Jamie

Hi,

I'm not sure I'm happy with the title "Ladies in Thailand"(always gets a certain connotation)...but I guess it's the suitable place to try and put my dilemma on the table.

I've been in a relationship with a Thai girl for the last 2 years.May I say to the record that she's totally "normative" ,holding a position with a local company,using her own money and from a very ordinary background.We don't share a place together,but spent most of our free time with each other.

Our relationship has always been a very good one,and we do enjoy the time we spend together.The thing is that we can't get over one crucial problem ,and that is COMMUNICATION. No,it's not about language- I'm quite fluent with Thai,and it has never been an obstacle.I'm talking about communication in it's deeper level- being really able to listen and share things with the person you live with.

I would say it like that- on one level,everything is about perfect.She is the most caring and attentive person,and we can really have great time .But then,on another level,once I have something on my mind that I need to share someone with- it can be either something unpleasant ,thoughts,worries, or just feelings ...I just find there is "no one" there.She seems to be very uninterested with what I have to say,even somehow bored,or sometimes just changes the subject(in a very direct manner).

I tried many times,and it seems to repeat itself time and time again.

For me, it's becoming more and more crucial.

Is it really something cultural?anyone with similar different experience?.........

I've been married to my wife who is Thai for about 1.5 years...known each other for almost 4 years. I feel this same thing. There is a disconnect when it comes to this deeper level of communication. There are days when I want to talk about something that has really been bothering me and to her, it is like a non-issue.

I don't know if in Thai society men don't discuss these things or what.

plachon...only a 7 year gap. I'm 33 she is 26. Great cook, just the beef seems to be a problem.

I can't remember the place the wife and I ate at up in SN the last time we were up that way. It was pretty good though. That being said, I never ordered any type of beef. I learned both on here and from personal experience (my wife is Thai)....don't eat the beef.

Why on earth avoid beef in Isaan? And especially in Sakhon Nakhon, home of neua phon yang kham, some of the best beef you'll taste in Thailand from Charolais cattle, that grilled right can just melt in your mouth. Even the ordinary small Isaan beef cattle are tasty, raised as they are on freerange grasses and rice straw. Just need to get the young, tender ones and avoid the old dinosaurs, of the type eaten by the OP, by the sounds of it.

Ahhh...well, just hearing all the bad experiences on TV about beef here in LOS, I've never wanted to try. My wife, when she cooks beef, many times, it is to a jerky like consistency. I've not been able to figure that one out, nor does she care to tell me.

Ok, so UAL sucks compared to some Asian based airlines. Tell us something we don't know.

Although I prefer asian carriers, I do see the looming crisis about to hit the airlines of asia. JAL is teetering on the brink of collapse, EVA is bleeding massive amounts of money which may be the reason why the booze is hidden after the 1st pass, Thai has a decrepit fleet that I hope and pray doesn't disintegrate in midair whenever I get on a flight. Even my once beloved SQ has some planes looking a bit tired as it sees lucrative commuter PAX lost to Air Asia which is also believed by some to be in the red. ANA with is crap seat configurations and food cutbacks? Korean with its legacy of snotty service? Seriously, what's left to fly anymore?

I wonder if any of these carries would (or can) merge seeing their financial situations.

I travel internationally 4-5 times a year from Las Vegas. I find prices are all over the place. And vary from day to day. For example, where I got my best price 3 months ago, was one of the highest prices for my upcoming trip. Here is a great article:

http://www.upgradetravelbetter.com/2009/04...s-are-the-best/

Search every site you can, including directly with the airlines. My best price for my upcoming trip was with China Air directly (they are usually one of the cheapest airlines anyway). The best days to search and travel are Tuesday thru Thursday. Forget the weekends, unless you are lucky.

I was searching and a crazy price came up...less than $800 RT from Vegas to BKK. And it was gone 2 days later. Crazy.

I've been recommended to use China Air by a few people. Seems whenever I check prices, however, they are usually not the cheapest. My wife's friend and husband recently (few months back) got tickets from LAX to BKK for less than $600. Best I've ever seen from TUS is around $1100.

Great airline for being a yank one.

Actually, I prefer NW/Delta. UA has given me nothing but problems when flying within the States. I've never had the experience of using them to fly internationally.

I can't remember the place the wife and I ate at up in SN the last time we were up that way. It was pretty good though. That being said, I never ordered any type of beef. I learned both on here and from personal experience (my wife is Thai)....don't eat the beef.

Good luck though...most of the jobs are geared towards thai nationals.

Say my wife and I are planning to tavel to Thailand next year...any time from January to June. Is there a website that will give us an idea as to when fares for a certain airline will be cheapest between these 6 months? Obviously prices can fluctuate from day to day but it would help us plan a little better. We are located in the US (Tucson) so we travel generally out of Tucson to LA or San Francisco and then onwards.

Any help is appreciated.

I lived in TUS (actually Tortolita) for many years, now Phuket. Friends come to visit me so in touch with my 2d favorite place in the world. Check these two sites: http://www.painai.com/flights.html and http://matrix.itasoftware.com/cvg/dispatch/ (that one may require login as guest). Enter TUS/BKK as depart/arrive locations, then work with the dates a bit. Painai quotes in Th baht (divide by 33.5, the current rate). Both sites send you to the airline company or a travel agent to book and pay for ticket. Note that the ITA quote may not include tax&extras, so be careful to get the real price (airline or agent quote). A quick look gave me UA all the way to/from TUS/BKK as the best-buy. I have flown them cross-Pacific many times and they are reliable and generally OK; Narita a bit of a drag for layover. My favorite is KoreanAir (Inchon/Seoul very nice airport). And of course LAX sux but cannot be avoided; SFO not any better.

January is still high season, Feb much more relaxed. Starts getting hot in March and warms up until the rains start (Usually late May but current rains started in late March). Of course TUS is at it's best in March ... miss the desert waking up in flowers.

Thank you keeniau. I will have a go with the websites you provided. UA always gave me troubles for domestic flights.

Tucson is beautiful this time of year as the temps are starting to cool down. We had a lack of rain this summer (no monsoons) so it is particularly dry this year. My wife is Thai and has been here almost 2 years and she's having a difficult time with the dry air. It's a big difference between 90% humidity and 10% (if that).

Say my wife and I are planning to tavel to Thailand next year...any time from January to June. Is there a website that will give us an idea as to when fares for a certain airline will be cheapest between these 6 months? Obviously prices can fluctuate from day to day but it would help us plan a little better. We are located in the US (Tucson) so we travel generally out of Tucson to LA or San Francisco and then onwards.

Any help is appreciated.

A regular fan system with a HEPA filter is a much better way to go. Ionizers "ionize" the air meaning they create ozone. Ozone is an irritant.

Ian,

What are you looking to concentrate on with your degree? While having any degree is great, having a degree that has use is that much better (ie engineering).

While not always the case, it seems that having a undergraduate (bachelors) degree is the minimum you need these days. You may find out after completing your degree that you want to continue on.

Im in the process of finishing my first graduate degree and I am already applying for my second graduate degree in mine engineering.

888,

You need to come back to the US asap. If you don't have an education or some type of trade, you need to look at that. Not to say you can't find a good paying job without, but having a skill or degree definitely increases your chances.

If you are lucky enough, you can land a job with a company that has a 401K which will match what you put in dollar for dollar up to a certain percent. You also need a job that offers decent health insurance. If you don't have health insurance now, well don't think you will remain young and healthy for ever. Get sick once and land yourself in a hospital for an extended time and kiss any savings you may have good bye.

I suggest you look online at various retirement calculators. They leave out a lot of variables, but this will give you an idea of what you need to put away month after month to retire with X amount of money.

Glad to know I'm not the only one experiencing this problem. MS is a joke, yet I continue to use it.

United in my opinion is one of the worst when it comes to cancelled flights. Been there, done that.

I don't know how waste is handled in Thailand, but you may want to talk to one of the local waste management companies. These fluorescent lights do contain mercury and they are recyclable. There are newer "green" fluorescent lights that have less mercury in them or contain a chemical that will bind to the metal upon breakage.

No one wants the world to experience a flu pandemic. However, lets get realistic, during a normal flu season the US sees 200,000 people hospitalized and 36,000 deaths. This Swine Flu thingy is nowhere near that level, what's all the hype about. So far it's being blown all out of proportion.

Wrong. As stated above, this is a new virus never seen before. We have no clue when or if this virus will mutate to something worse. The flu that killed tens of millions back in 1918 and 1919 was relatively mild when first noticed in 1917 but then came back with a vengeance. Most likely from a mutation.

The interesting thing about the flu pandemic of 1918-1919 was that the virus killed many healthy adults while sparing a greater proportion of the young and old. It seems this mutation caused a reaction in the infected individual that turned their immune system on to attack the body instead of the virus. Since most healthy adults had strong immune systems, the results were worse than in children and older individuals who had weaker immune systems.

Guys, a few weeks ago we launched jobs.thavisa.com. A site catering for non-thai-nationals in Thailand.

Some jobs require you to speak a bit of thai (in some cases, more than a bit) but where we are different is that we actively seek employers and recrruiment agencies who either only want farangs, or who are not closing their doors to farangs.

We are still on our way to growing our employer contacts and database, but do take a look.

Feedback/recommendations welcome as this is quite new.

I tried your website. It's a generic "this domain may be for sale" website. Are you sure that's the correct address?

Any thoughts on rhodium? I see it is trending downwards. Was the high caused by true supply and demand or was the supply artificially kept low? There was at least one company here in the US that sold rhodium bullion. I'm not sure if they still do.

You are 23 and you are already saying "no more 9 to 5...no more office"? I think you need to be a bit more realistic. You have 2 years of IT experience. Most people here have more time in the bathroom than you have in work experience. Unless you plan on working in a low paying teaching job or marrying a 90 year old woman who is wealthy, then I think your options are limited. Work in your home country and get experience.

We have an environmental department but it's a head office operation - They undertake risk analysis and environmental impact studies. The Field Work is almost always done by locally hired staff who work within the HSE Department - In Thailand that would be Thai staff.

I think to get an expat job you'd probably have to offer the right qualificaitons and experience in these roles of Risk Analysis and Environmental Impact Studies.

The people I know working in this field (at livable salaries) are all Process Engineers with an MSc in in Environmental Engineering.

As suggested, Singapore might be an option, there are a number of Environmental Engineering companies operating there.

GuestHouse, yeah, I have a bit of NEPA/Environmental Impact experience but just minimal. I'm just kicking around the idea for now. I've put in my app. for graduate school to get my Masters in Environmental Management. Perhaps between now and then, something will come up.

To be honest think you might find it quite difficult finding something in that line for an expat, all the envriomental officers I know of in Thailand are locals.

If you are interested can send you a list of employment agencies for Thailand and you can send your CV.

I know of only two actual companies where you may have possibilities can send the names of the companies if interested, The one company I know definitely employs expats

Soutpeel,

I would be interested in hearing about these companies. A friend of mine here in the States works for an environmental consulting agency that happens to have an office in Bangkok...Unfortunately, there are no openings.

Hi everyone...

Just wondering what (if any) environmental jobs there might be in Thailand or as close to Thailand as possible. My wife is Thai so being closer to Thailand would be nice.

My background includes about 7 years of environmental work. I have experience in air quality monitoring as well as surface and ground water sampling/monitoring. I am currently employed as an environmental specialist with a large mining company in the US. I deal with a variety of issues including air quality (Title V permitting, Emissions Inventory and Toxic Release Inventory reporting), water quality (storm water (NPDES permitting), ground water and drinking water) waste (hazardous, non-hazardous, petroleum contaminated soil, and asbestos (NESHAPS)), reclamation and some Phase I work.

I'm not expecting there is much out there, but just thought I would look a bit more in to it. There doesn't seem to be too many recruiting agencies in SE Asia that deal with environmental careers.

China will try anything to get their hands on more iron ore. Since BHP/Rio Tinto have pretty much cornered the market on iron ore, this would be beneficial to China. The shipping distances would also be beneficial. What are the total reserves for the iron ore?

I finally found my favorite fruit here in the US (mangosteen). When I come to Thailand, I eat them until I can't eat anymore. I was at an Asian supermarket with my fiancee yesterday in Phoenix and they actually have my favorite fruit. The laws must have changed as before, they were only allowed to be grown and sold in Hawaii and not on the main land. Unfortunately, I didn't buy any. They were selling around $2.50 to $2.75 a piece!!!