LaosLover

I have some roots and friends here due to a historic preservation project I did in Laos, so for me it's easy to kill a week here. For the average person, a quick peek into their half a dozen very eccentric Wats and a trip to the Buddha Park will do it. Vt is prob the best place to eat out cheaply in Asia. A Peking duck is $7. We went to where Obama had sushi. 5*-level, $20 a head. Lao food is like a French/Issan fusion. A lot of Lao restaurants are converting over to Korean, because that's where the money is. Sorely tempted to move here. $350 for a decent 1 bedroom in the middle of the tiny downtown. Prob the most erudite and culturally-focused expats in Asia. Anyone taking the trouble to live here is de facto a little interesting. It used to feel more old style Graham Green with all the 50's sun brick, flat roof buildings, but there's a frenzy of huge hotel-building going on that defies all tourist math-logic. In my own hotel, they guessed wrong and installed a solar water heating system that doesn't really work in the cloudy rainy season. The Vientiane solution: 2 free drinks at happy hour (well drinks only) and more smiling. That's why I love this place.

I killed a couple of day over at Reddit Thai Tourism. They all follow the same route: BKK-CM-Southern Beach (Ko Phi Phi for the adventurous ones, but 90% book Phuket). 90% of the people want to spend 90% of their time on a nice beach. Thailand = discount Maui. When my jaded self thinks about it, that 3 destination route is a great vacation. So good that they will repeat it if they return. Also, 90% of the people on Reddit are on a two-week schedule. That's including flight time. So 4 days per place, with a lot of must-do scheduled activities like a dinner cruise and the elephant camp to cram in. In my native New York, there's a glorious medieval monastery that was transported brick by brick by some dead Rockefeller, a half an hour out of midtown (The Cloisters). Not one in 10,000 tourists will ever see it. Or even know about it. Instagram has further consolidated the list of what's a must-see attraction. And then there is the curiousity factor. I just had breakfast with a bunch of Americans in Vientiane. They were shocked to learn of the existence of Luang Prubang, the prettiest place in SEA. 2 hours away.

Running a car in the states was at least $500 a month, and I didn't have a car payment. I'm at well less than $100 a month for Grab cabs. We can go a week in Nimman without leaving it. Another reason never to go home. I can only bear to live in a traffic-lite place from now on. I'm in downtown Vientiane and I was just killing a bottle or three of wine with some friends on a side street. Maybe 2 tuk tuks and 2 cars in 2 hours. To have an urban feeling with good restaurants, but with very low traffic is a tricky combination. If anyone knows of a third one, let me know.

Been a few years, but Nan is my fave of all the Northern towns. Just barely big enough for an expat. Home of Thailand's most beloved painting. Famous for mushrooms. Prob transiting via Pakbeng Laos to their via cab. One of the great rides of SEA. Gaughan-like old teak villages, folk art temples, even an elephant or 2. Will report back.

Moved from the states to Nimman Chiang Mai last July from very rural USA. We're from the mountains and get a lot of mental health benefit from looking out the window and seeing them. Nimman was describes as the unapologetic bubble in a blog, and I must concur. It's like living on a cruise ship: great restaurants, low traffic (off of Nimman Road, anyway), blissed-out tourists, chill locals. In a full year, we've still only eaten at half the restaurants we want to, and I'm talking about just Nimman, not the rest of CM, which we barely deal with. In fact, we've gotten worse; we only want to eat within 5 minutes walk of our condo. My wife says, "don't make me go to Nimman1 mall to eat". It's 10 minutes instead of 5 minutes walk away. No problem, we still have 5 new restaurants on our block to try with more opening every day. Heavy Japanese/Korean vibe, which for us is a 2 for 1 dining and culture-wise. What they like, we like. We have top floor huge 1 bedroom for the cost of what was formerly our electric bill. It's got a mix of long termers and transient air bNb-ers. Spiritual seekers, Nomads, and honeymoon couples. Always a good chat in the lobby. I'm in Vientiane right now where I have some roots and Bangkok Hospital has just opened a branch. We're tempted and could get a visa here easily. But we're having a laugh; it will be hard to ever pry us away from our perch of Nimman by the university. Smoke season was brutal; Hua Hin was a decent place to wait it out.

I wish that the two sides here -faithful marrieds and happy mongers- could somehow bubble up in the general consciousness. It's always gloom and doom, pedophile meets trafficked teen-slave. No one is more misunderstood and villainized than the white man (or his dusky brethren) in Thailand -and no one cares less. People just living their lives as they see fit are an inspiration to me. The sex angle is just a peg to hang a bunch of generic outrage on. Or disappointment in people's own lives. Any other theories?

You like your deal and you've made your peace. Good for you. I see a lot of Hell is getting what you want in this thread.

Agreed, you're paying room-prices for a tent. Japanese people seem to love it.

Without the brits comically misunderstanding the blues, the blues would have gone the way of folk music like If I had a hammer. They brought irony to a form that was leaden and heavy. English Chuck Berry stuff was better than Chuck Berry's. Muddy Waters never had to paint houses as goofball, unintentional racist Keith Richards falsely claimed, but Muddy Waters would have been playing clubs, not theaters, without them.

I recall Thor's Palace on White Sands Beach. Thor was a very out Trans person circa '97, with an oddly huge straight following. Any Thor updates? I see his cafe is still in biz.

Here are 3 great drinking memories: A friend who I was treating in Vientiane didn't understand the currency and ordered a bottle of red wine for $150 -and it was only a half-bottle. Just a multi-layered wine cloud in my mouth, every tiny sip felt like enough. Worth the $75 for the not that full a glass apiece. And the restaurant owner had a cap-full. In Japan in an inn next a sacred grave yard, we were told we couldn't have sex in the room due to ghosts ("even if you put a towel down"). At dinner, The sex-naysayer poured big, fatty Raku pottery mugs of sake made by monks from water filtered through granite. Like super-water, if super-water could be booze. Last week in Pai, the bartender constructed a Pina colada out of 4 diff rums and a lot of fresh coconut. A PC should always be much more C than P. I'm going to say 80/20. Better than one in a 500 baht (++) rooftop bar in BKK. 150 baht. I rounded up to 160. For some reason, rasta/reggae bars usually make great PC's and Maitai's. Liquor is like dessert to me. If it's something special, I'll indulge. But my days of throwing back well drinks are gone for good.

Back in the states, jackfruit as a burger substitute was a thing in nouvelle hippie places. With enough sauce and lettuce on it, its close. Free Bird Vegan Cafe in Chiang Mai does a good one -but it only costs a bit less than #1 rated Beastburgers real burgers around the corner.

That article says a wingman should whisper savvy girl-advice like, "go over there and touch her shoulder" (excuse me, I mean "go over there and kino her shoulder", like the wingman said). Urging random kino-ing is like urging seducers towards getting a lifetime ban from that bar. As a wingman, I'm not even worth the two MaiTai's I'd want for my wing-time. I never wanted to be a wingman, but then you gave me hope, and then that article dashed it.

The wingman problem: If he's an extrovert, you're dead wood. If you're both introverts, that's deadwood time 2. Wingman-ing is a young man's game. Any old wrecks here been out winging in the last 20 years? It's down to if she likes the looks of you. If it's dry down below, it's dead up above. And will remain so.

Has this mythical wingman creature ever been spotted in the wild, or only in Owen Wilson bad comedies? What's in it for the wingman, who "hangs back"? Is he at least getting free drinks for his thankless wingman-ing?

Agree that Luang Prubang is a very romantic getaway. And Vientiane has the cheapest high end dining in Asia. We live in Chiang Mai and our getaways are usually discount stays in 5* BKK hotels when we can get a deal. Joining all their loyalty programs helps (The Shangri La is the most generous, or desperate for customers). Typically, these places have legendary restaurants and jaw-dropping Sunday buffets. We got The Sukothai Hotel for $150 a night in August. The mega 5*s like The 4 Seasons and The Oriental never, ever discount, tho. Not even during Covid. They're no better than the 4 and a half * places.

On my one and only (gag me) experience on a cruise, I hit on a fatty at the bar and was rebuffed with, "I'm not single, I'm solo". Well, fair enough. Tho what she really meant was, "I'm fat, not desperate". Solo, not single is prob the best stance for the average latter age man arriving in Thailand.

Skimmed the thread. Problem: not enough trump trash dimwits to zestfully thump on the head. They're demoralized at Pattaya balcony slip 'n fall levels. Too Kumbaya here with much stolid agreement. Bottom line: Post 1/6 fiasco, snipers are going to be in play. They can put up their shaky-looking gallows and wear their Auschwitz shirts for laughs, but if they ever try rush a Federal building again, they're going to drop like flies. And then, after some Tucker-whining, that's going to be the end of their cosplay civil war.

There will be no civil war because the red states cling frantically to the posterior's of the blue states economic might to even keep their lights on -sniffing happily away, hoping that a quarter (again) somehow falls out of the hole for them. That and that the real army would kill them all in an hour.

Not a lot of rental inventory or turnover in The Old City. Looked for a month solid last July when it was still covid-times. Municipal buildings take up a lot of space. And there's a lot of single family homes and thai style cheap apartment double floor places. Think about it, if you had a large attractive building there, you'd want it to be a hotel. I love Nimman. Around 20K a month for a small condo with a pool or a larger one without one. The other big condo area near Shangri La Hotel lacks western amenities but has some good deals.

The problem: where love-lorn white men gather, their predators do as well. Hash House Harriers is a good example. Went a few times, any single woman in attendance is not there for the jog thru the woods.

Some truth here. The OP: -has lived here for years -is affluent and speaks Thai -hired Thai people to do his internet dating for him -hired a Thai marketing person to market him as a dating prospect And yet, he has still come up empty, for years on end. Not a diss, but consider talking to a therapist.

The women he wants are also highly sought by Chinese, Korean, and Japanese men -whom they would vastly prefer as partners. When I first came here, I wanted an arty bohemian-type GF. 1) they're not really allowed to exist all that much in the patriarchy. 2) those that do live within 3 miles of Soi Asok and nowhere else in the country. 3) these are exactly the kind of women that a well-off Asian wants too and can easily outbid you for. All 6 of them. Such women are swarming in New York and London -with the adjacent attitudes and hip sizes. Pick your pain. 15 years ago, I tried the It's Just Lunch dating service. The woman (all over 40) fit his criteria, but they were impatient and judgmental, because they paid The Boyfriend Store, so where's my classy, rich boyfriend in a hurry? Do it for laughs, but it's not cheap. Met a couple of nice oldie, plump Aussie white women finance/NGO types, but wouldn't most men here just rather just stick their finger in an electric outlet?

I think the me-too ship has sailed on cold-approaching women at the gym, even in Thailand. At mine, they will complain to the staff and then you get a warning (the Jett Gym chain). Usually, they send over 3 staff to gently confront the offender. I have an interest in Thai Buddhism and temple art. Women, being much more religious than the men, find this creates a kind of Man Bites Dog level of interest in their minds. But how one might move from, "Nice Buddha, Ayuthaya-style?" to "Lay down, I want to get to know you better" remains a mystery to me.

You're in a very sexually/socially conservative culture where you don't speak the language and you're the wrong color. Next up: an atheist black man moves to Utah and asks: Why don't hot mormons want to get with me? It's not you, it's the them. I agree, you need introductions and to see the same people over time. That's never easy to contrive anywhere. That's why people are throwing darts on the internet.