Alarming news of recent police raids of bars in Bangkok and Pattaya...

[sukumvit boy]

... with patrons being forced to submit to in the spot urine drug tests. Police officials later try to backpedal .
While perusing the Sept 16 , 2016 edition of Stickman Weekly came across these stories. (BTW Stickman Weekly is the longest running and imho the best sites for all things Thai ,PI , and SE Asia nightlife related news.)
http://www.stickmanbangkok.com/
http://www.stickmanbangkok.com/readers-submissions/2016/09/a-very-unpleasant-12-hours-in-bangkok/
http://pattayaone.net/pattaya-news/231728/four-pattaya-bars-targeted-midnight-raids/

Police officials later attempt to backpedal...
http://www.bangkokpost.com/learning/learning-news/475564/police-stop-tourist-searches-public-urine-tests
Here's some tips:
http://www.chiangraibulletin.com/2014/12/11/foreigners-have-right-to-say-no-to-drug-test-to-thai-police/

[runningdownthatdream]

... with patrons being forced to submit to in the spot urine drug tests. Police officials later try to backpedal .
While perusing the Sept 16 , 2016 edition of Stickman Weekly came across these stories. (BTW Stickman Weekly is the longest running and imho the best sites for all things Thai ,PI , and SE Asia nightlife related news.)
http://www.stickmanbangkok.com/
http://www.stickmanbangkok.com/readers-submissions/2016/09/a-very-unpleasant-12-hours-in-bangkok/
http://pattayaone.net/pattaya-news/231728/four-pattaya-bars-targeted-midnight-raids/

Police officials later attempt to backpedal...
http://www.bangkokpost.com/learning/learning-news/475564/police-stop-tourist-searches-public-urine-tests
Here's some tips:
http://www.chiangraibulletin.com/2014/12/11/foreigners-have-right-to-say-no-to-drug-test-to-thai-police/

Cheers to that - I first came cross Stickman's site almost 10 years ago now. It was a really treasure trove of info on Asian nightlife and helped inform my travels in that area.

Frightening to have something like that happen but likely just cops trying to make a quick buck. In Philippines last year the big sting was customs and immigration officers planting bullets in the bags of travelers at the airport in Manila then demanding payment to 'overlook' it. For some of us this is normal and expected. I grew in Canada and back in the 80s we knew the cops were planting drugs, beating up people (happened to me at 15!), harassing anybody under 30 frequently, etc etc. All directed at us non-whites (we were just 'foreigners' whether born here or not). After 30+ years of that treatment at home nothing surprises me abroad.

[sukumvit boy]

Whoa , last year in Manila !? You are indeed an intrepid traveler.
Fortunately , you have Toronto to come home to , which always impressed as one of the most 'civilized' cities in this hemisphere.

I enjoyed hearing from someone familiar with "Stickman Weekly". Still going strong , published weekly since 2001! I thought he was going to throw in the towel and retire back to his home in New Zealand last year but now I see that he has completely upgraded the site.
And going waaay back , for us old Asia hands , in his last column Stickman had a photo of Bernard Trink with links to an excellent 2 part interview with Trink . Trink's "Night Owl" column ran in the Bangkok Post for 34 years .
970935

[runningdownthatdream]

Whoa , last year in Manila !? You are indeed an intrepid traveler.
Fortunately , you have Toronto to come home to , which always impressed as one of the most 'civilized' cities in this hemisphere.

I enjoyed hearing from someone familiar with "Stickman Weekly". Still going strong , published weekly since 2001! I thought he was going to throw in the towel and retire back to his home in New Zealand last year but now I see that he has completely upgraded the site.
And going waaay back , for us old Asia hands , in his last column Stickman had a photo of Bernard Trink with links to an excellent 2 part interview with Trink . Trink's "Night Owl" column ran in the Bangkok Post for 34 years .
970935

I've spent about 18 months total in PI over the past few years. Aiming to be there fulltime sometime in the not too distant future. Toronto is a nice city but I'm over it. A huge reason for that is that - from a cultural perspective - it's in a neverending state of flux.Toronto today isn't the Toronto of 20 years ago or 10 years ago. And within 5 years it will be even more unrecognizable.

Hadn't been to Stickman in a while but I'll revisit again today!