Lockheed

Not wanting to seem naive but are all dating sites a scam?

Probably not but think about the dating site scams in the west. In Thailand you've got the language barrier.

The Thai girl you are conversing with online, may not be able to read, write or speak English. maybe she's employing someone to do it for her, and that person would be a professional at sucking in, guys like you.

Is it worth the risk.

Last year I used Dtac and they were fine, recently I used AIS and they were just as good. I got 2-GB of data for 600 baht and 3-GB was 800 baht from memory. The mistake I made was I didn't get phone credit because you need that to check your data balance which I thought was strange. I only had ten days so I had more than enough data for the IPhone and tethered Net-book.

dairy queen & donuts & fries... you can see the thai populace getting fatter... must come from somewhere... batch of softice icecream, loads of sugar & fat... cannot be that expensive... and customers all the time, they are hungry

The donuts in Thailand taste like cardboard and lack sugar. The icing looks great but once you sink you're teeth into them, then you realize something is missing big time.

I reckon selling good chocolates would be winner. I gave up on the kit Kats, they tasted crap, yet they're beautiful in OZ, it's hard to find chocolate that hits the spot.

Try Sri Nakhon Khuen Khan Park.. It is on the other side of the river , but assign a whole day to go there and to explore. Google for best directions how to get there. It is a part of Bangkok that is unbelievable, one of my favourite places in Bangkok. .

+1. The whole "island" is a great place to explore.

You can hire a bike and ride the route below, I did, it was great. As mentioned Lupini and Benjasiri parks as well.

http://www.everytrail.com/guide/a-tour-of-bangkoks-prapradaeng-by-bicycle

she knocked back the cocktails and 'accosted' me in the lift.

She is putting you to the test, she's trying to work out what you want or what the boundary's are.

Perth is the biggest village in the world. I quite like it, though.

I can't work out the logic of people that live in Perth, you've got one of the best climates in OZ, so why go to Thailand, maybe there's truth in the rumour that Tasmanians can swim.

The sad part is some can't drive them.

Not long ago I was heading down Charoen Nakhon Road, I'd been sitting at the lights with the rest of Bangkok for ages, so we're off and then all of a sudden this old duck in a high end Merc, decided to do a U-Turn in front of everyone, she inched out so slowly, then when she's blocking our passage, stops and looks the other way and eventually makes the turn, great one grandma. I think I was the calmest while sitting there waiting, whereas the Thais were getting agro but she didn't give a rats. In the west she would of got T-Boned and road rage.

Lots of good points but the first thing you must do is create a food diary and then you'll understand the concept of calories in, calories out. Use the forums on that site for inspiration and support.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/

Find a good fitness site like livestrong.com

http://www.livestrong.com/

Find a good nutrition site and look for superfoods, high nutrition/low calorie

http://foodwatch.com.au/

http://foodwatch.com.au/blog/super-foods/item/catherine-saxelbys-top-20-super-foods.html

Once you sift through all the data you need to find something a formula that is suitable to you, for the rest of your life. Diets don't work because they are a short term solution.

In a nutshell the idea is to fill you stomach up with high nutrition, low calorie foods and then you won't have room for the denser calorie food: Water, Salad, Vegetables, Meats and Treats.

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Not sure of the name but they took good care of my push bike, normally they get the high pressure gun and give it a blast, but these guys knew not to do that which is a positive for all the seals and bearing etc.

Are you mad? Take you bike into the shower with you. Sparkling mine is and smells of pine forests...

I needed to take it through Australian customs, they wanted to quarantine my bike once so I take as much care as I can.

^ I second that about the doors especially. Even if you don't know much about building, anyone can spot a cheapo door that's super thin / light wood, or plastic even for bathroom doors, etc. If they skimped on that, they skimped on everything.

I was shocked to see how thin the aluminium sliding door frame was at the guest-house I was staying in at Chiang Mai. I couldn't understand why the balcony door wouldn't lock until i had a closer inspection, it was out of shape, so with my fingers, i bent it back to a position where I could lock the door with a slight bit of effort.

Not sure of the name but they took good care of my push bike, normally they get the high pressure gun and give it a blast, but these guys knew not to do that which is a positive for all the seals and bearing etc.

When drunk, these railings would be very easy to stumble over. I think the OZ standard is about 900mm, which for a tallish person is not high enough. RIP.

Conclusion never rent a room with a balcony.

May depend on the state but Vic was 1000mm.

Such good advice, whille at a hotel in Bangkok a few weeks back, the balcony wall was about 800mm, it was scary.

Good video for the uneducated, thanks for putting it up.

One of the things that's been nagging my mind for some time and I think this video has answered this question. My first experience of this was in Saigon, guys were walking around the streets with local girls, I'm thinking where do they find them, is there an agency that hires these girls out or something. After watching the video, I'm assuming the customers have gone to a bar and struck a deal with the girl to stay with them for ex amount of time, for ex amount of money.

The competition is to find a foreign husband, then some girls compete for the biggest house in the middle of nowhere,

I'd be curious to know what the Thai guys thoughts are on all this.

no thai lady, I am not a nutter, never....

just love the house...that is it, and I could sell it later for 3 mill

unfortunately foreigners can't buy homes here so don't even bother thinking about it.

and it's over-priced for being out in the boonies of San Kamphaeng and not a very nice home with small rooms, no space for garden....

I'm curious to know how he can buy a house without a Thai wife, unless you're not a foreigner.

Correct me if I'm wrong but thats a western style house isn't it, would the locals buy such a design.

The simple solution is to govern the throttle and if you really want to get serious, limit the gearbox.

Edit: Just looking at my drivers license from OZ, it has the ® endorsement on it which means Motorcycle rider, I got this licence many years ago.

Lockheed: Don't try to run Skype for Windows 8. Download and install Skype for Desktop. It will run just fine and you can sign in with your original Skype ID. I've had lots of problems with programs written for the Metro UI, often billed as xxx for Windows 8. I sidestep Metro and just run the desktop with applications either written for Windows 7 or Desktop. I hope that will solve your Skype problems. Besides The Skype for Desktop interface is easily understandable while the Skype for Windows 8 interface is mysterious. Good luck!

Thanks as well.

My primary is Gmail and I have Yahoo and Hotmail, or did have.

Unfortunately I don't have enough time to wade through the complexity's of my Outlook accounts but when you have Win 8 you need to create one so I did. I'm trying to run Skype through my Win 8 computer but Skypes linked to the the other Outlook/Hotmail account so it's not working. Now I've got to create another Skype account, hopefully I can transfer the credit across, otherwise my Win 7 Netbook will be on the bench until the Skype credit runs out but there is more and I don't have time to explain and I'm sure you wouldn't want to read it.

If you remove and then install Skype in Desktop mode you can choose the account to use ... the app mode isnt that nice really. Need to download the correct version to fix that but it works nice and you will have it as it used to be as a single window

You will also prefer to upgrade to version 8.1 of windows (usually free for most sold version) as that will make some of the desktop and Start menu stuff easier.

Thanks, I've got Win 8.1 and the App which is a dud for sure but didn't know you could use the desktop clients which is what I like. The Iphone app is a dud as well because It's hard to set up groups whereas the desktop client is easy but once you get it going then the Iphone app works fine.

chooka,

I really don't believe you could live on that amount of food, unless you are on some kind of serious diet.

What about the other 2 people you live with, what do they eat?

No diet, just mornings a cup of coffee and vegemite and my wife cooks in the evening. I'm 183cm and weigh in at 81 kgs. My son loves vegemite as well as cornflakes but doesn't drink coffee, juice in the morning, has lunch at school (provided) but apparently doesn't like it. My wife refuses to each lunch as she thinks she is fat at 46kgs.

I have eaten this way for over 20 yrs as it was part of my job where we very rarely had the chance for a lunch break and my body just came use to it.

I'm into the Cheesybite Vegemite now, I thought it was a .... when they first brought it out but tried it last year, I go through heaps of it and it costs a fortune. The original Vegemite is like sex, when I was younger I used to go through heaps of it but now I'm getting older the desire is not as great.

I'm the two week millionaire type that you spoke about in the OP, so take what I say with a grain of salt but its a good reflection for me as well because I have a full on life but still go through patches of boredom so maybe it's genetic but I use this as turning points in my life. Just recently I was reading a cycling journal about this old bloke on the wrong side of sixty who lives in a condo in Pats, he made reference to these young people cycling the world at twenty and wished he had discovered the same, so what he does is goes out touring for months but his base is Thailand, i meet people all the time doing the same.

Cycling is my thing but when I get too old to ride the bike, I'll buy a Honda dream or it's equivalent and use that to get around.

This video is about a race but it struck a cord with me because he talks about rushing through towns and not spending the time in the town that they deserve. I'm the same when I'm cycling around, I'm usually running to a schedule so spending extra time in some of these great places is not on the agenda at this time but I'll keep going back and taking another slice of the pie while I'm there but to consume it all at once would be impossible so that's my direction.

It's easy to eat well, almost anywhere on little money.

But you have to do a little work yourself, especially if you want luxury items like these.

My breakfast this morning, total cost less than 15bht, English pancakes, chocolate ice cream and fresh lime.

pancakes.jpg

Tea earlier this week, less than 40bht, scones with raspberry jam fresh whipped cream (15bht without the cream).

scones and cream.jpg

Whole-meal bread to eat every day, about 25bht a loaf.

bread.jpg

All made with local CM ingredients.

Thats lovely, you're living like a king eating that stuff, keep the good pics coming.

Porridge and coffee is my staple for breakfast.

Why do so many good hotels struggle to cook good scrambled eggs?

Maybe they try to do to many other things at the same time and spoil them.

I've just about given up on getting a good pancake, i've had some disasters but the best one was poached eggs. They brought out hard boiled eggs, the menu said poached but I can live hard boiled, i cracked the top open and they hadn't been cooked, just dipped in hot water so I showed them a picture of what I wanted and they brought out a fried egg, I got charged for the lot though but rather than try and sort it out through translation, I gave them the money and hit the road. These are the good things about travelling, you learn to appreciate the simple things like cooking your own food.

The pancake was about an 1,5 inches thick, the egg was slightly cooked around the edge.

I've never experienced that at Macca's but these guys only get about 8000 baht a month, so i don't mind giving them a bit of incentive money, try it.

I was in Kampot and Kep the year before, I came in via Ha Tien in Vietnam, lovely part of the world as well, cheap living in Ha Tien and not a bad town by the coast.

http://goo.gl/maps/k9fJz

The pictures at Kep.

I hear so many stories that start like this: "I've been with my wife/girlfriend for X years, she's great/wonderful/perfect, I give her 10-20k/month --"

I always want to stop right there and say, "what?" I don't get this, why do guys do this? Is this normal? I never had a girlfriend who I just gave money for whatever she wanted to spend it on. Am I alone in this?

I don't just give my wife money. Whenever she wants something or needs money, she justs asks me, and we talk about it and I usually just give her what she needs. Whenever I want to spend money, I always consult her. Yes, the final decision is usually mine, but the vast majority of the money comes from my side, so I think that's only fair. If its her own money, then she can always overrule me instead. Am I the strange case for handling our financial decisions like this?

Seriously, do most of you guys just give your wive's discretionary allowances (either farang or Thai), no questions asked?

I don't understand why you need to give your Thai girlfriend money, 20k is $700 Oz dollars, that's a lot of money, is it for her to pay the household bills or payment for her services etc.