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notbritish
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Posts posted by notbritish
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I am perfectly happy living this way and It is almost impossible to get a comfortable room for 5,000 baht per month or a healthy 30 baht meal back home in Farangland.
You can't in thailand. the 5k baht a month rooms are non-livable. There's usualy no AC or a germ infested 50 year old AC. The mattress is less comfortable than a park bench, the cockroaches and rats are not clean and the neighbor are noisy. The 30baht food is infested with MSG sugars/oils and pesticide infected veggies.
In farangland as you say, you can get the same crappy room in a ghetto, about 10sqm and you can eat your 30baht meals at mcdonalds or any chicken fastfood place. Dried noodles provide cheap non-nutritive meals as well.
Hell i have visited homeless shelters in my country and the people living there have better lives/healt than the farang who are happy with their 5k baht a month rooms and street food. They also make more than them by begging.
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ok so the north bound lanes were backed up and you did a u turn to the southbound lane which wasn't backed up and the guy hit you while he was using the southbound lane to go north over the traffic instead of slowing making his way through the traffic? Then he had it coming.
Makes more sense, but you might be an other accident, the one i witnessed(from the picture) happened in the middle of the afternoon and from the angle it was someone getting out of the gas station, doing a u turn from the fast lane to the north bound lanes, the angles are all wrong, you need 2 lanes to turn and be facing the way you are in the picture.
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I think the idea that 'farang' comes from the fact that Thai people were copying what the French called themselves ie. Francais becoming farangset, has an obvious flaw.
Vowels in French are not pronounced the same as they are in English. The 'an' in Francais is pronounced with what can be described in English terms as a kind of rounded 'oh' sound which would, if the story were true, result in the Thai version being 'falohng' which it definitely isn't.
I think the story about the French being the first foreigners to come to Thailand and speak with 'the natives' and before that, they had no concept of 'whitey' and therefore no word to describe them/us is unlikely to be true.
The similarities to other languages words for white foreigners would seem to support that.
Apologies for straying off topic
hmm no.
An is AN. could sound as "aen" with very little emphasis on the N but it certaintely does not sound anywhere close to anything with "o" in it
Farangset's pronounciation is very close to Francais and farang as well.
People using Falong, are simply weirdos whom might be looking for attention by mispronouncing words on purpose. Even bargirls dont use 'falong'
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Yet Gasoline is about the same in Thailand as it is here??? Makes me wonder
Still, something like 1/3 the price of petrol in London.
True & I often wonder how anyone can afford to drive in Europe
Yet by the same token seeing gas the same in Thailand & USA yet the wages in Thailand what they are
makes me realize there is a good reason why so many drive scooters there.
A gallon of gasoline in Turkey is about $9 US. And in Haiti, the average family spends 40% of their income on fuel--mostly for motorcycles. Gas is more expensive in Thailand than in the US by a bit, but in both places, it is cheaper than in anywhere in Europe I have driven.
I find that overall, most things that I, as a Westerner buy, is more expensive in Thailand than in the US. Notable exceptions are medical care, chicken, and the ability to buy a cheap dinner (I don't see any US counterpart to streetfood at Thai prices.)
I am not in Thailand for the cost-of-living. I am here for work, but even without my work, when I retire, I plan on living large chunks of my time here, sort of like how BEENTHEREDONETHAT has worked it out. I like it here as it suits my personality, but I also like the US.
Right now gas is 47 baht a liter in Canada.. its expected to hit 60baht soo.
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Im pretty sure i can compile a list of things that are cheaper here in Thailand. Just face it Thailand is cheaper if you don't want European style products and adapt a bit to the local lifestyle.
If you want to live like an American / European in Thailand your going to pay a premium. You will have to live a while in Thailand to really know what is where.
I see the prices in Holland on a regular bases (do a lot of Dutch accounting for clients) so i know what i am talking about.
Most people like to burn Thailand after they have left just to justify leaving so it feels less as a failure. Same for the people who stay here they burn their home country. But truth be told you can live a lot cheaper in Thailand as in the US or Europe.
But its quite normal that you pay a premium for imported goods here. I can eat a good fried rice with a drink here for 47 baht. Now tell me about that in The USA what you will pay in a Thai restaurant.
If you compare things you should be fair in your comparison.
Steamed hotdog with salad and free water
20baht from the best in the country. (canada) 24/7
Chinese/thai/viet 24/7 restaurant. 100baht/meal or 250baht 3 plates with no MSG or excessive oils. 24/7..
Quality Chinese buffet with terrace on the busy hip and natury street of the old town, 300baht.
High end thai food. Combos are from 200 to 450baht for a FILLING meal.
Mcdonalds 30baht burgers when in a hurry
Tim hortons 100baht sandwiches
Every thai groceries cheaper than in thailand (even mama's) in chinese grocery store or small cambodian corner store, Squid, fish, meat, chicken about the same price but higher grade and fresher.
etc etc etc.
Only thing food wise that is cheaper in thailand is the local fruits and cheap basic thai meals full of oils/MSG which are better home made anyways. and street soups.
Dont forget all the $ you waste here in water instead of using TAP.
Only way for thailand to be cheaper is if you are
a) whore monger
B ) living in the sticks, then you get a nice house and land for really cheap
c)looking for year round tropical leisure lifestyle(cheaper in many countries though now that the island are getting more expensive by the day)
d)full time retired golfer
e)uneducated teacher who would have to work at mcdonalds in his country
That's all i can think off...
Most people should not come here to save money
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And in your home country with a car of the price of a base model civic, you could pass someone that was driving at 85kph on a 2 lane country street while a car was coming on the side at 100kph in just 3secs with a nice turbo engine..
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It happened to me, although no fatalities, luckily. I was waiting to turn right off a main road, into a parking area and a motorbike came up very fast, on the inside of the traffic coming the other way, and went straight into the front of my car. Both parties on the bike were injured, neither was wearing a helmet, and they had no insurance etc. The police arrived, and an ambulance, and I was interviewed about what had happened. There were other witnesses, but they took off while I was seeing if I could help the injured. In the end, I was seen to be at fault, and charged with driving without due care and attention..! I had to pay for the bike repairs, hospital bills and loss of income for the girl on the back of the bike. I did not have first class insurance on that vehicle, so it cost me 30,000 baht. The police were very polite and admitted that it was mostly down to the way they were driving. It is almost always the LARGER vehicle that pays, especially if driven by a 'rich' farang..? Best advice is to take 1st class insurance, if you can afford to, and always drive defensively. In retrospect, I should not have attempted to turn right across heavy traffic, at that time of day and should have continued on and done a U-turn somewhere..? I was unlucky that day, I guess.
Well if that is the case you were definitely kind of at fault there. If the traffic was coming and you were just driving in the middle of the two lanes waiting for an opening, this is a NONO and is as bad as turning into traffic and going 5km/h. You stay in the small soi until there is no 1 coming on either side of the road or you do a u-turn later. just jumping in the middle of 2lanes waiting for an opening is crazy, that space was not put there for that. Although its perfectly fine if its backed up and people are just stop and going very slowly.
Surprised they survived with no helmet.. Buddha must like them
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Some Thai girls have told me in the past that they avoid going out in Songkran now due to groups of Thai guys deciding it's ok to grope the gals as part of the 'celebration'...
Its not the thai guys, the thai women know it is fine and most of the young one taking part of the festival are asking for it and wearing tight white shirts.
The only rules are common sense.. If someone is old/with infant try to avoid them but otherwise just go for it.. when its your turn to be in their spot nobody stops just go ahead and enjoy yourself.. i used to hate songkran untill i joined the water throwing crowd and used my car.
Cellphone users on the motorbike are the #1 target, teach them a lesson, try to break their phones with a big smile
No helmet are #2 target especially if they wave to avoid getting wet. Next time they can wear a helmet for water protection.
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A cheap pre-school with few activities restricted to a single room might be bad for kid, but in LOS they are a lot of pre-school around 60-100k baht per term which are world class and have every possible activity. If a kid prefers to stay home over this, he has some kind of chemical imbalance or it's because you let him watch too much of his precious TV.
I would rather go to our kid's preschool than stay home myself. Learning Thai, playing with other children with amazing toys,soccer, swimming, good food, a good nap, singing and stories, arts.. I envy them.
A basic pre-school might be a bad idea though, It's just prison for kids. They need a place that light their eyes up when you cross the door.
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i had food poisoning from The large Italian restaurant in the fisherman thing next to the Saigon Vietnamese. Do not recommend.
My guess is they used water from the TAP to make the cream soup. It's the only thing i did not share.
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can you get in trouble if the crazy motorbike driver is dead though?
and what if they were both equally responsible and he's dead or paralyzed
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Those restaurants are empty because most of them have bad cooks. The good restaurants are ALWAYS full of customers.
Opening a space with tables and serving crap doesn't guarantee customers
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yeah, but he wasnt on the exit, he was right in the middle of the street a few CM's before the lane going south.
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I hate the village locals and their lazy way of life.
They just muck about all day, picking fruits off trees or riding around on their motorbikes with nothing else to do.
Below is a snapshot of 2 locals I saw out and about on a motorbike. I mean, who would want to hang out with the likes of them for 6 weeks? Totally boring.
No, not me, I would much rather stay in the town, go bar crawling with my mates, eating crap food and sitting on my computer.
no more pictures from you.
PLEASE
:jap:
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Wouldnt getting a Good diesel pickup 3-4 years old be cheaper in gas and in price than getting one of those small slow cars?
The Mazda2 will be quicker than the 3 litre pickups and has higher top end. Plus much, much more fun, quieter and easier to drive and park especially in the city.
Mazda 2 quicker than 0-100 kmh in 10 seconds and faster than 190 kmh? Not in my experience
and then load the pickup with 500 kg and the 2 with 350 kg, and you wont see the 2 any more
My 2006 Yaris, specs on par with Mazda 2, I really had to whip the one time I used it Phuket- Hua Hin to manage 160 kmh on the highway. My Vigos and Fortuner has/had 3000 rpm at 160 kmh
reminds me of my old days with my hyundai, going 6000 rpm for 150km/h on the highway.. even my old 89 V8 in line Jeep wrangler CJ was under the 3500 mark at 150km/h, 15 years after it was made(and not taken care of)
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What happened in the aftermath? i saw a white honda city driven by a young foreigner and a big black skidmark on the right side of his car and a barely alive thai driver far away and a broken up modded motorbike. From what i could see, the farang drove away from the gas station and was stopped in the middle of oncoming traffic(with or without traffic on its way) and the motorbike decided that the car should move and let him pass, or tried to go around the front of the car instead of slowing down half a sec. There is no way the car was going more than 10km/h, no break marks and he was stopped before the yellow line. Wondering who got blamed, i have asked around what happens if a motorbike drives directly into you, if its still your fault simply because you have the car
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the new jeep blue crush.
Land rover is definitely for little girls compared to this
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if you're gonna get yourself a old hyundai, try to get an elantra instead of excel, much much better car and the 360 view is impressive. I had one when i was 18 and wow could you see perfectly behind you and on the side when you park/check your angles
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Full timefor many years and have only used a tuktuk once, none of my friend have ever used one and no 1 that has visited me has ever used one. Most tourist i have talked to at the business have not used one outside of bangkok.
Theres a reason most tuktuk sit all day and are lucky to get 1 fare.. Most people do not use them unless they have no other choices and they are many many choices.
As for yourself, have you ever left the patong/karon area? Not many tuktuks.
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That's not her side of the story, she never said she was driving like a maniac..no one said that..they are not sure exactly what happened.. I have been driving since I was 16 years old and when I was 16 I drove fine, if anything I was a little bit more careful because I was new..
This girl said that it was the minivan driver that was driving wrecklessly, that he cut her off twice and the second time she couldn't stop in time and thats when the collision occured..and you know what.. I believe HER I have been in a thai minibus and just the other day in the bangkok post there was a letter about how wreckless these minibus drivers are.. thankgod I have my own car now and I don't have to take a minibus to the border every three months and roll the dice that the minibus driver doesn't get into a headon collision while he has his foot to the floor the whole time on a 2 lane road overtaking cars even though the road is curving and the solid line on the road means don't pass..the minibus driver was always some middleaged Thai man that is likly poorly paid so he just wants to get the tedius task done that he has to do everyday.. i thought minibus drivers were wreckless when they were driving foreigners--and you know they will drive a little slower because foreigners like me get scarred and we complain and tell him to cool it so we can make it home in one peice, but he still dives like it's the daytona 500..
Now..imagine a minibus driver at night, with all Thai pasangers, and you know that Thai people don't bitch like us foreigners because they beleive you should always be polite and Buddah will give you good luck as long as your a decent person..so I'm guessing this particular minibus driver was driving like bat out of hell on steroids and high on yaba(even though he wasn't on yaba he was probably driving like it..
lemme say again, I believe HER, or atleast I would get into a car with a thai 16 year old rich girl before i get into one of those minivans with the frustrated middleaged thai male.. i take taxis in bangkok all the time and i never worry about them, they seem calm and professional, but minivan drivers on longer distance runs..NOTSAFE.
Well said.
Any parents that truly care about their kids would ask for real compensation from a maniac on the wheels. This was not an ACCIDENT this was a crazy kid with no knowledge of the road, uninsured, driving like a maniac. An accident is driving at around the speedlimit in your own lane without changing every 10meters then having a tire explode and losing control of the car, thus smashing the car next to you. And for that to be a real accident, you would need to not be talking on the phone which is close to imposible for the average thai.
36mil might be a little too much for this country, but the family is rich, they can pay long term, the death were useful to society AND the more you ask, the more you will get after the judges decides to cut the amount. No matter how much you ask, you won't get the full amount so better just go big
There's videos proving that the girl was at fault, AT WORSE she was an inexperienced driver with no insurance that was scared shitless and still kept close to the minibus supposedly taunting her(why would she still be in front of him if he had passed her twice?)
The slow scared drivers are some of the worse, they are the ones that u-turn in the fast lane at 10kph and hide on the side of the road(the 30cm of space between the fast lane and the ditch), thinking there's enough space for the fast oncoming cars to pass by them.
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With 50 procent renting a vehicle the parking lots at the resorts would be overflowing. Has to be far less.
I think you're right. A hotel with 100 guest and 50 of them needing to park a vehicle would definitely cause problems. Not only that, but you would definitely notice the difference on the roads as well, not only the volume of traffic, but there would be a lot more accidents, if that many people, who had no experience of Phukets chaotic roads, were let loose behind the wheel for the first time.
A huge amount of holiday makers, don't make it that far from the beach, the hotel pool and the nearest bars and restaurants. They want to relax, and can't be bothered to drive around exploring. Lots of people will do this at the same hotel, year after year. Not my idea of fun, but each to their own.
exactly, they stay around, they dont use the tuktuks or if they do its only once or twice.
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Yes, I have to agree that visitors staying in guesthouses and smaller (read cheaper) hotels almost always rent some sort of vehicle. Almost every visitor I meet rents a bike, a few rent a car. And I would also agree that tourist staying a the higher end hotel most likely use taxis or hired driver. So it's a mixed picture, I would hazaed a guess and say that 50% of tourists do rent a vehicle, and that number has increased due to bad publicity about Tuk Tuks.
Really? Your guesstimate is 5 times higher than mine. You think, half of all the people that step off a plane at the airport, will hire a bike or car? So if you walk on to Patong and Karon beach in the middle of the day, half of all those people (not counting the kids) will have a car or bike parked at their hotel? Sounds really dubious to me!
They walk for the most part or stay in their crappy resorts.
Tuktuks are used mostly by people going from karon-kata to patong. The in patong crowd who uses tuktuks have to be the lazy fatties, the eldery and the drunk crowd at night
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By far the biggest percentage of tourists, do not rent bikes or cars. They go on holiday to relax, and to be able to stop doing every day things for themselves like driving and cooking etc.
I would say that quite a number of visitors DO rent bikes, and I notice that many more tourists are renting cars. I have no idea about percentage renting, just seems a lot to me.
You are right, there certainly are a lot of people renting bikes, you see them every where you go, but it's the percentage of the total, that's the important figure. Obviously, I don't know the figures any more than you do, but I would guess, that for every 100 tourists, about 5 are renting bikes (That's about 5%) And the people renting cars and hiring drivers would total less than 5 put together. As I said, I'm basing that on nothing in particular, just my gut feeling.
On the east coast.. from what i see in guesthouses and smaller hotels is that almost 100% of the guests have rented cars or motorbikes except the hippies who just spend their days walking with a plastic bag on a stick huckleberry fin style.
Really? Your guesstimate is 5 times higher than mine. You think, half of all the people that step off a plane at the airport, will hire a bike or car?
It'S Amazing How Much Cheaper Food Is In America Than Thailand
in Western Food in Thailand
Posted
As i work in economics and investments and own a Thai restaurant, this reply made me laugh all the way down to my ass.
i clearly stated that thai food is cheaper in my country than here, as far as street level thai food. Who cares? its unhealthy. that means the equal comparison is fast food. Canadian fast food is as healthy, more filling and tastes a lot better than oily khao pat or kapow. I can make it with any kind of imported rice from the asian stores which will cost me less than in Thailand. My woman cooked a lot of thai in canada and it was much cheaper than here.
Of course someone undernourished who would fail a health test as bad as a fat American can live off his whole life off three 30baht meals a day here and be fine. But his brain cells will suffer, his muscle mass will suffer, his concentration will be nonexistent. If i eat at a small roadside thai restaurant i need to spend minimum 150baht on myself to allow my body to function properly while in Canada i can go as low as 75-100baht. And no i am not fat, i am 68kg with 6.5% bodyfat.
Rice isnt really food, its a filling. They are used to rice because they are poor and have no choice to put a ton of it on food to be able to keep going on during the day. It's not "REALLY FOOD" rice meals are like slim fasts.. Would you use slim fast to compare food between an arab country and a western country? no. So use a normal non-rice meal for thais
Sumtam+a fish. thats 100-115baht + 20baht water(free water is not that common outside of roadside noodles nowadays), not 30baht. Real average meals are not cheaper in Thailand.
I dont know what you are trying to say about mcdonalds but KFC is some of the cheapest food in thailand.. Cheaper than eating at a thai market. You clearly make no sense about the fastfood.
Meat is meat anywhere, you can compare it.
and on a final note, making due is not living. Its merely existing.
I like living here but it's definitely not cheaper, no matter the lifestyle as long as its not a downgraded minimalistic lifestyle or country life. I pity anyone trying to justify to themselves and everyone around that living like a poor thai man is the best feeling in the world..