Who's The Woman On The Right?

Who's the woman on the right side of this picture?

Can't tell, can you? A Yahoo link sent me to this picture and its accompanying article. I had to click Back just to make sure I had clicked on the right link.

Here's a clue. She once starred in a movie with this equally famous guy:

Not much help, is it? Here's a picture of the pair in much better days.

That's right, the woman on the right is Kim Basinger.

Time's a cruel mistress.

Bangkok City Hotel

One of my friends is in Bangkok for a holiday. I'm freaking envious. I wish I was in Bangkok. Oh well, 2 more months to wait.

Every time someone I know goes to Thailand, the first question I ask is: which hotel are you staying at? In this case, the hotel is Bangkok City Hotel.

The rooms look decent. The prices are great and their website offers the same prices as Agoda. That said, Agoda offers 5-7% off to holders of many credit cards in Singapore, e.g. DBS.

The hotel even has family rooms, which certainly makes it easier than all those hotels where the maximum occupancy is just 2 adults. I will certainly keep it in mind for any trips involving the mother-in-law.

Free breakfast, free WiFi, free car park, it's all good. Although I'd never rent a car in the middle of Bangkok. My friend says there's plenty of food stalls nearby, it's always nice to grab a little snack just before going back to the hotel for the night.

My only gripe (and it's a major one) with this hotel is the location. The hotel's website says it's 10 minutes' walk from the nearest BTS, Ratchathewi Station. Looking at the map, I'd say that's probably closer to 15 minutes. It's a big problem for me as the location would completely stop my mid-afternoon breaks back at my hotel.

My Top Thailand Travel Tip

I love Thailand. I have travelled to many different parts of Thailand and would love to stay there months at a time.

But not everybody goes to Thailand and manages to come back without having been had by scammers. Although most scams involve you getting cheated out of your money (and I'll get to those in subsequent posts), my top Thailand travel tip is what I think is the worst scam of all, one that involves intimidation and threats of physical violence.

Please keep this one in mind if you go to any of the beach destinations in Thailand. I suppose this excludes Krabi though as I read here that Krabi's doing much better at preserving their beaches.

My top Thailand travel tip is: Never rent jet skis

Jet skis might look like fun but they can seriously ruin your holiday. The jet ski rental scam occurs in beach destinations all over Thailand but cases in Phuket have probably had more exposure, most famously in UK's TV Show Big Trouble in Tourist Thailand a couple of years ago.



Despite this, I regularly read about more tourists falling prey to this scam. I often also find articles saying that the authorities are getting the situation under control but I seriously doubt this can ever be a 100% thing. Thai authorities are rather well-known for not following through.

Victims of this scam are subject to intimidation and threats of physical violence, which really makes it worse than all other scams.

The way it works is: You rent a jet ski and have your fun on it for a short while but when you return it, the owner finds some damage. He asks for a huge amount, often something like 50000 or 75000 baht (which is $2000-3000) in compensation. Naturally you argue that you didn't cause this damage. That's when the owner's pals gather around you and threaten violence if you don't pay up. Even if you somehow manage to get the police involved in this and they manage to negotiate a reduction, you will still have to pay something like 15000 or 20000 baht (still a hefty $500-800) to the jet ski owner.

It's better to be safe than sorry. Do not risk your holidays for 30 minutes of fun. That jet ski owner may look friendly before you decide to rent from him but that might change as soon as you return to the beach on his jet ski.

Doraemon Gangnam Style

This video seriously cracks me up.

Doraemon is so cute trying to do some Gangnam Style moves but his arms are just too short.

Brazilian Ghost Elevator Prank

Just saw this on Yahoo Singapore.

Extremely funny for us but horribly, hair-raisingly, heart-attack-inducingly scary for these poor people. All very clever though.