PingRoundTheWorld

I keep seeing guys say this, but over the past month in BKK taxis seem significantly worse than they did when I used to live here pre-Covid. I've only had ONE driver actually use the meter, and most drivers will ask for ridiculous fares like 150-300 baht. In the past they were asking for 100 baht, but now seem to not even be happy with that - especially when it rains - they seem to think a few rain drops entitles them to extra fare which makes no sense. I never pay more than 100 baht on principal, but that can make it hard to find a taxi willing to take you when it rains. There definitely needs to be better (or ANY) enforcement of this. They keep complaining that the current meter fares are too low and that's why they refuse fares, but in reality what will happen when fares are raised is they'll still refuse to use the meter and quote even higher rates. Like the guy who wanted 300 baht for literally a 2 minute ride - we just walked away since this kind of driver does not deserve our business.

Period kill about a week a month, and most BGs don't get bar fined every night. A few times a week at most, on average. That still brings in a nice sum of money - but not 50k. Keep in mind most bar girls aren't young and hot and - most are just average - walk into any bar near closing and most of them are still there, alone.

Not sure what you're talking about. Last time I was in Pattaya (2020) WS was very much a red light district. Bar girls outside every bar in skimpy outfits, ladyboys waiting to pounce on any guy who goes near them, promo girls, etc etc. Not sure what you're on about with the "present day b/s" but unless WS completely changed after Covid then it's not a family friendly location at 3am. Victim of what? Was there a rape here, did anything actually happen to her other than getting startled and angry at the guy? She literally suffered no injury physically or mentally, and gets to walk away with 200,000 baht. Had there been an actual *assault* here I'd be more sympathetic. Next time when an innocent foreigner gets falsely blamed we'll know why - 200,000 reasons why.

Uhh no. She doesn't work in an office because she likes doing what she does. Very few bar girls hate their jobs - the ones who hate it don't make much money and don't stay long. In reality she's probably an alcoholic, loves to party, and getting paid to party and flirt with guys sure beats working in an office. 1. Bar girls lie. She could be exaggerating the figures for a variety of reasons - to make you tip better because you think she expects more, to make herself seem better than she is, to brag, etc. 2. The starting salary for bar girls isn't that great. Talking more like 10-20k, not 100k. They make probably a few more thousands from girl drinks, but the real money is "tips" from guys who bar file them and/or "salary" from boyfriends/sponsors. 3. Dubai is a whole other can of worms - girls who go there are essentially going to work in massage parlors seeing 20-30 customers a day. They do make a lot of money from "tips" there, but it is hard work that most girls wouldn't be able to keep up with - which is why they only do it for a limited time to make money quick once in a while. A typical bar girl who doesn't do Dubai/Singapore/etc isn't going to make much more than an office worker unless she is very good at her job.

At 3 am? At 3am? Again- groping a random stranger is always wrong, but the fact that she took money to drop the charges speaks volumes about the "lady" in question and what she might've been doing in WS at 3am. Enjoying the vibe? or looking for trouble/drama?

Well, to be fair, I wouldn't grope a stranger in either place. But the point still remains that a lady at WS alone at 3am is likely not a lady...

The broader family (uncles/cousins/etc) I could care less about - never had any sort of real relationship with any of them beyond family gatherings. My close family (parents - still alive and hope it stays that way a long time, brother and sister and their families) I do care about and in recent years made an effort to see more often especially as my parents aren't young anymore. My grandparents I loved but they passed a long time ago. But at the end of the day who you surround yourself with on a daily basis is who will have the most impact on your life - gf/wife, close friends, even drinking buddies, lol.

I have a friend who talked to the wrong girl in Roppongi (Tokyo) a few years ago - some promo girl for a shady hostess club he was trying to hit on while drunk - all of a sudden he sees police coming, and the girl claims he touched her boobs. They arrested him and then a "witness" African guy said he saw it happen. They didn't check CCTV which would prove his innocence. Basically it was an African mafia scam with police in on the deal. After a few days locked up he got desperate and paid around 5000 Euros for the girl to drop the charges. The fact that a woman can drop the charges based on monetary compensation is a huge problem and obviously the reason why this scam exists. Just because this guy wasn't innocent doesn't mean the next guy wouldn't be.

Are you seriously comparing Foodland to walking street? One sells food, the other sells, well, sex.

So I'm not alone in thinking something seems...odd...about her story? and who the hell doesn't lock their door - especially a female sleeping by herself? something in her story stinks.

Maybe because he was farang? they seem to go off harder on other Thais, I think. Why does your wife/gf have contact with so many strangers? My first gf in Thailand had thousands of guys on her Facebook which I found extremely disrespectful. Dumped her quickly for this and many other reasons. Future girlfriends did not have this problem, and I made it clear I'm not ok with them having farang male friends - I don't need some <deleted> badmouthing me in her DMs and trying to **** her - because that's what 99% of those guys do.

Was thinking the same thing- what kind of idiot posts on social media while cheating? the ironic thing in all of this is that the idiocy was rewarded - some random guy she just met was sacrificed, but her husband has been successfully removed from her life for good. Would be an interesting plot twist if she actually planned for this to happen.

His behavior was inappropriate - true - but if he simply grabbed her without anything more perverted then going to the police over this seems a bit excessive. The guy didn't rape or sexually assaulted her, yet he may be prosecuted for sexual assault which is disproportionate to his "crime". To begin with being out on walking street at 3am alone "enjoying the vibe" is weird - almost sounds like she was waiting for someone to harass her so she can teach them a lesson.

It's pretty insane that businesses can go after customers for negative reviews - even if the reviews are correct. A while ago I bought a perfume from an online platform starting with L, the perfume was very obviously fake or old and smelled terrible - I felt cheated and didn't want them to continue cheating other customers, so I posted a review. Very shortly after I get a message from the platform that my review was removed. So buyer beware - when you buy anything in Thailand the reviews are not necessarily reflective of what you're going to get - the negative ones get deleted. Lesson learned.

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. He's already been warned to stay off (public) politics, and now he's off to Bangkok to attend protests? Sorry, but no sympathy here for what's surely to come - I hope his wife likes Germany because that's their next stop. I'll never understand why some people come to Thailand and think they're a special snowflake and can do whatever they want without repercussions - he thinks he has the RIGHT to protest, but this is Thailand and as a non-citizen he has no rights. (not to mention even citizens' right to protest is barely tolerated)

What a load of ****. It's pretty clear by now monkeypox rarely spreads through surfaces or even normal human contact - the grand majority of cases have been through intimate (sexual) contact - and almost exclusively gay at that. So unless the good doctor is envisioning a huge gay orgy taking place somewhere - there will never be a "superspreader event". The link he's trying to make to nightlife is 100% nonsense and probably trying to push his own agenda and/or fight the push to open nightlife until 4am. Some people just won't rest until they can make the rest of the world as miserable as they are.

What for? We know the story - she flipped through a passport full of Thailand stamps (even though they were years old) and her "you come too often" lightbulb went off. Didn't even bother to look at the dates - just knee-jerk reaction to the stamps. Funny enough if the OP came with a new clean passport she wouldn't have asked him anything.

In my past experience female IO are always best to avoid if possible. I've always had worse experience with them as they get nosy and rude when they think you "come a lot". And heaven forbid you tell one you have a Thai wife or girlfriend - she will kick you out of the country! I guess they're really annoyed with dirty farang coming to Thailand and stealing the women (while she probably lives alone with her cats - the only creatures who can sort of stand her).

So you've basically had a bunch of elitist educated Thais who do not rely nor care about tourism money tell you how inconvenient tourism is for them? These are not "average Thais". The average Thai was sitting unemployed with no money while tourism was dead during Covid. Be it hotel operators, cleaners, nightlife staff, or even freelancers and food vendors - the average Thai in tourism areas (Phuket, Pattaya, Bangkok's Sukhumvit/Khao San/etc) very much benefits and depends on tourism revenue directly and indirectly - those areas were ghost towns with everything shut off while nightlife was banned. I'm sure some educated doctor in Nonthaburi couldn't care less about tourism - but that's not "Average Thai".

I have literally never been to any of those places, except a couple of beaches like twice. Zero interest in those. I come to Thailand for the nightlife, at least when it was good. The current closing times are way too early and essentially promote illegal places to open which are fire hazards and overall shady. Let the clubs close late for the safety and enjoyment of everyone.

I dare you to find one big nightclub on bangla road in Phuket that isn't full of shisha smoke. Yes- you could go to a smaller nightclub that has no people and therefore no smoke, but that kind of defeats the purpose. In Bangkok I can think of a few clubs that have non-smoking sections, but that doesn't exist in Phuket or Pattaya AFAIK.

You realize those "Indian" restaurants are actually located in Thailand, right? Even if they are owned by Indian expats - they still pay taxes and employ local people, not to mention spend their profits locally. I agree they're not big spenders and they're bad for some businesses (if they crowd the place without actually spending), but them eating at Indian restaurants is actually good for the economy. (plus some of the food is quite good lol)

You do get SOME high-spending Indians now - probably more than before - but they're definitely a small minority. I met this lawyer recently who would buy bottles and was paying for several girls to drink with him every night - so they do exist. However in almost all other cases they travel in huge groups and buy very little. My friend who manages a club was complaining the other night that he sold 4 guys a table on the condition they buy a bottle - they told him they're only 4, but they ended up bringing more friends and totaled 15 for a table that's meant for 3-4 people max - all sharing the same one bottle (they did not buy more). At the end of the night he told them please don't come back. In another case he got a group of guys who wanted a table, and he told them they needed to order a bottle to get the table - so the geniuses went to the bar, ordered a bottle - of beer - and came back to claim their table!???? No- they did not get it. Bottom line is they create a lot of problems and bring in little revenue for venues (and whoever's working in them...) - maybe better than nothing but definitely not the golden goose the government is trying to portray them as.

Actually neither are legal to smoke in public. Unfortunately that doesn't stop anyone. I wish they enforced this law better because hookahs have become a huge nuisance and health hazard in most nightclubs - you simply cannot escape the smoke. I'm in favor of businesses running as they please and patrons voting with their legs/wallet - but in this particular case non-smokers have no other option if all venues are full of hookahs.

Another day, another ****. Kinda like that celebrity lawyer that got the Bay Hill parties closed (for a week) - really accomplished nothing except being a party pooper. I doubt this guy will ever work in Phuket again - who would hire him after this? As far as the complaint itself - it's not very valid - in most venues "simple" jobs like waitresses and receptions are almost exclusively filled by Thais, I can't think of a venue where it's not. It's the more skilled jobs like DJs and managers in foreigner oriented clubs that are being filled by foreigners and that's simply business - a foreign manager understands the needs of tourists better and able to communicate with them better than a Thai would in most cases. DJs there are both foreigners and Thais - there aren't many DJs so variety is good. I doubt any Thai DJ is sitting there whining about foreigners taking their job, lol. I do agree venues should be more proactive in securing valid work visas for their managers - there's definitely room for improvement there - it's not that the foreigners don't want to secure legal status - it's that venues are very slow at actually getting the proper visa. (I have many friends in the industry and most of them waited a very long time before finally getting one)