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I know, right? I hear they have these things called "sewers", which make no sense to me. They put the poop river underground. How is it supposed to flood your home every time it rains?
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Dec 18, 2013 09:32
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SurreptitiousMuffin posted:I know, right? I hear they have these things called "sewers", which make no sense to me. They put the poop river underground. How is it supposed to flood your home every time it rains? Don't worry, it still flood here in PJ and KL everytime it pours. God forbid you are on the main highway when it rains.
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Dec 18, 2013 11:37
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So I'm going to be heading over to Thailand for about a week in January; flying into the south, spending a day or two in Saigon, going up north to Hanoi for a day or two, hopefully doing Ha Long Bay (though I've heard it's not really that great and super expensive due to trash and tourism so...we'll see I guess?), then taking a commercial plane back south to catch a flight back out of Saigon. Any...vague advice, I guess? Nice and cheap places to stay in either city (I assume I'm going to take a night train from Saigon to Hanoi), if Ha Long is worth it, how I'm the dumbest human being alive for doing this, etc? I went to Bangkok for a week and Koh Phangan for a week to just relax last year and had a blast at both, if that helps. Or hey, where to meet for cool drinks I guess?????
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Dec 19, 2013 05:12
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ProfessorCirno posted:So I'm going to be heading over to Thailand for about a week in January; flying into the south, spending a day or two in Saigon, going up north to Hanoi for a day or two, hopefully doing Ha Long Bay (though I've heard it's not really that great and super expensive due to trash and tourism so...we'll see I guess?), then taking a commercial plane back south to catch a flight back out of Saigon. 1 week for Thailand or 1 week for all those cities? If it's just 1 week, stick to any 2 cities. quote:Any...vague advice, I guess? Nice and cheap places to stay in either city (I assume I'm going to take a night train from Saigon to Hanoi), If I remember the train from Saigon to Hanoi actually takes a little more than 30 hours  Hanoi ---> Hue ---> Danag ---> Saigon is more manageable, you save 2 nights of accommodation but Vietnam lodging is cheap quote:if Ha Long is worth it, how I'm the dumbest human being alive for doing this, etc? I went to Bangkok for a week and Koh Phangan for a week to just relax last year and had a blast at both, if that helps. Or hey, where to meet for cool drinks I guess????? Thailand is always nice, Vietnam, meh it's rougher.
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Dec 19, 2013 05:20
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One week for the whole thing, and...yeah, at 30 hours, maybe I'll just be staying in Saigon! Oh, before I forget - I've been told layovers in Guangzhou are more painful then death itself. I assume there was some overexaggeration there, but I'm not sure how MUCH. Either way I was told that even just two hours was too much and to pay extra for one way. Does anyone have experience with said layover and is it indeed the most terrible thing imaginable to be worth paying extra for one way out of Seoul?
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Dec 19, 2013 05:28
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Never been to Guangzhou but I can't imagine how any airport can be that bad. I'd be interested to know what makes it "worse than death". Are you literally forced to stand facing a wall chanting the Chinese national anthem? Are there pick axes and hard labour involved for the duration of your transit? Do certain passengers face summary execution depending what they buy at duty free? It's probably not got many shops and they've got the air conditioning on too high. Who cares? You're in an airport, the only location on the planet where it is not just acceptable to drink whatever you like at any time you like, it is expected! Unless they don't have alcohol at Guangzhou, in which case may the lord have mercy on your soul.
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Dec 19, 2013 05:44
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ProfessorCirno posted:Oh, before I forget - I've been told layovers in Guangzhou are more painful then death itself. I assume there was some overexaggeration there, but I'm not sure how MUCH. Either way I was told that even just two hours was too much and to pay extra for one way. Does anyone have experience with said layover and is it indeed the most terrible thing imaginable to be worth paying extra for one way out of Seoul? A Korean goon did a layover in Guangzhou and was bored to tears. A few goons I know flown at GZ Bai Yun. The airport is just boring with a few stores. But it's not too bad, there's a metro at the very least to take you to town. If you don't want to leave the airport, bring books to read. BUT GOOD NEWS: http://www.travelchinaguide.com/embassy/visa/free-72hour/ So yeah, you can get out of town. I'm out of town in Hong Kong until mid January. But normally I would go to Guangzhou and the surrounding areas once a week for work. So depending on your times, I can take a train and meet you in town for some pulled pork or eat some Chinese food before you go on your merry way.
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Dec 19, 2013 06:16
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Layover is only for two hours so I can't really go out and about. I think I'm going to go ahead and take it - saves me a good amount of cash and...honestly, two hours. I'll live. I just have to leave extra early Saturday to get down to the airport since that flight leaves early and it takes me a good amount of time to get to Seoul. Edit: It would be Jan. 11th. But again, only two hours, I can survive that in an airport even sans laptop. ProfessorCirno fucked around with this message at 06:21 on Dec 19, 2013 |
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Dec 19, 2013 06:18
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ProfessorCirno posted:Edit: It would be Jan. 11th. But again, only two hours, I can survive that in an airport even sans laptop. Oh, only 2 hours? Geeze that's easy. If you can't even do a 2 hour airport lay over, then you should never board a plane.
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Dec 19, 2013 06:39
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caberham posted:Oh, only 2 hours? Geeze that's easy. If you can't even do a 2 hour airport lay over, then you should never board a plane. I'm enjoying my5 hours in Beijing with beers. Lots of beers.
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Dec 19, 2013 06:46
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Madd0g11 posted:I'm enjoying my5 hours in Beijing with beers. Lots of beers. Noooooooo, should have taken a train to the city centre and gooooooooned it up with the locals at great leap brewery, they make all sorts of crazy local flavours like sichuan peppers and honey. Anyways, I hope you are watching NHDT-976 
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Dec 19, 2013 06:55
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caberham posted:Noooooooo, should have taken a train to the city centre and gooooooooned it up with the locals at great leap brewery, they make all sorts of crazy local flavours like sichuan peppers and honey. Not enough time I'm gonna see if I can make my return layover long enough to go out. But they are playing Xmas music non stop and it's making me crazy. In a bad way.
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Dec 19, 2013 07:19
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Ugh I need to get used to the fact that I'm not in SEA anymore. I wrote the date as 18/12/13 today and got a funny look then I realized what I did and corrected it Also I apparently hosed up my knee bad enough to require a few months of physical therapy. I have no idea what I did to it. I feel like I returned home all broken but completely worth it. At least my insurance is covering it all. Got more medicine for the cursed bladder infection, I hope it finally goes away because it's just ridiculous now.
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Dec 19, 2013 10:34
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Just spent $40 on all the ingredients required to make mincemeat, which in turn will be used to make mince pies. Better get cooking!
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Dec 19, 2013 10:57
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duckmaster posted:Just spent $40 on all the ingredients required to make mincemeat, which in turn will be used to make mince pies. Cambodia is not going to forget about blood pudding in the face of mince pies. Oh, who am I kidding, I had a thought about how much I missed Cool Ranch Doritos earlier today, but now that I've eaten a stupid expensive Reese's Cup, I'm happy again. Substitution is a way of life.
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Dec 19, 2013 12:50
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CronoGamer posted:Surely that title goes to Brunei? I live in Brunei and agree with this statement.
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Dec 19, 2013 13:24
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DuckduckduckduckDUCK. I am hitting temples tomorrow, then visiting the bird sanctuary crazy early the next day, but I'm free after 5pm Saturday if you wanna grab a drink. I fly out to Bangkok Sunday, then Vancouver next Thursday. And then I'm going to have a nervous breakdown when confronted by rain and darkness and cold and not being able to get a $6 hour-long massage with free beer from a lesbian Khmer who cracks jokes and flirts. You're welcome to join me for temples tomorrow, if you don't mind getting started by 8am. I've been before. Mostly just want to wander around, take some pictures, and chillax--no military-style loop to hit all the check-points for max FB bait.
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Dec 19, 2013 13:34
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EDIT: Wrong thread, huh.
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Dec 19, 2013 16:22
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Pixelante posted:DuckduckduckduckDUCK. What places I was gonna hit the palace and temples around there in the morning. Also aside from that tomorrow and some other crap my Saturday is open to whatever. Sup Bangkok goons I'm in your city.
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Dec 19, 2013 16:38
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Madd0g11 posted:What places I was gonna hit the palace and temples around there in the morning. Also aside from that tomorrow and some other crap my Saturday is open to whatever. Confused. You in Siem Reap or Bangkok? I'm in Siem Reap and doing a lazy temple loop with a tuktuk driver after 8am.
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Dec 19, 2013 18:21
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Pixelante posted:Confused. You in Siem Reap or Bangkok? I'm in Siem Reap and doing a lazy temple loop with a tuktuk driver after 8am. Ah pardon me been up over 24 hours I saw Bangkok in the post and was like word. Time to pass the gently caress out.
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Dec 19, 2013 19:28
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S'cool. I'm back in BKK on the 22nd and will be bored/lonely through Christmas. Game for just about any goon times.
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Dec 20, 2013 04:25
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Where is RingoR and ReindeerF? Hey ReindeerF, can you or your wife cook Thai food? Or do you guys have servants from Issan/Burma doing all the house work?
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Dec 20, 2013 05:34
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Re: Guangzhou...I had a layover there in December a couple of years ago, just 3 hours or so, so no time to leave the airport. The airport, in addition to being boring and mostly closed at the time I was there, is also unheated. It was freezing cold. Bring a sweater.
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Dec 20, 2013 08:47
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Special lady friend is a good cook, yeah. Western and various Asian cuisines - and Thai, of course. We don't have a live-in maid that cooks or anything, no. Is there a cooking question afoot? EDIT: When in doubt, add condensed milk, fish sauce and chilis. ReindeerF fucked around with this message at 11:30 on Dec 20, 2013 |
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Dec 20, 2013 09:03
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ReindeerF posted:Special lady friend is a good cook, yeah. Western and various Asian cuisines - and Thai, of course. We don't have a live-in maid that cooks or anything, no. Is there a cooking question afoot? Don't forget a big spoonful of sugar on top too
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Dec 20, 2013 14:06
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ONLY ONE?!
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Dec 20, 2013 14:11
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I'm in Bali over Christmas, if anybody else wants to meet up at Ibu Oka or something.
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Dec 20, 2013 15:33
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spittoon posted:Re: Guangzhou...I had a layover there in December a couple of years ago, just 3 hours or so, so no time to leave the airport. The airport, in addition to being boring and mostly closed at the time I was there, is also unheated. It was freezing cold. Bring a sweater. Protip for Guangzhou airport: if you have a Chinese phone number, even if it's a lovely prepaid SIM card, you have free wifi. I spent about 5 hours there last year just reading and browsing the net. It wasn't too bad.
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Dec 21, 2013 02:49
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Pixelante posted:DuckduckduckduckDUCK. Just seen this (total lie, saw it last night at 2am but I was too drunk to type). I have been to the temples a quite disgusting FOUR times (to show friends around) and never want to see another temple ever again! I will be in Warehouse at 8.30pm with some friends but we're playing Pub Golf so it'll be a drunken night of despicable debauchery.
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Dec 21, 2013 08:58
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Selling my Thailand and Vietnam guidebooks - Lonely Planet Vietnam (new), Rough Guide Vietnam (used; very good condition), Rough Guide Thailand (used; very good condition). PM me if interested.
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Dec 21, 2013 23:29
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Sorry Duck. Was gonna drop by and ask random caucasians if they had stairs, but I got a sunburn at the bird sanctuary and ended up going to bed really early. Now I'm in Bangkok watching protesters look for trouble.
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Dec 22, 2013 08:57
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Yeah I'm heading out to Chiang Mai tonight but I chilled for a minute in Silom to see the crowds. Also I saw the Hobbit because gently caress Japan. Bringing movies in late as gently caress. The theater I went to was bad rear end. Best I've ever been to.
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Dec 22, 2013 12:32
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Protest street-food is pretty tasty. So they're protesting that they are not represented by government so they're going to boycott the elections? I don't get it. Can someone Cliff-Notes this into something understandable? Weird SE Asia experience today. A month ago there was an American Buddhist monk staying at my Luang Prabang guesthouse. He was travelling around Asia visiting monasteries and studying the differences in how people practice. I spent a fair bit of time hanging out with him in the evenings, talking and sharing stories. Definitely more interesting than the teenagers in the house. Looked over in the Siem Reap airport this morning while I was getting a coffee... and well, there are only so many middle-aged caucasian dudes wearing robes. Turns out he's on a route of Luang Prabang -> Vientienne -> Hanoi -> Hue -> Hoi An -> Siem Reap -> Yangon while I've been on a a route of Luang Prabang -> Chiang Mai -> Bangkok -> Saigon -> Siem Reap -> Bangkok. I can't imagine the odds of us being in the same airport during the same 45 minute window of overlap between flights boarding.
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Dec 22, 2013 17:17
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Pixelante posted:Protest street-food is pretty tasty. Cliff Notes version: Thailand drummed up the veneer of a constitutional monarchy for a democratically elected government while the old elites contintued to rule as they always have. Enter Thaksin backing unpopular playboy/rear end in a top hat crownprince everyone else didn't want on the throne combined with Thaksin basically giving a massive middle finger to the entrenched elites. Also it turns out he has some vague idea about modern politics and actually appealing to the electorate beyond telling them you know what's best for them and they should shut the hell up. Long story short, we have an existential threat to the old ruling elites that is much better at democratic politics than them. The result is gently caress democracy because peasants can't choose the right side but they don't want to abandon the rhetoric of constitutional monarchy and democracy because many have absorbed those Western ideals (but not actual ideas) and/or are aware of the potential international backlash of publicly going, "Thai peasants aren't intellectually capable of voting right so we can't give them the vote". So we get cognitive dissonance hefty enough to give your average US Republican whiplash.
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Dec 22, 2013 21:52
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MrNemo posted:Cliff Notes version: Thailand drummed up the veneer of a constitutional monarchy for a democratically elected government while the old elites contintued to rule as they always have. Enter Thaksin backing unpopular playboy/rear end in a top hat crownprince everyone else didn't want on the throne combined with Thaksin basically giving a massive middle finger to the entrenched elites. Also it turns out he has some vague idea about modern politics and actually appealing to the electorate beyond telling them you know what's best for them and they should shut the hell up. Long story short, we have an existential threat to the old ruling elites that is much better at democratic politics than them. This is way over generous to Thaksin and the red shirt cause. You forgot to mention that he was the single richest person in Thailand at the time he took office (unless you count the royal holdings as the king's money) and that his children were numbers 3 and 4 on the list. You also forgot to mention the rampant vote buying (of both the hard and soft varieties) that went on when he was first elected in rural Thailand. Some yellow shirts are indeed frothing traditionalist peasant haters but the vast majority of them dislike Thaksin not because he's in danger of toppling their situation over but because he represents the unrestrained corporate oligarch that currently tramples most other regions of SE Asia without check. Additionally, not all yellow shirts see the king as a faultless diety -- many recognize (in private conversation) that he's a person who has done a lot to promote his own cause in the course of his long reign but he has been a moderating force in a number or previous important conflicts. The truth is that Thaksin does not represent a revolution. He represents that same stratified feudalistic system but without the yoke of regal responsibility / right that the current effective head of state bears. It's an immensely complex and interesting situation but one thing that it is not is the little guy rising up for the poor, trying to form a democratic government under the gaze of a despot. It's the number one guy struggling with the number two guy and while both of them would make certain changes to the pyramid that supports them they are also both supported by it and, on the whole, not much interested in large scale change. Many, many yellow shirts would be red shirts if Thaksin were not the head of that organization. This is for good reason when you look closely at what's really going on. Of course, if Thaksin weren't the head of the red shirts that organization would never have had the traction to become something that people talk about on the Something Awful forums. One last thing I will say about this is that if the king were really as domineering and despotic as you seem to think he is Thaksin would have never made it into office the first time around. I'm not saying he's perfect, but he has allowed opposition (of a sort) to himself to form and to survive. There isn't a Thai alive that doubts that if the king wanted Thaksin gone Thaksin would be gone. Instantly, like smoke. Instead he's apparently tolerating the situation to a certain limited degree. While this will convince no one that the king is impartial it does demonstrate that he is at least moderate. This is echoed in the fears of even the reddist of red shirts related to the king's eventual death -- no one thinks things will immediately get better. raton fucked around with this message at 23:03 on Dec 22, 2013 |
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Dec 22, 2013 22:51
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ReindeerF alluded to this in the SEA politics thread in D&D (which this is probably more appropriate for, but I digress), but Thaksin also allegedly did some real poo poo-stirring and race-baiting in regards to the southern insurgency. If anyone has more info on that I'd love to brush up on it myself.Pixelante posted:Turns out he's on a route of Luang Prabang -> Vientienne -> Hanoi -> Hue -> Hoi An -> Siem Reap -> Yangon while I've been on a a route of Luang Prabang -> Chiang Mai -> Bangkok -> Saigon -> Siem Reap -> Bangkok. I can't imagine the odds of us being in the same airport during the same 45 minute window of overlap between flights boarding. These situations are always really weird. I met a couple at the Poipet border crossing that I ran into a month later in Hanoi's old town. Slightly weird though not impossible, but that still didn't beat the time I met two girls in the Sinai peninsula and and ran into them two weeks later hiking in rural Turkey. What the hell. MothraAttack fucked around with this message at 00:19 on Dec 23, 2013 |
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Dec 23, 2013 00:16
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About two weeks after I'd moved to NYC I ran into this one 30 something year old British girl who always used to show up at meetings of friends in Bangkok and hit people up for money. Hadn't seen her for years. I ran away before she asked me for money.
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Dec 23, 2013 00:39
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MothraAttack posted:ReindeerF alluded to this in the SEA politics thread in D&D (which this is probably more appropriate for, but I digress), but Thaksin also allegedly did some real poo poo-stirring and race-baiting in regards to the southern insurgency. If anyone has more info on that I'd love to brush up on it myself. EDIT: And of course the drug war was related to this. ReindeerF fucked around with this message at 12:15 on Dec 23, 2013 |
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Dec 23, 2013 12:05
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After reading the last 10-15 pages of this thread I'm starting to wonder if I should re-think my strategy for my trip to Thailand in a month. I'll be with some friends for about 10 days from January 30 - February 8, but then I'm on my own from February 9 - 17and was going to fly from Bangkok to Chiang Mai to do stuff around northern Thailand. From what some of you guys have said about skipping Chiang Mai, it sounds like maybe I shouldn't spend as much time around there as I had been planning. I was thinking of using it as a sort of base to do short day trips, but now I'm wondering if I should hit some places in between Bangkok and Chiang Mai and just do maybe 2 days in Chiang Mai instead. What would be the more desirable places to visit?
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Dec 23, 2013 17:12
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