reading it.
View all comments by smitty
Only in BKK would an article like that get on the front page and that advice for female students approached by a teacher for sex was a great read.
We brought it back to Oz with us to show a few mates.
View all comments by 3amigos
Downey Junior smashed it in Ironman. I found him strangely attractive in a non-gay way if thats possible.
On the Subject of movies get down and see ‘4 Priag’ the thai horror film. Fuck me with a feather it scared the snot out of me.
And my post about my receptionist flogging her mutton at a soapie is a work in progress - stay tuned
View all comments by Young Penfold
Try explaining Fawlty Towers to a Thai girl.
Thai tv sucks big time. The stand-up comedians remind me of Laurel and Hardy, but not so funny.
High inflation is everywhere now and the oil prices keep going up. Some Arabs are getting mighty rich.
View all comments by hanuman
Ive weined my girlfriend into watching The Office (UK version) but i dont think shes ready for Curb Your Enthusiasm yet.
Any1 know where I can buy CYE series on pirate DVD in BKK?
View all comments by Young Penfold
yp - I have had great luck with Mr DVD in silom. if facing oreillys pub from silom - go right a little bit. He has a big stall and usually a sign - mr dvd. I think his name is lek. He treats locals good with discounts. he will replace bad DVDs and he will take requests and find them if he can. his catalog is large and I am sure he has CYE.
the thai girls love dexter…
View all comments by smitty
Just checked out the Movie Guide and Superhero Movie gets 4*. Hope that’s cause the site’s a work in progress. The movie’s a crock. Are people still laughing at fart jokes. My son enjoyed but he is 50% Thai !!!!!
View all comments by Ed
ed - it is a user based rating system so get in there…
View all comments by smitty
I’m up for Iron Man, but is it as good as Cloverfield? The greatest Great Lost Movie of all time? TAFKABBB said “I loved the bit where the monster attacks the city!” which just may be the best film crit of all time (the bit where the monster attacks the city is the entire movie, see …)
And no, don’t take your Thai girl to the movies. In fact, don’t take any girl to the movies. It’s a waste of money and time. Go with your mates. Girls only like chick movies, which aren’t movies at all, they’re moving magazine articles. Other places not to take your girlfriend: concerts, galleries, museums, sports events, public riots, good restaurants, hooker bars, parks and other open spaces, to meet your parents, to meet her parents, STD clinics. Best place to take your girlfriend: roughly, from behind.
View all comments by Pants Elk
@Pants: *nods* I am funny.
Is that “roughly” as in “approximately”?
Currently having a Skype chat with this idiot, or one like it. Hilarious.
View all comments by TAFKABBB
t - shit - is that u I am talking with?
View all comments by smitty
@s: Ha, I meant the other participant
You can read Thai, so it’s not you.
Tried to get a beer at the New Mango earlier.
Failed.
View all comments by TAFKABBB
t - I better have a word with the management
View all comments by smitty
What about taking an LB to the cinema? Only thing Id be worried about is her cutting a hole in the bottom of the popcorn and placing it on her lap.
Ok if you like that kind of thing I guess. I dont however. Keep it in the circus.
Smitty big up for the CYE info. I was gonna ask if he was cristened Mr DVD. Quite ironic then that he sells DVDs. Coincdence perhaps?
View all comments by Young Penfold
yp: alol
View all comments by pmmp
I am afraid that the Bangkok Post will be carrying front page news of the delay in the new ‘mango’, bit like Soomyboomboom airport. Correct me on this boys if you must!The chinese or french would of had this joint up an running by now!
@Pmmp - Thanks for the bitch slapping tonight. Who was mau in the taxi!
View all comments by AUK
Things are hurting all around, Smitty. Thailand should benefit from some of the rises in commodity prices, but will get hurt when the Euro eventually reprices to where it should be in comparison to the dollar.
@ hanuman - Yup, some Arabs are getting rich, but they’re doing it in dollars, which ain’t what it used to be. Hell, I’M getting rich in dollars and still don’t dare go to London unless Big Job is paying teh tab.
@ Young Royal - That story about the rice cartel is hilarious. Actually a rice cartel is hilarious (note to Samak, cartels only work when there are a VERY small number of players controlling the supply), but the Thai negotiators not showing is precious. They may be important government officials, but damnit they’re still Thai and will show up whenever they feel like it!
View all comments by tosh
yp - I have a visual now of you and that big dominatrix looking LB from cassanova with her schlong poking up out of the sweet popcorn at major. just sick man. sick.
auk - I don’t think there is a delay yet so u seem to be jumping the gun. the chinese have no taste so they might get it done faster but they would have forgotten to construct the soul of the bar. the french - well I can’t comment but I love my freedom fries.
tosh - was meaning to say it was only in thailand but for sure it has arrived here in spades with government pretending it is not happening but it is. I am not sure how the commodity prices going up is going to help since a lot of the things built here that have to absorb the prices are not selling well overseas because the prices are going up. I also don’t think the rice prices are getting to the grower either. This has been talked about a lot - the farmers are not seeing it. Only the large distributors.
All interesting stuff.
View all comments by smitty
@Smitty, not a serious bitchslap about the construction, just miffed I will not be there on the grand opening. Checked the new bar being welded yesterday and the old nana escalator for direct access to the third floor! Keep on moving.
View all comments by auk
Smitty and PMMP: What’s going up across the soi from the new Mango site? Are they expanding the small hotel next door?
View all comments by dj
dj - that would be soi mango for the record
it is another hotel - I do not think connected with the one next to it but the same people as one of the hotels on the soi.
all good. only a few residents left to get rid of…
View all comments by smitty
Afterthought: Great work on the Durianseed movie guide. When I read the title on this blog, it made me think of a Korean DVD movie I just bought named ‘Hot for Teacher’. A non-porn flick about a sweet Korean teacher getting cajoled into an orgy with her boss and 2 students. Haven’t watched it yet, but it’s on my short list.
View all comments by dj
More ST hotel rooms should make good, and convenient, neighbors on Soi Mango. So where can one get a street sign “Soi Mango’ to place at the end of your soi?
No guessing what fees the local authorities would assess for that privilege. As they are not collecting enough already.
View all comments by dj
Smitty - high commodity prices only help people sitting on or growing the commodity, because the cost of creating the commodity is usually fairly static. It costs roughly the same amount of money to get a barrel of oil out of the ground whether it can be sold for $15 or $150. Retail prices, for both producers and buyers, tend to lag a fair bit behind the trading price of the commodity. That sucks for the Thai rice farmer for sure, but it means that retail fuel prices are still indicating a price of oil around $80/bbl (a massive discount to the spot price which is over $120 this week). If the prices stay high the rice farmer will eventually get paid off, and I hope he does. I don’t know why, but I can’t stand commodity traders. I’m a filthy capitalist working in the money business but that job seems to attract the biggest jerks in my industry. They’re the adult equivalent of the starting basketball team in high school
View all comments by tosh
smitty - her names JANET to you
View all comments by Young Penfold
tosh - Specifically I work with some local plastics manufactures who are getting killed right now. The cost of the raw materials are up, the cost of shipping is up, the baht is too strong and the customers won’t accept price increase and barely adjust for the currency. I know guys who are walking away from orders that come in from the uS and the UK.
View all comments by smitty
At the risk of being an awful pedant (not exactly the first time) plastics are not what finance dweebs like me call commodities. In addition, there isn’t a more commodity sensitive product in the world as plastics are made pretty much with petroleum products and heat (energy) and then shipped (more energy) as you mention. I certainly wouldn’t want to be in the business of working the middle of that supply chain, though eventually people will have to pay up on the retail end.
Still, I _do_ hope the rice prices filter down to the guys growing the stuff.
YP - you’re a pretty funny guy in general, but that review of the Kangaroo was precious. I feel like I’ll have to visit next time I make it to the LOS.
View all comments by tosh
tosh - was not relating it to a commodity but stating this is where inflation is now taking hold. In small mom and pop like businesses - about the only ones Thailand has apart from the rice, the car business and tourism. But tourism means nothing to THailand.
So Thailand - not having call centers, outsourcing and virtually devoid of a tech industry will feel this bout of inflation and will suffer through it. Hence office girls working in bars, glue sniffers hitting silom and lumpini busier than ever at night.
correct if I am wrong but oil is a commodity and the cost of it directly effects anyone in the plastics business?
View all comments by smitty
You’re absolutely right, Smitty, as I said I was worried about being a pedant. I only made the distinction because some people think of things like plastics as ‘commodity items’ which is fine, but they don’t act like commodities.
Another reason for inflation now is that two of the world’s hugest economies have artificially weak currencies. I try to remind people that in our economy now where everyone other than N. Korea buys and sells lots of stuff internationally, a weaker currency _is_ inflation. If my currency declines and I have to give you more money for for something in two weeks from now than you’ll take for it today, I don’t see how that is anything but inflation. The Chinese are keeping their currency artificially weak and though nobody can get straight numbers out of the Chinese experts in the field guess inflation to be anywhere from 10% to 17% or higher. That 17% number if flirting with disaster. The US is fighting a financial/banking/brokerage/debt/housing credit disaster of EPIC proportions. My group has been banging the table about this for more than two years, and we made a killing finally, but it’s been really, really scary at times.
Until the Chinese decide they’re more scared of inflation than a decrease in exports, and the US works through its debt problems, I don’t see any of this changing much. I hope the Thais don’t get beat up too bad.
OK, after this short pedantic interruption, back to our regularly scheduled programming . . .
View all comments by tosh
Speaking of books. I went and read the book I was talking about in a previous comment, the one where the Lonely Planet writer spills the beans on the writing process. http://www.amazon.com/Travel-Writers-Hell-Swashbuckling-Questionable/dp/0307394654/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1210875641&sr=8-1
It’s actually a pretty good book, I think most of the readership of 2theBigMango would relate to it in one way or another. The LP-related stuff is just incidental and a side story, most of the book deals with the guy’s travels in Brazil. Fun stuff.
View all comments by julian
Oh and - Smitty, re Thailand void of tech industry? What about the Phuket technopark or whatever it is? (a kind of Cyberjaya I assume). Just curious if that ever took off?
View all comments by julian