FalangBaa

I have been living here over 5 years non-stop. I have never had a problem in Thailand and I have never been scammed. Is it because: [a] I'm incredibly lucky; I'm super-smart; or [c] simply because I never look for any trouble, I'm polite, courteous and respectful will all people I meet (not just Thais) and having a positive, friendly, humorous and never too serious attitude (which I call an "attitude of gratitude") is everything? Errm... [c]. You reap what you sow. If your attitude stinks, Thailand will become Stinkland. Even the sewers/heaps of rubbish smell good to me.

Girls will be everywhere, but impossible to tell who is and isn't working without asking them, but its best to assume the former.

Really, you recommend ASSUMING a girl is a hooker? I can see how you must start a conversation. "1000 baht short time, we go my loom".

I get a "server not found" error for the Independent newspaper (UK) for the past 24 hours from Bangkok. Very strange. Anyone else? Did they write something bad about Thailand or the government?

Where is the link to this report?

Ever heard of Goggle?

Nope, never heard of it. Unless you mean beer goggles. Heard of them.

Assuming you will turn 36 soon and got some 15+ years of nightlife on your watch already: Forget Bangkok, seriously!

If you are flexible, fly to Saigon / Ho Chi Min and go to the legendary APOCALYPSE NOW, or fly to Jakarta and go to RED SQUARE.

BedSupperClub is still hip but boring as hell, QBar full of "handbags" (freelancing hookers), GLOW is unfortunately empty always, RCA Road is primarely for Thai kids in groups in their early early 20th and KaoSanRoad for me a no go area (as a resident)...

Good Luck!

Apocalypse Now, are you joking? It was apocalyptically bad even 10 years ago, but now... And never really a nightclub, more of a bar where a few people will occasionally dance. Boring as hell, filled with Vietnamese hookers who are waaaaay more pushy, businesslike, costly and full of tricks than Thai ones, and with expensive drinks by Viet standards. Apocalypse Now may have been Now before about 1990, but today abagofchips would be more enjoyable. Try finding decent nightclubs (in the western sense) anywhere in Southeast Asia. They don't exist. They do in North Asia though (Japan especially, also Korea and now increasingly in China too...)

Cheers I'll head down to Chinatown and take a look

You can buy a smallish fridge for about 1,000-3,000 baht all over Bangkok. "Renting a fridge" sounds like something that only a poor Thai would do who can't afford to hand over 1,000 baht in a single transaction... You're not earning 6,000 baht a month like the Thais, are you?

In Bangkok...? Holy crap...! Glad I live in Chiang Rai...In a village of 53 people...I was getting worried for a moment...

I'd be cra**ing myself if I were you! In a village of only 53 people, you're probably the only falang. You may as well walk around with a big round target painted on your body!

Who would want to hits us over here in Bangkok? Doesn't add up. I wonder if the threats are indeed foreign or related to some recent foreign involvement/comments in the politics over here...

Remember Bali? The thing is besides a nightclub I can't think of anywhere that would not have the locals out-numbering tourists 10-1.

I can but for obvious reasons won't list them.

Nana Plaza or Soi Cowboy obviously spring to mind. At least 50% falangs there and 50% "expendable" Thais.

If you have problems with your knees, you should not be running, period. I recommend swimming for at least 1 hour a day, which will also strengthen your knees as well as the rest of your body without putting weight-bearing strain on your joints.

Outside of farang and the business-hi-so circles, the most commonly used note must surely be the B20. Many rural Thais don;'t see a B1000 too often I'd wager.

Only if their daughter has a nice generous foreign "sponsor"!

So the third most popular travel destination for British travellers is the United Kingdom - hmmm.

If it wasn't for the often lousy summer weather a lot more Brits would holiday in the UK.

How's that? A decent hotel in the UK will set you back at least 100 pounds a night, or 200 pounds in London, a decent dinner for two with drinks 50 pounds... In Thailand, a decent hotel in Bangkok can be had for 30-40 pounds a night, a dinner for two with drinks for well under 20 pounds... It isn't just the weather!

How anyone can compare a well-developed, pleasant, cosmopolitan and even sophisticated city like Bangkok to a sprawling trainwreck of a city like Ho Chi Minh (Saigon) is beyond me... Ho Chi Minh is a cheap place to go to get a Thai visa, but after 1 or 2 nights in that city I'm desperate to get back to Bangkok! Vietnamese cities are filthy, chaotic, overcrowded and riddled with scammers, counterfeiters and rip-off merchants. You cannot even believe whether the so-called brand-name stores selling expensive imported goods are genuine or not... As for the Philippines, if you want to see what the REAL Third World looks like, it's basically no different to dozens of African countries. Thailand is looking decidedly civilized and sophisticated and, dare I say, affluent, next to neighbours like Vietnam and the Philippines!

Massage. Could easily make 20 pounds an hour (for non-special massage, I mean). For special, the sky's the limit in the UK.

Because it's crap.

Personally speaking I wish they would do this every day, randomly, all over Bangkok. I wouldn't be put out in the slightest by being searched or even patted down for a few minutes on any street in Bangkok. I have nothing to hide, and if the police catch any farangs with drugs or concealed weapons or anything else illegal, so much the better. Bangkok will be a much better, safer and nicer place without these drug-using or criminal foreigners walking the streets. There are probably tens of thousands of foreigners living in Bangkok today who wouldn't even be there if they weren't able to support themselves through illicit activities. Kick them all out, with a lifetime ban.

Why not just live in a place above the 3rd floor and invest about 2,000 baht in an inflatable rubber dinghy? Then you'll have nothing to worry about when the floods inevitably come to Rangsit again, be it next year, the year after, 5 years from now, or whenever.

I purchase all of mine from www.VitaCost.com, about a third to a quarter the price of vitamins and supplements in the UK and Thailand, but they don't ship direct to Thailand. You can have them shipped to a friend/relative in Europe or the States and ask them to ship them on to you in Thailand. Even though I pay for shipping twice, I literally save hundreds of dollars on each order (I generally purchase 1 or 2 years' supply at a time) compared the prices if I purchased the same things in Thailand or the UK...

Ah... TUNA!!! The daily dining choice of the frugal ex-pat. 39 baht dinner can't be bad!

Will not be easy. You will need proof that the funds came from outside Thailand to buy the house but then the legality of you buying land in Thailand even though the house may of been only in your wifes name will prove to be a problem because I am sure you would of brocken some rules.

You are going to be hit with a legal nightmare, I doubt you will be able to do it.

I would suggest your wife gets documents to prove the house sale and have them translated, then change the money in Thailand to USD and travel to the USA with the cash and declare it on entry. So about $166000 alot to carry but when you think about it it would only be about 800x$100 bills each.

But best of luck.

Or take out the money daily from a cash machine in the USA, most banks allow up to 200000 baht per day, just get a few bank account and do it that way.

What a wonderful idea, carrying 166 thousand dollars in a carry-on bag. Go to the toilet on the plane... Get off... Oops! Someone's been a little light-fingered. Oh well, start again from scratch...

Agoda has no telephone number in Bangkok and has removed the submit button from the email section on its webpage. My wife was asked to pay an additional Bt500 by the hotel and when she complained the Hotel said that she must contact Agoda office. On The voucher it gives a UK telephone number. My wife is Thai she paid for the room in Thai Baht with a Thai credit card and she is expected to phone the UK!! I doubt if they have people answering in Thai and what of the cost? I was mad when I arrived to find my wife waiting for 4 hours unable to get the room she had paid for. The hotel said that the rate was bt500 more than the voucher. I have tried to contact Agoda. I phoned the UK and was asked to press all sorts of numbers and then was cut off.

Agoda should not sell accommodation in Thailand without an office or means of contacting them, Perhaps it is because they want to avoid paying any tax in Thailand? How can I now rectify this. They should be reported to relative authorities in Thailand and have their website closed down.

And the funny thing is, Agoda is a Thai company that was founded in Phuket by an American from New York in the 1990s before moving its HQ to Bangkok later. Not a lot of people know that, but check its Wikipedia entry. I've used Agoda dozens of times and I'm an Elite Gold member (or whatever that is) due to the number of points I've accumulated. I get several free nights of hotels a year due to my points level and that's apart from the fact that I almost always find Agoda to be cheaper or the same price as all other competing reservation services. Sorry to hear you had bad luck with it, I've never had a single problem in over 10 years.

The simple answer is: You can't. You'll find it very difficult to transfer even 1 million baht out of Thailand. The Government actively prohibits this.

"The island once known as the ''Pearl of the Andaman Sea'' is undergoing a building frenzy with 43,000 hotel rooms open and at least 7000 more units in the pipeline."

Sounds like Phuket is becoming the "sewer of the Andaman Sea"... That's too bad. I have not been in a few years now, sounds like things have changed a lot. Will be there in June. Too bad they can't contain all this garbage in one area like Pattaya. I first went there in 1989, was lovely, Karon only had a few hotels and there was almost no one on the beach during the day as it was not popular... those were the days...

The go go dancers in the photo look Thai to me, not sure where the Russian thing comes from. I can't imagine foreign prostitutes there...

I live in Phuket and I can assure you, Patong is awash with Russian hookers. I only have to take a walk (as a single man) along Patong Beach road or go to any nightclub to be propositioned by numerous Russian hookers. But of course, they want at least 2,500 baht, and won't settle for 1,000 baht like the Thai girls... The Russians are slowly but surely (actually not that slowly) taking over the island, just as they did in Pattaya. Their Mafia are going to go head to head with the Thais before too long. And that'll be nasty. The Russians have already got Pattaya sown up. But the condo building I live in in Phuket, which isn't even in a tourist area, is about 80% full of Russian residents who drive big cars.

Certainly better to save rather than spend...

Now if I could just get my Thai wife to give up drinking red wine when we're outside, and choose the Siam Sato instead (whatever that is), I'd be in for some substantial savings...

And if you could just give up your Thai wife, you could change your name to TallRichGuyJohninBKK...

7-11, big bottles of Chang for 40 baht.

Woooah, 40 baht is like splashing out on a fancy dinner for me (big bowl of street noodles with *BEEF*). For alcohol, I can still manage to get a large bottle of Siam Sato in some 7-11 type stores for 22 baht and two of those (total spend: 44 baht) will get me as drunk as a lord. So if I spend over 84 baht in an evening, I really feel like I'm pushing the boat out. I'm not exactly poor either. I work online as a consultant and 120,000 baht would be a bad month for me... But I just don't like to spend money.