Pattaya Reports

[Banana Boi]

Anyone been to The Mews G club that opened last week? It's walking distance from Kinnaree and open until 10 pm so a good place to hit after Kinnaree closes.

[Downandup]

Dr Who last season sucked, terrible, episodes made no sense and too many side kicks. After watching two episodes of this season, the writing looks improved.

I gave up watching it after 4 or 5 episodes, everything about it sucks big time, everyone needs to be fired and a new crew brought in. It may be sinking past the Sylvester McCoy days.

[Java Man]

And are they negotiating a discount rate for the team and are the four guys pictured really going to take turns on the girl or three of them fill the available slots and one man stand by as reserve? Or are they just negotiating for one of the party. I'm really interested to know.

Yes, maybe. My understanding is that its cultural. They're not accustomed to talking to the opposite sex. If only one is looking, the others are there to provide moral support. Then there's the negotiating aspect. You'll also see them holding hands, best of friends, from childhood, probably. They're Not gay, (not that there's anything wrong with that,) It's cultural remember.

Dr Who last season sucked, terrible, episodes made no sense and too many side kicks. After watching two episodes of this season, the writing looks improved.

[Franga]

Walking along Beach Road tonight, I spotted 3 Indian guys negotiating with a freelancer. Their offer to her was for the three of them to bang her one after the other in their room for a total of 1200 baht. So 400 baht each. She walked off with them so she must have accepted their generous offer. I suppose it beats working at 7-11 for 4 days at 300 baht per day.

Hey Stunt,

This may answer your question.

[Cunning Stunt]

Pattaya seem to have increasingly become the holiday resort of choice for single male Indian tourists. I'm not racist and dislike racial stereotypes but I'm not surprised that many girls refuse to have anything to do with them. They seem to hunt in packs and, when they find a possible target, are not averse to crowding her as the group in the photo are doing. I suppose those usually older, thicker and less pretty girls who are forced, of necessity to deal with these no doubt sex starved and horny young men, are used to it but it's not an attractive spectacle to see.

And are they negotiating a discount rate for the team and are the four guys pictured really going to take turns on the girl or three of them fill the available slots and one man stand by as reserve? Or are they just negotiating for one of the party. I'm really interested to know.

One good thing about the invasion of the Indian hordes is that the number of Indian restaurants have quadrupled since my not so long ago last visit. Once upon a time I recall making a hot, sweaty trip on city buses with moaning girlfriend in tow from Sukhumvit to the Royal India Restaurant down Chakkraphet Road near Chinatown in Bangkok. It was the only way that I was able to get some decent Indian chow, being virtually the only Indian cafe in town at the time and there were none at all in Pattaya.

[Crocodilexp]

The Isaan squawk still reminds me of a murder of crows, once the volume goes up a few notches it's possibly the most abrasive sound I've heard a human being make.

I disagree. Some language (like Vietnamese, Mandarin or German) are inherently on the ugly side, but when it comes to Issan, I think it's all about the delivery.

Many years ago, I took my old man on an overnight ride on a Thai bus, and he commented how the quiet cooing of two Issan women in front of us was lovely, nicer than any other language he heard. He had no idea what language it was or what they were saying, and certainly no preconceived notions about Asian languages (those often get in the way of our judgements). It was the Issan dialect, presumably of Nong Khai variety. I imagine a drunken Soi 6 working girl at full volume speaking Issan would be far less endearing.

[LittleBigMan]

Yes I did not mention Mandarin or other dialects. Stunning C*nts introduced the "low class Catonese" term. I know the sound of Mandarin well, but many other dialects, I could not pick with low experience.

I took it to mean the loud jerky stuff heard from lower class persons in Hong Kong, maybe you have experienced it? Everything sounds so urgent there. Certainly sounds ugly to foreigners. Actually their attempts at English can sound pretty ugly too.

I vividly recall being unable to understand the English of the waitress in the floating Jumbo restaurant, and seemed like she was barking orders at me, based on the tone, rather than asking me anything politely. Chinese from that region are not renowned for their "polite" style at all. You don't want to be around Chinese tour groups in Thailand.

My wealthy boss from Hong Kong sounded vastly better when she spoke Cantonese or English. So we imagine there is a posh style of Cantonese and the very much an ugly sounding variation. English could equally be posh style or low class style. Its all in the delivery accent, and somewhat in the chosen vocab, one would guess.

"Neih Ho", "Ho Ho", "Hai" My pathetic attempts to mimic my Hong Kong boss heard when receiving a phone call from her husband, when a typical conversation would be 5 seconds to arrange pick up, and hang up with a bang. They talk about Hoes a lot. Ha ha. Or Ho Ho-ing like Santa. I don't actually know any Cantonese.

In Thai, "ho" is not really a word I think, but "hor" means to wrap up something.

Although Chinese American I do understand some and recognize Mandarin well, it is a softer and more romantic language than Cantonese which I've heard all my life. I understand it more than I can speak, what my family speak and taught to me is Haka now been told that is as low so as you can get. But during my tours into China, late 80-early 90's told that Mao and Ping were all Haka.

Growing up travel with my dad and uncles into the village or whenever friends, the family came over the house, your blood pressure would go up to double, ears ringing, just from a simple conversation. When I finally met my Thai wife's family Sukhothai they must have some Haka in them I thought I was visiting my own family. I hook up once with my older brother who was up at the Mae Sai mountain area living with a group many of older ones spoke some Haka after a bottle it was like back home.

The louder the better, it makes me at ease and feels I'm back home with family.

[Cunning Stunt]

Can you please explain to me what low class Cantonese means? Cantonese is one of over 200 Chinese dialects. Mandarin is another dialect.

For me the sound of Filipino girls make me cringe. Why I don't do AC or Manila.

I lived for several years in Hong Kong and so became inured to the ugly Cantonese dialect spoken there but never got used to the way they shout in your face at 100+ decibels.

I rather like the sing song sound of spoken Tagalog. I thinks its one of the easier on the ear languages in the region.

And yes, Syzygies, Jody Whittaker is the latest Dr Who and is a Yorkshire lass, born and bred. I think the jury is out on her casting as the latest Doctor. I never watch it so can't really comment.

[Syzygies]

Can you please explain to me what low class Cantonese means? Cantonese is one of over 200 Chinese dialects. Mandarin is another dialect.

Yes I did not mention Mandarin or other dialects. Stunning C*nts introduced the "low class Catonese" term. I know the sound of Mandarin well, but many other dialects, I could not pick with low experience.

I took it to mean the loud jerky stuff heard from lower class persons in Hong Kong, maybe you have experienced it? Everything sounds so urgent there. Certainly sounds ugly to foreigners. Actually their attempts at English can sound pretty ugly too.

I vividly recall being unable to understand the English of the waitress in the floating Jumbo restaurant, and seemed like she was barking orders at me, based on the tone, rather than asking me anything politely. Chinese from that region are not renowned for their "polite" style at all. You don't want to be around Chinese tour groups in Thailand.

My wealthy boss from Hong Kong sounded vastly better when she spoke Cantonese or English. So we imagine there is a posh style of Cantonese and the very much an ugly sounding variation. English could equally be posh style or low class style. Its all in the delivery accent, and somewhat in the chosen vocab, one would guess.

"Neih Ho", "Ho Ho", "Hai" My pathetic attempts to mimic my Hong Kong boss heard when receiving a phone call from her husband, when a typical conversation would be 5 seconds to arrange pick up, and hang up with a bang. They talk about Hoes a lot. Ha ha. Or Ho Ho-ing like Santa. I don't actually know any Cantonese.

In Thai, "ho" is not really a word I think, but "hor" means to wrap up something.

[Banana Boi]

but is not as bad as sound of low class Cantonese.

Can you please explain to me what low class Cantonese means? Cantonese is one of over 200 Chinese dialects. Mandarin is another dialect.

For me the sound of Filipino girls make me cringe. Why I don't do AC or Manila.

[Syzygies]

I saw little to get the sap rising on Soi Six and those that did look doable tended to spoil it as soon as they opened their mouths and emitted screeching Pahk Isaan noises that were more often heard in a zoo or bird sanctuary. Am I alone in thinking that the noise of eastern dialect Thai is on par with low born Cantonese as being one of the noisiest and least attractive languages on earth?

Issan dialect, which is almost identical to the Lao language, has many words in common to Thai, but pronunciation is changed.

This makes Issan sound somewhat uglier than Thai, but is not as bad as sound of low class Cantonese. However once the Issan folk, crank up the decibels, it does get quite ugly. It clearly depends on what you are used to. I find Vietnamese rather jerky and ugly, just like Catonese is ugly. I find young girls making announcements in Thai language in Department stores to be extremely beautifully melodic at times. It is hard to like Issan dialect when you are used to central Thai. Southern dialect is maybe less ugly but sounds more comical somehow. Northern dialect is a little quaint. All sound better than Cantonese. Happy to not live in Hong Kong or nearby.

In the province rice fields, the locals can be on different farms separated by 100 metres (sorry no feet here), can be having a conversation by yelling at each other in the Issan dialect over the distance. The weird thing is, when they are 5 feet apart, they still seem to be yelling. They can be yelling into their phones as well.

When wanting to converse they prefer to yell over distance rather than moving close to the person for the conversation. Being drunk typically increases the decibels too.

If I am alone with the Mrs. , she seems to be just a slightly loud and exuberant at times, but quite reasonable. When other Issan folk arrive, her decibels seem to rise so much, it seems like she is showing off, and I have to consider wearing ear plugs. I am happier when all the folk are gone, and I can have some peace and quiet disturbed only by farm animals and her music playing all day long.

Not every Issan person is a very loud speaker, and shrieker when calling out, but it is common. Normally Issan people are much quieter when in Bangkok, and use the overly loud volume mainly in the villages.

Many languages in the world sound pretty ugly when you are not used to them. e.g. I watch plenty of TV series in Swedish (with subtitles), and it sounds rather jerky with strongly stressed syllables. I understand German but don't really like the sound of the language, compared to Thai. When it comes to English, even the accent can be lightly annoying or comical, like Deep South accents, or some regions of the U.K., so many variations for the way vowels are pronounced. The new "Dr. Who" is a woman, right? It flashed on the telly, and I did not like her English Yorkshire? (sounds non-classy) accent at all. Switched it off real quick. Most South African, new Zealand, and Australian actors would try to lose some accent for TV, so it does not grate on us. We don't even have to tolerate strong deep south accents on TV normally, nor the most unintelligible Scottish accents.

Could be even hard to take a girl as a G.F. with an ugly accent. If my G.F. had been a very loud talker when I met her, then we would never have got any further. Little did I know in the province she would suddenly be capable of being rather loud a little too often.

[Cunning Stunt]

Perhaps because his son was with him?

Generational thing maybe, happy to hear his son get a paid-for BJ a few feet away but didn't feel comfortable with his son seeing the full-on debauchery that Dad routinely enjoyed.

Yes, that is about it, Ed. Guess that I'm old school.

Although the bit about being a full-on debauchee is a bit hard but probably true also.

[Ed Setra]

The obvious reasons are not so obvious.

Perhaps because his son was with him?

Generational thing maybe, happy to hear his son get a paid-for BJ a few feet away but didn't feel comfortable with his son seeing the full-on debauchery that Dad routinely enjoyed.

[Mr Enternational]

I did not monger at all on that week long trip (for obvious reasons) and I'm not decided whether or not I will partake on this trip or not.

The obvious reasons are not so obvious.

[Bouvis]

as soon as they opened their mouths and emitted screeching Pahk Isaan noises that were more often heard in a zoo or bird sanctuary. Am I alone in thinking that the noise of eastern dialect Thai is on par with low born Cantonese as being one of the noisiest and least attractive languages on earth?

The Isaan squawk still reminds me of a murder of crows, once the volume goes up a few notches it's possibly the most abrasive sound I've heard a human being make.

And squawk they do when it comes to anything to do with Baht and Som Tam.

Good, bad and indifferent.

The sound doesn't get me hard. Many times I've pulled up stumps when it gets to fever pitch.

That Cantonese shrill I have heard in Hong Kong. Painful.