testaccio

I have had them standing a metre away, for a good 30 minutes just waiting for the glass to empty or something or other.

1 metre is in my face, I like a private dinner with a girl, not a girl and a waiter close enough to reach into my pocket himself.

At one particular place I had 3 sniffing around, I will tip but a little distance is nice.

Let's be realistic, it has nothing to do with service or being polite, they are on the prowl like Hyenas.

I often tell them to move away a bit, don't stand so close, worse are the flower people who try to make you look bad If you don't by A rotten rose picked up from the florists trash can.

Worse still are the Indians peddling peanuts with their unwashed hands that have wiped their ass, they come to your table and need a minimum of 20 "no sorry I don't want any peanuts" before they even start thinking about moving, finally you have to abuse them to get them on their way.

I saw a guy in Bangkok with an I am not an ATM shirt on, Classic, I want one.

If your not my wife or children, keep your hand in your pockets, I'm not feeding the vultures, do me right however as far as service is concerned and I will throw you a bone, Thats service mind you not begging like behaviour.

Seems it only happens to selective few.

So do we look generous or cheap (they want to force something out of us because they think we won't tip)?

English,Thai, Malay, Swedish. Found Swedish the most difficult to acquire conversational skills in, go out to dinner with people and they would all talk in English out of consideration for me. Stumble over a few words in a shop or a gas station and the assistant would smilingly switch to perfect English . Never even considered trying to learn Dutch for the same reasons.

Currently trying to learn Vietnamese ahead of an upcoming trip just for fun, it seems to occupy the same filing cabinet in my brain as Thai so when I'm searching for a word it's the Thai equivalent that comes out rather than English....sure that's really going to help ! I'm murdering the tones I know but I believe that in a difficult language it's better to gain vocabulary rather than tone accuracy. Having said that my teacher has warned me that if I'm going to order pork in a restaurant I have to do it in English to stop the waitress wetting her pants, apparently it's in her pants where my pronunciation of the Vietnamese word for pork is located

Who said learning languages isn't fun ?

What made you learn Swedish?

I like to drink but I've found I spend everything in my pocket by the end of the night. So, I just take a very small amount with me. I buy 6 beers and that's that. Usually I don't remember anything after that anyways so why spend more.

I remember I once spent 8,000 baht on drinks alone one night out a couple years ago. Never even remembered anything from that night. It was a huge waste.

If you don't remember anything does that also mean that you get completely wasted? After just 6 beers? You can consider yourself lucky then.

I think the OP is specifically annoyed at the waiters hovering around the table?

I agree with harrry, it's sufficient to leave your tip in the wallet / or plate then walk out. If he or she was standing with their hand out that would be off putting, but I can't think of ever seeing that.

It's not that it's annoying, I just wasn't used to it. It happened wherever I went. Bangkok, Pattaya, Chiang Mai etc.

Well I for one have no idea what the OP topic even is.

I ask for the bill, give them money, they bring me change, then I leave some money in the tray or on the table depending on the kind of place how good the service was etc.

If there's ever anyone "hanging around" I can't say I've noticed, and doubt it would be specifically for the tip.

One thing I have noticed (and complied with) about Thai manners in this area you should never ask for the bill and then stick around, it's a clear signal that you are on your way out the door and they should clear everything off the table.

People who order everything that they want all at once and ask for the bill while they're still eating or even just hanging about for a post-prandial chat will certainly confuse the *@ out of the Thais, and I could see this leading to confusion.

But maybe I just don't understand the question?

Seems like you understood it afterall! Thanks.

You guys totally misinterpreted this thread.

Not really .. just that a few of the longer term members ... men who have been here many years have seen this question asked time and time again.

Since you are a newbie ... and BTW ... welcome to the Forum ... you won't know that.

To tip ... or not to tip ... that is the question.

Tipping is seen by many here as bad because it's an Americian custom which has been introduced to Thailand and is now so ingrained ... it is almost expected ... rather then given.

Some Thai's Tip ... some do not.

Some Westerners tip ... some do not.

As they say in the Classics ... up to you ...

.

Good God.

You guys totally misinterpreted this thread.

One of many reasons why many waiters are waiting at the table, is because sometimes they get a "tip in hand" in addition to what is in the general tip.

You know what I mean by a "tip in hand" ?

A tip that goes into the waiters pocket?

Also, thanks to those who actually answered the question.

Who said giving a tip is wrong? I just want to learn Thai customs.

I was just wondering about this. Do they only do this to foreigners? Or is it commong in Thailand. From my experience it doesn't have to do with the quality of the restaurant and sometimes it doesn't happen.

It's not that I have anything against it, although it was uncomfortable in the beginning.

Give it to someone who needs it.

I met a friend on Koh Samed who kept saying "Veri dilicious" if the food was good. Thought that was kind of adorable.

Thanks for the info, rgs. The motorcycle song was really good.

By the way I just remembered another melody, but I think it's a different song.

A guy singing, again, "pa-ta-ta-ta pa-ta-ta-ta" in a pause manner, like he's pausing the song and then starts singing again regularly.

You really need to find a Thai to help you with your fixation on a particular instance of a particular version of a particular song in a genre I suspect no one here cares about.

You might even get them to help you for free.

Don't try to tell me there aren't a lot of Thais in Sweden; there are also thousands with decent levels of English waiting to chat with you on dozens of dating sites.

Best of luck with your mission. . .

I'm on it. But don't be so pessimistic, sure people care about this genre! The flying kite song was another one that had slipped my mind but I was really digging it when I was there. So it hasn't been all in vain!

Cheer up, bud!

Pretty intense sunset.

It's songs like this but it should have that "aaaaAAAA" climax. It's really distinctive when you hear it. And it might be a bit faster paced song.

I don't know if I'm mixing two songs together but right after the "aaaaaAAAA" climax he presumably starts singing again like regular sentences but it sounds "twitchy". Like it's not smooth more "du-du-du-du-duuu".

Flying a Kite?

They played this song as well! I think we're getting closer!

It's called "Plaeng Dueb" and the band is called "bPohng Lahng Sah Ohn"

I couldn't find anything on google.

"u jokin me?"

-

No the problem is there's no standard for transliteration from the canonical version of these names - in Thai script - to English roman script.

The ones I used are phonetic, trying to express how it sounds to a NES, no idea what the band/publisher uses, sorry.

Don't you have a Thai you can get on Skype, or maybe someone here can get their SO to do a little Thai language googling. . .

I see. Is it these guys though? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_XbtjZmqUE Their name is Pong La Sa On.

I could, be the only thing I remember from the song is the "aaaaaAAA". It's infuriating that I don't remember anything else of it. It's going to be comedical on Skype.

It's called "Plaeng Dueb" and the band is called "bPohng Lahng Sah Ohn"

I couldn't find anything on google.

"u jokin me?"

Does this help you at all, op?

Not with my initial request, no it didn't.

But I found other 'use' for it, so thank you.

I've got no idea, but I'm sure others will with that excellent description.

I know. But just post some thai disco/classic and it just might be the one I'm looking for!

Hey all, I'm searching for a song I heard regularly in Pattaya. More notably I Bar on Walking Street. I'm aware this is going to be quite hard because I've asked some thai friends and they haven't got a single clue. They don't live in Pattaya though which makes me think it's a Pattaya song specifically.

Anyhow. The little explanation I can give is that there's a guy singing and when he pitch higher and higher the thai girls in the club (the actual club) screams like crazy.

They usually play it along with Playgirl - Zom.

It's presumably someone of a casanova persona singing because of all the girls screaming like crazy when he sings higher and higher.

It could be in the same style as this song

but imagine a guy singing "aaaaaaAAAA" higher and higher and the ladies in the club responds by screaming.

Anyone?

I'm home in Sweden now and need to relive this <snip>