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ReindeerF posted:No poo poo? They had settled on about the fifth one when I was there and it was still all fenced off - that was a couple of months ago. The proposed design looked like what you mention (hideous and stupid). It was a great patio cafe area a few years ago, but their rampant attempts to modernize poo poo that doesn't need modernizing (as opposed to infrastructure and so on) have ruined it Laos stock exchange, heh. My Thai broker made a big deal of being able to trade there with one issue, the electric company. They send me some research for a few months and then it stopped. When an exchange has only a few issues you are better off playing dice in the alley.
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# ? Sep 1, 2012 17:21 |
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# ? May 10, 2024 18:33 |
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Yeah, not a lot of money being made there, heh. The money here can be made by investing with the right frontier/developing market fund firms that operate, but with so many sketchy outfits in town it's not something I'd advise most people back home to look into (not that many of them will take American clients anyway, for that matter). Would be kind of a funny thing to offer as a tourism service - "Leave Laos as a licensed broker on the world's smallest public stock exchange!" The big news recently on the Cambodian exchange was the country's first IPO, the water utility, which was done primarily for the PR and experience value of someone there having done an IPO and being able to say that they had done an IPO, heh.
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# ? Sep 1, 2012 18:12 |
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After having hosted, met and sat near a number of Western tourists of the above-backpacker-price-range variety, I can offer some tips to avoid looking like an idiot to those of us who live here:
ReindeerF fucked around with this message at 19:08 on Sep 1, 2012 |
# ? Sep 1, 2012 18:33 |
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Pirate Bay founder, after being on international wanted lists for a while post previous sentencing, has been arrested exactly where you thought he would be arrested: http://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-founder-arrested-in-cambodia-120901/
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# ? Sep 2, 2012 01:23 |
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ReindeerF posted:Yeah, not a lot of money being made there, heh. The money here can be made by investing with the right frontier/developing market fund firms that operate, but with so many sketchy outfits in town it's not something I'd advise most people back home to look into (not that many of them will take American clients anyway, for that matter). Would be kind of a funny thing to offer as a tourism service - "Leave Laos as a licensed broker on the world's smallest public stock exchange!" I am sure there is but not on the exchanges. PE is the way to go but you need to figure out which ones are legit and which ones are sex tourists acting like investors. Thailand is more fun but in the real world nobody understands the country or the economy. Because they use Thai GAAP everyone thinks it is a new language. If you have frontier market experience it is not a problem to separate the wheat from the chaff. Lots of well run businesses in Bangkok and nobody is playing the ASEAN angle outside of the locals. evilwaldo fucked around with this message at 02:31 on Sep 2, 2012 |
# ? Sep 2, 2012 02:24 |
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ReindeerF posted:After having hosted, met and sat near a number of Western tourists of the above-backpacker-price-range variety, I can offer some tips to avoid looking like an idiot to those of us who live here:
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# ? Sep 2, 2012 06:36 |
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ReindeerF posted:My friend lives up there and married a Laos woman. He's an economist by training and a pretty smart guy. Reads and speaks the language. He bought some property 15m outside town a year back and it's worth about double now. Fifteen minutes outside VIENTIANE (i.e. the middle of nowhere). I have my doubts that it'll ever happen though. I think Thailand's discount air carriers are doing everything possible to block HS rail plans in Thailand though.
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# ? Sep 2, 2012 07:41 |
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Sheep-Goats posted:Pirate Bay founder, after being on international wanted lists for a while post previous sentencing, has been arrested exactly where you thought he would be arrested:
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# ? Sep 2, 2012 08:58 |
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evilwaldo posted:I am sure there is but not on the exchanges. PE is the way to go but you need to figure out which ones are legit and which ones are sex tourists acting like investors. Anyway, interesting world I stumbled into. Heaps of Westerners, though I have met some Thai guys from the shell of the former AIG that got sold after AIG's spectacular crash and they basically do PE. I'm sure there's more here with the rise of the SET and all the investing, but it's a pretty nascent industry since Thailand's always been a bit of a closed shop. Here, your private equity firm is your Chinese family. You want capital, talk to grandpa. EDIT: For purposes of this post, Singaporeans are Westerners, heh, as they're the only SE Asians well-represented in finance. ReindeerF fucked around with this message at 09:12 on Sep 2, 2012 |
# ? Sep 2, 2012 09:03 |
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Modus Operandi posted:If that Chinese high speed rail plan to Thailand through Laos ever becomes reality in the next 20 years it's going to be real interesting as to what happens to property value. "Thailand's [ESTABLISHED PUBLIC OR PRIVATE INTEREST] are doing everything possible to block [FORM OF PROGRESS] in Thailand though."
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# ? Sep 2, 2012 09:09 |
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ReindeerF posted:Hah, I didn't know he was wanted. He was well-known locally as the Pirate Bay guy and he ran with the local hash. Nice guy, I heard. Kind of nerdy (shock). He seems like such a nice little Sweedish guy and his site lets me see all the cool old Hitchcock movies that are hard to find so I hope he had a good time in PP. Pretty sure he did. For the record I think Trat would be a great place to hide from international businesses driven law enforcement apparatuses. ReindeerF posted:EDIT: For purposes of this post, Singaporeans are Westerners, heh, as they're the only SE Asians well-represented in finance. You can tell they're SE Asian though because if they possibly can they will spend a months salary on a phone and six on a watch la raton fucked around with this message at 15:37 on Sep 2, 2012 |
# ? Sep 2, 2012 15:32 |
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Sheep-Goats posted:For the record I think Trat would be a great place to hide from international businesses driven law enforcement apparatuses.
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# ? Sep 2, 2012 18:37 |
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What should go on top of Reindeer's list: 1. Do NOT get a girlfriend (or boyfriend) You'll get the "why you no have? you like man? you handsome na why no have girlfriend?" but it's way better than being forced into temples, listening to stupid opinions, trying to explain where Thailand is on a world map and other things that makes me want to jump from a balcony in Pattaya. - - - I wonder where the rest of the Pirate Bay gang is hiding.
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# ? Sep 2, 2012 18:58 |
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Oh yeah, that's a good one. I made a rule of not dating locally for the first two years I was here. One of my rare good decisions in life, heh. Not out of racism or anything (though I'm from Texas and you can't make lil' linebackers with Thai women), but just because of the cultural confusion and issues. This country is custom designed to destroy existing relationships and create new ones destined to fail. I have never seen anything like it anywhere ever.
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# ? Sep 2, 2012 20:04 |
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The relations in Thailand i've seen fail mostly have these things in common: The guy doesn't understand any Thai whatsoever and they met at some nightlife establishment like a bar or nightclub. Guy is completely clueless about Thai culture. Thai person is completely clueless about your culture. Thai person has never been abroad before and likes hooking up with foreigners for various "reasons." No history of gainful employment for one or either party. She graduated from Ramkhamhaeng. All those things are just big honking red flags. /thaivisa
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# ? Sep 3, 2012 04:10 |
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SOM NAM NAAR ME MISSUS RECKONS
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# ? Sep 3, 2012 05:03 |
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In other news son of red bull founder ran over a cop with his ferrari and fled into his posh Thonglor house.
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# ? Sep 3, 2012 07:50 |
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There's also the 4-8 holiday boyfriend/girlfriend situation between backpackers. Which still falls underReindeerF posted:and create new ones destined to fail
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# ? Sep 3, 2012 07:51 |
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eviljelly posted:There's also the 4-8 holiday boyfriend/girlfriend situation between backpackers. Which still falls under Replace create with "pay for" and it gets a tad closer to the truth.
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# ? Sep 3, 2012 19:15 |
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Ringo R posted:I wonder where the rest of the Pirate Bay gang is hiding. Doesn't one of the other guys live in Laos? I always thought it was funny how Gottfrid's location was always 'unknown', when everyone knew he was just chillin in his riverside apartment. Although I heard he had started to go off the rails a bit (as tends to happen in PP).
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# ? Sep 4, 2012 05:09 |
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Morricone posted:Replace create with "pay for" and it gets a tad closer to the truth. Backpackers pay to sleep with each other? Who do they pay...?
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# ? Sep 4, 2012 13:45 |
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eviljelly posted:Backpackers pay to sleep with each other? Who do they pay...? All of the clinics on the island do pregnancy and STD tests, I guess a lot of backpackers need to be tested I've found a house, finish rescue tomorrow, begin ye olde DMT soon thereafter. I was at Mango Bay this afternoon and did a bunch of skills by the New Way boat - were you on board? I managed to kill my mask (don't ask) and lose a line cutter and torch pocket
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# ? Sep 4, 2012 14:25 |
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In other news, the comments this last week or so by a member of the ruling Phuea Thai party were predictably forward-thinking and progressive:quote:Only last week a Member of Parliament of the ruling Phuea Thai Party Sunai Julphongsathorn urged north eastern Thai women to find a foreign husband as foreign governments would pay for everything down to the ‘lovely diapers’. ReindeerF fucked around with this message at 17:57 on Sep 4, 2012 |
# ? Sep 4, 2012 14:55 |
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Been a while since I've posted in here. I'm finally going to probably be heading back to SEA (Thailand), and will be working on a farm in the Chiang Mia area. I've already done the backpacking in SEA on a shoestring thing back in 2010 or so, but since I'll be staying longer I'm thinking about my laptop. I honestly want to just leave that poo poo behind. I know that internet cafes are all over the place while on the beaten track, but how common are they out in the sticks? I'm guessing they are still around since it would mostly likely be the only way most people could get access to a computer, but I'm not sure. Either way, excited as hell to be heading back. Like most people in this thread I've been itching (and lurking in this thread) to get back ever since I returned the US. Should be cool to be there not as a tourist.
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# ? Sep 4, 2012 19:25 |
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Thai folks, especially working class Thai folks, still use internet cafes quite a bit, so there should be one. Whether it will be convenient I don't know, but every town of any size I've seen has at least one, usually more.
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# ? Sep 4, 2012 20:25 |
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eviljelly posted:Backpackers pay to sleep with each other? Who do they pay...? Well, score one for reading comprehension! Maybe I forgot to have my coffee or maybe I'm jaded and instantly read your "4-8 holiday boyfriend/girlfriend"-part as something sketchy and managed to skip the backpacker-part. Sorry for being a dumbass.
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# ? Sep 4, 2012 21:54 |
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This is great news. I'm going to open Bangkok's first backpacker brothel where smelly people in fisherman pants that haven't been washed for two weeks and hideous Bo Derek braids pay money to gently caress each other!
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# ? Sep 4, 2012 22:09 |
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Finch! posted:I've found a house, finish rescue tomorrow, begin ye olde DMT soon thereafter. I was at Mango Bay this afternoon and did a bunch of skills by the New Way boat - were you on board? I managed to kill my mask (don't ask) and lose a line cutter and torch pocket Hah, yeah I think I saw your group, even! I was leading some scuba reviewers back to the boat. Next time you see the New Way boat, you can yell STAIRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRS at the top of your lungs at any Asian person on board.
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# ? Sep 4, 2012 23:48 |
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moflika posted:Been a while since I've posted in here. I'm finally going to probably be heading back to SEA (Thailand), and will be working on a farm in the Chiang Mia area. I've already done the backpacking in SEA on a shoestring thing back in 2010 or so, but since I'll be staying longer I'm thinking about my laptop. If a Thai town is big enough to have three shops at least one of them will be an internet cafe.
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# ? Sep 5, 2012 02:16 |
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Sheep-Goats posted:If a Thai town is big enough to have three shops at least one of them will be an internet cafe. That's good to hear. Now I hope I can get over not having something to carry crazy amounts of music/movies/documentaries on.
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# ? Sep 5, 2012 07:37 |
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Crossposting - I just ran across a paper that a girl wrote about my absolute favorite True Crime story in Thailand: http://elibrary.law.psu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1009&context=jlia Should be a loving movie.
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# ? Sep 5, 2012 08:49 |
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ReindeerF posted:This is great news. I'm going to open Bangkok's first backpacker brothel where smelly people in fisherman pants that haven't been washed for two weeks and hideous Bo Derek braids pay money to gently caress each other! Might work esp. since Lao authorities has begun to crack down on Vang Vieng.
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# ? Sep 5, 2012 10:19 |
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Morricone posted:Might work esp. since Lao authorities has begun to crack down on Vang Vieng.
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# ? Sep 5, 2012 10:24 |
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I have been driving around on a motorbike for almost a week now and my conclusion is: This is the best way of travelling around inside a country" I have no idea why I haven't done this before. I can stop wherever I'd like, and I get to see so many places I wouldn't be able to see without either messing with multiple bemos and/or a lot of other hassle. And the beaches here in Sumbawa are loving amazing. Beautiful white sand beaches without any tourists. Next time I'm coming here (hopefully soon, because I love this island), I'll bring a tent and cooking gear and just drive from beach to beach to chill out. I'm amazed that these beaches haven't been developed yet, they are perfect for it. I drove past so many nice beaches on the way from Maluk to Sumbawa Besar. Stayed a couple of days in Sekongkang. It was fantastic. It was just me and some surfers. Since the surfers don't hang out at the beach I had the entire beach for myself. I met a german surfer who had been in Kuta Lombok two years ago and he described it just as my Lonely Planet did, but apparently the people there had the attitude that they wanted to be better than Kuta Bali. No wonder that place has turned into such a hellhole.
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# ? Sep 5, 2012 10:42 |
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So it looks like those Canadian sisters' cause of death was deet: http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/2012/08/31/montreal-sisters-die-thailand-insecticide.html quote:It is thought that an overdose of DEET was accidentally mixed into the young women's drinks. edit: more info http://whatismatt.com/quebec-sisters-may-have-died-from-drinking-deet-cocktail/ quote:Two Canadian sisters who died on Phi Phi island in June had ingested the insect repellent DEET, indicating they may have drunk a variation of a local "cocktail" popular in the southern provinces known as 4×100. The ingredients of 4×100 are usually kratom leaf extract, cough syrup, cola and ice. Heh, I remember I was on Ko Phangan about to goto the full moon party and this girl gave me some leaves to chew. I thought she was crazy but I chewed it anyway, it didn't have no effects though. I guess it was probably those kratom leaves. lol internet. fucked around with this message at 20:17 on Sep 5, 2012 |
# ? Sep 5, 2012 20:08 |
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If you want to have fun, go check out the ThaiVisa thread on the topic. It's like an episode of CSI as imagined by the crowd at the pub in an episode of Last of the Summer Wine where no one actually knows anything about the subject matter.
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# ? Sep 5, 2012 20:25 |
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Is that drink real or just a news agency running off rumors and legend?
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# ? Sep 6, 2012 02:28 |
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Macdeo Lurjtux posted:Is that drink real or just a news agency running off rumors and legend? I've never heard of it but then I also never went to Phuket. It wouldn't surprise me if it was a real thing in Phuket.
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# ? Sep 6, 2012 02:31 |
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Well that seems really dumb why would you want to take something like that. I understand the allure of drugs and the opportunity to do it in a foreign country far from home that they must feel since it is easier to attain it must thus be safer to do and less risky. From my brief search it seems that 4x100 is popular in Southern Thailand and because it contains no alcohol but produces the same effects it could be considered OK by the Muslim youth. The fact that some mixtures could potentially contain mosquito repellent and powder from a fluorescent light makes it seem crazy that anyone would consider taking it. Evolution at work I suppose. In other news it is now less than 2 weeks until I head over to Indonesia! It can't come soon enough.
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# ? Sep 6, 2012 04:16 |
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# ? May 10, 2024 18:33 |
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Even if hey did actually order and drink those drinks (which is debatable) it's unlikely that there was an ingredient list. I'm pretty sure it'd be like everything else around here and just have a cute name.
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# ? Sep 6, 2012 04:35 |