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Tomato Soup posted:Oh god, I can't stop laughing at this. I love the reason they gave for censoring the pigs too. Hahahhahaah. Oh this made my day. Maybe the newspaper did it on purpose? Suicide Bomb victims? Show the wreckage! Gruesome traffic accident? No problem! Pig farmers ? OH NO GET IT OUT OF HERE! I wonder if the same article is censored in the middle east? Or just outright not shown?
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Jan 23, 2014 04:06
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Anarkii posted:I've travelled a lot but Saigon is the first place that is making me truly sad at the idea of leaving. Please tell me Hanoi is worth it. Hanoi is pretty different, but I've enjoyed it both times I've been there. It's nice wandering around the Old Quarter and checking out the old buildings, eating street food and drinking bia hoi. The only part that sucks is that the place basically shuts down at midnight.
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Jan 23, 2014 04:13
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Yeah, Hanoi is much more quaint and laid back, but my recollection was "Holy poo poo this is a sleepy city."
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Jan 23, 2014 04:16
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caberham posted:Hahahhahaah. Oh this made my day. Maybe the newspaper did it on purpose?
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Jan 23, 2014 04:28
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Tomato Soup posted:Oh god, I can't stop laughing at this. I love the reason they gave for censoring the pigs too. Malaysia Boleh
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Jan 23, 2014 04:58
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Anarkii posted:I've travelled a lot but Saigon is the first place that is making me truly sad at the idea of leaving. Please tell me Hanoi is worth it. Saigon is so much better than Hanoi. P.S. ReindeerF, score another point for Team Vietnam!
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Jan 23, 2014 05:41
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Jan 23, 2014 05:50
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Since this is the most active expat thread, what do you guys do for credit cards?
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Jan 23, 2014 07:32
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FizFashizzle posted:Since this is the most active expat thread, what do you guys do for credit cards? 28 Degrees Mastercard. No international transaction fees if you're using your own money and not credit. Citibank also have some interesting cards. I think they're Australia specific, though, so I have no idea what to use if you're not Australian.
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Jan 23, 2014 07:57
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FizFashizzle posted:Since this is the most active expat thread, what do you guys do for credit cards? If you want to get a CC in Thailand, the big issue is the minimum monthly salary you can prove with bank records (and Work Permit of course). It varies by bank, but only Kasikorn is under like 125K for foreigners last I checked. EDIT: Oops, you don't have to have a monthly salary and work permit, but if not then you need to meet other criteria for extended stay and proven income IIRC. ReindeerF fucked around with this message at 08:06 on Jan 23, 2014 |
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Jan 23, 2014 07:59
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When you don't have proof of steady income you can just use a term deposit to act as security. Lots of banks all over the world do this but not sure about Thai Banks. Banks don't have to worry about you running away with credit card debt when you already have more than your card limit deposited.
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Jan 23, 2014 08:21
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Revolving credit's kind of new here. I think maybe Aeon (Japanese) does deposit-based cards, but they're super-lovely on the terms from what someone told me, which is typical for deposit-based cards. Of the rest, only Kasikorn and SCB really have a strong consumer presence, with Krungsri working to catch up. The rest are pretty antiquated.
ReindeerF fucked around with this message at 10:09 on Jan 23, 2014 |
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Jan 23, 2014 08:36
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I buckled and finally got an ANZ royal credit card last year, mainly because it's a whole lot easier to pay off than my UK one. It's been pretty handy so far, other than the fact I'm stuck with paper statements arriving at random days each month. On another note, I'm pretty impressed that ANZ seems to have better online banking functionality than my UK bank, at least in terms of transferring money.
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Jan 23, 2014 09:40
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Reindeer, my girlfriend and I will be staying at the Luxx Silom. we'll have from our morning arrival to roughly 4 to see things before we go to Crossfit then start drinking heavily. Anything around there we can't miss? Amazing temple/museum/restaurant/helicopter show?
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Jan 23, 2014 11:03
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I've been living in China for just shy of 2 years now, and I've done most of my leisure-travel in SE Asia. I haven't spent a lot of time there or covered a lot of ground, exactly - I've hit Hanoi and Haiphong Bay, Phnom Penh (for a day) and Siem Reap, and I've just now returned from Bangkok- but each trip has reinforced that I just really like that part of the world. I'm sorely tempted to relocate (just as I'm getting semi-functional in China,) but I can't help but wonder if I'm just enjoying it so much because I've been on vacation and loving off doing touristy poo poo and eating good (and varied) food. I don't know. SE Asia goons, tell me why living where you live is loving amazing and you love it more than anything.
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Jan 23, 2014 11:56
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I'm in the exact same position, only I've been in China for 5 years. I'm looking to make a similar escape plan from Beijing to the land of milk and honey. The problem is its not the land of good salaries 
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Jan 23, 2014 13:41
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Minus1Minus1 posted:I don't know. SE Asia goons, tell me why living where you live is loving amazing and you love it more than anything. I bike to work (it was 9 C this morning!) and can pick up naan, falafel or Thai curry on the street. Going swimming means forking over about $2 US to have the local Centara resort pool pretty much to myself. Speaking of biking, within a 30-minute ride in most any direction there's lonely waterfalls, scenic villages and hillside markets. I've counted among my friends and colleagues refugees, doctors, journalists and awesome teachers. Most every day is colorful and weird and people are generally pretty chill. Life on the Thai-Burma border is a bit like bizarro SE Asia, but pretty worth checking out.
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Jan 23, 2014 13:46
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ReindeerF posted:I know this is a dick thing to do, and I don't mean it in a mean way, but I was 3 days in Bangkok, 2 days in Pattaya and then 2 days in Bangkok again. It was literally the best vacation I've ever had. Partying in the West is so loving ridiculously boring compared to over there that I'm spoiled for life now. Everything was better. No entry fee. Open doors and everything is semi-outdoors (except go-go bars of course). Sit and watch the street. Amazing service. Always a place to sit down (I really hate standing up all night). Never have to get up except to piss. Payment by tab. Girls everywhere. Pool and sports TVs. No angry bouncer or wardrobe. Casual atmosphere. Cheap. Can order and eat food while inside the bar. gently caress going out the West, gently caress it. I also enjoyed the variety over there, like how it ranges from street-side all the way to upscale, all depending on how much you want to pay. I liked the randomness, casual atmosphere, small shops and stalls, everything from street vendors to 7-11 to "real" shops if you want. Great food too. I felt safe everywhere and street salespeople/taxis/ping-pong show pushers walk away immediately after a quick "no" movement with the head. I learned a lot of small and big things about what to do differently. I was good at taking it in stride though - instead of whining, I said "okay, It won't kill me, learned to do it better the next time". The only really big mistake was booking a flight home in the morning on the last day. That sucked a bit. I had no problems with protestors, although Sukhumvit Road was blocked by Soi 19 (can only just enter Terminal 21), and I heard that Soi 20+ and onwards was just off limits. ReindeerF posted:Quoting this for after the Hangover II moment happens.  I only drank vodka & tonics, plus water, so it's rather pure.
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Jan 23, 2014 14:16
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Minus1Minus1 posted:I don't know. SE Asia goons, tell me why living where you live is loving amazing and you love it more than anything. I can wander around town and have locals come up and say hello, or spark up a conversation. I can get invited to a local person's house for lunch and basically be treated like one of their family. I can eat tonnes of great food from cuisines all over the world. I can head to a random bar, order a $1.50 beer and be chatting to a random stranger in 5 minutes. I can head to a random club and get bought beer/shots/champagne by Khmers. I can party all night, watch the sun come up over the riverside, then collapse on the back of a moto and be home in 5 minutes. If I need to get away from the city I can take a 20 minute trip to the countryside, or a 3 hour one to the coast, and chill out in a hammock eating yet more fantastic food. If it wasn't for my job, I could basically do these things every day.
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Jan 23, 2014 14:47
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Minus1Minus1 posted:I've been living in China for just shy of 2 years now, and I've done most of my leisure-travel in SE Asia. I haven't spent a lot of time there or covered a lot of ground, exactly - I've hit Hanoi and Haiphong Bay, Phnom Penh (for a day) and Siem Reap, and I've just now returned from Bangkok- but each trip has reinforced that I just really like that part of the world. SE Asia: Only a few mainland Chinese China: Awful lot of mainland Chinese There are other reasons but really that's enough.
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Jan 23, 2014 15:03
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B-Rad posted:I'm in the exact same position, only I've been in China for 5 years. I'm looking to make a similar escape plan from Beijing to the land of milk and honey. The problem is its not the land of good salaries For having seen both Beijing and SEA, Beijing cannot even hope to compete on the general quality of living and niceness. If you compare raw salaries between Beijing and Bangkok/Saigon/Phnom Penh, of course the latter will be lower. But with the cost of living also much lower, you can end up saving quite a lot if you don't go crazy. I don't know much about TESL teachers (but I assume if you're a teacher, you shouldn't expect to get rich?) but as an example, I worked in IT in Saigon and made $3,500 USD/month after taxes (plus a bunch of other benefits). Lunch was max $2, rent was $500 everything included, etc. If you work in IT, marketing, project management - there are many foreign companies looking for middle management expats... Also, the big cities are polluted but it's nothing compared to my-lungs-hurt-after-2-minutes-outside China. You can see the skyline!
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Jan 23, 2014 15:47
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Aw, thanks guys! Tytan, are you in Phnom Penh?
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Jan 23, 2014 17:07
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/\/\/\ He is!FizFashizzle posted:Reindeer, my girlfriend and I will be staying at the Luxx Silom. we'll have from our morning arrival to roughly 4 to see things before we go to Crossfit then start drinking heavily. The thing about Silom is that you're basically a BTS ride away from everything, so you can hit MBK, Jim Thomspson House and so on. My non-work life tends to revolve around eating, running, drinking, social events and the occasional cultural event, so it's harder for me to recommend these great tourist things. You're in shape, I take it, so an ideal trip for me at that time from your spot and altering some things for tourist affect would be this:
ReindeerF fucked around with this message at 18:21 on Jan 23, 2014 |
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Jan 23, 2014 18:00
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Minus1Minus1 posted:I don't know. SE Asia goons, tell me why living where you live is loving amazing and you love it more than anything. If you're a teacher, there's a whole separate world for you and the only way you make good money is if you're qualified and you get a job with a good university or a top international school. Everyone else makes something ranging from subsistence to ehh. Most augment this with tutoring, editing theses and the like. A friend who has been a professor at a top tier university for 15+ years makes about 60K, topped out, and will get a pension payout of like 1MM Baht in year 20 when he retires. He has a degree from Australia, a Masters in his field from a Thai university and he reads, writes and speaks Thai fluently. Most of his money comes from editing and doing translations for contacts at major corporations. Basically, you can make it here, but you gotta kick yourself in the rear end and you gotta get creative. On the personal level, if you manage to avoid the unholy trinity of a bargirl relationship, alcoholism and anything criminal, you'll be fine. The smallest effort toward understanding Thai culture and language and respecting local custom, at least in public, goes a long way. In the end, it's worth it for me, but I'm in the entrepreneurial category. Hit the ground, figure something out, work at it and so on. I've definitely had brushes with being on the piss too much for periods here and there, but never been involved with the bargirls or illegal activities. I just wander through the personal side of things as if every day is an adventure and that's how it works out. Take a taxi? No way, take a train, grab a beer, get off at the station, look for a restaurant I've never tried, talk with the owner, eat what she recommends, etc. If you approach it organically on the personal side you'll find it's great. Work never gets better, though, frankly. It's not a living Hell, but if your goal is to accomplish a lot of things and to push something uphill, Thailand is just painful. It's the most disorganized, change-resistant place I've ever seen. It's not hostile to foreigners or anything, it's more like there's a near total apathy to ambition coupled with a crippling inability to make decisions or handle accountability. Still, if you're teaching or something and you don't really care about pushing things along, then it's not a problem. People will tell you things like, "If you just learn the Thai way..." What they mean is, "If you stop showing ambition, move things along slowly, occupy your role in the social/company hierarchy appropriately..." I'm handholding a deal between an American PE investor and a Thai company right now and I told the lead guy up front, "The harder you push the more they'll just go silent and pull away." He didn't listen, pushed the deal and they just pulled away. It's a great deal for everyone with incredible long-term potential, but what Thai people care about is, "Are you making me uncomfortable?" and, as the Thai side of the deal explained, "We'll walk away from the money if it's too uncomfortable." That is Thai business in a nutshell. ReindeerF fucked around with this message at 18:18 on Jan 23, 2014 |
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Jan 23, 2014 18:12
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http://bangkokpost.com/news/local/391136/peace-symbol-gone-wrong lol
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Jan 23, 2014 19:50
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For anyone who has taken one, are Thai cooking classes worth it? I was thinking about signing up for one in Chiang Mai, but I'll only be there for about 3 days, so I was wondering whether I should spend those hours exploring the city instead. Seems like it would be neat, but I'm not gonna be there all that long, so...
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Jan 24, 2014 02:02
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Whodat Smith-Jones posted:For anyone who has taken one, are Thai cooking classes worth it? I was thinking about signing up for one in Chiang Mai, but I'll only be there for about 3 days, so I was wondering whether I should spend those hours exploring the city instead. Seems like it would be neat, but I'm not gonna be there all that long, so... A lot of them are just half a day of looking at stuff in a market with a course on making a simple dish or two and them a spread of food for lunch or dinner. So, no, unless you go to one of the higher-end or more extensive places you won't learn much. If you just want to learn the differences between Thai and holy basil and meet some other travelers, though, it could be all right.
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Jan 24, 2014 02:12
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Yeah, its very hit or miss. That said, if you really do you need a full introduction to shopping for Thai food, what to look for, and the process of cooking Thai food properly, it's not bad as long as you don't overpay. Some of those places charge people thousands of Baht for a one or two day course. In my mind, you shouldn't pay over 1000 for the entire thing, and that includes the food. If you're going to be here long-term, you can just get a local restaurant to teach you. They're usually happy to do it. Even your guesthouse, if they're friendly, will probably let you go to the market and play on the kitchen if you pay for some food. For a bunch of "educate people," the White Shirts are most tragically misinformed when it comes to anything outside of Thailand. They're the same group with the Guy Fawkes masks. ReindeerF fucked around with this message at 02:45 on Jan 24, 2014 |
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Jan 24, 2014 02:34
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In regards to the cooking class, it depends on what you are trying to accomplish. The half day ones wont teach you how to cook super complex meals, but it will give you a pretty basic overview of how to cook the basics like curries and fried noodles.
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Jan 24, 2014 03:12
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Phnom Penh now officially has bus stops, although I've not seen any actual buses yet. I'm guessing those will be coming some time in 2015.Minus1Minus1 posted:Tytan, are you in Phnom Penh?
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Jan 24, 2014 03:26
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People will start using them sometime in 2016. EDIT EDIT: K440 has them starting next month. EDIT: Random anecdote. When the Skytrain was going up in Bangkok, it was a bit controversial because all those feet would be above everyone's head as the train rode around town. I have never verified it, but I've been told that they used to stop it when a royal motorcade went underneath the track so that no feet would be above the heads of the royals in the motorcade. ReindeerF fucked around with this message at 06:35 on Jan 24, 2014 |
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Jan 24, 2014 03:36
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What if royalty enters a building, do they just empty it beforehand?
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Jan 24, 2014 09:13
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ReindeerF posted:People will start using them sometime in 2016. Random anecdote backup: I was walking on a pedestrian overpass by MBK and Thai police made everybody stop and wait to cross while a motorcade was driving underneath. And I mean actually stop - I tried to play the "I'm a dumb foreigner" card and go through anyways and they stepped in front of me. It seemed security overkill at the time, but now the feet explanation makes sense. They also had the entire road clear as far as I could see, which was really eerie in the centre of Bangkok. I could totally see them stopping the Skytrain.
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Jan 24, 2014 09:30
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What characterizes a bargirl relationship and why does it rank with alcoholism and criminal activity?
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Jan 24, 2014 10:00
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Horatius Bonar posted:Random anecdote backup: I was walking on a pedestrian overpass by MBK and Thai police made everybody stop and wait to cross while a motorcade was driving underneath. And I mean actually stop - I tried to play the "I'm a dumb foreigner" card and go through anyways and they stepped in front of me. It seemed security overkill at the time, but now the feet explanation makes sense. They also had the entire road clear as far as I could see, which was really eerie in the centre of Bangkok. I could totally see them stopping the Skytrain. Jeoh posted:What if royalty enters a building, do they just empty it beforehand? Minus1Minus1 posted:What characterizes a bargirl relationship and why does it rank with alcoholism and criminal activity? http://www.stephenleather.com/private-dancer.pdf
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Jan 24, 2014 10:14
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Minus1Minus1 posted:What characterizes a bargirl relationship and why does it rank with alcoholism and criminal activity? If you spend a couple hours on Soi Cowboy or Nana, you won't need to ask that question. Serious answer: It's sort of like Reindeer was saying before, about like calling to like. If you're a mess of a drunk that can't get a date back home, then you can go to the bar here and find yourself a "pretty" girl who is also kind of a mess.
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Jan 24, 2014 10:24
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Yeah, and the non-functional levels of drinking and the crime/scamming sort of just seep in along with that lifestyle for lots of guys it seems like. Next thing you know, she's out gambling your money away, lying about it, you're broke and homeless, she moves on to another guy and the wheel keeps on spinning! Some people I know knew this guy: http://bit.ly/1jrZuWQ It's pretty much exactly what happened to him. ReindeerF fucked around with this message at 10:28 on Jan 24, 2014 |
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Jan 24, 2014 10:25
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Minus1Minus1 posted:What characterizes a bargirl relationship and why does it rank with alcoholism and criminal activity? Mutual utility >> mutual respect/affection
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Jan 24, 2014 10:29
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It's not just old men, too. I know a lot of shockingly young men who have sunk a lot of time and money into bargirls here before going home broke and sad. It's astounding.
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Jan 24, 2014 10:34
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A girl in a Soi 4 bar showed me a pic of her friend who had a Euro "boyfriend". He had bought her a new car for 1.5 million Baht, a house, and given money to her family. He didn't even live permanently in Thailand yet. I was like  . I get the impression it's not an unusual thing, though.ReindeerF posted:Some people I know knew this guy:
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Jan 24, 2014 10:36
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