sampson

I wouldn't assume a restaurant has any better standards. My Thai girl said the Thais have a saying, something about don't worry about what the kitchen looks like or you'd never eat anything. Mostly I've been ok in Thailand but Cambodia was another matter altogether

I have heard from more than one about larger restaurants / hotels selling their oil. It's taken away and re-sold/used by smaller ones. Whether true or not I don't know but wouldn't surprise me?

A lot of the food here is pure garbage, that is true. I wince when I read comments on social media about all that amazing healthy Thai street food. Salt, MSG, Sugar and old or even second hand oils are the norm and often crazy amounts of it. They are even loading salads with sugar. Check out how bad diabetes is here .. In the defence of Pad Krapow thoug, it's comfort food, it's not supposed to be healthy as such. The only way you can really be sure about what you're eating and it's preparation is to cook it yourself. Even the vegetables are full of pesticides though. If you're on holiday you're probably not going to do that but if you live here and eat every meal out then being genuinely healthy will be a struggle. Most places to rent don't have ovens but buy a large air fryer and that will do most tasks for you and the hob the rest. A rice cooker / steamer all in one combo might be a good investment too.

Go to Myst or Insomnia nightclub any day of the week, any day of the year and tell me under 40s don't travel to Thailand for Pattaya 'whores'

That's not true. They can ask you on re-entry why you are coming back and ask for proof. Just like they do with ad-hoc Thai language tests for ED visa.

That is not a free for all by any means. They want to see that somebody has a job or are a genuine freelancer. It remains to be seen what will be accepted as proof for a "professional portfolio." Plus, they will need 15k Euro's in the bank, which a heck of a lot of people simply don't have. If you were able to apply for this within Thailand at a local visa shop then that would have the potential to be abused, but that doesn't appear to be the case. A free for all is anybody over 50 turning up and going to an agent who "facilitates" a Visa they don't have the money for.

The rejection rates are posted and they are very low for Thai's, it's about 5%. Some African countries are closer to 50%. There are various Visa groups for Thai's coming to the UK where rejection letters are posted and the applications must have been appalling judging by the content of those letters.

Strange story. Fly Dubai don't appear to fly from Dubai to Philipines The capacity of this VIP version of the jet according to the owners website is 19 but the article states there were more than 100 on board. It seems as though either the picture of the jet involved is wrong or the article contains some misinformation. If the flight was operated by Fly Dubai then they do have services from UTP so I guess it would make sense to land there. Story seems to have some holes in it though

My understanding is that, contrary to reports, they got up and walked away. Is there anything from a reliable source that says otherwise? Just to be absolutely clear, I think the attack is sickening but these guys would be best to leave it at that

Why would they bother reporting it? Do they really want to go through all of that, everybody knows you can't trust the BiB. If they decided to charge the Brits with anything at all they'd be stuck here. They've probably got lives and jobs to get back to. They would be better off enjoying their holiday quietly or moving to another country as you say.

The knocking shops of Europe will be well stocked

Looking for company was a polite way of looking for a punter. Not about being lonely 🤣 But the point is they don't have to sell their bodies, and what they do with the money usually doesn't have much to do with basic survival. Opinions and <deleted> and all that

It's not survivalist prostitution & you certainly don't need to feel sorry for them. These figures seem low. The Thai scene dwarves the foreign scene. When I lived in Bangkok, pretty much every Thai bar, live music restaurant, night club had loads of girls who were obviously looking for business. Many of them have day jobs and go out a few times a week/month looking for company. Many of them seem to become someone's paid mistress, does that still count? Then there are all the massage shops with extras, KTV bars, side line girls on social media. Pretty much every random Thai town I've stopped in for the night has massage shops or karaoke places.

First of all thanks to the OP for his PM's and not to hijack his thread but I thought I would update on my post above. I spent 90 days in Thailand on my METV, went to Cambodia for 6 nights and then came back into the Thailand at the Cham Yeam crossing. I travelled from Phnom Penh to Trat with the same company called Virak Buntham, who I would recommend. Not perfect but OK. Road from Phnom Penh to Koh Kong is rough, mostly dirt and gravel but I guess it's nothing that should put you off. It is a very quiet border, there were around 10 people on the minibus and maybe a couple of other people who made their own way. 1 unofficial guy trying to take over who was friendly with both the Cambodian side and Thai checkpoint crew but I fobbed him off. It took 2-3 minutes to stamp out of Cambodia then walk over to the Thai side, fill out TM6 and then was stamped in without so much as a word from the IO. 7/11 and Amazon on the Thai side and then a 30 minute or so wait for the van for the hour or so trip to Trat. Virak Buntham will take you all the way to Bangkok if you want though. I'd recommend it as a place to cross, it was very easy.

I did this with a Thai lady in 2019 and the price was around 400 baht, no more than 500 baht, so does seem to have gone up a lot. The guy actually dropped us off at her house way out of town for that price too. But you can always say no and walk away if you don't like the price. It's pointless to agree and complain later. I'm pretty sure at the corner where soi farang meets the road that has the hotel Ayotaya that they have the fares published