rsokolowski

What he is saying is that if the beaches suck the large number of tourists will not come. All of the other issues just compound the problem.

A friend of mine from San Diego visited Thailand for the first time this year. He was traveling with Thai and also American expats. He loved Thailand, but hated Phuket. He said it was crowded, dirty, smelled bad, expensive, and the beaches were nothing special.

You only get one chance to make a first impression......

I tell people to visit southern Thailand, but to avoid Phuket.

You can bring $800 dollars worth of goods per person into the USA duty free. Anything over $800 (per person) and you will have to pay duty on. So, as long as you have 32 people in your family (and they are traveling with you) you could bring 40 baht worth of gold into the USA duty free.

Go to the Crazy Elephant Bar on Clark Quay, for really good live music. There are also many seafood restaurants along there to get something to eat. Music starts at about 8 P.M. (I think). You can do a google search of "crazy elephant youtube" and get an idea of the type of music (blues/rock).

Plenty of shopping.

Prostitution is a choice.

And not something which is "forced on poor victimized women", as political correctness teaches you.

Sometimes it is, sometimes it is not. Human trafficking and human slavery still occurs.

See a doctor and get an expert referral.

Another reason I don't buy Martin was this vulnerable child insinuation is because, I have heard and wanted to find some confirmation, is that 17 year olds commit a disproportionately amount of the violents crimes in the US.

Article addressing a reason why 17 year olds should be tried as adults

"is important because offenders aged 16-24 account for 37 percent of arrests for violent crime in the United States and North Carolina. Data show that serious violent crime peaks during the late teenage years and declines steadily as individuals move into their late

20s. Moreover, although 15- to 19-year-olds represent approximately seven percent of the total US population, they account for more than 20 percent of all violent crimes in the United States."

http://www.familyimpactseminars.org/s_ncfis03c01.pdf

Sorry, but based on what I have heard, and the jury did not hear, Martin was a 6'2" wannabe thug with a bad attitude. He was not some innocent 12 year old child skipping home with a hand full of skittles.

Trayvon had no history with guns, no history of violence, no history of gang membership or association, no history of being an aggressive personality, was a respectable student in school with a very good attendance record, wanted to be a pilot.

I stand by what I said.

Show me his police record. Show me the proof he was a member of a gang. Show me he was a troubled youth or adolescent. And why should anyone demand Treyvon be a perfect model of an adolescent? Let's be fair and let's be reasonable, even tho that is not the purpose of the gang of posters here so I suppose I'm talking to the wall on this point.

Did you ever write graffiti? I have. Many people have, in different situations and circumstances. When did scrawling graffiti become a felony crime?

Trevon Martin had a clean record.

These vile attempts to defame the deceased are, moreover, shameless.

The fact remains George Zimmerman should have respected the advice from the 911 advisor and not followed Trayvon. The fact is Zimmerman should have stayed in the car. But he pursued. What's a young black kid supposed to think when he has a strange looking weirdo following him, eyeballing him, suspecting him?

Zimmerman is the gunman.

What is a young black kid supposed to do when a strange looking weirdo is following him, eyeballing him, and suspecting him (whatever that means)?

How about calling the police and tell them that someone is following you and looks suspicious. Maybe Trayvon would still be alive if he had done that.

Gi555'

Why do you deny the truth that surfaced in the Trial, Zimmerman was a trained MMA fighter he attended more than 156 sessions on MMA tactics and fighting.That is fact, His trainer said he was wimpy anyone can be brave holding a gun, and not everyone tells the truth.

He tried to bully Trayvon and show off his newly acquired MMA talent and was bested by a 17 year old boy, 38 lbs lighter than he with none of the MMA training was the one that the defense witnesses say that Trayvon was doing the grounding and pounding, they lied to save Zimmerman, Plain and simple, Nothing has changed in the Jim Crow south where a Black American was shot to death by a man that profiled him, followed him and shot him. You blood and guts backers of Zimmerman, never took into account Trayvon also had a right to self defense in the state of Florida.

Lost B.S. a battle but not the war!

Get over it, not by a long shot only when Zimmerman has paid his debt for the killing of Trayvon, by whatever means.

Cheers:

Great points. Except there was absolutely zero evidence (the fact that are needed during a trial) produced during the case that George Zimmerman did anything but call the police and follow the suspicious person (neither are illegal). The witnesses testimony did not support the supposition that George Zimmerman assaulted Trayvon Martin. Except for the bullet wound that killed him, Trayvon had no other injuries or anything to suggest that the fight was initiated by George Zimmerman.

It is possible that all the witnesses are lying, but all the evidence shows Trayvon Martin attacking George Zimmerman. It is your personal opinion and nothing more that leads you to believe who started the attack.

In any case the fight proceeded to a point were one of the participants feared for his life and defended himself. This is not my opinion, it is the opinion of the jury members that heard the evidence presented during the trial.

Chicog Thanks..... Where did you get your gadget? And how much? RSokolowski I saw an Alpine yesterday with Bluetooth.......but 6500 baht. As I never would use a radio or a disc player I don't see the need to spend that much.

Alpine makes a unit without a disk for 20 USD less. I opted for the disk just in case I ever need it, almost all my music is on my Ipod touch but some music is still only available on disk. Hard to buy a car stereo without a tuner.

I was just suggesting some options, good luck with your search for a something that meets your needs.

The answer should be never. I have lived in Hawaii since 1982 and I have embraced many aspects of the culture, lifestyle, and food. Although I have lived here for many years and have many Hawaiian friends I would never consider myself to be something that I am not and cannot ever be.

^{Buy a new car stereo. Many of the new models are bluetooth capable and you can answer your phone by pressing a button on your car stereo and then talk hands free. I just bought an Alpine car stereo that is bluetooth/ipod capable for $118 (USD), ~3500 baht (another $60 usd for install). I can play music from my Ipod touch via bluetooth or via USB on the front of the unit. Now this was in Hawaii not Thailand, but I was amazed at what you can get in a car stereo for a very low price. I have not bought a car stereo in over ten years and the technology has advanced considerably since then.}

If you are going to have multiple Thai girlfriends at the same time I would definitely heed the advice regarding kitchen knives and also make sure that there are no ducks in the vicinity.

I would recommend flying the day before and staying in the vicinity of the airport, plenty of nice inexpensive options. If you get there early enough you could take the skytrain into BKK for shopping and dinner.

Check out "Baht and Sold" lots of boats, you have to look for good deals. A lot of the boats seem overpriced and in need of new motors, but there are some that are very good deals.

Check the Agoda website.

Don't buy real estate.

Have been stopped by some police and asked for tea money (2000 baht), but it is not common and I have dealt with honest police officers much more often.

Political corruption may be worse in Thailand, but I am not so sure. With the union influence and lobbyists to government, I think it may just be more tidy in the USA (and the west) than in Thailand.

Something to also consider is that moving together may mean different things to an expat and to a Thai girl. To the expat it is like it would be in the west, just a couple moving in together sharing expenses and living together. To many Thai women moving in together has more meaning, and can be thought of as more like marriage. Just something to thing about, I think this is one of the reasons that some Thai women may get possessive and insecure during this type of arrangement. They think they are in a long term (marriage-like) relationship, but you think you are just boyfriend and girlfriend.

Just my opinion and I have been married to a Thai woman for 20 years and still going strong.

I have been doing this for the last month on my Samsung Exhibit 4G smartphone in rural Thailand, work pretty well. Forget about trying to stream video though, but everything else works OK.

Apple and cherry are good woods for smoking fish. Mesquite and hickory are too strong in my opinion especially for salmon. The absolute best wood for smoking salmon is alder, and the brine is a very important part of the process. Great information on some of the local tropical woods.

I have visited Phuket half a dozen times since 1992. To me it is no longer somewhere I would consider for a vacation, or recommend to friends. For me it has collapsed as a tourist destination, it must be my fault.

Some good some bad. We have been pulled over for speeding (we were not) and had to pay 200 baht "fine" (no receipt obviously). My brother in law had to pee in a bottle at a check point (he is very thin, high strung, but does not drink or use drugs), and they let us move through.

In the United States in New Jersey it is illegal to pump your own gas (not sure why, but it is New Jersey). A person I used to work with said that when he was a kid he worked in a gas station and would short change people and pocket the change for extra spending money on the weekends. This is not just a Thailand scam, but something to be aware of whenever someone fills your tank in any country. Good info though, knowledge prevents scams like these from occurring.

I bought a french press, and we brought two bags of starbuck's dark roast coffee for our month long visit to Thailand. I wake up in Buriram to a strong cup of black coffee each morning.

I first went to Phuket in 1992 and liked the place, especially Karon and Kata beaches. The last time I was there was 2002, and I hated it. Beach encroachment at Kata had gotten so bad it was difficult to find a way to the beach. Haven't been back since, it is not what I am looking for on a tropical island.

A friend of mine recently visited Thailand for the first time, and also visited Phuket. He hated it, said it was dirty, trash everywhere, and polluted.

Phuket has become somewhere that I would never recommend a friend visit. There are much better beach destinations in Thailand, why was your time in a tourist trap.