London Lowf

Why do you bother with this. For all of the years that I have been coming to this forum there has been large number of posters who hate Phuket! Rightly or wrongly, they have their reasons - just let them be as we are clearly better off without them.

But, you admitted in an earlier post that the girls are honest about their current weight. So, just filter out +50kg or whatever your ceiling is profiles and the fact that they post old slim photos is irrelavent. I find TF generally very honest and useful - I've been a paid-up Premium Member for about six years and have never bothered with bar girls in that time.

Invest a little over USD100 and you can filter the big BMIs out of your searches. I do find the TF girls far more honest than the invariably photo-shopped sex workers back home - the photos may be a little old but they are usually untouched.

Exactly. I come from a small seaside town on the south coast of the UK and the local girls are grim - but after a couple of lagers the local guys will poke anything. I'm glad in many ways that I'm not a young man "on the free market" any more.

It's not only the undisputable fact that Thai girls are getting bigger, but also the fact that a hell of a lot of guys still think that they are attractive - well, compared to back home in the UK that's generally true.* I spend a lot of time in bars and it never ceases to amaze me the number of big, unattractive girls that get bar-fined by pale newbies while their slim attractive colleagues are left hustling for ladydrinks. Generally, I think that ex-pats and long-termers still prefer the classic tiny Thai spinner. * In the UK being overweight is totally accepted and virtually something to be proud of - in fact, many smart advertisers have realised that this has now become a huge market and they only target big girls to the exclusion of slimmer girls.

My rent went up 33% last year and earlier today I learnt that it will probably go up 17% at renewal next month - I wish that there was an exodus and then maybe rents will stabilise. Riding around my local area there are virtually no "For sale" or "For rent" signs and I very rarely get a notification of a property coming onto the market from the online agents - very different to a couple of years ago. And all of this with huge developments going up all over the place! Yeh, some exodus!

Just buy a complete seat - it'll cost peanuts. As previously warned, make sure that no-one has nicked the hinges.

Yes, as evidenced by the very bouyant property market. My rent went up by 33% last December and I'm fully expecting similar bad news in a few weeks. Still a bargain, though!

Excellent posts from oldcpu and he mirrors many of my own thoughts regarding Phuket. I enjoy riding around the island and exploring just for the hell of it, and it amazes me how much of the land is still rubber and pineapple plantations. One of my favourite rides is to a cafe on the north-east coast where I enjoy a coffee and cake a couple of times a week. It's quite a smart place and relatively expensive and so not aimed at the local Thais, but I've never seen another Westerner there - it seems popular with SE Asians but whether they are Singaporean or whatever, I really can't tell. So yes, most of Phuket is still beautiful and unspoilt but you're not going to discover that if you stay in any of the major tourist towns and rely on tours or a guide, who will probably only take you to the established tourist places. Having said that, I stay in Kamala as it has the best compromise of local/tourist vibe. I do enjoy frequent nights out in Patong for beers and people-watching, but if I had to stay there for more than an overnight then I think that my opinion of the place would deteriorate very rapidly. It is undeniable that Phuket is being developed at a rapid rate, but there is still plenty of space. Unfortunately, there are few infrastruture upgrades to handle this expansion - despite heavy rainfall and flooding for months there will probably be water shortages next March/April as usual, and the roads are falling to pieces and not maintained. Back to the OP - to say that the quality (i.e. monied) expats are leaving is total nonsense - many of the developments north of Patong that I am familiar with are aimed at folk with far more wealth than the vast majority of posters on here - myself included!

Yes, I realise they will be at least double in peak season - which will put an end to my Patong sleepovers!

I just completed this quiz. My Score 80/100 My Time 98 seconds  

Plenty of perfectly adequate rooms (30m², balcony, powerful shower, decent wi-fi, fridge, TV) around Patong at less than B500 at the moment.

Amazing - complaining about an extra 6" of elbow space on a plane! I can just about manage to cat nap a few times when leaning against the window/wall panel on an A380 but on all other planes there is too much NVH - I use the flip-out part of the headrests instead.

Cynical, but very difficult to disagree. Pedestrian crossings on Phuket are simply strange patterns painted across some roads and serve no purpose other than to give the unwary a false sense of security - they do more harm than good! There will be CCTV all over the airport and so the driver will be easy to identify, but I would be very surprised if he tried to do a runner.

The number of half-completed and abandoned major developments over the northern half of the island is mind-boggling! I am not familiar with south of Patong, but would assume that it is the same. They put up the concrete framework and then, I assume, run out of money and simply walk away from it. Some places are half-completed (e.g. Kamala Falls) and people move in and have to wake up every day and gaze over half of the development which is abandoned, derelict and slowly crumbling. Buying off-plan is a perilous investment in many countries - in Thailand it is asking for trouble.

I've been back in Kamala for three weeks now and as a result have been for “Beers in Bangla” about fifteen times and got drenched on the ride back on more than half of those. I know it’s low season but the traffic and parking along beach road is ridiculously easy at the moment, not only for bikes but also for cars – I can’t remember it ever being so painless. Oddly, along Rat-U-Thit on the approach to Bangla at about 10pm is just as bad as peak season – this is clearly not caused by volume of traffic, but rather by the completely selfish parking of taxis and tuk tuks who often take over three of the available four lanes and stop to pick up/drop off with zero consideration for other road users. I don’t often venture along Nanai these days but I did ride down to Da Moreno for my favourite pizza a couple of weeks ago, but they have renovated it and made it totally alien for me as it is now fully enclosed. I did pop inside the door but it felt decidedly chilly and I did not travel half way around the world to sit in air-conditioning watching my pizza get cold at an accelerated rate. They did look busy, so I guess that I am not a target customer for them – can anyone suggest an al fresco second-best pizza place? Back to Bangla, and I think that it is reasonably busy and am always surprised at how many familiar faces I see. Many bar staff have been there for years, although they do seem to play musical chairs by moving from bar to bar. The same applies to the on-street traders (cigs, flowers, food, umbrellas and raincoats during the frequent downpours) and also the freelancers, although I note that some of the ladyboys do lose their “looks” quickly and dramatically at quite a young age. Another thing that never changes is the awful racket spilling out from Rock Bar – I have to pass it to get to my favourite places and I have to quicken my pace as it is always so bad that it’s painful. By contrast, New York's music is quite enjoyable in passing although the place is always packed out and so I haven't had a drink in there for about seven years! The new Tiger complex is always dead, and I really can't understand why. A few years ago, when there were two of them on opposite sides of Bangla, they were always busy despite being among the priciest bars. There were plenty of attractive girls on the bar-tops and pole dancers on the front bars, but they do not seem to be able to replicate those days. Overall, I still enjoy the vibe of Bangla and it always amazes me how well-behaved the majority of customers are considering the various vices on offer – I have seen a few pale youngsters the worse for wear, but they’re harmless enough and I’ve yet to see any unruly behaviour this visit - either from punters or the "unofficial enforcement officers". It’s a shame that there are so few attractive bar girls to tempt me these days, but there are much better alternatives and so I no longer trawl that market. On topic? Patong seems far from dead and therefor there is no need for a wake. I accept Xylophone’s observations about businesses constantly going down the pan and then re-opening but I think that is simply because of bad decisions – there are far too many bars, taxis, massage places, restaurants, scooter rentals, tour desks, exchange kiosks etc. in Patong but it’s the old joke about Thai business sense – if a shop is successful then open another one right next door, forgetting that you are just going to dilute the customer base by 50%. Patong is a very small town with no room for expansion and you can only fit a certain number of tourists into it – I would imagine that it is at saturation point during peak season, but you cannot expect those tourist dollars all year. It’s exactly the same in my UK home town – it’s very much a holiday destination and they make all of their money during the seven week school summer holidays….. if the weather plays ball. The rest of the year the local trade associations are bellyaching and expecting help from central government.

Wow, this thread really has become redundant!

OP - I think that you'll just have to get used to it! If you wanted a plush ride then you should have got a PCX - the ADV was designed with a firm ride and excellent brakes and handling and I would strongly advise against trying to convert it into something that it was never meant to be. As said, check the tyre pressures - in my experience most shops have a compressor set to 3 bar (42psi) and they don't use a gauge to check. As I'm sure you have discovered, the ADV suspension has no adjustment.

I just completed this quiz. My Score 50/100 My Time 126 seconds  

Jumping on this topic! Can I send money from my UK bank to myself in Thailand by WU? I have a local phone number. I pay my rent annually in cash and usually take the money off my credit card over the counter at my local Krungsri branch but, as you can imagine, that is not ideal despite there being no "foreign transaction" charges as I still have to juggle funds to avoid interest.

Glue will never work but, depending what kind of chair it is, you should be able to get it re-upholstered in part or completely for peanuts. If it's simply a plastic moulding then bin it.

I assumed that you understood Chinese!

I rode around the new dam last week and this was the state of what I assume is the pumping station - obviously in need of some repairs as that mangled mess of metal is supposed to be a straight walkway!

I do the same but use two TR60 E-visas (September and January) plus extensions - I pop home for Xmas/New Year to avoid the peak season madness! I've never waited more than a week for the visa, and the rquirements are becoming simpler every year - e.g. I did not have to submit a copy of my lease on my latest application a month ago.

I just completed this quiz. My Score 30/100 My Time 108 seconds