DP25

I guess how much you're not too worried about being robbed of is a sign of your wealth.

As I usually carry roughly 2500 I know I wouldn't be very upset if that was robbed.

Not asking for it but life would go on!

For some dudes, leaving the money at home with the girlfriend would be the bigger robbery risk than keeping it in the wallet

So they have been down there for 10 years. Would be interesting to do a study as to how they survived. But the pursuit of knowledge is not really the current governments strong suit

Uhhh...tourists and locals go there and throw them food. If you haven't noticed, feeding fish is a popular past time among Thais. They can also feed on mosquito larva

Maybe they could do a study on how the fish got there instead?

Oh wait we know that one too...Thais released fish in to the pond.

Three or four thousand typically....but I have way more than that today for some unfathomable reason.

Probably just like me you ATM 20k at a time to not having to pay those 180bt all the time.

I atm 20k at a time too, but I don't carry it around in my wallet. It gets locked up back in the apartment, and I take a little from that as needed.

It's sad because people are afraid to make eye contact these days and nobody dare speak to a stranger or start a conversation.

No one wants to talk to creepy strangers on the skytrain. Thankfully we have phones now so I can more easily ignore weirdos

Probably around 1000 baht. I only eat and drink in Thai places so it's more than enough to cover the day (several if no drinking) and a night out.

Pattaya is very cheap and has 2 great gyms, I am bodybuilder also and I go to Tony's on 3rd and pattaya Tai, rooms for rent are around 3,500-8,000 a month, depends on the size you want, and there are 3 awesome beaches to choose from, food is cheap.

Living in BKK is insanely expensive, rent is about 20,000 baht

Rooms are everywhere in Bangkok for 3,500 to 8,000 too.

i'd have said, all the people dream. Every human being dreams, more or less.

But what about farang?

If they're even asking this I don't think they fully understand that Thais and foreigners are both people.

Dad needs to be spending more time around them, the kids seem to be getting their heads filled with rubbish and are growing up ignorant

But i am actually talking about my food intake .. 6 meals a day

rice/potatoes/pad thai x chicken/pork repeat 6 times .. exhausting and expensive

Where are you eating and what kind of prices? Do you cook yourself? You mentioned Ekkamai, that is just about the most expensive part of Bangkok.

wow i sure did pick a winner didn't i? Wow . Yes i live in ekamai. Full of snobs here i am noticing. It's WEIRD. Because everyone else is always smiling..

Yes i cook 5 times a day and eat out once it seems like.

chicken/pork/fish all bought from BIG C (expensive)

potatoes/rice/bananas/oatmeal/peanut butter etc (big C)

a little less expensive than the US, but nothing to write home about.

Still spending roughly 90-100$ a week on food =(

ํYou can save a bit of money buying meat at fresh markets instead of Big C, but then the quality won't be as good. In general supermarkets are not much cheaper than the US, so you can't save much money if you are already cooking at home. Food in restaurants in Thailand is where the deals are, Thai food from small local restaurants, not the places in Ekkamai. But if you're already cooking at home you're probably not going to be able to save a lot more. Try the local markets with prepared food too, you can get healthy food much cheaper than restaurants. Whole grilled chickens, steamed veggies, etc.

What you can probably save money on is rent, and on the few meals that you do eat out. Ekkamai is extremely expensive.

I don't like Pattaya, but it does have gyms and cheap places to live. Lots of options for eating too, local Thai markets, big supermarkets, cheap Thai restaurants and cheapish foreign restaurants.

But i am actually talking about my food intake .. 6 meals a day

rice/potatoes/pad thai x chicken/pork repeat 6 times .. exhausting and expensive

Where are you eating and what kind of prices? Do you cook yourself? You mentioned Ekkamai, that is just about the most expensive part of Bangkok.

Would a Vietnamese greet another Vietnamese in a Wallmart in rural Arkansas?

JT you obviously never had a Thai (ok not Vietnamese) back in your home country. You will be surprised how after you have a Thai gf all of a sudden Thais appear from nowhere and they all start to meet and greet and come to your home.

I must agree.

I brought my Thai wife to california for six years before relocating to Thailand.

My job required me to relocate several times.

Every time we moved, Thai people would find us and treat us like family, finding good jobs for my wife, showing us the best places to find real Asian food, Thai children for ours to play with.

I was amazed.

I started to jokingly refer to it as the Thai Mafia and was happy to be a member!

You were lucky.. the group that connected with my ex was not that good. Constant jealousy and comparing what husbands would give for salary to the wife and discussing ways to get more money. I am sure there are good groups but that group she came into certainly was not.

I think the difference is he was in California, which has a large number of normal Thai families, not just 'mia farang' bar girls like in many places.

Have they discovered how to make rum?

Have you heard of Sangsom?

'Thai whiskey' is actually rum

Thai ladies don't seem to regard having a sexual relationship with another man as cheating. It is is more 'the done thing' in Thailand

Celebrities do it, persons of rank do it, Thai drama reinforces it, infidelity within families is commonplace.

I think you just have to roll with the punches sometimes, especially if you love her, or have too much invested in her.

I've cheated on my girlfriends and been cheated on. It's just a fact of life here

If you really are worried take her to the Temple and ask her to tell you the truth in the presence of Buddha. She will probably be sufficiently superstitious of something bad happening to her or her family that she'll tell you the truth

Slip it in the 'tradesman's entrance' by mistake - that might bring her to her senses

my my, the farts that come outta your mouth. i feel you fancy yourself as a expert, i think not, your current gf is the player of you two, it is sad & funny you think you are in charge, oh well, another twit pretending, kinda cute :-)

Are we going to start a new thread now in which a dozen Farangs are going to state that their Thai gf/wife is somehow "different"? You don't need to be "an expert" to state the obvious.

The only thing obvious is that the horde of old pattaya sexpats 'dating' prostitutes half their age have a completely different experience than the rest of us

thai men have a much higher incidence of having a mistress and using prostitutes than most farang men

Prostitution is how most farang here meet their partners. Perhaps they are less likely to continue using them after marriage, but plenty continue to do so when they have the chance.

Unless she has English speaking coworkers that she needs to talk to about work, she is either cheating on you or fishing around for other men.

If you realize there is a problem with you, you can't be that big of a loser, as it least you still connected to reality and there is the opportunity to change yourself for the better

The biggest losers are the people in these threads blaming all their problems on Thai women, as opposed to themselves being undesirable to any woman except for large amounts of cash.

All thai woman are the same be it a teacher or a bar mole want ,want ,want but give back shit some times , not all the time and all thai woman talk up what they get from a man from the west don't believe what comes out of a thai woman's mouth .

When she opens her mouuth it is a lie some not all but I would say 70% of thai woman talk shit .

I can see how you'd think that, if the only 'teachers' you can get are hookers dressed up as one at a Pattaya beer bar.

A hooker dressed up like a teacher? White short sleeve shirt, skinny black tie, dirty black pants and athletic shoes? Well that sure would stand out.

Whatever floats your boat, but I was thinking more like the trainee teacher uniform the girls doing their internship wear. It is very hot.

All thai woman are the same be it a teacher or a bar mole want ,want ,want but give back shit some times , not all the time and all thai woman talk up what they get from a man from the west don't believe what comes out of a thai woman's mouth .

When she opens her mouuth it is a lie some not all but I would say 70% of thai woman talk shit .

I can see how you'd think that, if the only 'teachers' you can get are hookers dressed up as one at a Pattaya beer bar.

I do believe a Thai girl will choose an older man over a younger man as they automatically assume the the older men have more money. Obviously it is not always the case that the older men have more money, there are plenty of well off younger guys living in or visiting Thailand.

Even given the choice of a young handsome well off guy or an older guy, not as handsome but with the same wealth they will choose the older guy, because he would be expected to die quicker ! Money number 1, 2 ,3 4 etc. My Thai wife told me this years ago. I have been married 10 years so have a lot of experience. Have lots of friends with Thai wifes so I see everything that goes on. They are the most jealous people in the world, so jealous of friends that have more than them.

The overwhelming majority of Thai women marry someone close to their own age that makes less money than a farang English teacher, and wouldn't touch an elderly foreigner with a 10 foot pole.

That's why most foreigners are stuck with over the hill Pattaya bar girls, and not cute 25 year old office girls.

What are the complaints?

Driving on the islands is the same as on the mainland, but more drunk tourists instead of only drunk Thais

In the UK they have pound shops, where everything is a pound. Does Thailand have an equivalent?

Yes. 20 baht shops. They sell lots of cheap household items. Plates, containers, cleaning items, etc.

Just look for a big 20 on the sign in front of the shop, if it has tons of cheap plastic stuff inside you've probably found one.

Do they sell food?

Not that I've ever seen. Maybe some do. They sell stuff to store the food in, eat it with, and cook it with.