Merylhighground

OP it is worth noting that motorbike taxis can be thin on the ground after 6pm or 'lights out'. Many's the time I've lagged a little, found the pod of drivers I saw earlier have popped off and have had to walk it and hope for an opportunistic 'drive by' picking me up.

I like the Darkside. I've spent many a happy afternoon/evening there in the past just wandering around, stumbling on some nice friendly little nooks and crannies. If you get stuck for a ride, nip into a bar and ask them there. The lasses invariably will have a number for a local moto or even stand outside and clap one in for you, especially if you're a good tipper.....

Very much so TBL^.

I once had a very rough year in Saraburi early in my time in Thailand.

I was sent there for work reasons, as it was only meant to be a four - six month long project they didn't make provision for my wife and family to come with me, so I was pretty much dumped in a totally strange town (it warranted only a paragraph or two in the Lonely Planet guide at the time - and only got that due to it's proximity to Khao Yai and Khao Sam Lan NPs) where I knew no one, my language skills then only just enough to 'get by on', I was dumped in a fairly basic hotel to live in, my only local point of contact was my driver who seemed not to give a rat's backside about my well-being, or the job in hand, who was the reason the job ran to almost a year.

While Saraburi is no doubt a charming town in many ways in it's own right, back then in the mid 1990s there was little of interest, entertainment value or benefit to offer the young Westerner (especially a married one), no (or few) friendly fellow Westerners to point out the local places of interest, no Western food or entertainment and so on.

I spent almost every evening/night of the first month huddled over a succession of  beer bottles in a small restaurant near the hotel, reading one of the few books I'd thrown in my bag, listening to music. My walk back to the hotel every night went over a small stretch of high ground from where I could see the orange glow of BKK in the distance, teasing me, wishing I was under that glow which I felt I could almost touch, and every now and then a BKK bound train would rattle close by the restaurant mocking me with it's proximity that all I had to do was to get on, sit down and then a few hours later I'd be back in paradise surrounded by pals and sleeping next to my wife...

Now I can't stand even going through the place on the train, car or bus when all the memories come back, unless I can see the BKK bound platform/bus station where I would be stood in anticipation every Friday looking forward to a weekend in civilization with pals and the family.

I'm sure there are folks who have, and do, live very happy lives in Saraburi who could write pages singing her praises but the thought of the place, even on a chilly September morning in the UK, makes me shudder. 

Agree totally with OMC about a motor bike taxi, though Suk can be a bit hairy in rush hour on the back of a bike (or is at least for me).

Soi Khao Talo isn't all that bad though I wouldn't fancy it on foot in the dark given some of the driving along there at times.....If you don't mind shelling out and get lucky, a vacant baht Bus may take you back in more safety for around 150-200B (depending on the driver). 

We always used to see a lot of Western women in the bars in the On Nut - Udomsuk area of Sukhumwit rd for some reason; Maybe they were drawn to that area for the skint old pensioners, the flat-broke  'digital nomads' as they 'live the dream' on a diet of Mama Noodles, lukewarm Archa Beer or the jaded, burned out out TEFLers commonly found in that rather grotty, dingy, grimy area by the cheap housing and cheaper grub...

Threads like this are almost impossible to reply to as it's is all subjective to the individual poster and their experiences.

I once had a lousy fortnight in Chiang Mai and can't stomach the place at any cost as a result. The reasons probably totally irrational to those who swear by CM so much, still that is my subjective reasoning in effect. 

Sure, I don't think anywhere 'improves' when we compare it to some 'golden ideal' time from our own pasts.

For example, I have my happiest memories from a time in the late eighties when I was still fresh to Thailand, I had pals at every turn, I'd just started work in Thailand on a pretty sweet package, with a nice 'enticement' hardship payment nesting in my bank, as well as my salary plopping into my bank monthly. I was newly married, my wife was busy building a home for us up in BKK, I was given plenty of free time to 'settle in' so I spent a lot of time in Pattaya with pals, living it up, as the saying goes.

During our early years of marriage my wife and I would often treat ourselves to weekends  of pampering in nice hotels, more so when the kids came along.

Now, when I think of, or visit Pattaya, it is those 'golden days' which spring to mind though most of my pals have moved on to pastures new, some have sadly passed away, one or two remain with whom I meet up with for nostalgia trips every now and again. I'm sure that there are those whose time in Pattaya hasn't been as pleasant as my own have been, who look at the place with askance.

One pal of mine who used to love the place got stung blind by a lass he met there over a period of years, eventually finding out the 'cousin' his lass saw so much of, was nothing of the sort, and getting fleeced in the meantime, as well as having a series of health problems during that time, now even though he is happily settled in BKK, can't bear mention of the place. 

Though such ideal times are entirely a subjective personal perception, maybe from the first time we visited or during some particularly special time in one's life in Thailand.

Pattaya has improved for us personally. It represents way better value than can be found in Bangkok. I/we can have a good night out in Pattaya for a fraction of what we'd be paying in BKK. The car/taxi is full of all manner of goodies when we return home which one simply can't get in BKK at any of the import supermarkets. We can still find a top end, child-friendly hotel at a good rate, plenty around town to keep the kids occupied at a reasonable rate, so we still enjoy our visits there even if my own 'golden past' there has now faded to 'whispers on the wind' if you will. Superficials I know, but as I said, such posts are only really open to personal experience and objectivity.

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Similar situations.

We all decided to go for a beer and watch a football game and the two guys in question missed half the game running outside every 10 minutes to answer calls.

Suggestions to switch off phones didn't even get an answer.

Totally amazes me.

 

Indeed.

I could maybe understand if it's a new thing and the first full flushes of romance are still in full spate, where you can't stand not hearing your partner's voice for an hour, but when you've been wed to her for a while and just left her an hour or so ago, the mind does boggle when they're on the phone most of the afternoon while they're supposed to be enjoying a pal's company and a little 'freedom' for the afternoon/evening.

I had to remind my pal that he would be spending the next three weeks in her company exclusively (he only gets one 'day off' a month), when I really should have slapped him abaft the onion with a large dead fish....

To address the OPs question, I think it just 'goes with the 'being wed' territory' as it were. I don't think it is a specifically cultural issue.

Since returning to the UK, I've re-connected with several old pals who have married in the time I was in Thailand, and even they have to 'check in' with 'the boss' regularly.

Some women are happy to give their husband a little space, while others aren't so understanding or independent. I think my wife has come to enjoy her Sundays at home with the kids, and her pals, while' I'm out and about, as much as I do. Indeed some Sundays she can't wait to get me in a taxi which I must admit got me wondering....until I got home to find her and a few pals in the garden, giggling like schoolgirls, my cider and cocktail supplies rather depleted....

When we're in Thailand Sundays are my days exclusively. After many years of marriage my wife understands a chap needs a little freedom. 

After maybe a little shopping, a walk with the dogs and kids on the canal in the morning, I am at liberty to do what I please, where and with whom I please.

Usually I do nothing more exciting than head to Lower Sukhumwit, see who is biffing around, maybe go a little further afield to enjoy a little nostalgic trip down memory lane popping into little corners I've long forgotten, maybe watch a little football or cricket if there is any on, if I find a good source of cider in  a place with a nice open smoking area I'll have a few pints of cider and a cigar or two, and so on, and so forth... 

The only time the wife will call me is if I'm needed to buy something we've forgotten while near the shops. In fact, it is usually I who tend to call her to see if there is anything we need before I head for home in the evening.

One of my pals is seldom off the phone to his wife to the extent I've had to insist he turns the bally thing off when he turns up as I'm sick of getting halfway through a sentence or deep into an interesting chat, only to be interrupted by the endless beeping.

Were we out chasing dolly birds and his wife the unintelligent, insecure type , I could understand it, but she is a fine sensible lady and we are two middle aged family men, long time married, long time settled in Thailand but his phone will start beeping as soon as we get sat down.  

While I understand the value of mobile technology, if my phone was constantly going off, albeit the wife, a pal, work, I think it would drive me bonkers...

The thing is that this forum, (and other similar) provide a very visible sounding off board with total anonymity which offers some of the nastier element to sound off at every misfortune reported. you always find them gleefully hanging around topics about 'foreigners' in trouble spouting their venom at every chance. 

Back in the day, and I'm sure that those of us who were in Thailand in the pre-internet days, will recall that most 'expat' bars, (especially those in Bangkok) had their own resident 'misery' who would lecture one and all with a feeling of glee when news of the misfortune of a regular (no matter where they were in the Kingdom) would filter through the grapevine to the bar in general. The internet and forums are merely an extension, albeit a more visible and accessible, version of this. On a more positive note I recall many times the 'pot' being passed around to raise a few baht for someone in distress, or sometimes in more dire cases, an event would be held to raise funds for the person in distress which is where the bar and the sense of community it helped promote, wins over the internet for me; indeed sometimes one or ther of the better off punters would dig deep and clear the problem outright albeit paying a hospital bill or a flight ticket home, I felt I learned a lot about expats during those times.

Overrated. 

4 hours ago, ezzra said:

 

The whole of the nana Area is a hot bed and a known center for every shady activates

that you can imagine is going on there,

I have known the place for 30 years now, and every year it's get worse and worse, especially

since African and Arabs people has discovered the place 20 years or so,

IMHO, a permanent police post should be stationed there  checking

the coming and going in that cesspool of a place....

Why not just flatten the place to keep you happy....?

You can start a club called ''Super Duper farangs cleaning up Thailand''?

You start at one end with a mallet; The rest of the superior pillars of society can start at the other and you'll meet half way....you could even wear badges....or T shirts...

I make such a suggestion as if foreign tourists inflame this bloke so much that he has to attack them, surely it's best all round to put the scoundrel far from them?

Oh my, such odd terms being used here. Is every person wanting to get some crumpet 'sexually depraved'? I'm sensing some issues here....

On 16/09/2016 at 2:06 AM, Agent Sumo said:

 

Showing just how completely out of touch with reality you are. No such exclusions exist in most nations and even if they did here, how many excluded individuals do you think would abide by them?

 

You and those like you who think that you should have some kind of extra layer protection because you're tourists, expats and/or senior citizens are utterly deluded.

 

This isn't a bloody retirement home or a gated community, mate. Neither is it a sanitised and squeaky clean family experience like Disneyland. 

 

The point is that if you choose to frequent a salacious part of town, you're bound to find yourself cheek by jowl with the sub-culture that the local industry inevitably attracts. The question you have to ask yourself is how much you're prepared to risk in terms of your personal safety in order to get your leg over.

 

Clearly, many are prepared to assume risk to life and limb

 

 

Life and limb?? Do you write Thai soap operas as you clearly have a talent for the melodramatic and colossal overstatement? 

I think you'll find there are 'gated communities' a plenty in Pattaya mate if you've ever been there, which I doubt from your ludicrous description.

I feel in more danger crossing the road than going whoring in Pattaya.

11 hours ago, Agent Sumo said:

 

Yes just like locals with criminal records are prevented from being present in tourist areas in every other country, right?

 

In a lot of incidents like this, the farang's state of inebriation is a major contributing factor to the beating he receives.

I'm sure that in most nations, if a criminal had a record of attacks or crimes aimed at tourists, they would have some kind of exclusion order against them where, if they are found in a tourist area, their punishment is increased.

What has the 'farang's' state if inebriation got to do with anything? What a ludicrous post. 

Poor lass being so desperate that she gave way to the temptation stupidly left around by her employer.

Even though our own few domestic staff have been with us years, knowing they are not rich, nor will ever be, we still leave nothing in the way of temptation; cash, valuables, booze etc. within reach. 

Now this maid not only loses her (reasonably paid) position, her reputation, but also possibly her liberty.

If her employer has anything about her, she'll admit her imbecility and liability in this case and ask that all charges be dropped against the maid. While I'm the last to be a 'victim blamer' but in this case I'll make an exception. If you leave large sums of cash in the reach of an impoverished person who has to take a 500B a morning scrubber's job, it's going to get nicked even if that person is of usually good moral character. 

If you have an android phone, instal google star map. It is an excellent app for amateur stargazers.

Why do these Thai villains always need a girly, slightly woofty, sounding 'nickname' like 'gun' or 'boy' or 'toy'?

9 hours ago, Rc2702 said:

your next ten look like wengers last 10

I'd say FA is the sum of what you bindippers won last season, and the season before that, and the season before that.....enjoy your midweeks as you have them free this season....and given you're already off the pace in the Premiership CL places, and still have to play Stoke City, Sunderland and 'Boro this season, it will probably be a similar story next season too.

Still, thanks for the laugh....please say 'this is our year' in your next enlightening post....

4 hours ago, phycokiller said:

looks more like they are trying to hold farts in

Second on the right looks like he failed even to do that and now needs to go for a go with the bum gun.....

OP, he plopaply heard you call him a 'faLang'...when some white bloke calls me a 'faLang' who has a fraction of my language skills I usually want to knock him into next week too...

I'd dress like the the OP does in an 'open wallet' stance as he parades down Walking St. like a 'real 'expat' with his 'wife and her 'brothers' holding his pension book out in front of him as his 'family' skim in daily...though he'll point out various 'FaLang' in his ridiculous attempt to be 'Thai'

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They denied it - blaming the tourists for attacking them - but police don't believe it.

Nor I.

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Both Thais are claimed to have a previous conviction for attack on a British tourist last year.

One wonders why, with 'previous form', they were in a tourist area and not in clink far away...? Maybe now someone in authority with a mild understanding of  jurisprudence or even a shred of common sense will see these lads removed far away from tourist areas for a goodish stretch. 

I'm waiting for the 'the victims were drunk and deserved it' gang to roll up....

Here's hoping both victims make a full recovery.

12 hours ago, samsensam said:

 

sure there are educated girls in thailand and if you stop spending all your time hanging around bars and prostitutes then you will come across them

 

my thai friends, male and female, are mostly educated at ABAC, TU or Chula and have master degrees from us or uk unis,  they have good jobs, enjoy foreign travel with work and for holidays and are most certainly well educated.

 

 

Samsen must have come up in the world since I was last there. Not many HiSo, super educated Thais around then, it was more of an Urban mess, a railside slum, a lot of grimy grindhouses and not the sort of area one would associate with the 'educated Thai elite' TV members so fantasise about having as their exclusive circles of friends....

There are 'good' drunks and 'bad' drunks.

It sounds like you got unlucky, however experience has taught me that any drunk is potentially volatile, regardless of their nationality or disposition when sober, and keeping your gob shut, avoiding eye contact, and  if you can't avoid proximity to them, is always a wise move. Still his behaviour is inexcusable. I hope you reported the incident to the authorities. 

One of the nicest blokes I ever knew was a lovely, charming Swedish bloke when sober though when in his cups he was a downright menace; alternatively one of the least popular, most mealy-mouthed, downright poisonous blokes I ever knew, always moaning, short tempered and Thai-bashing at any chance when sober, was surprisingly a 'good' drunk; happy, eloquent, able to hold an intelligent, reasoned debate, would love everything about being in Thailand...the booze sure is a funny thing when taken in excess...

I'm sure you'll soon get the TV puritans airing their anti-booze, anti-Pattaya agendas, clouding your thread in the process...so, here's hoping you make a full recovery and get the chance to 'discuss' the occurrence with the 'English' thug.

It depends on how you judge 'education'?

I think you're talking about bar girls here with your silly 'TG' label and not Thai females in general so I'll clarify that to start with.

If  you are judging their education by bits of paper dished out by myriad Education Institutes, you would be correct that many 'TGs' are not formally educated.

If you judge them by learning from others and from life, learning fast from adversity to gain the skills needed to survive and provide, I think you'd find 'TGs' are very highly educated. It's when people don't think that these lasses aren't clever because they dropped out of school at 12 to a life of grind on the family farm, or someone else's farm, that they come unstuck often with the messy unhappy consequences so often highlighted in expat life. 

I have known, still know,  a good few lasses who have done very well for themselves often 'dishonestly' if one applies Western Moral values, but one can't avoid the fact that they have done well from nothing at all. If some fool is so dumb that they will hand over their little all to a hooker, knowing full well she's a hooker and he is well down on her list of priorities apart from as an ATM, especially in this day and age of technology when the warnings are all over the internet (and beyond) then it is hard to find sympathy for him. Over my years in Thailand I have found my sympathies swinging firmly towards the girls over the idiots who line up at airports the world over to hand over the sum of their life's work to a random stranger.

Nice work Jay 1980.  Good to see informed posters able to post good info if too late in this sad, tragic case.  Thanks. I'm sure your info will of good use to many.