keestha

You could look into Koh Kaw Kao in between Khao Lak and Takua Pa. Resorts are concentrated mainly at the southern tip of the island, at beaches elsewhere not a soul in sight. Hardly any traffic, so suitable for young children. But it is not a place where there is very much to do.

Prices, I assume quoted in Aussie Dollars (25.52 Baht), seem very low indeed.

If somebody solicits answers to a practical question, he should thank or at least dispense a like or two when he gets useful replies.

But if someone just starts a discussion (like the OP in this thread), I don't think he is under any obligation to chip in again, you assume he'll be reading everything. Happened to me also that I started a thread with a statement which generated a lot of replies, and soon people commented on me not posting again, so I felt kind of forced to reappear on the scene, though I didn't really feel the need to make any additional statements.

Sometimes people who are in a vulnerable phase of their life are posting, seeking guidance for personal problems. I tend to admire their courage, exposing themselves so much in a public forum. But then the keyboard tigers pounce on them mercilessly, and soon they withdraw into their shell.

Sorry for maybe going off topic. But good things can arise from free flowing conversation.

One recurrent theme is this thread seems to be that Thai people have become less friendly (maybe a good idea for another poll?).

If people ask me if in my opinion Thai people have become less friendly, I really don't know what to say.

Of course the Thais react to me in a different way than in the beginning, I settled in Thailand when I was 37 and now I am 61. Women find you less charming etc.

Also somehow in your beginning days you radiate enthusiasm and curiosity about the country which becomes less later on. The novelty of speaking Thai also wears off, in the beginning you are glad when people understand you, but later it is more like you are irritated when they don't.

If you really think that Thai people have become less friendly, difficult to say if you are the reason yourself, or that something really changed.

My experience is mainly with foreigners coming to Thailand and starting small businesses, I fit in this category myself.

Late eighties/early nineties, it was not so difficult to make money with a bar, restaurant, guesthouse or travel agency. Thai people still didn't know how to run a business geared for western customers. Simple example: my first business was a guesthouse/restaurant/bar I started in Hua Hin in 1994. The first 2 years, I sold like 25 breakfasts per day, Thai people still didn't know how to make simple western food. But after 2 years, they had discovered it is not so hard to fry eggs and toast bread, and I was down to 5 breakfast per day, just the people staying in my guesthouse.

Nowadays when the tourism starts developing somewhere, Thai people will flock in right away and open farang geared businesses.

The growing beach resort where I have been residing since 2000, I have seen westerner run restaurants, bars, diving schools, travel agencies and guesthouses come and go, tough luck with high rents and lots of competition.

By the way nice survey Scott, I appreciate what you're doing, keep them going.

If you live in Thailand permanently, it is better to have a non prepaid SIM anyway. Suits me perfectly to get billed by the month, can pay between the 15th and the 29th.

Smoking inside the room prohibited or discouraged, more people might tend to step outside on the balcony, cigarette in one hand and a bottle of beer in the other one. The balcony is not a place for partying, and even in places like hospitals the railings are often too low.

All of India has the same time zone, so in the Andaman islands far to the East the sun rises at 5.00, and the sun sets at 17.30.

Sigh.....at least the elephant sea walking did not reappear.

So this guy receives 199,000 real baht, but calls the police for 1000 fake? Why not just refuse the one bill and tell him to go back to the bank?

It defies logic and reason.

Anyone else would reject the single note and tell him to get another one from his wallet in order to avoid losing the 200k Baht sale.

Maybe the gold shop owner was afraid at least part of the other 199 notes were just better fakes. I think gold shops are very much aware of counterfeit notes, people using them to buy gold which can be exchanged for real notes at any other gold shop. How often does a shop like that make a 200k sale, makes alarm bells start ringing.

I choose the name Kimberley for my daughter, knowing that Kim, which it inevitably becomes anywhere, is easy to pronounce for Thais.

Would have hated a nickname like Toy or Nok or Moo or whatever.

Some Farang names are really unpronounceable for Thais, for instance if you don't like nicknames you shouldn't call your son Raoul.

-They leave because they have never adjusted well in their own country.

-They are fleeing personal problems, such as family, financial or legal.

These two seem to be pretty close to each other. The guy ended up in a shitty personal situation, sure, maybe because he never adjusted well in his own country.

What I have seen, is that many people come to Thailand with imported problems, especially drinking too much.

I saw so many people starting businesses, especially restaurants/bars/guesthouses/travel agencies. Only a small minority of them I reckon could have become successful doing business in their own country.

During my bar owner days, I had kind of an understanding with a pair of "musicians" (old couple, one of them blind if not pretending) who stopped in front of my place sometimes, that I would go outside to give them a small tip, and they moving on then straight away. Better than them staying a long time there annoying the customers, and maybe even going inside.

Possibly bad ice in drinks they shared earlier. More common than bad food IMHO.

Why do you think bad ice is more common than bad food?

Reminds me of an incident in Hua Hin when I lived there a long time ago. There was a local magazine written in English, which also had some ads in German. The people putting the magazine together obviously didn't know German, a German bar owner submitted an ad mentioning "Fassbier", which is draught beer, but in the ad it appeared as "Fussbier", which would mean foot beer. The German bar owner took it lightly though, he considered it to be a funny mistake, and even told me it brought people to his bar, who came in requesting to have a try on the foot beer.

More serious was the case of a Thai run bar trying to advertise in German. They wanted to say "welcome to our clean atmosphere" (they meant no hookers I think), but out came "welcome to our sour atmosphere". (The difference between "sauber" meaning clean, and "sauer" meaning sour). The British owner of the magazine doubled with laughter when I told him about this, it had been in there for years.

Roads are the most dangerous when it has just started raining, stuff like leaves and leaked oil still being on them. After a heavy shower the road will be clean.

Sorry I don't have a link. I googled and found a PDF, but it wouldn't let me save it.

PDF easily found, you have to scroll down a lot before getting to the actual list. Some puzzling results, like Israel (number 11) being happier than Austria and Luxembourg.

If I look at the list I get the feeling that happiness has to do with how much money you have.

My first thought, but how come Singapore comes out as number 24?

In general, surveys are often contradicting each other or just fully incorrect, and are getting too much publicity. Some results I remember: Ao Nang a well kept secret, one of the best beaches in the world. Cost of living in Italy barely higher than in Thailand.

Air Asia tickets can also be paid for at the 7/11, you make the booking online and then you have to pay within I believe 3 hours.

Was not sure where to post this. Decided against posting in General, because I don't really want to start a discussion which might very well go off topic pretty soon, meandering all over the place. It is more that I want to give the Admin/Tech team an idea for a possible new feature.

Would it be possible to create interactive maps (one Thailand map and one world map) , members click on their city/ampher (Thailand map) or country (world map) and on the maps the total numbers are shown. Of course everybody should be allowed to click only once, and the feature should be pinned.

Maybe Phuket News makes for nice reading to relax a bit, but the word "news" in its name seems to be misleading. Phuket Tidbits?

Some Thai spoken by farangs is only understood by experienced bar ladies. Like the guy ordering "song chang", she understands he wants two Chang beers, but what he is really saying is "brothel technician".

The owner of Lazy Republique told us that there is no such thing as a private beach on Koh Chang and that all beaches are public and no one could deny us entry. We took note of that and visited some other resorts where we would just walk in and to the beach and sit around a bit.

According to Thai law, all beaches are public. But sometimes a beach is only accessible through a resort, which of course can refuse you entry. But if you would go to that beach by boat, there would be nothing they could do legally.