Orac

Personal opinion based on my first trip to Thailand which was only a week with a mate, I would go straight to Pattaya and, after you have spent a day or two there, decide with your mates if you want to go look at the temples and 'cultural ' bits elsewhere We were gutted that we spent 3 days in bangkok to start with and then only had 3 nights in Pattaya.

There is plenty to do in Pattaya in one week for a group of 'red blooded blokes' both during the day and at night - though the comments on Pattaya beach are pretty accurate you can get a speedboat over to Koh Larn for 2000 baht which, especially since there is a group of you, isn't a great deal and the beaches there are excellent.

There are plenty of hotels available at varying prices depending on your pocket/requirements - I would suggest Sabai Lodge on Soi 2 or Sabai Resort on 2nd Road by Big C - you can google both but there are plenty of others and, should you want any other suggestions or want views on particular hotels I am sure you will get plenty of advice here. Most hotels up their prices for the high season from 1st Nov however, unless there is a significant change in tourist numbers by then, you should be able to negotiate a good deal especially if there are a few of you.

Even a university degree does not guarantee a good income here, for a peasant.

True, and also not everyone has the apptitude to study to degree level, however, surely it must increase the opportunities available.

Since you are not married, YOU have to register the baby yourself at the amphur. Only when you register the baby yourself you will have legitimised the baby (stated that you are the father) and will hold costudy over the child together with the mother. If someone else registers the baby you will not be the legal father!

Registration of the birth must be done within 15 days after birth, at the amphur where the child is born.

You can have a look at the website of the british embassy to see what you need to do to register the bay with the UK authorities.

When I did this a couple of months ago the amphur local to the hospital (not the amphur where we live) also required a translated copy of my passport.

I appear to be in a similar position to you in that I want to support my wifes family - they are good, hard working, people but there are just not the jobs around here at the moment apart from the seasonal chilli and rice picking but don't just want to give them the money.

I would be wary about setting them up in a retail business unless you are on hand to keep an eye on them - without any experience in profit and loss or stock control they may struggle.

I 'invested' 1m baht in farm land (rice and chillies) which we are in the process of transferring from my wifes name to our new daughters. Our intention is to let my wifes three brothers farm this land and they keep whatever they make off it (and keep us all in rice!). This has solved three problems:

1. A saving/investment for our daughter to provide for her future.

2. Added security for my wife (when you come from a very poor family that sort of security 'cushion' counts for a lot).

3. Ongoing employment/income for the extended family.

I am in little doubt that they will be self sufficient from this and I will still need to keep providing in some way, particularly helping towards the education of their young families so that hopefully the poverty cycle can be broken.

What a ridiculous, judgemental topic.

Agreed - but it is refreshing to see that most of the responses are not judgmental and show how out of touch the OP is trying to transplant his victorian values to Thailand.

"want meet farang" is not an excuse to the couple posters that posted this.

If they were good looking young girls and wanted to meet farangs for marriage, they could hang out at mbk/paragon or any other full of farang area, or even expat restaurants and get into conversation with many farangs on a daily basis instead of banging anyone for 1k baht and having drunk conversations in druken bargirl english.

That leaves her clean, far from prostitution, with free food and a good reputation. probably gets her a better vocabulary then hansum man + u boom boom, u pay.

Might work for those that live in BKK but our village is 30 mins from the nearest Lotus and that isn't a very big one!

God?

I would be interested in knowing how the Fanta marketing dept managed to convince them that Buddha/spirits liked strawberry fanta though?

There has been a few topics were some of the guys have let us all know how they pass there time in Issan.Which is great.

What do your partners do on a day to day basis ?

Being one of the younger guys on here(i think) and my wife younger again,we both decided that it would be good for her to go to university.

Also, are the weekends any different ?

My wife looks after our baby but, to be honest, there is very little to do here. Weekends are slightly livelier because the kids aren't in school.

Today of course is different with everyone buzzing arround since early morning discussing lottery numbers.

I didn't say anything bad about those bargirls.

However the OP seems to imply he wants to talk about the physical beauty also.

So my inputs is just that....

The “physical attractiveness“…..even for the issan region standard, among issan people

Just check out all those likae group, country singers, and many beauty pageant competition in the region.

Oohh …I have seen many and I mean here…. maaany beautiful girls from the issan region.

I was just speaking from my observations, however your observation may be diff than mine.

My apologies if I misunderstood your post, you seemed to be differentiating between bar girls with farang and those without along with 'normal' Thai girls. I could be wrong but it seemed a generalisation too far to me. There is of course the arguement that the good looking ladies prepared to work in the 'entertainment' industry are snapped up quickly or work in more lucrative areas than bars and are therefore less visible.

I’m pretty sure, if there aren’t any mutual benefits, they wouldn’t be together.

I would have thought any marriage/relationship would need mutual benefits, indeed that is the whole point of marriage. Are you suggesting that one side shouldn't be getting anything out of it?

read my post again

Just have - I think your belief that bar girls with farangs are less attractive than normal girls is one of the most ridiculous statements I have seen in a long time.

With regards to the comment that a bar girl/sexpat relationship starts on the wrong footing without the usual courtship and leads to a high number of failed relationships I would probably agree with you.

I don't think anyone is naive enough not to believe that money and your ability to 'take care' of your spouse in many relationships in Thailand is a major issue.

I’m pretty sure, if there aren’t any mutual benefits, they wouldn’t be together.

I would have thought any marriage/relationship would need mutual benefits, indeed that is the whole point of marriage. Are you suggesting that one side shouldn't be getting anything out of it?

It is often stated on here that bar girls are only after a quick buck, however , my experience with my wife and her friends was they were working bar so they could meet farang to marry - I have a photo taken at the bar on the night we met of her and 8 co-workers (all but one from the same group of villages in Isaan) and it is interesting to note where they are now as my wife is still on contact with all of them regularly:

What kind of logical (or non-logical) behavior is this?

If I want to marry a white (farang) girl, should I become a beach boy?

Who are you accusing of being logical here

What appears to happen is that one or two of these girls from the villages have 'done well' and married farangs and moved overseas or occasionally back to the village. All of a sudden either they or their family have a big house, new car etc which encourages others to try the same. I have read here and elsewhere that the women who go to work in bars of Pattaya and Bangkok are looked down on by others in their villages however I have not personally seen this in our village and there seems to be no stigma attached.

I am very happily married to an ex-bar girl and have been for 2 years now - we met 8 years ago in Pattaya and she stopped working in the bar soon after. We now have a three month old baby girl and my wife has turned out to be a wonderful mother.

It is often stated on here that bar girls are only after a quick buck, however , my experience with my wife and her friends was they were working bar so they could meet farang to marry - I have a photo taken at the bar on the night we met of her and 8 co-workers (all but one from the same group of villages in Isaan) and it is interesting to note where they are now as my wife is still on contact with all of them regularly:

4 have husbands and live in europe (Switzerland, Germany and UK) - I have visited all in the last 2 years and all are happy though one still has a drink problem.

2 are back in the village (same one I live in now) - one is supported by a boyfriend in Norway and the other has a small 'restaraunt' and no boyfriend/support.

1 still works in Pattaya though she was always an older 'hardened' bar girl and the only one from a different area of Issan.

1 was ostracised from the group because she had a Thai boyfriend which the others didn't approve of - she has turned into a nasty piece of work with a drug problem.

I am hoping the above goes to show that not all bar girls ae the same and they are all individuals, as we are, and should be treated accordingly. It would be interesting to see how many of the men on here have paid bar as surely they should be catergorised in the same bracket as bar girls by those that wish to put people in boxes (including the OP who is using the 'I did not inhale' excuse), by the same token, those that haven't paid a bar girl are probably, in the main, lacking the experience or knowledge to make judgements on them and resort to the stereotypes that are prevalent here and elsewhere.

With regards to being 'embarrassed' by my wifes background, I have no problem with this and neither does my wife, frankly if people wish to judge her or me negatively then that is their problem - my family are all aware of my wifes background and, when my parents came over for our wedding, we went for a drink at the bar my wife used to work at.

I would argue that the current global economic problems make a sooner election more important than waiting for a more stable situation.

By providing a stronger mandate and longer term to make the tough decisions that may be required would hopefully be better than a government having to make short term, populist decisions to get re-elected. Thailand, along with the rest of the world, is going to go through a very difficult few years and any effective goverment would need concentrate on governing and not campaigning - better get this done now so that Thailand can start moving forwards again.

You must be a fast walker.. Lol.. All the way from North Pattaya to Jomtien? wow.. Thats a long way! It's probably take me all day to get there never mind all the way back again..

It's not really that far, but it all depends on WHERE in North Pattaya you are talking about. It's only 3 kilometers from Jomptien to the south end of the beach in central Pattaya. It's another 2 kilometers from the south end of the beach to the dophin circle junction. I don't know if that is called north Pattaya or not. It's 2 kilometers from the dolphin circle junction to the highway near the bus station, or 3 kilometers to the Naklua hotel in north Pattaya. That means it's only a 20 kilometer round trip. I'm 69 and have no trouble doing that in a day's walk. I walk from Jomtien into central Pattaya and back all the time. I only take the bus if I am in a hurry to meet someone.

But, my whole life was involved with walking and hiking, so it comes naturally to me.

my wife thinks a long walk is anything over 100 yards goodness knows how she keeps so thin.

100 yards - there would have to be a gold shop at the end for my wife to walk that far

I am watching it now on ESPN - True gold package - channel 64

Matthew,

Please accept my condolences to you and your family on the tragic loss of your father.

Orac

I 'passed through' Pattaya on Saturday night and couldn't believe how much more handsome I have become in a couple of months!

And I can agree with most of that, as a short and medium term picture because you are referring to a timescale of around one year as far as I can tell. But my reference to 35, which seems to be the bone of contention here, is in a timescale of seven to ten years.

It is here i do not entirely agree with you. Thailand is a mess and is likely to take a lot more than 1 year to sort itself out. Even then i do not see a rate of 1-35 being a realistic likelyhood.

Thailand had a false rate pre 97 and that in part caused the original crash in the first place. All the old Tiger economies which were punching way above their weight at the time, crashed drastically Thailand probably the worst of the lot and whilst i do see a readjustment over time i cannot see a return to 1-35 anytime in the next 20 years never mind 7-10 years.

Thailand has in many ways fallen behind its local rivals over the last decade again in part to the political state it is in. Where do you get your reasoning suggesting it is poised to make a great comeback on the next decade? All i can see is trouble for the country until the political upheavals are complete. Whilst there is a body we should not talk about. If and when that body ceases to be an influence i can see Thailand becoming worse not better for some time.

Though I would be surprised to see 1-35 over the next 10 years I can see where CM is coming from based on his early comments - I don't know how many people here based there retirement plans on a rate of below 60 up to a couple of years ago but, with the current turmoil in the world, 35 could offer the safety net that quite a few have lost recently.

Bilderbergs etc etc are responsible for small problems like this.............

"The trends now indicate that our(USA) country is going bankrupt. The probability is, our country will move toward a military dictatorship, to prevent riots and complete social break down. Once the US breaks down, all the other cultures will under go similar things.

As of now, the world financial system is on the brink of collapse, due to its own shortcomings. The comptroller of currency stated in 2003 that the interest on the US national debt will not be affordable in less than 10 years. This theoretically means total bankruptcy for the US economy. And it's implications for the world, are immense.

In turn, the fractional reserve based monetary system is reaching its theoretical limits of expansion and the banking failures you are seeing are just the beginning. This is why inflation is skyrocketing, all debt is at record levels and the government and fed are hemorrhaging new money to bail out the corrupt system. For, the only way to keep the banks going is by making more money… the only way to make more money is to create more debt and inflation. It is simply a matter of time before the tables turn and there is no one willing to take new loans, while defaults grow, as people are unable to afford their current loans. Then the expansion of money will stop and contraction will begin on a scale never before seen, ending a century long, pyramid scheme. This has already begun."

I am getting confused now - I thought one of the 'you must watch this' youtube vids confirmed that the USA had been bankrupt since the 1930s and the FED was the administrator?

When taking a measure of a nation's financial stability and financial risk it is also necessary to take into account the political stability.

Now while the UK Parliamentarians are grabbing the headlines with the 'scandal' over expenses (measure that against what the Thai Politicians get up to at some other time) the bottom line on political stability in Thailand is not at all rosy.

One might argue that the Pound is going to loose it's value, but when the political situation is taken into account then sticking your money into Bht/Thai Banks/Thailand based assets is not such a good bet... especially for the British.

Thaksin might well return (he might be the only viable option or even the most desirable option when the inevitable occurs) - He has a great deal of unfinished business with that Green and Pleasant Land.

Life and life savings in Thailand is all your eggs in a rather weak looking basket.

An advantage of money in the UK (for Brits) is it’s a boat to back home if and when you need to go back there.

Never ever forget - You’re a guest here.

If you really believe the pound is shakey then that would be an argument to put money in a spread of currencies - life and life's savings in Thailand.... not a bright idea.

Yes I agree. But the answer to the questions I have posed about relative currency and economic strengths will determine the percentage of my investments I might be prepared to leave invested in one currency or the other. As ChianMaiFun pointed out the other day through his personal example, it makes no sense to remain nearly wholly invested in Streling when Thailand is your long term home and you are spending Baht on a daily basis but a 50/50 split or similar would provide a good hedge and de-risk the problem.

CM,

I am curious as to why you seem to have an either/or strategy regarding GBP/THB and do not consider looking at other global markets/currencies. Surely, as GH has suggested, in such an uncertain time you would have less risk if you had a spread of currencies rather than relying on two economies which could end up with major problems as have been highlighted already.

SCOTSMAN

and his mates that have to pay a salary to their wives each month have been asked several times on this thread to predict what would happen if they stopped paying for their wives.

Not one reply.

They know dam_n well what would happen. What's that song?...

"Hit the road Jack, and don't be coming back no more no more no more no more..."

Surely you could rewrite the same statement above as what would happen if they stop providing for their wives (you say wives not GFs) and I assume children in some cases so that they have more money to blow on booze and cheap women.

I certainly would expect to be be thrown out and rightly so though it appears from some of these posts that I might have more support from some parts than I would deserve.

Not quite...she is an Ex-banker... ... I never asked her to keep a set of books, it was something she did all on her own, and the set of books mean d*ck sh*t to me as they are all in Thai.. ...does she give money to the "family" every month..Yes... exactly the same amount she was giving the family while she was working..

Personally I think keeping a set of books makes good financial sense, something I and not very good at and has nothing to do with lack of trust or providing proof

Reading it this way I can see where you are coming from - I am hopeless with money hence my reliance on my wife to do any saving.

Maybe the OP should've asked...

How much money do you have to pay your wife/gf to stay with you each month?

Honestly, these posts sound more like a business arangement than a loving relationship

You people really do need to ask yourselves:

"what would happen if I stoped paying my terak?"

If you have to "pay" your wife/gf every month then the answer is very clear.

You would be out the door quicker than you can say "but teerak jaaa, I love you!"

Thank Jesus H Christ I don't have those kind of problems.

After trawling through numerous pages of droll on this thread....the above posting IMHO is the one closest to the truth...

Personally my wife has my ATM card, draws what she needs for the bills and herself and has a full set of books she reconciles every month, in a relationship its called trust

I hate to disagree but surely the keeping of a full set of books indicates a lack of trust and need for proof.

"He wondered why the Australian owner of the Aussie Bar would allow a dispute to develop with a fellow Australian. " Quote from phuketwan.com attributed to the Govenor of Phuket. Sure the bar owner isn't feeling too comfortable now after the Govenor making a public statement concerning his action in the case.

I would assume that he has the CCTV footage of the event which could potentially clear his name if he needs to use it - unless the police have 'lost' it of course