Groongthep

It's been a few years since we last visited this subject and I felt that it was time to do a quick update.

Now that the Thai Food craze (in the US anyway) has long past I am happy to report that I have discovered several Thai restaurants in my hometown of Seattle that really strive to serve authentic Thai food as it is found in Thailand. The overwhelming number of Thai restaurants there still serve the same overly sweet pad thai and pass off plain red curry as panang but there are a few gems out there now who are doing a terrific job. I was at a place yesterday that served bpoo pad pong karee, kung chaem nam pla and yam pla dook foo; items almost never seen in your run-of-the-mill Thai joint. You even see Thai people eating at these places which you almost never see in the made for falang joints. A good development indeed.

I'm not sure of course, but I think the over saturation of the market with Thai restaurants lead to less than mediocre food being served in the large majority of them and the clientele simply got tired of it. Vietnamese seems to be the new asian food of fashion even though many have been around for decades. The Vietnamese always seem to fix their food the way they themselves would like it prepared.

All foods from restaurants in Seattle. Too many others to show.

There are more than a handful of members on this forum who have reached a highly impressive level of fluency in written Thai (myself not included). I suspect that they have not answered your post out of modesty. Go back and read through some old posts and you'll see who they are.

There's no way to tell how fluent other members are in spoken Thai unless they give some sort of link to a video, or recording of themselves engaged in a discussion.

I agree that this is a great consulate; I've been using them for years. The woman in charge is named Mary Wheeler and she is very courteous and efficient. If you live close enough to stop in in person and have all your paperwork, pictures and fees in order, she will often issue your visa while you wait in sometimes only a matter of a few minutes depending on the type of visa you want.

Be advised they are only open Monday through Thursday 9:00AM to 11:30AM. Here's the website: Portland Thai Consulate Note the new requirements for multi-entry tourist visas.

I think the best Mexican food in Bangkok is my house i cook some wicked Mexican dishes even if i do say so myself

Please post the address and we will all stop in tomorrow.

Nomads at Silom Soi 4 (formerly Noriega’s) often has music as well: Nomads

Saxophone at Victory Monument has live music every night 6PM til closing. Here's a link to their website: Saxophone website

click on "Music Schedule" in the upper left corner of the homepage to get this week's lineup.

Thanks for the one answer I have been waiting on!!!! :jap:

Sorry for the tongue-in-cheek replies. We don't begrudge your like for Miracle Whip, but you got to admit that it was a really easy subject to make fun of. The ones that puzzled me though were the guys who claimed that out of the combined 47 million or so people who live in the 3 West Coast states that none of them liked the stuff even though it's sold just about everywhere.

Since you're from Beaumont in the heart of the lovely Port Arthur-Beaumont-Orange Golden Triangle area we are aware that you must be very familiar with Miracle Whip since it is, I believe, the major product of the Exxonmobil refinery complex and made with the pristine waters of the Sabine river.

You must be from middle America? I don't think anybody eats that stuff on the West coast.

Yep, that's why I could buy it in the large jars in every grocery store in LA, San Jose, San Francisco, San Diego, and friends' refrigerators while I lived in California for 10 years because, obviously, nobody eats that stuff there.

Thanks for the helpful info.

Yup, it's available in just about every supermarket from San Ysidro, CA. to Bellingham, WA..

Where is "middle America" anyway? Is it a place or a state of mind somewhere between Rush Limbaugh and Rosie O'Donnel?

They say Ronald Reagan hated Miracle Whip growing up as a kid in Illinois but learned to love it in California before it gave him alzheimer’s and killed him.

H2oDunc is correct. His post wasn't up as I was posting mine. I still recommend seeing a actual doctor however.

Go see a real physician at a reputable hospital or clinic. The "doctors" here on Thaivisa generally have no idea what they're talking about.

You can't go wrong with Bumrungrad for just about any medical condition. For appointments call: 02 667 1555 or just walk in.

Pizza in the UK has become generally worse since the influx of American chains. Pizza Hut in particular has dumbed down the product.

I agree that chainfood pizza is quite bad but that is not what we are talking about here. There are many thousands of small idependently owned pizza places in the US that pride themselves on using only the best quality cheese and produce available when making their pizzas. To judge American pizza, of which there are many varieties, by talking about chainfood is both unfair and ignorant. If people in the US, UK, Thailand or anywhere else want to eat at chains then they deserve what they get. I'm sure the big corporations and their local franchise owners are still happy to take their money.

Just buy them another UHF antenna.

Thanks MiG16. RCA, Club Astra, Thong Lor, Trang and Naan have been added to the suggestion list.

As an Ex New Yorker, that Pizza does not look very good. All because they are Americans it does'nt mean they can make Pizza. One of the main Problems is the cheese here in Thailand.

And here we go again....

"A human being is a part of a whole, called by us, the universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest... a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."

Note the word "delusion". He frequently claims I am deluded if I believe the planet and my own self to be separate, or the teapot and my own self to be separate. Is he using separate in a different way to the one in the dictionary? Do I lack the fundamental Buddhist lingo to get his point?

This is a pretty standard Buddhist view of things. Different traditions may say it quite differently or stress certain aspects more than this but this isn't unique to SGI. Camerata covers this quite well above.

I think Chutai on this board would be able to answer specific questions you may have about SGI, i haven't had any experience with them beyond heresay

"A human being is a part of a whole, called by us, the universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest... a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."

This is a direct word-for-word quote from Albert Einstein and does not come directly from any Buddhist Sutra. I do agree with Brucenkhamen however that it is a pretty standard Buddhist view of things. Whether or not Einstein was influenced by Buddhist teaching before coming to this conclusion I don't know, but it reaffirms to me just the same that he was a brilliant thinker in more subjects than just physics and mathematics.

Of course you shouldn't do stupid things (like in any country), but it doesn't seem like safety is a big issue over here. I feel safer in Thailand than I do in almost any country, including my own. Nobody really bothers us here.

Yup, common sense should always prevail, unfortunately with many it does not and they seem to adopt an attitude that because they are on holiday rules no longer apply. But at 31 she should be sensible enough to realize that is not the case!

Thanks for the replies. Yeah, perhaps I overstated the safety issue, I know Thailand is generally safer than most of our home countries and as a 31 year old business analyst she is mature enough not to do anything stupid.

But besides that what would you recommend for accommodation? I've read positive things from women about Suk 11 Hostel on Sukhumvit Soi 11 and the Reno Hotel in the Soi Kasemsan area but these maybe a bit too downscale for her (I'm not sure). She's not rich but something in the 1500-2000 baht per night range would not be too much. How about the Viengtai in Banglampoo? It used to get good reviews and I believe she would like the area but I haven't heard anything about the place in years.

Since I stay in Bangkok my recommendations mainly revolve around here. I'm going to suggest just one day doing the regular tourist route: Grand Palace, Wat Po, Chatujak Market etc. and at least another two or three doing some off the beaten path stuff like the bicycle tour to Pra Pa Daeng, a walking tour through and around Chinatown, a mid-day drink atop the Riverview Guesthouse, hire a long tail boat to tour the klongs of Thonburi and stuff like that. At night it might be nice to splurge a little bit at Vertigo, Bussaracum and Le Beaulieu (She's French ya know). I'll also recommend some small hole-in-the-wall Thai joints which I know and that have great food.

Outside Bangkok I'll recommend Hua Hin and of course Chiang Mai. I don't know much about Phuket and am so heartbroken over how Ko Samui has been ruined since I used to go there in the early 90's that I don't know if I can bring myself to propose she go there. It does seem going to Thailand for the first time however should include some time at a southern beach resort though.

What would be some things you women would add? I know very little about the nightclubs catering to the younger crowd. Any suggestions?

Get a grip.

+1

The 31 year old niece of a good friend of mine from France is planning her first trip to Thailand later this year. She knows I have been living in Thailand on and off for many years and therefore has asked me to give her niece some suggestions on where to go and what to do. I can give her some good advice on places to visit, where to eat and things to do but I also thought it might be really helpful for her to get the perspectives of some of you expat and local women on things a 55 year old American guy like me wouldn't have much insight into. I will send her a link to this Thaivisa Ladies forum in hopes that she will sign up and ask you gals directly but in the meantime any lists of suggested single farang lady friendly places to stay and things to do (and not do) would be appreciated. You of course, do not have to be French to answer. I just thought the advice of someone from her home country would be of particular interest to her. She is well educated and speaks, reads and writes English fluently.

BTW, I was reading through the pinned Safety Topics thread at the top of this forum and it seems to me that most of the suggestions are common sense that would apply to pretty much anywhere and not just Thailand. Woman's safety was one of the specific topics she was concerned about.

I don't think you're missing anything, that's the way Thais will say it. Like, i have one older brother but if someone asks me มีพี่น้องกี่คน i will answer 2คน and then they'll usually ask if my other sibling is older or younger, or a brother or sister.

I agree with bhoydy here. In this particular context I think พี่น้อง would best be translated as a single idiom meaning "siblings in general" rather than read literally as two separate words, i.e.) พี่ and น้อง.

Same Puerto Nuevo. 'Puerto Nuevo-inspired lobster' might have been a better choice of words, although I was a fan of the original style, before the town filled up with copycat restos.

An interesting piece of trivia about Puerto Nuevo, Baja; the place located before Ensenada and near Rosarito Beach. It originally was a very tiny fishing village which had no official name at all. It came to be called Puerto Nuevo from the English translation of the giant Newport cigarette billboard that was along side the (then) new tollway (Ensenada Quota) at the exit to the village.

I haven't been down that way in years but I remember the sign was still there in the mid 80s.

And if your friends prefer earing American there is a great Dutch place on the corner there that also has great Thai food all at reasonable prices.

I'm having a hard time figuring this one out. A Dutch place that has great Thai food for those whose friends prefer "earing" American. I'm perplexed.

there is only 1 way you can spell it. พอล โจนส์

Which will be pronounced by the most Thais as Pawn Jone.

No.You will be surprised how Thais can get the L sound out as an ending constanant when it is a name of a foriegner. I have a friend who's name is just that and have tried it on alot of my Thai friends who ALL pronounced it as PauL.This of course is an exception to Thai language rules of ending L is pronounced as a N because it is not a Thai word.

And 'Jone' as you put it is as close as you will get to Jones. Without our little friend ไม้ทัณฑฆาต the sound would be nowhere near as close as โจนส์.

The rule is if you change the spelling of an English name you MUST translate it using ALL the English letters with the corresponding Thai letters. Of course it is not going to sound excactly the way it sounds in English. That is simply impossible unless the speaker is trained to pronounce they name like a native speker. That is one reason why we all speak foriegn languages with an accent.

Aren't foriegn languages just great fun ??

I think we've been through this already. Thanks for contributing but please read the entire thread first before jumping in the middle and reiterating what we've already discussed.

there is only 1 way you can spell it. พอล โจนส์

Which will be pronounced by the most Thais as Pawn Jone.

For brevity in SMSing ปะ is often used as short hand for หรือเปล่า

'tis very slangy, but you see it all over Facebook

I agree. For texting and social forum (like facebook) purposes, Thai is usually written in its own new abbreviated language just like English texting.