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Balcony Chat:
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May 2, 2012 16:23
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| # ? May 14, 2024 22:06 |
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Diving's been loving nuts on Koh Tao. I saw 4 whale sharks in 4 days now - one on every deep dive. Today we had the whale shark all to ourselves! It really pays to be the first boat out every morning. I'm pretty sad that I'm going to be taking a 3-4 month break from diving. Shiiiiiiiiiiiii
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May 4, 2012 11:59
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The person I was traveling with got dengue fever and went back to the states so I've been alone for the last week or so (if you can call it being alone). It's been the most fun I've had since being in Thailand. I decided to save the money I would spend diving on Koh Tao and just go to a few other places. I wanted to spend a night in Koh Phi Phi since everyone told me to avoid it because of the party/tourist scene and wow was I surprised. Yes, it's everything that you all said it would be but I actually loved it and ended up staying for 4 nights. After avoiding all of the party and trashy tourist areas it was nice to be surrounded by a bunch of random people and forget about culture for a bit. I drank a lot, met some incredible people, almost joined that the island's Thai mafia (this story is now the highlight of my life) and had some unforgettable moments with locals that I met. I did it all in the classiest way possible and don't regret anything. I'm now at ease with going to the full moon party on the 6th. I just got to Koh Phagnan, is there anyone else that is around that wants to meet up? Any recommendations for things to see on the island? I'm renting a motor bike and going to Bottle Beach tomorrow.
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May 4, 2012 14:14
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eviljelly posted:Diving's been loving nuts on Koh Tao. I saw 4 whale sharks in 4 days now - one on every deep dive. Today we had the whale shark all to ourselves! It really pays to be the first boat out every morning. Mother fucker
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May 4, 2012 18:44
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kru posted:Balcony Chat: Is this near Lumphini Park?
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May 4, 2012 18:57
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gently caress you goons in paradise. This is the view from my window a few weeks ago. Guess which lovely city this is. (Yes, that's air pollution).
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May 4, 2012 19:00
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Beijing?
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May 4, 2012 19:16
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Has anyone dived at Bunaken National Park in Indonesia? Sulawesi is my first stop after Singapore on my SE Asia trip, and I'm interested in taking a PADI course/doing some dives there.
xcdude24 fucked around with this message at 20:34 on May 4, 2012 |
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May 4, 2012 20:30
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eviljelly posted:Diving's been loving nuts on Koh Tao. I saw 4 whale sharks in 4 days now - one on every deep dive. Today we had the whale shark all to ourselves! It really pays to be the first boat out every morning. What Sheep-Goats said. Motherfucker. There had best be some whalesharks hanging around when I get there. I can't loving wait to get back to the rock. Pureone posted:Yes, it's everything that you all said it would be but I actually loved it and ended up staying for 4 nights. After avoiding all of the party and trashy tourist areas it was nice to be surrounded by a bunch of random people and forget about culture for a bit. I drank a lot, met some incredible people, almost joined that the island's Thai mafia (this story is now the highlight of my life) and had some unforgettable moments with locals that I met. I did it all in the classiest way possible and don't regret anything. The random adventures that happen whilst travelling are a highlight. Sounds like yours is an awesome story 
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May 5, 2012 02:45
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Oh, and on that last whale shark sighting, we had a videographer, too. She's putting together a little whale shark vid for youtube - I'll link it when she posts it, if I remember. Also, that morning, there were two whale sharks at Chumpon Pinnacle and one at Southwest Pinnacle. The water's getting pretty thick with those bad boys!Pureone posted:adventures I was wondering where you ended up - I figured your plans changed. Sounds like you've been having a blast, man. Bottle Beach on Koh Phangan is my favorite beach in all of Thailand. Enjoy it! I recommend the trek through the jungle to get there. You won't get lost - just follow the trail of empty bottles hanging from the trees!
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May 5, 2012 05:41
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Senso posted:Beijing? Correct! Actually today isn't so bad!
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May 5, 2012 06:32
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B-Rad posted:Is this near Lumphini Park? Tis not! Buona Vista in Singapore
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May 6, 2012 11:46
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eviljelly posted:I was wondering where you ended up - I figured your plans changed. Sounds like you've been having a blast, man. Yeah, as touristy as they were, I'm really glad I went to the places that I went to. I even had a terrific time at the full moon party! I still did my best to steer clear of Pattaya and Phuket though. I'm keeping somewhat of a travel picture/story blog on a Tumblr in case anyone's interested. http://explorewithstan.tumblr.com/
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May 6, 2012 15:38
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If there's one enduring contribution this thread and the old thread make to goon society, it's that hopefully no one reading it will ever visit Pattaya!
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May 7, 2012 07:32
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ReindeerF posted:If there's one enduring contribution this thread and the old thread make to goon society, it's that hopefully no one reading it will ever visit Pattaya! Unless you like whoring and are an overweight European man, and if it that case it is wholly recommended you visit Pattaya.
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May 7, 2012 08:18
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B-Rad posted:Unless you like whoring and are an overweight European man, and if it that case it is wholly recommended you visit Pattaya.
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May 7, 2012 10:56
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I think a lot of the dregs in Thailand slouched across the border to Cambodia when you stopped being able to renew a tourist visa indefinitely. I lived in Bangkok for a year in college and never visited Pattaya, but I'd love to go now to do some street photography. As one of my German buddies who loves people-watching once posted on Facebook: "Blissfull sleaze..."
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May 7, 2012 11:55
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ReindeerF posted:Heh. And, at least according to a few expats I met in Phnom Penh during my long stay recently, Pattaya now has too many rules, so they've relocated to Phnom Penh. God help Phnom Penh! My journey there combined with reading up on Cambodias history tells me that god doesn't take a great interest in what happens to Phnom Penh or Cambodia in general. That said, I absolutely love the place.
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May 7, 2012 13:05
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I was there, I wish I had a better camera at the time, though. My thai friend used to work as a dentist there when she got out of medical school. She hated it because she said it was impossible to find a boyfriend that wasn't there for whoring. That pic was much more shocking from the front because the girl looked about 14 EDIT: Sorry for resolution, haha.
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May 7, 2012 13:38
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pattaya.jpg If you add a Honda scooter, put the guy on the front with his shirt unbuttoned and the girl clinging to him, looking bored, on the back you have samui.jpg. However, I like Samui for some weird reason (used to hate it). If you change the image to that guy sitting in front of a 7-11 with 4 more just like him drinking beer on the steps while the woman shouts at him from the scooter you have udonthani.jpg. EDIT: Also, see Farang Connection in Surin. No thread in the ThaiVisa Isaan forum goes more than a page without either A) a death notice or B) someone ranting about why they won't go to a certain bar because the owner once looked at him funny and his missus is a oval office anyway. http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/469249-farang-connection/ ReindeerF fucked around with this message at 15:18 on May 7, 2012 |
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May 7, 2012 15:14
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eviljelly posted:Diving's been loving nuts on Koh Tao. I saw 4 whale sharks in 4 days now - one on every deep dive. Today we had the whale shark all to ourselves! It really pays to be the first boat out every morning. I'm jealous as gently caress. The only thing I saw at Koh Tao was a couple big turtles and the usual bastard trigger fish. I did see a leopard shark in the similan but that's about it.
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May 7, 2012 18:00
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Booked a cheap flight kind of last minute so now I've got a week to plan my itinerary. I've got 3 weeks, flying into Phuket and out of Bangkok. Any ideas, other than doing a diving course somewhere (probably Koh Tao as I'm on a budget) I'm pretty flexible. I'm definitely interested in seeing some wildlife, especially elephants and primates. I'm also planning on scouting TEFL jobs while I'm out there, although annoyingly it doesn't look like my certificate will be through in time.
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May 7, 2012 21:47
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I'll be in Ao Nang (Krabi) for the next week if any goons happen to pass through. EDIT: For all the cheapskates out there, low season must be really desperate here, because about a quarter of the restaurants are closed and most of the remaining ones have giant signs that say LOW SEASON SPECIAL 150 FOR ANY PIZZA, PASTA AND A BEER and so on. Same for guesthouses, I've seen at least 3 for sale, heh. We don't really have low season as such in Bangkok, so I've never seen it this bad anywhere. EDIT EDIT: Every "Italian" Restaurant in Krabi is run by someone from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka or Bangladesh and is, upon closer inspection, an Italian-Thai-European-Indian-Seafood-Pizzeria. ReindeerF fucked around with this message at 03:49 on May 9, 2012 |
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May 8, 2012 02:08
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I'm planning a two/three weeks trip to Thailand sometime between november and march and I see that Koh Tao is always recommended as the best place for diving. I don't care for diving at all but I want to sail the gently caress out of the islands. Ideally I'd like to rent something (very) small and tame like a Laser 420 or Hobie Cat 16 that I could crew with a friend and tool around at our leisure. Anyone has any experience or recommendations ? Is there even a market ?
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May 9, 2012 20:21
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JaredBS posted:I'm planning a two/three weeks trip to Thailand sometime between november and march and I see that Koh Tao is always recommended as the best place for diving. I don't care for diving at all but I want to sail the gently caress out of the islands. Ideally I'd like to rent something (very) small and tame like a Laser 420 or Hobie Cat 16 that I could crew with a friend and tool around at our leisure. It's not the best (though it is good), it's the cheapest. The Similans are supposed to be the best. I haven't heard of anyone renting a boat of any sort in Thailand and saw like one Monsigneur with a sailboat there once (on Koh Lipe) and I think that's it.
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May 9, 2012 20:51
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Sheep-Goats posted:It's not the best (though it is good), it's the cheapest. The Similans are supposed to be the best. To narrow it down I want to rent a bare (no crew) sailboat that can be beached and manned by two. I don't want to cross the gulf, just sail around an island, fish and crash on beaches. There's plenty of chartering services online, but I
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May 9, 2012 21:00
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I've seen posters here on Koh Tao about renting sailboats for about 1300 baht a day. A few of us were thinking about doing it anyway, so I'll look into it some more in the next couple of days and report back.
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May 9, 2012 23:54
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I need your advice. I'm going back to Thailand at the end of my contract here in Korea (August 20th-ish). I'll be spending a few days in Phi Phi with a friend, before making my way over to Koh Tao for much diving. Can anyone give me the best way to get to Koh Tao from Phi Phi?
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May 10, 2012 02:21
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MA-Horus posted:I need your advice. Government bus and ferries. Any travel agent in Phi Phi can set that up.
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May 10, 2012 02:24
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Sheep-Goats posted:Government bus and ferries. Any travel agent in Phi Phi can set that up. Excellent. That takes a lot of the stress of my trip away.
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May 10, 2012 03:06
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ReindeerF posted:I'll be in Ao Nang (Krabi) for the next week if any goons happen to pass through. Post Tsunami it's interesting how business seemed to peak again around 2007-2008 then fall back down after the world economic crisis hit. I wonder if Phi Phi is still full of filthy europeans or is it now just as slow.
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May 10, 2012 09:43
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I've been chatting with the Thai people here and they say the biggest tourist market here now is Chinese, but Russians have been growing a lot. I see every night these buses full of Chinese lurch down onto the beach road, open their doors and 4,000 Chinese people emerge from a smog of cigarette smoke. They bargain hard and don't spend much on things like food and drinks, I think, but who knows. One thing I noticed after tsunami, which happened a month after my first trip: Hua Hin exploded and has become a shithole retirement home for scammers and dirty old men and such. I used to love that place. EDIT: Hah, I just talked to the owner of the restaurant I'm in and he said, "Two days ago we had 25 people all day, yesterday 3 and today 14. I'm closing for a month and going back to Germany." He said it's like this every year, so I guess it is. ReindeerF fucked around with this message at 13:08 on May 10, 2012 |
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May 10, 2012 12:51
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ReindeerF posted:They bargain hard and don't spend much on things like food and drinks, I think, but who knows. One thing I noticed after tsunami, which happened a month after my first trip: Hua Hin exploded and has become a shithole retirement home for scammers and dirty old men and such. I used to love that place.
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May 10, 2012 13:26
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Modus Operandi posted:Hua Hin used to be a haven for snooty Bangkokians and the occasional fugitive european securities swindler. What happened to those halcyon days of yore?  EDIT: Obviously I have a rosy memory, heh. ReindeerF fucked around with this message at 15:11 on May 10, 2012 |
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May 10, 2012 15:06
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ReindeerF posted:Oh come now, back then you could avoid them because there were like 100 foreigners in town at any given time (other than November/December when the Scandinavians sail in in viking boats and colonize the entire city). The squid drying on the docks kept away most people and there weren't nearly as many tourists. Even the statue of the kickboxer next to the train station was overgrown and tilted sideways. Now it's like old dirtbag disneyworld. They even re-did the Elephant Bar in the historic Sofitel like some kind of Vietnamese whorehouse I guess I just never understood the appeal of Hua Hin to begin with. It has characterless beach(es). Deadly Micro jellyfish. Relatively overpriced accommodation. Nothing of note to see there either. I think the mid/hi-so Bangkokians just followed sheep-like to that area because of mostly the royal family and their established history there. Sort of like how Thais always gush about Switzerland. I'm not surprised that the up market establishments decided to throw up the gaudy lights to attract the more "unsavory" elements to expand business. Ethnic-Chinese Thai's assholes tend to pucker up tighter than a snare drum when it's time to spread the wealth. I don't know what makes Hua Hin attractive to the dirty old perv crowd though. It's not located to any significant girl feeder for the beer bars. If I were a betting man I would have said Khon Kaen would have been the next Pattaya and not Hua Hin. But what do I know...
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May 10, 2012 15:54
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Ban Chang was next on the list. The thing about Hua Hin was that after the tsunami a bunch of people got scared and Hua Hin was in the right place in the right time. My friends mostly feel like you, but I grew up around Galveston, which has a small old quarter and is kind of sleepy and Hua Hin basically reminds me of that kind of town. It's not an appeal I would expect most people to share. It had that cute little city part running along the water in town, and out a few blocks, then it basically petered out. Now it goes for kilometers, has a huge cineplex and so on. The change is unbelievable. Yeah, HiSo Thais are the most boring people imaginable, but it's not like they were hanging out in the same places in Hua Hin. They go from their mansion in Bangkok to their mansion in Hua Hin and don't bother to do anything, ever, but this gets into my general theory on Thai people being socially boring by any Western standard not developed inside a Christian church in the South, heh. Hey, let's play guitar and ride bicycles! Tee hee! Oh look, noi knocked over a salt shaker and it spilled! Hahaha! Narak! Peace sign. Hanging out with middle class and above Thai people is sort of like the musical scenes in Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid. ReindeerF fucked around with this message at 16:39 on May 10, 2012 |
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May 10, 2012 16:37
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But playing guitar and riding bicycles are both fun activities
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May 10, 2012 23:53
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There's nothing more fun than swaying back and forth in a circle, completely sober, while the one guy with a guitar shows off by singing butchered decade-old nSync covers and cheezy Thai pop for 4 hours - then erupting in laughter when he drops his guitar pick. Top off by riding lovely old bikes with baskets on the front at slow speeds around the tiny resort grounds. I hate the guitar circle poo poo back home, but the bicycle thing is just cultural - that said, in the last two years there's been a small, but growing cultural movement toward riding bikes as a hobby or as part of your lifestyle, though this seems to usually require buying every piece of kit imaginable and dressing like Thai Lance Armstrong, but we have these eye-rollers in America too. More recently some more organic sub-cultural groups have grown out of it, like commuters and those midnight coffee club riders I mentioned - that stuff gives me hope that there will be bikers out there who aren't just doing it to show off. I see them once in a while as I'm commuting around town and we exchange the international thumbs up seal of approval 
ReindeerF fucked around with this message at 02:19 on May 11, 2012 |
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May 11, 2012 02:17
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I see tons of ready-made fixies with ridiculous colorways in bike shops all over Thailand, so those too-cool fixie kids must be all over the country as well, although I've only seen them in Bangkok.
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May 11, 2012 05:46
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| # ? May 14, 2024 22:06 |
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ReindeerF posted:
edit: A few days ago I saw some blatant dickhead moves that I usually only see in the U.S. It had been raining and there were some big puddles everywhere. I was walking along the sidewalk and in front of me was this Thai vendor guy walking back to his food stall. This mid-so with his poo poo-box comes barreling down the street and purposely swerves to hit the large puddle in front of us at high speed causing a big muddy splash to go all over the vendor. The guy was super pissed and turned around and gave the car the death stare as it screeched around the corner. Luckily, it barely missed me. Modus Operandi fucked around with this message at 06:15 on May 11, 2012 |
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May 11, 2012 06:12
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