Let’s face it, this country is utterly beautiful and a great place to visit. Last year saw Thailand reach number 2 top destination for European holiday makers, and who can blame them with such amazing natural beauty in the Land of Smiles?

But is all that about to change with the new laws coming into place by the caretaker government? Have we seen the last of the braided backpackers from Khao San Road?. This week the government started its anti-alcohol drive to rid the country of underage drinking, and rightly so. Yesterday the minimum age of buyers of alcohol was raised from 18 to 25, in an attempt to stop young people from purchasing alcohol a move to reduce the access youngsters have to alcohol. Whilst the government is trying to safeguard young Thai’s from the evil of alcohol, they have possibly alienated the under 25 tourist community, a community with flexible spending power than most.

In true politics fashion, all doom and gloom is being spoken about on many forums and other chat-boards, Personally I don’t see the tourism side being affected that much after except people under 25 choosing to go elsewhere. I see the real problem of underage drinking dens exploding. People who want to drink, and are under 25, will do what they can to get a drink and no government sponsored prohibition will change that.

The long term effect of this change will be interesting to see, will we have a reduction of drinking in Thailand, or will we see a new criminal class emerging for the sole purpose of supplying drinkers their favorite drink…?

In order to promote a healthy lifestyle, the Public Health Minister announced today that the government will impose a complete ban on all alcohol advertisements in all forms of media. Dr. Mongkol na Songkhla was quoted as saying “The prohibition will protect people’s health and to reduce road accidents” and the new law will see an introduction of drinking free zones and control of venues selling alcohol.

How the government will enforce these drinking free zones is yet to be seen. Could Nana Plaza be a clean living centre once and for all?

Update:

The legal limit for purchasing alcohol is now 25. Deputy Chief of the Disease Control Department, Narong Sahamethapat, was quoted yesterday as saying that the idea was proposed by a network of parents early this year during a public hearing of a draft bill to control alcoholic drinks. From now on, alcolol free zones include:

- Universities
- Schools (and any other places of education)
- Temples
- State Offices

In one move, this new caretaker government has possibly removed Thailand as the favourite destination for travellers due to it’s extreme drinking laws. It will be interesting to see the economic effects of this new series of laws, one agree’s that binge drinking is a bad thing, but there needs to be more self control given to parents and drinkers themselves, than a state run control program.

Luckily for those in dire need of their weekly model fix, Bed Supper Club (Sukhumvit Soi 11) hosts one of the original model nights on a Wednesday night. After the past two days of heavy rain in Bangkok, it was good to finally get out and not end up being soaked.

For those who haven’t ventured inside the architecturally beautiful venue that is Bed Supper club, its design is more like something out of an 80’s space epic, with a restaurant and separate bar section. Entry was 700 baht, which is pricey considering you only get 2 drinks and I wouldn’t exactly say they had a world class dj present. As usual, the more attractive of us get free entry and a little book of free drinks, just to do their thang and pose (and that’s just the men)
Last night saw the restaurant section packed tighter than I’ve ever experienced it, and the bar side surprisingly empty, except for an abundance of packs of men all looking at the scenery.

For me, the best section has to be the restaurant side, with its pure white interior, great beds and pillows, and more chilled selection of music compared to the bar next door. I’ve heard the food selection is good, but couldn’t see how you could enjoy any after 10pm.

If your looking for a place to go on a Wednesday, Bed Supper club should be on your list, even if you can’t stand the pretentious crowd that sometimes follows the model nights.

oh man. sukhumvit was flooded like a bitch this evening.

i don’t recall the last time it flooded this bad. maybe sometime in ‘99

i remember in the mid-80s to late-80s sukhumvit used to flood so bad and we couldn’t get to school in sukhumvit 15. and we’d have flood days, which pretty much meant no school.

thought the drainage system would’ve been sorted out by now. guess not.

i heard the chao phraya is overflowing. yowza. that’s river is so dirty.

i had to run from the pacific building onto the bts, which is probably like 15 metres, but ankle high in flood water. by NANA. triple ew? all the fucking diseases around there. ick. .

put on my thinking cap, ran to 7-11 in the old pacific building bought two litres of water, hiked up my slacks, and ran across to the the bts, once i was ontop, i just washed my feet with the water i bought.

damn should’ve just driven there instead of leaving the car in emporium.

is kinda freaky, went to see al gore’s ‘inconvenient truth‘ at lido the other day. (excellent excellent documentary, i recommend this to everyone) and now this. scary.

The moment you land here, you’re told about how the police love to stop farang’s and point out they have broken some law. I always thought it was bitter ex-pats who were obviously breaking some law, until I went out on my friends scooter to Siam Paragon.

The issue’s started 400 metres away from the flat, with us being pulled over by a gentleman in the worlds tightest uniform. He came over and shook his hand, asked if I spoke any Thai, to which i replied “nit noi” and then produced a handy laminated card which listed a whole host of issues he had with me. He decided that:

- I wasn’t wearing my helmet (until i pointed to the black thing on my head)
- I didn’t have any tax (until i showed him the correct stickers)
- I didn’t have my seat belt on (at this point he was just going down the list)

Anyway he asked for a 400 baht fine and I just wanted to get some food, so i paid. I only had a 1000 baht note and the cheeky swine happily snatched that and waved me on. This wasn’t the end of the story and by the time we got to Paragon we had paid nearly 2000 baht in “fines” for utterly pathetic excuses. Seriously I understand that not all police are like this, but I think i need a t-shirt which states “Pom Mai Chai ATM”

One of the downfalls of living in the land of smiles, a police force which loves our money more than we do!

Beautiful people in a beautiful club saying beautiful things; oh it must be another Bangkok model evening!

Yes it’s another club offering free drinks to models, but I think I’ve found my regular haunt in Escudo on a Thursday night.

Escudo club is situated in the “OH SO HI-SO” area of Thong Lor (Sukhumvit 55, between Soi 11-13). The club is tucked away at the top of a non descript building and has some of the best design features I’ve seen in BKK so far. I’ve heard reports that this club is known to be anti-farang, but thankfully this wasn’t the case last night.

The décor is stunning, a mixture of low level furniture and mood enhancing lighting, perfect for people watching. The music is a mix of early hip-hop and r&b tracks and they have dancers in sexy plastic nurse outfits, which obviously add to the scenery.
Overall it was a great night, hardly any pretentiousness and some truly stunning people.

Well worth a visit if you feel like seeing how the fashion crowd let their hair down

The British Council will once again run a Second Hand Book Stall at Ploenchit Fair on Saturday 18 November 2006 from 10.00 - 20.00 hrs at BEC Tero Hall Suanlum Night Bazaar.

We need books, magazines, music CDs and/or movie VCDs/DVDs (preferably in English) to sell in support of a wide range of Thai charities.

We would like to invite you to donate any mentioned items that you no longer want. Any contribution large or small from now till 17 November 2006 will be very much appreciated.

Please feel free to contact the Ploenchit Fair Team (Jansang, Akemanee, Kosit, Nuainee or Phitsanu) at 02 652-5480-9 ext 117, 308, or 504 or e-mail: Jansang.boonnua@britishcouncil.or.th, if you would like to make a donation.

Is this new administration bar friendly?

Bangkok’s nightlife has a new lease of life since the coup ended and now bars are staying open later.

It was a common enough experience in BKK before the coup, your just getting into your bottle of Johnny Black or Absolut when your told to drink up and go home by a lovely man in the worlds tightest police uniform. Luckily it seems our new caretakers of the democracy enjoy a little late night tipple and the general mood is that of a more relaxed, especially in the alleyways of Nana Plaza and Silom.

Any financial expert knows that keeping the drinkers drinking for longer is good for any economy (NYC has to be the leader in late night tipples!) and hopefully this is an indication of things to come?

Where are your favorite late night drinking spots?