aalek85th

What country does want a ton of backpackers in their country? None. They don't spend money (compared to a normal tourist), they take up space, use infrastructure and are the types who will buy a bottle of beer at 7-11 (and sit out the front) instead of going next door to the bar and paying 30baht per bottle more. I wouldn't want them in my country either.

A tourist visa is supposed to be for travel, not for permanently living like a hobo in Thailand. So yes, Thailand doesn't want people here not spending money, like all countries they want tourists who spend money.

They think Thailand want a ton of backpackers sitting infront of 7 drinking cheap beer, same as other haters think that this is some sort of a everything-is-perfect paradise. Then they get ripped off by a hooker and a tuk tuk guy. Then they start hating. The place that had perspective to be perfect, is ... not. Same as every other country. They expect Thais and Thailand to do what they say to them to do. Just look at those retards in KSR behaving like everything here is for their amusement. This is a mentality of a average farang it seems.

What's astonishing is that these people(expats) left their homes (obviously they now think it's better there), live here, then complain. I heard one guy complain about beer being 60 baht in nana !! The guy is from US.. and complaining about beer being $2 US, in a bar.. with beautiful girls all around that he can get. For free with a little bit of an effort. Done it personally.

Moderators: Sorry for being offtopic, but sheer number of these thai bashing comments on EVERY TOPIC is just annoying. Ought to be some kind of balance by bashing haters.

When I lived on Onnut in Bangkok, I would try little places around the area as opposed to going to the tourist areas. I found one karaoke bar down the street and went there two or three times and would just sit there and drink and listen to everyone masacre songs and watch them get drunk. I was by myself and those times never had a girl sit with me. The DJ at the bar would sometimes come over and I'd give her a glass of my beer from my bottle, but that was it. At the end of the night the tab would be brought over and it was reasonable.

When I asked about the bill out of astonishment I found out that you not only pay for the drink, but for the time the girl sits with you. Literally the amount of time spent is tracked and billed to you (at least to me as a farang).

I heard about this, wondering if the Thais get the same treatment. Doubtful.

In any case... I still don't get why people go to karaoke bars or lady bars, cuz if you want a lady.. you can find with a little bit of effort.. part timer/freelancer girl .. many of them are quite nice, and take her out.. drink a couple, then go home with her. What's so interesting in karaoke bars ?

Steps to minimize the probability of getting into trouble with Thai people:

- Stay away from dodgy places too late at night

- Stay away from hookers too late at night

- Learn the language

- Make a positive attitude, make jokes and stuff often but be humble

- Get some Thai friends

... if you plan or you already live in Thailand, adjust.

You can still be beaten, probably, but this will minimize the chance of it happening, since it's not happening at a regular basis anyway.

I've been here for a year, never had ANY problems(and i'm walking around dodgy places alone quite often).. not to say that I won't have, but in every situation... kind words, humble and positive attitude and common sense helped a lot. Don't be an <deleted> to anybody, including tuk tuk driver.

Too many farangs behave as <deleted>, and show no respect for anything, then wonder why they're treated differently, beaten, cheated, ripped off .. or whatever.

Sorry was 'away' for couple of days.

Yeah. I do think, because there's no other reason. The contract did expire (this will be my fifth month how i stay here, i signed 3 months), but I showed no intention of leaving and it should be his responsibility to try to renew the contract before expiration. This now, is basically he kicking me out, since I didn't get a chance to extend the contract.

They just don't care (in these types of buildings) about contracts I think. As long as they are getting money and everything is in order.

And everything was in order, I didn't even annoy the guy to fix my hot water unit.

One guy that I met told me that he tried getting a room in similar type of building, and they told him directly that the rooms are only for Thais.

So, can't say 100 % but I'm very.. very sure it is the reason, but honestly.. I don't mind. I know I'm gonna be treated differently, and probably I should be treated differently, cuz i am different. Being a farang and all.

Anyway.. this SummerMansion looks nice, and relatively 'close' to what interests me.

I never been in HuayKwang / Ratchada area.. anyone can write few things about that area ? I'm gonna check it out myself, during daytime and nighttime..but any information is welcome.

Don't want to be stuck with a contract in middle of 'nowhere' like i've been in soi 81, where only place to buy food is Tesco and that stinking market afternoon. So some decent ... thai type bars/restaurants, street food vendors (noodle soups, etc.) are required..

Thanks.

Actually... I lived in soi 81 until 4 months ago. Won't be going to that place again, and generally ... I'm avoiding on nut for some personal reasons.

Like you said... the motorbike issue is a big one, together with the fact that there's nothing of interest there, except a 7/11. Not big fan of that market place at the beginning of the soi.

Not going to highway 81 again

Was considering ratchada, but never been there don't know what to expect. And basically... would like a thai condo again. Not a fan of farang apartment buildings.

Maybe the title is not really accurate, but it's ok.

Anyway, I got "kicked out" from my condo today. I'm living in all thai area in Victory, building is sort of a condo building... but for thai people. There are no farangs where I live, no pool, no gym, no fancy stuff.

I recently broke up with my gf, about 10 days ago.. and one of the reasons I think I got kicked out is that they don't want a farang to live in a cheap thai place (though I might be wrong here.. this is just a wild guess), but really, it doesn't matter. I have to move out during this month.

What I got now is:

- 6.5 k rent

- 3 months contract, 1 month deposit

- 10 to 15 minutes by foot to BTS

- Electricity/water at government rates

- Phone line (important for internet connection)

What I'm looking for now is .. something similar. But since finding these places is very hard unless you speak/read thai, I came here for help.

I'm willing to pay up to 8k a month, the only problem for me is deposit. I don't have enough to pay 2 months deposit + 1 month rent in advance... I mean .. I do, but I would like to avoid it if possible. Hate the deposit thing.

Any recommendations/experiences ?

Thanks in advance for all replies.

I don't get why would someone live in a tourist area (of bkk), unless he's a tourist ofc.

There are much nicer places to live, 10 minutes away from soi 11/nana by bts.

There is no:

- Rip off tuk tuk drivers

- Rip off taxi drivers

- Working girls (though, I wouldn't mind !)

- Beggars

Flats are cheap(compared to anything in nana), Food is cheap and the same or better. Drinks are a lot cheaper. It's not dirty as much. Not crawling with packs of young just-arrived for the first time tourists getting drunk, packs of people trying to sell drugs to you/scam you.. and all those other things that make tourist areas what they are. Tourist area. Get in get out.

I would go mad if I stayed there for more then couple of hours at night time.

How can one be sure that they're not buying a service from some shady cyber-criminals?

...After all, a VPN means that all your traffic goes through a single computer, so the possibility of snooping by the VPN operators should be considered.

Well, you can't really be sure in anything these days unless you do everything by yourself... although in my experience, simplest explanation is usually the right one.

I mean... all of the companies do business not 'for the people' but for the profit and 'business' itself, yeah ? So it's reasonable to think that all of these VPN companies for example are there to make money selling their service, not sniffing out peoples facebook accounts, although I agree, one should be careful with who he does business, which is exactly the reason I started this topic.

Recently, I started using VPN due to some geo blocking (can't see some yt videos or watch some american tv programming) and censorship.

Got tired of that "blocked by ministry of information" message on .. _some_ sites.

Anyway.. friend recommended me http://fivestarvpn.com because according to him, they have a really fast server in Singapore, which has good connectivity with Thailand, and since I'm in BKK .. that was fine with me (In cases I want to look some American sites, I use their american server.. which is a lot slower then Singapore one, but it's on the other side of the world so it's understandable).

Do you guys use VPN and do you have any experiences with these sort of things, and maybe some of you could write your own experiences ?

Here are my results for fivestarvpn (lazy to attach speedtest images):

Average ping to singapore server: 60ms

Average download speed from singapore: 5 Mbps (I have 3bb, 6 mbps adsl package)

Average upload speed to singapore server: 0.5 Mbps

But what's more important, youtube and everything else works nicely, so the monthly price of USD $6, feels justified.

There are plenty of Thais who hate the massive death toll on the roads here. My only Thai family have been victims of drunk driving. Are they just supposed to accept it?

Everybody has been victim of something, it's called life. Nobody said it's fair. While every death is a tragic one, it's still 'life' and there r no rules. The <deleted> about 'life is sacred' bullshit is just that.. .<deleted>.

We're here now, tomorrow we're gone.

I come from a war torn country, people killing other people (multiple nationalities in one country - so in a sense... civil war). There are people today, not accepting what happened and still hating on everybody from 'the other side'.

[irony]

Just ban songkran / people going out of the houses during songkran and all good.

While you at it, ban sugar. People are massively dying from sugar. You might as well ban 98 % of other stuff (McDonalds and crap like that comes to mind), since they are causing untimely death and/or suffering. Maybe not instantly like falling from motorbike because of lack of common sense, but don't worry. Some nasty tumor is awaiting, from the chemical experiment people are stuffing into their stomach. Don't get me started on diet coke and other diet products and .. sugary ones too.

[/irony]

If 1000 people died with 80 million people population on HUGE holiday (everybody's throwing water in the country on other people driving motorbikes and stuff) that's 0.001 percent death rate.

If it was up 2 you people, this world would be unbearably sterile place to live in.

I didn't give an advice. So there's nothing to be welcomed, but the advice should be something like - "use common sense a bit more then at non-holiday days". And that should be enough, for an advice. Unless there are 'kids' around that have difficulty understanding the term common sense. Grown up people shouldn't have any problems understanding it.

As far as hiding and running away commentary goes... ofc everybody have a right to an opinion. The point was - relax. It's a 3day long water splashing event or whatever.. so enjoy.

Good for breaking a routine a bit. And I say enjoy, not because you should, but because you don't have any other option (unless you hide/run away).

Talk about overreaction..

Couple of days before New Year, I read a post on some forum somewhere.. some guy said he won't go 'outside' during the celebration, because last time some Thai kids where throwing some firecrackers around him and his wife.

That was the most absurd thing I ever read in my life, and this Songkran topic.. (although It's understandable to take some logical precautions, like being careful on a motorbike and such) is almost the same.

I'm wondering at what time having some fun with water became a day when you not go outside or you leave the country.

No wonder people are <deleted> in the head.

This only means you will not be able to buy alcohol at those .. hours, 14-17h and .. whatever. So nothing is gonna change basically.

"According to the laws, the sale of alcoholic beverages during restricted hours and to intoxicated person as well as to minor under 20 years of age is prohibited. Violatos will be prosecuted to the full extent of law."

I caught my 15 yr-old son and his friends drinking beer at the German restaurant on Soi 11. I thought alcohol was only sold to minors at Khao San road or by the mobile sidewalk bars! I wish the laws in Thailand would be reinforced!

Well, all is not lost. Trying beer at 15 is not a terrible thing. In my country it (was) normal to drink/try at that age. Looking back 13 years now, nobody became alcoholics because of that.

Anyway... don't trying to teach you how to raise your kid, but I still remember being a kid... and keeping kids on their toes is good, but don't overdo it.

Good thing you didn't caught him 100 meters down the road, in hillary.

I would think that it has something to do with desperation. Like.. the poorer the area is - more possibility that you'll get into trouble, during certain time periods (when there are no witnesses).

Kids.. fighting, that's not a crime. It's kids.

I have a foreign card and access via internet to the "checking" account and "card account". I keep all my money on the checking account, when I want to withdraw.. I log in, transfer from checking to card account, find ATM, get all that money i transferred in cash.

So except for about 20 minutes time, my card account is always empty. On most of the ATMs the default limit is 10k, on some it's 20k.

For about a year now, never had any problems with using this technique. And scammers.. need to be pretty damn lucky to know which day at what time I'm gonna do this. I dare say - impossibly lucky.

I know this isn't suitable for everybody, but I reckon something similar could be done to drastically minimize scammers chance of getting your money. Even if they have card info/pin/whatever.

With technology, shit happens. I myself am in technology for 10+ yrs, and it's just unavoidable. There are 'bugs' in everything, either known or not known, and they're just waiting there to be triggered by some _rare_ event. First time in 10 yrs I would say.. RARE.

Thai people don't have anything to do with it. It's the nature of things, technology and progress.

Hey,

Not sure if it's right forum for this question, so mods sorry if I got it wrong.

Anyway, I never did anything like this before. I'm interested in trekking/camping.. for about .. let's say 4 or 5 days, however.. I'm not interested in any fancy/secure/comfortable BS where I get everything prepared and organized for me in such a way that the only thing i need to do is..walk and smile to the village people or whatever. Not interested in village people at all (on a activity like this), nor elephants, bikes, bird watching, etc.

I'm looking for a experience like - if you don't go out hunting/gathering and preparing the food, you don't get to eat. Don't want to buy rice on the market in city then go cook it in the forest. I'm doing something similar to that at least once a week in my own country, so I'm not in for a excursion into a forest but a opportunity to learn something valuable, historically and practically.

Group of about 4 people.. and a Thai local (guide) who can speak English.

Anybody did anything like this ? Thought about it ? Know how to get in touch with people that "organize" it ? I didn't have luck avoiding hundreds of pages on google search offering the _usual*_ trekking.

* = 2 day walk eat at the village, watch birds, maybe ride an elephant a bit or give banana to a monkey

It should be "fares", not "fare". The BTS is not a flat fare system, where "fare" would be appropriate, but a system with a multiple-fare structure, where "fares" is appropriate.

NNT should know that, but -- of course -- TIT.

Oh should it ? Aren't you a grammar nazzi.

In fact.. the TIT part seems to be just a manifestation of a deeper psychological problem.

But this is TVF hey.

And just wanted to say... if white people where in the same boat as Nigerian people are now, they wouldn't be any better.

Situations in life make people do all kind of stuff just to get some money for themselfs and their family back home. Food and water costs money, girls cost money, hospitals cost money, education costs money, so yeah.. not everything in life is about money, but without money .. you don't stand a chance.

Some people maybe don't think like this, but I'm talking from personal experience as a white guy coming from shit poor country.

It's 20x more difficult for a Nigerian guy to be legit, then it is for a "western" guy. And when it comes to BKK/Thai.. Black people are not really accepted around here, so they don't have whole lot of choice. You can always be a teacher... at least. He cannot.

And -- i have not yet met all 60 Mio Nigerians, but the ones in BKK dont leave a good name.

They don't leave a good name, and usually they're up to no good.. but the point was, they aren't aggressive. They go on about their own business, and if somebody is enjoying drugs.. it's their business. I don't care about Nigerians being up to no good.. or some guy buying and smoking weed from these guys. Everybody have the right to do whatever they want, as long as they're not hurting anybody else. That's what democracy/freedom should be all about. You live your life, I'm gonna live my life. No judgement.

So I say.. leave these guys alone.

My contact with them is sometimes they say "wassup brother" while I walk. If I see a group of them in a bar, they just sit there drink couple of beers and not mix with anybody. Why would I have any problem with that ? And why people do have a problem with that ?

These guys that where caught scamming people... I know quite a lot of white guys that where doing the same thing, even more complex and convulated than these Nigerians do/did. Some of them are still doing it, some got caught (talkinga bout floor level now).

So what if there's a bunch of Africans selling drugs in Nana. I mean... what, they're going around drugging your beer in bars or something ?

They're not hurting anybody and from what I've seen, these guy cause less 'trouble' than typical fuc_khead (average) tourist. They just sit around on the street or in the bars and minding their own business. Nobody is forcing you to buy drugs, to give them money for investment, or whatever. They're not funding terrorist cells, they're not selling drugs around schools, and so on. So why is everybody bitching about Africans in Nana ?

The capacity of people on this forum to be self-righteous and arrogant is amazing.

White people are masters of scamming, but we took it to a level which a normal person (whatever the color) can't even comprehend. The only difference is these guys are doing it by sitting publicly.. in a bar, and offering you something, and the white guys... they sit in suits in banks or pharmaceutical companies and other places and they are doing it on a global scale.

And to the guy on 2ng page .. that commented how some black guy is working illegally in some shop or whatever ... dude. Like .. at least one in 5 (white) expats here.. is working illegally. So what..

It is weird when you walk down the streets of Thailand and half of the restaurant/whatever signs are in Russian. It seems to me Russians have a tendency to do this.. to buy stuff in this manner.

Reason i'm saying this is not only Pattaya, but I've seen couple of other cities and even countries where Russian billboards are everywhere.. like.. Montenegro for example.

It's not like you can see Swiss/French/Whatever billboards.. or ads. Even if the owner of some restaurant might be Swiss, they're still internationally oriented. As opposed to the Russians who are clearly Russia only oriented. They are aware that less then 1 % of people can read cyrilic, and even if they can read the letters, they still don't know Russian words.

No, no, no. CLEARLY shows the ignorance and myopic ethnocentristic views of the newbie writer who either has no clue what he is writing about and is filtering accounts through his preconceived idea of how things "are". CORRECTLY stated, it should read:

"Most prostitutes in Pattaya are not working against her or his will and that the decision to work in the red-light district is typically encouraged by friends and family.

Imagine reading something like this somewhere in Europe, or looking at it at TV. - Millions of girls in Thailand work as bar ladies, on their own free will.. and they like it.

Generally, I noticed.. that people who don't live in Thailand have no idea what 'thai hookers' are all about. The picture that comes to their mind when you mention term 'hooker' is some filthy hidden underground brothel fuc_k knows where, where girls are abused on daily basis and forced to do their job. Or .. Amsterdam. And they come here with this misconception.

If this pretend-to-be-journalist actually explored Thailand bar girl scene he would know what they're all about, instead of writing this crap.. or maybe it's not acceptable for his audience to read the truth.