mr bilko

Well i havnt travelled much, infact thailand is the only country ive been to.

Bangkok is very dirty, smelly, sleezy and too busy. The only thing its got going for it are the muay thai stadiums (big fan of muay thai).

When i get to BKK i cant wait to leave, but once ive left i cant wait to get back and feel almost "homesick" even though i dont live there.

If BKK is one of the best cities in the world, i dont want to vist any other city.

In the "recent" cenus in the UK i put my religion down as being a Jedi.

So I must be a Jedi.

EDIT

But before that i was RC (roman catholic) of the non practicing and believing sect.

Here is my 10 pence worth.

For ferrang i can only talk about my ideas of the british, not the other foriegn ferrangs.

Britain only really has 3 languages (dont mention the other ethnics) English, Scottish and Welsh.

I am Welsh, born bred, and lived here all my life but dont speak a word of it (much to my shame).

The English have such a precence in the UK that English is a forced language over here.

As the UK is an island with no foreign borders there is no need to speak any other language. In europe all countries border somewhere else so a second language is essential.

Added to the fact that English is the most widespread(not most spoken) language in the world. Also (i maybe wrong) english is taught as a language in every school in the world to some degree.

Finally if the thai's want my money the can bloody ask for it in english

I really enjoy having a good whine, it gets things of my chest.

I also think that there maybe some of the people who do whine are maybe very lonely, and do it so that they may get a response therby opening dialog and not being so lonely.

On the other hand they may just be sad 'old' farts with nothing better to do, and would moan and whine no matter what country they happen to be staying in.

Dont know if its already been posted recently, but havnt seen it.

The two cheapest access number i used have both gone out of service due to capacity problems.

DIALAROUND

DIALWISE

These are both 1p/minute rates.

Here is another 1p/minute access number which seems to be working at present

0844 721 0001

http://www.abroadtel.co.uk/

--------------------------------

I have other access numbers at 2p and 3p per minute, but does anybody else have 1p/minute sites/access numbers as i find that the quality of calls can be somewhat inconsistant, so when i get a bad connection i switch numbers

If this info helps even just one person it will have made me happy.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/callchecker/

check this link.

I call thailand mobile for 1p a minute.

Good ferrangs i've come across.

I stayed on koh samui Nov 03. One night i went out for a walk, went past a couple of bars with no intention of going in, but the girls shouting hello handsome man come in got the better of me.

I only had about 500bt in my pocket so thought i would go for a quick beer, when my money was spent i was about to go home, an 'old' (55years) man asked why i was going home, i explained he then reached into his pocket an loaned my 3000bt so i could stay out for the night. I had only met the man that night!!! He was not connected to the bar in any way.

I have since become friends with this man and gone back to samui and stayed at his place. He charged me of course but only at half the rate of the place i stayed last time.

So i belive there are good and bad out there, the problem is it only takes one bad of anything to make you not trust the same anything again.

But i try to avoid ferrangs while on holiday in thailand as ive spent £500 and nearly 24 hours travelling and want to enjoy the thai experience. Maybe this will change when i live in Isan.

I normally fly from manchester but i always use these two sites for my flights, check one against the other.

http://www.ebookers.com/

http://www.lastminute.com/

It can make a difference on what day of the week you travel, and what month.

Just paid £500 return from manchester to bangkok, paid a bit more to fly with emirates i think they are worth the extra £20.

Hope this helps

Mrbojangles

Here is the link that i used to find the cheapest international calls.

international calls price checker

The site is also very good for other money saving ideas.

JOJO

Thanks very much for your concern. She needs my help to come over here because i want to marry her. And without my help she can't get the visa.

He wants her to move to germany, but is having none of it. She shows me all of her e-mails from him. He was only staying short term in thailand with no prospect of moving back.

Maybe i could get stung, but have been stung by british girls, so nothing new there.

...I was asked if the moon in Thailand looked the same as the moon in England, when pressed they thought the moon in England must be different because the moon doesn’t look very far away, but England is one heck of a distance away....

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My neighbour's g/f asked me if the sun in England was the same sun that they have in Thailand . I'm afraid I laughed a little too loudly and she took offence. Oh well, mai bpen rai.

I then tried to explain (to my g/f) the way the earth went around the sun, and the way it is tilted so that countries further away from the equator get long "summer" days and short "winter" days, and have seasons. But I don't think much was understood, although I did feel at one point that there was a small spark of interest. But then it was time to pick a malagor from the tree and have some som tum, so subject closed.

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We all know there is no sun in England !

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I hate to dis-agree, but ive just this minute been outside, and by reconing the sun is out, and probably hitting 20 degrees I love sunny Wales, but not as much as village life in thailand.

Observations of a ferrang in thailand.

Why is the 7-11 franchise so called, they are open 24/7.

Why does the driver of a motorcycle have to wear a crash helmet, but his 3 passengers don't.

In small village I stayed everybody wanted to touch my skin, virtually no contact with ferrang's. (Though I am milk bottle white)

Education system very poor, where I stayed I was asked if the moon in Thailand looked the same as the moon in England, when pressed they thought the moon in England must be different because the moon doesn’t look very far away, but England is one heck of a distance away. But life skills are extremely good, they can live off the land with no money worries. Watched a 10 year old fishing, then prepared the fish for cooking, gathered wild herbs and spices and stuff, cooked it and ate it. He asked if I was hungry, I was so he proceeded to catch a chicken, kill it, gut it, cook it (I still struggle to just cook chicken in the oven). Who needs education when you have life skill like this as a 10 year old. But they were very impressed when I managed to pick the lock on one of their scooters when we went out and lost his keys.

How can they drink whisky white for breakfast.

Is "peter bo" the general name for any scary monster/ghost in Thailand.

How can they eat all sorts of bugs, grubs and animals, yet screw their nose up at the big lizard (tuk kae or touke, same as inthai movie lizard woman the movie not the little house geckos) Guess I should introduce them to black pudding.

Oh the list is endless, but having said all that I would much rather live there than here in UK.

EDIT:

Why is thai time different to ferrang time. When asking girlfriend anything to do with time i had to ask time ferrang or time thai. 10 mins ferrang = upto 2 hours thai, not sure of the exact mathmatical conversion number

Would it be best if she lost her passport and obtained a clean one?

Thank you very much for your help.

Have you stopped celebrating yet after you won the football.

She owns about 5 rice fields, and another couple of plots of land in the village suiatable to build houses on, i hope she can come and live over here till i retire so we can move back to her village, but 20 years is along way off. And if she gets refused i might have to consider moving to thailand.

Village is in-between sisa ket, and rasi sali(sari), just of the main road, cant rember the name but i think it translated to mango. Certainly no elephant herding going on there. Pretty much everybody works the rice fields, or looks after the water buffalo.

The teaching language in the local school was suay, a Thai teacher moved there from Bangkok and had to learn suay to teach.

Language spoken in village in order.

Suay

Lao

Thai - only spoken to try and communicate with me

Bai sai = go where - speak Lao

Bai nai = go where - speak Thai

Delicious, tasty, very good.

em = suay

alloy = Thai

sep = Lao

These could be mixed up as I wasn’t sure exactly what I was speaking, and not even sure if spelt correct, but its how they sound.

I caused much humour in the village as most of them had never seen a ferrang in the flesh, and to speak in suay and Lao was an absolute wonder.

Incidentally my nickname in Thailand is Chang, mainly because of the amount of beer Chang I consumed. I had to be given a nickname because my name is Mark, and every time somebody said mak (much, plenty, big??) I though they were saying mark.

Thank you very much for the responses from everybody.

I have "trained" muay Thai in the UK, but the watered down version (no knee and elbows to the head). Only done as keep fit, two nights a week for keeping fit purpose.

Have been a couple of times to Lumpine and Rajadamnern (still cant say this word), watched at chaweng stadium Koh Samui. On one visit to one of the Bangkok stadiums I was lucky enough to see them put on an exhibition fight, fighting muay boran (very very light contact if any) This was fantastic to see the art before it got made safe for the ring.

I think/know this is the best pure contact "sport" in the world, the only thing I like better is MMA (UFC and K1), but many of these have a good muay Thai background. It makes me chuckle when I watch the American kick boxing, and tae kwon do, flashy but totaly inefective a thai boxer.

I also watched it in a field, in the village I stayed at over Songkram, I was cheering for a boy of maybe 8 years old, he won, and his mother came over and thanked me very much for supporting him. Maybe she thought it was lucky for him, as I was the only ferrang there.

Thank you very big Thaiboxer,

I knew it was on a couple of days a week. The village I stayed people went to a local shop, paid 20bt and watched it on TV outside. Atmosphere almost as good as being at a stadium, with the drinking, gambling (even had a couple of police come to watch), and general whooping and hollering.

No online TV guide at the bangkok post. No access to the paper edition where i live (i the middle of nowhere)

I know its on almost everyday of the week, but cant remember what channels and what times.

But thanks anyway

In the village where i recently stayed, near sisa ket, they spoke mainly two languages

Laos and something else, the girlfriend called this languge suay (sounds the same as beautiful in thai)

Can anybody give me an insight into this language, what its even called.

i want to try and learn a bit more before i go again. Although no trip is planned in the very near future.

Have just stayed for a month in a small village between sisa ket 30 km away, and rasi sali(sari?) about 7 km away.

People are absolutely fantastic, even had a book running in one shop, and cleared it once a week.

Songkram was out of this world, stayed in koh samui for it last year and though it was good, but village life was so much better.

Songkram holiday photos.

Got a bit lonely because the girl friend was the only person to speak English. The main problem I had was communication as I only speak a very little Thai, and most people spoke Laos, and suay (hope I spelled it right).

The English word I hear most was "you", quite often could walk do the road and people would shout "you" and raise a beer for me to go and have a drink.

The worst thing I encountered was the most disgusting smelling food ever, it was sort of baby (very small) fish mixed with chilli's into some sort of paste. I was told it could be months old and they all loved it, yet it is hardly ever eaten in Bangkok. Even the cats and dogs wouldn’t eat it!

Also what is with the Thai’s wanting to know how many times you have sex, and how big your manhood is.

Village life is the friendliest ever, will never go back to Bangkok again except to watch muay Thai at the two main stadiums.

PS

I live in the UK, 33 years old and cant wait to retire.

Hello,

I have access to the following Thai TV channels

nation 1

channel 5

channel 9

channel 11

ITV

ESPN 1

I know muay Thai is on TV every day in Thailand, but as I only speak (nit noi) Thai and cant read it i've got no chance of looking at TV guides for the above channels.

If anybody knows what time muay Thai is so on these (if any) channels. I live in UK so will have to adjust time accordingly.

Thank you to everbody who responds.

Hello,

I have a Thai girl friend, she has a baby (5yr old) that isn’t mine, so here are my questions.

1. What are considered sufficient funds to support them?

You and your unmarried partner must show that you can support yourselves and any dependants without any help from public funds

You and your unmarried partner must show that you have suitable accommodation which is owned or lived in only by you and your household, and where you and your dependants can live without any help from public funds

3. And the big one how do I demonstrate:

You must show that:

    * you plan to marry within a reasonable time (usually six months)

    * you plan to live together permanently after you are married

    * you have met each other before

I have emails going back 2 years and photos, but as the photos are not time stamped are they useless. I have phone call records made via the next, but these stopped when I found out I could call Thailand for 1p a minute. My BT phone bill now only shows the access number I call, not her mobile number.

And for the child.

I have also been to the UKvisa.gov web site and totally didn’t understand the child section.

The baby has no father’s name on the birth certificate and the mother has sole responsibility. But the father is German and is trying to get his name in the birth certificate but is unable to travel to Thailand to do it. If in the near future he were able to go to do it, he would go back to Germany and not stay in Thailand.

How would this affect the visa application of the child.

Other

She has travelled to europe before(but not UK), so she has travell stamps in her passport, would this help or hinder?

She has had various documents translated into English but do they need to be certified as being accurate and correct by lawyer or Thai equivalent.

What are the main reasons for failing applications, what sort of success/failure rates are there for thai laides coming to the UK.

For 'the scouser' or anybody else in the North Wales area

What the thai scene like in liverpool? Can thai groceries(ie chillie's etc) be bought anywhere?

Havnt been to liverpool for a couple of years, but when i did 'china town' had gone right down hill from what i remember and here would have been the first place to check out.

Finally

Sorry if these are question that have been gone over time and time again, but give up looking after nearly two hours searching.

Keep up the good work, and thank you very big for anybody that can help.