donna

Kiss. Dynasty Tour. VFL Park, Melbourne. 1980. That was a fantastic concert. The visual effects were excellent and I still have fond memories of it.

Dad. It's just been on UBC this month. VERY sad. VERY funny. But it reminds me of my own dad and what I would do for him if he were ever so sick.

Sullani: I am referring to a friend of mine, not the girlfriend of the OP.

Nah. Not angry at all, Tornado. If I was angry, I would have said ARAI WAH!

Perhaps I should have put a smiley

Arai wah? 

OK, Scampy.  You can come too!

arai wah - seems a little angry...

Arai wah?

OK, Scampy. You can come too!

I married him because he could support my family". 

Now.  I am not, in any way, tarring all Thai girls with the same brush.  Because I know they are not all the same.  BUT she married the first one because he has money, and now this one. 

Yes it's a strange old world when a woman from a country that has no Social services, welfare and pensions etc, wants to look after her family and privilaged westerners say she is wrong.

I guess that's why many westerners can't wait to stick their aging parents in a care home and squabble over the property when their folks die.

Maybe if she was a Farang she would be sponging off of the Welfare state like Millions of people do in the West without giving it a second thought.

Good luck to her, I hope she is looking for number 3.

Bilko, what you don't know is that her family are not so bad off. They live in a great house in Chiang Mai, have cars, food on the table, are very happy, and have lots of kids to support them! I might add that before this new bloke came along she had another one living in the middle east who would send her 30K a month for her and her kids, her ex husband built her a house that she refused to live in becuase it was 20km away from her shop, and he still chose to give her money every month. AND, to top it all off, that 30K a month went towards a boob job!

Not ALL Thai people come from a poor background. Not everyone only earns 6K a month working in a restaurant/bar/massage shop. There are actually some people here who earn more than you would have done at home. And quite a lot of them too I might add.

So you don't need to defend her or her family. I know her. You don't.

A girlfriend of mine was going to buy a new Honda. But it wasn't fitted with the bolt for a safety seat. She asked why, but the salesperson just gave her a weird look!

Brilliant series and actors, even the Ozzies can't dispute that British comedy is the best in the world.

Does anyone remeber the "Comic Strip Presents" series?

The Yob being my personal favourite , a spoof on "The Fly".

Absolute genius.

I dunno Chonabot. Kath and Kim is a bloody hilarious piss take on suburban Australiana. I have the first two series on DVD over here, and it's VERY funny. In fact, I think every Australian knows someone like Kath and Kim.

A ticket issued in a country other than that of the country of departure is called an Open Jaw ticket I think. These are traditionally VERY expensive and not really worth buying.

Yes. Snot. A good one.

What about the one when Neil was in the bath and pulled out a whole bike?

Jack Nicholson/Nicole Kidman

Elvis (but if he wasn't available, Paul Kelly)

Billy Connolly

Paul Keating

Hmmm...never met any TV members so can't answer that.

John McEnroe

Remember the one when they all were sick with colds? Neil ended up with a black plastic garbage bag over his head filled up with god knows what?

Icky, but funny!

A Thai woman I know married a Thai man many years ago and had 3 kids with him. She is now divorced from him, but I remember her telling me one night over a few drinks "I didn't marry him because I loved him. I married him because he could support my family".

Back in April she met a farang guy. I thought he was a real prick. Spoke to people in the rudest manner and was generally a <deleted>. Anyway, one day I saw her dressed up to the nines. She looked beautiful. I asked her where she was going and she told me that she was going to this kind of club thing near her shop. "Why?" I asked. "You look beautiful. Are you getting married?" (I was joking). With that she showed me her finger and, sure enough, she got married that afternoon! Didn't tell a soul about it.

Anyway, I expressed my views on this new bloke to a few mutual friends, and many of them said this to me, in this exact order: "But he loves her. And he is SO rich. He exports gems from Thailand and has lots and lots of money to give to her family".

Now. I am not, in any way, tarring all Thai girls with the same brush. Because I know they are not all the same. BUT she married the first one because he has money, and now this one.

I would seriously think about the consequences should you want to take this relationship further.

That's a ###### good question, Thomas Merton. I have worked in the tourism industry in Thailand for nearly 6 years and have a few suggestions (yes, I acknowledge that some of these are merely dreams, but this is my wish list):

1. Get rid of the dodgy tuk-tuk scammers. They rip people off (although this is because of the tourists greed, I know) and are scumbags.

2. Ban dreadlock 'makers' down Khao San Road. Yuk.

3. Stop guides from taking such HUGE commissions everywhere they go.

4. Make the tour company pay the guides a decent salary so that they don't NEED to seek out these ridiculous commissions.

5. Allow westerners to be guides in this country (after completing a certified course, that is). Many Thai people tell me that I know more about their country than they do, and I'm not the only one.

6. Ensure that these guides are educated about cultural sensitivity, especially in the more rural areas (Many times I have seen western girls trekking in bikini tops -and, believe me, it's usually the ones who really should be keeping them on!).

7. Make sure that taxi drivers actually know the city. It's not a problem for me, but many a time I have gotten into a taxi where the driver is from Isaan and only been in the city for 3 or 4 days! Now, I think that this is OK, because I can speak enough Thai to tell them where I want to go and how to get there. But can you imagine if you were a first time visitor and got into one of these guys cars? I understand that they are only trying to make a buck. All I am saying is that they should receive some education and orientation about Bangkok before being let out onto the streets.

8. Get rid of paedophiles. Scum of the earth.

9. If Thailand really NEEDS to have dual pricing in national parks, don't make the farang price ten times the Thai price. Halve it (as in 5 times). I don't notice that much of a change to most national parks since the price went up.

10. Promote Thailand as having more then temples. Thailand is a FUN place to visit. There's lots of really cool things to do, but the TAT seems reluctant to promote such things.

11. The TAT should hire a farang to put ideas forward for new trips and areas to be researched. Basically, farang know what farang want. This isn't putting a Thai out of a job. Rather, more will gain from it because more of the country will be promoted, more tourists will come, bringing more money...you get the drift.

12. Get rid of this stupid elite card.

13. Approach more schools in the west and bring school students here on educational trips. Many schools in Australia go to Bali for their school trip, so why not go that little further and sell Thailand? It may mean that they need to be studying Thai at school. So be it. Promote it.

14. The current minister, Mr Somsak (please correct me if I am wrong) is wanting to promote Longstays in Thailand. They have set up a Longstay company, with TAT being 30% shareholder. Although this company has some great people working there, they need an agressive marketing person. There has been 100 MILLION baht invested in this company but they are making NO money because they can't sell trips...because they have nobody to do their marketing. (How do I know this you may ask? I used to work for them).

15. Open up the bars til a decent hour.

16. Stop this 'surprise' urine testing in clubs.

17. Have a REGULAR (comfortable) train service from the airport to Hualampong.

Phew...think that's it for now. If I think of more I will certainly post them.

I have been in Thailand for nearly 6 years, and one of the kindest and memorable things that happened to me was only about 3 months after I arrived.

I used to work as a Tour Leader, and this particular trip saw me with my group in Doi Mae Salong on a Wednesday night. This group of people was a really tough one to deal with. They had yelled at me, they told me that sleeping in hilltribes was uncomfortable (well...duh...), that the vehicles here were unsafe, that the drivers were unsafe, that the food was no good...and it went on and on. One 'man' even went so far to tell me "At home I drive a Bentley with airbags and seatbelts, and you have got us sitting in the back of a pickup truck with no safety features at all".

Anyway, that night I decided to hang with a couple of the group members (who are still good friends of mine) and have a couple of beers to alleviate the stress I was feeling.

I went to bed at about midnight (after only 2 beers from memory) and was feeling a bit weird. I thought it was just the beer, and the fact that we had just come off of a 4 day trek that was making me ache. Boy was I wrong. I ached and ached all night and couldn't get any sleep at all.

Morning finally arrived and I literally staggered out to tell my group to make sure that they were on time. Not one of these people who were sitting there even asked me how I was, even after I had to hang on to the front desk to stop myself from falling down.

I went back to my room and waited for the time my driver was due to arrive, and lugged myself out to the reception area.

It was at this stage that this kind faced man looked at me, got up from his chair and said "you are sick, you need a doctor". I told him that I had this nasty group of people to take care of and he told me not to worry about them and that he was getting me to the doctor NOW and the group could just wait.

Anyway, we drove up to the clinic and I asked him what his name was. "It's not important" he told me. I was too out of it to know what was going on, so I just let it go. He got me to the clinic, made the doctor check my blood (after he stitched up some blokes head from a pretty nasty motorbide accident) and bundled me back in to the car to get me back to my group.

Then he disappeared.

Around 5 weeks later, I was in Chiang Mai on the same trip and walked into our guesthouse and who do I see? This kind soul.

"You look better than you did a few weeks ago, Donna"

"Oh my god. My angel. Who ARE you?" I replied to him.

"I'm Charin"

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"What for? It didn't matter. You needed help, no-one was going to help you, so I did what any person should do. I helped."

It ends up that Charin is one of the operators we used on many trips that my company runs.

Needless to say, that started a fantastic friendship and one that I will have for a long time. Since then, I have had many wonderful things happen to me. I could go on for weeks about it. But I won't.

I used to tell my clients about our first meeting, and so many people used to cry at that story. I don't personally think it is a tear jerker BUT it IS a nice story all the same.

I find the immigration office at teh Andaman Club to be really lovely. They don't have the scanning there as far as I remember, but it is a MUCH better way to go, as opposed to sitting in a hot longtail boat.

BUT, I think you need to have at least 5 days left on your stamp in order to go through them.

You get to buy duty free at the casino, too.

I second Hua Chiew. I've been there myself. Disposable needles, Doctors speak mainly Chinese or Thai. The hospital itself is only about a year old and is spotless.

I am sure that someone here can help me. My friend wants to learn english. She doesn't have HEAPS of money, but she is VERY keen to learn.

She lives in the Banglampoo area, and is wanting a teacher to help her one-on-one with her english. She already has a basic A-B-C and some very basic vocab, but wants more (obviously).

If anyone is interested giving my friend some lessons, please PM me.

Do any of you guys know of anyone here who writes CV's? I would like to revamp my CV and am looking for a professional who can do a great job. I have looked on the web, but many of these don't provide a soft copy, are located overseas, and are really expensive (some of them up to US$600). Of course there are some cheaper, but if there is someone looking at picking up a few extra Baht, I would appreciate it if you could let me know.

I like Artini 2 on Jalan Hanoman (I think). Nice and comfortable, good pool area, close by to everything.

While you are there, try to have a meal at Lemak. Best toilets in Bali!

Goodness knows why they need it, though.  I have registered my name, passport number and address when I got my sim card. 

When did you buy it? I got one in early April and it was totally anonymous. No name, no PP number, no questions asked. Just bought a used phone at Klang Plaza, Korat, that included a "free" sim and off I walked....

Of course, that's the way it ought to be; libertarian that I am.

I got mine quite a few years ago (4 I think).

OK. I just called AIS. They tell me that from July 1 you can take your passport to any AIS shop to register. You have about 6 months to do so.

Of course, if someone else calls, they will get a different response.

I called AIS the other day and was told that from July 1 you can register, and you have 6 months to do so. You will be able to register at the post office, certain banks, AIS shops, and many other places.

I think it will be well publicised when it happens.

Goodness knows why they need it, though. I have registered my name, passport number and address when I got my sim card.

Amazing Thailand.

With regard to the person who said that if you are healthy you shouldn't get Malaria, I say that't rubbish.

I consider myself to be pretty healthy and I have had Malaria 4 times now. I have no idea where I got it from. The first time I got sick I was working in Indonesia, but had only been there a few weeks. The other three times I was here in Thailand.

I used to work as a Tour Leader, so my job took me from one end of the country the other, so I could have picked it up anywhere.

First time around, Malaria is pretty hard to pick up in a blood test. This is common knowledge among the medical professionals I have spoken to. It was suspected that I had Dengue Fever, but a blood test proved that I did not have Dengue, and never had it before (yep, there is a blood test for that). In fact, I was not diagnosed with anything this first time around, and that is after being medivac'd out of Indonesia into Australia. 5 weeks of blood tests came up with zilch.

The only way I knew it was Malaria the second time around was because I was in Sangkhlaburi and went down like a ton of bricks in about half an hour with the exact same symptoms as only 6 weeks before. I went to the clinic up there with fever of 41.5 and was rushed to Kanchanaburi Memorial where I was diagnosed with Malaria within half an hour.

To PhuketRichard, it is probably there already. From what I understand, Khao Sok has a major outbreak every year too. Phanom has a special malaria hospital (or clinic) because there is so much of it down there.

Malaria is something I wouldn't wish upon anyone. To be well and running around in the morning, and by the afternoon to be bed ridden with terrible shakes and fevers is pretty scary.

But what is the solution for it? We could all empty the stagnant water pots sitting around our houses, change water in pot plant saucers, put little fish in any big pots of water (lillies etc) to eat the larvae, and KILL ANY OF THE LITTLE BUGGERS IF YOU SEE THEM!

Top Gun (I feel the need, the need for speed)

Mad Max (1 and 2 - later than that were crap) (plus they had a kid called Sprog)

Sureshank Redemption

One Flew over the Cuckoos Nest

The Exorcist

The Full Monty

Chocolat

Gone with the Wind (But Miss Scarlet I don't know nothin bout birthin babies)

Dad

Forrest Gump

Dirty Dancing (nobody puts Baby into a corner)

That's about it off the top of my head. Not too deep, but good watches all the same.

I have just spent a week with 38-39 degree fevers, no energy, killer aches behind the eyes, no appetite, etc, culminating in two days in Bumrungrad.

Diagnosed with a very nasty virus, I am on the road to recovery now (but still having the odd fever).

Has anyone else had this of late? Not fun, I can tell you. But a ###### of a way to lose some weight!