FalangBaa

Cheap now, or cheap over the next year or two? They are very different.

I'd say IKEA for nearly everything. Beds, go to an independent shop but make sure it's properly made, and not out of rubber wood that will bow and bend in 3 months, and definitely not paper mache. Spend about 15-20K on this and it will last, rather than one that will fall to bits in 6 months.

It all really depends on whether you're using (or abusing) your bed for any vigorous athletic activities. Are you simply a sloth-like snoozer, or are you a dedicated horizontal Olympian who's passionate about training up the Thai female team of chiselled athletes for Rio 2016? Choose your bed according to what you'll use it for.

You can buy a jar filled with hundreds of disposable toothpicks (wood or plastic) for about 20 baht. Why would you want to have a toothpick made out of silver that you reuse every day? I predict some hygiene issues here...

I'm having a "deja vous" moment.

Deja vu = already seen. Deja vous = already you.

You wouldn't be flat broke by any chance, would you? You must be a school teacher. Do you also have the grubby 3000-baht polyester suit and the 200 baht white shirt from Big C that hasn't been washed in over a year?

If you're living in England and she's living in Thailand, and you only see each other a few weeks a year, is she really your "girlfriend"? That doesn't fit any reasonable definition of the term "girlfriend" as I understand it. How do you have any idea what she's doing for the 40-something weeks of the year when you're not together? Ah, I get it now... You send her money every month so that she doesn't have to go out and look for another boyfriend when you're apart. Sounds like a wonderful arrangement... For her.

Why not just fly her first class on BA. That'll surely guarantee that she will remain faithful to you forever.

.SU = Soviet Union. A still existent but rarely used TLD, for the obvious reason that the Soviet Union no longer exists.

I can't see ANYONE wanting to buy samui.su though... Most people have never heard of .su, and almost no domain name sites will allow you to register a .su.

Since you call yourself a vegetarian and you can't even spell "vegetarian" or "veggie", I finally have the confirmation I needed that lack of meat leads to death of brain cells, in addition to a weedy body... Go and get yourself a nice big tenderloin steak and be done with it.

Simple curiosity. How this guys can stay in Thailand ? I mean what kind of visa do they most have? How can they enter the country and do what they do here?

I've visited Sukumvit soi 3 and 5 looking for a lebanese restaurant last week and had the impression being in a bad area of Bronx....

It's simply a question of paying a few thousand baht (rarely over 5,000) in their home country in Africa to an "agent" who can then secure a Thai visa, even a one-year education visa, for any of these West African guys. A lot of them have actually been here for 3 years on an ED visa which they have extended twice. Remember that Nigeria is the spiritual home of the 419 scam. If you think these guys can't get hold of a "legitimate" long-term visa for Thailand, you're clearly underestimating their intelligence and cunning. That said, as long as you don't mess with them, or be stupid enough to actually buy what they're selling, they will never give you a problem.

From later in the article -

"I would want to get that message out again about safe sex - I don't know how much young men are aware that Thailand is the HIV capital of the world," Dr Kidd said.

This guy is a f*%&ing moron and that isn't even remotely true. New infections in Thailand have dropped from +150,000 per year in the early 90s to 10,000 per year now, roughly the same per capita level as the United States. Southern African countries have 20-30% of the population infected and Thailand has less than 1%, and most of them infected more than 10 years ago and the number of new cases are relatively small.

I don't know if he is incredibly misinformed or he is deliberately spreading misinformation to keep people away from Thailand or because he is against prostitution for moral reasons. Either way he is an uninformed bigot

There are many sources on the Internet you can Google that will tell you reliably that the rate of HIV infection in Thailand is currently around 2.5%. That is the figure for the GENERAL population. Among the population of professional sex workers, you can expect that percentage to be several times higher. My guess is that you have at least a 1 in 10 chance (10%) of coming into contact with the virus if you have unprotected sex with any sex worker in Thailand. If you do contact the virus from vaginal secretions, there is still not a great risk that it will get inside your bloodstream and replicate, especially if you are circumcised and wash your penis thoroughly with soap and water after sex. However, anyone who has unprotected sex with anyone other than their regular girlfriend/boyfriend/wife/husband who has already tested seronegative for HIV-1 is, in my humble opinion, a completely irresponsible idiot with a death wish.

Yes, the Olympics have pushed flight and hotel prices through the roof, the rest of the UK tourist industry are saying this will lead to a reduction of main stream tourists.

Yes I can understand for passengers travelling into the UK on those dates but why so expensive going the other direction?

Because everybody wants to escape from the Olympics, which is a massive bore as well as being an insane waste of money.

Olympics... Duh.

A word of advice:

Stick to Chang.

Just for the record, and for those of you who are ignorant or racist, the black GIRLS in Bangkok are almost all innocent... Sure, the majority of them are hooking. But they are not involved in the drug trade or any other illegal activity other than hooking. The black girls originate mostly from Kenya, Uganda and (sometimes) Tanzania, i.e. East Africa, and the black boys are almost exclusively West African, 70% Nigerian, the remainder from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Ghana, and 90% of them are selling drugs or involved in people trafficking. I am talking about this as an agent with considerable experience in the field.

Large bottle of Red Horse beer at Family Mart. 1 week ago, 40 baht (same price for over 1 year since I started drinking it), 3 days ago the price was raised to 43 baht, last night back down to 41 baht again... Obviously sales were suffering after that 3 baht rise...

I have no idea why you'd want to do that in Bangkok, unless you have suicidal tendencies, and the correct word is "bicycle" or "bike".

In a word, don't even think about it. A motorbike is dangerous enough here, but riding a bicycle on these crazy streets is just asking to be hospitalized or killed - apart from which, you'll be breathing toxic fumes all the time, which more than counteracts the possible health benefits from exercise. The only bike you should be riding in Bangkok is inside the air-conditioned gym.

As he came out he saw 2 or 3 men got off the car and one of them spoke Thai language

The plot thickens. Now there are 2 more men involved and one of them speaks Thai. Who are these guys?

And who is Mr. Thong?

The friend of Mr. Panties. Were you not paying attention in class??? Go to the headmistress's room at 2 p.m.

ThaisThatBind.com sounds like some kind of BDSM fetish site... That is the only domain on your list that might be worth anything at all. The rest are simply cringeworthily bad.

The part about the male cabin crew being heterosexual and flirting with Thai ladies during the flight is unbelievable, so this invalidates your story.

I have flown with Air Asia over 50 times in the past 6 years to over a dozen destinations, and I've never had a major complaint. Small delays of a few minutes sometimes occur, and the airline itself is often not to blame for this. Overall, I'm 99% satisfied with Air Asia's service. I fly with them whenever possible. They fully deserve the award of Airline of the Year that they've won 5 times so far, and will probably win again in 2012.

Air Asia is one of the safest airlines in the skies. In over 10 years flying, they have never had a fatal accident or even an incident (non-fatal anomaly). If you don't believe me, check their Wikipedia entry. Very few airlines flying that long have operated without even one anomalous incident resulting in passenger injury or plane damage. Air Asia actually has the youngest plane fleet of any airline in the world. Therefore, I am and will remain totally confident in flying with them. It's not difficult at all to remove unwanted additional fees like insurance and hot seat allocation. Air Asia is a great airline, it is in fact expanding faster than any other airline in the world, has the lowest per-mile operating cost and the fastest aircraft turnaround, and in my opinion fully deserves the outstanding success it has achieved so far. Other low-cost airlines would be well advised to take note of Air Asia's business and operations model!

I had the same problem. My HSBC debit card was blocked, so I called the support number and some incomprehensible woman in India told me very rudely that fraudsters had obtained my card details. She reduced my daily ATM withdrawal limit to £200 and flat out banned me from using my card online or in stores; only in the ATM. She also said I have to call her back later and cancel the card, then a new card number will be sent out to my address in the UK and someone will forward it to me here in Thailand. I have no idea how scammers got hold of my card details, but I'm suspecting they got it from the ATM (as they physically insert some kind of device inside the ATM) because I very rarely use my card in stores, except for occasionally in supermarkets if I'm buying more than 4 or 5 thousand worth of foods.

In San Francisco, bars must be closed by 2am. Exactly. If the cops have a special liking for the establishment they will be there counting down the last seconds, and if at exactly 2am one person still has a drink in their hand WAMMO! I'm not sure what the terms are now, but it used to be the first time you got a warning and a hefty fine. Second time they take away your alcohol licensing. That's it.

What time did you say the bars have to close by in Bangkok?

Law in LOS will never be taken seriously until the police are issued uniforms that have no pockets.

If the uniforms have no pockets, they're just going to be stashing the money down their underpants, which is even more disgusting. There's going to be some pretty stinky money circulating around Bangkok.

You certainly won't be disappointed with Ratilanna. It's one of the finest, if not THE finest, hotels in Chiang Mai and has a great secluded location, though still not far from the city centre. The Brazilian buffet restaurant in the hotel (a variety of meats served on skewers) is outstandingly good, if they still offer it (which they did 2 years ago when I was last in Chiang Mai) and represents exceptional value at around 650 baht per person. You can eat about 10 different types of perfectly cooked meats until you drop.

Ibis Hotel, half way down Soi 4 (Nana). Excellent lunch buffet, Western and Thai food, 12 - 3 p.m., 199 baht (no extra charges), and it even includes free coffee, tea and water.