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I actually had Indonesian housemates for quite a while here in NYC and they're great people. I also had a girlfriend in college who taught English there when she was 19 or something and got stared at in a pretty aggressive way one time and followed home (bare shoulders) and hassled about the fare for the ferry (she'd only kept enough to pay the actual price, not the foreigner-inflated price). I was just trying to be colorful I guess. Re: prices on Koh Tao, yeah, still stunningly cheap if you're coming from the west. I didn't like the nightlife on Tao just because it was so minimal and subdued -- maybe it's just the part of Tao I was on but people really seemed to be concentrating on diving.
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Steve. posted:Where on the island were you? Sairee can get crazy at night, particularly Lotus Bar. Ah, Lotus... good times. I don't remember which beach I was on. Also I don't remember much of a transport system on Koh Tao. On most islands there are songtaew running around the ring road and you can hang out and get a ride eventually, which means if you're not already staying on party beach you can go there and get back if you want to do that. Tao it seemed more like you were on a schedule. Maybe I just didn't figure Koh Tao out well enough.
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Mar 17, 2010 06:51
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brendanwor posted:We both know most Thai prostitutes are from Isaan - I wasn't meaning to imply that everyone from Isaan is a prostitute, however, nor that there's something inherently wrong with being from Isaan! You mean the prostitutes servicing farang. There are just as many light skinned passive Thai girls, particularly from the North, working the for-Thais (and usually separate for Japanese / Chinese) brothels and massage parlors. And, of course, the Muslim girls of the South are turning tricks for the Muslim sex tourists crossing the border up from their SE Asian destination of choice -- Malaysia. People often blame the sex industry on the GIs during Vietnam, but Thailand was noted for producing copious ladies of companionship in old rear end Chinese travel logs. The brothels weren't created for GIs, they were re-purposed for GIs, and the darker skinned (eg: less appealing to local men) and more assertive (again, less appealing to local men) Issan girls boomed in value because of that market. The whole Isaan = hooker thing is inaccurate at best. They might be the only ones willing to speak about it (in English) but they hardly have the market cornered. Finally, Isaan girls, hookers or not, are more likely to be open minded and curious than their Central or especially Northern counterparts. Of all Asian countries Thailand is the probably the least jingoistic and the least insular, and among Thais it's the people of Isaan who are the most likely to, say, actually try Indian food or give a poo poo about your political opinions or be interested enough in the world outside of Prathet Thai to go and visit Angkor Wat instead of just hit the casino in Poipet. How valuable that kind of stuff is to you of course depends on you, but for many of us I think those are fairly valuable traits in the people we like to spend time with. Edit: Oh, also if you removed a little of the corruption and reworked where the Chinese derived traders of the 19th and 20th centuries set up their factories I think you'd see a lot of Bangkok girls traveling to Khorat to bed down with the locals rather than the other way around. The poverty in Isaan is, of course, part of the issue. Lien posted:Anyone know of any good diving places that will be relatively cheap? All of the stuff I've found so far seems to run about 300CAD which is a bit much for my budget. Not really going to get much cheaper than that anywhere in the world. raton fucked around with this message at 11:06 on Mar 23, 2010 |
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Mar 23, 2010 10:52
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Pompous Rhombus posted:Agree with the rest of your post but: Whaaaaa? Thailand is nationalist as gently caress. Nationalism and jigonism are related, certainly, but they're not the same thing. Jigonism is much more extreme and pig-headed -- I'm thinking of the attitude that some Chinese people exhibit about being from that finest race of Han Chinese, or that stink about Japanese people excluding foreigners from their public baths and/or not renting to them without a Japanese intermediary, etc. I don't mind if someone wants to be nationalistic, what I mind is when they let their sentiments interfere with or spoil the lives of the non-nationals in their country. That almost never happens in Thailand (unless you're from a neighboring country I suppose, but that's a little bit different given regional history). As far as countries in Asia that aren't nationalistic as gently caress.... Uh.... Maybe some parts of Indonesia? Maybe? Can I sneak New Guinea in there? raton fucked around with this message at 20:05 on Mar 23, 2010 |
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Mar 23, 2010 20:01
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Strong Sauce posted:Anyways that whole situation kind of irked me since he nearly caused me to miss seeing the Grand Palace because of his stupid scam and the fact that there was a cop pulling out of the side entrance and didn't spot him (obviously bribed or didn't care). Those guys are all over the Grand Palace and they always give you the same "Palace is closed go here instead" line. For the cop to arrest them would be like waving flies off of poo poo. I think I visited Wat Pra Kaew twice when I lived in Bangkok and both times I got approached by those guys even though both times I knew exactly where I was going and wasn't obviously a tourist (aside being white, of course). Its kind of like walking down Patpong -- someone's going to try to sell you a fake Rolex whether you're looking for one or not. Still, it is irritating.
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Mar 23, 2010 21:37
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Drudkh posted:can anyone rec some good non sex bars in bangkok? If you gave me a handfull of confetti and dropped me off at any street corner in Bangkok I could probably hit a place where you could sit down and get drunk by throwing it with my left hand. Be more specific please. ReindeerF posted:Generally speaking, yeah. Brush and shower and what not with the faucet water and drink the bottled. Bangkok's municipal water supply is actually okay at the treatment level, it's the pipes and the individual buildings where you have to worry. That's why we don't drink it. Still, it's unlikely you'll have any issues from brushing teeth and, frankly, if you're going to get the shits from minor exposure to Thai germs you want to get them over with early in your trip, heh. That's why I just started eating and drinking whatever I could once I thought about it and not worrying about "did this ice come out of a bag!?" In general I'd like to add that your food in Thailand is as clean as you're going to find anywhere in Asia (apart from Japan). Getting the shits from bad water is possible, but Thai people are pretty clean with cooking and the government makes some small efforts to increase general food safety knowledge. Don't worry about it too much. I never hesitated to chow down at a streetside anything and I was never really worried about the ice. I did drink bottled water, though. Get the kind that isn't the very cheapest one in the weird half-opaque bottles that cost half of what any other bottled water does -- I literally saw a fat old lady filling those up in a tub in that alley that runs out of the back exit of that horrible Israeli collection house thing at one end Khao San one day. raton fucked around with this message at 00:46 on Mar 30, 2010 |
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Mar 30, 2010 00:41
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Ringo R posted:In Pattaya whenever there was a celebration in a bar they'd have a free buffet and a roasted suckling pig which is sooo amazingly delicious and all you'd have to pay for it was one beer. With the amount of bars in Pattaya (thousands?) it usually wasn't too hard to find. I went to some place on 33 with a bunch of coworkers that was run by a guy from New Zealand and he was having free beer until midnight because it was Happy New Zealand Day or something like that and we all got drunk and then at the stroke of 12 everyone just left. The girls were sitting over in the corner with this "WTF is this poo poo" look on their faces. :iamafag: Also when I lived in Bangkok the only halfway decent Mexican food in the entire city was in this bar (that's now closed) on the second story of Nana way in the back, and the other okay place was in a bar in that weird group of Korean/Japanese restaurants to the right of Emporium near that big cabaret (but they only had Mexican on Tuesdays or something). Both of the places near Patpong were (are?) terrible. This always surprised me because, aside from the usage of beans, Thai and Mexican cuisines have an almost suspect amount of things in common. Best burger in Bangkok reputedly used to be made by this long haired farang git who would park his burger cart outside of Nana as well (but the burgers at Mike's stand in Chiang Mai are probably better, I don't know I never got a burger from Nana for obvious reasons). ReindeerF posted:The beer bar expat scene is a nonstop calendar of 50+ year old men having celebrations and wakes and divorce parties in the short time between when they open their bar and when their bar girl wife spends all their money, the bar closes and they run back to England, heh. And they all go back to "get it done on the NHS" hehe. We also had one guy at one of the schools I worked at who compared the price of everything to what a bargirl costs in Pattaya. "What? 1000B? No thanks I'm not going, I could get three girls for that in Pattaya." He also spoke better Thai than all of us. raton fucked around with this message at 20:06 on Mar 30, 2010 |
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Mar 30, 2010 19:56
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Pompous Rhombus posted:I would actually get Burger King from time to time in Bangkok because while it wasn't a world class burger or anything, you were at least guaranteed a beef paddy and a bun, rather than winding up with a thin steak on a baguette or whatever Thai people think a hamburger is. When they opened the Mos Burger at Paragon I about died of happiness. I used to get my burgers from this Chinese restaurant in the back of I think the first block of Siam square -- by first I mean closest to MBK. Pretty fair burger. I left before they opened Paragon so haven't had a Mos Burger though. Mike's in Chiang Mai is a real burger but I lived in Bangkok  TY for Mexican food info Reindeer.  Oh, Bangkok, what don't you have anymore. (The answer is Ethiopian food. I couldn't find Ethiopian food when I lived in Bangkok either.) raton fucked around with this message at 22:42 on Mar 31, 2010 |
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Mar 31, 2010 20:22
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Drudkh posted:what should i budget for a 6 month SEA tour? 8,000 to 80,000 dollars. Drudkh posted:I'll probably stay at mid-range guesthouses. I don't really drink, but that doesn't mean i wont occasionally, and ill probably eat a combination of western/street food. I'll be traveling through Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar. Oh. Well with the dollar where it's at right now (32 THB per dollar  ) probably nine grand. I'd say six grand is the minimum for someone not used to the region trying to get by on as little as possible but still trying to move around and see stuff.
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Apr 1, 2010 04:21
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Ted Ed Fred posted:Just a quick bit of advice needed please. I've seen a few hostels asking to hold passports/ID as a deposit on your room. Is this legit? I understand travel agencies needing your passport to sort out visas, but other than that I can't think of any other time I'd like to hand my passport over to people. It's legit, but they will also often accept a photocopy of the ID page of your passport instead. Get a copy, tell them you need the original for whatever reason (going to consulate) if they press. I also used my passport copy as ID for bars and even as deposit on a bike one time (plus a thousand baht) so I got a lot of use out of it. Many places just want to see it to copy down your passport number for their register, which they're supposedly required to do (though some places don't), it's fairly rare that they want to actually hold it. I personally wouldn't part for it just for a room for the night and would just move on to the next place, but if I was new to the country and dog tired from the flight, knowing what I know now, I'd just hand it over and move on the next day. Nothing to be terribly worried about. I think maybe my first week in Thailand I saw a French woman freaking out about the currency exchange booth asking for her passport and then making a copy of the ID page. "Miss, I want your name! It is ille-gal! You can not do this!" and the Thai lady in the booth just had this look on her face like she been dealing with that bullshit all day. The French woman just kept up with it and eventually, for the sake of getting the line moving, I just tapped her on the shoulder and asked her "In what country is it illegal to make copies of passports?" You're right to be cautious with handing over your passport but sometimes when you travel there's no way around it, even if you're not in an embassy. Pompous Rhombus posted:There's at least one, my professors were talking about having gone to it. ......maybe. I personally searched all of the habitable bits of Suk. Sois 2 and 3, including all the weird little alleys one day looking for one. Found Egyptian (greasy fried pigeon OH WOW). No Ethiopian. raton fucked around with this message at 21:33 on Apr 1, 2010 |
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Apr 1, 2010 19:36
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PrinceMetal posted:Would anyone happen to know the wind direction in southern Thailand around Febuary/March? I am planning a cycling trip in southern Thailand and was wondering if it would be better to take a train from BKK and cycle our way up or the other way around. Some yachting website that has that stupid poo poo up where you can't highlight words to copy them posted:Prevailing winds from November to April are northeasterly and from May to October southwesterly. That's for the Andaman coast so I assume it applies to the whole peninsula. http://www.thailandtraveltours.com/thailand-sailing-yacht-thailandsailingyacht.htm And what do you mean "cycle our way up?" Are you coming from Malaysia or going to Chiang Mai or what?
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Apr 4, 2010 10:08
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Broohaha posted:1) Is there one guide that is better than any other and which I should use exclusively? 1) For you, SE Asia on a Shoestring guide by Lonely Planet. Don't cart it around with you. Tear out the page with the map you need for the day, stuff that into your pocket, leave the guide back at the hostel with your bag. 2) It's harder to not meet other travelers than it is to meet them in SE Asia. Seriously if you don't hump at least two English girls in two weeks there then I just don't know about you man... 3) NO DON'T. Do it your own drat self. It's not that hard and once you get past your trepidation you'll be the kind of guy who has the confidence to just pack up a bag and take his chances instead of the kind who sheepishly looks at package tour websites. 4) NO DON'T. As in, don't just stick to Thailand. Burma ain't for you, probably, but you would have absolutely no issue going to any of the other neighboring countries. In particular I recommend that first time travelers to SE Asia at least pop into Cambodia to see Angkor. If you had already been there and just liked Thailand you could easily spend all of your time there and have a great vacation and see tons of cool stuff. But artificially limiting yourself to Thailand because your new? Nah. Do what you want to do. 5) At the front of the Lonely Planet they have a few suggested itineraries. Start with one of those, then go to the parts they talk about in there, and see if there's stuff nearby you'd rather see than the choice they gave you. Then come into this thread and post your itinerary and interests / goals for the trip and the posters in this thread will help you fine tune things. Here's a starting plan for what I would probably do in your situation, changing things along the way of course: -Two days in Bangkok, one to unwind, one to see a couple of temples and walk around on the streets. No ambitious goals of sites to see, the only thing I'd try to do for sure is get ahold of a Thai sim card so you have a Thai phone number while there -- if you're comfortable using your US phone in Thailand bill-wise then you could just do that, too, but Thai people are really bad at meeting you at X place at Y time so you pretty much need a phone to work out meet-ups should you work yourself into a few of them. -Cambodia. Go to Siem Reap and see Angkor for three days. Go down and see Phnom Phen for two. Give yourself a few days of travel/recovery time in here and there and we're talking another week. -Back to Bangkok. Spend a day looking around the city and buy yourself a nighttrain ticket to Surat Thani. -In Surat Thani pick an island and go visit it. There are three main islands there. Samui is the most developed island in Thailand and beaches there range from hotels and nightclubs down to bungalows and banana carts. Tao is where people go to learn how to scuba dive. Phangan is one of the least developed islands in Thailand and is fairly cheap -- it's most known for its all night long full moon party on it southern most beach that takes place each full moon, an event that's by no means a must see, but maybe you're interested. -Back to Surat. Head north up to Chiang Mai, spend a day or three in that city. From Chiang Mai you can go on a hilltribe trek, or, if you want, go to Mae Hong Son (even further North and West) and arrange a trek from there (treks are better from Mae Hong Son because not every hilltribe village up there has three or four tourists coming through it every day like some of the villages near Chiang Mai do). Three or four days of walking in the jungle and meeting weird people who live on mountaintops. Back to you city to rest up for a day, then back to Bangkok. -Bangkok for three or so days. One day for drinking. One day for shopping. One day for covering any bases you didn't and then getting ready to go home. That probably doesn't cover every single day. Most people would expand a bit on their way back up from Surat by stopping at an island on the Andaman coast for a few days as well and doing, say, five days on Tao learning to scuba dive and then five on Krabi looking at the weird rocks. Others would expand by going to Laos or Malaysia and trimming a few days off of the island. raton fucked around with this message at 06:46 on Apr 8, 2010 |
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Apr 8, 2010 06:41
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Broohaha posted:In the meantime, I've heard there are cheap, flat-rate trains and planes for tourists visiting Europe. Nope, you just pay what everyone else pays. As PR said, book cheap seats in advance. Also book the higher end seats in advance (Sleeper grade 2 or whatever they call it, I forgot) as they can sell out quickly too. I took a bus from Bangkok to Kanchanaburi one time and I think I paid 25 baht. That's like 75 cents. I also found a weirdo bus that went to Chiang Mai from the capitol that ran for 45 baht, which is just over a dollar. These prices are cheaper than what you'll usually pay, but still, a first class fully reclined private sleeper on the train to Surat is like 20 bucks so your travel budget isn't a big issue in the region.
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Apr 8, 2010 21:20
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Bill Door posted:Also I noticed some PITR posters in this thread so I may as well ask, is there anywhere in Thailand that has live games that will not get me arrested/robbed and how likely am I to run into somewhere to stay that has a decent enough wifi to play online? I'm starting to think I might be able to cover a good chunk of my living expenses putting in half decent volume at 50NL, if I'm delusional please let me know! I've never heard of live games in Thailand but I'm sure they exist somewhere especially these days. I would expect them to be populated with as many farang as Thais. I wasn't playing poker yet when I lived in Bangkok. Three or so years ago Thailand was actually a really popular place for poker players to move to and I generally get the impression that, at least back then, no one was paying any attention to online poker. Of course, things may well have changed. As for wifi that's somewhat spotty. Some hostels have it but the dominant way people get at internet while traveling in Thailand is still to go to Internet cafes. If you search around you can find one where you could tuck yourself away in the corner and play poker -- they don't mind if you bring in your own computer and plug it in. I'd probably say you should take your question to 2+2 regarding the current state of online poker in Thailand. As far as B&M casinos the only one I'm aware of in the area is just over the border in Cambodia in the wretched town of Poipet. I have no idea if they even have live poker in the Poipet casino though. A quick Google search brought me this thread at Thaivisa's forums which makes me more or less not want to play poker in Poipet, not that I was heading that way anyway.
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Apr 8, 2010 23:29
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Ringo R posted:Red shirts retreat and send in... monks! Surely the police won't touch the monks. hehe Thailand kicks rear end If Thaksin is indeed sick and croaks then I guess I become a red shirter, sort of. You should watermark some of those action shots. Someone will steal them. raton fucked around with this message at 23:10 on Apr 9, 2010 |
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Apr 9, 2010 23:07
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Haggins posted:Visas, What you used to do was stay for two months and then cross a border and come back for another two months. The visa situation changes from time to time though and I don't have current info. If no one else specifically answers your question you should go to the forums at thaivisa.com and they will. Some people in your situation arrange for a business visa even though they're obviously tourists. How they go about doing that I'm not sure, but from the people I met who did that it can't be very hard... quote:I have also heard, in order to get a visa, I have to have a ticket out of the country? Does this mean I have to buy a round trip plane ticket or what? I'd rather just get a one way ticket since I'd have no idea when I'd want to come back. Technically yes, but it's actually something the Thai visa folks usually don't care about. Other countries are more picky. You should buy a round trip ticket anyway. Buy it with a return 364 days from when you leave (airline tickets last for a year's duration) with a major airline, then when you want to come back you call them up, pay a 100 dollar or so "adjustment" fee and go to the airport. One round trip ticket will be cheaper than two one ways and you'll still come out ahead even with the fee, plus this way you have a way to get home no matter how drunk and debauched you get. quote:Vaccinations. Did you read the vaccinations thing I wrote? Go to a clinic. Google for "MY CITY vaccination clinic" or "MY CITY travel clinic." If that doesn't work try calling the health center at a nearby university (you don't have to be a student) and ask them where people go to get cheap vaccinations. If you live in NYC you can also call 311 to get this info. quote:Photographers. I'm not a photographer. There is a risk that someone will see you have nice camera poo poo and steal it. I traveled with a laptop while there and just kept it out of sight in my normal backpack until I was in a room. Apply the same kind of common sense to your camera equipment and you'll be fine -- of course you have to get it out in public to use it, but the chance of getting a really great picture should outweigh any worry you have about losing your equipment. Worse comes to worse it gets stolen and you go pick up a point and shoot for the rest of your trip. Do back your photos up periodically. Any internet cafe will burn DVDs for you, so just take them in and get them burned every two or three weeks. Backing up your photos onto your computer doesn't count, by the way, as a computer is something that might get stolen right along with your gear. I met several people who had had their cameras stolen in the two years I lived in Bangkok and every single one of them, no matter how expensive their gear, was much more upset about losing the pictures than losing the gear. quote:Diving, I don't know how to dive and I don't know much about it. I don't know how much or if I will dive over there but I figure I should open up that door. I see that I have to get certified. There's a whole industry in Thailand that will teach you how to scuba dive. Your first day is usually in a pool, and on the second day you're out in the ocean. It would be insane to get certified before going over. Don't worry about gear -- you're a big guy, sure, but Thailand gets tons of tourists and someone will have stuff that fits you. If you knew you were going to become Mr. Diver Man maybe you would want to buy gear, but knowing what you know now just go over and use the rental stuff. It'll be fine. Also, you'll be booking dive trips anyway as most of the sites are a ways off shore and you need a boat to get out there so it's not like not having your own stuff is going to hamper your ability to see what you want to see -- you're going to have to make a connection with a local anyway to get out there. That same guy will rent gear. quote:Motorcycles. I've never ridden nor know how to shift gears. I'd like to fix that before I get over there. I'm in Florida. Should I just take the Basic Motorcycle Rider Course for my license endorsement? Will that be enough? I don't plan on buying or riding a bike over here. Most of the bikes you rent in Thailand don't have a real clutch. They have a little pedal you stomp on to gear up, and pull on (or stomp on the back part of the lever) to gear down. Many are also "semi automatic" and will try to shift for you but you can override them by stomping. It's easier than shifting gears on a bicycle. That being said, there's nothing wrong with taking a motorcycle safety course in Florida before you go over. An endorsement is unnecessary as a "ticket" is going to be a 500B bribe for the cop no matter if you're papered or not in Thailand, but the course is still a good idea for sake of you saving skin. When starting out on your first bike just start it in third gear instead of first and you'll be going slowly enough to not do anything stupid. If you're a huge fat guy or going up a hill use second. quote:Also would I need an International Driving Permit before I go? The only time I drove in Bangkok was when I was taking some blasted girl home in her BMW, and again, if you get pulled over big deal, the cop will just want his bribe anyway. Those permits also expire three months after you get them, and your first three are the least likely ones for you to be behind a wheel, so it's not worth the even minimal effort it takes to get one IMO. In Bangkok there are taxis everywhere and it's hard to pay more than five bucks to get where you want to go. Outside of Bangkok there isn't much of a reason to try to rent a car instead of a motorbike. All in all it's just really unlikely that you'll be driving anything with more than two wheels (or three if you bribe a tuk tuk guy because you want to see what it's like) while in SE Asia. quote:Forbidden Lands. It seems like everyone understandably avoids Myanmar, but if I wanted to go? I think it'd be cool to check out some crazy oppressed country. I think an "on rails" tour for a few days would be enough. Is there anything affordable/possible like this? Not everyone avoids it, and in fact I'm the only person in this thread as far as I can tell that is very vocal about not going unless you can do it responsibly. Fly into Rangoon on a non-Burmese airline (if possible) and see how far you can get while staying off the government's grid if you're going to do it. You have to fly in and out of Burma, there aren't really roads connecting most of the country to any other country. quote:North Korea, has anyone been? I know it's a good ways from Thailand but is there a cheap way to get Beijing? Can I get by for cheap in Beijing for a day or two? I think it'd be cool to go if I could while I'm on that side of the world. That's an entirely separate trip. Beijing is quite a ways away from Thailand, maybe about like flying from Florida to London. I've not been to North Korea so that's about as much as I can say. You could def. do it with the time / money you have, jet fuel is going to be the biggest expense. Personally I'd rather do my bigger excursion to India / Nepal / Tibet than to Beijing / North Korea, but that's a taste thing. quote:Airports. Flying from the US (either Orlando or Atlanta) is it cheapest to just fly into BKK? Or is there another , cheaper place to fly into? I'll have plenty of time on my hands so another jump isn't a big deal. Go to Kayak.com and ask it. BKK is one of the world's major flight hubs though and trying to save a few dollars by flying to Malaysia instead is madness if Thailand is where you want to go. For the distance you're traveling BKK is probably going to be your cheapest option anyway. If you want a cheap ticket just do what I did the first time I went over and book a flight that has two 18 hour layovers
raton fucked around with this message at 02:28 on Apr 11, 2010 |
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Apr 10, 2010 21:43
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Pompous Rhombus posted:Don't go to North Korea. It's also apparently kinda boring. http://www.vbs.tv/watch/the-vice-guide-to-travel/vice-guide-to-north-korea-1-of-3
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Apr 11, 2010 06:17
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I don't think live rifle rounds were fired into the crowd. The first guy (in the second video) that brought up the bullet and the supposed impact point on his cane was making stories up -- that bullet would have punched right through the cane and would have been deformed after the impact. It's more likely he brought the bullet himself and pulled the tip out with pliers to show to the farang. It's likely that the army had live rounds with them but the ones that were fired were probably the shotgun looking ones you see some of, which are usually what's used to shoot rubber bullets. The army shouldn't be shooting at all, mind you, but you can't just go in with what people wearing red shirts are telling you. I've also heard stories of rogue protestors dressing up like red shirts and shooting their own and stuff like that to make the government look bad, but this is just unconfirmed Thai speculation.
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Apr 11, 2010 18:45
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Haggins posted:Yeah that's very true. I got a thing that backups up my computer to the cloud while I'm on the net, but adding the DVDs to that sounds like a good idea. If you have cloud backup that's good enough, don't need to double back stuff up. quote:How much is it to mail stuff to the US? I was thinking I could probably periodically mail them back for safe keeping. Also probably good to know if I want to mail something back home. I'm sure someone will want me to send something back. Ten to twenty bucks for a shoeboxed sized package in my experience, depending on the weight. Airmail. If you send it by boat it can take literally two or three months to get back home (but usually takes one). quote:While I'm thinking about it, is there a way to get things sent to me over there? This is called Post Restante (French term that is the international default) or, in the US, General Delivery. You write "Post Restante" at the top, then the person's name, then the address of a post office instead of a house, then the city zip and country and stuff. I don't know if it would work in Thailand -- I had a normal address most of the time I was living there and the security guard would always hand me my packages from overseas when I walked in. I assume a hotel could do the same for you. Be aware, though, that customs gets worked up over random poo poo and will inspect / hold for months certain things -- some of which you wouldn't expect like new (as in, not used) books or packets of kool-aid. Also I've never actually used Post Restante in Thailand, so I can't attest at all to its reliability or even if it exists. I certainly wouldn't rely on it given the fact that you're dealing with what's probably a foreign concept, government workers, and mai pen rai all at once. Have someone from back home send you a test package once you get there (or send one to Ringo or Reindeer F or whomever yourself now I guess) to test it out and let us know how it goes. quote:I meant to ask about that too. Is it easy to go to those places on the cheap? Maybe I'll take a week or two vacation from my vacation haha. A lot easier than North Korea anyway. Short plane ride from Bangkok. With Tibet and/or Nepal a visa might be a bit of a headache so have a travel agency do the footwork for you on that. Travel in India is cheap. Travel in the other two varies in expense depending on how much hassle you're willing to plow through yourself vs. how much you plan to rely on a guide or whatever. Be aware the India can be really crowded, overwhelming and nasty. Also many people get sick while traveling through there. It's a pretty unique experience though. Also, if you liked that North Korea piece from VBS.tv check out the Liberia series. raton fucked around with this message at 01:49 on Apr 12, 2010 |
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Apr 12, 2010 01:44
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Broohaha posted:Ah crap; so you guys think Thailand is a no-go right now because of the violence? What's going on now seems comparable maybe to the riots in Seattle during the WTO convention. Not even the LA riots. Bangkok might be inconvenient (which is like saying 'this rock is a little harder than normal') but the rest of the country/region is still going to be excellent. People are way too cautious with where they'll travel.
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Apr 12, 2010 04:27
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Broohaha posted:I'm in between jobs right now so no health insurance... how dangerous for me to go to Thailand for a month without any vaccinations? For the record, when I enrolled in grad school I had to get a bunch of inoculations though I don't remember what they were. Not a major issue at all. The stuff you got for grad school was probably an MMR and DTaP booster plus a Tuberculosis titer. Maybe they also made you get a Mono vaccine.
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Apr 12, 2010 21:11
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News in Thailand: 1) Current Prime Minister offers to hold early elections in three months. 2) Red shirts reject offer and demand immediate elections and a dissolution of parliment. Whether this is posturing or not is unclear, but they seem pretty serious about it. Bangkok Post posted:Red shirts reject latest offer for a dissolution The toll of the protests so far: Bangkok Post posted:276 hurt in red riot still in hospitals raton fucked around with this message at 08:24 on Apr 13, 2010 |
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Apr 13, 2010 08:12
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Hey look it's a compilation of Thai commercials (Thai commercials are the best commercials): http://www.cnngo.com/bangkok/play/10-crazy-commercials-hit-thai-tvs-decade-985994?TrackID=obpaidBroohaha posted:He and I are both going to do more research obviously but I wanted to see if anybody here is familiar with how to go about getting this "travel document that is recognised by the Royal Thai Government." Anybody? (My friend is a born and bred American citizen who lives in the midwest, btw). I think that just gives them a loophole if they want to use it. I've never met someone who went to Thailand without a passport. Furthermore, I find it highly unlikely that you'd be able to get this mythical document any faster than you'd be able to get a normal passport. IDK how long passports are taking right now but there is an expedition fee you can pay. I'd guess somewhere in the neighborhood of a week to a month if you expedite. I got my passport back in 2002 (almost time to renew it!) and it took like two weeks to arrive non-expedited. BTW you should always order the extra pages when you get a new passport, the default pages aren't nearly sufficient give the way visa stickers are applied in there. raton fucked around with this message at 01:07 on Apr 14, 2010 |
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Apr 14, 2010 01:03
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NukkahPlz posted:I saw this addressed earlier about Cambodia, but I am interested in the shooting ranges in the countries I will be visiting. I will be going to Thailand, Vietnam, and Malaysia in the summer. I NEED to blow some animal up with an RPG. Can this be done in any of these countries? If so, is it just the same procedure where I ask a taxi driver and he takes me to some shady field? Cambodia. Phnom Phen. Make a gun motion to any motorcycle taxi driver. Goat + RPG is 200 to 250 bucks. Chicken and a handgun is 20. Elsewhere? No. Certainly not Malaysia. Pompous Rhombus posted:If you lose your passport and there isn't time to replace it before your flight, an embassy/consulate can also issue you a temporary travel document. I'd like to add that those things aren't equivalent to a passport because they expire in six months (typically) and many countries won't let you in or especially won't issue you a visa (even a month long tourist visa) if your passport is set to expire in less than a year. The Canadian I met my second day in Bangkok who had decided to have a bowl of soup with a congenial ladyboy told me as much, since he was now on a temporary travel document after said ladyboy drugged his soup and took all of his money and identification. ...He was so bummed out about not being able to go to Laos to weed lake or whatever that he just went home at the end of the week instead of seeing what he could see in Thailand. raton fucked around with this message at 07:10 on Apr 14, 2010 |
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Apr 14, 2010 07:05
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Haggins posted:Anyone do any trekking in SEA? The kind where you go out on foot in the woods and camp and poo poo for a few days. It's something I wanted to get into here in the states but haven't gotten to it yet. I did that (with a guide) in the Northeast. What do you want to know about it?
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Apr 18, 2010 07:39
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Haggins posted:Was it fun? Did you get to see some cool remote places? Do they provide gear for you? I went on a hilltribe trek. It was a four day trek but we did it in three (at my request). These things are very flexible and I went in the off season so it was also pretty cheap -- I don't remember the price exactly but I think it was like 2500B food included for the three days, the guy said he was just doing it to get out of the office and break even and honestly he couldn't have made much on that. During that time of the year he would have been up for guiding whatever -- jungle camping, waterfall excursion, probably a loving monkey hunt for all I know. At night we'd find a hilltribe village and he'd arrange for us to stay in one of their houses. As for gear there isn't much you need for the jungle. I wore pants and a long sleeved shirt and these were fairly high mountains for Thailand so even mosquitoes weren't much of an issue. I had a small school sized backpack, the heaviest part of which was a 1.5L bottle of water that I'd picked up in town. His pack was slightly larger as he had a machete in there plus a couple of sleeping mats and sheets and probably a little more than half of the food. You don't need much gear for the jungle. You sleep comfortably in your T-shirt. If you need a roof there are banana trees all over the place and you can get a couple of leaves and make yourself something decent in a few seconds. The main thing is building a little sleeping platform so you don't have bugs running all over you all night, but again, with a machete and thirty minutes you can whip one of those up with what's lying around on the jungle floor. The guide that I went with also does jungle subsistence camping treks where he shows you how to build all of that stuff if that's what you're interested in, but compared to the woods in Montana (where I'm from) camping in the jungle seems like a pretty happy-go-lucky affair. Instead of "always be prepared" the jungle more or less provides everything you might need short of medicine and a rain slicker and hiking shoes. The hike started in the jungle outside of Mae Hong Son (extreme NW of Thailand) and we went basically along the Thai/Burmese border for three days, finishing up in a national park. We didn't see another person while we were moving through the jungle for all that time, though, of course, we stopped in six or eight tiny rear end villages (like, four to ten houses) and a couple of farms along the way. There was a lot of cool jungle stuff, big plants, steamy Rambo valleys, picking up little mangoes and munching on them along the way (there was so much fruit just lying around in the jungle that the monkeys would just take a single bite out of each piece and then toss it). There were a few times when we could have stepped over into Burma but the guide wasn't too hot on that idea as both spots had Thai army outposts looking over them as, maybe 15 or so years ago, they were trafficking routes for heroin and/or meth and he didn't want to explain what we were up to to a bored, semi-ignorant mountain Army official. We spent one night in a Red Karen encampment and the next in a Hmong village. The Karen people had tasteful little gardens around their houses and bright clothes and acted about what American folks would act like if you were staying with them on a homestay -- friendly, not at all intrusive. The Hmong village was half emptied out as all the younger people went across the border into Burma to a larger village (the one I stayed in was only four houses) for some kind of seasonal celebration. The old men that had hung back were smoking opium in one of their houses when I got there (distinct smell) but didn't want to much to do with me so I just hung back and took it in (also I was pretty tired as we'd just done a day and a half of hiking and had to double back once because a burn had knocked down enough bamboo over the regular route to make it impassible). In the morning some people were coming back and one dude saw that there were guests in the village and ran all the way up the mountain in his loving flip flops so he could chat with us a little bit before we set off. It was also probably one of poorest groups of people I've ever seen -- two of the men were wearing the pants the a highschool in Thailand gives you and they were probably in their late 20s (they'd stuck around to mind the old men), one of the guys built and impromptu forge in the morning and beat a piece of scrap iron into a hoe for the rice/veggie field (it's worth it to him to do that rather than buy a hoe that probably would have cost only three or four bucks in Thailand). It was one of the more memorable parts of my two years in Thailand. I don't remember the name of the outfit but I'd recommend them, I also went on a couple of shorter excursions with my guest house operator (also a guide) in Mae Hong Son (one of which involved him giving alms and washing an old shaman ladies hands since the shaman lady had helped his wife give birth while she was on a trek up there, and the custom in the village dictates that the husband has to wash the shaman's hands before she can return to doing her regular household work in that situation). The place I went on the longer trip with had an office next to the little lake in the middle of Mae Hong Son town and were recommended in the Lonely Planet guide, so they probably won't be hard to find, but I had good experiences with the other operation too so it's not like if you can't find them you won't have fun. Treks out of Mae Hong Son are better than those out of Chiang Mai as Chiang Mai does too many of them for too many tourists and, therefore, you get more hokey poo poo (HURR ELEPHANT RIDE RIVER RAFTING HURR) and end up in villages where, during the high season, tourists come in and out fairly regularly. raton fucked around with this message at 23:25 on Apr 18, 2010 |
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Apr 18, 2010 23:18
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Broohaha posted:Sheep-goats, you spent two years in Thailand? Do you have a blog or post somewhere recounting it? I lived in Thailand from 2003 to 2005. No blog and I didn't post much when I was living there.
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Apr 19, 2010 04:54
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Haggins posted:As for health do I really need to worry about covering evacuations to the US? While I'm in SEA I won't have a home or health insurance in the US. IMO if you don't have health insurance back in the US getting an evac flight would be the opposite of what you'd want. If you get seriously ill in SE Asia you pretty much want to get to Bangkok ASAP, where healthcare is fairly cheap and probably a bit better than what you'd get back home (though if you ask US doctors what they think they say they're much better -- big surprise there, a doctor with an ego). Earlier in the thread it was recommended that you not go with a US based provider for your travel insurance as they like to gently caress people over, but honestly I think that's probably true of every insurance company and I have no direct experience with having to pay for emergency medical care anyway so my opinion is pretty much worth dogshit on that point. I was always very impressed with the healthcare in Thailand. You won't find nicer, more attentive hospital staff anywhere in the world and the doctors know their jobs as well as most doctors in the US seem to. raton fucked around with this message at 00:30 on Apr 20, 2010 |
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Apr 20, 2010 00:26
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Ringo R posted:Nobody reads the OP anyway! :P But yeah, I'll write something, unless Sheep-Goatse wants to? I used to go to a good one in an alley off of Silom at the end of Silom (it's a left turn while you're walking toward the river) that's almost by the river and the alley had no sign and the sign on the Chinese place was in Chinese hope that helps... Good noodles and typical cold Chinese appetizer things too. I am totally unqualified to write about the current visa situation as things have changed a fair bit since I lived in Thailand
raton fucked around with this message at 04:52 on Apr 20, 2010 |
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Apr 20, 2010 04:08
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Dr Tran posted:Is an iPad worth bringing to Thailand to sell? No. Unless you're importing porn into Saudi Arabia or something else that's illegal none of these schemes are worth the effort any more.
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Apr 21, 2010 00:37
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brendanwor posted:3 dead Now we need a :thailand: emoticon with the Thai flag and Phumiphon crying. Come on Thailand, I expected better out of ya.
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Apr 22, 2010 22:27
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tzz posted:Do you guys know of any place where the current conflict is explained thoroughly in a non-biased way? The situation is complicated as both sides are right and both sides are wrong. Both sides are also a weird mix of two or three different demographic groups. The Yellow Shirts: These are the guys who blockaded the airport last time over different issues. They claim loyalty to the king as their center pin, but in Thailand that's like saying "I like to eat, and woe be unto all the noneaters!" What they get right is that they don't like Thaksin specifically as his political party and personal life was stuffed to the gills with soft corruption (hard corruption isn't Thailand's style outside of the police) -- for example, his party put through laws that allowed him to then sell a large portion of his vast personal holdings and not pay any tax on the sale. Thaksin is also the single richest person in Thailand and yet claims to represent the poor. What they get wrong, however, is their elitism mixed with more than their fair share of gently caress-you-got-mine-ism. Yellow shirts are mostly comfortable city dwelling businessmen (and women -- the Thai business world is much more egalitarian in this regard than the American one) who don't give a poo poo about the poor in Thailand, and the poor in Thailand really aren't given the stake they deserve in the country. Their second demographic is the military -- the Vietnam war saw the US pumping huge amounts of money into Thailand so long as it was spent on military concerns (like the roads that eventually made Thailand the tourism hotspot it is today) and also lead to a vastly overinflated Army system with so many generals that it borders on the ridiculous. These guys will use force on citizens and many of them have political ambitions. This means that, unlike in the US, the militants, the rich elite, and the middle class are bound up in an uncomfortable mess of a political unit. The Red Shirts: They're what the news is about today. What they get right is their claim that the current government is illegitimate -- it being coup installed after all. Understand that in the 1930s the royalty in Thailand was all but dead after previous pushes by previous democratic political agitators, so the Red Shirts also have claims to heritage and not just legitimacy though being right. What they get wrong, however, is that among the vast bulk of justifiably angry poor people that make up their demographic many support Thaksin when they would truly be much better off with another leader. Thaksin's party had a well known initiative that basically provided small sums of money at the village and even household level for improving small rural towns, eg, Tax Cuts. Like tax cuts, these handouts ended up being much appreciated by the people they benefited the least as simultaneous to them Thaksin's party was promoting a whole "run the country like a business" atmosphere and otherwise promoting general policies that were a cancer to the poor and would have eventually taken far more from them than the village fund could ever put back in. Money is money, though, and many of the red shirts you see in pictures get a per diem payment from someone for showing up and sticking around in Bangkok. This makes the Red Shirts an utterly bizarre mix of the economically disadvantaged, liberal and progressive intellectuals who are democracy seekers, and a small network of unimaginably wealthy businessmen who either have personal fueds with important or powerful Yellow Shirt businessmen or else with the generals involved therein. Both groups are absolutely politically adept -- if hard work and honesty are the American national characteristics then diplomacy and rhetoric are the Thai ones. As such, it's very hard to get impartial opinions of the goings on in Thailand. Many Thais will tell you that they're not any kind of shirt, but they will still often have a strong opinion of one party or the other. Because farang (us) are most likely to talk to the more likely educated Bangkokians (in English) we often see a yellow shirt bias when we attempt to consult the source. Thus when you find someone who claims not to belong to a particular party they will also say poo poo like "I hate the red shirts they should just go home and stop causing trouble" or "loving Thaksin!" and leave it at that. Red shirts have very valid claims about being shat on by an illegitimate government, the corrupt and nasty army / police that are used to stomp on them, and the general state of democracy in Thailand. Unfortunately, they come across instead as single minded zealots attempting to pull their own coup -- they don't do so accidentally but rather because all of their mouthpieces are absolutely aware of the way TV reportage works in the modern era and they're trying to get the right soundbytes out there rather than represent the full concerns of their group. I've been particularly disgusted by the Al Jazeera English clips on Youtube. While they often have the best footage and what seems to be good reportage they're reprehensibly slanted against the legitimate concerns of red shirters and are attempting to portray them as trouble making aimless thugs. Western coverage has been incredibly superficial, in no small part thanks to the incredibly complexity of the issue, a full explanation of which would require a history lesson the army, the monarchy, democracy in Thailand, business interests, the recent history of the Thai Rak Thai party, and a general understanding of the way politics works in Thailand. freebooter posted:What I've been reading is "poor rural people kicking up a fuss because they think the government is elitist," which I read as "Thailand Tea Party." Tell me I'm wrong? You're wrong. quote:Also how reasonable would it be to get a job there and stay maybe another month? Is it worth it? No one wants to hire you for a month. English teaching work is done on year-long contracts (six months if you dig around a lot) and signing on for one with the intention of quitting in a month and bolting with your pay is irresponsible to begin with but, more importantly, probably not even worth it financially. Need more money? Get a second job in the states and you'll come out further ahead. raton fucked around with this message at 23:41 on Apr 23, 2010 |
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Apr 23, 2010 23:36
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tzz posted:Thanks a lot to both of you. I read a lot about Thaksin, the good and bad things he did, the coup, etc; but I guess the hardest part for me to understand is the yellow shirts position, because it seems they are just a bunch of egocentric, elitist and antidemocratic morons, specially when most of the things I read on the media are akin to this. The yellow shirts generally don't have an ideological position. Some of them are overly sensitive to the respect people pay or don't pay to the monarchy, but for the most part the only ideology in the yellow shirt camp is one of comfort -- they're the economically comfortable in Thailand and would prefer to not be inconvenienced in their city (outside of Bangkok there is little wealth comparatively in Thailand -- Bangkok is a city of 12 million, the next biggest city is like 1 or 2 million and is basically a farm town when you compare what goes on there economically). At the top of both parties are near-oligarchs who are trying to benefit from the shifting masses under them, but the yellow shirts have more of this, its more obvious with that group, and a few of them are too likely to shoot at civilians if they felt it was convenient to do so. ReindeerF posted:My biggest concern is that, if Thaksin gets removed from the equation, this may all go the way that Indonesia and Malaysia went, because every day it looks more and more like a lot of brown ethnically Thai people fighting against a lot of white ethnically Thai-Chinese people. Due to the level of integration here and the tolerance of that integration (versus pluralism, as is practiced in much of the rest of SE Asia), I doubt it, but it is a concern of mine. All it takes is one Mahathir. This integration is so full that travelers are unlikely to notice it, but if you're new to Thailand you'd better believe that there are people who hate the Thai-Chinese -- they do have a disproportionate share of the wealth, they do look slightly different, they do sometimes send their kids to special Chinese-y schools, and there is history of the Thai ethnic government writing specifically anti-Chinese laws (and books -- "The Jews of the East"!). It would be a nasty turn for the country to take, for sure, but it is fairly unlikely as most Thais are themselves of mixed blood (a little Burmese, a little Lanna Thai, a little Central Thai; or a little Lao and a little Thai; or half Chinese and half Lanna Thai, etc). It remains possible, however, as the mixed roots of many Thai families are not carried in the front of their mind, mostly due to monarchical policies and propaganda from King Mongkut (Rama IV) on down that set nationality policy to "born in Thailand = Thai, we are all Thai, let's all work together" after enslaving a bunch of foreigners, of course... Anyway, the most divisive Thai v. Thai separation remains the Muslim states in the South. raton fucked around with this message at 01:34 on Apr 25, 2010 |
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Apr 24, 2010 17:30
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ReindeerF posted:There's a big asterisk here though: Southern Thailand. They're largely yellow shirts and not entirely because of the Muslim thing either, though I don't fully understand that. When Arisman or someone yells from the red stage he'll yell out, "everybody from The North cheer!" and there's a big cheer and then there's "Everybody from Central Thailand cheer!" and there's a big cheer and then he doesn't yell anything about the South, heh. Someone told me that the South have been Democrat party loyalists predating Thaksin's campaign of terror down there, but I don't know much about that, frankly. Al Jazeera's coverage is also heavily slanted toward the yellow shirts. My guess is the authoritative and/or militaristic complex some (many?) Muslims have ends up washing them into the yellowshirt camp. There's also a possibility that the House of Saud or some other princedom in the Mid East is quietly supporting the bullshit Southern Thais live with from time to time (beheading, bombings, motosai drive by) and says "Hey gee we like the royalty and the yellowshirts are royalists so tell the priests and muslim schoolteachers to spread the word that we're yellowshirts." This is all total speculation, though. I have very little contact with Southern Thai folks compared to the other three regions and the whole South of Thailand thing is like a problem inside sanook inside a problem inside mai pen rai -- I doubt there's really anyone who understands it apart from maybe one or two reporters or professors in Thailand somewhere in the South. That being said, thanks for bringing up the south. Like most farang (and Thais, I think) I tend to forget about it when talking about big picture Thailand stuff...
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Apr 25, 2010 01:31
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Hardware is more expensive (import tax / duties), software is all pirated and next to free. The US is one of the cheapest places to buy electronics -- any location where it's much cheaper you have to also deal with fakes and bargaining and even then you're only likely to save 10% or so.
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Apr 26, 2010 15:49
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madcow posted:Plan is to come in directly by plane to Phuket, but I could just as easily book the flight elsewhere. I'd say either fly to Samui and take the ferry to Koh Tao (more diving) or Koh Phangan (more hiking, more variety, more nightlife) or just fly into Phuket like you were planning on doing and take a bus/ferry to any of the other nearby beaches or islands (Lanta or Phi Phi) and spend your time there. In my mind it's worth the extra travel time to get out of Phuket -- the others are right, though, there's nothing overtly horrible about Phuket it's just that isn't not quite as nice / cheap / convenient for what most people want when they go to Thailand (unless they want to eat German food and bang a lot of hookers then Phuket is the place to be). madcow posted:The pictures look so nice. Anywhere you go on either coast of Thailand you'll be able to get those white sand beaches and turquoise water pictures, but if you're not in Phuket the beach won't be littered with orangeish 45 year old European men in speedos and the big stupid looking facade of a hotel looming in the background. raton fucked around with this message at 06:15 on May 2, 2010 |
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Apr 30, 2010 01:30
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Pompous Rhombus posted:Cellphone: MBK, in Siam Square. If you tell a taxi driver "MBK" they'll know what you mean. There's a whole floor of shops selling/unlocking mobile phones. Plenty of man purses in MBK also. Try one of the department stores or the top floor back behind the movie theater. Actually if you can't find a murse to buy while in Bangkok this life may simply not be cut out for you ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Broohaha posted:-try to find a local drug store/supermarket to buy a lot of the basics that I was unable to pack in my rush to get here. Only thing I've found so far has been a 7/11, with nothing that I need. I need to buy simple stuff like a satchel/cell phone for use in-country, electric adapter, ziploc bags, travel toothpaste/shampoo... but there doesn't seem to be a place to buy these anywhere close to KSR. any ideas on where to go to get this sort of stuff? -Are you sure you're on Khao San? There are multiple shops dedicated to selling bags there, there are several pharmacies (Boots) and the 7/11s all sell soap and toothpaste and stuff, I don't know why you need an adapter or ziplock bags, what the hell. Just go out to Khao San and walk down that bitch and look left and look right. -Yes just walk into one of those shops and book your train or bus. You can also just get in any taxi and tell them to take you to the train station (Hualampong -- pretty easy to say, make a train noise if the driver looks confused) and buy yourself a ticket once you're there, but the travel shops won't kill you on overhead so w/e -OK. If you go to Tao spring for a SCUBA class. You'll at least meet people doing that. The sense of isolation is normal. Khao San also changes pretty quickly and I haven't been there in years now so things may have changed a bit, but I'm sure not so much as to have the Boots disappear and all the ratty bag shops close up and leave. Let me suggest a couple of bars for you to visit tonight (hopefully they're still there). Go to the end of Khao San with the temple kitty corner from the end of the street (the end closest to the river). Go North on Th. Chakrabong, you're going to be walking for five or so minutes up Chakrabong an in a short while you'll go across a small bridge that goes over the Banglampoo canal. On your left there will be a crappy hotel with a crappier internet cafe, walk past that. In the next 200 yards or so on your left there may be a tiny hookah bar, a small Japanese run bar, and a small blues cafe. Try the hookah bar there first, sit down, if the Australian owner is in he'll chat with you all day long while you puff away, but the other two places should be great, too. They're very small so if there's anyone else in there just say hello and they'll either have to talk to you or leave. Stop worrying about your stuff so much. Just leave all your poo poo in the hostel (apart from your money and passport, leave your camera behind too for your first trip out of the hostel) and go walk around. Don't worry about meeting people so much. You've got a huge list of petty poo poo you can't do that you're trying to resolve right now and not thinking at all about what you can do. Want something fun? Go get a motorcycle taxi to MBK (there's a fleet of them waiting around for you on the end of Khao San with the temple -- they wear safety vests and stand around by motorcycles, you'll have to bargain on the price! -- they all known what "Ehm Bee Kay" is and will go straight there with you on the back of the bike thinking they're loving crazy for driving the way they do) and see a movie in the nice rear end theater up there and enjoy the aircon, and stopoff to the redshirt encampment nearby. Get yourself a cellphone on the fourth floor (or third), a murse if you still want one for whatever reason, and then head back to Khao San and find a bar and have a few drinks. raton fucked around with this message at 06:23 on May 2, 2010 |
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May 2, 2010 05:34
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BTW Khao San Road guy I just spent ten hours losing at internet poker and then paid my ignorant rear end landlord her rent money and am going loving nowhere tonight so if you wanna step into this here teleporter and change places with me I can deal with the ennui while you type away at this computer 
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May 2, 2010 06:12
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You probably got ripped off a little but whatever, at least you have suits that fit. Someone already posted a good complete link about what makes a great suit compared to a good suit (which I bookmarked and then lost), but basically what most non-knowing people miss out on is quality material (can't substitute for that in any way) and the right fitting process. I got suits in Bangkok myself, made with decent wool, and didn't worry about the whole bespoke thing and was really happy with them (until I went back to America and got a little fatter and they no longer fit so well). The suit issue is touchy, but IMO the shirts are a really good deal and not something they can gently caress you over on really. Tailor made shirts are a particular blessing for me since I'm 6'3" and 190 some pounds, which means XL is like a circus tent and L is like a kiddie coat, but I think most people, especially from America (the land of ill-fitting dress shirts), should pick up five or so tailor made button down shirts before heading home so long as they have the time to do so (a couple of hours to stop in and get measured, a couple of hours a week or so later to pick them up and pay the balance). raton fucked around with this message at 04:34 on May 4, 2010 |
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May 4, 2010 04:07
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| # ¿ May 9, 2024 15:33 |
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Broohaha posted:So I'm settled in at Koh Pha Nang (still no idea how that's pronounced) and it's pretty outstanding. While on the ferry coming here met a bloke from the UK traveling solo as well; he's at Ko Samui and he and I are planning on getting together eventually. In the meantime, I'm thinking about renting a bike so I can travel around the island. I've been quoted prices from 150-250 bhat for the whole day: seems way too good to be true. Am I gonna get swindled? That's what they cost. Two words of warning: Occasionally the bike owner will "steal" the bike and then make you pay for it. This is a really remote risk but try to park your bike in as safe a location as you can find and obviously take the key inside with you. In any case if the bike gets stolen or damaged you'll have to pay for it, but I think the risk is worth it for the additional freedom. They will probably want your passport as collateral, which is fine, though I've rented bikes with 1000B deposit and a copy of my passport before, so mai pen rai. Be loving careful. The roads have sand on them that won't bother a car but will put you on your side real quick. Start out in third gear when you're still learning and give yourself a ton of cushion space in front -- if traffic builds up behind you move to the side and let everyone go past. Trucks and busses have have the right of way in Thailand when they turn in front of motorcycles, so when they have their turn signal on be prepared to stop. When you stop on a motorcycle you're supposed to use your front and back brake, not just drag the back one like on a bicycle, but you have to do so in the right proportions and those proportions change depending on what you're doing on the bike, so brake early and slowly so you can feel things out. Internet is always more expensive on the islands. There's a forest temple and a waterfall on Koh Phanang ("Phom Bhen Ghaey" is close enough), you can visit them on your motorbike. DO NOT ride your bike down to the southern tip of the island for the full moon parties, the road on that part is totally different, very curvy and bad, and full of daredevil songtaew drivers who give no regard for lane markings or speed limits or common sense. When it's time to go down there for something wait on the side of the road for a songtaew and flag it down -- if they don't stop that means they're full, but it won't take long before someone picks you up and takes you where you want to go. Oh and don't buy drugs from the guys walking around going "drugs drugs drugs" they're cops. raton fucked around with this message at 16:54 on May 4, 2010 |
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May 4, 2010 16:38
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