BlackArtemis

It's very simple and comes down to one simple point.

White guys in Thailand simply can't get the same sort of quality Western woman.

How many 50+ year old guys do you see in the US "dating" or marrying 20-30yo women? Very, very few. We don't even have to go that far... How many 30 year old guys do you see dating 23 year olds in US? Again; very, very few.

In other words, it doesn't matter one bit which country has hotter women. It only matters who *you* can get.

Way to over generalize there. So what about my wife being 3.5 years older than me? As far as 30 and 23, I am 28 and the girls who are 23 are just getting to the age where we would be at the same area of life. There are plenty of people 23-35 marrying Thai women within their age bracket, as well as looks.

So right now I am sitting in the student center of my university in the US. Surrounded by girls, lots of blond hair girls and the majority of them are fat and unkempt. They walk around in sweats and Ugg boots, go to class in their pajamas and often have wet or unwashed hair tied up in a bun. My 31yr old Thai wife is in better shape than 95% of the girls here and even the ones who are in shape, probably won't be by age 30. When we first moved here, my wife was shocked at how little attention to personal detail American girls give to themselves.

Not only do I find Thai girls more beautiful (and everyone has their own spec of Thai girl) but often the sense of family is greater. Traditional family roles, and what is to be done with aging family members. We moved back to the US to both get further/second degrees before moving back to Thailand, so we moved in with my parents because renting would just be a waste of money. Can you imagine telling your western wife about that?

Now, there are many attractive girls here, but on average Thai's win hands down. An educated, intelligent Thai girl can be one of the sexiest things around.

A real Philly cheesesteak. With Amaroso bread.

Annd how about no, I like pale asian girls, always have. The minute I visited Thailand I found them more attractive. So, surprise I dated and then married a pale asian girl. I also happen to hate blond hair..

But if we want to paint with a broad brush, anyone dating a non-pale girl has obviously succumbed to the "exotic tropical brown skinned girl syndrome" plaguing western advertisements.

People have different tastes, this is not a bad thing. Do people really care that one guy likes pale and the other prefers a nice tan-skinned girl? Obviously they do, else these topics wouldn't come up monthly... It's an elaborate pissing contest to ensure themselves that they chose right, yet if they are happy they chose right no matter what she looks like!

Not all families want you to pay sin-sod. Further more I was always taught, you marry not just the girl, but the family as well. This rings truer, louder, and clearer in asian societies. If you want to marry into this culture, you're expected to to try to assimilate. Now, this does not mean that you should pay out 15billion baht sin sods and ensure the family buffalo has 1st class health insurance, but have an understanding of how things work.

Furthermore, if you see a big problem with the family, make sure you see just how much clout they have with their daughter, because even moving half way across the world won't be getting rid of them.

It's been a year, but on the 2nd or 3rd floor of Central Kad Suen Kaow there is a tiny game shop run by an Italian guy and his Thai wife. I have never been done wrong by them. But I think the power supply cost at least $35-45USD so maybe Ebay is a better bet.

All systems are cheaper in Canada and the US compared to Thailand.

BECAUSE YOU NEED TO JUSTIFY MY FEELINGS!!!!!!!!!111one!!11

*ahem* I'm sorry, isn't that the prepackaged response?

It's just small talk on their part, and most likely, in their experience, the majority of foreigners they have asked HAVE gushed about it.

But be careful with your words, or you will have the onslaught of people rushing your threads telling you "if you don't love it here and realize everything is perfect here. I mean like my cousin's best friend's horse was living on $X in Y place, but you can like live on $n in M place!!! don't you understand!!!!, so if you can't understand just get out!"

To be realistic you can live on what ever you'v got. You will get the fat wallet guy's frightening you off who want to live like millionaires in LOS but take no notoce. If you have little cash then the north east is for you but if cash is no problem then take your pick.

North in general, Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai are exceptionally cheap as well.

Haha UG, but I would largely agree with Thai3. I socialize with Farangs in Thailand via Thaivisa and for most cases, avoid them in the real life.

There is a small shop in Chiang Mai right near the movies on the top floor of robinson.

The wii will work, after you get a different power brick. This is what I had to do with my US bought Wii. Just checked my 360 (here in the US) and it says 100-127) so you will have to replace the brick as well.

As far as games, real games are far and few between, BKK will be your best bet. Most games are copies and require you to chip your system. A chipped 360 is a foolish thing since it will be perma-banned from XboxLive. As for the wii, you don't need a chip anymore. Simply look up "wii hombrew channel" and then hook your wii up to an external harddrive with as many downloaded games as you want. Nintendo's servers are unable to recognize the software mod and it's 100% reversible.

Not sure about the PS3, have they been able to chip it yet?

Another idea is to have friends at home mail you the disk via regular post.

I love my MiL. My whole family does, in fact when her and my mother get together they can't be separated. She grew up alongside an American girl because her parents were cooks and nannies for an American family, so she speaks English well. When ever my wife and I visit (or when we stay such as the months before the wedding and the month before leaving for the US) she cooks all the time for us and stocks the fridge with foods I like. My mother, sister, brother (in law) and niece just visited us here in the US for Christmas. She even cooked when she got here haha! As for money, no sin-sod, never asked for money, and the family paid their own way to the US. She is thrilled to have an American in the family, since she grew up with a bunch of Americana, and I have never been treated less than great. 108 days till I get to see her again. I guess the irony is that I get along with her and she lives 14,000km/9000m away from me!

So, you think the retirees here, who make up a large portion of the boards, want to listen to bands like Retrospect and summer suicide as they scream and thrash their guitars? Or do you think they are more likely to like Carrabao and Luug Tuung?

And yes, Luug tuung is popular among the young, but I am referring to foreigners.

I also want to stress that I am no saying one type of music is better, nor are you a better person for liking any said type over another. I am simply stating that age demographics has a large impact on musical choice.

White is better than the ever popular pale silver, which is such a god awful color and makes any vehicle look cheap.

Dark Shadow Grey / Gunmetal grey is fine.

Just in from the Ford marketing dept:

The fiesta looks sexy, but check out what got spied stateside:

Ecoboost i4

But none the less, I think the new fiesta is sexy, coupled with the TDI it would be a gas sipper and great for Thailand too.

My wife (Thai) and I were making about 80K/month in Chiang Mai teaching. Going back to school so we can at least double that.

I had my Chaly converted from 6v to 12v (needed it for the engine swap) It's not hard as much as it is annoying. I mean it's like wrestling an octopus.

<----- My purple Chaly

Bina:

I like Thai music that is similar to my own tastes. I don't like Luug Tung. Can I bear it with a smile and ignore it? Yes, easily. When I hang out with my mechanic friends, this is what they like.

The pop music scene, is it really much worse than any other country? The best benefit is that you can drown out the lyrics and never have to realize how contrite they are.

My wife loves Bekery (Boyd, etc), it's way to slow and soft for my liking.

I like rock, liked Big Ass, Bodyslam, Silly Fools, Hangman, Retrospect (but they are more EMO),

Groove Riders is disco/funk

Buddha Bless is Dancehall Reggae

Scrubb is a bit light, but they're friends, so I'll throw out a shameless plug.

I think also that the age of the majority of the posters is reason for the strong luug tuung leanings.

Time to play Devil's advocate (only for laughs)

You ASSUME she isn't that type of girl because you have indication, but since you can't understand Thai you don't KNOW what she is saying and therefore don't KNOW 100% she isn't that type of girl.

You could always replace Thai BF, with greedy Mother

My favorite holiday, it will be quite some time that I am back in the country during these times.

The machine is set to fill it at that percent. Next if he did it again it would over flow. <snip>

So how does it work at KFC? They push the button a couple of times to give me an ice-free full glass.

He's partially right, as my post above states, there are many buttons set for different quantities. But there still is the continuous flow button we are all used to.

"The only problem I can foresee is that if she wants to enter a Thai University in the Thai programs, on paper a change from a private school to a Government school may raise a few eyebrows."

I don't understand that. Do you foresee a problem, or just the raised eyebrows.

Here in Isaan a quick raising of the eyebrows often denotes approval.

The word 'college' is used in Thailand differently than most of us use it. They use it to refer to high schools. It took me a bit to get my head around that one.

In Thailand it would be viewed as a "you couldn't hack it at the better school and dropped down, so what makes you believe you can handle our university" But as I said, it might only raise eyebrows and not concern.

Some of the schools in Thailand, mainly the three listed, have decent world rankings.

I have been checking out Mahidol for myself. Their M.S. Industrial Ecology looks very interesting, but I also look at working and living in Thailand as my life's goal.

So while Mahidol's life science department isn't as renowned as John Hopkins, they are ranked decently in life sciences.

This happens even in the states at some places.

It's probably already been stated, but...

On machines they often have buttons programmed for different sized sodas WITH ice. You press the button and it fills to the set amount, so if you press the button and there is no ice, this means it will look like a lot less soda. This helps calculate profit and material usage, if your register shows 200sm, 400m, and 500lg cokes but your resources show that you used the equivalent of 220sm, 430m, and 525lg then you know something fishy is going on.

Not much different than the practice of having a dinner special with no substitutes.

As far as price? Come on.. We are all making way above the norm, back home it's not uncommon to drop $40USD on 2 tickets a large popcorn 2 sodas and a candy (or even less food than that!).

I know that Major used to have a deal (been a bit over a year for me) that for an extra 100B you could get a med popcorn and 2 medium drinks, not a bad deal.

Kindergartens have strayed away from the idea of a place to learn social interaction to the idea that kids need to perform exceptionally out of the box to make it into the best first grade they can! I mean if they don't they will never get into a good university!

If you plan for your child to be bilingual (English and Thai) find one that teaches both languages, but make sure they focus more on social interaction and are actually capable of explaining developmental readiness....