donna

i bought my Mongoose from super sports. cost me about 13,000 all up, down from around 20,000, and i love it.

you get what you pay for.

in high season, there are a few companies who do charters our of europe. there isnt anything stopping the big chinese/asian groups from doing this too.

To be fair, there are a lot more men in Thailand with a chip on a shoulder in regards to western woman than the other way round. Most of this bitterness from the men seems to stem from the fact that western women don't give them the attention that they now feel like they deserve -i.e. the attention they get from Thai women in the entertainment spots of Thailand.

I wouldn't say that the attitude of the woman in the OP is typical, but it does seem that a lot of western women are a little bit cynical about western men in Thailand - mind you, so are a lot of their fellow men.

think you hit the nail on the head there garro.

im not sure if that information is accurate. i was fired by a former employer for no real reason (they said they didnt want a foreigner in the job any more, and went on to hire a malaysian - go figure - racism at its worst, but thats a whole different thread i guess) and i took them to court and won.

the payout was definitely NOT 3-4 months per year worked. in an ideal situation, you should get 1 month in lieu of notice, if no notice was given, and then on top of that you get severance in accordance to the below, which has been taken from an english translation of the Thai labour law:

Section 118.

A boss shall pay compensation to an employee whose employment has been terminated as follows:

• (l)An employee who has worked consecutively for a full one hundred and twenty days but less than one full year shall be paid not less than thirty days the last wage rate or not less than the wages for the last thirty days of work in respect of an employee who is paid a wage on a piece work basis.

• (2)An employee who has worked consecutively for one full year but not a full three years shall be paid at least an amount equivalent to ninety days’ pay at his or her most recent wage rate or not less than the wages earned for the last ninety days of work in respect of an employee who is paid a wage on te basis of piece work.

• (3)An employee who has worked consecutively for a full three years but not a full six years shall be paid an amount at least equivalent to one hundred and eighty days’ pay at his or her most recent wage rate, or not less than the wages earned for the last one hundred and eighty days of work in respect of an employee who is paid a wage on the basis of piece work.

• (4)An employee who has worked consecutively for a full six years but not a full ten years shall be paid an amount equivalent to at least two hundred and forty days’ pay at his or her most recent wage rate or not less than the wages earned for the last two hundred and forty days of work in respect of an employee who is paid a wage on the basis of piece work.

• (5)An employee who has worked consecutively for a ten full years or more shall be paid an amount equivalent to at least three hundred days at his or her most recent wage rate, or not less than the wages for the last three hundred days of work in respect of an employee who is paid a wage on the basis of piece work.

guys, zaza is a woman. not a bloke.

zaza is one hot mama.

i think that he doesnt necessarily need to have anything, zaza. just the fact that he is there may be enough.

you are gorgeous anyway, and dont need to have to deliver coffee with a smile to get a bloke.

thats great news pete. positive thinking will get you a long way!

-Patong is also world-renowned for its exotic nightlife

oh dear....i think i actually wrote that about a hotel i used to work at in Patong!

actually, i am going to thrash nobody.

but i will repeat that as soon as these little digs go over the top, this thread will be closed and warnings issued.

please be nice folks.

come on huggybear. please stop nit picking.

read the post above yours which is directly related to the topic, and makes some excellent points.

remember it was TOURISMS biggest lies, not THAILANDS.

ok folks, this is not going to turn into yet another bash the thai thread. the OP was referring to tourisms biggest lies, and used 'eco' as an example. i will leave your racist posts above, but if there are any more such comments posted, warnings will be issued.

please keep it on topic and nice.

i cant believe some people are so silly to fall for this (if they didnt fall for it, why bother sending it out in the first place right?).

so this person went to an internet cafe and just happened to put your email address in? no mates?

sheesh

i would say around 3-4 metres to be honest. you do need some 'swing' in there too or its no fun.

i agree with the eco thing. the problem is that in asia, or many parts of the world for that matter, there are not enough controls for this kind of thing. when a hotel can call itself 5 star without any qualifications from any 'hotel body' or whatever, then the road is wide open to call themselves 'eco', 'geo', 'boutique' or any other trendy term that is valid at the time.

i used to work for a company whose big catch phrase was 'responsible travel' but the reality was that the bigger the company got, the less they seemed to care about employees, about the people who were providing them with accommodation and tours, and the environment in general.

there are way too many lies in the tourism industry and eco is certainly one of them.

but if i were in the situation that GuestHouse mentions, i think i would do as Boo would do, and be polite, but invite no further conversation or company.

Boo who.... Boo who....... lighten up and stop crying...it's just a forum.....

lighten up about what, dingdongrb? nobody is crying here. merely answering the question of the OP.

ok. well i went out for a lovely dinner with a married Thai Visa member. lets call him 'X'. X did not want to take his wife with him to the dinner, as it was a 7 course job and she doesnt appreciate western food. X's wife knew that we were going together, and there was certainly nothing more to it. X's wife and i know each other.

it was funny, as many people at the dinner asked if X was my husband. i just laughed and said "no, his wife is at home minding the dogs".

im not sure how people would have misinterpreted the 'relationship' but i dont really care either.

but if i were in the situation that GuestHouse mentions, i think i would do as Boo would do, and be polite, but invite no further conversation or company.

those two guys are incredibly lovely people. i went to their place a couple of times and had a great time. their food was good, they had good wine, and they are both excellent hosts.

if the drunken monkey has indeed closed down, i hope that they are able to open elsewhere. either way, i wish them luck.

i really liked the above post until i read the 'idiot' comment. please do try to keep this lovely thread on topic and refrain from name calling. big sister IS watching, people

glad to see you make it back safe and sound flamingtodd.

i used to go to cut and curl, and gave them a lot of chances. they stuffed up my hair so badly that i had to wait months for it to grow out. thats why i ended up with west one.

gosh, some of you have had some terrible experiences. i lived in thailand for over 8 years and never had the trouble that some of you have had. the one time i was spied on in the shower was by a western bloke in sukothai.

i have never been hassled in a taxi, and used to have some pretty outrageous conversations with some of the drivers. i traveled alone a lot and was never hassled.

maybe i just have a 'dont f%&$ with me" look about me?

thanks sir burr. bang wad. yeah thats it. (think i need to eat more fish or something?)

very beautiful around there. the people living there are really nice and the area is just so lovely. only 6km around, and the flora changes on the way around. there is even a little waterfall half way around (which is strewn with rubbish from people washing their cars and dumping their crap everywhere).

i used to cycle around the lake in kathu often. the area there is beautiful and there is LOTS of wildlife to be seen. i rarely saw anyone else when cycling around there, and always saw some kind of wildlife.

i must be getting old. what is the name of the lake again?

phuket is a beautiful island. it has the best of both worlds for most people who live there.

i can see how the older thai man that LivinLOS got worked up, though. if i were a local, i guess it would break my heart to see the way that parts of it have gone, but then again, thats just progress and it will happen anywhere.

i can remember when i was a kid in melbourne, my street was a dirt road and we had blue tongue lizards and goannas in the backyard. now its suburbia.

the more people there are in the world, the more they are gonna spread. its a fact of life, like it or not.