PattayaXpat

I was reading http://kohlarn.com and it states that you can bring your motorcycle on the ferry, has anyone tried this?

Andy, What is stopping you from getting a visa??

The silence is deafening! I went to Penang on 28 Dec to get my Tourist visa. The agent I used said he had 20 guys coming on the 2nd of jan. So they are busy over there!

The new one is on Soi LK Metro, across from the Cock & Bull Hotel

It's 3 days in to the New Year, I wonder when will get an update from a border runner with three stamps??

Why is it that sometimes I am given the stamps, and sometimes not? I always purchase at least 100 baht worth of goods.

could be a few reasons:

- mood swings of the 7/11 employee.

- they ran out of stamps.

- they think you dont know about the stamps and taken them for themselves.

I agree with all of the above, but there are also some things that earn stamps and some that do not. Your receipt will actually tell you and the clerk how many stamps you are due.

Thank you for that Jai Dee.

OK people, here's a list of some free proxy servers that may help with your internet issues:

61.246.216.86 port 8080 - India

212.138.64.141 port 80 - Saudi Arabia

202.131.124.218 port 3128 - India

195.226.230.58 port 80 - Kuwait

83.66.73.6 port 3128 - Turkey

Do you just copy and paste the adress? How do these work?

Don't forget about the knock off jaggermiester that you can buy locally, I'm sure there are many jager bottles being refilled as we speak!

Can anyone give me a little info on their experiences as a newbee to Muay Thai? I'm just wondering how tolerant they are towards new guys as far as patience etc..

I live in Pattaya so I'm assuming that they would be very used to older falangs that are'nt in great shape and probably will appreciate the income.

All I want to do is learn the basics and gain the confidence of getting in there and hitting someone (sparring). I'm smart enough to know that I would probably never reach the physical level to be an actual fighter, I just want to train!

A little on my back ground:

I'm 40

I smoke (I know already that it's killing me and could never be a fighter!! ) Maybe boxing would motivate me to finally quit!

I work out hard with weights 4 to 6 days a week, and I've recently added cardio and bag work to try and raise my endurance.

Next month I plan on backing off the weights and using more body weight/ endurance training to start muay thai classes in feb.

I'm about 15 pounds over weight!! I plan to start eating cleaner TODAY!

What do you think??

Thanks

Tonys gym on third road(the muay Thai center) north of south pattaya rd. does not use the muay thai faciltys in the AM, they have the padded ring, although might be expensive.

There is a church on Threpprasit, approx. 2 kilos east of thrapaya on the south side (new world center??). Maybe they have a room and I'm sure that they would appreciate the rental fee and probably much cheaper.

I would be willing to pre pay for a lesson if that would help you decide how much money you have to work with...

hey everybody

I am wondering if anybody can help me. I have been in Thailand over a year now and i am training in Muay Thai. I have had four fights so far and i hope to carry on training only the problem is money. The cheapest gyms i can find are 6,000bhat, which i cant even afford if i want to stay long term. I can pay this price for a while but i need to be at a gym where i know they are going to give me a cheaper price eventually especially when i am fighting once or twice a month, kinda seems unfair that i should pay the same as people who arent fighting for the gym.

Anyway i am looking for a serious gym, not one that is overrun with foreigners. I am looking for a mainly Thai gym and if i am together with foreigners they are the ones that are training hard. Money is the main issue but i also want a decent gym with okay facilities but mainly a good trainer. I have problems finding this as i am female. I recently found a good gym but once the trainer realised i wasent interested in him, he lost interest in training me. It makes it even more difficult and a lot of gyms dont want to take on falangs alone, being female makes it more hard, most people just laugh at me, even though there are many falang women training in Thailand. Anyway thats another subject altogether,.

So please any ideas anyone?

In Pattaya there is a training school called "The International School Of Martial ArtS (ISMA)". They do Kung <deleted> at night and Muay Thai during the day. I was told the cost is 2500.00 per month, total.

The web site, here: ISMA does not mention the Muay Thai but they definitely do it.

Does anyone else have info on this school??

Thank You, I'll look in to it.

Do you know what this is? CUSTOMS FORMALITY HANDLING 1,284.00 BATH

I believe that this: SAMPLE / EVALUATION 642.00 BATH is a sample for drug testing...

I just received a shipment of Whey protien via UPS who also acted as my customs broker.. The seller declared a value of $58.00 US on the package ( about $100.00 under actual).

I have just been told that my bill will be 4528.00 baht! This is almost as much as I paid for the product and shipment itself. Is there anything I can do to prevent this from happening again? Can I pay and then try to recoup my money?

Thanks Guys!

This shipment should have been classified as food and it is for personal consumption.

Here are the charges:

DUTY AND VAT 1,950.00 BATH

STORAGE FEE TILL 20/12/06. 438.70 BATH

FREIGHT CHARGE - BATH

CUSTOMS FEE 214.00 BATH

CUSTOMS FORMALITY HANDLING 1,284.00 BATH

SAMPLE / EVALUATION 642.00 BATH

TOTAL CHARGE 4,528.70 BATH

The two charges that seem way over the top are:

CUSTOMS FORMALITY HANDLING 1,284.00 BATH

SAMPLE / EVALUATION 642.00 BATH

"Would you condone or participate in a double pricing structure in your home country if it was based on the color of ones skin and assumption of wealth?"

If my home country condoned it (as apparently Thailand does) I would have no choice but to participate in a double pricing structure or do without.

IMHO, sometime, someplace and somewhere everyone living or visiting here will "participate"...all bluster aside.

Maybe I should have worded that diffrent, something to the effect of would you "profit from" rather "than participate in"

If you owned a bar or a disco would you give your staff the power to decide who is a local and who is a foreigner and then charge them double or more for a drink

On the occasion I've had to use a bathroom at a "beer bar complex", I just threw down the two baht and used the bathroom without even looking at the person collecting. Paying customers shouldn't even have to pay to use the restrooms in the first place.

But the toilets and the bars are owned by seperate people aren't they? Surely if that's a problem you could find bars with their own toilet facilities? They have signs up for the toilet charge don't they? Why throw down the money at someone when you have already accepted to use the service? Why not use a toilet elsewhere?

The toilets will be rented out by someone else or run by the owners, that's how they get away with charging. This doesn't apply to bars, just the beer bar complexes. The only other one that I can think of is the Pattaya Bazaar, near the dolphin circle. The bathroom down stairs is 5 baht, if you walk upstairs (During the day) it's free.

I haven't been to Koh Larn in years, my girl told me that it's more for Falangs. If I'm wrong about that I will remove it from the list.

The whole double pricing thing is wrong but TIT. I also avoid the places who do it (when I can) but I try not to let it bother me too much. I think that it is important for everyone to know what's going on, just how cheap things really are in Thailand. It helps when you want to make decisions later on about moving here...

After reading all the responses I've decided to become part of the 5 baht club when it is a 5 baht ride (With conditions). I seldomly take the buses but I've been coming here long enough to have a pretty good idea of what the prices should be.

The conditions will be:

1) I'll be more than fair. I will only pay 5 baht when it's a very short trip

2) I will always have correct change. I feel ridiculous even writing that. I'm dealing with people who handle primarily 5 and 10 baht coins all day long, but if I don't hand them the correct change then they suddenly "No Have" or try and give me back as little as possible

3) I will not argue over the fare. If they ask for the 10 baht I'll tell them something to the effect of

" Tam Mi? Ha baht tamada". If they still want the 10 I'll give it up and walk away, probably with a smile.

I honestly do believe that the drivers have a tough job and the majority of them are good people. They are in a tough spot, there are too many of them competing for the same fares with no regulation what so ever. I do not know what fees thay pay to the "Mafia" but I'm sure that they are not in the drivers favor.

I have used the baht buses for moving from one place to the other, delivering furniture etc. and had mixed results, I would say 50/50 on what I would consider fair pricing. The easiest thing to do is to send a Thai to do the negotiating ahead of time to get a fair price.

I do believe that it's important for people to at least realise that they are being singled out to over pay and it makes no diffrence what so ever if your a whore monger, a drinker.... even the average cheap charly who lives here is putting money in to the local economy, many times as much or more than a middle class Thai and I don't believe that he should be blatantly ripped off.

If you think that it's ridiculous to even question this than please give your opinion here:

Double Pricing?

Would you condone or participate in a double pricing structure

in your home country if it was based on the color of ones skin

and assumption of wealth?

This is a follow up to the "Would you pay 5 or 10 baht for a short baht bus trip poll"

The previous poll showed that most would just pay the extra 5 baht to avoid confrontation but there were alot of people who just thought that only a "Cheap Charly" would even think to question the practise, and that whore mongers of questionable virtue have no right what so ever to question it.

So if this was happening in The UK or US.... would it also be OK? Would it be OK with you if your goverment charged double the price for entrance to a state park to any one without white skin with no regard what so ever to whether they lived there or not?

If you owned a bar or a disco would you give your staff the power to decide who is a local and who is a foreigner and then charge them double or more for a drink?

Some double/inflated pricing examples:

1) Baht Bus

2) Motorcycle Taxis

3) Koh larn Boat Trip

4) Koh Samet park entrance

5) Tonys, Lucifers, Exzyte. Entrance fee and drinks

6) Thai boxing at Thepprasit stadium

7) bathrooms in beer bar complexes

The majority of these are obviously private ventures. Pattaya after all is a tourist town but some of this IMOP is way out of hand.

According to the poll there are a few brave souls who would pay the 5 baht, what surprises me the most is that some people are not bothered at all by the double pricing against falangs!

BTW

I have a moto, it's my primary means of transport. When I'm drinking I primarily use the moto taxis.

If you are a farang and you pay 5 baht to the baht bus driver it is a little like playing Russian Roulette.

You will get away with it for a while and then BANG you will encounter a really nasty, evil, mental, psychopath of a baht bus driver who will get out of his cab, on a particularly bad day, and verbally assault you and/or threaten you with a pointed stick or worse.

I choose to pay 10 baht now, whatever the length of trip and I don't think about it, or dwell on it.

If you want to pay 5 baht, good for you. However I guarantee that one day, you will have a problem.

Bad Baht Buses: 77 and 389 are two I recall. (And one is a woman driver!). I really must make a proper list of good and bad, including the night/day shift of course.

This is exactlty what I was trying to avoid, but I would be dishonest if I said it didn't bother me.

It is 5 Baht for Thais, 10 baht for Falangs

To start out the discussion. I went from the threpprasit market to thrappaya rd. today on a baht bus, I was going to Jomtien. When we got to Thrappaya he was turning right, to Pattaya. I hopped off and paid 10 baht.

I immediately got on another and took it left about 1 kilo to the first right turn "Havana market/ Statue??" and got off, I paid 10 baht again for a 1 minute ride.

To put the price in prespective, I was going to meet my girl for lunch. The restraunt that we go to offers a Chang beer and spaghetti for 99 baht!!

Did I over pay for the baht bus?

This is my first time posting a poll, so please give me a break if the formats wrong.

So you live here and take advantage of the main public transport, a baht bus. Maybe you speak a little Thai, you understand just how far your baht will go in this country so you are "thrifty". You hop on a Baht Bus, you've only gone a short way and you know darn well thet the fare should be 5 baht or less.

Do you avoid confrontation and just over pay?

Cheap Charlys, my brothers, please chime in!!

Thanks Guys! I'll start just writing it on the back.

I've already sent a few items internationally via registered post but I have yet to see or be asked for a customs form?

Are they needed? Where are they? Parsar Thai Liak Ali??

Thanks

Dose anyone know if there are VIP buses from patts to Udon + Schedule, travel time, price....

Thank You!

Yes, there are VIP air-con buses with a toilet that leave in the early morning 0730 or evening 2030.

Times approx. Price approx. 370 baht.

However, your best bet is to pre-book especially at New Year, at the ticket booth at the Pattaya (Isaan) bus station.

Telephone 038-351887 or 038-421-535 to enquire.

Excellent! Thanks Very Much!