NoshowJones

I speak no Thai whatsoever...

I am relying on my handsome good looks and my gift for the gab to navigate

What about the money? That's more important to most Thai girls than your handsome good looks. I spent some time with two Isaan girls before I came to Thailand to stay, I also have not bad looks and am slim, but the first thing those girls wanted was money, so I got rid of both of them.

Read post #26,

"I might say beware of the Thai 'hostess' bars... while the girls are typically infinitely better looking than those that make their way into the farrang bar industry in BKK... bills can get expensive"

"Please clarify as to where they sell a 400 baht bottle of Chang."

You wont know the place, however there will be people on here know where I am referring to.

If you go to Harleys Bar in Prasat, look right across the road at the Thai place, thats where they serve 400 baht Changs.

Where you choose to socialize will determine the prices you pay, your problem is you dont know where to go or what to expect.

In order, upscale Thai hostess bars, karaoke joints, knocking shops, clip joits or whatever other various nom de plume they go by. Hotel bar and discos, farang bars, local Thai bars.

I tend to use local Thai bars, large Leos can be had for 60 baht, in some farang bars that will be 90 baht.

A bottle of Thai whisky (Sang Som or Blend ) about 350-400 baht plus mixers and ice in a Thai place.

Up to you.

"Your problem is you don't know where to go or what to expect."

Yes, I do know where to go, and what to expect: I go to the 7-11 for my signature two bottles of Chang for 85 baht rather than play stupid falang and pay 400 baht for a dam_n brew. I know to expect people holding their hand out for me to give them money, and I know that I am the last son of a bitch that would hand that over.

I do admit that my experience in Isaan is highly limited and admit that I only know about it from what I have read and/or heard from from those who have lived/visited there before.

And to those who are willingly going to Harley's Bar in Prasat, get your head out of the clouds. You want to spend money like that in a third world country? Please.

Thanks for the condescension, but I'll wait for some more positive feedback. After all, I'm inquiring about a potential trip to Isaan, not to "hang tough" or "look cool" in front of a bunch of 48 year old foreigners who are chasing eighteen year old Thai girls with Thai baht falling out of their pockets.

You forgot to mention that the biggest majority of these 48 year old foreigners are actually 60 odd year old grossly overweight, tattooed, ugly, flesh exposing simmet wearing foreigners.

I think the followup to my post believes that I'm looking to get paid while in training. Not true. I am questioning schools selling my training to students, especially at full cost.

The costs as well for classroom learning seem quite expensive. It is not as though any tech equipment is involved. Fifty thousand baht seems a great deal of money to spend on a b25k job.

When I did my TEFL in Bangkok, there was far too much emphasis on grammar, and the training was geared to teaching in language schools. I wanted to teach between grades 5 and 10 in a public school. The only good thing the TEFL course did for me was to provide an impressive looking certificate when I graduated. But forget all this talk about everyone who completes the course will graduate, if you are not up to standard, you will be told just that before the course ends and probably given the chance to start again from the beginning of the next course without paying an extra fee. Also, if you are in competition for a teaching job, and you have the TEFL certificate, and the others do not, you will probably get the job, that's provided of course, you and all the other applicants have Bachelors degrees.

Mine has truly earned it.

However it not only has to be earned, one must also be willing to give it and be trustworthy yourself.

Not easy !!!

Yermanee

Is there anybody posting right now who can honestly say that their wives would allow them to go to Pattaya with their friends without her? Although I have taken her with me sometimes, she knows I don't go to the girlie bars (I don't drink alcohol). Before someone asks me why I go there, there is more to Pattaya than girlie bars.

IMHO, lots of white people come to Asia with a sense of guilt, a sort of karmic debt for the colonialism of the past.

I was deep into it until i came to live in Thailand, to discover that the poor lady i was buying the drinks from, despite being more pricey than elsewhere, is the owner of countless houses, boats, cars and plots of farmland.

She's my landlady now, and she looks as poor as ever.

Any white person that is in Thailand feeling guilty about colonialism is an IDIOT.

Thailand has never been a colony of any country.

The kind of guilt he's referring to is a more diffuse one toward brown people in general.

And the fact that Thailand has never been a colony isn't nearly as important as the Thais would like to think, except to their over-inflated nationalistic pride.

Well, not necessarily brown people, i remember as a young boy, being stuck in my deep feelings when i saw the picture of the young Vietnamese girl being burnt by napalm bombs, walking naked and crying desperately among indifferent , full geared American soldiers.

I read later she was adopted and given an education by some wonderful American family.

I still think Europeans and Americans have a lot to be forgiven.

No one has more to be forgiven than the UK, only one hundred years ago they ruled over two thirds of the world.

It's not at all "nearly impossible", in fact IMO much easier than it is back home, but most people are lazy and don't think ahead about what's at stake when they start out in the relationship.

I also think alcohol is a part of the problem.

I don't think alcohol is part of the problem, I think it is most of the problem. Especially in Scotland where I come from.

I never take my passport as it is too bulky

A poor excuse. If you don't carry a PP at all times then you risk being detained and inconvenienced. It is not only identification that is required but status, i.e. you have valid entries in you PP permitting you to be here. A Thai Drivers Permit only provides ID.

Last year I walked into a shopping mall and was stopped by uniformed police who asked for my PP. One knew exactly what he was looking for and confirmed my status as valid, saluted, thanked me and returned the PP. A group of male and female westerners were huddled in a corner, caught without PPs and one called out that I 'was lucky'. I told him there was no luck involved.

You make the choice. No PP then you risk detention.

I have a Thai Driving License which is an ID, it does not have my passport number on it but a 13 digit number like a Thai ID,

My Thai 5 year DL has my passport number on it.

I never take my passport as it is too bulky, since getting my DL I use that instead, only been stopped once, looked at DL and waved me through.

I went to Pattaya with my wife for a short break, normally I only take my Thai DL with me when I travel in Thailand, but on this occasion I had my passport with me as I had business with it. The hotel I was booked into would not accept my DL and insisted on my passport. They then checked it and started questioning my visa stamps, I questioned this and was told that they were acting on police or immigration regulations. I have travelled and stayed in hotels in Pattaya and many parts of Thailand before, and my DL was always accepted. So if your staying in hotels, your passport may not be enough.

If you can hold a telephone conversation with a Thai who is unknown to you, then you are fluent in the Thai language.

I can't agree with this. There are 4 aspects to fluency, 1.) Speaking and being understood. 2.) Listening and understanding what you're hearing. 3.) Reading, and 4.) Writing coherently. Telephone conversations include only 2 of those 4 skills.

You are right, by when I said fluent, I did not mean writing and reading, I only meant speaking and obviously listening, so I will rephrase it, being fluent in speaking Thai means being able to hold a telephone conversation with a Thai who is unknown to you.

@tropo, i have had my down times too. During the flooding i really reverted back to all my bad habits. The stress and the lack of good food.. nothing to do and alcohol. Really was my downfall. But yes i am determined to finaly get a pair of good abs. It has never happened but now i feel im getting closer each month.

In november / december when my parents are there it will be extra hard to control my food intake as i will be on a holiday. So i will see, but i will be in the ocean a lot too. Maybe it helps a bit if i can make sure i dont eat too much.

Its relatively easy to control food intake if you cook yourself and don't eat out too much. Its a different ball game when your on a holliday.

But yes im one of those guys that has to count his calories to make progress, hard to loose fat for me. Others doing the same would have lost much more then me.

Anyway buying a cybex arc trainer would be nice but like you its a dream as i cant afford it.

What is a cybex arc trainer? and how much? Where can you buy?

Add chiang mai to that as well, also add 6 day work week and overtime. Met a couple of girls who are now working in a bar because the factory work was way too hard for little pay, 10 too 12 hour work day plus commute.

Six day work and overtime, is one day a week enough for them to teach their eight year olds how to ride a motorbike?

Smoking, over-eating, drugs, alcohol ..... all personal lifestyle choices.

It's up to you!

Yes indeed i agree 100%, as long as your not bothering anyone with it im ok. Nobody should tell someone what to do.

Problems start if healthy people have to finance the healthcare of the unhealthy. Not happening here but back in my home country it does. So there id say let the people doing unhealthy things pay more. (no need to discuss it here) You could argue they die sooner so cost less.

Exactly.

And there are peripheral issues as well, like having to sit next to an obese person taking up half your seat in an airplane or bus.

Complaints/lawsuits from the obese who demand to be accommodated.

Even something like buying clothes--it seems a bit harder now to find good-fitting clothes in the old normal/slim sizes.

Quite a few times I have been on a bus or airplane and have an obese person sit beside me and encroach on my part of the seat. I just looked at them, put my hand and forearm on the halfway part of the seat and say "you stay on your side of the seat"

Maybe this does'nt apply to you, but is it fair to marry a slim girl, then let yourself go by piling on the weight sitting around the house all day surrounded by cans of beer? but it's OK because you are happy. Is it fair to your wife as she is the one who has to nurse you through the ill health because you are happy to let yourself become obese? It's fine to be fat and happy if you don't care about how unhealthy you are and how worse you are going to get, as long as no one else is affected by it.

Things aren't always so cut & dry.

I've heard of wives overfeeding their lazy husbands with the most unhealthy fatty food they can find in an effort to kill them off more quickly. It's not like all these young ladies marry their husbands for love, you know.

I've heard of other girls overfeeding their boyfriends in order to keep them fat and ugly so they're not easily going to find a replacement.

You make good points Tropo, but one of my best friends married a lovely slim lady about ten years ago, then drank himself to death, he was cremated about eight months ago, he told me he was not fat when he met her, and in the six years I knew him, I never saw him without a can of beer by his side morning and night, and he became really obese, but you never could have met a nicer guy.

I started it way back in 2006.

In 2008 I lost 12.5 kg, 2009 I lost 11kg, 2010 only 5.5kg, 2011 5.2kg but each year I slowly put it back on because I enjoy good food.

IMO this contradicts your original attitude/post. You say you're happy being fat, but you dieted for 5 years in an attempt to lose it.

It looks more like you're a failed dieter rather than a person who is happy to be fat. Even the fact that you visited this forum points that way.

Let me tell you something, we all like good food - that never changes. You're no different in that regard than the rest of us.

Tropo is talking a lot of sense here Billd

I started it way back in 2006.

In 2008 I lost 12.5 kg, 2009 I lost 11kg, 2010 only 5.5kg, 2011 5.2kg but each year I slowly put it back on because I enjoy good food.

IMO this contradicts your original attitude/post. You say you're happy being fat, but you dieted for 5 years in an attempt to lose it.

It looks more like you're a failed dieter rather than a person who is happy to be fat. Even the fact that you visited this forum points that way.

Let me tell you something, we all like good food - that never changes. You're no different in that regard than the rest of us.

Tropo is right what he says Billd766. I don't believe you are happy at all, I would say you are just covering up for how unhappy you are by convincing yourself it's OK to drink lots of beer(that's if you do) and stuff yourself with lots of high calorie food. I'm 6ft tall, weigh 80 Kilos, I don't drink alcohol, but as Tropo says we all like good food, I like my mashed potatoes and mince etc, I also enjoy a cup of tea every night with a donut, two or three biscuits. But I also go to the park 5 mornings a week and use the exercise machines.

I am 68 and fat because I am happy that way.

I never force my lifestyle or opinions onto other people because I am not made that way.

I know I can loose weight if I want to and I also know that at sometime in the future that I will die.

I would rather and I will die a happy person instead of being miserable knowing that I would just love to eat a ........... whatever but if I do I may put on 100 grams and feel that my life has been cut short by 20 minutes.

I have too many things I want to do than worry what someone who has never met me thinks about me.

I would rather die fat, happy and have a great life than watch everything I eat and see all my friends and family die around me.

That must be worth at least 3 baht rather than the normal 50 satang.

I don't know how fat you are, but if you are obese, how can you be happy if you can't go for a walk or climb one flight of stairs without being breathless? Or maybe you jump on a motorbike to go to the end of the road for your beer etc. I am not condemning you for your lifestyle, I agree that is your choice, but I can't see how anyone can be happy if they have about 0% fitness and are breathing heavily after the slightest bit of exertion. Also, how can you be happy if you are Obese, and everywhere you go people are looking at you knowing how disgusting you look.

Maybe this does'nt apply to you, but is it fair to marry a slim girl, then let yourself go by piling on the weight sitting around the house all day surrounded by cans of beer? but it's OK because you are happy. Is it fair to your wife as she is the one who has to nurse you through the ill health because you are happy to let yourself become obese? It's fine to be fat and happy if you don't care about how unhealthy you are and how worse you are going to get, as long as no one else is affected by it.

I think speculation is pointless because every woman is different, Thai or otherwise.

I hav known both skanks and angels and many points in betweeen with or without tattoos. If its not on her forehead, who really cares

Tattoos are ugly and disfiguring on anybody.

so is intolerance

Much, much more so. (But well said)

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Thank you SteeleJoe.

From my experiences from several years ago this sounds a good deterrant.

Stay legal and drive legal. Their country and their rules.

Yes, it's their country and their rules, but there is something going on in Pattaya regarding motorbikes and the BIB tea money. I parked my rented bike in a bike bay alongside other bikes, when I arrived back later, the police had taken the bike to a pound and I had to pay 200Baht to police, and 200 Baht at the pound for the return of the bike. So that was tea money to two different parties, probably in league with each other. May I point out that there were no paintmarks on the kirb, and no notice of any kind where the bike was parked.

I'm going for Hughes as well.

If Hughes of anyone else goes, then Ally McCoist should soon be available.

Why is some club looking for a groundsman?

Good one Carmine, and Ally does'nt do walking away.

Hughes has had the dreaded vote of confidence, so only a win will likely be enough to prolong the inevitable.

If Ally McCoist does'nt want to replace Hughes, What about Craig Levine?

Well QPR have the easiest game of the 3 this weekend (Villa, Soton and QPR).

The following week all of them have hard games especially Villa against Man Utd.

Then after that its Villa at the Etihad, and the game that could decide the managers fate is at QPR, as they play Southampton (17th November), but Lambert could be out as well that same weekend.

So before December we will have a management casualty.

Who's going to jump into the Villa hot seat and do better than Lambert as a matter of interest?

What about Neil Lennon? No, that would be a big step downwards.

I'm going for Hughes as well.

If Hughes of anyone else goes, then Ally McCoist should soon be available.

There must be some mother out there really proud of their little daughter!

That said, tattooing is a definite art form. Take a closer look at the butterfly wings.........

This is me mom I loves her dearly, I do.

Imagine waking up in the morning and having to look at that.

Me dad did for 52 years. Though he did drink a bit much towards the end.

No wonder he was driven to drink.

Some tattoos look good, some look terrible - for both men and women regardless of where they are from.

I guess the op is trying refer to the myth that a Thai girl with a tattoo is/was a bar girl.

Myth?

I thought it was common knowledge that 95% of Thai birds with a tattoo had sold their ass at one point or another?

How an earth can you say that?

The only two girls I know with tattoos are actually teachers!

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I bet the tattoos are well covered up, and I also bet they don't go swimming with the students.

A butterfly on your wedding day may become a Golden Eagle by the time you reach your Silver Wedding anniversary:)

I didn't know that Golden Eagles are green.

There must be some mother out there really proud of their little daughter!

That said, tattooing is a definite art form. Take a closer look at the butterfly wings.........

This is me mom I loves her dearly, I do.

Imagine waking up in the morning and having to look at that.