*dupeof=https://videosift.com/video/Musician-plays-an-amazing-flute-from-restaurant-straw

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It was previously posted as https://videosift.com/video/Musician-plays-an-amazing-flute-from-restaurant-straw, which is now dead. Could this be posted as a replacement link instead?

Pretty good video. Specific things:

Too many prostitutes: Most of the non-Thai people that complain about this went to the wrong places in Thailand. Pattaya was a tiny fishing village before the Vietnam war. Then, soldiers started getting shipped into the country for R&R. The Thai government didn't really know what to do with them, so they sorta passed the buck and decided to send them to Pattaya to relax. Bunch of stressed out dudes there, nothing to do, high demand for alternate activities ... the market answered.

Fast forward to today, and Pattaya knows exactly what put it on the map. I hate that place -- it is like what would happen if you took the worst/sleaziest elements of Vegas and Tijuana, and then built a "city" around it. Shittiest beach in Thailand, chock full of sleaze, disgusting. However, it is one of the most major tourist destinations. Gee, why could that be? Is it in spite of the nature of the place, or because of it? No false advertising here, you know what you're getting when you book a trip there. And if that is your thing, more power to ya.

Now, I don't want to act like prostitution exists in Pattaya and Soi Cowboy / Patpong in Bangkok, and is absent elsewhere. Far from it. Every town, down on to tiny ones, likely has a red-light district and brothels. The ones you hear about are sex tourism pits like those major ones, but the trade is alive and well pretty much everywhere -- and mostly caters to local Thais.

I've honestly never been to such an establishment or sought those services (in 11 years of being here), but I don't care that they are available. The most significant negative is that they are NOT well-regulated like, say, what I've heard about Amsterdam. Prostitution is technically illegal in Thailand. So the de-facto situation is that brothels have to pay protection money to police in order to avoid getting shut down or "inspected", etc.

Corruption is a major problem -- much worse than prostitution, in my opinion.


Too many ladyboys: It is certainly true that there are more trans people per capita here than pretty much anywhere else that I know of. It took me a while, being a country kid from Kansas, but I see that in pretty much the same light as the German narrator in the video at this point. Acceptance is good. You do you, man.

As a stereotype on the flip side of the coin, I think the ladyboys tend to be great in custom interaction kinds of jobs. Cashiers at 7-11, waitpeople at restaurants, etc. Polite, attentive, helpful. And often the most willing to attempt to use English. A lot of the best students that I've taught English to have been ladyboy leaning.


Freedom: I'm with @Mordhaus here. When your personal liberty is mainly due to the apathy / incompetence of the governing authority, and they may choose to get off their asses and revoke that at any time ... perhaps it isn't something to brag about. Very basic stuff like dissenting speech and protesting is met with being carted off for little re-education chats, etc. Pretty scary shit, actually.


Basically I tend to think that just like anywhere on Earth, there's a lot of good here and plenty of bad too. There's plenty of legitimate gripes with cultural elements and stuff in Thailand, but the most common ones (that the video pretty accurately listed) are pretty insignificant in my opinion.

Not me.

I don't like shopping, cooking, washing dishes, taking out the trash 3 times a week, etc etc etc. I've paid people to do all that for me since I left the nest at 18.

Life is short. Restaurants RULE!.

$15/hr min wage brings innovation 1 step closer to the restaurant.

Fortunately I think in this instance they are very likely insured. It is a chain of restaurants in 5 locations and recently raise $60 million for further expansion (http://uk.businessinsider.com/what-its-like-to-eat-at-cava-grill-2016-9?r=US&IR=T).

Idiots and jerks.

Idiots for doing the flambé right under the sprinklers.

Jerks for laughing while the restaurant gets destroyed from water damage. Its hard enough to keep your head above water owning a restaurant, this little trick could be the places death knell if they don't have good insurance.

Unsurprisingly, today I saw a new paper warning sign taped to the door of a local restaurant saying in part that only customers may loiter on the premises all others will be prosecuted for trespassing, restrooms require prior purchase before use, and you will be asked to leave 30 minutes after you finish your purchases.

Thanks guys.

I recently visited Barcelona. My Castellano is decent but I know almost no Catalan, and was getting along fine, but one evening I went to a restaurant that served authentic Catalan cuisine. (The street was plastered in Catalan flags!) I spent a bit of time that day learning a few Catalan phrases ("Good evening", "I have a reservation") etc, and my efforts were definitely appreciated, as we very warmly received by the staff, who were courteous enough to switch to English (with a little good-natured ribbing) when my Catalan well ran dry. Big smiles (and great food) all round. It definitely makes a difference.

I asked you how you can possibly think it's never been near the middle, you replied with essentially '100 years ago it wasn't close'.

That question, 'when have I had to fight for my right to vote', was either rhetorical or idiotic, I chose to give you the benefit of a doubt and assume rhetorical, but if you insist you're an idiot.....I have had to fight for my right to vote only once when my registration was not updated, which isn't the fight for women's suffrage but few alive fought that fight and none who still run marathons....it's not applicable. No woman involved (at least not the white women) has had to fight for that right personally.

I don't have time to answer that fully, because it's happened repeatedly. Specifically, there have been several classes I've wanted to take that were women only, I'm a pure honkey who lived in East Palo Alto, on more than one occasion I was turned away from stores/restaurants...usually by customers not the owners, and once chased by a group of men due to my race, sexual orientation, never, the gays I've known love me and I'm totally cool with them...and they're pretty all inclusive with events....but on reflection I'm sure there have been "girls trips" I would have been invited on had I been gay, if that counts.

Now, I asked you 4 questions you ignored completely, so which are you, exceptionally dumb or a troll X4? ;-)

From 1 jan 2016 the Dutch government has obliged shops and restaurants to charge 10 cents for any plastic bag they give out.

https://www.government.nl/topics/environment/ban-on-free-plastic-bags

This means plastic bag use in supermarkets, shops and restaurants has fallen by 70%. It has also triggered shops and restaurants to be more aware. Disposable napkins, cutlery etc are only given when asked. Part of this was that it is a cost to the companies and the government made it socially acceptable, even hip, to take these out.

A few years ago I had lunch at a restaurant with my extended family for some event (can't recall specifically), and as we were standing around talking in the parking lot afterwards, the AN-225 flew over us. We were pretty close to the airport and it was either landing or taking off, so it was quite low to the ground and surprised the hell out of us. We didn't have the slightest idea what it was, but the configurations of the landing gears and six jets made it clear it was damned unusual. Found out later that the beast was one-of-a-kind and a bunch of people were at the airport watching for it, which made it clear how lucky we were to randomly catch that.

I had no idea there was a propeller-based counterpart. I don't know enough about aerodynamics to understand how stacking the propellers like that makes any sense, so I'm just going to assume it's some sort of Soviet technomagic.

I checked...you're right.
Survey respondents were asked about unfair treatment of blacks in seven specific institutions or realms of community life: the police, the court system, the workplace, stores and restaurants, public schools, the health care system and elections.
49% of whites answered there was none in any of those categories.
What's worse is, when taken individually, it averages out to only 20% of whites think blacks are treated more poorly than whites in those categories. (37% say cops are biased, 13% say voting is).
I'm astonished at those numbers, even if they're 4 years old.