gazmat

Went there last year for a couple of days. The Petronas Towers are magnificent and there's some nice hills, the rest of the city is OK. The nightlife is dreadful, the general atmosphere quite boring and I had my camera snatched. Never been robbed anywhere else. No plans to go again any time soon.

Grow a pair man! Tell her if she wants a bit of mighty Farang goodness she'd better dump them pesky kids ASAFP. Permanently too - leave the little buggers on the step outside the orphanage or sell them to the gangs who run the beggars on Suk (her ex can no doubt put them in touch). Then there's nothing in the way of the two of you getting down and jiggy for a few months until you get bored and kick her to the kerb in favour of a newer, more exciting version. Sure she might get a bit teary that she gave up her kids for you but, hey, a couple of plates of somtam and she'll get over it. They always do.

For the first six months after we arrived in Bangkok we had a driver. She was great and knew the city like the back of her hand but I quickly got fed up with sitting in traffic jams for hours just to travel a few kilometres.

Yes, sitting in the back in air-conditioned comfort playing on the iPad is no hardship but taxis, BTS, MRT, BRT and, god forbid, walking can usually get you from A to B in ola fraction of the time. Hulkklk

I'm pretty sure the song you mean is "Khaw jai tur lak bur toh" (Your heart for my number") by Yinglee Srijumpol.

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I often ask Thai people questions. Now, admittedly those questions are generally "how much short time?" or "where's the toilet?", but, if I could ask something more cerebral it would be "is that Note bloke genuinely funny, and if so, what's his best joke?"

I'm incredibly open with my Missus. "I'm skint", I say. Then she tops up my account. She's good like that.

An erection after 20 pints.

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High ceilings, quality materials: granite, marble, hard woods etc, good finish and attention to detail.

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I had my 19 year old son here in Bangkok for a couple of weeks earlier this year. He enjoyed the Khao San Road area, the Paragon (especially the cinema), the Chao Praya river boats, Patpong area at night, Wat Pho and watching the madness at Nana with a couple of early evening beers at Big Dogz. Mainly though it was all about Khao San.

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Thanks for the information. Good news!

My Multiple Entry Non-Imm O Marriage Visa expired on 18th May 2013. My current 90 day stamp expires on 4th June 2013. Owing to some confusion, I believed my visa was valid for one year from the first date of entry to Thailand rather than the date of issue. Consequently I was intending to make one more border run and apply for an extension during the last 30 days of that final 90 day stay.

Is it possible to apply for an annual extension so close to the end of my 90 day stay? I've got all the necessary documentation and financials in place.

When I've finally made sweet, sweet love to every woman, or woman-shaped being, in this glorious kingdom.

Almost there...

Did Leonardo need to pass an art exam? Newton a physics degree? Shakespeare his English Literature GCSE? No, I think not. Hence, why the Thai driver need not bother him or herself with the demeaning rigour of any kind of official test. Splash the baht and thrash the cart as we say in these parts.

The pink-shouldered, veiny old horrors, whose tongue-like bellies dangle disgustingly below the ragged hems of their stained, smelly singlets as they waddle from sleaze hole to sleaze hole pawing desperately at small brown women barely a quarter of their age in the hope of being allowed to pay for a sexual encounter with a being whose level of physical attractiveness is so at odds with their own that any such sexual contact would be practically inter-special in nature, kind of like a hippo shagging a swan brigade.

I admire the courage of every person who is prepared to migrate across the planet and live in an alien culture in order to give themselves a better life. Whether it's a Somalian in London or a Norwegian in Thailand. Obviously, Westerners migrating to Thailand undergo far fewer hardships in order to get here but the underlying goal is the same.

I'm here because my wife (although Thai) is, in effect, a MNC expat. After a few years in London, her career has brought us back here. I love the lifestyle over here and consider it to be better and more enjoyable than what we had in the UK but I'm not sure I'd do it on my own though. The language and cultural barrier is just too immense, regardless of any financial cushion.

I'm lucky to have a ready-made family and group of friends, many of whom speak fluent English and were educated in the US or UK. It makes things easier and less foreign. So any single person who ups sticks and comes over here to make a new life - especially those who do so away from the bright lights and tourist traps is deserving of a great deal of respect. No matter what impulses drive them, they embody the pioneering spirit that got humans out of African caves and on to the Moon and for that, I salute you.

I met my wife (who originally hails from a small town on the banks of the Mekong in the north of Isaan) in Wolverhampton. We both worked for an international finance corporation and she was on a fact-finding assignment in the UK. Now, 8 years later, we live in Bangkok, she working as a Banker, while I bring up our son.

My son went to a decent British public school (thanks to the generosity of his step-dad I must add). He finished his A levels there this Summer. Most of the kids who attend are from wealthy, well-connected, upper-middle class families with a smattering of titled aristocracy for good measure.

These kids have everything: the best gadgets, laptops, phones, clothes, cars, handbags etc, etc.

I also know a few relatively wealthy Thais whose kids have the same kind of stuff.

The biggest difference I can see is that the posh British kids try to be extremely nonchalant and somewhat discreet about their valuable possessions (although they are aware of and privately relish their power as status symbols), whereas the Thai kids exuberantly flaunt them, take Instagram photos of them and excitedly inform the world on Facebook about each high value purchase they make or gift they are given.

I actually find the Thai kids' response to having all these cool, expensive and lovely things a bit more honest than the affected indifference of the posh British kids.

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Since moving to Thailand, I now refer to any Thai person, of any age or gender, simply as "Chinaman".

A little Thai girl approaches me and I say to her parents, "What a cute little Chinaman!"

My mother-in-law offers me a plate of Som Tam and I inform her, "No thanks, I don't like Chinaman food."

At a big family day out I remark, "I've never seen so many Chinamans in one place!"

When in Rome and all that...

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Thanks for the swift responses, they've made things clearer.