PARIS — A New Year’s trip to the City of Love took a scary turn for one Thai man whose harrowing night on the town turned into a police adventure.
He described being scammed and mugged in the red light district before turning the tables and joining a raid on the joint in a made-for-Pantip drama he recounted Tuesday night to the tune of nearly 1 million likes on the popular web board.
“I almost died in Paris,” wrote Pantipper Skeleton18PE, who had been traveling there solo during the holidays.
Though there was no immediate way to corroborate the details of his story, the man said it was Jan. 3 when he traveled to the Blanche Metro Station and began surveying the La Machine du Moulin Rouge club. That’s when an employee from another club called La Diva approached him and said that he could see a show there for 10 euros – discounted from 20 – while drinking a free Coke.
“I was naive. I thought it was a cabaret show,” he said.
Once inside, he asked for the Coke, but servers told him other drinks were also free, so he ordered champagne. To his professed shock, the waitress who brought his drink suddenly exposed her breasts.
“I was flabbergasted; I never go to places like this! She started rubbing all over me. I swear, I wasn’t okay with it, and in less than two minutes I tried to leave,” he wrote.
The woman then gave him a whopping bill for 750 euros (over 27,500 baht). After that, he said a “two-meter tall, very thick white farang guard” told him he couldn’t leave without paying up.
The guard then pushed down the 172-centimeter man and roughly searched him, taking his bag containing his money and phone.
“He choked me. With extreme fear and adrenaline, I pushed him away and ran out of the place,” he wrote.
But Skeleton18PE wasn’t taking it lying down. He had escaped without his backpack.
The next day, after filing several reports to police, he accompanied armed officers from the 122 Rue Marcadet station on a morning raid of the club. He explained to officers that he could use a function to emit a siren from his phone, which worked. He found his bag by the door with everything intact, save for 20 euros missing.
He shared on Pantip a photo of La Diva’s exterior, a pinned map location and a photo of his police complaint.
Online reviews for La Diva club suggest the alleged incident wasn’t a one-time thing. Many one-star reviews include similar stories of tourists being mugged and ripped off.
Google guide reviewer Shreyansh Piit wrote that he and his friend had to pay 700 euros (25,720 baht) for one beer, with a bouncer threatening him and accompanying him to the ATM.
“I had to sleep empty stomach [sic] for 2 days as they took all my money,” Piit wrote.
Lt. Gen. Surachate Hakparn, Thailand's immigration police chief, at a press briefing Wednesday in Bangkok.
Update Jan 10.: Immigration police chief Surachate Hakparn said Wednesday evening that Alqunun’s father and brother plan to remain in Thailand until they know what country she will be sent to. He also said they would try to appeal against her resettlement.
BANGKOK — Thailand’s immigration chief said Wednesday that confiscating a runaway Saudi woman’s phone would have violated her rights in an apparent rebuke of a Saudi diplomat’s complaint.
After saying the Saudis were pleased with how Thailand handled the case of a young woman fleeing her family, Lt. Gen. Surachate Hakparn addressed a complaint caught on tape in which Saudi Arabia’s charge d’affaires in Bangkok said he wished her phone had been confiscated instead of her passport.
“As soon as [Rahaf] arrived, she opened an account and got about 45,000 followers? In a single day,” Abdullah al-Shuaibi said to a counterpart in Arabic during a meeting with Thai officials, according to the video’s subtitles. “I wish they would’ve confiscated her phone instead of her passport.”
The video was shared online and went viral yesterday. Thai officials have denied taking Alqunun’s passport; she said it was taken by a Saudi man.
Surachate today responded that his officers were following the law.
“I’d like to emphasize that police didn’t have the authority to confiscate her phone,” he said. “She didn’t commit a crime, and it was within her rights [to tweet].”
He added that what al-Shuaibi said was “just a comment” and shouldn’t be taken seriously.
The lieutenant-general also said Alqunun’s case could be resolved within a couple more days as several countries have already made offers of residency. He declined to say whether she has been granted refugee status by the UN Refugee Agency.
In a break from normal policy, she was allowed to request asylum directly from the UNHCR in Thailand, which is not party to international agreements on refugees.
Alqunun’s father arrived in Thailand this morning to meet the with UNHCR reps but was turned away by his daughter, Surachate said. He said the father would return to Saudi Arabia today.
This past weekend, Alqunun grabbed the attention around the globe after she sent out pleas for help via Twitter, saying her passport was confiscated while transiting through Bangkok on her way to Australia. She barricaded herself in an airport hotel room before being allowed into the country under care of the UN on Monday.
BANGKOK — Giant smurfs, free kids’ flicks and dinos await the little ones this coming Children’s Day in Bangkok.
On Saturday, which marks the annual day celebrating the youth, meet a 4-meter Smurf in a Thai waistcloth atIconsiamwhen the megamall hosts aSmurf-themed playground. This year marks the blue Belgian creatures’ 60th anniversary. The event runs today through Sunday.
Major Cineplex cinemas nationwide are offering 100,000 free seats for children to watch their choice of four films: “Aquaman,” “Ralph Breaks the Internet,” “Mia and the White Lion” and “Bumblebee.”
Thailand Knowledge Park on the eighth floor of CentralWorld will hostTK Dino, where children can explore the world of long-lost dinosaurs. The event will be held 10am to 5pm this Saturday. Again, being under 140-centimeters tall means free entry.
The young can learn to design notebooks, dye T-shirts and craft polymer clay at art workshops running at arts enclave Changchuiall weekend. The art space’s Duan Dek Hang Chuiwill also offer live performances and show family-friendly films.
Museum Siam on Saturday waives admission for its Decoding Thainess exhibition and also hostsAdventure in the Kitchen, where kids-as-chefs can learn about Thai cuisine and play games based on it.
Access to the Bangkok Planetarium is free for anyone under 18 on Saturday. Tickets for adults (of any nationality) are 30 baht. The planetarium’s 360-degree dome will offernine shows. Visitors are recommended to pick up tickets before 11am due to a large number of expected attendees on Children’s Day.
Travels are made cheaper for family trips when, on Saturday, kids under 14 and under 140 centimeters in height get free rides on the BTS Skytrain, MRT, Airport Rail Link and BRT bus systems. They can show ID at the ticket booths to get a pass.
Protesters hold placards demanding the election be held on Feb. 24 at a rally Tuesday near the Ratchaprasong Intersection in Bangkok.
BANGKOK — Mounting frustration over the growing possibility that Election Day could be postponed yet again have led to resumed protests in the capital.
Several politicians have weighed in with their concerns, while about 200 protesters sent a more strident message Tuesday evening at the Ratchaprasong Intersection in downtown Bangkok. Facing dissatisfaction with their maneuvering, the government and Election Commission keep pointing fingers at each other over who’s responsible.
Former deputy PM Chaturon Chaisang on Wednesday sent a series of tweets demanding the election be held as soon as possible to solve the country’s economic problems.
“Thailand doesn’t want elections just for the sake of having elections, but for a chance to solve economic problems and several other issues. It’s the chance this country’s never had in the past five years,” one tweet read.
Political activists, students and other pro-democracy supporters took to the skywalk over the busy intersection yesterday, holding placards and chanting “No election delay!” It was the second such protest since Sunday and comes in the wake of the government’s backsliding from its commitment to hold the poll on Feb. 24 as had been promised for the past year.
Future Forward Party leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit said protesters were giving voice to years of pent up frustration.
Various officials have said a delay might be necessary due to His Majesty the King’s announcement he will be crowned in early May.
Since then, junta leaders and the Election Commission have repeatedly dodged responsibility for setting the date. Deputy PM Wissanu Krea-Ngam has said the commission has the sole authority to do so. In return, commission president Ittiporn Boonprakong said yesterday that the body can’t do without a signed royal decree that was expected last week.
Transparency activist Srisuwan Janya today said he’ll pursue legal action against the Election Commission if it fails to stage the election by May 9 as required by law.
, by Britain's South West Water company, showing Part of a "fatberg," a mass of hardened fat, oil and baby wipes, measuring some 64 meters long, in the town of Sidmouth, England. Photo: South West Water
LONDON — A British official says a giant “fatberg” has been found blocking a sewer in southwestern England: a mass of hardened fat, oil and baby wipes measuring 64 meters long.
Andrew Roantree of South West Water says it will “take our sewer team around eight weeks to dissect this monster in exceptionally challenging work conditions.”
He urged the public not to pour grease down the drain or flush baby wipes down the toilet, adding: “Don’t feed the fatberg.”
The revolting fat mass was discovered in drains in the coastal town of Sidmouth.
In 2017, a 250-meter (820-foot) fatberg was found in sewers beneath Whitechapel in east London. A chunk of that later went on display at the Museum of London, nestled inside transparent boxes.
Heaven on Cheese’s cheeses. Photo: Joe Sloane / Courtesy
Camembert. Gruyeres. Brie. Names that have become more associated with the cheeses they produce than the cities themselves.
The same cannot be said of Nakhon Pathom.
When it comes to making cheese, central Thailand is neither on the map – nor anywhere near it. But that hasn’t stopped two farmers – a former Austrian cruise ship chef and a Thai veterinarian-turned-goat herder – from churning out artisanal, locally sourced fromage of their own.
From a vet using the power of science to make goat cheese on a Nakhon Pathom farm to a husband-and-wife curdling wheels from Nakhon Sawan cows, here are two pioneers in the cottage cheese industry.
Little Goat Farm and Cheesery: A Vet’s Journey from Virology to Dairy
Photo: Little Goat Farm and Cheesery / Facebook
Veterinarian Rachanikorn “Kai” Srikong knew that her jargon-filled study on goat viruses wasn’t going to reach farmers or the general public like homemade jars of cheese spread.
Kai found during her veterinary school studies that a string of DNA particular to one breed of Thai goats made their milk suitable for cheese (Conveniently, she’d already been making cheese as a hobby by following YouTube videos). She originally hoped to share her findings with farmers to encourage them to ramp up production of goat-based goods in a country where they’re not widely raised and then mostly for their meat.
But she knew her “piece of paper” degree wouldn’t get farmers to start churning out cheese, so she decided to lead the way herself.
“I knew that it would be useless to publicize the study,” Kai said. “Agro people don’t want to hear about viruses in goats. They’ll stop listening if that’s the first card I turn over.”
Photo: Little Goat Farm and Cheesery / Facebook
Equipped with cheesemaking knowledge from the internet and her scientific know-how, the 42-year-old bought 30 goats and started making cheese at her farm in Nakhon Pathom, calling it theLittle Goat Farm and Cheesery.
On a typical morning, Kai and a couple of farmhands milk the goats at 7am and then spend the rest of the day turning it into cheese. As for the goats, they spend their days chewing grasses, hay and banana stalks – but no food pellets.
It was a welcome difference from working in a science lab.
“Every time I make cheese, I’m happy. I created something edible, something not dangerous, unlike in the lab, where I’m surrounded by bacteria, diseases and viruses. As a scientist it makes me happy to see the cheese’s germs change form; happily growing,” she said.
Without a tongue “native to cheese,” the burgeoning cheesemaker got feedback from a French chef. The chef, who was unable to speak English, graded her cheese by ticking off taste descriptors on a table like “tangy” and “piquant.” She then translated the French terms online and adjusted her methods accordingly.
“What’s pla raa to us, is cheese to farang,” Kai quipped, referring to the pungent Isaan fermented fish.
Photo: Little Goat Farm and Cheesery / Facebook
Due to the small scale of production, Kai says she can’t afford to make hard cheeses which can require years to age. Instead, she makes cheese spreads and soft cheeses which only need months or even days.
A 90-gram jar of soft white cheese spread costs 120 baht, and a 150-gram wheel of ripened cheese is 220 baht. Kai is also working on a brie, but the price isn’t stable yet. Although she’s mostly sold by delivery, she plans to start selling at farmers’ markets in Bangkok, like at Gateway Ekkamai.
Her goats’ cheese isn’t like anything found in a supermarket, she swears.
“This kind of soft cheese isn’t like stuff you find in a supermarket, because it’s hard to import from overseas because it’s so delicate and farm-made. It’s not industrial,” Kai said.
Heaven on Cheese
Photo: Reinhard Matheis
Anyone who’s tasted Heaven on Cheese’s double cream bries, reblochons and munsters may find it difficult to believe that they were not made in the French countryside but by a husband-and-wife operation in Nakhon Sawan.
For the past decade, Austrian Reinhard Matheis has worked from noon into the night and early morning most days crafting cheeses for his dedicated customers.
Matheis worked as a confectioner and then a baker in South Africa before taking his culinary talents onto the high seas aboard cruise ships. In 2005, the 49-year-old moved to the central province with his wife. Missing the taste of cheese, he started making his own from supermarket milk before upgrading to fresh, locally produced dairy in 2008. He got good feedback from friends.
News of Matheis’ products spread via word of mouth, online forums and restaurant suppliers. His restaurant customers include Viva Thonglor, Le Du, Siwilai City Club, Osito and high-end hotels like the M-Club Lounge at the Marriott Marquis Queen’s Park and the Sunday brunch at Le Meridien.
Matheis’ cheeses – he describes them as “artisan handmade cheese made with fresh, raw milk” are of another breed than those mass-produced by pasteurized milk.” He says they compare favorably to the imports, a lot of which are quite expensive despite being of “poor quality.”
Although he’s found that it more expensive to produce cheese in Thailand due to milk prices, he says local Thai milks create unique cheeses.
“[It] adds to the distinct flavor…and it has a better consistency. A bit softer, gooey,” he said.
Heaven on Cheese’s products can be ordered onlineor through meat distributor Sloane’s. A 230g wheel of Camembert costs 295 baht, while Rebruchon is 350 baht.
WASHINGTON — In a somber televised plea, US President Donald Trump urged congressional Democrats to fund his long-promised border wall Tuesday night, blaming illegal immigration for the scourge of drugs and violence in the U.S. and framing the debate over the partial government shutdown in stark terms. “This is a choice between right and wrong,” he declared.Democrats in response accused Trump appealing to “fear, not facts” and manufacturing a border crisis for political gain.
Addressing the nation from the Oval Office for the first time, Trump argued for spending some $5.7 billion for a border wall on both security and humanitarian grounds as he sought to put pressure on newly empowered Democrats amid the extended shutdown.
Trump, who will visit the Mexican border in person on Thursday, invited the Democrats to return to the White House to meet with him on Wednesday, saying it was “immoral” for “politicians to do nothing.” Previous meetings have led to no agreement as Trump insists on the wall that was his signature promise in the 2016 presidential campaign.
Responding in their own televised remarks, Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer accused Trump of misrepresenting the situation on the border as they urged him to reopen closed government departments and turn loose paychecks for hundreds of thousands of workers.
Negotiations on wall funding could proceed in the meantime, they said.
Schumer said Trump “just used the backdrop of the Oval Office to manufacture a crisis, stoke fear and divert attention from the turmoil in his administration.”
Overall, Trump largely restated his case for the wall without offering concessions or new ideas on how to resolve the standoff that has kept large swaths of the government closed for the past 18 days. Speaking in solemn tones from behind the Resolute Desk, he painted a dire picture of killings and drug deaths he argues come from unchecked illegal immigration.
Trump ticked off a string of statistics and claims to make his case that there is a crisis at the border, but a number of his statements were misleading, such as saying the new trade deal with Mexico would pay for the wall, or suggesting through gruesome examples that immigrants are more likely to commit crime.
Shifting between empathetic appeals and the dark immigration rhetoric that was a trademark of his presidential campaign, Trump asked: “How much more American blood must we shed before Congress does its job?”
Trump, who has long railed against illegal immigration at the border, has recently seized on humanitarian concerns to argue there is a broader crisis that can only be solved with a wall. But critics say the security risks are overblown and the administration is at least partly to blame for the humanitarian situation.
Trump used emotional language, referring to Americans who were killed by people in the country illegally, saying: “I’ve met with dozens of families whose loved ones were stolen by illegal immigration. I’ve held the hands of the weeping mothers and embraced the grief-stricken fathers. So sad. So terrible.”
The president often highlights such incidents, though studies over several years have found immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than people born in the United States.
Trump has been discussing the idea of declaring a national emergency to allow him to move forward with the wall without getting congressional approval for the billions he’s requested. But he did not mention that Tuesday night.
With his use of a formal White House speech instead of his favored Twitter blasts, Trump embraced the ceremonial trappings of his office as he tries to exit a political quagmire of his own making. For weeks he has dug in on a signature campaign promise to his base voters, the pledge to build an impregnable “beautiful” wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
The partial government shutdown reached its 18th day, making the closure the second-longest in history. Hundreds of thousands of federal workers are going without pay, and government disruptions are hitting home with everyday Americans.
Story: Catherine Lucey, Jill Colvin and Lisa Mascaro
Navy officials in Chonburi province seize fishing boats that fail to comply with fishery regulations in May 2016.
BANGKOK — The European Union announced Tuesday that it has lifted its warning over Thai fishing products, citing improvements in labor practices.
Nearly four years after it issued a “Yellow Card” and warned it might boycott Thailand’s fishery, the European Commission said sufficient steps have been taken to combat overfishing, the use of slave labor and unsafe fishing boats.
“I am excited that today we have a new committed partner in this fight,” EU’s commissioner of environment and maritime affairs, Karmenu Vella, said in a statement.
The commission will continue to work with Thailand to fight against illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, or IUU, the statement added.
Speaking in Brussels, deputy prime minister Chatchai Sarikulya said Thailand was gratified by the European Union’s decision.
“Thailand designated IUU issues as the top national agenda,” Gen. Chatchai, who oversees a committee tackling fishery violations, told reporters. “I believe Thailand has now laid down the foundations to completely prevent IUU.”
The statement was issued Tuesday afternoon and there was no immediate reaction from Thai officials.
The Yellow Card was issued in April 2015 after years of documented violations in the Thai industry. The ruling junta responded by forcing fishing boats to be equipped with GPS and logbooks, raiding suspected human trafficking rings and requiring higher standards be met across the board.
Former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra poses for a photo on Jan. 2, 2016
BANGKOK — Former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra was named the chairwoman of a major seaport in China’s Guangdong province.
Yingluck, whose government was overthrown in a 2014 coup, fled Thailand in 2016 shortly before a guilty verdict was delivered following a lengthy corruption trial. The ex-premier will now head the Shantou International Container Terminal, according to a report posted online by Chinese state media People’s Daily.
The brief article said Yingluck was also appointed the firm’s legal representative. The port is located in Shantou, a major port city on the eastern seaboard of China.
The news came several days after Yingluck and her brother, former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, were spotted in Shantou. Both former leaders are descended from Chinese immigrants with roots in southern China.
Since she left the country, Yingluck has lived in exile in multiple countries where she keeps residences, like her brother Thaksin. He was deposed in a 2006 putsch and, like Yingluck, fled Thailand to avoid a corruption conviction two years later.
The siblings continue to wield immense influence among their Redshirt supporters despite years of self-imposed exile.
On Tuesday, deputy junta leader Prawit Wongsuwan said Thaksin is welcome to return anytime and fight his case under the justice system. Thaksin shot back by tweeting that he doesn’t trust a justice system controlled by Prawit.
Protesters rally Sunday against the possible delay of the election slated for February.
BANGKOK — Demonstrators said Tuesday they hope more people attend rallies to pressure the military regime into holding elections as promised next month.
Arnon Nampa, a 34-year-old leader of the Democracy Restoration Group, said hours before a protest planned for 5pm this afternoon that he hopes at least 1,000 people show up.
“We disagree with postponing elections,” he said, adding that a bigger rally is needed. “We have to try.”
Arnon estimated that only 200 people showed up Sunday to protest at the Victory Monument. The group will meet at 5pm today on the skywalk over Ratchaprasong Intersection and stick around until 8pm, he said.
Describing the development as “not a big deal,” Gen. Anupong Paochinda, who serves as interior minister, confirmed the veracity of an internal document leaked onto social media.
Last week, it was announced that the coronation of King Vajiralongkorn would take place in the first week of week of May, around the end of the window of time that a poll must be held, according to the law.
That announcement has prompted some to call for putting off or canceling elections entirely.
The last major spasm of street protests was this past May for the fourth anniversary of the coup. Organizers faulted low turnout for their easy containment and dispersal by security forces.
This afternoon is a test for the pro-democracy camp’s viability. Though the military government’s popularity appears to be in decline, frustration with its rule may not translate into larger protests.
Arnon, who is also a human rights lawyer, said he believes an attempt to defer elections is more about the junta wanting to stay as long as possible in power, however.
While the ban on political gatherings has been lifted, the junta and its self-styled National Council for Peace and Order, which staged the 2014 coup, still hold the power to detain people without charge for seven days for “attitude adjustment.”
Anurak Jeantawanich, a Redshirt known to activists as “Ford Red Path,” said he was questioned by plainclothes police Tuesday about how he funded his political activities. Anurak wrote online Tuesday that the money came from selling political T-shirts.
Nuttaa Mahattana, another leader of the group, said today that she expects about 300 demonstrators to show up at the intersection, but added that she is bad at estimating.
Nuttaa called on people earlier today via Facebook to gather and demonstrate wherever it’s convenient, not just at Ratchaprasong Intersection or in Bangkok.
“People who want elections nationwide should spread out and show their power …,” she wrote.
