The Dancer

I've been in a few situations in the last 12 years I've been here where I felt insecure but, fortunately, they fizzled out. But I understand violence can easily happen in the current climate. The economy's sour and there's a heckuva lot of political tension under the surface. One half the country's pissed off with the other. It's like two people who hate each other left on a deserted island.

Best thing for foreigners is to mind your own business, smile freely, be unfailingly polite and respectful, and disengage asap from situations which look like they can go south.

But I don't think it's ever us-against-them. Thais are proud that people like us love their country well enough to leave our own and move here. And they were never colonized by the West. So there's no historical animus against us.

BTW, is anyone aware of the amount that retail stores in the US lose to theft every year? It's more than you would imagine. I wonder how much Thai stores lose.

I thought I read between 2 and 3% somewhere. But it's figured into the markups. We're paying, not the store.

Scam that happened to me once at a Foodland: I had a lot of stuff and the cashier was taking his time. So I moved ahead to where the bagger was packing my stuff. Baggers will often ask how you want stuff arranged but this guy seemed to be making a show of it. "This is heavy, better double pack". "Shall I put this in this bag or you want it separate". "Careful with the apples, don't want them bruised." A lot of talk which made me slightly uncomfortable though I didn't think too much of it at the time.

The total was obviously going to be hefty given the amount of stuff but some second thought caused me to keep the receipt - normally I toss it pretty quickly - and crosscheck the goods at home. Sure enough there was an item on the receipt which I had never bought and couldn't find. I forget exactly what but about 100b. worth. Too late to do anything about. If I had checked in the store then maybe.

Universities likely would have a copy center that takes books. Many (overpriced) foreign textbooks are copied by students, rather than bought, in these parts. Most university copy places do this on a large scale, no questions asked. And copying = scanning on the newer machines.

I have a job that takes into mansions and council houses. After a while they all blend into one. There really is no reason to be jealous of anyone. You can only live in one room at a time. If someone has a bigger room than you do so what. There will also be people living in smaller rooms than you have.

I lost my ability to get jealous a long time ago.

If I see someone driving a Bentley I just think to myself 'can I have your car please' Then I carry on walking because I don't own a car.

Some people love eating in high end resturants some people prefer the local café, who cares ? not I.

Just enjoy what you have, neither think you are better than a person you have more than, or think the person who has more than you is anyone to be jealous of.

Great attitude, Bery. Buddha couldn't have put it better. Seriously.

Whoever you are, on any given day you are going to pass someone on the street ten times as wealthy as you are and someone ten times poorer. And none of the three should give a rat's.

I have a similar question to the OP's. But not a masseuse. I am looking for a pretty 7/11 lass with giant knockers, legs up to her earrings and an ass so fluffy it could be a pillow on Charlie Sheen's bed.

Nothing sinful in mind. All I buy at a 7 are ciggies and beer. But I just like gals like that and want to pay my money to a gal like that. I am sick and tired of the schoolgal types behind the 7 counters with their flat chests and pseudo-friendly manner. Give me a pouty bombshell in a skintight dress which rides up to her undies when she reaches down for the packet of dried mangoes I pretended I couldn't find.

If you know of such a gal please tell me the 7 and her shift. I shall be much obliged.

The more I am here, the more I love it for many reasons.

Being from California(socal), here were my monthly expenses before I left.

I had a house I sold, so I was renting:

Rent: $1600 USD a month for a one bedroom

Elec: $200

Cable/internet: $150

Water: $35

Gas for car: $200

Car payment: $300

Car ins: $60

Food: $500

Health insurance: $975

So I am at over $4,000 USD a month and I have not even gone to a movie or on a date or met a hooker online for boom boom (usually $150 for an hour). So many things now seem like a rip off in the USA. Too many people sitting in offices making $75,000 a year for doing nothing.

My basic expenses are much less Thailand. Everything is much cheaper here for me and I feel I am more then duplicating my lifestyle/quality of life, from the states. I am 61 and have not felt this good physically or mentally for quite a while.

So what is the breakdown for your Thailand expenses ?

I did post them earlier. About 1/3 of USA. But, I use the extra to go out and for sex. Boom boom is very important to me as I was in a sexless marriage for too many years. Here I boom 4, maybe 5 days a week. It is awesome this place for me. I am close to Nana/Soi Cowboy. I found some good spots/girls (Never from tourist trap Gogo's!)

I never pay more then 1500 b for a nice GFE with a young girl. I have 8 ladies I rotate now. I found a new one this week age 22 with braces and cute as a button. Where can a 61 year old live like this? I call them to my room as to not upset them if seen with another lady. It is all working very well. So much better then the states. Shit, much much better for me I hope I never have to go back..

You are kidding yourself if you think they would be upset seeing you with another lady.

They are doing it ONLY for the money, and will think of you as just another customer.

⁵ to 6060. And, no, the working gals don't like seeing their clients go with others. Poaching is a serious offense in the profession, even if it was unknowing. "ONLY for the money" is exactly the reason why. 2 x 1500b is the month's rent out in Onnut and further. No one likes to see half of that walk away.

I am not going to try and put down a fellow equally lonely BM lurking here for a bit of companionship on a Saturday night. But you do say:

I have friends who have the same type of card as me, from the same bank (Thanachart) and have set it up without any problem at all.

So did you ask them?

Nothing special. I pay a bit less than that for my apartment in Pattaya, and I pay by the month. It works out at about 165 baht a night, with all mod cons, nice windows and balcony, power shower, kitchen, king size bed, 32 sq. m. But for Bangkok, 199 baht a night is a fairly good deal. However, you can do better. My ex-girlfriend was living in a very nice small apartment in Bangna and paying 2,500 baht a month. These prices are not generally available to falangs. TBH, I could afford to pay 50,000 baht a month, but I prefer to save my money.

"TBH, I could afford to pay 50,000 baht a month, but I prefer to save my money."

I am just like you. I actually live under the Nana BTS staircase. Yes, I am the bearded farang in the shirt with matching holes in the front and the back and the shorts with no buttons so my dick sometimes falls out in the open but I quickly tuck it back in soon as I feel the breeze.

But what the fools who walk fast to get past me don't know is that I used to be one of the biggest rock stars on the planet, someone they probably paid a 100 bucks to go see play.

I used to stay the summer in my place in LA next to the Clooneys and then winter in Marbella. But guess what? I got tired of being rich and shallow and being hounded 24/7 by the press and fans.

So I sold off putting my tens of millions in safekeeping in Panama and moved here under the bridge. And I tell you I love it. Give me the simple life any day.

Almost certainly not, it's for tourists only

I don't think this is true. I am not a tourist, living here on a work permit, and have gotten VAT refunded at the airport heading out on vacation several times.

I believe you have a 60 or 90 (not sure) day window to take the item out of the country from day of purchase to get the refund. Of course, you can bring it back with you - nobody checks - which is what I did.

I just returned from 4 months in bangkok., I lived in a 6000, pm room, +ec.

After rent my daily expenses were 1,350 baht per day. I live with my girlfriend, and this amount was quite sufficient.

Breakdown as follows. Rent 25 percent

Food 25 percent

Drinking 15 percent

Tranortation 6 percent

This included 6 weekend trips to hau hin, Cham, pattaya, ko samet.

I lived quite comfortably on this amount.

We eat mainly at street side thai food stalls., restaurants.

If my math is right then your monthly expenses are about 30 x 1350 + 6000, approx 46000b which is in the ballpark of the OP. But you are spending on different things.

Throwing in a bit more for solid health insurance and maybe occasional trips home 70k seems good for a comfortable single existence in Bkk. Well, that's a target at least.

Only thing left would be to delouse Thainess and get him to share the key to bedding babes for free.

lopburi3 is correct. I'll try to give more details:

From the lobby level of the VM BTS station take the exit toward the monument, away from Century Plaza (sorry, don't know the number). Keep walking till the walkway bifurcates. Go left, down the stairs, keep walking in the same direction (you're circling the monument) and climb the pedestrian overpass to cross the street. All this took about 10min. from the station.

On the other side, for about 200m. are several pharmacies stocking pretty much everything at wholesale prices. E.g., a skin cream I use is 800+b. at Watsons, 600 in that area.

Good luck and stock up.

Very useful, JayBird, thanks for posting. I am wondering though about health insurance which seems to be mandatory in this country especially for foreigners. I know you work out but that's not quite insurance against the proverbial rogue bus.

Methinks the clerk wasn't thinking about the bottle at all. He was slowly edging away from the OP who sounds like a scary wild-eyed brat.

In the meantime you could put a lockable sleeve on the handle. I saw the folks in the apt. next to mine put that gizmo on when they went out - guess they were paranoid about maids etc. getting in. Again Homepro I would guess.

Thermae: As scout says the girls are mostly into oriental guys. But what they really are into is money so if you have enough they'll go. It helps to speak Thai there as the girls tend to have zero English. Of course, if you are a hamsum Japanese dude all sins are forgiven.

Mixx: FL heaven: Thai, Russian, Colombian, African, Vietnamese, ...

Climax: Poor man's Mixx. And watch out for the ladyboys as they let (or at least used to let) even preops in, so your proud catch of the night might spring a, er, large surprise.

Honorable mention: Levels, Bossy, Shock 39, Spicy.

I don't think you have to watch your drink at any of these places. Think about it: what would someone gain by knocking you out in a club with a hundred people in it? If you are new though don't run a tab, pay as you go and do count your change (I have run into a couple of bad apple cashiers). That's it. Relax and have fun which is the whole point of going to a club.

Do write a trip report.

One word: Samsonite. Mine is 23 years old and I have no doubt if I had been on MH370 it would have washed up entirely intact on a Mozambique beach by now. Bad I know but that's how good they are.

The US will be a great place to live and work, especially work, after Trump has been in office 3-4 years.

They will need to build a yuuge beautiful wall to keep the American people from fleeing if the jackas gets anywhere near the WH.

Some weeks ago walking to a BTS station I passed obviously a mother and her young daughter. They looked perfectly respectable and middle-class, the mother dressed conservatively in a long dress and blouse and the daughter in jeans and tee top. Except the girl's top said in the front "Eff off you lousy Wannkers". All spelled out correctly.

Clearly, they didn't know what it meant. And I guess neither did friends or family who might've told them. Neither did I notice any other passerby doing a double take. For most Thais English is just a lot of noise. Which is perfectly good to make names from because you really don't want a name to mean anything.

E.g, if your name were Hansuman Smith but you look like Chris Farley, then you're going to be ribbed a fair amount. On the other hand, if it was Larmuk Smith no one would care, at least in the US.

Show the pic around in Chatuchak. There are lots of wooden furniture shops there. You should be able to find what you need.

I found 1 on 1 to work best for me. Btw, you've probably figured out already that reading is pretty much mandatory in order to nail the pronunciation. And for this you really want 1 on 1 with a tutor who's right across you running her finger along the lines as she reads them and listens when it's your turn.

I found tutors on Craigslist and TV classifieds. All should do a free first lesson to see if you click. Good luck.

the thing which I'm trying to figure out for the peace of mind is even though they want us yet they don't want us..a foreigner can't own land in Thailand even to make a house but if that foreigner makes a company then there are ways that he can..i might be the only one but it doesn't make any sense to me..

Pretty standard. Even the USA had (has) a rule that if you invest $X (high 6 figures I think) you'll get a long-stay visa. Australia, UK too I believe. And, of course, Thailand would prefer visitors who shop at Central Embassy rather than Big C so a visa regime skewed that way is understandable.

And it makes sense they don't want to open up their land to foreign buyers as then Thais would be priced out. But there's ways around all of this and you might be making a bigger deal of the visa issue than it deserves.

Why Thailand? Well, if you have to ask then I doubt any amount of explaining will be convincing. Like choosing a partner. Do you go X is 7/10 in intellect, 8/10 empathy, 6/10 humor, ..., for a total of 77/100, while Y is ..., Z is ..., so I will go with ...?

Nah, you fall in love. Most of us who've lived here awhile are in love with the place. Of course, like all old couples there are days we're totally pissed with the object of our

affections and near to blows, but the next we're back at it like rabbits. Also it's allowed in this part of the world to sneak off for a quickie with Singapore or VN or Bali.

In a BJ bar. She was so good that before the finale I reached down, parted the curtain, said hi and proposed. We've lived together happily ever after. Of course, she's stopped working at the bar but hasn't stopped working if you get what I mean, heh, heh, wink, wink.

Strange, I just saw 3 of them lined up on the corner of Rangnam street and Pahonyothin street near Victory Monument BTS yesterday.

But I did not notice what they were selling. Maybe just food and juice?

Those would be the ones in front of the Century Mall. Fast food and beverages, including alcoholic. There's plenty of seating too laid out on the cemented yard and fairly loud music. Seems like a pleasant place to shoot the breeze and quaff a few.

Your looking for levi 505's They are the same as the famous 501's but with a zipper. Wranglers make them as well. Both are full Fit. Don't about them being sold here though.

Lazada sells the 501s online - click -so they must be available in stores here as well.