VTR1000

It must be difficult to come to a different country to live and work, dealing with the language, people, food etc.. How is your working relationship with others in your school, company etc..??

I work for a small company and get on great with my boss and and the other employees. Okay sometimes there are a few strained moments were you would like to smash their face in, but overall i think my present job is best i've ever had.

How to you get on with others??

I sit next to Snowflake! Enough said!

Well atleast she does not fall asleep behind the wheel on her way down, or fall off a wave riding over a 5 cm ROADBLOCK...

Atleast she did not hurt anyone...

Girls cant drive for S5it... What is your excuse???

Ha ha, coming from Mr I fall off twice in 10 minutes, that sounds pretty good!

Tatler, I think you misuderstood something in my post, I HAVE NO FEELINGS.

Well once I did an unconfirmed run from NST to Had Yai and back in 3 hours flat, on a zx12. That bike moved a bit faster than the rest of the bikes here.

Also when VTR was belly upside in Samui I did a run from Sichon to NST in about 25 minutes on the same bike...

But the best part was passing the hospital with VTR in at over 300KPH on the clock... That was a bit over the top...

VTR did Pangna to NST in 2 hours (yes he can drive fast)

I did a night run from Phuket to NST in 2 hours and 45ish minutes, not confirmed but I slowed down twice in my girly car...

The best one still goes to VTR, NST -BKK -NST in less than 24 hours in a saggy old pickup where he still had time to sleep and buy a new motorbike.

C'mon VTR, tell us your times... (not hospital time)

Nah, I'm not one to brag .... but I can go around corners fast!

Long hours, no sleep, lots of whiskey and rice whiskey will do that to the road, guess who is to blame...

The road I would say, turn like that....

It might have been Snowflake's girlfriend driving .... she is quite famous now for her driving skills!

the Vigo wins no prizes for good looks, but I fail to see why anyone would want to buy any of it's competitors with the possible exception of the new Nissan. The Toyota has better ride build quality, and price model for model especially at the top end of the range. Sadly I don't have one for my personal use.

Uh? When the Vigo first came out, I thought it was absolutely gorgeous and my 6 month old car went so I could get a new one. The Triton came out soon after and it looked as nice, if not nicer so I went for a very short test drive. The Vigo seemed to be put together a lot better and I went for the Vigo even though the Triton had more gadgets. Don't get me wrong here, the Triton, especially the 4x4s look nice but I still think the Toyatas are way better, hence that is the model I went for, plus I had had a few Toyatas previously. I'm still very happy with my choice.

The Navara is nice, but Nissans, Fords, Mazda, Mitsus etc here in Thailand depreciate in price a lot faster than Toyotas and Isuzus, one of the reasons for my loyalty to Toyota.

An aquaintance of mine bought a top of the range Triton a while ago and around 6 months later he had to sell it for pretty much half price - one reason why I will stay with Toyotas.

The thing is that 2 years ago I listened to much to my friends when I bought a new car, I bought something that was nice (yes I did like it) but not what I really wanted, I did some stupid things and I do regret some of them... But I did ask my friends and they were convicing me that buying what I wanted was bad...

Looking at it today I would like to say that they should have let me buy that as I would not have wanted to change now...

For the record, all I wanted 2 years ago was a white fortuner or a C180... But they convinced me othervise...

Should have bought it then, so I dont have to think now... ....

Well we will see....

PS VTR, It takes one 2 know one

Ha ha, indeed it does - but I earned my money, working, not some inheritance from some rich grand mother, hence I value it more. And you?

Simple - The locals have no concept of traffic regulations and/or safety. That along with their inbred lack of driving skills is a recipe for accidents.

I agree with this first sentence but I think the second is rather harsh...

I think when you grow up around cars and motorbikes you become skilled in driving them. Thais are not bad drivers..they're just not educated or regulated in such a way that they follow a predictable driving pattern.

Chris, spend a few hours at a driving test centre and watch them going around the course. They're on the pavement, knocking bollards over and as for hill starts and reversing, hysterical to watch. And then after doing all that, they're then issued with a licence allowing them legally on the road! - they (the vast majority) have no concept whatsoever.

Is this because they have no formal training or are you suggesting that Thais are genetically inferior?

Not suggesting anything - just stating that their driving skills leave a lot to be desired. The lack of training certainly plays a big part in that.

It's not that tight, I just think paying for 2 cars is more expensive than paying for 1 car? Fuel, for 2 cars are more expensive than 1 yes???? Insurance 2 cars vs 1???

I think a future post will be "Crazy snowflake with a teachers salary bought a Fortuner... " We are overpaid..."

Nah, something more like "A fool and his money ......."

It was delivered in late 2001 and was supposed to be a 2002 model. I think the badge on the front door says Hilux 3.0 EF. I certainly don't claim to be a Toyota expert but I CAN tell you it had no turbo.

The first Tiger 3.0L 4x4 I bought was also non-turbo. Great truck as I abused it continuously and it never let me down once ... apart from a cracked cylinder head and that was at around the 200,000km mark.

Had 2 Mighty Xs and a non-turbo 2x4 Tiger at the same time. Those three vehicles were used daily for deliveries and had no problems at all. Actually sold the 2x4 Tiger for more than I paid for it. I've also had a 4x4 D4D and driven my brother in law's old Australian built Hilux 4x4 2.8L. Present vehicle now is 4x4 Vigo and the next one will probably be a Toyota too.

Simple - The locals have no concept of traffic regulations and/or safety. That along with their inbred lack of driving skills is a recipe for accidents.

SWEEEEEEEEEEEEETTTTTTTTTTT DUDE

I get all jelly in my belly now... WANNA JOIN YOU GUYS BUT I HAVE NO RIDE

I'll loan you one of my Waves ..... only if you promise to take it easy.

Ah, I got it now .... your friends are now katoeys!

Who cares, they do probably work less than anyone else???

Quite possibly ... and less whining too, no doubt!

"Full Time Maths Teacher"

The successful applicant will teach Maths 10 hours a week... with an additional maximum of 6 hours a week... to bring you up... <to> 18/week.

Maybe the person who wrote that advert is not a Maths teacher.

Bit of a sore spot at the minute but at Thai weddings, the guests will be given invitation cards in envelopes. When they attend your wedding, they will return the envelope which will include a cash gift. If you are going to have around 300 guests, then expect a fair bit of wedge (money) to come in too.

As for the sinsot, it is an Asian tradition, not only in Thailand, and it varies widely depending on whichever country you happen to be in. Some countries, the groom's family gets paid. Your girl apparently comes from a professional family so they will 'ask for' a fairly high sinsot, seems fair to me. Now then, this is where difficulties arise - some families ask for a sinsot and it's theirs to keep. Others will return varying percentages, right up to 100% depending on their circumstances. What's your position here, how much will be returned to you?

At the end of the day, do you think that now is a good time to get married? If not, is there any way that the ceremony can be put back x amount ot time until you're more financially stable?

Either way, good luck.

I think i should take the back seat with this one and keep my mouth shut!! I also know that some of their better mates also know and won't say anything to them.

I'll use the ostrich style of dealing with problems and just stick my head in the sand

Maybe, just maybe he knows and is, erm, 'ok' with the situation.

If you knew that two of your friends (but not really friends) wifes were doing the dirty behind their backs would you tell them??

I am now faced with this problem and don't know what to do!! On the one side it's nothing to do with me so don't get involued BUT on the other side their wives are complete sluts!!

Please give me some help here

If it's true, I'd certainly tell them but you would have to be 101% in your allegations. Do you have any kind of proof?

I'd certainly want to be told if my wife was doing the dirty, what if it was yours? Would you want to be told?

Ha ha blo-ody ha.

We like to use imported clocks .... still waiting for the last one we ordered! Sex life has evaporated!

(Tatler will know!)

You have to budget?

Route 402 off Phuket - Route 4 to Ao Luk - Route 4035 through Plaiphraya, Phrasaeng to Wiang Sa - Turn right and drive south for 40km - you will see a sign for Nakhonsithammarat on the left, turn left here and follow the road (about 50km) through Lan Saka until you come to a T-junction (NST to the right Phromkiri to the left) - turn left here and keep going all the way to the T-junction at the end. Tha Sala is signposted to the right, turn right here and Tha Sala is about 15-20 kms down that road. Easy.

Fairly good quiet roads most of the way. Enjoy.

I rode a pedal bike from my school to my house once, does that count?

Snowflake on a pushbike!

I agree that a bigger seat size will be more comfortable for longer rides. Although I think that any seat becomes uncomfortable after a few hours. I'm not a big fan of the Honda Phantom but I'm sure it would be more comfortable for longer stints.

I haven't done a ride as far as Phuket yet but I'm sure that when I do I will need to take a lot of breaks. I did the Don Sak ride with no breaks but Phuket is a lot further.

I also concur that the Yaris is a more suitable car for NST city driving. The streets are narrow and parking can get a bit scarce, so the smaller the vehicle the better. Ideally I think you need a small car/bike (yes, a girl's one) for the city and a bigger, more powerful vehicle for longer stints on more open roads. Isn't it a pain in the arse to have a bike that can hit 250km/h but you're stuck behind a songthaew doing 40km/h in 1st gear? Unless you intend to do some longer trips, a big bike in the city will do more harm than good.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents..let me know what bike you end up going for. I saw some big bikes for rent in Samui but they only had 1000cc and it's a bit too big a jump from 150cc...also, the traffic in Samui was a little busy so I decided against it...maybe a 500cc would be a little easier to manage at this stage.

It's usually the songtaews stuck behind Snowflake!

Now now girls - let's keep things civil.

Who pee'd on your corn flakes this mornin' then?