Gsxrnz

Welcome to TV. Just keep your wits about you and you'll do well. Thailand is a great place and ignore all the naysayers a la the post above this one (but keep half an ear open because some of them do have valid points but they express them in such a polarised manner), live your life and make the most of it.

And always have a get of Dodge plan as well......as regards the naysaying...are you inferring what I was talking has never happened in Thailand or even Isaan to farang ?

Dont you think its better getting into something knowing the possible pit falls, than having the rosey spectacles on at all times ?

The key point being...dont leave your common sense head at the airport on the way in and always use the head on your shoulders to think, not the one in your trousers...

Nuh, I was implying nothing of the sort. In fact I find myself in agreement with many of your points of view in this thread and many others. My advice to the OP was to keep his wits about him and to ignore naysayers, while half listening to them because they do have valid points and advice about life and living in Thailand.

If I was implying anything at all, it's be wary of anybody that has overly polarised views about any subject because their view is often skewed by an overly negative or an overly positive experience, or outlook. The two personality extremes could be cynical and gullible. Somebody with a balanced view is able to take the good from the bad, the bad from the good and offer a balanced critique or advice, highlighting the pitfalls and benefits.

Just to further agree with you - here's my very own personal polarised view that applies in every country in the world and every conceivable personal relationship, be they son, daughter, wife, brother or sister. The key thing being ANY COUNTRY IN THE WORLD. I will never buy a house or car or motorbike for anybody. And if I ever did build a house, buy a car for my loved one and it all goes pear shaped, you have no reason to complain unless they put a gun to your head and forced you to build it or buy it in the first place. You weren't robbed, you gave money to somebody to buy an asset in their name. The rights of complaint were lost the minute you put your hand in your pocket, extracted the cash and handed it over, regardless of the relationship.

I enrolled the uni at the age of 16 (just a few month before my 17th birthday) and finished it at the age of 22. I am 29 y o now. Reasons why I moved to Pattaya, why I am builiding my career here - my diploma is connected to travel industry.

If you or your pals did't get a Master Degree on that age does not mean nobody can. Don't consider anything breaking your stereotype is fake

I can meet you in person in Pattaya and show you my original diploma with my passport together, if you agree to pay a 100 euro for this entertainment. lol

So you enrolled in uni at 16, highly doubtful. 18 is normally the minimum age unless you have a genius pedigree and then you find a uni that has a junior enrollment program for gifted people. That is also not likely, and a tourism connected course is not normally what a uni would expect a super gifted junior to enroll into. When you finish your bachelors, you trying to tell us that you did your masters which is normally reserved for people wishing to teach that particular subject at college level.

Then you say you achieved all this by the time you are 21?

lol.... you must think we just stepped off the banana boat. Why not show your so called diploma for free? Why do you need to put a 100 Euro obstacle in place before agreeing to confirm your story? I am happy to show my qualifications for free to anyone who cares to see them.

Then after all this genius status that you have under your belt, you are still non the wiser for how to look for a girl in a country you have supposidly lived for 7 years?

Pull the other one, its got bells on it.

Ummm....talking from experience with regard to my oldest son. He entered Uni in NZ at 17, turned 18 in April of his 1st year - just a quirk of the schooling system as he got bumped up a class in his primary school and always stayed a year ahead. Did his BA in 3 years and an Honours degree in his 4th year, but got so many cross credits from extramural courses he took in the 1st 3 years that he could have actually combined the Honours year with a Masters year and completed it in one year. He got lazy (discovered girls) and only did the Honours. So in theory, he could have come out with a Masters at the age of 21, nearly 22.

Maybe the OP comes from a country that has different education systems to yours? The age limit in NZ is 16 provided you achieve the necessary entrance qualifications from secondary school. Most students would traditionally enter Uni at 18, but 16 and 17 isn't unheard of.

Thought so. I guess you can't fit the 130/70/16 Rear tyre they list to the front?

It will fit the rim, but the tread pattern/direction and profile of the tyre are designed for the rear. In general you shouldn't fit a rear tyre to the front. In theory you can put the tyre on in the opposite rotation to get the tread going in the right direction. I do this on a scooter but wouldn't do it on a bigger bike.

Re going to a narrower tyre than standard on the front - can be done but not recommended if you ride hard.. A narrower tyre is also not as tall as a wider tyre. The 70 means that the height of the tyre is 70% of the tread width. So the narrower you go, the shorter they are. Not by much, but enough to make a handling difference if you push it. If you're not at the knee scraping level of riding, then it will be OK.

The front and rears are designed to be matched in profile. In racing it's common to fit a narrower than standard rear because it allows a quicker and easier "turn-in" at high speed cornering, and a quicker flick from left to right through a chicane. But generally the front is matched in profile and/or compound to make them work together.

OP - Jeez man you're probably falling over 100 suitable girls every time you go to work, walk down the street, or eat in a restaurant. And I don't necessarily mean bar girls or similar (and I have nothing at all against them), but genuine hard working girls/women that may be local or may be here visiting family, or may be here for work. Just smile and say hello - don't ASSUME they do not meet your criteria because they are in Pattaya and not wearing a business suit or driving a Mercedes.

Check out the older women (25 plus) who are in school uniform on Sundays - they're going to adult college or university but may be working in an office or hotel, who knows? They may also already have a degree or higher education.

I could introduce you to about 50 hardworking golf caddies who are begging me to find them a suitable husband. Apparently many of the Falang customers they have are just not suitable because they have either already got wives, or don't have "jai-dee". At least that shows they're selective. Many are educated but can earn more as a caddy.

Friends of my wife have children in their 20's, all studying or working. I meet friends of their friends of all ages, many desperately trying to find a good hearted Falang. They have the opposite problem to you - they aren't bar workers and don't know how to find a Falang that isn't an atypical Pattaya Falang.

Hmmm... those don't sound good for Samui roads!... Maybe on good tarmac. I think I'll keep shopping around.

You should be very careful in matching your front and rear tyres. Generally they should be the same tyre compound. A harder rider might use different matches - but that would be somebody who is pushing the envelope and knows how the bike will respond.

You need to be wary of the way your tyres handle in the wet. If you mismatch the compounds/brands they will respond differently under all riding conditions, particularly cornering. The last thing you want is vastly different compounds as it's likely that one or the other will let go unexpectedly - not just because of the different compounds but also because the tread design will move water differently. Your front might do a good job of sweeping the water but the rear may not perform as well resulting in a low-side. Can even result in unexpected aquaplaning (at speed) in a straight line if extremely different tread designs.

depends what they are there is a goood write up on the avon storm 3dx-m tyres in mcn this week these seem to be new out though so i doubt its them you have,check out www.avontyres.com to get an idea ,bridgestone make bt016 in 16" which i have fitted on my hornet,but again i know your a bit limited in options over there...so maybe impossible to get ,have you tried the contacting the big shops in bkk see if they will order in the tyre you want red baron ,dirt bike etc

Be interested to know how many klm's you get from your BT016's in this climate. In NZ I used them and loved them, great grip for track days and equally as good on the road. But the fronts were only good for 5,000 klm at best until the 2nd zone tread shredded, and the rear was good for a little more than 4,000 klm before the 2nd and 3rd zones got a bit raggedy. I was actually wearing out the outer zones before the centre of the tyre lost its shape and flat spotted.

Great tyres though, beats Pilot Power and Pilot Sport in my book any day. I only ever had Avons on a bike once and that was enough - a little unpredictable.

Here's my routine. Pull up with the rear window adjacent to the meter. Wind down both windows on the pump side. Ask the attendant if they accept credit cards "Chai credit card dai mai na kap", while waving the credit card at him/her and knowing full well that they do accept cards but do it to let them know they won't be getting cash. Tell them to fill the tank "dem tang na kap, diesel kap". Make sure they grab the diesel pump for obvious reasons. Watch the meter turning over through the rear window and eyeball the attendant (while smiling of course). When finished, read the meter, turn on the key to ensure the gauge reads full.

Pay by cash if I feel like it, despite implying I'll pay by card. Make sure you have a sufficient range of notes so that you can normally give them the right money to within 20 baht. If you do pay by larger denominations and the cash change is not a simple glance at it to make sure it's correct, tell the attendant to wait "diao gon" as he hands you the change and confirm it's correct before he walks away. Or confirm the credit card receipt with the pump meter, and Bob's your Aunty.

Sometimes I take a 20 litre drum on the back of the ute to fill up with petrol for use on the scooters. I've learned never to ask them to put diesel in the truck and petrol in the drum at the same time. It seems it's information overload. Once a second attendant took the drum to another pump and put diesel in it. So now I wait till the trucks full and then tell them to do the drum so I can see it being done.

Re this sort of scam in general, it's so easy to make it a practice to protect yourself from opportunity. If I pay for something anywhere, be it a bar, a 7/11, a roadside food stall, I hold the note/s up at the person taking the cash and look them in the eye and tell them what I'm giving them. That way they know that YOU know what the change should be. Sometimes I even tell them what the change should be. So many guys pay a 300 baht bin at a bar with a 1,000 and get change for a 500. Some try to argue the toss but rarely win, others just don't notice.

"Lets say the UK dropped their political correctness and adopted the Thai 'anything goes' attitude for just a week. There would be an uproar, probably rioting all over the country, people would likely die."

The UK wasn't always PC, Google TV shows like "Love They Neighbour" and "Mind Your Language", even "Rising Damp"

The programmes you mention (and you forgot the ultimate - Spike Milligan's "Curry and Chips"), did so much to break down racial barriers and reveal the bigoted main characters representing white English society as a whole for what they arguably then were.

The irony is that now we in the west have gone totally into overdrive with political correctness that no TV broadcaster would even consider making programmes that critique the opposite perspective. i.e. that the OTT political correctness we have today (as described by the OP) in regard to race and culture is equally as racist and bigoted as the programmes you mentioned, but from the complete opposite end of the spectrum.

That wasn't quite what the article said, but I admire your optimism.

Surely the commission increased because both price and volume of sales dropped - they had to increase commission to try and retain a comparative income.

In Pattaya/Jomtien I suspect a key reason that much of the service is crap is because the number of sellers out numbers the buyers by about 5 to 1. Not much incentive to push "your" property when there's such a huge over supply of houses and condos, with more coming on the market every day. Unless of course someone's willing to sell their property at a giveaway price as many ultimately do.

Realtors actually refer to the number of properties available for sale as "stock" and have a measurement of churn. I wonder what the local measurements here are. I strongly suspect they're abysmal.

Wow you know better than the Thai themselves !

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Have you personally seen his ID card?

If so, then I'm holding to my claim that one of the other factors is the cause of this bizarre claim.

In the meantime I'm calling BS on his claim to being Thai.

but isn't his selected forum handle hard evidence that he is Thai? who else but a Thai would use the Thinglish expression "AnotherOneAmerican"?

Hmmmm.........if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and sounds like a duck, there's a good chance it's a midget goose.

Oh OK so it's fine to stare at people constantly, ignore their "sawadika", discriminate them per race and consider our own race is superior ?

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One of us is very confused, I've never advocated for any of the above. I was responding to this:

Remind me of Thai values again ?

Last time I checked it was Money, Patriotism and Face.

Is that what we should all be working on ?

As a farang the second value is just nonsensical.

Leave us with money and face ...

And I was told to use thai grid instead of farang one ...

so I did

Boosta = are you any more enlightened by her reply? I'm not!

Had to be the white guy with the jacket and tie.

"Teacher teacher!"

Disrespectful rather than "Mr. Boosta"??

Not sure if you're posing a question or implying something I don't understand. I understood that in Thai, it's polite to address by profession, as in Kuhn Kruu, Kuhn Moh etc. Is that what you're implying?

I saw some amazing scooter ponchos in Hanoi last year and regret not buying a few while I was there. I saw some different variations such as:

One style that fitted two people with one set of arms for the driver and an extra hood for the passenger. Poncho went right around the whole seat area.

One that went right over the front of the bike with clear plastic for the headlight - seemed to be custom made and domed onto the front faring.

One that seemed oversized with a clear panel in the front for a kid to sit totally inside the poncho but with vision.

Several varieties that seemed to be fixed to the bike in some way that made them much more waterproof than the ones we see here.

All of them seemed to be really well made and of much better/heavier quality material than the 7/11 specials.

I have one of the Vietnamese ones- the type that doesn't go over the bike, and it's excellent. It's really quite heavy and doesn't blow about. Even in pouring rain I stay completely dry. Bit of a faff about to get on and off, but worth the hassle. I was trying to get the full bike one with the head light plastic, but left it too late and couldn't find one before flying out.

If anyone is planning a trip to Vietnam I would definitely recommend hunting one down,

I agree, they looked really great and well made. The only thing I noticed in Vietnam was that 99% of bikes don't have mirrors so not sure how they would fit.

I asked the concierge at my Hanoi hotel why most bikes didn't have mirrors - his answer was "in Vietnam, always have something behind you, why you want to look at it?". Good answer I thought. Also, the parking guys on every street corner can ram twice as many scooters into their allotted space without mirrors.

I saw some amazing scooter ponchos in Hanoi last year and regret not buying a few while I was there. I saw some different variations such as:

One style that fitted two people with one set of arms for the driver and an extra hood for the passenger. Poncho went right around the whole seat area.

One that went right over the front of the bike with clear plastic for the headlight - seemed to be custom made and domed onto the front faring.

One that seemed oversized with a clear panel in the front for a kid to sit totally inside the poncho but with vision.

Several varieties that seemed to be fixed to the bike in some way that made them much more waterproof than the ones we see here.

All of them seemed to be really well made and of much better/heavier quality material than the 7/11 specials.

I have seen this, but have no idea what it is about. The OP is not completely mad or drug-addled as some are accusing.

Thank you Slip--at least someone else has witnessed this phenomena and has the balls to say so. I thought I was losing my mind

That's assuming you're both not sharing the same hallucination of course?!

I wonder if it's to slow them down or prevent them from fighting - a bottle around the neck would certainly make either activity a bit more difficult. Was the bottle hanging vertically or was it a la the St. Bernard theory hanging horizontally?

Do you think (scientifically speaking) that the bottle is tied in such a way that it would prevent the dog from licking its balls? Now that would be just cruel and I suggest you call the Thai equivalent of the SPCA.

Were all the dogs male? We need more details as all speculation thus far is purely (and oddly enough), speculative.

There is a certain uniqueness to Thailand (and possibly some other SE Asian countries), that make a subjective or even an objective assessment of "poverty" extremely difficult. Comparing it to a perceived poverty line in the west is not logical in my view.

The Thai culture is somewhat unique in the support of the immediate and extended family. This is something that we in the west have great difficulty in understanding or appreciating. There is a levelling that occurs in the economically poor sector of Thai society that means very few get (or are allowed to get) to the stage where they are truly homeless and/or starving. Wealth is redistributed by the family itself to ensure hardship is minimised to a point that the poverty line is not reached. If a Thai does get to the point where they are literally living under a bridge, are unkempt and begging, then this would often appear to be the result of alcohol/drug abuse or psychological issues that the family can not or will not assist with. I define poverty as the inability to maintain the lower level of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.

Ironically, even the poorest Thai also seems to achieve much of the second, third and fourth level of needs just because they are Thai and the way that Thai society functions. All this despite any real wealth or income, even by Thai standards.

There's a bloke up my Soi that sells bottles of petrol. Lives in a tin shanty that's maybe 3 metres by 2 metres built on public land at the side of the soi. It has a bed platform, and all his meagre possessions are in there. He's always clean and well dressed, always has a smile and is great for a laugh. He has a granddaughter visit occasionally for a few days, has friends up and down the soi that he always visits and half his customers wave to him from 100 metres away and fill up themselves and leave the baht. He has the odd drink,always has food, pops away for a day or two now and then (dunno where too), and often has a mini party with the local taxi drivers. I'm sure we all know or have seen people like this in all parts of Thailand.

By any western standards he is well below any kind of poverty line in the strictest sense. If you applied a Standard of Living measurement, then also well below the west and any of us would baulk at his living conditions. If you apply an arbitrary "Quality of Life" measurement, I would say he'd be well up there in the top percentile.

http://www.google.co.nz/url?sa=i&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=oyOtiOjIpFhDOM&tbnid=PQ7uncv8K58y8M:&ved=0CAgQjRwwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fweemanbradley.blogspot.com%2F&ei=E8O6UeOWHYywiQfUqoDgBA&psig=AFQjCNH-5qV7_xoRWZHZr-dEYPWo2nwTZw&ust=1371280531518471

Having a poker night at my place tonight.......hope I'm not considered a criminal worthy of the attention of the BIB!

I'm thinking when it rains, I don't need the water, so I would have to put one or two really large tanks under

ground. I'm thinking 5-10K liters (total) ... I have no idea how long that would last. Bus cost wise, it's the

same as pumping the water from the well (ok, almost). So what would be the justification for this ?

5K-10K litres isn't much water if you're going to be using it for irrigation - that would only be about 1 week or so of watering for 1/2 rai of well maintained lawns & gardens.

I'd say not worth it.

This is very interesting!

I have estimated if I harvest all my rainwater runoff about 20K L per year and would invest 10,000 baht for a 10K L tank installation, it would take about thirty (30!) years for the investment to start making profit financially. This is based on potentially reducing my current water bill by using 20K L of rainwater per year for flushing toilets and running a washing machine, as well as assuming that the current water prices will stay the same.

Of course if prices increase or one has already some infrastructure in place, than it would be a different matter.

Doesn't sound like your numbers there have factored in the cost to run, or buy (and replace another 2 times in 30 years) a pump?

I can't see any way such a system could be cost effective - however, if your mains supply isn't reliable that might be a good reason to do something like this

No the idea is definitely not cost effective - so since we're in Thailand it's the perfect thing to do.

Was he packing a sidearm?