JamesPhuket10

The vast majority of people who come to Thailand are family member or groups and already know what Thailand has go offer, they don't go to the girly bars etc so the regulars at such places will not meet the regular tourists and so have a skewed view on what most tourists do with their time in Thailand. For example in Phuket, restaurants vastly outnumber bars as a lot more tourists go to restaurants than bars. I noticed in Soi Bangla, Phuket most tourists stroll down the street looking at the sights as they have never seen anything like it before, most are just 'window shoppers' and end up in one of the many restaurants. The exception is on new year's eve, it is packed with people form all over the world mingling, it is great fun, especially the free fireworks display on the beach afterwards.

I believe you did not read your own comment properly, I was replying to your following quote. " ........ because in the typical holiday destinations such as Phuket or Pattaya, almost all restaurants offer roughly the same menu – about 90 per cent identical. Even worse, the Thai dishes are often listed right at the back of the menu. A real pity. And I told you in detail why that is not true. I can only respond to what people write, I can not guess what they are thinking. 😃 You also said, "After all, I have been coming to Phuket for over 30 years." So why say what you said when it is not true?

But they do make me laugh. 🤣

I normally get one in the UK every year, I have not had flu for decades. Do you know if we can get them in a chemist in Phuket as we can in the UK?

Well apart from the tens of millions who have been saved from death or a sh-it life over the decades, polio, smallpox, hepatitis, just to name a few. Vaccines have saved an estimated 154 million lives – the equivalent of 6 lives every minute of every year – over the past 50 years. The vast majority of lives saved were those of infants. Childhood vaccinations today prevent an estimated 4 million deaths annually. I can only laugh when the anticvax nutters spout all of their nonsense , they must be super stupid, but they do make me laugh. No doubt I will be pointed to some stupid website which "proves I am wrong", written by not someone quite clever as they manage to make money out of getting other to believe what they have made up for a profit, they probably think idiots, come here read my article, I will get paid for every advert displayed or book sold, they must be laughing all the way to the bank. 😃

Nope in the Uk it is not illegal to have an open bottle of booze in a car. But it is illegal to drink and drive of course, but passenger can drink and much as they like. There is a 7/11 on the corner, but I buy my beer from Makro, normally 5 cases of 15 large bottles five litres of vodka at a time. That way I am stocked up for ages.

Why do I need to explain it, are you part of the flight checking police? Or the anti-well-off brigade. 🤣

True on point 1 and 2, but it was quoted in official reports that Captain Sully did have advanced skill as a glider pilot thus aiding the more severe crabbing he had to do with greater judgment. Plus point 2, pilots can crab right or left depending on the direction of the wind. Point 3. Where did I mention a pilot jumping out of an aircraft in my comment? Why so argumentative, your comments match mine almost and are mostly just a repeat of what I had said.

Like many others you base your comments on only visiting tourist areas like most non-Thai tourists do. I live in Kathu, Kathu and there are many restaurants which only have Thai food for sale, the customers are 99% Thai, there are dozens of Thai restaurants in walking distance from my house. When I go over the mountain to Patong a few times a year when friends visit, I feel like I am in Europe or India or China with the masses of tourists walking around, most of Phuket is not like that at all, I feel like I am in adult Disneyland etc in Patong, it does not represent real life in Phuket. Patong etc covers only a small part of Phuket, most people do not seem to realise Phuket is ⅓ of the size of greater London as they stick to one area generally.

If we are just talking about Thai food and not just the price of Thai food in Thailand then no it is not the best, Thai food in the UK is much much tastier. I had a 150 seat Thai restaurant in Chelmsford for 20+ years, the pork, beef, chicken, etc were from the UK, much better than the quality of such things in Thailand. Thai village food is horrible, we only served Bangkok standard food as it is not as sharp and over spiced as village food and nicely blended. Over spiced food was developed that way to compensate and hide the flavour of poor quality meat. I never worked in the restaurant but I did eat there and I can not count the number of times I was told by customers the food is much tastier than the food they had in Thailand. Including Thais. Well there was one exception, one woman left a review saying it was not at all like real Thai food, I left a comment in reply stating we base our food on the Bangkok standard and style, true it does not represent the village food a lot of Thais eat as that would not fit the pallet of Thais in many parts of Thailand and the British pallet. I found out later she was from a village in the back of beyond in Isaan, that style of food is not for me and many other Thais. How do they rate the food anyway? What about the cities in Europe, Paris, London etc where there are restaurants from all around the world available, they are open to anyone including good standard Thai restaurants. In Thailand I do like some Thai food, massaman curry for example made with Auzzie beef or lamb, as I like some other non-Thai food which is available in Phuket restaurants and also from My Thai partner, she is a great cook of Thai food, spaghetti bolognaise, massaman curry etc. I would not like just to eat Thai food here, but Thai, Indian, Italian, Chinese food even Shepherds Pie etc as I did when I lived in the UK like most other Brits do, the diet is varied. One thing I do know to be true, many Thai restaurants and other places which sell food in Thailand would not pass the standard hygiene inspections which are strictly enforced in the UK.

I was a freelance software engineer working in Germany tax free at the time via a company I set up in the British Virgin Isles. I was not not particularly rich but I was earning £10k a month which was a lot of money at the time, the freelancing went on for 25 years, a nice little earner, so I am comfortable financially.

Pubs will soon become a thing of the past, they were popular in my day but even my kids etc, have hardy ever gone to a pub and are drinks much less than in our day, it has all changed. Pubs are closing at the rate of a few hundred a year and many are on the cusp of shutting down as there is not profit in it anymore.

@chickenslegs stated the rule for the UK changed in 2013. I bought lots of beer and other drinks from petrol station over the last ten years. In Germany even back in 1991 petrol stations sold beer etc. I don't see many rules are stuck to in Thailand, prominent ones like 7/11 etc as booze is only a small part of their business.

True, we can by choice avoid certain makes of aeroplanes and companies. You mentioned Sully, it was lucky he was also an experienced glider pilot as well as he managed to get rid of speed by 'crabbing' the plane but your are quoting 2009, how may billions of airmails have been flown since then. I worked on a lot of software for aircraft and I would trust the auto systems any day to a pilots decisions in general, most crashes are cause by pilot error. It is still the safest way to travel, we have a lot more chance of a car accident on the way to the airport that we do on the flight, mile for mile. Although I did jump out of the very first aeroplane which I went in at the age of 19.

I was young, earning a packet (freelance software engineer, tax free) , the trips to Thailand were an adventure at the time, I made up the working hours during the rest of the month. 👍

What I find funny in Thailand is you can not buy beer at a 7/11 situated in a petrol station at any time of the day, it is hilarious, what if the 7/11 is the nearest to where we live and we are only going there to take the beer home, what about passengers who want a drink, so funny.

I did in or around the year 2000, I was working in Germany and once a month I used to arrive in Phuket on a Friday and go back on a Monday for a period of about six months, it was good fun, I came just to have a few beers with the lads and lasses. 👍

A sensible approach, what makes me laugh is the many people on this blog who seem to think it is the end of the world. I only drink in an evening now but I buy three cases of 15 large bottles per case of Chang beer from Makro just in case there is a few days special Buddha days etc so I have never been caught out. In the old days for example if I was here for my monthly weekend trip from Germany (Arrived Friday, left Monday), I could be in a bar at any time of the day, I never had any problem in Phuket getting a drink.

Luckily modern passenger planes almost fly themselves.

Yes didn't you know all the potential tourists around the world were holding off from booking their trip to Thailand as they were waiting for the decision on this to be made. Now it had been 'decided' they all booked their tickets yesterday after getting this news, The only thing that tourists are interested in is if they can get boozed up in the afternoon. They are not at all interested in seeing the culture, the temples, the beaches, Thai food etc, they are just after the booze. 😀 I had a Thai restaurant in England for 20+ years, I must admit I did not work there, but I did eat there, I was told by tens of thousands of customers who had visited Thailand how lovely Thailand was, not one mentioned the fact they could not get a beer between 2 to 5 pm as they had more interesting things to do with their time.

I always wonder who are the complainants in these stories relating to extended booze hours. I know it can't be Thai women for a start as the average Thai woman drinks very little and not very often, if at all. (I am not talking of the alcohol swigging bar/ex-bar girls which a lot of farangs end up with for whatever reason). Is it the boozy farangs who are complaining as they have nothing better to do or maybe the association for hotels, bars and restaurants spokesman as it affecting profits ? (I don't know what the official title is). I can think of far more pressing improvements Thailand can make to save the health/lives of Thai people, enforcing the wearing of crash helmets for ALL passengers on motorbikes for example. The banning of carrying ten people in the back of a pickup truck etc. Stopping twelve year old kids, four on a bike, riding from school to home each day.

They were drinking in restaurants on extended lunch breaks, that was the problem.

It looks like a set of rudimentary 'AND" and 'NAND' gates. I know some Thais who could easily follow this noddy level of logical proof.

I can see why this is the case. It is easy these days to make your own statements via an app, they can look genuine but are not, that is why the bank clerk will not sign them nor some IO accepting them, but as I stated in an earlier message they accept my printed out statements at the Phuket immigration office.

I have noticed also some info I have needed in previous applications with the same office is not needed the next time I go such as a copy of the ownership documents of the house from my Thai parent as she bought the house. So I still take them each time as the rules as subject to change without notice. But normally it takes half an hours to check the documents by the IO for the annual visa extension and then the passport it picked up the next day including the multiple re entry visa. This extra, internal service costs 700 baht, no receipt. 😀