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I thought I had this great idea to have a quickie 2 week holiday from mid to late November in Bangkok and Thailand in general to use up my work leave. Then I found out about the flooding and am now really depressed. Is it really that bad? I was just going to do the basic backpacker thing with no set itinerary. I know a lot of those traveller advisory and news websites can be alarmist. Reading the posts here I can't make up my mind. I just wander around the place eating some nice food. Should I just hang around the beaches down south and leave Bangkok for another time? It's just that Phuket is so full of cashed-up bogan types. If you can't tell from this post, I hardly know anything. 
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Oct 26, 2011 04:59
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dflanny posted:I thought I had this great idea to have a quickie 2 week holiday from mid to late November in Bangkok and Thailand in general to use up my work leave. Then I found out about the flooding and am now really depressed. I'm there in November and I'll go south east coast first. Pattaya, Koh Samet, Ko chang and then if the flooding improves to Bangkok.
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Oct 26, 2011 05:34
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It hasn't been really raining in days here in Saigon and we're under scorching hot sun, with dry feet. 
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Oct 26, 2011 05:39
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No flood problems in Samui/Phangan/Tao and Phuket/Krabi.
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Oct 26, 2011 06:10
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Pro-PRC Laowai posted:Don Muang is acting as their flood command center though... which should kinda give you an idea on the outlooks going forward eh? Pro-PRC Laowai posted:I wonder if the river boats are closed so they too can contribute to using their propellers to make the water move faster... remember, that's a high-level government plan Pro-PRC Laowai posted:Siem Reap however, seems to be the correct choice... eat the gently caress out of blue pumpkin for me Bulging Nipples posted:Think it will be any trouble catching a bus to Siem Reap due to the floods? I'm flying into BKK on the 28th from Myanmar and need to get to Cambodia next. dflanny posted:Is it really that bad? I was just going to do the basic backpacker thing with no set itinerary. I know a lot of those traveller advisory and news websites can be alarmist. Reading the posts here I can't make up my mind. I just wander around the place eating some nice food. Should I just hang around the beaches down south and leave Bangkok for another time? It's just that Phuket is so full of cashed-up bogan types. 
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Oct 26, 2011 13:16
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Pompous Rhombus posted:
That is part of our plan! I know renting has some hurdles with leaving documents and having to return etc. What kind of price would buying a secondhand 125cc be? Also, we have decided that we will try and commit for a full year of teaching! Assuming we an find work and everything.
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Oct 26, 2011 15:19
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ReindeerF posted:
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Oct 26, 2011 17:10
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Modus Operandi posted:So who or what was the reason in refusing help from the GW group? So far I haven't seen the Thai press mention much about it. Was it a face issue? It's probably in the top 5 of dumb moves in this flood bonanza. 1) Face 2) Avoid using the military as much as possible As far as I understand it, the "government" is scared to death of giving the military any control over anything, because there's this funny habit of coups happening. The current PM is the sister of the guy who was kicked out, so it's not like anything changed. And some major disaster is great for funneling cash to whoever is magically put in charge of rebuilding poo poo (no actions will be taken or money spent on prevention though. Thailand is corrupt as all gently caress.
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Oct 26, 2011 17:35
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The Hong Kong government has recently issues a red travel alert from now until November first and will allow travel packages to be canceled or rearranged because of the Don Muang airport being submerged  Now if only Air Asia see this as a window of opportunity and encourage people to go to Malaysia instead and have super cheap airfares. But stay safe everyone!
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Oct 26, 2011 21:56
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Looks like I'm 1 step closer to getting my job in the Philippines. I just didn't have my security+ certification from CompTIA so they are going to try to waive that for now since they said my interview went great. If that happens then everything is good to go, hooray! the schedule will be a little whacky and I'll have to be traveling a lot, but Manila will be my primary home. And I still don't know all my exact travel dates but I think it will be in the next few weeks. Once I get settled my doors will no doubt be open to goons who want to drink with me at my sweet rear end apartment in the sky.
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Oct 26, 2011 23:20
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We Dutch are proud as gently caress that whenever there's a major flood somewhere we get called in for some serious dyke consulting That happened this time as well, so they do take some advice from the outside.
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Oct 26, 2011 23:24
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ReindeerF posted:Yeah, I should have made my earlier post "If you've already bought tickets or you're on your way via train or bus, it'll be livable so far." If you can avoid a trip easily and go somewhere else, that would probably be the best thing to do. I am about to become a refugee myself, escaping to Silom, heh. Will advise when I know more Yeah, If I had already bought tickets I guess I'd just have to put up with it. I want to have a fun time without worrying about water everywhere and the health problems that go with it. I might investigate Vietnam.
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Oct 26, 2011 23:28
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Rojkir posted:We Dutch are proud as gently caress that whenever there's a major flood somewhere we get called in for some serious dyke consulting Thai people are actually quite good at listening to advice so long as you thread the tortouosly small needle (sometimes) present in asking them if they want any without making it seem like they need it, whether they do in fact need it or not. They're so hypersensitive about you causing them to loose face in the process though that even close friends have trouble figuring out a way to offer some friendly help with anything other than money or chipping in with ongoing physical labor. These two available paths actually shed.a lot of light on the process involved in asking permission to give advice because they happen to be two of the few situations where a similar dance has to be performed in the West before giving help. Here it's physical and financial capacity where a man ought to stand alone, there it's more about intellectual noninterdependence. This has a strange paradoxical effect on the admiration of orthodoxy in the two respective places -- in the West there's a define right way to run your money and build stuff but unorthodox thinking is often admired whereas in Thailand it's mai pen rai when you build a house or take out a loan but having an unusual mind is likely to be seen as a fault (at least at first). So what we readily accept aid on is what we are less likely to see in absolute terms. (Of course this is all blanket generalization on both ends and many exceptions exist. Shades of grey and all that.) raton fucked around with this message at 23:49 on Oct 26, 2011 |
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Oct 26, 2011 23:36
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Yeah, just to chip in on the observation. A funny (or maybe not so much) thing happened while I was passing through Chiang Mai on my travels. I was staying in a guesthouse with a weird, but exceptionally well working mixture of people and I was loving depressed because my cell just got stolen and I got denied by a incredibly cute girl in the same day, so it was gonna be boozing. I met an American named matthew earlier, very un-english/american in his outspokeness. There was a German 50 year old self proclaimed tantric master (forgot his name amazingly funny guy), a French Canadian weed muncher biologist which I immediately liked (I'm a biologist myself), another American who lived in Chiang Mai doing god knows what and his Thai friend who was very eager to please us and supplied all the booze, and snacks whatever for the epic session that was about to go down. So we start getting hosed up, there were some good conversations going on and stuff. Earlier in the evening the tantric master had given all his weed (which was a lot) to Matthew, who was now rolling spliffs like they were cigarets. However, everytime we passed the dutchie on the left hand side it seemed to get stuck at American#2 and his Thai friend who were consequently accused of smoking all the weed without sharing by the very in your face Matthew. I fortunately read all this threads advice about not confronting Thai people in the face, but that's exactly what matthew did (rightly so, by our cultural standards) and poo poo did not go well from that point on. It started with about 3 rounds long of American#2 defending his Thai friend and the Thai being like: "yes sir, you are right, i smoke your weed, but i supply your cheap booze (also right)" "yes yes, you are right mai pen rai" until even American number two started with mai pen raiing. In front of me was this amazing cultural conflict going on. I started to explain Matthew that he should probably stop ccomplaining just a little to late, cause he was already to hosed up to listen a couple of minutes later the bomb bursts. I've never (and probably will never see again) seen a man go from so docile and compliant to so overtly aggressive and threatening. The Thai was gonna go get his army brothers and gently caress us all up. It was amazingly scary and yet weird at the same time. Round here if a man starts threatening you he has usually left your company quite a bit before he bursts, but this guy was just raging mad in front of my face. After that I do got the whole losing face thing much more. There were so many ways in which we got have avoided this poo poo, but Matthew chose the in your face way. Doesn't work in Thailand.
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Oct 27, 2011 00:13
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On the face/getting angry stuff, it's very situational. My second month in Thailand on my study program, I was going back to Bangkok from a friend's wedding in Khon Kaen (she roped me into being best man for a total stranger last minute, since his original bailed and she hated the rest of his scumbag foreign friends) and was offered a ride by the bride's cousin and her boyfriend. The boyfriend was a cool dude who spoke 0 English and said he normally hated white folks, but I was "one of the good ones". Anyways we're in the car for about 30 minutes when he and cousin get in a HUGE fight over something; she was yelling and crying and trying to open the door of the truck as we're zipping down the highway at 120kph, dude was yelling at her too. This went on for approximately forever, with me in the back seat wondering "what the hell, you guys are losing your poo poo/hella face in front of a guest" and also if I'm going to die, and understanding maybe every 15th word they were saying. It all worked out in the end; by the time we were a few hours away from Bangkok the guy had cooled off a bit and was trying to apologize to me, but he couldn't without going through the cousin (who spoke pretty good English), so they got to talking again, and had patched things up by the time we got to the edge of the city. Either way, it was a good lesson in not taking cultural stuff too much to heart. Life in Thailand was usually pretty interesting. Also, probably not going to do that trip to BKK/Laos this winter Yegof posted:That is part of our plan! I know renting has some hurdles with leaving documents and having to return etc. What kind of price would buying a secondhand 125cc be? It's really not that bad at all, you just leave your passport, and you get it back when you return the bike. I've never had an issue. A secondhand bike in decent shape should be around $500-600 or so, but I'm just guessing. If you're willing to stay for a full year, your work options are pretty good! If you're interested in Khon Kaen, I know of American University Alumni Center, which is a private company housed within Khon Kaen University.
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Oct 27, 2011 01:21
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Rojkir posted:We Dutch are proud as gently caress that whenever there's a major flood somewhere we get called in for some serious dyke consulting They pretty much ignored all the advice though. The Dutch system uses hydraulics and a complex drainage system. Thais will never do something like this. It's on par with the nuclear power reactors that they talk about building every few years. It's just not something that will work with the current Thai management and technical skill sets. The rule of thumb is any project that requires a large degree of technical skills and a good decade of planning along with sustained management will probably not work for Thailand. If the King was about 30 years younger he might have been able to force the issue through his royal project. Even then it's doubtful that it would work. I remember reading a few english interviews he did back in the 60's and he more or less said that Thais don't follow through with long term planning. Modus Operandi fucked around with this message at 02:45 on Oct 27, 2011 |
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Oct 27, 2011 02:39
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Pompous Rhombus posted:
That really does annoy me though, what if, say, you fall with the bike. It has some plate damage, let's say for about 2000 baht. They say it's 6000 baht. Good luck getting your passport back. (This never stopped me from renting though, but god everytime I hand my passport to someone I feel like giving away my unborn child)
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Oct 27, 2011 02:48
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Modus Operandi posted:So who or what was the reason in refusing help from the GW group? So far I haven't seen the Thai press mention much about it. Was it a face issue? It's probably in the top 5 of dumb moves in this flood bonanza. Rojkir posted:We Dutch are proud as gently caress that whenever there's a major flood somewhere we get called in for some serious dyke consulting EDIT: Beaten by MO, heh. ReindeerF fucked around with this message at 03:16 on Oct 27, 2011 |
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Oct 27, 2011 03:11
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Pro-PRC Laowai posted:1) Face If it gets really bad there will either be another coup or an election where the current party loses power.
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Oct 27, 2011 03:32
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 More pictures here
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Oct 27, 2011 03:40
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ReindeerF posted:The English translation was something you'll recognize as a typical Thai political statement. It came from the military spokesman or a General and it was something like "We appreciate the offer to help and anyway we can handle the current situation." I seriously need to learn to read Thai so I can read how idiotic all this stuff sounds in the original Thai. It must be hilarious. Every translated statement in a contentious public forum ends with "and anyway [total bullshit]". I'm pretty sure that part of the reason for Thailand's relative success historically in diplomacy and maintaining independence to the extent that it did was a combination of beguiling one set of foreigners that opposed another while putting all of them through the typical completely opaque and indecipherable Thai decision-making process. By the time it came time to conquer instead of trying to grab land via diplomacy the foreign powers were probably so confused and frustrated that they just gave up. "WHO COULD POSSIBLY GOVERN THESE PEOPLE?" I finally found the official press release regarding this and it really is hilarious. The U.S. Ambassador pretty much blew smoke up their rear end too and made some obsequious statement about how they didn't need the help and it fit their "needs." This whole thing would be funny if it didn't end up harming a lot of people. I imagine those helicopters would have been very useful in ferrying supplies to people trapped around the country.
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Oct 27, 2011 03:41
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Modus Operandi posted:I finally found the official press release regarding this and it really is hilarious. The U.S. Ambassador pretty much blew smoke up their rear end too and made some obsequious statement about how they didn't need the help and it fit their "needs." This whole thing would be funny if it didn't end up harming a lot of people. I imagine those helicopters would have been very useful in ferrying supplies to people trapped around the country. Also, she kept praising the "USS Mustain," which is the name of a ship that doesn't exist, heh (it's Mustin).
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Oct 27, 2011 04:05
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Rojkir posted:(This never stopped me from renting though, but god everytime I hand my passport to someone I feel like giving away my unborn child) I always told them I don't have my passport on me and offered to leave a deposit instead (3000-5000 baht). Worked every time.
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Oct 27, 2011 04:37
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dflanny posted:Yeah, If I had already bought tickets I guess I'd just have to put up with it. I want to have a fun time without worrying about water everywhere and the health problems that go with it. I might investigate Vietnam.
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Oct 27, 2011 05:40
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I am this close to pulling the trigger on flights to Vietnam, I just need to wait until I have approval for my leave dates.
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Oct 27, 2011 06:10
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 The grand palace is closed today, but for only 20 baht we can go visit the aid station to purchase some emergency supplies and then take part in some traditional thailand sandbag filling, so lucky, today is the last day they are open!
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Oct 27, 2011 07:12
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Pro-PRC Laowai posted:The grand palace is closed today I'm not falling for THAT one again!!!! <  >
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Oct 27, 2011 07:13
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eviljelly posted:I'm not falling for THAT one again!!!! < Bahahaha Pro-PRC, you got any gems to sell us?
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Oct 27, 2011 07:47
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Hey, I just met this guy offering me a free boatride down Sukhumvit. Sweet! All we have to do first is to visit his brother who is a tailor or something I don't know but people sure are nice here yep.
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Oct 27, 2011 10:36
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Hello sir, what are you doing today? It's raining. Here, I have an umbrella. I'll take you from Khao San to MBK for 40 baht. Just get in my tuk tuk. Maybe one stop on the way.
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Oct 27, 2011 17:00
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Pompous Rhombus posted:
We are both OK with a full year. We both like the sound of Khon Kaen and are looking forward to checking out the city and it's schools. Is this a placement company you used, or is it just a service you are aware of in that area?
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Oct 27, 2011 17:29
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Yegof posted:We are both OK with a full year. We both like the sound of Khon Kaen and are looking forward to checking out the city and it's schools. They're actually a language teaching center, so you could (hypothetically) get a job there! I know there was at least one other English school in town, I want to say it was an ECC?
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Oct 28, 2011 00:13
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There is just something about this one.
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Oct 28, 2011 02:43
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evilwaldo posted:There is just something about this one. Haha, I almost missed ผู้ขโมยแฮมเบอร์เกอร์, that's perfect.
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Oct 28, 2011 03:05
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evilwaldo posted:There is just something about this one. reenacting the Deer Hunter? I just did the slow boat from Huay XI to Luang Prabang. It's nowhere near as grim as the stories anymore - none of the boats I saw had benches on them at all, it's all bus/car style seats on every boat. Even Pakbeng has apparently raised standard - even the cheapest guesthouses all had generators to run the fans after the grid shuts off at night. There's really no reason to avoid it anymore and it gets you in the right mindset for slow-paced Laos. Also there's been no rain up here for a while and flooding is nonexistent. Northern Thailand was clear too. You guys thinking of canceling because of the floods, just go farther norther or east and it'll be fine.
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Oct 28, 2011 04:52
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So I'm flying into Bangkok on Nov 5th, and will be heading down to Koh Phangan ASAP. The plan is to train/ferry from Hua Lamphong station. I'm wondering how busy the train is (especially taking all the people running from the flood into account)? Should I be finding an online ticket seller, or can I show up at the station and buy a ticket? If the former, any recommendations for online ticket brokers?
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Oct 28, 2011 05:48
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Pompous Rhombus posted:Haha, I almost missed ผู้ขโมยแฮมเบอร์เกอร์, that's perfect. Weirdest thing about it to me is that spinach pie. อร่อยใหม่ ต้องลอง!!! 
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Oct 28, 2011 10:21
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I've read that Tramadol is legal in Thailand and can be purchased OTC... but I've also read that Valium can be purchased OTC, yet if you're caught without a prescription by police, you can get in trouble and have to pay a fine/bribe. So is Tramadol legal legal, to where even if I'm searched by a police officer, I'm okay? Also, I'm conflicted about how much I need to plan in order to travel to different parts of the country (still talking about Thailand). What I mean is: I'd really just like to "wing it" as much as possible, but I'm afraid of flying into Bangkok and having no clue on how to do anything complex like catch X train and X ferry to get to X island, and therefore want to write this stuff down ahead of time, as I won't have any internet devices when there. Are there places I can go/people I can talk to that could help me figure this stuff out, or should I plan ahead more and write myself directions on how to get places? Or should I just do myself a favor and get a mobile device that has internet access? Thanks for the great thread, as well, especially Ringo, whose posts have been very awesome/interesting/helpful/funny. What started as a random thread click three nights ago has turned into two hour per night reading and February plans for trip to SE Asia. MyStereoHasMono fucked around with this message at 11:12 on Oct 28, 2011 |
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Oct 28, 2011 11:09
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plotskee posted:So I'm flying into Bangkok on Nov 5th, and will be heading down to Koh Phangan ASAP. The plan is to train/ferry from Hua Lamphong station. I'm wondering how busy the train is (especially taking all the people running from the flood into account)? Should I be finding an online ticket seller, or can I show up at the station and buy a ticket? If the former, any recommendations for online ticket brokers? November is the lowest season for Koh Samui/Phangan/Tao because of the heavy rainfall, and I can't imagine there's going to be a sudden surge of people deciding to flee several days/weeks after the flood hit Bangkok.
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Oct 28, 2011 12:06
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MyStereoHasMono posted:I've read that Tramadol is legal in Thailand and can be purchased OTC... but I've also read that Valium can be purchased OTC, yet if you're caught without a prescription by police, you can get in trouble and have to pay a fine/bribe. So is Tramadol legal legal, to where even if I'm searched by a police officer, I'm okay? quote:Are there places I can go/people I can talk to that could help me figure this stuff out, or should I plan ahead more and write myself directions on how to get places? Or should I just do myself a favor and get a mobile device that has internet access?
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Oct 28, 2011 12:14
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