Ashto

I've yet to find a decent Thai restaurant meal outside of Thailand with the exception of eating with Thai friends who home cooked. I've eaten in Thai restaurants in Europe, UK, Middle East and Oz.

One of the biggest failures I found was a lot of the so called Thai restaurants especially in Oz were run by Vietnamese or Malays who jumped on the band wagon when Thai food became popular.

I know of one Thai who was sponsored into Oz as a cook by a Vietnamese owned Thai restaurant. He's slowly adjusting the food and customers tastes to the authentic Thai taste and its working. The clientele numbers have greatly increased as they remember the taste of meals they had while on holiday in Thailand

Can you give is the name of that place? It's so damned hard to get good Thai food in Australia, knowing where would be great, thanks.

What hassle? You can get a bus direct to Immigration. Too many taxi drivers these days are newly arived from upcountry and haven't a clue where places are in Bangkok. Others will take advantage of your like of Thai and try to add kms to the meter charge. Learn a few basic Thai words for giving directions, of course tht assumes that you know where you are going.

What's the number of the bus and where does it leave from in central Bangkok? Thanks in advance..

Quite. Which is the reason for the last para of my post. The fact that people frequently breach rules of conduct doesn't alter the truth of the rule. Murder remains wrong even though it regularly occurs.

Jingthing on 14-10-2014 drew a aanalogy between a baht bus in Pattaya and a Muslim restaurant. They are quite different in my respectful view. A baht bus is an "everybody" space and no particular group (eg Muslims) is entitled to special treatment. So on a baht bus the Muslim must accept a Jew wearing elaborate Jewish regalia and not show any disrespect.

The test for gay behaviour on a baht bus is exactly the same as for straight behaviour. Everyone on the bus must treat gay behaviour as they would treat straight behaviour there. A gay couple is entitled to act in the same way as a straight couple may act.

Whether people on the bus are entitled to purse their lips or worse if a couple, gay or straight, are very different in age or race is a question of age or race discrimination and presumably for a general forum, not this gay forum.

Whether it is physically safe for a PDA in any particular situation is separate from the question of whether it is ehtically, morally, socially or culturally proper in that particular situation. It is very important in my view to keep the question of safety well away from the question of propriety as safety is frequently used to conceal disapproval, ie "Well, of course I don't think there's anything wrong with it but the Russians will beat you up so you shouldn't do it".

Re jdinasia's use of a little Thai writing I copied it into my nifty ITranslate app and this is what I got : I speak, read and write English in Thailand with the same, nothing is 100%, but in general I think it is. Yes, I see that culture does not matter that it does not matter.

Nice touch using a bit of Thai on the forum. Incidentally, I find when I use the app that it's best to translate the English into Thai then translate the Thai back into English to see if it means the same before serving it up,to a Thai. The structures of the two languages seem to be so different that the way the English sentence is structured matters a lot in terms of how it works in Thai. I can see that if I set about learning Thai starting by understanding the structure of Thai sentences would be good to get on board early.

On the subject of the thread, I've had pretty well,all,the experiences both good and bad described by contributors and have concluded that there all sorts of people in Thailand as there are in NZ where I come from. But I find that Thais are generally quick to engage, especially in a fun interaction, even with a stranger like me and even in the street.

Thais I've spent more time with strike me as surprisingly like ordinary NZers, big differences of course (why else would you come to ASIA if not to experience another culture?) but lots in common too.

Tonight about 10.45pm I sat in a cafe on Soi Sri Bamphen in Sathorn and watched two Thai guys, one a friend of mine, get turned down by three taxis and accepted by the fourth. I couldn't hear their requests but their body language remained courteous throughout. It looked like it was a pretty routine experience to them.

So far this visit to Bangkok of two weeks I've been accepted by the first taxi each time and none have required to be asked to use the meter. Has the crack down had an effect? No idea.

Obviously these are anecdotes not surveys and have made me cautious about drawing general conclusions from them or other anecdotes.

Won't be on Thailand then but good luck with the venture.

I just had one completed for 60,000. Bangkok Hospital charges 80,000 but the standard of care is far better. Having an implant helps retain jaw and facial structure and is a good idea from that aspect. I consider myself fortunate to be able to get one. Good luck!

Where did you get yours done for 60,000?

Was the 60,000 for the implant only, or did it include the crown on top of the implant?

Was there a bone graft involved?

Thanks.

Fascinating video. Thanks for sharing it.

I'm planning on coming to Chang Mai, Luang Prabang and Udon Thani late April through early May. Will the smoke still be around then?

No; it clears in the first or second week of April.

Was able to open a deposit account with Visa based ATM card in Krungthai Bank. Requirements... 500 baht deposit, passport and Thai address. I have 30 days visa and 30 days on the apartment lease. Have heard there is a concern about bank's having long lists of dormant accounts... I guess to avoid foreign card charges some visitors open an account for a month or so and just leave. Perhaps that was why I was asked whether I was opening " just for a short while".

I did the same thing late last year at KRUNGTHAI. Kasikorn had refused. A few days later a friend got Kasikorn to do it. Seems to depend on who you get at the bank on the day. All of this was in Bangkok.

I'm planning on coming to Chang Mai, Luang Prabang and Udon Thani late April through early May. Will the smoke still be around then?

I opened a e savings account recently with Krungthai Bank and was given immediately a Visa debit card. No work permit. Need a local address and passport ID. I have internet access but the immediate Visa card doesn't have my name on it so I doubt I can use it for internet buying. I suggest going to the head office or at least as large a branch as possible to ask for an account.