Sortapundit

Why not go out less or drink less, going out every night is more then a bit of social life if you cant afford it.

After 12 hours of work without a break a beer is more than a little necessary

You ask if it's OK for 5 people walk into a restaurant, bring their own beer, order 2 bowls of noodles, stay and party all night?

Yes, Paul, that's almost word for word what my question looks like when read through a pair of 'it's too early to read questions properly, so let's just leave a sardonic reply' glasses. Thanks for playing

I would say, don't go on holiday if you are going to act like that.

It irks me when people fly half way around the world then act broke when they get there.

I completely agree, the cheapskates, but I'm not on holiday. I've been living in Asia for three years, and since I run a business that's going through a rough patch I act broke because I am, in fact, almost completely broke.

Since I live with my partner and I'd like to maintain some semblance of a social life for her while I work 12 hours a day rebuilding a client base I'm looking for somewhere cheap to have a drink, you see, hence the question about the etiquette of drinking at a street cafe.

You ask if it's OK for 5 people walk into a restaurant, bring their own beer, order 2 bowls of noodles, stay and party all night?

Yes, Paul, that's almost word for word what my question looks like when read through a pair of 'it's too early to read questions properly, so let's just leave a sardonic reply' glasses. Thanks for playing

Apologies if this belongs in a real estate forum, but I'm looking for some personal recommendations on housing on a crazy time frame.

My girlfriend and I have just returned to the country after a few months in Mongolia. We previously lived in Chiang Mai where we had a long term arrangement with a guesthouse, so we have no experience of renting in BKK.

We arrived a couple of days ago and booked 5 nights in a squalid hotel in the hope of finding somewhere to stay for the next 3-4 months, and I've spent the last few days browsing through the various real estate sites. Everywhere looks pretty much the same to me, and there doesn't seem to be an easy way to differentiate between decent places and crapholes based on the grainy photos available.

There are a couple of prospects we're looking into tomorrow, but neither looks particularly promising. I'd rather not burn any more money on hotels, so I'm really hoping we can find somewhere by the time we check out of here on Tuesday (perhaps a little optimistic).

So, I wonder if any of you good people can recommend a place to stay. Perhaps you've had a good experience with your own apartment complex, and can't believe you found such a great place for pennies (or, on the flip side, you're in a shithole and you want to warn people away).

Our budget is around the 10,000/month mark. Ideally a little lower as I'm a bit greedy with the air con, so the power bill will kill me.

District: Din Daeng/Huai Khwang within walking distance of an MRT station, ideally, as we have friends there, or somewhere along the Sukhumvit BTS line if the price doesn't make my ears bleed.

Facilities: studio (obv., with this budget). Wifi, fridge, maybe a balcony so I can smoke without killing the missus.

Cheers

The little ally between 5 and 7 has several Thai owned beer bars that sell tallies for 80bht

Oh yeah, I think I know the alley. 80 for a tall one is reasonable for the area. I just hate paying 70 for a small bottle and having to return to the bar ten minutes later for another one. There's about a thimbleful of beer in those things

There are plenty of bars selling lage bottles of beer for 50bht a go or less.

Your mistake is in targeting ex-pat and tourist areas in which to drink.

Drink in bars where only Thais go.

I'm happy to drink anywhere, but the missus is very much into things like couchsurfing so we often meet with people fresh off the boat. It's easy to direct new arrivals to a Suk 11 bar ("get off at Nana BTS and look for far, far too many white people"), but when you're in a local dive off the beaten track it turns farcical very quickly, especially with my girlfriend's sense of direction. It'd be handy to have a cheap street place near the tourist ghetto. Hooters suggestion sounds good

Ahhh, playing cards. I can get on board with that

Hi guys. My Mongolian partner and I have just returned to Bangkok for a stay of three or four months after a few months in the icy cold of Ulaanbaatar. We lived in Chiang Mai for four months last year, but this is our first time staying for more than a few weeks in BKK.

As we're on an pretty tight budget during our stay here I'm not eager to return every night to our regular Suk 11 tourist haunts like (not so) Cheap Charlie's. 70 baht for a tiny Singha isn't so cheap when you can get a large bottle from 7-11 for less. We have a drink or three most nights, and I'm looking for a place to sit down with a beer and meet with our local & expat friends, most of who are also living on a budget, without bursting into tears when I check my balance at the end of the month.

So, I was wondering about the etiquette of bringing our own 7-11 sourced drinks to the street eateries. If five of us sit down at the patio furniture, a couple of us order a bowl of noodles and we crack open a few bottles of Singha, how long before we outstay our welcome? Assuming there are plenty of tables free for other customers could we stay all night as long as we buy the occasional snack, or are we going to get dirty looks until we bugger off?

Finally, are we asking for trouble for ourselves and our hosts by drinking at street food stalls that don't themselves serve alcohol? The rules were simple in CM but I don't want to end up paying a fortune to some bored cop looking for pocket money.

Cheers

Bloody hell, this is going to be rough. The missus and I got back here a couple of days ago after leaving in October. I can easily go through 3 litres of diet coke/zero each day if there's nobody available to strap me down and gag me, and my first night here was spent on an ever more desperate search around the 7-11s and family marts near Asok.

I feel your pain, OP. I'm on real coke right now, a drink so painfully sweet it's like switching from sherbet to cocaine. Bah.