Happy Birthday Buddha! No alcohol sales in Thailand, enjoy the birthday party with Pepsi, Coke, and EST soda instead! 
The sign in picture from Family Mart reads:
“May 24, 2013 Buddhist Holy Day. No All Alcohol sales at 12:00pm (May 23, 2013) until 11:am (May 25, 2013)”
His majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej is usually the person on the back of the 100 baht bills circulating in Thailand, but recently I came across another bill, that has his son, the current Crown Prince of Thailand, Vajiralongkorn on the back of 100 baht bill. Ever since then, I’ve been checking every 100 baht bill that I come into possession with and cannot find another with Vajiralongkorn on it, except the 1 here in the pics.
After searching the net, I found this:
“The bank will also issue 10 million commemorative banknotes with a face value of 100 baht to celebrate HRH Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn’s 5th cycle, or 60th birthday, on July 28 and circulate them in the financial system.
The front of the special edition 100-baht banknote will be identical to those currently in circulation.
The back, however, will bear a portrait of the Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn in full regalia and an illustration depicting the Crown Prince’s investiture.”
The Central bank also issued commemorative 80-baht banknotes to represent the 80th birthday of Her Majesty the Queen.
Thai government and people are furious over this recent Saturday Night Live skit about Rosetta Stone Thai. After watching this YouTube video you can see why.
My personal opinion, I did laugh and think it was a pretty funny and well-played skit, but at the same time I could totally understand why the people of Thai would be furious, disappointed, and angry about it. But, I was also born and raised with freedom of speech, so I think the video should be left alone, but can’t blame the Thai government for attempting to get the video removed.
Bangkok is quite fortunate when it comes to food deliver services. We’ve been blessed with 3 solid Bangkok delivery service companies (that I k now of). For those of you who use the 3 Bangkok food delivery services, I’d like to get everyone’s feedback and experiences dealing with the 3 popular sites.
1. Food By Phone
Food By Phone – This was the first delivery service I was introduced to back in 2007, but it was founded in 1998 by Marc Hagelauer and Rungrudee Suwannake. I like a lot of the restaurants they have here, also they have a top 50 items ordered (the top 3 being 1. Hummus from Beirut, 2. Shawarma Chicken Sandwich from Beirut, 3. Tabuleh from Beirut), safe to assume they have a huge customer base of Beirut Lebanese Restaurant lovers! To be totally honest though, the mark-up prices combined with the delivery fee at Food By Phone makes them quite overpriced compared to the other food delivery services I know of.
2. Chefs XP
Chefs XP – Chefs XP is what I normally use when ordering food online in Bangkok. They advertise as usually having no mark-up pricing on their food items, and delivery fee is only 60 baht per restaurant, so usually Chefs XP is
3. Food Panda
Food Panda – Food Panda just opened in March this year 2012. I have no personal experience with Food Panda yet, but I will post my experiences soon as I plan to try them. I like their aim to have a food delivery service in every major city in Thailand eventually. I also like that you can search restaurants in your specific districts in Bangkok. Lets hope they are success!
Please post your experiences in the comments area or email them to me here.
Here is a public announcement from SCAD Bangkok, please help cats and dogs (and all animals) that have been affected by the flooding in Thailand.
Imagine being abandoned by your family? No food, no clean water, no shelter, no safety. This is the fate of many dogs and cats in Thailand right now, as the country battles with its worst floods in recorded history.
Please help me to support the forgotten casualties – the street dogs and cats, and family pets left behind by their owners in their rush to evacuate areas threatened by the rising waters. Donate now to help us support other groups during this terrible time and feed, transport and treat the animals most in need.
A sweet mother dog and her three four-week old pups are some of the lucky ones SCAD was able to scoop up before the water reached central Bangkok. Toong Saai (which means “sand bag” in Thai) was found with her little ones huddled behind a wall of sand bags at an evacuated restaurant. She had no water, no shelter, and her only food source was a huge bowl of rice – which was sour and covered in cockroaches and flies.
Working with a large network of animal welfare groups, hundreds of abandoned and homeless dogs and cats are in need of urgent assistance, and the only way we can provide help is with your donation.
Temple dog “Flood” was found on the brink of death while we evacuated our Dog Center. A small corner was found in the back of the SCAD truck and he was taken immediately to a supportive vet clinic for life saving fluids, vitamins and medication. He is still in that clinic and has a long road ahead of him to full recovery.
Please, I urge you to donate now to help dogs like Toong Saai and Flood.
Thank you SCAD Bangkok, for helping to improve the lives of lonely animals in Thailand.
Loi Krathong is a Thai festival that is celebrated every year throughout Thailand. For this year Loi Krathong falls on today, Sunday November 21st. This festival is from the ancient practice of paying respect to the spirts of the waters, but today is more of a Thai-style Valentines day, or simply a time to have fun There are usually plenty of beauty contests and firework displays all around Thailand, in the big cities and even in the smaller provinces
So get your loved ones and go send out your Loi Krathong
Don’t forget to fly your Khom Fai for Yi Peng festival too!
Loi Krathong at Wikipedia, read more about it here
Her name is Blacky, she’s 3 years old and she’s volunteered to be the official Got Bangkok mascot!
Thank you Blacky, you are big, black and beautiful!
Please support SCAD Bangkok. SCAD (Soi Cat and Dog) has been around since 2002 and its intentions is to vaccinate and spay/neuter stray cats and dogs in the streets of Bangkok. If you have free time please volunteer to help these animals and if you have extra money please donate to help these animals get proper food and care. Or even better yet, please ADOPT an animal.
Visit theire website at http://www.scadbangkok.com
According to this article on Bangkok Post, Bangkok has been rated as the #1 best city in the world.
Bkk Post article HERE.
Popular travel magazine and website “Travel and Leisure” aka travelandleisure.com is the source of this.
The official full listing is here http://www.travelandleisure.com/worldsbest/2010/cities
Some random BKK pictures that we’ve taken:
Here is a list of Airlines in Thailand.
Air Asia 
I have flown with Air Asia many times, I’ve been robbed by them once in 2008, they double charged me for 4 round trip flights from Bkk – Phuket, but since then they have been fine for me, they cancelled my Udon to BKK flight last month and refunded me, but I had to argue with them to get the refund. Beware, this is a super budget airline, so they will squeeze every penny out of you in other areas.
http://www.airasia.com
Thai Air 
Thai Air is a little bit more expensive airline in Thailand but they have MUCH better service in every area than all the other airlines. They are usually very flexible about changing flights which is really nice.
http://www.thaiair.com
Nok Air 
Nok Air is a great Thai budget airline with good service.
http://www.nokair.com
Orient Thai Air 
http://www.flyorientthai.com (previously 1-2 Go)
Bangkok Air 
http://www.bangkokair.com
Solar Air has flights mostly to the Chumphon southern region of Thailand.
http://www.solarair.co.th
Crystal Air 
http://www.crystalthaiair.com (site offline)
Happy Air 
http://www.happyair.co.th
Silk Air
http://www.silkair.com (site offline)
Phuket Airlines
http://www.phuketairlines.com
PB Air is owned by Boonrawd Brewery president Piya Bhirom Bhakdi. It has since closed in 2009
http://www.pbair.com (site offline)
If you know of anymore airlines in Thailand then please post in the comments, or let me know
