donna

I work for a travel company and know many people who have been killed in the south. We have set up an appeal and I can guarantee you that we do not have ANY admin charges whatsoever.

If you are interested, you can go to www.intrepidtravel.com/appeal

Information about the INTREPID FOUNDATION can also be found on the website.

This is not an advertisement. I do work for them. I have been here in Thailand for 5+ years and am donating all of my tips from the last 2 months, and Christmas money from my family to the cause.

You can do a lot to help. Every cent counts, and my company is gonna match dollar for dollar (up to 50,000) the money it receives.

Please help. It means everything.

I am looking for anyone who works at Ko Kho Khao Resort. In particular, I am desperate to contact Viroj and his wife, Lek, who do massages by the beach at the resort.

Viroj (or Wirod) is blind and is a tall, well built man with a moustache and maybe a bit of fluff on his chin. He is about 5'10" tall and about 43 years old.

His wife, Lek, is a little plump for a Thai, and about 5" tall.

They live on the Baan Khem side of Ko Kho Khao and have a daughter, Champoo, who lives in Bangkok.

I am very anxious to contact them, as all the phone lines to KKK are down. I heard that Baan Khem was pretty devastated but am not sure about where Viroj and Lek live.

If anyone has any information whatsoever, please let me know. Also, if you have any information about the staff from the resort, I would like to know. BBC doesn't give the full picture as it is contrating on Phuket.

You can call me on 01 278 2655 at any time, and if that does not work please call me on 053 617203 until January 1. After that I will be in mobile range again.

Thanks to everyone on this site. It's good to see people pulling together in such a terrible time.

Ditto, seville.

SBK. Any of the cousins single?

I reckon you could make yourself some SERIOUS money here! And being from the south (I think you are, right?) they may be tall too. Woohoo.

Merry Christmas ladies. I've had chicken and Bollinger Champagne this morning. Fantastic, and a lovely treat from Duty Free. Mmmmm.....

Not all Thai men are drinkers an womanisers. I have some fantastic Thai male friends, and they are certainly NOT like that.

It's the same with any nationality. You get your good ones, and you get your bad ones. You just have to be picky. Same in your own country. You wouldn't put up with it from a bloke from your own country, so why put up with it from someone just because he is Thai?

Nah. They're not all like that.

Go for it then. You are going into this eyes wide open, and your fathers wife should be a good judge of character. She chose your dad, after all!

I hope it all goes well for you.

I have just had arthroscopic surgery on my shoulder at Bumrungrad. My surgeon was Dr Panya Wongpatimachai MD. He is a great bloke and I think he has done a good job on my shoulder.

He didn't muck around either. I saw him, he told me to have an X-Ray followed by an MRI, and then he scheduled me in for surgery.

I was in overnight and started Physiotherapy two days after the operation. My sessions last for about an hour at a time.

I believe that shoulders are a very complex joint, and take the longest time to heel.

You could give him a go. I like him.

A friend of mine imports Australian beer. I know this isn't what you asked for, but I will PM you his contact details.

I have many friends living in Bali, both locals and foreigners. Not ONE of them left after the bombings there. They are getting on with their lives, but still being wary. I have many friends who were injured, and probably some acquaintances who were killed down there, but they are all just getting on with it. (One friend still works at Paddys and was lucky enough to only lose his hearing. He jokes that it's great because he doesn't have to listen to crap foreign music, or the complaining tourists!)

Another friend of mine was kidnapped by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia 10 years ago, held captive for a couple of months, made to dig his own grave, and was then killed by the bastards. It took me ages to come to terms with this, and I am only just now ready to say that I actually want to go to Cambodia. It wasn't the Cambodian people I was worried about. It was my memories of Dave coming back to haunt me and I didn't want to spend weeks there crying over the waste of his life.

It's not the muslim religion that is doing this. It's fanatics. No matter what religion you prefer, there will always be fanatics. Religion isn't important in this thing. I have many muslim friends, both here in Thailand, Indonesia and in Australia. They are all lovely people and would give you the shirt off their backs if you needed it. I find it so unfair that this current trouble is 'muslim V buddhist'. Neither religion is violent. It's the people that carry out the violence.

The terrorism threats in the south, and indeed in the rest of the whole world, are not going to stop me from traveling anywhere. If we all stop traveling, they have won their game.

Don't let them win. Keep on traveling. Exercise caution and be alert where you feel the need to do so, but live your life. To quote an old proverb: You could be hit by a bus tomorrow. And Neil Young: It's better to burn out, than it is to rust.

It's your life. Live it. (Is that an ad?)

Definitely the 25th.

What happened on the 24th? Wasn't Mary in labour? Not much reason to celebrate.

Unless I have forgotten all the nuns religious instruction from when I was a kid...

There are a couple of farang nursing staff at Bumrungrad apparently. You can also pick up some outside private work for companies sending people over on plastic surgery tours.

One company I know of has a guy working for them and pays him about 15K a month just to do outside work.

Not bad if you can get it. Bumrungrad, BNH and Samitivej have websites you can check on also.

Good Luck.

Same to you, Kan Win.

Your photographs are absolutely stunning. Are they on a website anywhere? I'd love to see more!

Ahhh, Scampy. So sweet!

I think you should just exercise the same caution you would with any guy at home.

The language barrier CAN cause problems, as I found out from experience. I speak reasonable Thai, but learning to express all of your emotions is really difficult. Also, if you want to have any deep and meaningful conversations, it makes it a bit hard at times. But, if you really like this guy and think that it is worth it, then GO FOR IT! Learn the language and practice it at every opportunity you have.

Not all Thai men are butterflies. I was involved with one guy who was a real prick. He cheated on me and was really horrible. But then I met a lovely man. Treated me like a princess and would do anything for me.

I ended up breaking off with the second one for a few reasons. One of them was that he expected me to make all the decisions in the relationship. I think that a relationship is a partnership and decisions should be made together. He wanted everything I wanted, which to some may seem like a dream, but he didn't oppose anything at all, which made me think that he couldn't think for himself. He didn't have much ambition so if we were together and I became pregnant and had to stop work, we would struggle. There were many other reasons such as our views on raising children and such, but ultimately he is a gem of a man and would make some lucky girl very happy. I speak to him often and we are good friends but that's about as much as it will be now.

I'm not telling you this to offload my story and have you feel that this is the way it will be for you, but just sharing with you the things that can come up.

Get to know him as best you can and remember that any relationship is a two way street. He should be accepting some responsibility too and it should not always be you doing the calling. Let him call you sometimes too. Is he learning to speak English? Time will tell you whether he is a good man or not.

You only live once. I think that too many of us 'think too much' (to quote 60 million Thais) and don't live for the moment. If you feel good about it today, then why think about problems that MIGHT occur tomorrow?

Good luck and let us know how it is going.

One of my friends told me I should ask for a kuay bpun...so I did. Bugger that k and g. They're too close.

Anyway, the chef in the kitchen (or is that in the chicken?) came out wanting who wanted to gin kuay!

Never did go back there again!

Well, after a few weeks of thinking I WOULD, in fact, have to leave Thailand, I think I've scored myself a new job today! So, I won't need to think of living anywhere else for some time yet!

Not 100% yet, but I think I'm gonna get a nice Christmas present on Friday!

Yay!

I'm a Melbourne girl and would consider going back there, but Perth is the next best option if Melbourne wasn't a goer.

I would definitely choose Bali over Australia, though. I will always consider myself Australian, but can't see myself living there for the rest of my life. Nice place to visit, but I lived there for over 30 years, and that's enough (for now anyway).

Never say never.

Well, Boris, you can go there safely. Your mate was too lazy to reply to my email and I would hate to have you surrounded by other peoples kids (who are all between 10 and 16 I might add).

Baah humbug, Boris.

Eeeeew!

For me it would have to be a Dutch guy who I came across in Sumatra. We were crammed into a coaster bus from Padang to Lake Toba. About 13 hours in all I think. He had this stupid stick thing and had to disrupt the whole bus to put the thing on the top luggage rack and told everyone not to touch it as he got it from Siberut Island and it was very special to him.

I was sitting up the back chatting to the bus staff, listening to crappy Diana Ross songs (the locals tape, my walkman - just want to clarify that) and making the best of the long journey.

We got off for lunch, and I proceeded to get some great Sumatran food. He asked me what I was eating and I told him what it was. He proceeded to tell me what crap I was eating and that I should eat nasi goreng! I told him to shove his nasi boring right up his clack.

He then proceeded to tell me that whilst on Siberut Island he felt so good because he donated all of his medical kit to the local indigenous people. I was feeling like a bit of a stirrer at this stage because he had been driving me crazy with his loud voice and carry on, so I asked him why he donated this kit. He told me that so many people died every year from diarrhea (spelling) and that we should all give them immodium and all of our pain killers such as panadol. I don't feel that this is necessary, and most indigenous people don't react well to this sort of medication because they have never had it before. And they also have natural cures for such problems (God, even here we do).

I did not go to Siberut Island, but I told him that I did not feel that we should be donating such things as they have the potential to harm them more than anything because they will be used in wrong quantities etc.

The guy drove me crazy with his 'world knowledge', slagging off of any nationality if you weren't Dutch, and I was glad to wake him up at 4am when I was leaving for the next part of my journey just to say goodbye to him.

Oh yeah. He left that ###### stick on the bus, too. And didn't we all know about it!

Why not try Sai Kaew Resort on Ko Samet? It's really nice there. I work in the travel industry and take family groups there all the time. The beach is safe, not as many men with their 'Thai girlfriends' there, and they have excursions to offer you.

They have 2 bedroom family units, too, which is probably cheaper than getting two rooms. TV for the kids, really clean, great bathrooms, lovely staff, and the best breakfast in Thailand (big call, I know).

You can look and book on the web http://www.aopraoresort.com

I know a few Thais that smoke, but not too many. I have certainly smelt it down Khao San Rd. A few guys I know up north smoke. Lots.

A few I know in the Sth do as well.

But I have seen very few really stoned people.

I think that the ones that DO smoke do it in a conservative manner. Most of the guys I know that do it do it in private, not in front of their guests (unless the guests want some too!). Come to think of it, some friends on Ph Ngan are big smokers. At times their whole guesthouse is full of people smoking.

So, to answer your question. Yes.

Yeah. My friends wife is a cop. She does mainly stuff in the police station and goes out to schools and stuff like that.

No tight uniform though.

So many people on TV complain and whine about the things that really piss them off about living here. But what do you really love about Thailand?

As for me:

I love the weather.

I love that the Thai's get into Christmas even though it isn't their religion.

I love it when the taxi drivers sing to me.

I love the Thai kids I take to eat ice-cream every week or so after school.

I love my Thai friends.

I love the mai pen rai attitude.

I love the way that Thai's are happy to share anything with you.

I love going to the temple.

I love the way my friends go to the fortune teller in the middle of the day for no real reason.

I love the way that if I go to a friends village and we decide to do some sightseeing, it seems the WHOLE village will pile into the back of the car and come along for the ride too.

I love the fact that my ex-laundry lady still really cares about my welfare.

I love yum pla duk foo.

I love the smiles.

I love the fact that I am never short of a rubber band.

My brother had a thing on his lip which was a bit of a scabby thing. He kept on picking at it but it didn't disappear. Eventually he went to the Dr and he took a biopsy.

It ended up being Squamous Cell Carcinoma. This is the second most dangerous, after Melanoma and before Basal Cell.

He was told that he had to go in for 'urgent' surgery and in the public health system in Australia that was about 6 weeks later. In that 6 weeks, he had another 7 pop up on the inside of his mouth.

He went into hospital and had a 'V' shaped chunk taken out of his bottom lip. After many consulations with the Dr he was advised that he had to have his entire bottom lip removed.

Sounds gross, but with the excellent procedures available today, they did a 'lip shave' where they cut off the whole lower lip, and then they drag the skin from the inside of his mouth over to form a new lip.

Now, he has a slight scar under his lip which goes down to the 'dippy' part of the chin, and he feels very little effects as a result of his surgery.

Every 6 months he goes to the Dr for a check-up and so far so good.

This must run in my family as I have had basal cell and so has my older sister.

Keep an eye on anything that you notice, and if the Dr doesn't know what it is, you can just get him to cut it off. Better to be safe than sorry I reckon.

here's the thing...if you like the service and intend to come back, tip big.  if you thought the food and service was pretty ordinary and don't expect to come back, just leave a token sum, like coins or 20 bt max.

i learnt something recently from an old gentleman that really changed my perspective on tipping.  he said, "never be stingy to those who serve you, because they have so little, and the money really means nothing to you.  always find opportunities to be generous and you will find life much easier".  i thought about it and i find it true.  the old gentleman lives a such graceful life, surrounded by friends and staff who genuinely respect him.  waiters and service people at restaurants and hotels that he frequents are always attentive and eager to please and generally go out of the way for the most menial things.  we spend so much of our lives kicking and screaming and combating people, if we were to be actively generous instead, sure some people will exploit it, who cares, but most will appreciate and reciprocate.  okay i'll just shut up now. 

Here here!

Tightasses should be banned. Full stop.

Share a little and you will get a lot more in return. Life's too short to be stingy about everything every day of your life. Where's your spirit? It's Christmas for gods sake. (OK, I know that the majority of Thais are Buddhist, but SOME of them aren't). And the Akha people selling stuff in Bangkok are mainly Christian, so they would love a little extra to take home to their families when they go. Have a heart.