Vegemite

You know,

people from N.Z and Oz like savoury or salty snacks.

Vegemite is just one of them.

In Thailand, I have trouble finding snacks with a salty taste.

Allmost all snacks seem to be sweetened in some way.

You cant beat some salty peanuts with a cold beer

Moved from the Thai Food forum to the Western food forum as no self-respecting Thai person would eat this stuff

Here are a couple of pics of self-respecting Thais trying that stuff.

They weren`t very keen on it, but that could have been because they were allready full of raw beef and fermented fish.

In my BF's village, home cooking is done outside on a charcoal fire. I am considering buying a propane gas stove for us and his family to use.

Is there a range of stoves available in Issan? What price range? Any suggestions?

Peter

Hello,

the wife says that the small one burner type cookers are about Bht 800 -1000 plus gas bottle about Bht 500 - 800. thats the one in the pic if you can make it out.

Is anyone familiar with the village Baan A Hi? It is in Loei province near the Laos border. I am interested if any expats live in that area and what the living conditions for an expat would be like in such a small village. My girlfriend would like me to come and live with her there.

Thanks for you help

Dont think it really matters about the specific village. Village life in most small Isaan villages is similar.

I've been to my b/f's small village (in Yasothan) many times. Usaully stay for 5 or 6 days at a time. Thats all I can take. I enjoy my creature comforts too much. You know, hot shower, sitting when taking a dump instead of sqatting, & Isaan food is much too spicy for me.

Bought the b/f his families house, who have lived in the village for generations. Family was having financial problem, so rather than just giving them the mony, they agreed to sell me the house, which they still live in, but put it in my b/f's name so now its still in the family, have retained a long term lease on the house so still have some control over the situation.

as far as living there full time, not sure if can do. without installing Western amenities in house. That might make it livable full time.

But in reality, in these small villages there is nothing to do except:

EAT

DRINK

SLEEP

F##CK

THATS ONLY MY OPINION.

Dont forget,

you can wake up at 5.30 with the chickens and watch the buffalo and ox go past.

Is anyone familiar with the village Baan A Hi? It is in Loei province near the Laos border. I am interested if any expats live in that area and what the living conditions for an expat would be like in such a small village. My girlfriend would like me to come and live with her there.

Thanks for you help

Hello tscor

my wife has big plans for me to live in her family village. We would be there tomorrow if she had her way.

I have only been to the village a couple of times.

The first trip there was like an adventure for me because, to be sure, I had never seen or experienced anything like that before.

The second trip was really because I had to for the family. Nothing had changed or probably ever will other than a new house or two.

The ' adventure ' had lost its potency and I was bored after the first day.

Nobody spoke english and there was/is no farang food for miles, a big issue for me. I respect any and all those people that can live in a small Thai village out in the sticks. I dont know how they can do it. I guess you have to be a certain type of person and maybe you are.

The people that live in these small villages are just the nicest folk but they live a different life to me.

Maybe when I am really old, and I am getting there very fast, I may change my mind. But for now if I am going to live in Thailand it is going to be somewhere in or close to a city that has some creature comforts and farang food.

All the best.

done.

Chownah

the point that everybody seems to be missing here is that, no matter which filter medium you use,without OXYGENATION the AEROBIC BACTERIA-( the one we are trying to cultivate, and this bacteria is heavily dependent on oxygen to do its job correctly ), will die. the idea is to have as much of the bacteria exposed to as much of the BACTERIA-not just the media- as possible.

almost all the media suggested by posters here are good. sure, the larger the surface area the more bacteria can be accommodated,and the more water can come into contact with the bacteria, and this is very important but oxygenation is critical.

you will find big paddlewheels on some of the rivers,canals and ponds in thailand.(i am not talking about the ones they use in the shrimpfarming industry). these are used to stimulate the growth of aerobic bacteria to clean up the contaminated water. this system i have seen all over-from the canals in korat to a huge one in the pond in lumpini park,bankok, and they work in the absence of commercially available filter media,although they would obviously be more effective if they did use media.

it is also very important to use a system comprised of different,seperate chambers.as,depending on nutrient load,the first stage can change over between nitrification and denitrification and back. forget the expensive commercially available medium-each supplier claims his is the best and what is best for your situation is the one which does the job for you and fits your budget and available space. even professional filter suppliers disagree on which system is best- some push the trickle tower concept and others tell you this is not a good system and that a three chambered system is necessary.

i suggest you experiment with what is available. the bottlecaps,broken pvc pipes, sand,stone,broken pottery shards etc all will work well. coconut husk will probably be good too, but most media seems to be made of inorganic material , although i read an article claiming that sphagmum moss had tested as the finest medium available.

good luck,

frikkie

[

/quote]

This is a subject that really interests me.

We have land close to the local lake up northeast and I have run this idea past the wife before now.

How do I learn more?

I love fishing. Been a passion of mine since I was a kid, and would love to try out some of the rivers in Isaan. So have anyone tried it?

I have seen a local or two with fishing rods, so I guess it is possible..

I guess my much better looking and intelligent half would think her farang has completely lost it if I try, but bringing my ultra light rod next time I come over. The thing fits in my suitcase, so no problem.

So if you see a bunch of people having a ball watching the ting tong farang trying to catch fish, stroll over and have a chat. Might be a beer in it for you :-)

I'll be somewhere north of Buri Ram in mid April.

have been a fishing fanatic for years and have held a few ultra-light records for years in south africa. fishing in isaan was a huge anticlimax (almost) wherever there is a likelihood of there being good fishing in public waters,you will find gillnets etc strung about and mostly the fishing is lousy. there are many very exciting fish species in thailand and some of them grow to huge proportions. only place you get good fishing opportunities seems to be in the "fishing parks, where good gamefish seem to attain huge proportions,and are not readily taken out by the locals who do not use reels with brake (drag) systems and then simply get snapped off by anything weighing over half a kilo. you can find these parks all over isaan- my favourite was one on the way out of khorat (nakon rachassima) on the road coming back out of town from macro going back to the "superhighway". just a few hundred metres before the traffic lights on the main road in the city, there is a small sign, which leads you around the back of a used car sales place to a small impoundment, where i was very happy to catch and release a 15kg "blah sawaai"- a beautiful and hard-fighting fish,-have never caught a freshwater fish of that size displaying that much speed and staying power! another very exciting species is the torpedo-shaped bla-shon, which i rank as one of the hardest fighting of all the freshwater fish i have ever caught. hope you find a good spot, really sad to have to go to a park to have a shot at a good fish, but that seems to be one of the realities of life in thailand. dont worry about the tingtong thing- they watched me using a flyrod off the coast of kho tao and laughed like hel_l until i started catching fish on a large popper made from an old thai "flipflop" sandal.

regards and wishing you "tight- lines" ,

frikkie

Hello Frikkiedeboer ( thats a hel_l of a name, did you have problems at school? )

I love fishing as well but I have only fished for salt water fish in New Zealand.

Tried trout fishing for a while with flies but only did well harling " dragging a fly behind a boat at low speed ".

When I am upcountry, there is quite a large lake not far away that supplies water to the village and for the small gardens.

The village is God aweful boring and I walk around the lake now and then and look for fish. They tell me that there are some BIG ones in there, up to 9kgs.

Tilapia, catfish and some other fish ( or two ) that they cant translate.

What I want to know is, how do you catch these things?

I read another post from someone that is really keen and he used a mixture of chicken and dough. But he only went to the pay to fish type ponds.

Do you use a rig that sinks to the bottom or floats somwhere near the top?

Are poppers and spinners effective?

Floats?

I would be greatfull for any advice because I am quite happy to sit by any type of water with a line in it and a few bottles of Leo. But I enjoy catching the things.

Thanks.

Here are a couple more.

Kaeng Saphue with some Rapids and fish markets selling all types of dried fish.

And Sirinthon Dam on the way back to Ubon, we stopped for some ( more ) food.

It is a great part of Thailand for anyone thinking of heading that way.

Great little plafce there. I have been to Khong Chiam quite a few times now. Some great restaurants along the riverside. Last time I went was to a floating restaurant and had a great time. If you pay one of these guys with the longboats about 300 baht they will take you across the river to a small village where they have a very nice small market with some unbelievable low prices for goods.

The wife and I got offered that trip across the river and we would have gone, but the local Thais that we were with said it was to dangerous for me. Maybe because I had no visa for Laos.

Do you know of any problems like this?

Just a few pics taken from or around Khong Jiam east of Ubon.

Great little place to stay if anyone is thinking of heading out that way.

Chong Mek, a border crossing to Laos is just down the road (25kms) for anyone that way inclined.

Laos in the background in most of the pics, look for the mountains, and one pic n a bridge over the Mun (moon) river. Second largest in Thailand.

You might ask Mike at the Pasinee in Korat. He is getting Beer Laos from a distributor/wholesaler somewhere in Bangkok. He came back with 100 cases a couple of weeks ago. Had a "few" myself in Korat yesterday (bottles not cases ). Nice beer.

I didnt realise that there were two types of Bia Loa.

In Laos recently I tried a dark brew made by them and it was very good.

It does work but it does test the ring piece first time.

Very good.

Nearly pissed myself laughing.

Well said.

over the past 6 months i noticed a drastic "flavor" change on any mekhong whixkey that is marked later the year 43(44. 45).....also the the intoxiczting properties of these bottles (above 43 produce massive hangover). any info? is it because of the aging process? no need to hear for you schmendicks who drink johnnie...i have a stable whose been drinkin the mekkong for years with goodresults...mekhong drinkers need only reply

The quality of Mekhong was always a hit and miss thing, luckily about 30 years ago I was taught how to build a still and have been making my own Lao khao ever since,and here in sunny Queensland stainless steel home stills are readily available on the market, so you can forget your johnny walker, my 5 year old sippin whisky is real smooth and fantastic quality and at 2 dollars a litre to produce who needs Mekhong Nignoy

O.K!

So I just have to know whats in and how they/you make Lao Khao.

It tastes like paint stripper to me and I cant understand how the upcountry Thais can drink so much of it straight and warm.

I even bought a bottle of the stuff back to N.Z. just to let my friends try. They didnt even get through half a small bottle and they are mildly professional drinkers.

A couple said that it tasted a bit like Teqila/Tiqeela/Taquela........ You know, That Mexican stuff made from cactus.

Is it distilled sticky rice?

I have a friend who is planning to travel to Veitnam at the end of the year to meet his daughter who has travelled extensively.

Neither he or his wife have ever been to Asia.

I know for sure that my friend wont have a problem as he is a bit of an adventurer even at 60 yo. but his wife is not that way inclined and I worry that the wife may want to put an end to a planned 5 week holiday, early.

I have told him that maybe a week in Bangkok to ease into Asian culture and climate may be better than direct to Veitnam.

Does anyone have any advice that I can hand on to him?

He wants to look around and check out some of the more remote areas or even smaller cities or towns.

Are there any websites such as Thaivisa with a Veitnam bias?

Thanks for any help.

So is merely splashing your anus sufficient in removing the left overs on ur arse or do you attempt to use your wet left hand as toilet paper

You just do the best you can. If you have been there for a few weeks or months or years, you just have to go with the flow.

I have found ( and I am definately no expert ) that if I just forget all that stuff that Mother taught me about almost everything it all goes quite well.

The Thais upcountry are really clean people. God knows how they manage to keep thier clothes so clean when they are walking around in the dust and chicken/ox/buffalo shot but they do.

They are great people and the toilet thing is just something we have to accept.

No toilet paper in the pic.

hello everyone, im new to this forum, so hello! ive been here for a few years now and have been eating sticky rice from day one! what does everyone think of sticky rice vs the good old spud? or other side dishes?

Sticky rice seems to be a really good way of cleaning the fingers. Gets stuff out of all of the pores.

I took some spuds into the village this trip and made some bubble and squeak.

Not quite the same as the English way.

Boiled, then fried with some garlic, onion, bacon,coriander and dill.

I didnt take enough of the things because everybody in the wifes family wanted to try some. It was big news.

They really loved it. Even the old father in law ate every last morsel ( with a fork)

I tried them on a few other foods as well. Mainly good feed back but alas, not the Vegemite.

The village people have never seen let alone tried tasty morsels like spuds.

Do you think maybe it is a case that standards start to slip when the level of foreigners occupying the hotels drops? I have noticed this before at a few places in Ubon including pizzahut to name one other place to eat. Eating at places in Ubon can be a bit hit and miss. Sometimes you go and have a good meal and other times not. Could be thru' change of chef or other management staff that leads to the food not being so good. The Thais can't tell the difference so the restaurants keep churning the food out to the same low standard because it rarely gets noticed and they can charge same high price.

We started to notice a change of service in Ubon in the early 90,s and it has been on a downward spiral ever since, it seems as the number of tourists grows, so the standard of service and attitude towards them drops, now for us its just a town to pass through on our way to the village Nignoy

We were in Ubon last week after a short ( but a bit to long ) stay in a place called Warin, south of Ubon proper.

The TAT people were so helpful and gave us maps and info on everything. It has to be the best TAT office in Thailand and all for free!

I had quite a lot of trouble finding farang food. I was desperate for something that even looked like real food or even Thai food for that matter,

Big C had only KFC and The Wrong Way Cafe behind which we stayed, didnt open until 2pm.

Ubon is quite beatifull and the Mun river is a nice place to hang out.

Could have spent more time there for sure but we were running out of time.

Vegemite

TAT Service is always free or should be free, I have to say never use them but as per ppl who has they say the same it's nice office and gals there are friendly.

Regarding the farang food, there is not so much to offer specially during morning's,, excpt Laithong(limited now days) and Nevada hotel might have some, i know that both of them offering buffee style BFast's.

KFC opens at 10am as you mentioned, Lotus, Big-C & Robinsson has KFC, NO McDonnalds in Ubon or any other fast food chain,, nicely blocked by KFC guy here....

You stayed in Warin? But Wrong way is not in waring,, it's just off from "So called" Ubon center, that TAT office i think what you mentioned was by the fire department and if so that is so called"China town", but still in Ubon side,, ones you cross the bridge you enter to Warin side.

Hello Marco,

we stayed at Warin for several days at a brand new block of serviced apartments called something like Orathai Mansion. It was half way between Warin and the next place to the south. The apartments were great with air con, shower, TV, security and everything that you could ask for. Except; food ( only Issan )- tuk tuks or taxis there were non, we were a full kilometer from the nearest main road selling " Issan food " and the walk was long in 40deg.

I found the Wrong Way Cafe had very good food when we moved from Warin to Ubon and met some nice people there. The rooms behind were O.K. but the cockroaches in the bathroom were quite breathtaking. No smoking but the cockroaches are free to come and go.

I liked Ubon and my visit was far to short this time.

Will try to put pic of Orathai Mansion, Warin.

Hello Vegemite, Marco, and Bergen if you made it home okay after all that beer and pool playing last night. Vegemite, thanks for the complement, and sorry about the cockroaches in the rooms. We don't manage the place, but we give them enough business that they should listen to our complaints, and complain I will. I can understand the comments about some places going downhill with food and service. Staff leave, get sick, suppliers go downhill too. It's when they stop caring that there's a real problem. We've just managed to find a really good supplier so from April 8, which will be the first day of our second year, we'll be able to offer a wider variety of food (got tex-mex and pies coming) and better steaks. The quality of the once very good Thai supplier of steaks has gone down considerably and I've heard that a lot of their customers are feeling the same way. We can't really be blamed but we have to do something about it in a timely manner. Places with management changes suffer worse than smaller places like us, I think. A once famous place nearby us has supposedly really gone down hill. My wife goes to a beauty salon across the road from them and the ladies working there say they can hear the new management screaming and shouting at the staff, as if that will make a steak any better. They probably go through more staff in a week than they have customers in a day. They will probably redecorate the place, which doesn't improve the food or service either. This new supplier of ours is run by a very good-natured Aussie in Isaan and they sell retail, too, so anyone who wants more information about them can PM me.

By the way, this Saturday, April 7, is our first anniversary. Free food from 6pm. Tiger beer on tap with a few pretty Tiger girls serving. Oh, and KARAOKE! Not my idea but it's only for one night. Spread the word. . . And moderators, I hope you will accept this as an announcement, not an advertisement.

Hello Richard?

The food at Wrong Way was the best I had had since White Elephant in Roi Et.

Really good steak and veg and a friendly place.

Why do you open so late in the day?

I dont mean that I want a beer in the morning but what about some kind of late breakfast or something. I was seeing double with hunger by the time you opened.

Is there an opening for a falang breakfast/lunch joint in Ubon or what?

P.S. do you have trouble getting under those short Thai toilet doorways?

All the best.

[Hello Marco,

we stayed at Warin for several days at a brand new block of serviced apartments called something like Orathai Mansion. It was half way between Warin and the next place to the south. The apartments were great with air con, shower, TV, security and everything that you could ask for. Except; food ( only Issan )- tuk tuks or taxis there were non, we were a full kilometer from the nearest main road selling " Issan food " and the walk was long in 40deg.

I found the Wrong Way Cafe had very good food when we moved from Warin to Ubon and met some nice people there. The rooms behind were O.K. but the cockroaches in the bathroom were quite breathtaking. No smoking but the cockroaches are free to come and go.

I liked Ubon and my visit was far to short this time.

Will try to put pic of Orathai Mansion, Warin.

Hi Vegie

look like fantastic place,, have to go an look on it one day,, there is also Brand NEW mansion in Ubon town and as far i hear price is in and about 350,, but let me go and look at it this afternoon and i try to take picture as well,, tha building is like mentioned, brand new and i think the no roaches yet.

i heard that food in SMILE restaurant and few other's in town i.e close to laithong is offering nice farang food, but i havent tested so my stomach cant give any comments.

Thanks for that any info you can supply would be great. We go there for family reasons.

P.S. just between you and I and whoever, I use TAT because I havent found the average Thai to good at organizing things. 8.00AM allways seems to be 10.00AM.

One time this trip, we flew to Roi Et from BKK after having booked a room in Roi Et close to the White Elephant ( excellent food there by the way ), and when we arrived nobody new that we were coming. The lady on the other shift had forgotten to write it in the book. The wife went ballistic and we sat outside for hours waiting for THE lady to arrive.

We didnt have any pieces of paper to show anyone.

TAT always give you pieces of paper.

Nothing ever seems to happen in Thailand with out pieces of paper.

Close to where we stayed in Roi Et was a car wash and they had a lady filling in a form for every car that came in to have thier car washed and that was all she did all day.

Without pieces of paper Thailand would come to a shuddering halt.

Dear All

On my last trip we had the same experience of food in Ubon. I found it difficult to find farang food to keep my stumach happy and my 3yo son had to eat mostly packet food we bought from UK with us to cook at the house. The only way I could really keep my self from food starvation was eating KFC most the time, MK which I happen to love the suki style soup which is fresh and finally korean beef which Marco kindly introduced me. I recommend this to anyone who has not tried it yet. When I was really hungry and desperate for a good steak and chips the lai thong, nevada, and toh sang all seem to let me down as there was not one of them last year which could cook a piece of meat without under cooking it bloody or over cooking it to a crisp oblivion. The Nevada steak and lai thong both tasted like leather from the bottom of a shoe. However, some years ago there seemed more choice for a while when lai thong did have a great buffet and offered japanese on a night time with a competant chef who new what he was doing in the kitchen. There was also a vietnamese restaurant which I went to 4/5 years ago which at the time just opened and was fantastic. On my return to it last year the place had decended into a dirty hole dishing up lousy food that would have made a pig sick. TAT should advice the restaurants that if you can't keep a farangs stoumach happy there is little chance of return business. Its strange 'cause Ubon has the potential to be a very nice alternative to the main stream resorts but we will have to wait some years yet before a real shake up of the food standards happens, if it ever happens.

Jay

Hello Jay,

I think that you are right when you say that Ubon has the potential.

It is just so refreshing to see so much water in upcountry Thailand. The Mun river is fantastic and the island in the middle of it is a great place to kick back and have a few beers and a " snack" I liked it a lot bearing in mind that we had just come from the middle of nowhere further north and a bit west.

Maybe any place without chickens and buffalo sh*t would have looked like paradise.

But in all honesty, Ubon is close to the mighty Mae Khong and Kong Jiam on the banks of the river is well worth a look or a stay. It really is beautifull and only a couple of hours from Ubon. Chong Mek is just down the road from Kong Jiam and from there you can easily walk into Laos. We did, good beer over there to.

Sorry if spelling is not correct.

Will try to show pic of Mun river in Ubon.

Do you think maybe it is a case that standards start to slip when the level of foreigners occupying the hotels drops? I have noticed this before at a few places in Ubon including pizzahut to name one other place to eat. Eating at places in Ubon can be a bit hit and miss. Sometimes you go and have a good meal and other times not. Could be thru' change of chef or other management staff that leads to the food not being so good. The Thais can't tell the difference so the restaurants keep churning the food out to the same low standard because it rarely gets noticed and they can charge same high price.

We started to notice a change of service in Ubon in the early 90,s and it has been on a downward spiral ever since, it seems as the number of tourists grows, so the standard of service and attitude towards them drops, now for us its just a town to pass through on our way to the village Nignoy

We were in Ubon last week after a short ( but a bit to long ) stay in a place called Warin, south of Ubon proper.

The TAT people were so helpful and gave us maps and info on everything. It has to be the best TAT office in Thailand and all for free!

I had quite a lot of trouble finding farang food. I was desperate for something that even looked like real food or even Thai food for that matter,

Big C had only KFC and The Wrong Way Cafe behind which we stayed, didnt open until 2pm.

Ubon is quite beatifull and the Mun river is a nice place to hang out.

Could have spent more time there for sure but we were running out of time.

Vegemite

TAT Service is always free or should be free, I have to say never use them but as per ppl who has they say the same it's nice office and gals there are friendly.

Regarding the farang food, there is not so much to offer specially during morning's,, excpt Laithong(limited now days) and Nevada hotel might have some, i know that both of them offering buffee style BFast's.

KFC opens at 10am as you mentioned, Lotus, Big-C & Robinsson has KFC, NO McDonnalds in Ubon or any other fast food chain,, nicely blocked by KFC guy here....

You stayed in Warin? But Wrong way is not in waring,, it's just off from "So called" Ubon center, that TAT office i think what you mentioned was by the fire department and if so that is so called"China town", but still in Ubon side,, ones you cross the bridge you enter to Warin side.

Hello Marco,

we stayed at Warin for several days at a brand new block of serviced apartments called something like Orathai Mansion. It was half way between Warin and the next place to the south. The apartments were great with air con, shower, TV, security and everything that you could ask for. Except; food ( only Issan )- tuk tuks or taxis there were non, we were a full kilometer from the nearest main road selling " Issan food " and the walk was long in 40deg.

I found the Wrong Way Cafe had very good food when we moved from Warin to Ubon and met some nice people there. The rooms behind were O.K. but the cockroaches in the bathroom were quite breathtaking. No smoking but the cockroaches are free to come and go.

I liked Ubon and my visit was far to short this time.

Will try to put pic of Orathai Mansion, Warin.

I live and work in the greater Khon Kaen region. However, if I had that choice to make, I'd go for Udon because of it's very close proximity to Nong Khai and the Laos border. If you're into adventure travel, and want to do some excursions into Laos, Udon would be a great hub from which to travel.

Also, I have a hunch there's a lot more resident expats up in Udon (legacy from the Vietnam war) which means a larger foreign community and support group. Motorcycle clubs, monthly expat meetings, some good western grub you can't get anywhere else in Isaan, etc. Of course, if you staying just for the summer, you probably won't be looking for western food and will want to jump right into the local cuisine: fried insects, fermented fish sauce, raw beef salad, etc.

Oh do you mean something like this???

Do you think maybe it is a case that standards start to slip when the level of foreigners occupying the hotels drops? I have noticed this before at a few places in Ubon including pizzahut to name one other place to eat. Eating at places in Ubon can be a bit hit and miss. Sometimes you go and have a good meal and other times not. Could be thru' change of chef or other management staff that leads to the food not being so good. The Thais can't tell the difference so the restaurants keep churning the food out to the same low standard because it rarely gets noticed and they can charge same high price.

We started to notice a change of service in Ubon in the early 90,s and it has been on a downward spiral ever since, it seems as the number of tourists grows, so the standard of service and attitude towards them drops, now for us its just a town to pass through on our way to the village Nignoy

We were in Ubon last week after a short ( but a bit to long ) stay in a place called Warin, south of Ubon proper.

The TAT people were so helpful and gave us maps and info on everything. It has to be the best TAT office in Thailand and all for free!

I had quite a lot of trouble finding farang food. I was desperate for something that even looked like real food or even Thai food for that matter,

Big C had only KFC and The Wrong Way Cafe behind which we stayed, didnt open until 2pm.

Ubon is quite beatifull and the Mun river is a nice place to hang out.

Could have spent more time there for sure but we were running out of time.

Hi folks,

Can somebody help me with a reasonable guesthouse in Hua Hin with a pool for around 750 baht? 2 weeks end of April! All I find on the net are expensive hotels of 2000 or more! Or am I asking too much?

Have never been in Hua Hin before!

I have an impression that the prices are going sky high, airplane ticket went up about 15 % – you get less (10 %) bath’s for your money these days, and hotels went up about 15 % in Bangkok (Rambuttri Village Inn) compared to last year!

But I need some sun and thai food!

Thkx!

It has been around 3 years since I was in Hua Hin and things may have changed but we stayed at a great guesthouse called Thipurai beach house.

It is in a small soi off the main road with other guesthouses on the same soi.

It is good 20 minute walk to the city but a 2 minute walk to the beach and you can do worse than a walk to town along the beach, easy and not far.

There is a pool and a few resturants there as well and tuk tuks on the main road.

As I said, things may have changed but we payed less than bht500 per night.

They have a website: www.thipurai.com

....... I don't know what to make of this. I don't doubt that some of the stories about kidnapping are true, but I wonder if there are elements of moral panic or urban myth.

I just heard a similar story...a village headman in a nearby village was proclaiming in his daily "loudspeaker" village news that children are being abducted and their body parts being sold for use in the medical field. I gotta tend to agree with citizen 33 above about the validity of some of these stories. Reminds me a little about another one that circulates every few years where some robbers touch you and put you in some kind of trance, rob you or lead you to an ATM where you withdraw your money and give it to them. You "wake up" later not knowing anything happened but minus your gold or your money.

I have just returned from a small village in the Mahasarskham area about 20kms from Wapipathum. My nephew in law had just had a narrow escape from these people.

I havent read all of the posts here but the village that I stayed in was worried.

Word on the street was " mafia, body parts and the police cant find the bad guys".

There are no police in most of these villages and the nearest cops to us were 20kms away.

what about the toilets without the bum guns? the ones with a tub of water and the round plasic bowl ?

how do those work? I assume you pour it down your lower back, hoping some of it trickles its way down under... unless one is meant to somehow reach under and project it upwards in a splash, risking a slip & possible contamination.

At least the challenge of balancing, cleaning and escaping without slipping, falling and contaminating my clothing etc gives a warm sense of accomplishment.

I have just returned from a trip to " THE VILLAGE " in upcountry.

I had the sh*ts all the way from" THE VILLAGE " to Ubon via Roi Et and then from Ubon to Khong Jiam, Chong Mek and I even had to sh*t in a quick visit to Laos.

I still had the sh*ts when we got to BKK after the trip.

I sh*t in anything that even looked like a toilet, I even sh*t on the side of the road behind some rocks. Just me and the lizards. Heaps of fun!

Didnt see many bum guns and I learned real fast how to use a Thai toilet with a bowl.

The best way that I found was to hold the bowl under your ass and slosh water up with your hand.

Sounds pretty bad but the toilets are big and it is easy. I did it 3 or 4 times with fresh water each time.

After I had finished I washed my hands ( usally without soap, but dont worry to much about that because the people that are cooking your food are probably doing the same thing.. ) and dripped dry for a minute or two.

When you are starting to sweat because you need a dunny fast, a Thai toilet is like paradise.

Thankyou to the gods that it is over.