popshirt

My red shirt neighbors here in Pakchong are not necessarily ardent Thaksin supporters. Rather, they have found they can have a voice in Thai politics and what has surfaced is years of resentment against the "light-skin" Bangkok elite. Thaksin and his party let the genie out of the bottle and things will not return to what they were pre-Thaksin. One hopes that the red shirts will move on to a post-Thaksin reality and find new leadership. Surely it is there somewhere.

There are some slightly better French places behing dot com. Better value for money anyways.

Agreed. You mean Tukcom on the side soi.

One of these is LUXOR which has only recently REDUCED its prices by a substantial amount. The food is Continental and the prices are so reasonable now.

If you haven't tried it, the food is really excellent and the comfort/decor/ambience/service is excellent as well.

For us it was a tossup between here and Panama. Thailand won out and we are very happy here. But Panama makes it very easy to own everything and no visa problems. Very attractive ladies and the weather much like here. Better fishing than Thailand. Beaches are ho hum. Boating can be outstanding.

Interesting, it was the same for us. I even went so far as to almost sign a contract for a condo in Panama City. But after spending more time there I realized how small the country/city is and how utterly boring life would be there. My impression was also that the crime rate was very high.

Thailand, on the other hand, is not at all dull and we have been happy here going on 5 years now.

Not really on the subject of pinching things from hotels, but the OP did ask the question "are Thais hoarders".

I would say the answer is yes to that. Most Thais I know, both male and female, rarely toss anything into the bin. Closets (if there are any) are jammed, there are boxes stacked all around the house and most level surfaces are filled with clutter. I'm sure not all Thais do this, but............................

Thai family values are over rated.

Agreed. They are over rated all around the world.

My brother often said to me that he wished he had been the gay one after having been persuaded to marry and then to have two children. He does love his children (now grown) but still wonders what his life might have been like without the responsibility of maintaining a family and living with a woman that he no longer loves.

He has observed me living through 3 long term relationships (12 years, 7 years, and 17 years) each of which ended amicably when it was time for both of us to move on. He has expressed the opinion that this is more natural than a lifelong marriage to one person which often goes hand in hand with child rearing.

I voted "indifferent" in the poll because I am old enough to have learned never to say never about anything.

After five years of living both in the So. Cal desert and in Bkk/Jomtien, I find I am spending a larger percentage of my time in the US than in the first few years here. I am very happy I can maintain homes in both countries and have the option to hop on a plane and change my home when I feel like it. And grateful too for the Canadian "snowbirds" who rent my desert house during the winter months when the weather is so good in Thailand.

Both places have their strengths and weaknesses for me, but overall, I probably prefer living in California.

I am leaving next week for a few months in California as April-May in Thailand is a bit too hot for my liking.

I think you can meet nice Thai men anywhere. It is my opinion that meeting a nice boy/man in a bar, go go bar, massage shop or place like that, you will usually find that they are not too well educated and are from some place other than Bangkok and here to make a living. They are sending money back to their family and will do almost anything to get money. You can't blame them for that! I have been in Thailand for over 5 years now and I am so lucky to have a partner that is from a nice family, well educated works and goes to school to get his second MBA and takes wonderful care of me! We take good care of each other. We found each other on line and that's been over 2 years now. I do need to tell you that in my profile, I was very clear that if anyone asked me for money....that would end everything!

Money boys are out there but you don't have to date them or even put up with that behavior if you don't want to and still meet nice men!

Same situation for me, going on 5 years now, including the MBA part. He takes me to dinner, offers to pay for parking and petrol, assists with the rent and utilities, to the extent that he can. Ok, much of it was just luck, but I did not meet my partner in a bar, go go bar, massage shop, etc. as you say.

Putting quotation marks around the word normal does not excuse its use. Gay relationships are normal.

Sheeze...how sensitive we are...reminds me of the Act-up/Queer Nation crowd back home who read homophobia into everything. The reference to "normal" relationships referred to non-commercial same or opposite sex relationships in farangland. Not to whether or not homosexuality itself was normal.

Yes you were very clear. Some people are a bit trigger happy here.

I'm curious about the spectrum of the urine tests conducted by the BiB. Do they test for ganjaa/cannibis also? I'm told one can test positive for these non-hard drugs (legal in certain western countries) long after using them, perhaps as long as six months.

Has the flooding subsided? I am waiting for the all clear signal before venturing out to what is still my favourite shopping destination in Pattaya!

I cannot vote in your poll because I support neither red nor yellow.

I would describe myself as a white shirt.

In my home country I would be described as a left of centre liberal.

I am convinced that detached houses are the target-of-choice for burglars and robbers. My experience in well-managed condos has been trouble free and I know of no break-ins in the buildings I've lived in. I would not choose to live in a house unless there was someone at home watching all the time and a few good guard dogs. My Thai in-laws live in both Bangkok and some rural areas as well and they are always vigilant, especially making sure someone is always in the house every day around the clock.

I have decided to wait until the movie (hopefully a musical) is released.

^ Good to see someone posting with a positive opinion but housebreaking does not usually involve walking through an open door.

My point was that no area is safe from housebreaking and it's a pretty lame way to write off Pratumnak Hill.

Yes I agree with that having known from friends of many robberies/burglaries recently. But the most terrifying account I heard occurred on Pratumak and involved a daytime break-in and a knife to the throat while being forced to open a safe. I have concluded, based on around 5 years here, that condo buildings (with security) are much safer than houses. And it doesn't matter where either of them are.

You are in luck. There are two models for sale at Central department store (in the new mall).

I bought one just last week.

What would I have done differently?

I would have minded my own business.

This is not a "damsel in distress" situation and it IS the 21st century! The woman was in a safe environment, did not ask for help, and what was going on with the guy is--in my opinion--none of my business.

OK, I didn't see your dishes but some comments:

-- peanut sauce is NOT served with fried Viet egg rolls, only fresh ones

-- I thought the egg roll pieces in the bun were quite good, so different opinion

<snip>

I was refering to fresh spring rolls, we had an order of them, the egg roll pieces in the bun were good

We just came from eating there tonight and I was also NOT impressed.

The BUN we ordered was chicken, 2 orders and they looked completely different when served to us, one was almost all noodles and the other had gobs of grated carrots underneath and a few noodles. The first one had no carrots at all. The barbecue chicken was good and a hefty serving of it.

The fresh spring rolls were difficult to chew, a bit like cardboard and not tasty. And of course not the requisite sauce.

But the worst thing of alll was that the bun dishes were swimming in fish sauce. I am not a fan of fish sauce but can tolerate it in small amounts, but this was overwhelming and tasted horrid.

We also ordered soft shell crabs and they were excellent along with the fried garlic.

Not good enough to entice me back there.

And not nearly as good as the Vietnamese food at the Food Loft at Central Chid Lom. I haven't eaten at the Food Loft here yet.

I'm not surprised the girl was pissed off with you. Your picky attitude would annoy any restaurant waiter anywhere...especially when you walked out in a huff after all the fuss you made. I'm sure they were happy to see the back of you.

The sets are special prices as a draw for customers and it seemed pretty obvious they are not interchangeable.

Yes, Sukishi.

I agree, I also wouldn't assume they would interchange at a place like that. THAT IS WHY I ASKED!!!! BEFORE ENTERING because I did not feel like pork ribs. Maybe to you pork ribs and beef chunks are the same thing, but so sorry if it is a crime to not be in the mood for pork ribs.

You go too far, dude! I have eaten there before and I will again when I feel like spicy pork ribs soup or BBQ or something else, but today I wanted spicy beef soup. It is not bad, but the Korean food is not quite as authentic as in a dedicated Korean place. I did not leave in a huff. I did not insult her or raise my voice, I just retreated from a business that would not provide what I wanted. I just left and I explained why I left, I can't help it if that girl was high strung, her problem, not mine. There was a misunderstanding. I wouldn't have entered the place unless I thought they had agreed to my request. They had the soup, they had the set, the base soup was the same cost basis, and what I asked for was not unreasonable considering I did not feel like eating PORK. Maybe I felt like having a Kosher day. I happen to love spicy Korean beef soup but it is no good without extras like rice and kimchi. You have some kind of personal agenda against me (don't deny it), that's your problem, not mine.

Actually, you're wrong. I've gotten over your abusive pm's and I take your posts as they come. We agree on some things and we disagree on others.

I can't comment on pork ribs because I've never tried them. I only order Japanese in Sukishi. One thing I've noticed and had to get used to in Pattaya (I can't comment for the rest of Thailand) is that the customer is usually wrong and the staff can get their back up very quickly. You'll never get an apology for a mistake, but rather a denial.

No hard feelings, ok?

Farang Rule # 1006592:

Never attempt to request a substitution or variation from what is offered on the menu.

Such requests are doomed to failure or disaster. Fluency in Thai will not help. It is just not the done thing here.

Here is a summary of my experience with BofA "outside the bank" which ended my relationship with them a year ago:

QUOTE (popshirt @ 2007-06-08 10:46:19)

All of you Bank of America transfer to Bangkok Bank clients should keep your fingers crossed.

In my experience, over a 2 year period, the transfer sometimes works and sometimes it doesn't.

I had it all set up too, and managed several transfers successfully.

Then for some reason, BofA "locked" my "outside of bank" transfer option.

It took 10 emails and almost one month before I was given the lame excuse that "Bangkok Bank refused the transfer."

On checking with Bangkok Bank, they said this is not true as all my transfer information was correct, it would have been routed thru Bangkok Bank New York City and into my account, no problem.

I called BofA using their regular U.S. area code number and was told that internet banking is an entirely separate operation and they could do nothing for me.

Finally got it cleared up and several transfers were made successfully.

Last month my option to transfer was "locked" again. It is still locked as I write this after about 7 or 8 emails back and forth, all of the replies are "scripted" and don't really address the problem.

My account is with BofA in Southern California where there are lots of Thais living.

I also have an account with Citibank. Because the BofA outside the bank option is locked, I am now asking Citibank to request transfer of funds from BofA and have no problem with them wiring to Bangkok Bank. They do charge a fee however that is more than I paid at BofA.

My message here for BofA customers is, don't count on this working for you over the long term or every time you need it. It doesn't!

UPDATE:

Sorry for repeating my earlier post, but I wanted interested parties here to know the final outcome with Bank of America.

When I was in the US a few months ago I determined to get to the bottom of the problem. After many calls (my local branch could do nothing for me as internet banking is another business apparently) I finally came to speak with a surly individual who was part of the "security department" or something like that. He informed me that I had been "coded" and that this was a serious thing and furthermore there was nothing that could be done to remove such a code. I have been "coded" for money laundering! At least that is what he presumed. Me, who has never transferred more than 5K a month to Thailand! He responded to me as one would to a criminal, already convicted, and lucky to be out of jail. He also suggested I close my account with B of A and use some other bank as there is no way I could be removed from such a dreadful "no fly" list in my lifetime. And this after being a customer of B of A for almost 40 years! Being coded means not only are international transfers prohibited but it is also impossible to make a transfer to my US Citibank account. No transfers outside the bank, period. End of story. End of relationship.

When my one and only employee (household) gets sick, I pay for his medical care and am happy to do it. Fortunately for both of us he is a healthy individual and not hypochondriac.

Recently I paid to bring his laptop computer back to health, the hard disk drive died, and had it replaced. Does that count?

We stopped going to Sizzler quite some time ago as both of us and also friends on other occasions became very ill from the food there.

When Au Bon Pain closed, I stopped going to Royal Garden altogether.

Why not try this. On your monthly trip buy as much bread as will fit in the freezer part of your refrigerator: NOT the normal part of your fridge (doing so, the fridge will suck out all the moisture leaving you with stale bread; a common household experience). Be sure to enclose each loaf in 2 air tight plastic bags, then freeze them as solid as ice. Once needed, stick the frozen slices directly into your toaster. Or, allow the slices to warm up gradually on a plate (butter them while frozen). Bread tastes fresh and homemade. If you are doubtful, buy only a couple of loaves at first. Been doing this for decades. Really.

This is a great idea even if you live in the city as I do. I always wondered why bread in the fridge turned to cardboad after only a day or two! THANKS.

AnywayS instead of anyway