Fake booze in SE Asia

All this ad needs is some Billy Dee Williams.
All this ad needs is some Billy Dee Williams.

So I was talking about fake Absolut from Laos with the crew today, and it occurred to me that the last bottle of Heineken I had tasted a lot like piss, which is a trademark of the lowest levels of Thai brew (I’m looking at you, Red Horse). I wondered if people bother to adulterate/fake/fuck with tax stamps and lot markings on beer as well, and fired up the old Web Wombat (it’s an Aussie thang):

That video prompted this official response from Heineken: Tampering with Heineken® labels

Which led me to this vid:

Story here: Heineken ‘absolutely on top’ of fake beer threat after Vietnam gang bust

The two stories aren’t about the same incident, andnowI’mgettingsleepysonowittyconclusionforthispost, sorry.

What’s for Breakfast: Protein Explosion Edition

There just isn’t much variety when it comes to breakfast in Maha Sarakham. Most people eat grilled pork skewers and sticky rice or some variation of rice porridge. While delicious, these get quite boring.

If there’s time after dropping the kids off at school, we sometimes go eat lunch stuff for breakfast at one of the few places open that early, but most days we eat at home, because we make the best coffee in town (not terribly difficult).

Today, Nam fried up all the leftover meats in our fridge, including gyoza stuffing, sweet Chinese sausage, and pork floss (that Mina loves eating over rice, lol!). The eggs were also perfectly done. It all came together quite nicely.

Bigo Live, the Snapchat of SE Asia

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The Bigo Live app is just getting popular, it seems. After testing it for a day, I think this will shut down Snapchat in Thailand before it ever gets really started. Actually, I think if they can find a way to pay users, either through ad sharing or tipping, or a combination of both, this could possibly be a threat to Facebook. It just suits Thailand very well.

The downside? An even more unfair User Agreement than Facebook, which is saying a lot.

It is inspiring a lot of ideas!!