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Things I learned in Bangkok/Thailand: If you understand the whole "stop" thing that taxis and tuktuks do and have some time to kill, abuse the crap out of it for free rides. On the other hand, if the taxi in Phuket to the airport is insisting on taking a stop "on the way" and insisting that "there is enough time"... it will neither be on the way, nor will there be enough time. Ran into some poor bastard at the airport that fell for it, didn't pay the driver, but the driver probably made more from the 4 stops anyways. Other things I learned: Farang are basically all pinatas filled with money and everyone has a stick
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Oct 14, 2011 11:43
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Phuket is awful for the farang gouging. It's become internationally renowned for being a huge scam destination, so much so that the consuls in Phuket from a number of countries like Germany, The UK, Australia, etc, have started just holding press conferences to announce that the local government does nothing to address their continued demands and this has been followed by travel advisories. Personally, I'm hoping this catches on and Phuket's tourist economy is destroyed, but it's unlikely to happen. Parts of Samui can be really bad. I've heard Pattaya is bad, but haven't been. Specific parts of Bangkok are too. The vast majority of the country, including many places where tourists go, is really lovely to travel in and the Thai people you interact with tend to be pretty honest, of not ridiculously helpful. I've had a number of things that were just great. One night on Sukhumvit, I went into a store, came out 5 minutes later and a Thai woman was standing there staring at me. She reached out and handed me my ATM card and said, "You forget." with a smile. That kind of stuff happens enough that I'm pretty happy dealing with Thai people. In tourist areas, though, not so great, heh.
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Oct 14, 2011 13:11
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Pro-PRC Laowai posted:Things I learned in Bangkok/Thailand: Can you explain this please?
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Oct 14, 2011 15:07
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ReindeerF posted:11) Very important one! When walking down the sidewalk you may at first be frustrated by the absurdly disorderly pedestrian habits of Thai people, who do things like weave across a sidewalk directly into you for no reason, stop randomly and constantly for no apparent reason - often in doorways or on stairs - frequently do an immediate 180 in a busy sidewalk without any notice, walk 4 people abreast (particularly school kids) and love to just walk straight out of a doorway, alley or what have you and into a busy street without looking at all. It may sound completely counterintuitive, but the way to handle this is to walk wherever you're walking, but pretend not to pay attention to anything, like you're not looking forward. You'll find that magically everyone clears out of your way. It's a secret Thai code that most of us don't know. No I am not joking. It might sound silly but this is probably what's bothering me most about living in Bangkok at the moment. Having to deal with retarded walking everyday is insanely frustrating. I might just go mai ben rai one day and ignore it but most likely I'll end up suicide bombing myself on a busy street after years of putting up with the retard walk. Another thing that annoys the crap out of me is the obligatory one second stop-and-admire-the-escalator before stepping on it. Do they teach that in school or something?  Thanks for the replies on the Burma visa!
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Oct 14, 2011 16:43
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Ringo R posted:Another thing that annoys the crap out of me is the obligatory one second stop-and-admire-the-escalator before stepping on it The amount of time spent working up your nerves to step on to the escalator is exactly proportional to how many kilomet you had to travel to the South in order to visit your kids in Krungthep. The regular annoyance for me in Bangkok (other than the heat, of course) was the Thai ability to turn a ten foot wide sidewalk into a ten inch meander between soup stands, icee shops, fruit carts and CD and knicknack operations. Then they stud it with umbrellas that go about 5' 10" into the air and I'm 6' 3". Going down some sidewalks is like running one of those obstacle courses for dogs that you see on TV.
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Oct 14, 2011 16:57
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Crivens posted:Can you explain this please? Taxis and tuktuk drivers are intent on dragging farang off to tailors, gem stores, jewelry stores, etc, etc. If you start haggling over the price odds are pretty good that they'll offer a compromise of "1 stop" or "2 stops". First off... in Bangkok at least meter, always. That taxi sitting there outside the hotel? Ignore it, it's poo poo. Only take taxis that are in traffic already, stop for you and hit the meter. It is ALWAYS cheaper this way. That being said, these "stops" they so love to make compensate them for bringing farang to their doors. Most drivers seem to like the claim that it's "gas vouchers" or whatever. That's a lie, it's cash... different amounts for different types of stores. I'm sure if you're dumb enough to actually buy anything they get a percentage of that in addition to the fixed rates. This is why you get all that "The palace is closed today, but only 20 baht to go somewhere else" bullshit from the tuktuks the second you get off the boat out go through the market. They'll drag out out into the middle of nowhere to get their payoffs then take you to some utterly stupid temple thing and probably ditch you if you didn't buy anything. So if you're in a gambling mood, know the real fare, can bargain and know the game, yea... you can play along for the 5 minutes or so at <insert random indian tailor shop here>, run off with their beer and be home a little late, but for cheaper and with beer. I also heard a tale of someone getting in with a cabbie, running around to shop after shop and then splitting the profits. All the tailors are absolute poo poo, their material is poo poo, don't try anything on or they might decide that you damaged it, don't drink their water or anything else they offer. Almost all of it gets outsourced for about 200 baht a piece and the material is, like I said already, crap. I personally advise having a phone with google maps, 3G and GPS going so you can bitch out a cabbie for taking "the scenic route" when on the meter. Amazing how that 4km ride turned into 12 over and over again. That part aside, my other favorite bangkok scams are: The clothing rental right outside the gate (it's free inside) There is no public bus No ferries after noon.. but longtails a plenty
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Oct 14, 2011 17:29
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Pro-PRC Laowai posted:I personally advise having a phone with google maps, 3G and GPS going so you can bitch out a cabbie for taking "the scenic route" when on the meter. Amazing how that 4km ride turned into 12 over and over again. I just went with it, I'm on holiday, it's part of the whole tourist thingy. My cab driver hosed me over on the way to the station from KT road, but he shared some good snacks and we sang a song together. I enjoy that much more than getting into an argument everytime he doesn't follow google maps indicated route (btw he hosed me by intentionally steering into traffic I think). Tuktuks can go gently caress themselves. Do it once to experience of sucking on BKK traffics exhaust pipe, but i personally don't feel it's worth the hassle of negotiating about the stops, gas vouchers, ping pong shows, cheap alternative train tickets and what have you everytime.
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Oct 14, 2011 17:45
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Rojkir posted:I just went with it, I'm on holiday, it's part of the whole tourist thingy. My cab driver hosed me over on the way to the station from KT road, but he shared some good snacks and we sang a song together. I enjoy that much more than getting into an argument everytime he doesn't follow google maps indicated route (btw he hosed me by intentionally steering into traffic I think). Iunno, that's where it's different for me. Bitching out a scammer when it's not some huge amount of money that you actually care about is great fun. It's pretty win-win for you... at the very least you get a fun story out of it. We were just tired, in Chinatown, the wife had some heatstroke going on and all he had to do was go up 2 blocks, turn left and go across the bridge. Instead he decided to go find as much traffic as humanly possible, cross 2 bridges to the north and find more traffic on the way back down and then circled around lost. We just jumped out at the light grabbed a scam taxi for 50 baht with 1 stop, wasted some indian tailor's time, stole their beer and got back home. All in all, a great night.
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Oct 14, 2011 18:27
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Pro-PRC Laowai posted:Iunno, that's where it's different for me. Bitching out a scammer when it's not some huge amount of money that you actually care about is great fun. Ringo R posted:It might sound silly but this is probably what's bothering me most about living in Bangkok at the moment. Having to deal with retarded walking everyday is insanely frustrating. I might just go mai ben rai one day and ignore it but most likely I'll end up suicide bombing myself on a busy street after years of putting up with the retard walk. Another thing that annoys the crap out of me is the obligatory one second stop-and-admire-the-escalator before stepping on it. Do they teach that in school or something? On the walking, seriously, try it. You won't believe me until you do. Suddenly you find that everyone just flows around you. It's like you're Bruce Willis in Sixth Sense. ReindeerF fucked around with this message at 20:21 on Oct 14, 2011 |
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Oct 14, 2011 20:18
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I just spent the last week holed up in Soi Rambuttri recovering from Indian giardia, and I'm finally able to go do poo poo again. I'm planning to go to Australia in December, so I've got about 6 weeks in Southeast Asia. Plan A was to go north through Ayyuthaya, Sukhothai and Chiang Mai, then cross the border into Laos, go to Luang Prabang and Vientiane, go to Phnom Penh/Siem Reap via 4000 Islands, then back through the islands and Malaysia to get to a flight from Singapore. But of course half of that stuff is literally underwater right now. What should I do instead? I still want to go to all those places, but it doesn't necessarily have to be in that order, and I have no clue what's achievable in terms of where I can reasonably get to, say, tomorrow. Also all I've seen in Bangkok is the hospital clinic, everything within 6 blocks of Khao San, the Jade Buddha temple and the mall district where the American embassy is. I know I'm missing something, but the LP guide is surprisingly worthless on this front, the section on shopping alone is twice the length of the sightseeing suggestions in Bangkok. ReindeerF posted:On the walking, seriously, try it. You won't believe me until you do. Suddenly you find that everyone just flows around you. It's like you're Bruce Willis in Sixth Sense. Somewhere in Egypt after politely moving over to one side to avoid the only other pedestrian on the entire street only to have him declare ramming speed at three paces for the billionth time I just decided gently caress it, I'm not making the slightest effort to avoid walking into people anymore. I've been plowing blindly through other people similarly making no effort to avoid me for months now, which is a great way to take several continuous steps in a row in most of the world. But Bangkok is the first place I've been to in this hemisphere where I never actually collide with anyone. Not even the people who race in front of me and then immediately slow down. They can't even see me. I don't know how they do this, but I loving love it. Also this same advice works really well at discouraging touts. But it's a fine line between "too oblivious to notice I'm sharing the road with people who wish me to purchase things" and "so oblivious I surely won't miss all this money in my pocket", though.
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Oct 15, 2011 12:44
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So I'll be heading to KL and Thailand towards the end of the year, I've been there before, but this is the first one since I've become financially independent and I'm doing this with a couple of young guys (Aussies). We'll probably make more concrete plans closer to the date, but can anyone give a rough guide of things to do in Bangkok and where's a fairly decent but cheap place to stay for ~10 days? Any other generic advice on top of the normal travel sensibilities would be great.
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Oct 15, 2011 14:20
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Strand posted:So I'll be heading to KL and Thailand towards the end of the year, I've been there before, but this is the first one since I've become financially independent and I'm doing this with a couple of young guys (Aussies). We stayed here: http://theriversidebangkok.com/apartments.htm Great location, great view, great facilities and it beats any hotel hands down... right on the riverside. Works out to like 1700 baht a night for the weekly rate. Close to the subway and ya get free ferry rides across the river from the property's boat.
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Oct 15, 2011 15:18
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Rojkir posted:Tuktuks can go gently caress themselves. Do it once to experience of sucking on BKK traffics exhaust pipe, but i personally don't feel it's worth the hassle of negotiating about the stops, gas vouchers, ping pong shows, cheap alternative train tickets and what have you everytime. I love tuk tuks, you just have to find the right tuk tuk driver. Last time I was in BKK my two friends and I had a tuk tuk driver that was swigging something out of a bucket and driving at top speeds. He was also blaring Thai rock and singing along. All three of us were dancing in the back. Ahhh, fun times. I don't have much advice for getting around the touristy areas, other than for people to learn a little bit of Thai and be really nice to the Thai people. Remember that most of the time they see farang acting like assholes, so proving that you're different will often get you discounts and special treatment. At the Full Moon last week my friend and I got buckets for 200 baht instead of 350 because we took the time to speak to the girl running the stand.
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Oct 15, 2011 15:45
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Pro-PRC Laowai posted:We stayed here: It looks pretty good and cheap too. I'll give it a look. Regarding poo poo to do, what do people generally agree upon besides the usual touristy stuff like temple tours? I don't want to go too off the beaten path, but for a bunch of dumb college kids who want to try something new (no, not ping pong shows), it's really not like The Beach is it?
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Oct 15, 2011 15:58
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Strand posted:It looks pretty good and cheap too. I'll give it a look. http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3260679&pagenumber=62#post393768744 http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3260679&pagenumber=63#post394107980 There's so much to do in Bangkok that it's ridiculous and almost all of it is distinctly Thai, even Wat Khek and Yowarat. What exactly do you want to get mixed up in? Since you're Australian I assume you might be interested in watching a Rugby match and then getting into a punchup with some snooty Brits afterward but that's really all I have to go on. raton fucked around with this message at 17:32 on Oct 15, 2011 |
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Oct 15, 2011 17:24
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Thailand on the amazing race tonight!
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Oct 16, 2011 19:15
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Off to Myanmar in a few hours. I'll be there a week and a half. Dunno how much internet activity I'll be getting there but I'll try to post about it when I get back to BKK.
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Oct 17, 2011 07:29
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Bulging Nipples posted:Off to Myanmar in a few hours. I'll be there a week and a half. Dunno how much internet activity I'll be getting there but I'll try to post about it when I get back to BKK. I'll be there in a week. Let me know if you want to meet up (so I can learn from all your mistakes  ).For anyone going to apply for a Myanmar visa in Bangkok: you'll need two passport photos with a white background. They refused my blue background photos. The shop mentioned in eviljelly's blog can help you out (for a fee): http://reasonablepace.wordpress.com/2011/10/12/getting-our-myanmar-visa-from-bangkok-a-how-to/
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Oct 17, 2011 17:20
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Does anyone know a place to stay on Koh Phangan that doesn't have a 4-night minimum during the full moon party? Also is it worth going to the full moon party in the first place?
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Oct 18, 2011 09:18
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duralict posted:Does anyone know a place to stay on Koh Phangan that doesn't have a 4-night minimum during the full moon party? Also is it worth going to the full moon party in the first place? I stayed only one night at the Cookies' Salad Resort. It's on the opposite side of the island, but it's on top of a beautiful beach, far away from the hordes of Aussie hooligans and Ms. Cookies is extra nice (she even let me get into a room to take a shower and a nap when I arrived shitfaced the next afternoon). Full Moon Party... I wouldn't go there again, but I can't say I had a bad time. It's just a huge beach party where you drink buckets of Sang Som with Red Bull and wake up in a random Thai village the next day with locals feeding you fish and som tam.
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Oct 18, 2011 10:07
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I hate the music at the full moon party, I hate the number of people at the full moon party, I hate the type of people at the full moon party, and I hate the filth of a full moon party. I don't think it's worth going to. However, if you like loud lovely dance and trance being blasted from about ten locations so that there's no music but just an inescapable wall of sound, thousands of dumb kids drinking far too much alcohol and taking far too many drugs, broken glass, belligerent arseholes and dumb sluts, not being able to move in a crush of people, pissing in to the ocean, making GBS threads in the ocean, vomiting in to the ocean, people trying to scam you, people trying to arrest you, and everybody exploiting the gently caress out of everybody else, it's probably not too bad. I really like Thong Nai Pan Noi. It's far enough away from Haad Rin to be kinda immune from the full moon bullshit, but close enough to be accessible. Some of the places to stay on Thong Nai Pan Noi and Thong Nai Pan Yai don't have any minimum stays, and the people are pretty cool, too.
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Oct 18, 2011 12:12
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tzz posted:I stayed only one night at the Cookies' Salad Resort. It's on the opposite side of the island, but it's on top of a beautiful beach, far away from the hordes of Aussie hooligans and Ms. Cookies is extra nice (she even let me get into a room to take a shower and a nap when I arrived shitfaced the next afternoon). That place looks really nice, but it also says 4 day minimum during full moons on their website and I'm hoping to stay in the 150-400 baht range. Are the islands just more expensive? And would it work to show up and try to find lodging on the spot? I assume they wouldn't insist on the minimum if they actually have rooms available on the day, but I hear Phangan gets pretty full during the parties and I don't want to end up roomless. Should I just suck it up and book 4 days? I do like beach parties, but I have to admit it's kind of a checklist thing. duralict fucked around with this message at 12:21 on Oct 18, 2011 |
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Oct 18, 2011 12:16
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duralict posted:That sounds perfect, but it also says 4 day minimum during full moons on their website. Is this the kind of thing you avoid by just not booking in advance? Or is it idiotic to show up and try to find lodging on the spot? I hear Phangan gets pretty full during the parties, but it's also the middle of low season (I'd be going in November). I booked in advance via booking.com because I was afraid I wouldn't find anything and I had no problem booking just one night. Also, November is not exactly low season afaik. FMP was also a checklist thing for my friends, but they all agreed that we shouldn't have spent that much time to go there. It didn't help that most of us had been to similar, but better, parties in Ibiza, Mykonos, Hvar, Ayia Napa... Be advised it's a sausage fest and said sausages will get very drunk and try to pick a fight with you when they run out of sluts to molest. I almost got punched by the stereotypical Australian because he wanted to pay one of the bucket vendors to gently caress her and he thought I was cockblocking him when she told him to go gently caress himself 
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Oct 18, 2011 12:47
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duralict posted:Does anyone know a place to stay on Koh Phangan that doesn't have a 4-night minimum during the full moon party? Also is it worth going to the full moon party in the first place? I stayed at Lighthouse Bungalows. 600 bahts got me a very simple,, very clean, rather small fan bungalow with a cold-shower-only private bath (although, for the same price, my friend had to share bath with one other bungalow - very clean, still) and probably the most incredible view I've had in any place I've stayed at. The thing that really sold me on the place is the fact that it's close enough to the party but also far enough to escape if you need to - about a 20 minute walk, although part of it is up a rather steep hill. Everyone who stays there is likewise chill people who also want a little party, but don't want to make the full commitment of staying in the middle of Haad Rin. Here's travelfish's take on the place: http://www.travelfish.org/accommodation_profile/thailand/southern_thailand/surat_thani/haad_saikantang/all/716 I wasn't told of any minimum stay limit - the proprietress had us pay nightly - but that might have been because we arrived two nights before the FMP. If you're planning on going to the next FMP, you should be fine for accommodations, as it's the smallest FMP of the year due to the "bad" weather. Call Carla (Karla?) to book the room. Her mobile is 0848520029. Inspect the room before you take it to make sure there isn't an ant problem - some of the rooms have ants running routes through 'em, and these ants hurt when they bite. The bungalow:  The view out my window:  As for the party, I thought it was a ton of fun. I didn't get shitfaced and I stayed out of trouble, but mostly wandered through the dumb shithead 19 year olds. We had a really good crowd of chill people from Lighthouse Bungalows who all went together.
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Oct 18, 2011 13:21
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I usually stay at Lighthouse when I visit Koh Phangan as well. In fact, you can see the bungalow I'm usually in in one of the pictures above.
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Oct 18, 2011 15:50
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Bulging Nipples posted:Off to Myanmar in a few hours. I'll be there a week and a half. Dunno how much internet activity I'll be getting there but I'll try to post about it when I get back to BKK. Snap! My girlfriend and I are such Myanmar groupies after our trip, it's kind of disgusting. We ramble on about how great it is to everyone we meet, especially if we're drunk. Protip: Leave Yangon as soon as you get your bearings. We stayed two nights and we felt it was one night too many. Super protip if you're going from Bagan to Inle Lake: Take Ever Sky's brand-spankin'-new share taxi service. Best $25 I ever spent. Here's another hastily-written blog post: http://reasonablepace.wordpress.com/2011/10/18/getting-from-bagan-to-inle-lake/
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Oct 18, 2011 16:03
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Sounds like Lighthouse is a clear winner, thanks for the help! I have no issue with sausage parties (if you catch my drift) but I guess I still have to figure out if it's worth it to spend time with drunk teenagers and undercover cops. I'm in Chiang Mai now, I took the most ridiculously comfortable bus I have ever seen from Bangkok (it took 12 hours because of the flood detour but left and arrived exactly on the quoted times, it was incredible) and then spent all day asleep. Has anyone done the zipline thing? Every guesthouse seems to have an ad for it and even the guidebook seems to like it. Also I probably should have checked into this sooner, but it is still possible to get Laos visas on entry up here, right?
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Oct 18, 2011 18:35
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I haven't and I didn't meet anyone that had. Chian Mai is a pretty relaxed place. Rent a scooter and drive up the mountain. Climb some waterfalls, see the monastery, if you feel comfortable on the scooter you might want to drive to pai, but I don't know how it is with the floods right now.. If you want to do the jungle trek, mai hong song seems to be a better place to do it from than Chiang Mai. In chiang mai stay away from the tom yum soup place on the night market, it gave me some explosive diarrea
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Oct 18, 2011 23:13
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Oh and if you stay at Lighthouse once you get to Had Rin town you can call them and they'll usually come get you and drive you over the little jungle path to go there. Don't have to hump your bag over.
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Oct 19, 2011 01:07
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FMP was extremely overrated imo but I'm glad I went just to say I've experienced it. It was ridiculously crowded and if you lost your group it was basically impossible to find them again. I stayed on Koh Samui rather than booking a room on Koh Phanagnm and just took a ferry there, stayed out all night of course and took first ferry back. I would like to go a half-moon party, those sound a lot more fun.
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Oct 19, 2011 03:49
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Dr. Eat posted:FMP was extremely overrated imo but I'm glad I went just to say I've experienced it. It was ridiculously crowded and if you lost your group it was basically impossible to find them again. The first full moon party I went to I just chased rear end around so it was okay. The second one wasn't good. It'd been a year and a half or so and at the first one it was just chilled out Sweedes and a some Japanese people and of course a thrash of Canadian girls. The second one there were proto-broskis and aggressive commonwealth people. I quite like Koh Phangan but IMO the best time to go there is right in-between Full Moon parties. The island is at its emptiest, you can scoot around and see all the cool stuff there is to see there (Rama V rock, jungle temple, etc) and if you really must party there's a black moon party then that's what the full moon party probably used to be (before I ever got to Thailand). And if you're just there because you didn't get a chance to try mushrooms in college then don't worry, the mushroom shop isn't exactly seasonal. Also when I first went to Koh Phangan (maybe six or seven years ago now) there was the town at the pier and then jungle next to the road until you got to Had Rin town. Now there are buildings lining the whole road down there. I was pretty shocked. Of course, for much of the road it's one building and jungle, but still, it's changed a lot. More than any other place I revisited in Thailand on my last trip back. raton fucked around with this message at 04:05 on Oct 19, 2011 |
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Oct 19, 2011 04:03
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So, the girl I've been seeing was planning to go to Bangkok/Laos over winter break for two and a half weeks, and I'm thinking of going along (even though I've already taken like two month long trips to Laos before already, and most of my good friends from when I lived in Bangkok are abroad). Has anyone done the Gibbon Experience in Bokeo, by any chance? Also, to confirm, gas station bar near Khao San is gone, right?
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Oct 19, 2011 05:28
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First malaria vaccine has been developed and proven: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE79H59220111018 50% efficacy but supposedly there's already a more effective one in development. (crosspostin) raton fucked around with this message at 05:42 on Oct 19, 2011 |
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Oct 19, 2011 05:39
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Ringo R posted:It might sound silly but this is probably what's bothering me most about living in Bangkok at the moment. Having to deal with retarded walking everyday is insanely frustrating. My favorite Thai pedestrian maneuver is when you are behind them and they suddenly stop and turn around into you. I've run over many a thai person from this. Thais also seem to like blocking doorways. I can't even count the number of times i'm trying to get through somewhere and you'll see some old thai lady just lingering in front of the door talking with someone. edit: By the way how are the floods affecting you guys living here? I am close to Nonthaburi province and the water is inching closer and closer. The Rangsit area is pretty much screwed and there's a big canal in front of the condo building I am staying at. Fun times. One of my thai friend's parents built a new house in Rangsit just last year and now it's halfway submerged. If you've seen footage of that neighborhood close to BKK with bmws and expensive homes underwater that's their moo-bahn. Modus Operandi fucked around with this message at 07:54 on Oct 19, 2011 |
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Oct 19, 2011 07:45
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The no-moon thing sounds more my speed, but the FMP happens to fall right in the middle of the 2 weeks I blocked out for flopping around on the beach so it's really unlikely I'll still be there at the right time. I'll probably just decide based on the weather closer to the date. I meant to ask earlier: What's up with the long line of parked cars on the Bangkok elevated highway shoulder? Is that a flood protection thing or is it just normal? Pompous Rhombus posted:Has anyone done the Gibbon Experience in Bokeo, by any chance? I looked into doing this too. The online reviews are really mediocre about the business - bad food, unreliable staff, occasional theft, rat problems, overpricing - but even some of the more scathing reviews still said it was the best thing they did in SEA. I probably won't do it because I don't feel like going on a swamp trek for 7 hours with all my crap (evidently they only run car pickups during the dry season, when you'd be going), but if you go please let me know how dumb I was for not doing it anyway! Also be warned that there's a similar but much less cool Thai version called Flight of the Gibbon which doesn't involve the treehouses. instant edit: the Freebird cafe in Chiang Mai is really excellent. Also Chiang Mai feels eerily like being home in Berkeley, obvious cultural and environmental differences aside. duralict fucked around with this message at 08:46 on Oct 19, 2011 |
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Oct 19, 2011 08:43
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Modus Operandi posted:My favorite Thai pedestrian maneuver is when you are behind them and they suddenly stop and turn around into you. I've run over many a thai person from this. Thais also seem to like blocking doorways. I can't even count the number of times i'm trying to get through somewhere and you'll see some old thai lady just lingering in front of the door talking with someone. Modus Operandi posted:edit: By the way how are the floods affecting you guys living here? I am close to Nonthaburi province and the water is inching closer and closer. Over at Khao San the other night, Khao San and Rambuttri were both flooded about a foot deep. People I was with saw some dirty backpacker swimming in the street. loving disgusting, heh. Can't say that the flood's been more than an annoyance for me, though. I'm mindful that it's been devastating to many people, of course, so I'm not trying to be flip. I have to wear gore-tex shoes to get out of my condo or ride my mountain bike for about 20 meters, but that's the worst of it. On a lighter note, two things have jumped out at me here. One, nothing will make a 7-11 close short of burning it down in a riot. Two, I think those little walls in front of every business and many homes are going to become a fixture of life in Bangkok now. A friend planning a visit asked if he should postpone, I told him no. I guess that's worth reiterating here for all the people reading. There are inconveniences for tourists
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Oct 19, 2011 13:25
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ReindeerF posted:I'm on the river (as in condo-hangs-out-over-the-river) in Nonthaburi up by the pier. On my side, the city side, the water's about 2-3 inches deep in the street at night and in the morning. I know quite a few people in your immediate area. I do some part time english tutoring for a couple ladies that work at SCG that live there. They are really stressed out and their office even allocated sandbags and free delivery to their employees. It seems like many Thais are losing faith in the milf PM. The problem is in some areas the water actually seeps in underground. The same ladies told me that they have the house walled off but it comes in between the tiles.
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Oct 19, 2011 14:16
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Thanks for the reassurance, ReindeerF. I'm heading down at the start of November and was worried about the flooding. And speaking of Lighthouse bungalows, that's where I'm staying! Get there a couple days before the full moon party on the 10th... If any other goons are staying there during, give me a shout. Me and my buddies would love to meet up.
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Oct 19, 2011 14:35
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Don't let Lola catch you with paints. She'll confiscate them. You'll know who she is because she's the only 4 year old owner/staff.
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Oct 19, 2011 16:28
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| # ? May 21, 2024 13:36 |
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eviljelly posted:Don't let Lola catch you with paints. She'll confiscate them. You'll know who she is because she's the only 4 year old owner/staff. Reminds me of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iez7ATTP1yI&feature=related
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Oct 19, 2011 18:49
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