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When I was home, everyone kept talking about the great Thai restaurant near them, and I declined to go there every time. Everyone always laughed 'haha, yeah, pretty sick of it right?' Not sick of it, just not interested in paying 30$ US for whatever the hell they're trying to pass off as Thai food.
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Nov 6, 2013 17:06
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xcdude24 posted:Any specific suggestions? Heading there tomorrow. Rat Hue, behind Ben Thanh market. May Cuc Gach Quan, for the good food, fresh juices and awesome deco of the place. i.d Café for light eating and drinks in a chill hip indie place. The famous Lunch Lady (I think Anthony Bourdain went there) for the street food experience - but if you're used to it, you can go just anywhere. Also, KOTO, Hoa Tuc, Nha Hang Ngon on Pasteur street... These are the few I remember but the best meals were had in small typical street restaurants, there are so many. Excellent vegetarian on Tran Dinh Xu in District 1, right next to the river (I used to live there, loved the neighborhood). I had the best tamarind crab of my life just before leaving but I forget where it was as it's a bit remote. I can ask if you want.  There's also an awesome awesome Moroccan restaurant named Casablanca in D10. And good cheap kebabs at Zeus, on Cong Quynh (backpacker district) if you ever get tired of local food. Senso fucked around with this message at 17:21 on Nov 6, 2013 |
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Nov 6, 2013 17:12
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Chair Huxtable posted:Not sick of it, just not interested in paying 30$ US for whatever the hell they're trying to pass off as Thai food.
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Nov 6, 2013 18:16
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Ganguro King posted:Thailand/Bangkok goons: if I buy an iPhone 5s from a random vendor at MBK, the chances of it being a fake are pretty much zero, right? I don't want to have to wait to get it through an official carrier. BUT WHAT ABOUT WINDOWS PHONE??? Yeah, as caberham said, fakes are easy to tell. They'll probably run on some crappy Android version. Just boot it up and check before purchasing.
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Nov 6, 2013 18:40
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Thanks for the mobile SIM info, I appreciate it. The next question I have is about traveling from Cambodia to Vietnam. My girlfriend says we'll need to get a Vietnam visa while in Cambodia, does anyone know the best way to do this? Or maybe not s visa, but rather an approval letter for one. I am prreeetttttyyy excited for this trip, guys. 1 week in Cambodia followed by 11 days in north Vietnam.
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Nov 6, 2013 19:18
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You can get your letter ahead of time by applying online or you can get a visa in Phnom Penh if you have time. Up you!
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Nov 6, 2013 19:26
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ReindeerF posted:The first person to popularize Larb Moo Tort in America is going to make a loving fortune. I mean you'll have to call it Thai Spicy Balls or Thai Fireballs or Super Spicy Ultra Mega Thai Bites or whatever, but they'll sell like hotcakes. Larb Moo Tort is new enough to (most of) Bangkok that I've introduced tons of people to it, even Thai people, and every single person is like THIS IS CRACK. What's not to like, right? Take larb, mush it up in a ball and fry it - serve with nam jim jao. I have always thought that a SE Asia-style beach bar (triangle pillows, low tables, take off your shoes, Asian appetizers, and of course buckets) would do really well in certain parts of America and would be a welcome change from the norm. I know they'd do well in my hometown on the California coast, at least. xcdude24 posted:Any specific suggestions? Heading there tomorrow. I have recommendations but I rarely remember the name for anything and most of my favorite places are migratory. I live here now though so if you want some tips email me, tell me where you live and what you're looking for and I'll send some tips your way! Don't miss out on the Banh Mi (Vietnamese sandwiches off the street with varied fillings) and bun thit nuong (perfect for breakfast: cold noodles with veggies, pork sausage pieces or seafood or other, and delicious sauce). Sorry I don't have many specifics but I know the best bun thit nuong place in the city and I know a million banh mi places that I find delicious. Also if you want to hit the town sometimes I wouldn't mind if you joined my friends and I. robertjamesh at gmail dot com
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Nov 6, 2013 19:48
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PowerLlama posted:Thanks for the mobile SIM info, I appreciate it. Possibly online, as others said though I never did it myself. The Vietnam embassy in Phnom Penh delivers visas, I went there to renew mine once and it took an hour max.
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Nov 6, 2013 22:45
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I went Cambodia->Vietnam by buying a ticket with a tourist agency. I don't remember if it was a proper visa or an approval letter or what, but whatever it was was just included in the bus ticket price and they did all the legwork. p.s. when I say "tourist agency" I mean "the guy at the front desk of the hostel"
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Nov 6, 2013 22:50
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Remember that the visa on arrival letter only works if you're flying into Vietnam. If you're taking a bus, nope. Speaking of Vietnam visas, do 15 day ones really exist? I've seen a few mentions of them online but I'm not sure. It would be perfect for me since I mainly need a visa to catch my flight home (oh god it's so soon I'm not ready to go back home in December)
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Nov 6, 2013 23:37
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I think I'm going to try the embassy in Phnom Penh, thanks again! Will I need to bring a passport photo with me?
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Nov 7, 2013 00:19
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Tomato Soup posted:My visa expired on the 30th of October so this wouldn't have worked as a cheap way to add time for me. I got upset for a second thinking that I went to the Samui immigration office for no reason but then Was it from samohtjohnson@gmail.com? I got the same email and I was trying to work out why it was sent to me and how I ended up on a Sam Rainsy mailing list...
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Nov 7, 2013 00:29
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I'm just wondering which hostel or whatever they got my email from. I think I'm going to give hostels a different email from now on so I don't get more poo poo like that.
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imnotinsane posted:Was it from samohtjohnson@gmail.com? I got the same email and I was trying to work out why it was sent to me and how I ended up on a Sam Rainsy mailing list...
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Nov 7, 2013 02:42
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How's the job market in Bangkok for expats with fruity skills like community work and writing/editing?
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Nov 7, 2013 02:52
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Pixelante posted:How's the job market in Bangkok for expats with fruity skills like community work and writing/editing? I don't know the Bangkok job market well, but ReindeerF has mentioned that English editing jobs with law firms exist, and I've seen a few postings in the Bangkok Post. The handful I've seen posted didn't require law experience, but focused more on copy-editing/English-language abilities and paid upwards of 50,000 baht/month. Not sure what you mean by community work, but most paid social work type positions are done by Thai nationals or at least Thai speakers. Overall, I'd check out Thai NGO or Devnet to get an idea of NGO/nonprofit positions in the area. For a foreigner without Thai or a STEM/medical background I'd suggest looking into program administration, grant management or communications positions, and focus on regional think tanks, refugee/migrant and public health NGOs. Bangkok has the bulk of them and the highest pay, but you could also possibly find similar work in Chiang Mai, the Thai/Burma border area (Mae Sot, Sanghklaburi) or around the big MHS loop towns if you're willing to hunt on the ground for a month or two and maybe start with a local salary. Feel free to PM me if you have any specific questions. edit: DontAskKant posted:motorbike around in Burma because screw this trains. I assume you're good at biking because the roads are generally the worst of any SEA countries, and parts the hardest to get. You'll also have to start outside of Yangon, since bikes are banned in the city. Also, Burma has some screwy restrictions on where foreigners can stay and visit, so you'll probably be traveling just about as fast as the trains in routes roughly similar to the trains. Your call, though, since it could be a great experience. As for visas, you need to have your Burma visa before arrival (get it in your home country or Bangkok), and you can also enter/exit the country overland via Thailand now, so you might want to take that into consideration. MothraAttack fucked around with this message at 03:38 on Nov 7, 2013 |
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Nov 7, 2013 03:32
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Pixelante posted:How's the job market in Bangkok for expats with fruity skills like community work and writing/editing? I don't know what community work is. I knew a couple of people who did low end writing and editing. Both had jobs that at least nominally were higher up than what they did before (Oh you wrote for a magazine? Now you're an editor.) Both made basically English teacher money. Both had their employers fold on them after a some months. I have no idea if these anecdotes are related to an overall reality or not. Ajarn.com has (had?) a non English teaching work forum. Maybe crosscheck there after everyone here chips in. raton fucked around with this message at 03:53 on Nov 7, 2013 |
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Nov 7, 2013 03:43
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I can ride a bicycle well and spent 3 hours motorbiking around Saigon as my whole experience of it. So... I can ride a horse fairly well.
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Nov 7, 2013 04:49
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Sheep-Goats posted:I don't know what community work is. Things like volunteer coordination, managing charity projects, organizing events, etc. Social workers are also community workers (as in people who build/help communities) but my skills are more management/administrative. I also have a post-bach diploma in Journalism and have worked as an editor, so that'd probably be a direction I'd try if I decided to stick around longer. I'm supposed to go home at the end of December, but I'm slightly less of a broken wreck than I was when I left Canada, and I'm tempted to just stay and let that ride a bit longer before I go back. I'd forgotten what it was like to not feel like poo poo all the time. I don't want to go back to that. Seems like half the expats I've met here are clearly damaged in some way. (But goddamn the missionary ones are a special kind of hosed up.) My supervisor here (not the cow) lost his wife and kids in NZ and has been living here since.
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Nov 7, 2013 06:56
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Play posted:I have always thought that a SE Asia-style beach bar (triangle pillows, low tables, take off your shoes, Asian appetizers, and of course buckets) would do really well in certain parts of America and would be a welcome change from the norm. I know they'd do well in my hometown on the California coast, at least. MothraAttack posted:I don't know the Bangkok job market well, but ReindeerF has mentioned that English editing jobs with law firms exist, and I've seen a few postings in the Bangkok Post. The handful I've seen posted didn't require law experience, but focused more on copy-editing/English-language abilities and paid upwards of 50,000 baht/month. MothraAttack posted:Not sure what you mean by community work  MothraAttack posted:Overall, I'd check out Thai NGO or Devnet to get an idea of NGO/nonprofit positions in the area. ReindeerF fucked around with this message at 07:57 on Nov 7, 2013 |
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Nov 7, 2013 07:50
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50,000 bhat is high or low for those jobs? If high then i still can't live in SE Asia with student loans.
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Nov 7, 2013 08:59
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ReindeerF posted:This is much more your area, but my first thought was, "Just go to Cambodia." When I finally get round to writing a new thread this is going to be in the title. gently caress it, that'll just be the OP.
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Nov 7, 2013 09:23
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DontAskKant posted:50,000 bhat is high or low for those jobs? If high then i still can't live in SE Asia with student loans. The average (non-ag) wage here is something like 12,000 Baht a month, with most starting jobs around 10,000. College kids are lucky to make 12-18k out of university. So, for foreigners, the starting wage for teachers, I think, is around 20K at the low end, where many reside, and gets up into the 100+K range if you're at ISB or Bangkok Pattana or are a professor or dean or something. For other professions, it varies widely. This is all Bangkok numbers. Outside of Bangkok it's a different story, pretty much. Cost of living plummets and wages follow, with maybe some exceptions for specialized hospitality industry positions in Phuket, Samui, etc. EDIT: You can make more here pretty easily, but you either need to start your own business or you need to have highly applicable skills and network well. Teaching, writing, basic web work and various design fields are heavily oversaturated here. The biggest mistake most people make is that they don't professionally network - join organizations, attend events, take people to lunch and so on. It's not that much work and while you seriously have to pick through the poo poo to get to the corn here in Thailand, you can sort out who's who pretty well within about a year of living here. Up front, though, you're going to meet a bunch of scammers and sexpats and so on, it's just part of the deal. ReindeerF fucked around with this message at 09:52 on Nov 7, 2013 |
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Nov 7, 2013 09:41
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Scuba diving instructors make about 40,000 to 70,000 per month on average on Koh Tao, by comparison.
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Nov 7, 2013 10:00
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Is that seasonal? I know people who run island businesses and they make most of their money in the high seasons, typically, but none of them are SCUBA people, so I have no idea about that world.
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Nov 7, 2013 10:13
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eviljelly posted:Scuba diving instructors make about 40,000 to 70,000 per month on average on Koh Tao, by comparison. I'm surprised it's that high. DontAskKant posted:50,000 bhat is high or low for those jobs? If high then i still can't live in SE Asia with student loans. My non-international school jobs that I had like six years ago in Thailand paid between 40 and 55kB a month. Of course this was when it took 40B to get you a dollar  . The 55k one is upper end for the low end. Lots of Thai nurses make like 18k a month if that. Lawyers maybe 120k or so, which is about what a teacher on a good international school package makes. Lots of the Thai people I consort with here in the Thai expat ghetto of NYC worked high end jobs in Thailand -- managerial, health care, etc. Most of them make vastly more being waitresses or waiters here part time while they go to some dumb EFL school to maintain their visa. Every time I tell one of the little nurses here that in the US nurses make about 50 an hour their faces do weird stuff. You can make more if you're in the right field. You can also make a decent amount running certain types of businesses (not gogo bars) (well maybe gogo bars but I don't know about that). I had a British friend there whose only job for the last decade had been to buy silver body jewelry in Thailand, carry it on his back back to England, and sell it there at about a 6x markup (usual luxury markup goes 4x from distributor then 4x from distributor to businesses, so he was offering them stuff at 50% off what they could usually find, give or take). He made a lot more money than me and only really "worked" intermittently. Pixelante posted:Seems like half the expats I've met here are clearly damaged in some way. That's about right, and it applies to the lady expats too  Of those half about half again are damaged in a way that's acceptable / redeemable / interesting. But from thereon hoo boy I just mentioned Frank a few pages ago, I think. Ahh, Frank. Franky boy. raton fucked around with this message at 10:31 on Nov 7, 2013 |
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Nov 7, 2013 10:17
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Sheep-Goats posted:I'm surprised it's that high. ReindeerF posted:Is that seasonal? I know people who run island businesses and they make most of their money in the high seasons, typically, but none of them are SCUBA people, so I have no idea about that world. Yeah it's a little bit seasonal and it really depends on the dive shop. Typically you get paid per 'tank' or per course, so if you work for one of those dive shops that pack 10 people into a single group, you are making 10 times more money than if you have only 1 customer that day. I would guess the regular instructors at those dive shops can make 150,000+ per month. I'm guessing in the next 5 years or so there will be more Thais who get into dive instructing.
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Nov 7, 2013 11:14
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Quoting from another thread:kenner116 posted:I'll be in Manila from Sunday through Tuesday if any goons want to drink cheap beers and discuss why this is ReindeerF's favorite city. The Philippines will also be hosting a super typhoon tomorrow. Sadly they do not have the equivalent of Li's Field. Any other Manila goons willing to brave the elements on Sunday? anakha fucked around with this message at 11:36 on Nov 7, 2013 |
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Nov 7, 2013 11:33
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anakha posted:Any other Manila goons willing to brave the elements on Sunday? It's a shame because if there's any time you want to drive to Manila coming from the north, it's on a Sunday. Oh well, enjoy and warn them about getting on buses! EDIT: Huh, is alcohol still comparatively cheap here in the Phils? Ever since the sin tax got passed, I've been using it as an excuse to drink Corona instead of Pale Pilsen all the time. toasterwarrior fucked around with this message at 12:47 on Nov 7, 2013 |
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Nov 7, 2013 12:44
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toasterwarrior posted:It's a shame because if there's any time you want to drive to Manila coming from the north, it's on a Sunday. Oh well, enjoy and warn them about getting on buses! Alchohol is still cheap. As are cigarettes. As for Sunday, I might be up for braving the elements. I don't work until Monday night \o/ Where in Manila are you staying though? Most people don't realize that Manila is like 20 cities smashed together.
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Nov 7, 2013 15:10
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Cynic Jester posted:As for Sunday, I might be up for braving the elements. I don't work until Monday night \o/ I'll be staying at Red Carabao, up near the huge Chinese cemetery.
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Nov 7, 2013 15:49
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kenner116 posted:I'll be staying at Red Carabao, up near the huge Chinese cemetery. Looks like somewhere in Makati would be the best place to meet as usual.
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Nov 7, 2013 19:07
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toasterwarrior posted:It's a shame because if there's any time you want to drive to Manila coming from the north, it's on a Sunday. Oh well, enjoy and warn them about getting on buses! Depriving the masses of beer and cigarettes by pricing these out of their meager budgets is a surefire way to start riots over here.
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Nov 8, 2013 04:20
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So, tropical storm warnings for SE Asia?
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Nov 8, 2013 06:43
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Pixelante posted:So, tropical storm warnings for SE Asia?
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Nov 8, 2013 08:16
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ReindeerF posted:This is much more your area, but my first thought was, "Just go to Cambodia." Yeah, or this. PP has a ton of NGO positions, but what I've heard from veterans and what I've seen online it seems to be a weird mix of gap year kids doing semi-serious work for nothing or next to nothing and highly qualified development specialists and the like on the other hand. The consensus seems to be that there's probably more "help" in PP than is needed, but I don't know the real situation on the ground and it's hard to say. Lots of cool stuff going on there, though, and it's a great city. If anyone is interested, I see the Mon National Health Committee is hiring an English trainer for January in Sangkhlaburi, but I don't know pay details. Could be interesting for the right person.
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Nov 8, 2013 10:19
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Cynic Jester posted:Looks like somewhere in Makati would be the best place to meet as usual. Makati is fine. I'll take the MRT/LRT down and hopefully won't get too lost down there. This will be my first time in the Philippines so I'm expecting that by only visiting Manila I will get a positive and representative view of the entire country.
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Nov 8, 2013 10:55
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MothraAttack posted:Yeah, or this. PP has a ton of NGO positions, but what I've heard from veterans and what I've seen online it seems to be a weird mix of gap year kids doing semi-serious work for nothing or next to nothing and highly qualified development specialists and the like on the other hand. The consensus seems to be that there's probably more "help" in PP than is needed, but I don't know the real situation on the ground and it's hard to say. Lots of cool stuff going on there, though, and it's a great city. If anyone is interested, I see the Mon National Health Committee is hiring an English trainer for January in Sangkhlaburi, but I don't know pay details. Could be interesting for the right person. Sangkhlaburi would be beautiful. I'd take that in a heartbeat.
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Nov 8, 2013 12:53
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kenner116 posted:Makati is fine. I'll take the MRT/LRT down and hopefully won't get too lost down there. This will be my first time in the Philippines so I'm expecting that by only visiting Manila I will get a positive and representative view of the entire country. Just text me on 09053129067 when you want to meet up.
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Nov 8, 2013 13:17
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HELLO MAM SIR HOW ARE JOO THANK JOO FOR GIBBING ME EZACK CHANGE I miss the Phils sometimes. I'll be back next year for a good Pinoy friend's wedding up in La Onion, as we call it. I'll have to catch up with you in-the-know Manila types when I'm there if you're amenable. EDIT: Every time I rode the MRT/LRT, once we got out of CBD areas everyone on the train would just stare at me, like, "Why does the Kano not have a car?" I never felt the least bit unsafe on there, but my Pinoy friends were always warning me about it. Based on the locked equipment room we kept at the office, though, the buses, Jeepneys and FXes weren't exactly crime-free, sadly.
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Nov 8, 2013 14:09
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ReindeerF posted:EDIT: Every time I rode the MRT/LRT, once we got out of CBD areas everyone on the train would just stare at me, like, "Why does the Kano not have a car?" I never felt the least bit unsafe on there, but my Pinoy friends were always warning me about it. Based on the locked equipment room we kept at the office, though, the buses, Jeepneys and FXes weren't exactly crime-free, sadly. Oh certainly not. All it takes in something as cramped as a jeepney is a dude to sit beside you and pull out a weapon and that's it. You barely have enough room to move your head in one, much less try and escape. My bro got his phone stolen from him once by some piece of poo poo that way. Hell, I'm surprised there hasn't been that much reports of fighting or crime in the metro stations. That poo poo gets really packed, and you even see idiots shoving and clustering by the entrances when there's plenty of room and bars to hold on to in the aisles.
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Nov 8, 2013 14:23
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