Beavis and Butthead

Nice. great info OM

I was in Laos last month and dealt with many African cue jumpers when the gate opened. Another thing I noticed were the van loads of Philipinos being dumped off in front of the embassy (I counted 6). It looks like they run some kind of pro service there for visas. I'm glad the embassy doesnt hand over freebies to these people as that would forgoe huge revenue

I dont believe in marriage anymore, dont see the point. I do believe in the long term live in gf

wheres the farang ghetto pray tell

Pattaya is probably the largest farang ghetto but all resorts and cities usually have one. If my wife ever throws me out, I will be headed back to a farang ghetto somewhere.

never worry about that. thai wives never throw out farang husbands with offshore income streams, ever. never ever

lived here 10 years and never carried a wallet around unless I'm flying out of the country. I picked up this habit in cambodia before coming here. I just carry cash I need for whatever I'm doing. Never carry credit cards nor use them at retailers here, ever

Bullys pub, gulliwer and absolute 7 bar. warning the guinness here tastes lousy

Thais who speak exceptional English are rare, even in tourist areas

this poll should be easy to setup. it should only include readily available beer at 7/11s, supermarkets, big box stores and mom and pop stores throughout the country. this immediately eliminates ALL imports including beer lao. no way beer lao should be in any beer poll related to thailand because you cant buy it a retail anywhere in bangkok and perhaps the country. so what does this leave?

1. heineken

2. sing

3. chang

4. tiger

5. leo

6, archa (puke)

7. thai beer

8. san migs reg and light

9. cheers

I may have missed one of the supercheap pos's like that red horse or whatever puke piss that is

aint much of a choice now is it? I get rot gut and headaches just thinking about it but there is a #1 choice hands down

that choice by far is the only drinkable beer in the country readily available and reasonably priced

HEINEKEN

Quick off topic post here: good lord lomatopo -- where do you get a 35,000 baht return ticket to the east coast with UA?

I buy from a east-coast Consolidator who specializes in Asia travel. I buy excursion fares, the "W" bucket (essentially the cheapest fare available, but not available from the airline as they pre-sold this bucket to Consolidators), on UA which accrues miles and I upgrade using free, accrued upgrades. My last ticket, purchased last week for travel in June/Sep, was 900 USD base fare, 1,042.31 USD ALL IN. For BKK-BOS-BKK on UA I'd be paying 60,000 THB. For emergencies I redeem awards for BKK-BOS-BKK, I just had to do this for an unplanned trip in May, so 90,000 miles for business class (TG/US/UA) (taxes/fees: 1,545 THB!!!, no fuel surcharges).

A long time ago, when the exchange rate was ~ 41, I did buy BKK-BOS-BKK, was paying ~ 48,000 THB all in

Interesting! You're able to upgrade a "W" fare class ticket using accrued miles/certificates? The UA website says that the only discount fares upgradeable for transpacific flights are "M" and "H". Full-fare coach "Y" is always upgradeable.

Just curious - were you able to request the upgrade through the UA website after booking your ticket through the consolidator, or did you have to do it over the phone?

As an aside - UA does not seem to allocate ANY standard award seats for SFO - BKK - SFO. I've tried up to a year in advance, and nearly every day in a year - and the website always shows no availability. Haven't tried the reverse direction BKK - SFO - BKK.

forget about the reverse direction, travel must originate from the USA

Another poster awhile back indicated if your airline ticket is purchased with cash going to the USA, you can expect special screening.

Is this really true? Where would I expect problems?

Boarding in Bangkok?

Arriving at US customs?

Boarding in the USA on return?

There are very good reasons for me to purchase my ticket with cash (can only get my best fare for my route at a Thai travel agent rather than online plus my US credit card company charges a large currency conversion fee) but I want to have some idea of what I would be in for if I go that way.

couple of things jingthing:

no there is no special screening on cash tickets, I have done that recently

credit cards give much better rates now after the infamous credit card foreign currency lawsuit

I've been to Cuba dozens of times and have always longed to get to N. Korea

Is it still illegal (by American law) for Americans to visit this terrorist-sponsoring, foreign citizen-abducting state (defined by US gov't.)?

If so, how do we circumvent the regulations? Also, without USA diplomatic or consular services in this country, what recourse does an American citizen have if they run into trouble?

omg! terrifying aint it. I'm scared. great thread corkscrew, count me in

well thingjing, with 4000 posts in just over a year, i'd say you spend too much time on here indeed so it's a good resolution for you. I think you should be out there now drumming up support for ron paul as I am doing. cheers

I know countless farangs who built houses in gf/wives names. Each and every one of them lost the house. When you do something like this, you are gifting the house to them. Write it off, you gave it to her. I'd say you have a lot of nerve to try and get back any portion. btw, it was very nice of you to build a house for the lady

I'm sure there are plenty who get by on that. The point is really that he should not assume that just because he scrapes by on $30 a day doesn't mean that everyone does...and far from it.

His doesn't scrape by. He's only got himself to support and says he saves (banks) at least 2,000 baht a month.

An expat living so close to the wire in Thailand would be in real trouble if he got seriously ill...

Howzat, with banking 24,000 baht minimum every year, not counting other savings???

My my, sounds like he's got a real windfall there

God help us all if Mumbai slips into the unfriendly column

Thai food is great, but sometimes a girl just craves some cheese!

I gave Sunrise Tacos a try a few days ago, in the Nana location.

I had three soft corn tacos for 139B, with chicken, pork and pulled beef.

The soft tortillas were delicious, but even two layers of tortilla wasn't enough to keep my tacos from disintegrating, and i had to eat most of them with a fork.

The tacos were bland, but in a comfort food sort of way that is not necessarily bad. I tried the different salsas, and being used to som tam, didn't find any of them very spicy. The chicken and pork were very tasty, I didn't like the beef as much.

The portions were *huge* and I couldn't finish it all. One taco would probably have been enough for me.

The restaurant is cheerful, even though the parking lot view isn't the best. The staff seemed a bit harassed, and some members of the staff were chewing out the younger waitresses. One drawback of the Nana location is the other patrons: there was a group of really loud, fat, rude Americans, hired company in tow, yelling at the waitress, but that's a problem with other restaurants in the area too. I might avoid the Nana location and go to Emporium in the future.

Overall, Sunrise isn't perfect, but I think it's good value for money, and I'll be back when I have another taco craving! :-)

welcome to Thailand and the bulk of Greg's clientele at his restaurants. Without those people, he'd be out of business. I should know, that's my neighborhood and I worship it

just curious what you are doing where you need to burn erase burn erase. I use the dvd-r because I want to keep the crap I burn

Yet another newbie expert. He's the 3rd or 4th in this thread. Mr thinks he's the same guy as the other newbies and probably the other usual suspects spewing the same drivel

Hotel prices have skyrocketed in that area the past 5 years. In many cases double or triple so if someone quotes a price they got say 2 or 3 years ago the it will be way off the mark. 1500 baht buys little around here nowadays, pretty much borderline fleabag stuff. I think even the holiest of holes, the Miami is pushing 1K baht now, rats included in your loom. Ambassador was 1K walk in rate in '03, now that's pushing 3K. Glad I dont need hotels around here

My rec for the area is the Park Hotel, which is on Soi 7. It should be in the 1500-2000 range at this point but be forewarned! cockroaches infest the rooms and my buddy had a nice rat come to visit

I like to weave baskets and spend 4 hours a day participating in the top 10 threads in the farang life section of this forum.

Its only been a problem twice in American history. Keep it.

We, from opposite parties, agree on this. Keep the system; our forefathers devised it for a reason.

I never understood the fascination with getting tattoos

This may be one of the exceptions to the rule but our last rental deposit return was fine.

We paid a 3 month rental deposit when we first moved in.

4 months before we moved out I asked the landlady about the deposit and suggested, tough in cheek, that we don't pay any rent for the last 3 months so she didn't have to pay us the deposit back.

Amazingly she agreed.

power to you in that situation. good work, that's best scenario

Most landlords that I know will simply padlock units where a tenant will try and use deposits to pay last months rents. I also notice that many contracts specifically state that deposits will not be used for this purpose. If I'm a landlord, I would certainly do exactly that. by taking the matter in your own hands you are taking a large risk. The landlord has the power to change locks for non payment of rent and then you're totally screwed. avoid confrontation and do as your contract says