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Just want to tell you guys really nice thread, my long-time girlfriend is an international student from Thailand and I'm finally making the trek over there this summer to see it. But, being a Thai citizen she doesn't really realize there's crap I need to know/do about visas, shots etc. (it'll be a three/four-week trip so that free 30-day visa sounds great), so thanks for the advice and I'll be reading this thread some more in the coming months (trip will be late July/early August?). And maybe I'll remember to write down some stuff and share it with you all? She's really excited to show me her home country and I'm sure she'll have some great advice for me to pass along. Also, according to her there are nationalist groups for red, yellow, blue and white now  but I don't know how prevalent each is, or what they're fighting for (I read about it like a year ago and forgot)
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Apr 12, 2010 04:31
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Ringo R posted:/\/\ - Going to Thailand with a girlfriend = fail. Nah, just kidding (sort of). Be prepared to eat some interesting food. Don't think eating at Thai restaurants back home will prepare you for it.  Plus we actually never eat Thai food unless she makes it, so I've had the poo poo burnt out of my mouth many times before.I'm getting so excited just talking about it 
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Apr 12, 2010 17:25
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I'm so conflicted on all these protests. On the one hand I'm afraid of being in Thailand when some serious poo poo goes down, but on the other hand the price for a plane ticket dropped 100-some bucks in the past week. And I'll be staying with my girlfriend's family about four hours north of Bangkok. Thanks for the blog Tran, I'll check it sometime. I need a foreigner's experience going there, my girlfriend is from Thailand but it's just home to her and not some mystical land.
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May 4, 2010 02:17
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So according to my girlfriend's parents the Thai military is really starting to lay into the protesters; I guess they burned down the biggest department store in the city so all bets are off or something. They think everything will be back to normal soon.
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May 22, 2010 06:52
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Going to Thailand in a month and looking for a couple bits of reassurance: -I'm looking at the list of recommended vaccines and I'm clear on everything except HepA, which I can't remember ever getting and don't think I'll have time to grab. I'll be with my girlfriend and her family (who are natives) the whole time, eating food they make or take me to. Is this bug something I'd really have to worry about if we're traveling pretty much to only cities? Or is HepA something that people normally get vaccinated for here, and I just forgot I had it? Vomiting blood all over their house is probably not the best way to meet my girlfriend's dad. -Pretty sure this is what's been said, but just checking so I have time to fix it if need be- as a U.S. citizen I can get a free 30-day visa just for getting there, correct?
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Jun 16, 2010 03:13
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^^As far as I know, yes. I went to Germany for Study Abroad a couple years ago and I got a few different things updatedReindeerF posted:I agree on this, even though I live here and haven't had mine renewed or updated or whatever. The only thing I can think to add is that some of these vaccines take, say, a month to become active, so you'll want to get it ahead of time if it's one of those. Google around. If I recall, Hep A is the one where you get one shot and get another six months later and then it's good for like a decade or something. Don't believe any of that, but it's worth looking into the reality because it's easy if that's the case. Like I said I go in a month so I don't have time to get a sequence of shots but that post said that just the first shot for HepA is 75% effective, and I'm not going to be hiking around villages the whole time. Like I said though I may have all of those, I know I've gotten shots for some form Hepatitis in the last few years so I need to talk to my parents first. Thanks for the tips.
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Jun 17, 2010 01:01
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Sheep-Goats posted:Hep A is not a normal vaccine in the US (apart from HIV positive gay men). If you can't get it then whatever, you'll probably be fine, and Hep A isn't a lifelong illness like Hep B is so being vaccinated for it isn't a question of life or death. I ordered an immunization record from my old doctor and son of a bitch, I'm good on HepA but my last HepB was in '98. I could've sworn I got shots for something recently (I stopped with this doctor in '07) so I guess I have more research to do.
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Jun 19, 2010 22:49
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Sheep-Goats posted:Hep A is transmitted mainly by eating poo poo. Hep B, on the other hand, is usually transmitted through the usual blood born channels, so if you're worried about Hep B wear a condom and don't share drug needles. I don't do heroin etc. and am going with my lovely Thai girlfriend of 2 1/2 years (if she had HepB I'd know by now ), so that makes me feel pretty good. Thanks! Honestly I'm a little nervous to go and I think it's manifesting itself in all these concerns; I met her mom last September and she seemed to like me, but I haven't met her dad yet, only a couple hellos over Skype. Plus her grandparents on one side want her to be dating a nice Asian boy instead of the white devil, and I think they're one of the first stops on our tour  It will probably be OK and I can't wait to go though.
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Jun 22, 2010 00:00
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What's the voltage on Thai outlets? My girlfriend told me that they're the same shape as in the US but tells me they're higher voltage. Was debating about bringing my electric razor but I don't think it has a voltage converter. Also she's trying to talk me out of bringing my laptop.
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Jul 9, 2010 01:02
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Pro-PRC Laowai posted:220v 50hz. laptop should work just fine. She doesn't want me to bring it because I'll spend all my time on it Also the internet at her house isn't wireless. I'm still debating but I only really need it to upload pictures. I can't possibly take 200 pictures in a month, right? Maybe I should just buy another memory card.
C-Euro fucked around with this message at 03:43 on Jul 9, 2010 |
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Jul 9, 2010 03:37
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Oh God I leave tomorrow Are the outlets in Thailand the same shape as U.S. outlets? My girlfriend insists they are but I keep seeing adapters for Asian outlets.
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Jul 14, 2010 16:32
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Oh man I'm here, and it owns. Brought my Droid with me so I can grab the wireless my girlfriend forgot to tell me about. One piece of advice for anyone going to Thailand- make friends/travel with locals. Moreso than any country I've been to, Thais will show you all the best sights and where all the best food is. Hope you're OK with them shoving it onto your plate though. I've been writing in my journal and her mom's laptop has an SD card slot, so I will try to show off a couple pictures while I'm here. what's the best image host?
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Jul 19, 2010 09:08
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Crivens posted:Silly traveller question no.81238: how convenient is it to buy batteries in various SEA countries? Easy from what I can tell. I just brought rechargeables though, the charger has a voltage converter on it and the outlets are a mix between NA and European plugs, so it works.
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Jul 31, 2010 17:59
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Thailand still owns, but a couple of suggestions from someone who's there- -"Finger your poophole" is a little inaccurate in the OP. Most bathrooms I've used have had a sprayer akin to one you find on a sink, and you just blast your butthole with that (feels good man). And if a place gets any sort of tourism, it will have a single, probably half-gone roll of toilet paper. You have to go pretty far out to get the whole splash yourself experience. You can buy TP here too, of course. -Speaking of poop, for the love of God bring those poo pills the OP mentions. I'm pushing 48 hours on a diarrhea bender and while it's gotten a lot better, that's still two days without a solid turd AND that's on top of 36-hour stint I had about a week ago. I'd be worried that I have some terrible disease but my girlfriend's dad got it too shortly after my first bout (he eats about 6000 calories a day though so who knows), and I feel fine otherwise. To be safe, avoid dairy if you can; I think what did me in were these drinkable yogurts that are kind of runny, can't recall the name. If anyone knows of some meds I can get here to solidify my poop, that'd be...well, solid. -Make friends with locals. They can tell you where all the best stuff is and help you avoid the worst (like nasty street vendors). Thai people are also very close-knit and you never know what sort of connections they may have; a college buddy of my girlfriend's dad hooked us up with second-row tickets to Alcazar Cabaret in Pattaya. Google it, it's...something. C-Euro fucked around with this message at 15:57 on Aug 2, 2010 |
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Aug 2, 2010 14:29
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Ringo R posted:
Apart from her shitheel brother that her parents refuse to discipline (nothing new to me, he lived with her in the States for the past year), things are great. Pattaya was a week ago and we were gonna go to Chiang Mai this past weekend, but her dad was sick of driving so we've been bumming around the area around her hometown Phitsanulok. Nice place, it was the first capitol of Thailand so there's a lot of historic stuff around, which I dig. It's also halfway between Burma and Cambodia, as well as being the point where the "mountainous North" begins. So there's a lot to do. Also I was reminded just now that there's a pair of geckos living in my room, either in the curtain mounts or the AC unit. And a bird built a nest right on my window so I can't just chase them out that way  They make this horrible, loud lizard chirp too.
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Aug 2, 2010 19:39
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So how's your girlfriend family treating you? Are you in Pattaya?
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I don't know where else to post this, but yesterday on my run I ran past an old Asian guy in what I can only guess are Buddhist monk robes (red with saffron highlights and a saffron sash). Thanks to going to Thailand to visit my girlfriend's family last summer, my first instinct was to throw up a wai at him as I ran past. And then my first thought afterwords wasn't "He probably thinks I'm a weirdo", but rather "poo poo, I didn't do it high enough." My girlfriend made fun of me when I told her about it
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Aug 31, 2011 23:37
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I know there's a post about it at the start of the thread, but do you all have any recommended places on the internet to learn Thai? My girlfriend's family is coming from there to visit us this spring/summer, and while they have a little bit of English that they can speak I want to have a little Thai to match and my girlfriend has given up on teaching me herself. I actually checked out Rosetta Stone for that but they don't have a Thai version. Also if anyone wants to teach me how to say "hey I'd like to marry your daughter, is that cool?" then I'd be really grateful, because the current plan is to ask her dad that while he's here. 
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Feb 27, 2014 05:16
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Another Thai language/culture question! I just found out that my girlfriend's maternal grandfather passed away , and because I met him once and my GF's mom likes me I want to express my sympathies to them. Obviously I can't drop two grand to fly there and give them flowers, but they Skype a lot so what's a good way to say something like "I'm really sorry for your loss, he's in a better place" etc.?
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Mar 4, 2014 03:26
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The Saddest Rhino posted:Pattaya is practically Mainland China central now, don't go there. Speaking of Pattaya and ladyboys (and because I think they referenced it in the article), I just remembered that I got to see the Alcazar cabaret show when I was there a few years ago and it loving insane. Second row too, not sure what my GF's dad had to do to get tickets like that.
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Mar 6, 2014 04:39
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My girlfriend's parents are in the U.S. from Thailand for a few weeks to visit, and after I brought them back from the airport the first thing they did was to open their suitcase and give me a grocery bag with a dozen bags of Crispy M&Ms in it, my favorite candy that they don't make in the U.S. anymore  God I hope they let me marry their daughter, I will have the coolest in-laws ever.
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Jun 18, 2014 03:59
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After dating my college sweetheart for seven years, we got engaged last month!  Now we are flying to her home country of Thailand this December to do an engagement ceremony over there, which is exciting but I'm nervous because it's a big trip. I was there for a month in 2010 for a post-college vacation and I'm trying to remember all the stuff I did to prepare last time. My passport is still good and I know I can get a 30-day visa over there, if I got some of the goon-recommeneded shots when I went over there last time would any still be effective today? What else am I forgetting? I can only get two weeks off to go there, if it matters.
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Nov 3, 2014 00:51
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Sheep-Goats posted:Two weeks isn't a lot of time once you factor in Thai family stuff on her end. Maybe you can fit in a few days of actual vacation here or there. Where is her family from? I'm using just about an entire year's worth of vacation days for this trip, and that includes holidays for Christmas and New Year's (the day after I booked it, I learned that one of our options for a holiday bonus at work is four extra days  ). We're also flying back New Year's Eve because while I really want to see New Year's in another country, flying back those first few days in January would jack up my plane ticket another grand, when I already am working up a pitch to get them to help pay for part of my ticket since the ceremony was their idea (they are loaded so my fiance thinks we can convince them). As for her family, she grew up in Phitsanulok but a lot of her extended family is in Bangkok. She's also going there two weeks ahead of me since she'll be on break from university so hopefully she takes care of all her boring stuff first?ReindeerF posted:It's a Thai-Chinese family, what can I say? It's like saying, "This Lebanese-American family..." When citing the two stooges set up for the Koh Tao murders should I refer to them as "the foreign suspects" or can I say that they're Burmese? Heh. Actually they are Thai-Chinese My future BIL has mellowed out somewhat since then, especially since he's finished college and is now living back in Thailand. Also her parents are in real estate, and after realizing his main loves are anime, video games, and bodybuilding they had a gym built in their newest housing complex so he could run it  I thought that was a clever way to get him working.
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Nov 5, 2014 02:34
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ReindeerF posted:Hah, yeah. This is the classic thing people with means do for the family idiot here. Countless unnecessary coffee shops, dessert shops, corner stores and so on, all to give the black sheep some semblance of dignity. Admittedly this is the first community gym I've heard of, so that's a new one. The community sure is lucky that their developer had a moron child interested in bodybuilding and not, say, embroidery! Their/his gym? Nope.
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Nov 5, 2014 06:19
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My fiance can only cook curry, pad thai, and some weird from-scratch vegetable/noodle/egg soup she loves mostly because she puts a tablespoon of crushed red pepper on every bowl she eats. Granted the curry/curries and pad thai are delicious but the soup is basically boiled veggies which I just don't understand, especially since after she cooks it she will leave it sitting out on the stove for a couple days  Thai food has one thing going for it though, and that's these bad boys-  Last time I was there I ate way more of these than any sane adult should. Crispy M&Ms too, but they have those in other countries and I hear they're bringing them back to the U.S. in January?
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Nov 7, 2014 03:30
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This is a weird question, but what's the general state of dentistry in Thailand? I went to one here in the US today and I have a few fillings I need done, I told my fiance and the first thing out of her mouth was "get them filled in Thailand next month!" She says her dentist back home is a good friend of her parents' and claims they're one of the best in their region, and that it would cost "like $100 or something". It seems totally crazy to travel halfway around the world for dental work, right?
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Nov 16, 2014 04:16
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What are the electrical outlets like in Thailand? Same shape as in the U.S. but 220v?
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Dec 4, 2014 05:51
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My fiancee and I were talking the other day and she gave me a rough outline of my itinerary while I'm there, I guess it'll be two or three days in Bangkok, then two(?) days in Pattaya with her close friend, then flying to Chiang Mai for two or three days before posting up with her parents in Phitsanulok for the remainder of my stay. Is there anything I should suggest that a Thai native wouldn't think to take a visitor to, or do I hold on for dear life and trust her to get me through that footrace in the most interesting manner?
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Dec 8, 2014 06:19
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Talked to my fiancee again last night, and I guess we're not going to do the engagement ceremony that was the whole purpose of me going over there right now  I guess we're going to do it before our wedding ceremony over there next year, despite most of her family living in her hometown. On the bright side, she's hiring a wedding planner over there and she got an estimate of $3000 for the whole thing, so that's nice.
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Dec 9, 2014 13:51
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Having been to Thailand but not Phuket, what makes it a shithole? Just too over-saturated with tourists and tourist traps?
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Dec 11, 2014 05:21
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What's the deal with the Thai obsession over nutritional supplements? The last few time my fiancee has gone back to see her family, her bag has been half-filled with multivitamins, Gatorade powder, and the like. I almost forgot about it until she asked me today to bring a few bottles of Centrum chewables for her dad, and when her brother was living with us he'd spend way too money on dietary and workout supplements. Do I just have weird, hyper health-conscious in-laws?
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Dec 13, 2014 04:35
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caberham posted:Vitamins are much cheaper in north America and overseas OK that makes sense. I've found it's also a good way to make sure I have extra luggage space on the return trip
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Dec 13, 2014 19:08
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Oh good, I'm three days out from my trip and entering the nervous, second-guessing part of my travel prep routine so that makes me feel better. It's probably a good idea to make a copy of my passport and flight schedule and throw them in my carry-on, right?
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Dec 14, 2014 18:48
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So I've been in Thailand for a few days and it's as amazing as I remember it, but "Thai iced tea" and "Thai boys" are dangerously close in pronunciation (at least for a non-native speaker like me) so be careful when going to a coffee shop. Luckily I found this out in the car with my fiancée's aunt and not in a shop. What is Thai iced tea made of anyway? Stuff is drat delicious with a little milk though I wish they didn't put so much ice in every drink here.
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Dec 23, 2014 12:01
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ReindeerF posted:We have now entered that entertaining period where Thailand has no idea what the difference is between New Year and Christmas and assume that because their celebrations last like a week that it must be all one big holiday for us too. We've got Santas blowing party whistles and wearing top hats and fake trees with "Happy New Year" banners strung over them and so on. Always a laugh. I kind of like it because this is my first Christmas away from home sine 2008 so it makes things feel a little more familiar to me, but at the same time I'm spending my Christmas going to the dentist and getting a massage with my future father in law so I'm not feeling super festive right now. I did buy myself some awesome knock-off Legos of comic book characters so I'm counting those as stocking presents to myself.
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Dec 25, 2014 02:09
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I haven't seen plastic wrap on remotes but all the light switches and power outlets in my fiancée's house are covered in the stuff. I haven't really thought about why. Horatius Bonar posted:Go to the Erawan Shrine and find out. Is that the one with the giant pink Ganesha statue on the river, with some other big colorful statues? If so I'll second this idea, but the five-headed rainbow-scaled dragon was my favorite one 
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Dec 27, 2014 11:13
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ReindeerF posted:It's one of those cultural things that is completely ridiculous, heh. Like putting ice in beer? That's the only thing that's come close to offending me on this trip, Chang is actually OK as far as macrobrews goes buy I can't imagine it being any good watered down even more than it already is
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Dec 27, 2014 13:42
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Eff you guys, I like Chang for what it is and every Thai person I've drank with on this trip likes it  I did promise a couple of my fiancée's friends I would take them on a beer tour if they came to visit us in the US, I'll show them what strong beer really is (I went to the international beer place in Asiatique on my first night here and was disappointed that they had no American beer on the menu)
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Dec 27, 2014 14:41
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Just drink your beer before it warms up, problem solved. Also forgot to mention, some little girl walked up to me in the mall on Christmas and wished me a merry Christmas I showed her pictures of snow that I had on my phone and she freaked out, it was really cute.
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Dec 28, 2014 04:09
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duckmaster posted:Just fly Nok Air, they paint their planes like birds. Pretty sure this works like go faster stripes and makes them fly better. I flew Nok Air from Bangkok to Phitsanulok a week ago, my plane was painted like a flamingo and they served Auntie Anne's for an in-flight snack, both pros in my book. Also not only did I mistake Leo for Chang earlier today, I said gently caress it and tried ice in said Leo and didn't notice much of a difference so don't take my advice on SE Asian beer I guess.
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Dec 28, 2014 14:21
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ReindeerF posted:Finally, some real Thailand experiences. I've been back in the US from Thailand for ~12 hours and just took my first solid bowel movement in at least a week  Also don't feel bad if you didn't go out, we are all super jetlagged so it's a nappin' NYC for us. We did walk by the Central World beer gardens in my first day of my trip, they looked pretty cool but yes loud as hell. We also brought a friend of my fiancée's back with us and it's really cute seeing her get excited by seeing her breath or a frozen pond (it was - 12C in Chicago when we landed here, welcome to America!)
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Jan 1, 2015 04:06
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