TheRascal

I went out for dinner with a girl the other week, really fair skin a little darker than white, a very attractive girl who showed me some nice modelling pics and screenshots of some lakorn shows she'd been in.

She said her friends call her "black" because her skin isn't as white as theirs and on a group trip to the beach they all just wanted to sit inside, no one wanted to swim for fear of darkening their skin. She was the only one of her friends who hadn't had some kind of surgery on her face - she showed me pictures of a number of her friends and I just don't find that look attractive - super white with wide doll like eyes and a chin that goes to a point. Very unappealing.

My ex had pretty dark skin but it looked great and she was very cute - however she had such low self esteem because of not fitting the Thai ideal of beauty we eventually drifted apart.

I couldn't deal with dating a girl who wanted to stay super white - I like swimming, relaxing next to the condo pool and going to the beach, I don't want a girl who's going to refuse to do that or hide under an umbrella constantly.

The opposite is also annoying though, an ex in the UK constantly tanned and we always had fake tan on the bed sheets and towels. Gross.

Thailand is woefully behind other countries in the region. Before I moved to LOS and was regularly sourcing offshore developers for clients not once did I come across a Thai programmer.

Vietnamese and Malaysian developers are excellent, and you get some strong Filipinos but never Thai. It's a shame for them as the top level guys can easily be commanding $50 an hour and still be cheaper than a western freelancer.

They probably should consider sorting out internet speeds if they really want to be a "digital hub".

There's a few kids who sell roses around RCA every night, never buy roses but always offer food - eventually the girl accepted and told me and a few friends that they are all related (her one younger bro and one older bro), they don't go to school and they are Muslim's from Myanmar.

Pretty sad to see a missed opportunity for someone in life - with decent education who know's what they could have achieved, clearly not lacking intelligence if they can pick up Thai and English on top of their native language.

"Woy" needs to get nasty and drop Rooney.

Many items you find plentiful and cheap in the US, can be either hard to find here or very expensive. Quality bed sheets, pillows, towels, cutlery, dishes, etc. Are all quite expensive here. Cheap stuff is easy to find, but it's just that...cheap. Same goes for clothes. Easy to find cheap clothes here, but they are just that. Quality clothing is expensive with a limited selection. At least compared to what you have in larger cities in the US.

Agree 100% on the bedding, King size duvet cover and 2 pillow cases is around 2200 baht at Index Living mall, nice quality but much better can be found cheaper in the UK. I've yet to see decent quality stuff at Tesco or Big C. Ikea has some decent stuff but again it's not cheap.

Clothes I disagree with a little bit, there's a lot of crap if you look at markets etc but jeans like Levis aren't too expensive and places like Terminal 21, Siam Square and Thonglor have some amazing local Thai designers putting out some really really high quality stuff. I bought some organic Japanese selvedge denim jeans in Terminal 21 for 4000 baht and they are as good as any designer brand jeans I've ever bought. There is store after store in Terminal 21 selling high quality tshirts and shorts for next to nothing (150 baht a tshirt and maybe 300-400 baht for chino shorts).

Zalora also has some decent clothes and do cash on delivery if you order from their website.

There are a number of well regarded tailors in the city and quality shirts made to measure (and I guess many other items too) are going to set you back 1500-2000 baht.

"Here's a silly question regarding food, i know most countries have better quality food than the US but while in the US, i like to buy everything i can organic (including junk food lol), how's the food quality in Thailand? I'd imagine crazy selection and very fresh, but is it organically grown/raised?"

Biggest misconception about Thailand is the 'crazy and very fresh' food thing.

Expect organic to be hideously priced and being Thailand how could you be sure it was organic?

Supermarkets often offer damaged, old rotten fruit, simply wouldn't be for sale in the West.

Best to put that image of healthy living Thailand out of you mind so you won't be disappointed.

Oil (lots of it) and sugar are the stables here, jesus they deep fry omelets!

Oh no I guess i am going to have to do a lot of cooking, not looking forward to the no organic options though

I've always found Villa market organic stuff to be decent, same with gourmet market at Emporium, Terminal 21 or Paragon. There's also a few farmer's markets in Bangkok.

I have been "working online" in Thailand for 10 years. There are 2 kinds of working online: selling stuff, which require offline work too (source goods, visit manufacturers, package and ship), and selling digital products/services (ebooks, SEO services, affiliate marketing, build websites) which only require a good internet connection. Either way, you can make money without paying any taxes, without bothering about a work permit. You will be breaking the law but who will ever find out? It's not a crime to ship parcel from post office and to buy stuff at shops, Chatuchak etc. When you start shipping containers things change, but there are ways around everything. The manufacturers will help you sort things out if you don't have a company. Your only concern will be the visa, that' why many people opted for ED or repeated Tourist visas. Now to answer your final question: to set up a company to do what is called work-from-home is IMHO plain stupid, but if you really have to do it, it can be an export company, as I assume you will be selling stuff made in Thailand. You'll need an office or at least a sign outside your house, accounting, fake employees, deposited capital, pay taxes etc etc and a good lawyer to set up everything. here on thaivisa all these info are available for free. If you sell IM services, like SEO, then you could register your company as a consultancy firm and you'd be an adviser on everything about IT. Or something like that. I hope this helps. Like I said, I've been doing this for 10 years and at the beginning I wanted to open a company, get a work permit, do the right thing. Then money started pouring in, so I concentrated on online marketing to get customers and forgot about the all open-a-company thing, enjoying my tourist visa. Now, with the new regulations, the easiest/best thing to do is to leave Thailand and start all over in Cambodia, Philippines or Indonesia. I hope this helps...

What new regulations ?

I'm guessing he means the new way existing regulations are being enforced in a stricter way. The stuff that's starting with cracking down on the visa exempt stamp abuse and that will likely extend to tourist visas.

Firstly you say this is an issue which hasn't been covered on this forum... It has, it's been done to death over the past 2 months with 2 or 3 weeklt posts.

Clarified to some extend but still the question remains ???

What category does working online in Thailand for foreigners come under. If the Immigratio says it is not legal to work like this on your stay in Thailand, then what would make it legal is the real Question ??

If a foreigner working online while in Thailand and making money thru his work, then he has to fall under some visa category according to Thai immigration rules or else he has to get some kind of paperwork done under the Thai laws like a work permit or otherwise.

Why does he have to? Why is it so hard to understand it's just against the law.

Well guys the question is sill going in circles round and round.

What category or criteria do u come under if you wanted to work online in Thailand. Surely this angle of working online has to be covered under some thai regulation in a country that has made laws for all kinds of things.

AN ANSWER STILL AWAITED !!!
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Are you being deliberately obtuse? Why does this angle have to be covered? What other countries cover it? Sure it would make things a lot easier but there is not an angle to do this other than the ways outlined already. People have contacted lawyers about it and it's not possible.

Cabbages and condoms is good, slightly "westernised" Thai food, more like what you'd expect in a Thai restaurant in the UK but the setting is nice.

Also: http://www.nathong.com/en/menu/menu-thai/

http://sailorjerry.com/uk/

I just popped down to villa 33 and they don't.

Thanks Charlie!

Is it available in Bangkok, ideally in a supermarket rather than a bar?

1. The Roof - KS Road

2. Gazebo - KS road

3. Hillary 2 - Soi Nana

This reminded me of this, mildly amusing...

Rooney should be left on the bench.

Fantastic news.

As with other posters the tellers at SCB always write on the top note when I pay my rent.

A few years back I took some cash out in the UK it had this nice message "fully spent this tenner on drugs xx"

I don't don't know where the 10 year number comes from. As far as I know it does not truly exist.

The 3 year number is about the same. For some language school that is the longest you can study at their school because is when you reach the limit of advanced studies that can qualify for an extension of stay. Some schools can offer a course of study of up to 5 years.

You could enroll in a school for a one year course of study. Take a break for however long you wanted and then go back to school for another year if you wanted to.

I did this. I studied at a school for a year and then felt I wanted to take a break, although the amount required was only 4 hours per week I planned to be away in different parts of the country for weeks at a time so would have missed my 4 hours on quite a few occasions and didn't want to abuse the system so I got a tourist visa and had a private tutor for Thai on the times I was in Bangkok.

Now I'm pretty settled in Bangkok and content to spend my time here I have applied again and just got the documentation back from the MOE for a new ED visa.

Why would you need the taxi driver to speak English? Just tell him the place you want to go.

Assuming of course if the place has a Thai name that he can pronounce it correctly (which relies on transliteration being accurate)...

case in point - Ratchathewi BTS, read it in Thai and it's much closer to Ratchataywi - Thai people in general (in my experience) won't have a clue where you mean when you pronounce it the way it's transliterated.

• Accept that some do understand you but may pretend they don't as they don't want to take the fare
• Take taxis around Tourist areas - almost all will speak some English (although they'll be less likely to want to use the meter)
• As suggested already take the BTS, MRT and Boats - dead easy and most major tourist destinations are close
• Show them on Google maps on your phone plus the name in Thai
• If you're going somewhere specific (hotel etc) then phone the location and pass the taxi driver the phone to speak to the person at the other end.

For most common locations you really shouldn't have an issue. For more obscure locations you would potentially have an issue even if you can describe where you want to go. Always surprises me how few taxi drivers know how to get to Chaeng Wattana.

It is stated in the thai constitution

You know what happened to the Thai constitution right...

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It is not based on race but nationality. Chinese, Koreans, Japanese etc. all pay the foreigners price. And it hardly ever happens, so far I have not been anywhere where I could not get in for the Thai price.

I understand the policy for (semi) government attractions (locals pay less), for private enterprises it should IMO not be allowed.

I guess that point is arguable .. the Jews are Caucasian but it is still considered racist to gas them.....

Should be a law against blatant discrimination.. it doest send the right message to anyone one on so many different levels.

Well this Adventure mini golf is adamant that they have a different price for Farang no apologies, no exception, and from their email they believe everywhere else is the same.....

Generally Jews aren't caucasian - I have a lot of Jewish friends and they consider it their race as well as their religion. Even UK law is similar, there was a school in Liverpool I believe that was under fire for not allowing non-jews as the point of law argued it was discriminating on race not religion.

Regarding the double pricing issue they really can be asshats about it - I went to the Tiger Temple (I wouldn't recommend it) in Kanchanaburi and my gf had forgotten her ID at the hotel. She's clearly Thai, she looks Thai and obviously speaks fluent Thai but they made her pay the non Thai price as she didn't have her ID. Really spoiled the day as she was in a pissy mood for the whole afternoon!

How about you PM me her contact info, photos and description. Then I'll try to see if she will meet me for a few weeks, after a couple of months of skype. Maybe we too will fall in love, and get asked for $30k. Then you will know for sure your true position.

You're the third person who's requested this info (myself included). She only lives a few miles up the road but I don't think he trusts any of us not to try and... !

Hopefully they'll get some new staff when they move.

The place was ok but the service was terrible sometimes even for Thailand.

Lovely, thanks for the update!