richard_smith237

I've done both.... Scooter, then up to a larger bike, then back down to a scooter. The reasons... 1) I never took the Big bike out of Bangkok enough, so no real need for it. 2) A scooter has better storage (more practical in the city). 3) *Gears on a real-bike were a bit of a PITA... *I get your point, ride enough and changing gears is hardly noticeable, but just like an Auto vs a manual car, auto just makes life easier... Plus, feathering the clutch while filtering through traffic is also quickly wears thin.

Advice to Op. As you have never owned a motorcycle before. You don't really want to be learning how to ride a geared bike in the middle of Bangkok, it is of course possible for a novice, but there really is too much other stuff going on. Buy a decent Scooter with ABS and and 'combo-breaking'... If you still want a larger bike, evolve into it. Ideal bike to start with: I'd recommend a Honda ADV 160 (opinions of others will vary of course). Further advice: - Full Face Helmet (decent brand) - Gloves - Proper footwear - Jacket (with back protector)

Having worked in both Israel and throughout the Middle East the 'one strand of DNA' comment rings very true - for two such opposing groups of people there has never been more similarities, not only in physical appearance, but culture and language.

If your rants are evidence of the outgoing attitudes and image you present then they've perhaps been avoiding you !!!... There are plenty of decent people out there in Thailand, Thai and non-Thai..... BUT, people reap what they sew and if they are presenting a wholly negative outward attitude the response they receive will be less than favourable. Those very same folk will struggle wherever they are.

Chopper - our 9 year old son (British Father / Thai mother) attends an excellent International School in Bangkok, yet we are in the same situation regarding the Quality of Thai education he receives, which is 2 rather basic Thai lessons per week - we supplement his Thai with extra curricular classes outside of school. A lot of children at international schools end up doing this. Having a native grasp on the Thai language becomes particularly important if the child wishes to follow a medical, dentistry or a legal career in Thailand where its simply not possible to do so without attending Thai University (in Thai language) these skills are often supplemented with an overseas education, however its not possible to secure positions in Thailand in these professions without a Thai Accredited qualification in that discipline - hence, keeping optoins open although we fully expect that our Son will attend a reputable Western University.

... Or argue that with lights the difference is irrelevant, as is your pile of ridiculous bumf above..... unless of course, you plan on driving around in the dark or poor light conditions without your lights on.

If you think this forum has a preponderance of Thai bashers, you should have a trawl with the trolls that spend their day posting "comments" on the newspaper that can't be mentioned here. That collective of sadness makes this forum look like a long weekend in Blackpool in October. For some any opinion which casts a shadow over any aspect of Thailand or Thai's will be termed a Thai Bash. Then for others, any defense and opposition to a negative opinion is 'wearing rose tinted glasses'. For the vast majority of us there is the balanced middle ground between the two extremes - Thai Bashing and Rose Tinted Glasses, where normal life here yields the same normal observations that Thai's themselves have, whereby through exposure and experience its obvious that not everything is perfect, there are fair and reasonable criticisms, while at the same time, not everything is as negative as some make out.

Then there are these quotes which provide some food for thought.. "If someone is an a55hole, they're an a55hole, if everyone is an <deleted>, you're the a55hole" or "If you run into an a55hole in the morning, you ran into an a55hole. If you run into a55holes all day, you're the a55hole."

Perhaps we should all get an AR15 to protect ourselves from the tyrannous governments trying force us to avoid using cash.... 'theres always some good n proper paranoid paranoid shyte on this forum...

In the same way you were attracted to the negativity of the post, y'mean???? ..... no offence, but if you're calling the Op a bogan, then do so without dancing around the 'no offence card'.....

Its time for you to sit down and have a beer with Bob Smith..... Someone record it and put it on TV, it could be quite an amusing display of 'emotion' !! ------ To deal with your generalisation respectfully is difficult because its not a respectful generalisation, its not even remotely accurate of any generalisation of Thai people I've encountered or read, in fact quite the opposite is often generalised - that Thai's are too relaxed. Thus, the issues are far more likely to be due to your immediate surroundings than any general national character. Having recently spent some time in a nation known for having difficult nationals I was ready to dummy spit and started tarring all with the same brush, yet, on occasion I was pleasantly surprised and didn't allow negative generalisations to impact decisions. Under the premise of the very nature of a generalisation, those negative generelastions were true of course, but they shouldn't tar every interaction..... Now I'm 'out' I can safely sit back in with the knowledge that my own racist bigotry isn't actually that at all, its just that some national traits are what they are and having developed 'fair opinions' based on rounded experience is just that.... experience. So... what you are experiencing may not be due to where you are, but 'where' you are... i.e. IF you are in the very centre of a hustle and bustle tourist hotspot, then visit a different area and re-set. After too long in any area its nice for a reset to once again appreciate the good.

'Most' experience is also of Bangkok nightlife... Although, recent experience outside of Bangkok saw small group of us go through Black-Label by the bottle - it was real and the issue the following morning was less so of a hangover than it was of still being a little bit too 'bob-smithed-up' !!! (he's surely deserved of his own adjective by now) The last time I had fake Whisky was on Soi 11 (bar beginning with M, watching football) - the Whisky was exceptionally rough and clearly fake, not even tasting remotely similar to the slightly peaty light smokey blend of JW black. Other than that, recently I've not noticed so much and thats because I was either already three-sheets to the wind and was not capable of noticing or I was careful enough to avoid it in that particular establishment - beers are often the safer bet. Otherwise... in bars relying on passing custom with 'women' as part of the entertainment, the Whisky is likely to be fake, previous experience has backed that up. Any bar which looks cheap (i.e. Soi 22 sports bars), the Whisky is likely to fake, previous experience has backed that up. 'Decent bars' usually charge more for a Shot of Black Label than a beer, so its starts getting expensive... then we're into cocktails territory and I'll have an Old Fashioned or a Negroni - then its more about trust than being able to taste the specifics of the mix and know its 'real or not'. Most of my Whisky is drank in my home or the home of friends.... I'm supping a Glenfiddich Reserve cask now. In fact - most of the 'quality' stuff I have, Wine, Whisky, Sake, Steak, Hams etc... is consumed at home or at a friends house.... thats more than likely a combination of both age and taste.... and a lack of tolerance for BS which a lot of the bars pass off. I can sit in a bar with friends, talk the good talk, enjoy company etc... but when the Whisky put in front of me tastes like counterfeit cheap swill, I just want to get out of there.

And this is a perfect example of why the 'reputation feature' is perhaps handy for some. Previously we could look at your comment, see 82 posts next to your name and see that you have zero likes, we can safely assume that all your posts are time wasting trolls. Conversely, we could previously look at posts others have made and see from their reputation that the majority of their posts have been valued positively by the forum community in general and thus their response is likely to be more valuable and their experience more reliable. Not always the case of course, but if we are to generalise, without knowing, it could be assumed that most of your posts were a trolling waste of time and whatever 'reputation' you had reflected that.

Physics...https://phys.org/news/2011-10-silver-white-cars-cooler.html#:~:text=White%2C silver%2C and other light,cooler than traditional dark colors. That issue has already been addressed - the link also discusses the exterior temperature on the roof, not the interior temperature of the car.... That said, I imagine there is some difference... So, when you get into a car thats been parked in the sun, do you really care that its 45 deg C or 40 ?????..... Obviously its going to be a practically noticeable difference between 15 deg C and 35 deg C - but those interior differentials are not being discussed. In most cases, if the car is parked in a hot climate in the sun, Its going to be too hot and you're going to be reaching for the AC.... If parked in the shade, then the difference is insignificant anyway. Admittedly, a difference may be noted in the UK in spring when it could be 25 deg C inside a car parked in the sun rather than 27 deg C - will you be able to notice ? The 5-6 deg C difference quoted is at the extreme ends of the spectrum when the interior difference of the car is somewhere between 'too effing hot' and 'way too effing hot' - the debate becomes moot to the point of being pathetic.

My current car in Thailand is pearlescent white, the previous two cars were also white, the car before that very dark blue, red before that, black before that.... IF I wanted to act like a real idiot I'd make claims about the temperature retention and visibility..... the reality is far less interesting, I chose those colours because thats what I liked the look of on that model. One point I will make - Big moon-roof's.... They're no fun in these climates. I've had cars with moonroofs in Thailand an never opened it, we just have the cloth thing across always. Thus: the presence of 'roof glass' makes a far greater difference than colour, but again, thats negligible when the AC has the car cool in such a short period (I hesitate to state about a minute or two). So... IF we are really going to get into the discussion of 'temperature' inside a car after its parked, a far more intelligent discussion would be to comment on the quality of AC that cars have and how quickly and effectively the AC cools the interior of the car (i.e. 1 minute or more, 5 minutes would see me looking for a different vehicle). The same can be argued in the West, regarding how quickly the car heats up, how quickly the windscreen de-ices etc.

Very US centric... but with the Spelling Whiskies, that surprises me as the plural of Whiskey is Whiskeys.... whereas the Plural of Whisky is Wiskies... Not that it matters much - its all good stuff and there are some great Bourbons that I'd like to try (who doesn't like their biscuits !! ) Got to give that Indri Diwali Collector's Edition 2023 a go if its even possible to get a hold of a bottle. Could be a great bottle to get through with the family at Christmas.

Absolutely agree with this.... When out with friends, there is only 'so much' beer I can drink before I've had enough of beer and fancy moving on to Whisky... These are social evenings I don't care for something amazing.... Black Label on ice is absolutely fine for me, except there is so much fake stuff about - I can taste its fake when drinking it neat and that bothers me because I don't want to drink a handful of fake cr@p and suffer a hangover when I can drink 'real stuff' and not face such issues. I've lost count of the amount of bars I've walked out of because they are selling fake swill.

I suggest so many on here are getting exceptionally anal about the colour of someone else's car. IF you want to chose a white car because you think its safer and gives others better visibility of your vehicle, then go ahead - just don't forget to turn on your lights when the light starts fading..... cos its clearly only a very specific few on this forum who can see so well in the dark !!!! ....the reality of course, is that the colour has a negligible impact to visibility compared to lights because the difference in visibility of different colours as the light fades is negligible and irrelevant when lights are in use on every vehicle. Agree.... kind of - the neon on emergency vehicles is usually a wrap rather than paint-scheme. Correct, and neither have I attempted to.... no one has argued that Black is a better colour than white... That is your flawed assumption perhaps garnered from jumping to conclusions in an attempt to 'win' in some imagined 'white is better' argument... (my car is white btw). My argument is that there is negligible difference in visibility and temperature retention between white and black cars, or light and dark cars.... certainly not a significant enough difference for choice to be intelligently impacted, unless the person choosing is of a particularly pedantic nature and common sense is out-shadowed. Agreed.... what ridiculous arguments do you use to justify the colour choice of your car..... I mean other than, I liked that colour ?? !!!....

Do you look down upon them from above ????? Yes, if looking down from a helicopter !!! Looking from the front or side - the background plays a greater impact and we see the contrast. I do agree that lighter colours are generally more perceptible than darker, however, the difference is negligable. Motorcyclists do not wear 'white jackets' for visibility - they wear 'high-vis' neon coloured jackets. None of any significance whatsoever - white or black. White is cooler - Good luck going without your AC in Thailand. White is safer - Good luck under that false pretence anywhere. Easier to maintain ??.... cos white cars use less oil, right ??? Some really ridiculous arguments on this thread - perfect examples of cant see the forest for the trees. I have a white care, but not because I'm stupid enough to think it makes a difference to the quailty or safety of my driving experience. Is your car neon coloured ???

Another fool who thinks cars are perfectly square and headlights and taillights cannot be seen from the side. And no, you are also wrong... light / white vehicles can only be seen more readily at night / in dusk conditions when placed in front of a dark backdrop of contrast.... Depending on the area, many backdrops to the roads we commonly drive are variable, some light, some dark, some reflective etc... a white car is no more visible against a black backdrop than a black car is against a white backdrop... Thus, the arguments many are making (including yourself) is one of contrast and that is flawed logic.. In the real world our surroundings are of highly variable contrast against and no light or dark colour is particularly advantageous over the other unless you are going to cover your car in a 'Pattern' of recognisable shapes of contrasting colour. Lights are noticeable in the dark, everywhere - colours are only noticeable as contrast with sufficient ambient light.

Erm... its was an obvious cheap-shot and a racist dig..... Its probably not your fault you are unable to see the obvious.

Thats going to upset some confirmation bias !!!!

The requirement for a 6 Months Passport Validity is not an Airline Requirement, but an immigration (country) requirement. For example: My Wife was permitted to travel to Japan (from Bangkok) with 4 months remaining on her passport, because Japan does not have this stipulation. However, we were told that Singapore is strict about its 6 month remaining validity policy and my Wife would have been refused travel if going to Singapore. (We had to sign an affidavit stipulating that we'd not hold the airline accountable). Lots of websites state that Thailand requires 6 months passport validity from date of entry - its difficult to find an official source for this info and a lot of sites just regurgitate what others may have incorrectly states. First things first: You'll need to find out the absolute facts on this, then obtain a Government issued statement to that effect as proof. Then you'll need the Airline to pre-approve your travel based on this information as you can guarantee that the Airline staff of budget airlines are nasty little barstayards (in the UK at least) who'll take great delight in exercising limited power on the back of their bitterness for making such s#itty life choices !!!! Also, the Airline themselves may have this 6 month policy - but that is for no other reason than to protect themselves from the financial burden or return carriage should immigration reject an arrival based on this regulation.

The reasons are simple economics - White has traditionally been the cheapest paint option, a lot of these decisions have always been made by accountants... so fleet vehicles are.... ??? Most 'works' vans are also white for the same reasons - economics. For higher visibility police forces and ambulance services use Luminous Orange and Yellow... IF white was so effective, why aren't they leaving their vehicles plain white !!... Now... Do you choose a car colour for the best perceived visibility ??? or do you just chose the colour you like ?

What about the other three sides? You're being deliberately thick, or simply facetious if you think all cars are perfectly square ???? Cars are designed so that both headlights and tail lights can be seen from the side - in fact with most modern cars as much of the lights can be seen from the side as from the front and rear.