Ice (as in the cold stuff for your drink)

I have read various reports on the safety of ice in Thailand, but just can see how a G&T can be the same with out it.

Is ice safe or are you likely to get a huge dose of the shit and spew?

I suppose it depends on where you go, but say some of the bars like Dick's Pub, telephone, balcony or DJ Station would be safe ????

Can someone please provide advice ? an

Can you get Bombay Sapphire, if not what is the reccomended gin of choice for a discerning queen ?

Most of the establishments mentioned would be relatively safe with their ice as it is made in house, but in Thailand nothing is 100% safe when it comes down to it. Never have ice from a vendor or small Thai restaurant as most buy it in so you can never be sure of the source, and they are also known to handle it with bare hands.

Bombay Gin is available from the bars in Soi 4.

Bars and restaurants need a seperate license to serve ice in thier drinks. Ice comes daily from a secure distributor. Everyone buys from them.
The only concern you might have but I doubt it is how they keep thier ice bin cleaned.
Hope that helps.
:love4:

[mahjongguy]

Anybody can be unlucky but generally ice is not an issue here.

The only warning I would give regarding liquid refreshments concerns fresh squeezed orange juice from street vendors. Yes it is fresh but it's often not clean. Tourists who are carefully avoiding iced drinks often buy it and wonder how they got sick. The small greenish oranges here look awful but taste great. Buy some, rinse them well, and squeeze them yourself. Otherwise you'd best settle for the pasteurised stuff from the store.

[Marsilius]

I once saw a dog pissing vigorously against a very large block of ice delivered to and left in an alleyway next to a bar in Bangkok. No-one else saw the incident. Shortly afterwards one of the staff emerged, cut off part of the block and took it inside, presumably to use in the bar.

By the way, in the UK the queens' gin of choice is Hendricks, served with a slice of cucumber rather than lemon or lime.

[stevehadders]

Hendricks is good, but Plymouth Gin is my gin of choice amongst the so called luxury gins..... Bombay is well marketed mass gin, although tasty if the old Plymouth not available

I once saw a dog pissing vigorously against a very large block of ice delivered to and left in an alleyway next to a bar in Bangkok. No-one else saw the incident. Shortly afterwards one of the staff emerged, cut off part of the block and took it inside, presumably to use in the bar.

By the way, in the UK the queens' gin of choice is Hendricks, served with a slice of cucumber rather than lemon or lime.

Well I am not saying you are wrong but I find it hard to swallow (pardon the expression). Also, I cant see what a BAR would have a large square block of ice being delivered for as they have a license to serve cubed ice and I dont see anyone getting a BLOCK of ice and having thier staff sit there and break it all in cubes for drinks. At the most it may have been to keep the bottles cold in the refrigerator. Maybe it was on the fritz.

Our GIN that we serve for Gin and Tonic is Tanqurey or Bombay, your choice at no additional charge. Both are an excellent upper shelf gin without going over the top and trying to bring in playmouth at 4 times the cost. No bar can afford that and the customers seem very surprised at the Tanqurey or Bombay selection rather than Gibleys or Gordons. We serve it with a slice of lime and I have never had anyone request a cucumber instead or even make the suggestion, and I serve tons of customers from the UK.

[newalaan]

I have read various reports on the safety of ice in Thailand, but just can see how a G&T can be the same with out it.When i first started vsiting Thailand it was something which i thought could lead to problems, but after 11 years with multiple trips and countless G&Ts and other drinks with ice i cannot think of a single instance where i could put an upset tummy specifically down to the ice.

I've had ice in bars, restaurants, roadside food stalls and in my bfs village hundreds of times and i would say this would be one of the least areas for concern compared to all the other potential sources of tummy bugs in Thailand. Of course it also depends on your own constitution.

In all these years i have had only one definite severe case of the runs lasting two days and I know that was after we hired a boat for a day out to Ko Larn, we anchored off the island and the boys swam, snorkled and played around in the water, and also fished from the boat, we consumed all the fish caught, the fish were prepared and cooked by the captain and the two other crew, there were also chicken and other foods cooked/grilled and I'm certain a combination of cross-contamination and the crew/captain engaging in work then preparing the food without proper cleaning was to blame. So I wouldn't be concerned about the ice.


Can you get Bombay Sapphire, if not what is the reccomended gin of choice for a discerning queen ?As already noted Bombay is one of the brands available in bars. Personally I don't have a favourite Gin brand, when its mixed with Tonic Water i find it impossible to know (or care)which brand i'm drinking, if it has a decent measure of gin and therefore enough taste i'm happy,(unlike the Gin/measure in BzBzBz and most of the Pattayaland agogo bars) i like the taste of all types of Gin and really just drink it as an alternative to the Whiskey and beer in Thailand. The last 'brand' i actually took note of the taste was Tesco Finest which was amongst the left over bottles at a recent party. I have found brand market leaders, and the more expensive brands of whatever spirit or wine, are not always any guarantee as to being the best taste for me.

... I have never had anyone request a cucumber.....


It's Pattaya
They're queens
It's only a matter of time

:sign5:

Yes Scottish, but the cucumber is supposed to go in the drink!
:sign5:

... I have never had anyone request a cucumber.....


It's Pattaya
They're queens
It's only a matter of time

:sign5:


Scottish-guy,

When did Priscilla 'Queen of the prostitutes' say you could use her image on your avator??? :laughing3: :laughing3: :laughing3:

LOL

Thanks for the good humored and informative advice

Simon

[soi_toi]

To each their own but I've never hesitated to order a drink made with ice whether it be in a restaurant, at a bar or on the beach; I'm aware of the risk.

Every trip, except for one (4/5) I've returned home with an upset tummy, was tested and diagnosed with Entamoeba histolytica. I cannot say for certain where I ingested these delightful little creatures, but I just deal with it and take the nasty pills the doctor prescribes.
My doctors tells me there's a debate as to whether these bugs are actually harmful and if there's a need to be treated or if the body will eventually take care of them. What I do know is the Metronidazole is nasty and is taken for ten days. The alternative, Tinidazole, had less side effects for me and was just as effective. I have started taking Dukarol before every trip with hopes that it will ward off some of these nasty demons.

http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/amebiasis/faqs.html
http://www.merckmanuals.com/home/sec17/ ... h196b.html (http://www.merckmanuals.com/home/sec17/ch196/ch196b.html)

I use a laundry service in Wendy House, close to Jim Thomson house, located down a soi next to National Station BTS (Soi 1 off Rama I). Anyone who happens to be walking down this particular soi in the morning will see group of guys crushing ice out of a carport, packing it in sacks, loading it onto whatever transport they're using and whisking it off to who knows where. I can only wonder where the water comes from to make the ice blocks, how or if they sanitize their equipment and if the sacks they're using ever get cleaned properly. The packaged product looks similar to any other sack of ice delivered being delivered to various restaurants and bars around town.

Larger hotels might have clean ice, but who really know in Thailand - almost everyone is out to make and or save, a baht.

Scottish-guy,

When did Priscilla 'Queen of the prostitutes' say you could use her image on your avator??? :laughing3: :laughing3: :laughing3:

Kevin, the pic is actually of a pretty famous drag queen who I have seen in at least 2 hollywood movies (in the 70s admittedly - that pic is much more recent)

A prize to anybody who can identify him/her.

:hello2: :hello2:

[kittyboy]

Scottish-guy,

When did Priscilla 'Queen of the prostitutes' say you could use her image on your avator??? :laughing3: :laughing3: :laughing3:

Kevin, the pic is actually of a pretty famous drag queen who I have seen in at least 2 hollywood movies (in the 70s admittedly - that pic is much more recent)

A prize to anybody who can identify him/her.

:hello2: :hello2:

It sort of looks like Patrick Swayze from To Wong Foo.
I suspect that I am not even close.

Anyone who happens to be walking down this particular soi in the morning will see group of guys crushing ice out of a carport, packing it in sacks, loading it onto whatever transport they're using and whisking it off to who knows where. I can only wonder where the water comes from to make the ice blocks, how or if they sanitize their equipment and if the sacks they're using ever get cleaned properly. The packaged product looks similar to any other sack of ice delivered being delivered to various restaurants and bars around town. Larger hotels might have clean ice, but who really know in Thailand - almost everyone is out to make and or save, a baht.

Oh my dear this is getting quite boring. As I said before and I will say it again, the ice used in restaurants and bars is delivered by LICENCED water companies to LICENCED restaurants and bars. Have you ever thought that they were chopping up ice and putting it into bags to keep thier meat or fish cold before cooking it? There are many reasons why companies get ice and use it in any one of a sort of way.

If you want to cause alarm, point out how drinking ice is stored or the wash water for dhishes on the beach!! Oh my God the beach, dont get me started!
And the street vendors you all go to for those snacks and the garage type eating establishments that have that fresh LOOKING food outside in the heat waiting for you to select it before they cook it.

Sweetie, dont worry about the reaurants or bars ice!

Unkie - aren't you being a little naive?

Whilst I am certain that YOUR bar buys ice from licensed companies - as any REPUTABLE bar will - I think it is a bit of a leap to insist that EVERY bar is so scrupulous. Human nature and the profit motive being what it is, I would say it's almost a racing certainty that some bars will shove any old shit in your drink without giving it a second thought.

From personal experience I suspect that some of the bars in Sunnee refill the water bottles with tap water (broken seals) so I struggle to believe that they would be averse to cutting corners with the ice.

Saying that the street food presents greater hazards may be true but it's a bit like saying "Don't worry about catching syphillis - you could catch herpes"

:occasion9:

[soi_toi]

Oh my dear this is getting quite boring. As I said before and I will say it again, the ice used in restaurants and bars is delivered by LICENCED water companies to LICENCED restaurants and bars. Have you ever thought that they were chopping up ice and putting it into bags to keep thier meat or fish cold before cooking it? There are many reasons why companies get ice and use it in any one of a sort of way.

If you want to cause alarm, point out how drinking ice is stored or the wash water for dhishes on the beach!! Oh my God the beach, dont get me started!
And the street vendors you all go to for those snacks and the garage type eating establishments that have that fresh LOOKING food outside in the heat waiting for you to select it before they cook it.

Sweetie, dont worry about the reaurants or bars ice!

I can't tell if your just delusional, naive or if your trolling.....

I would never kid myself (don't care what you do) into believing that a LICENSE (wow license) means anything in Thailand nor anywhere else in the world.
I would never for a second believe that just because someone holds a license to make ice that they know how to make it safely, care about making it safely or use purified water 100% of the time.

I do recall seeing water companies delivering jugs of water and bags of ice now that you mention it. However, two questions still remain - Does every bar, restaurant and food cart buy their ice from a licensed water company? How can you tell which ones do and which ones don't?

I remember sitting at Dick's Cafe late one afternoon and watching a delivery guy pull up on one of those modified bikes. He hauled these generic looking sacks of ice up to Dream Boys. What kind of meat did you say they had on display up there?

You can believe whatever you want, I'm only sharing with you all what I've see with my own eyes and anyone is free to wander on down to check it out for themselves.

I for one, won't take the word of an anonymous forum character and believe for a moment that a license carries much weight, much less believe in a blanket statement that all bars and restaurants only get ice from licensed companies.

I'll still have that overpriced, watered down drink when I go to Dream Boys, but I won't kid myself to believe that the ice is 100% clean or that it won't ever make me sick.

OK, call "me" delusional. For 99.9% of all the reputable places and even unreputable places to fill small bottles of drinking water with tap water, when proper bottled water is less than 4 baht and they charge so much that it isnt't worth it even to think about...... or to think that a "block" of ice is that much less expensive than a bag of cubed ice for 15 baht? I really believe that there are teams of small Thai boys that are sitting there for hours, chipping away at a few blocks of ice to make small cubed ice for your drinks in order to save 1 baht! Or maybe the fact is that the machines to make this amount of block ice and the room that they need in order to operate them is a very large space. The amount of space to operate an ice machine for cubed ice is so much less, but the machine is so very expensive, that is to make a quantity of ice, that I just cannot fathom, even the cheapest Thai, that they have gone to that much effort, spend that much on electric, water etc., just to save 1 or 2 baht, rather than buy bags from a vendor and be done with it.
And yes, I mentioned in my FIRST post that I would be more concerned with the way bars, restaurants and stalls "store" thier ice and wash thier glasses, plates and things then I would be from the ice itself.
thank you. I will be dellusional my way and you be yours.
:love4:

Let's pretend that a license actually means something and that the government even runs spot checks and tests on water and ice production and enforces the manufacturing standards. Let's also assume that delivery is always 100% safe and sanitary. Let's also take another leap of faith and assume that all licensed establishments store the ice in properly maintained and disinfected containers. And we will assume that said government also inspects and test these establishments to ensure that storage of ice meets their rigorous standards. Now remember what country we are talking about.

Now what happens when the bar or restaurant washes their glasses in tap water? Or that the staff touch the ice with their hands?

Given all the ifs that would have to be met I can't imagine that licensed bars and restaurants are all that much safer than a street stall. To think or say otherwise would be idiotic.

[allieb]

Everybody seems so worried about hygiene and the health hazards of Ice. How many of you give a second thought to sucking a dick with traces of urine on it or licking an asshole, given what comes out of it?

G
Everybody seems so worried about hygiene and the health hazards of Ice. How many of you give a second thought to sucking a dick with traces of urine on it or licking an asshole, given what comes out of it?

Hi

And the boy says........Ice and a slice???
:alc:

... the pic is actually of a pretty famous drag queen who I have seen in at least 2 hollywood movies (in the 70s admittedly - that pic is much more recent)

A prize to anybody who can identify him/her.

:hello2: :hello2:

It sort of looks like Patrick Swayze from To Wong Foo.
I suspect that I am not even close.

Sorry, no.

:hello1:

[Patexpat]

Can't believe I'm bothering contributing to this, but here goes. Most ice in bars and restaurants is cylindrical, with a hole in the middle. The companies using these ice making machines use reverse osmosis to achieve safe drinking water. Chunks and slivers of ice in my drink I would be very suspicious of ... that type of ice is used for keeping food stuffs cool (fish, for example) and should not be consumed.

[thonglor55]

Surely it's obvious that people who have phobias such as that exhibited by the OP of this thread should stay in their own country and not move outside their comfort zone. Were I Beachlover I might be suggesting that SimonAU is the latest incarnation of Beachlover's old sweetheart homintern.

[anonone]

Surely it's obvious that people who have phobias such as that exhibited by the OP of this thread should stay in their own country and not move outside their comfort zone.

Spot on. Unless your immune system is already compromised, I just cannot see this being such a big deal. I eat street food. I eat at the beach. I have ice in drinks. I have not had any trouble with any of it.

The OP did not make a big deal of it - he simply asked a question and the usual "keyboard gangsters" jumped on his head for asking it.

:occasion9:

[Beachlover]

I think the ice from restaurants and bars is fine to consume. There's a small possibility you'll get unlucky but I don't think it's worth inconveniencing yourself to avoid this because you can get a stomach bug from food and plenty of other sources too.

The only time I was taken down with a stomach bug in Thailand for a day or two was when the only thing I did differently was have a few of those fruit frappe/shake things at Chatuchak Market. I'd made a note not to do this as I'd heard rumors they can be risky but it was such a hot day so I let the discipline drop... still no way to be sure that was the cause.


Bars and restaurants need a seperate license to serve ice in thier drinks. Ice comes daily from a secure distributor. Everyone buys from them.
The only concern you might have but I doubt it is how they keep thier ice bin cleaned.
Interesting to know this... I know it's no guarantee but nice to know there's a system for ensuring safe ice is used.


The only warning I would give regarding liquid refreshments concerns fresh squeezed orange juice from street vendors. Yes it is fresh but it's often not clean. Tourists who are carefully avoiding iced drinks often buy it and wonder how they got sick. The small greenish oranges here look awful but taste great.
A boy I was seeing bought me 3-4 of these cups of fresh green orange juice from various vendors while we were walking around Chinatown on a hot day. They were delicious and I had no problems after. They were squeezed on the spot and the utensils looked clean.

Bars and restaurants need a seperate license to serve ice in thier drinks. Ice comes daily from a secure distributor. Everyone buys from them.
The only concern you might have but I doubt it is how they keep thier ice bin cleaned.
Interesting to know this... I know it's no guarantee but nice to know there's a system for ensuring safe ice is used.

I have a licence to drive a car - doesn't ensure I'll do it safely.

:occasion9:

[dab69]

Anybody can be unlucky but generally ice is not an issue here.

The only warning I would give regarding liquid refreshments concerns fresh squeezed orange juice from street vendors. Yes it is fresh but it's often not clean. Tourists who are carefully avoiding iced drinks often buy it and wonder how they got sick. The small greenish oranges here look awful but taste great. Buy some, rinse them well, and squeeze them yourself. Otherwise you'd best settle for the pasteurised stuff from the store.

LOVE the fresh squeezed orange juice in Pattaya.
Bought 4 larger comtainers to bring back in my luggage in BKK,
but found they tasted awful, like they were 25% carbonate. ewww.
tossed them out.

Hi

Tom yam kung, Larb moo, eating on the street,dirty ice, dirty sleazy bars,.chak wow shows,Bring it on!!!

AMAZING THAILAND :evil4:

[kittyboy]

[quote="scottish-guy":1ivsdl2i]... the pic is actually of a pretty famous drag queen who I have seen in at least 2 hollywood movies (in the 70s admittedly - that pic is much more recent)

A prize to anybody who can identify him/her.

:hello2: :hello2:

It sort of looks like Patrick Swayze from To Wong Foo.
I suspect that I am not even close.

Sorry, no.

:hello1:[/quote:1ivsdl2i]


It looks a bit like Swayze dolled up in "To Wang Foo" but the movie was much later than the time frame you mentioned.
OK one more bad guess...I looks a bit like Harvey Firestein...on a good day..of course he did not have many of those.

He has a face that would sterilize water...(just trying to relate my post to the topic of clean versus unclean water..Thoughtful of me I think.)

[thonglor55]

He has a face that would sterilize water...You're speaking of combat, right?

and the utensils looked clean.

I'm sure Typhoid Mary looked clean too.

[netrix]

* yawn *