midasthailand

Hey guys, I hope that someone can help me I'm in a bit of a spot.

Right now I'm staying in Maha Sarakham, its lovely and I love it, but there are more buffalos than people, and It's not the best place for me or my wife to work! So - I need to find a reasonably priced place somewhere in BKK for our son and ouserlves. I've been looking all over the internet - I'm not really sure what the best websites actually are ( already looked on tv.classifieds )

I'm looking for no.1 townhouse no.2 - apartment no.3 condo

I need somewhere that can be kid friendly i.e has a school or nursery nearby, and can provide me facilities for working (desk,chair and internet connection). Sadly I've not seen anything within my budget. I can afford around 15K a month at the minute. But depending on deposit requirements.. that may be less :|

I'm coming to Bangkok in two days, (without the kid) But I intend to bring him over as soon as possible.

Anyone got any ideas that can help me out ?

Last time I was in Bangkok I resided at Lumpini View, Sukhumvit 77 On Nut soi 3-5 there is a school right next to it and you can get a place there for around 15k with wireless internet.

Cheers & Thanks so much.

Sorry, read the above which I somehow included in your quote.

I enjoy speaking Thai! There I've admitted it, does that make me a snob? Not really. Am I trying to grovel to the Thais by speaking their language proficiently? Not at all. At the end of the day, for me, it's all about communication, I find it is more convenient for the Thai if I speak their language.

Having said that, there is often a look of confusion on the face of the Thai to whom I'm speaking as they do not generally expect their language to emanate from a farang face. It can be quite frustrating at times when you know you are speaking intelligible Thai and are greeted by a blank look. After the third repetition of Thai the penny finally drops and you get a smile and a response.

Another thing I have noticed when speaking Thai in bars is that the young ladies on the game tend to steer clear of me (realising that there is no profit here). If I go with a non Thai speaking mate and we both speak English we spend all night telling the girls that, "no thankyou, we do not want to buy you a drink or take you home, we just came for a beer and a game or two of pool".

Do Expats look down on tourists? Generally not, I would think, but if said tourist is behaving like a dickwad, then yes, just as you would look down on anybody, in any country acting in an obnoxious way. A few posters have mentioned having to apologise for the behaviour of other westerners and I must admit that it makes me squirm when I see the behaviour of some visitors to Thailand and I too have apologised on behalf of my race. This has indeed been an interesting thread and one of the reasons that I keep logging on to TV is threads like this one.

Cheers

There is a possibility that I may gain employment on Koh Samui. I've looked at the web sites for the island and read the usual tourist gumph, what I'd like is an honest review of the pro's and con's of living and working on the Island. All contributions gladly accepted.

I certainly don't look down on tourists but I'm not sure I want to be treated like one. And I am pretty sure they can tell the difference.

Just the other day I went to a gym and was given the price list. The regular price was 200 THB per session but the Thai price was just 30 THB. On establishing that I lived just around the corner in a house, not a hotel, he was delighted to offer me the Thai price. I think he suspected I wasn't a tourist immediately, as I removed my shoes before stepping inside.

Well I had a warm glow for the rest of the day I can tell you…

Have you got. Brown feet? Mine are still tanned but with white lines over where my sanddles hold on!!!!

Judging by FunFun's last two posts, he has got so into Thai that he has forgotten how to speak (spell) English. WRT the OP, I agree that a lot of expats do look down their noses at tourists, for the life of me I can't understand why? As far as I'm concerned we are all visitors/guests in this country and should behave accordingly!

Good point, wilko, as usual. Brits seem to say, TO the contrary, while (whilst) Americans say, ON the contrary. Any more examples?

Aussies would just say Bulls--t!

Americans root for their football teams - In Australia that could be dangerous, so we barrack for our football teams.

I'll have a coffee and a croissant thanks!

Maybe a dumb question, but........what is "trolling"?

Thanks.....

BTW....I read this entire thread just to see if you finally got your kiss or not...glad it worked out for you.

I think that there are no hard rules about relationships in Thailand. Be aware, eyes open....just like everywhere else on the planet. Kisiing ...not kissing...holding handds or not, age differences....whatever...go with your heart...watch your wallet. Those are my rules. Same as at home...

It is a weird feeling, moving on from those first rejected kisses, to the present day. The first kiss was certainly worth waiting for, and the other kisses too. Her confidence grows with each kiss and after taking things slowly and the odd turning away of her face as a natural reaction (she still does it on the odd occasion - but no problem) she has turned into a wonderful kisser.

As for my wallet, that is still pretty much intact and in fact I get as much out of her and her family as they get from me. I am the one who ends up at the family home for dinner - and lunch too - more often than not.

Take Thai Mothers Day (Sonkran), they bought me a shirt especially for the occasion and took great pains to make sure I was happy. Even down to the food prepared for me.

Considering how little I now know this family has, it is humbling to be treated ths kindly. Take the fact that the family have all had a virus for the last 10 days or so, so the food stall has been closed, therefore no income coming in, they have still gone out of their way to have food prepared for me and I have noticed the parents wait until the g/f and I have finished eating before they move in to eat, giving her and myself first priority.

Even now I am not being asked for anything and when I do offer money, it is refused. The g/f says she is not after money and I am slowly beginning to believe that with her consistency on the money subject. My solution has been to go to the market and buy food and fruit and hand that over, as well as buying clothes and things for the 2 babies.

As for the age gap? Yes, that bothered me a lot initially. Maybe my Western upbringing. Yet I see Thai people with similar age gaps and some Thai friends say that age does not matter at all in most cases.

I believe I said elsewhere that T considers any man under 35 to be a boy. When asked to pick out her choice of men she went for older ones and most were well 0ver 45.

With a rented house here and a car on finance there is little to be 'taken for' and the relationship grows stronger. (Certain TV members will be aware of other topics on this - from PM's).

All I can really add is that if all goes well, we are planning the marriage 'party' in 5 months

The worst I can be taken for is my heart, the 2nd worse thing would then be the sin-sot

All the very best to you and your bride to be Intumult, I do not for one second doubt the sincerity of your OP and have myself experienced the generosity of a Thai girl who wants nothing but a loving relationship. I wish you the best of luck!!

Put it this way, if you were a 25 year old lad would you be falling over yourself to get jiggy with a 53 year old woman?

No problem this end!!

Hi, Midas. I've merged your two recent IELTS threads.

Thanks for that IJWT, as you can see the goalposts have shifted since my OP on the subject. I am in touch with the IELTS coordinator at UNSW and he is being most helpful, however, I am still monitoring TV for any interesting replies. One can never have too much information.

Do you think it's worth travelling on Standby ?

My best guess is that this woman was an AA employee, or family/friend (Buddy Pass) of an AA employee, or other airline employee. This is quite different from what the OP was asking about, and this is generally referred to as Non-Revenue, Space Available (NRSA).She was traveling at very low cost ($50 ~ $200), and likely knew the challenges that she was facing. She must have had extremely low priority (on the departure management waitlist), and may not have been an active employee as they can usually take a crew (jump) seat and then mill about on the flight. For her it was probably worth it, but who knows what her story was?

I had a confirmed seat with Thai from BKK-Syd on 30April at 2359. Had nothing to do so went to the airport at midday, went to J18 standby check-in and asked if I could leave on the 1800 flight, was told to come back at 1725, which I did and was seated in my preferred seat (emergency exit for the leg room). At the end of the day I got back to Sydney at 6AM instead of Midday, in my view not something I want to do again as the wait in the check-in area is uncomfortable.

Thailand should follow Bhutans example. You want to visit you HAVE to spend a minimum of $ 200 USD per day of your stay and in reality it is going to cost you at least $400 a day. It is a wonderful place to visit, the people are happy cause they are not overrun by hordes of tourists, there is no strain on the infrastructure and the country still recieves the same amount of money as it would if it was letting sall the usual suspect cheap charlies in. fantastic place to visit.

LOS should make Phuket a special economic zone for non Thai passport holders. That is if you want to visit you have to spend a minimum of say $200 USD per day ( that is obviously just for the accomodation component) as per the Bhutan example. Couple that with Sri Lankas policy of a 100% tax on any purchase of property by foreigners and by upping the retirement visa requirements to say 10 000 000 baht deposited into an approved thai bank account for the period of the retirement term as per Malaysias Second Home Programme and you will definately see a marked improvement in the standard of tourists and resident expats. It could be the Monaco of the Far East with very little effort on the part of the Thais.

I don't want to rain on your parade but has it escaped your attention that most people in organized crime are also wealthy? So your financial entry conditions may keep out the not so wealthy, honest people but welcome the wealthy, not so honest people.

Frankly I have no time for snobs, in my experience most of them are tight wads and not worth knowing anyway.

Well from my view point it's expensive. In the UK my wife and I belonged to a reasnably good club and we paid about £1500 a year in membership fees and could play as often as we liked with nothing else to pay.

Here I have purchased two membership shares for about £10K so to start with I have a loss of interest of about £12/week. On top of that we play about 5 times a week, no green fee but caddy fee and tip comes to 860 baht (230 fee and 200tip each)some times a little more. Add on the guy in the locker room..he doesn't get tipped every day. We are coming close to £70 a week for caddy...so something like £82 a week here compared with £30 in the UK.

But I agree one round in the UK costs £20-£30 depends where you play and around her 1000baht +460 caddy so not a lot of difference. These are weekday rates..Of course Hau Hin prices are a little more!

And how much did you have to pay for the caddies at your "reasonably good club" in the UK ..... or did you have to do all the caddying for yourselves?

I'm just planning a 4 night golfing break, playing 4 courses, travelling about 1200km, 4 nights hotel accom, food, drink, golf (with caddies), night entertainment ......... and will probably still have change from B15,000, now tell me you could do that in the UK, ..... you wouldn't even get 4 nights in a hotel for that!!

I had a round at Natural Park Ram Indra in 1998 and met two Canadians who had come down from Tokyo for the weekend. They said that the cost of the airfares, Erawan Grand Hyatt for two nights, taxis and two rounds at Ram Indra plus meals and drinks for the weekend was cheaper than one round in Tokyo!! I guess I will never have the pleasure of a round of golf in Tokyo.

So, if I and a lady guest/football fan wanted to come Sat for the Soi 8 pub TV gathering, do we need to do anything else other than show up around 6 pm in good spirits and with a healthy appetite for beer??????

(same question posted in the other related thread on this subject...)

Toading in Thailand

Group: Advanced Members

Posts: 3,532

Joined: 2006-06-26

From: Bangkok & Toad Hall

Member No.: 31,474

QUOTE (jfchandler @ 2008-04-25 17:38:32)

So, if I and a lady guest/football fan wanted to come Sat for the Soi 8 pub TV gathering, do we need to do anything else other than show up around 6 pm in good spirits and with a healthy appetite for beer??????

That is all you need to do. It's all pretty simple and informal. We will be on tables in front of the stage. Should be two joined up tables with a group around. I'll drop you a PM with my number, just in case you can't spot us.

Cheers,

MrT

--------------------

Moaz aman Brea Cambern, toaz trea.

As you can see a nice bunch of Guys Look forward to seeing you tonight.

BT

Hi Mr Toad, Fletch Et Al,

whilst I never did get to meet you guys at Soi 8 (I think you all had a party to go to the night I went) I really appreciated the fact that you texted me and provided your mobile numbers to facilitate better communication. When I again get to Bangkok I will be sure to catch up with you at Soi 8.

My OP however was really more aimed at the type of function I have seen advertised on TV for Chiang Mai/ Pattaya and even Surin where the TV sponsors get involved and there is a requirement to sign in with your password to attend the function. Not that I am after a free piss up and feed, more that I would like to meet a wider cross section of TV membership than just the soccer fans (no offence intended). I guess I just assumed that the majority of TV membership in thailand would reside in Bangkok and was curious as to why no functions ever seem to be held in that fine city?

Hi all,

I am interested in the methodology used to determine the IELTS band level (without having to actually do the IELTS test at a test center) of vocational students. I will shortly be required to assess various Thai/Indian/Singaporean students interested in taking up 457 visas to work in Australia. The concept is to map the differences in vocational training (eg nurses) between the country of origin and Australia and come up with a gap training course in the vocation. My problem is that all training will be delivered in English and the required IELTS band for nurses in Australia is 7, how do I determine the IELTS level of the student? Once the IELTS level is ascertained, how do I develop a course to train for the difference between the level ascertained and the band 7 required?

I used nurses as an example as I already know the required band is 7 but we will be training several vocations such as; commercial cookery, IT, front line management, fire fighting and Occupational health and safety.

Whilst I don't expect chapter and verse on how to do it, it would be nice if somebody could point me in the right direction.

Much obliged for your help.

I regularly notice topics inviting TV members to get togethers in Chiang Mai, Pattaya and recently even Isaan. My question is: Do we ever have TV get togethers in Bangkok? If not, why not? If so, when is the next one?

Cheers,

Dave

Blood for a dirty Dollar - Joe Millard

A midsummer nights dream - William Shakespeare

Some people come to Thailand with plenty of money and lose it all. Some people come with nothing and make a life here. Some people base their life around the idea of one day moving to their place in the sun, when conditions of right, but for many this day will never come. Some people live in the now.

I am always broke haha..but to live in Europe in the snow eating farang food and no temple round the corner to go to and speak with the monks, no Pad kaprao

or Gaeng Thai (แกงใต้) no going waddling in the stream catching fish (ทอดแหจับปลานิน) and maybe a million other things then i just couldn't live.

i make only 17000 baht a month dont work at all except on developing my website and taking the odd person to a temple for a tattoo and translating for them.

On this 17000 baht a month i live quite well only i dont have any savings.

I can understand someone who comes here lives in a beer bar, starbucks kfc and the pizza hut would prefer to go home and make money than live here broke, as they live the same western life here as they do at home...

but i cant eat that stuff i eat only thai food and for me a pad kaprao with a fried egg on top costs me 15 baht or 2 curries on rice i get for 20 to 25 baht

I also cant live without this food i dont eat bread and all that farang bull it isnt tasty and also expensive.

A coffee in starbucks costs 60 baht (uff what a waste thats 3 square meals for me which are much more delicious than a coffee)

I always wonder why some farang copme here as some people pack their tins of beans, marmit/vegemite, and all their other "home copmforts" and live on that when they are here...what is the point of being here if you cant adapt to the lifestyle and have to need your stuff from home country.

This is like taking your country with you.....why dont you just stay home if you dont like the real life/food/culture here?

i suppose some people only come for the women..which is as far as i am concerned stupid, as Thai women dont like farang they just like their money.

I couldn't take a wife who only wanted an easy life and a free ride but really all she is waiting for is me to die so she can go home and make a house and marry the thai she has always told me is her little brother or cousin.

I know a guy he employs his wife's little brother...well that guy is her boyfriend really i found out about it...but i ain't telling the farang because he has to learn himself.

Broke in Thailand? yes! But it is still better life than being middle class in Europe.

How many people in europe can afford a prawn and lemon grass soup every day eating out?

Even your average Thai can afford to eat fresh fish, prawns and lots of other lovely stuff on a "Broke" budget.

My 2 room condo apartment costs me 2700 baht a month and have internet for 300 a month 1mb another 100 baht a month gets me 50 cable tv channels...god i would have to work my ass off in Europe to keep all that together.

The broke thing isnt important as if you have a lot of money here then you either just blow it all on uinnecessary luxuries (ie starbucks) or some woman or thai guy syphons it out of you.

If you have nothing for them to take then they cant take it off you.

Clear signs of rationalisation here. You can't afford western luxuries so in order to protect your psyche from the damage of admitting the failure you've become you rationalise, probably subconsciously, that you don't like those things anyway. The evidence that this is a psychological defence mechanism and that you're merely protecting yourself psychologically from the trauma of your failure is that you boast in detail about the luxuries that you CAN afford such as the internet 1MB no less and 50 - FIFTY cable TV channels.

You may be fooling others, but you're not fooling yourself and the cognitive dissonance will eventually harm you mentally.

Many people who fail indulge in this kind of thinking. "Well I COULD be successful and have those things if I wanted them, but I don't want them anyway as they're really bad and the people who have them are fools and inferior to me for wanting them in the first place."

You'll either get bored of being poor and living with the stress that poverty brings and get decide to do something productive or you'll sink further and further into poverty and fall to a level that recovery is impossible. In Thailand its dangerous as its so easy to fall into the spiral of permanent unemployability as there'll be Thais ready to keep you company all the way down.

There is NO nobility in poverty. Not having luxuries when you can afford them is a moral choice. Not having luxuries because you can't afford them is just poverty and conveys no moral superiority in any way and trying to claim a moral high ground when you're actually standing in the gutter convinces no one.

Very well put, Sir/Madam!

Does anyone know of any poker games that run in the pattaya area, or is it a total no go in 2008.

i owned a card club in europe and am thinking of trying to set one up in thailand or philippines

any comments?????

At the club you owned in Europe, were there any Thai police hanging around with their hands out for tea money? Take a farang running an illegal card club in Thailand, add a sprinkling of Thai police and local mafia subtract running costs and I'd say you would lose a bundle.

For those of you that responded to my initial post, I thank you. I recognise that perhaps the post was not specific enough in that I did not mention which band I would like the students to achieve, that is because I am, as yet, not in a position to know.

I decided to utilise another source of information in the form of Dave Hopkins and he provided me with the following titles:

Series Quest - McGraw Hill

Interaction/Mosaic - McGraw Hill and,

Cutting Edge - Lonmans

The students I will be teaching are adult merchant navy cadets and the insurance industry has just raised the standard required in order to help in avoiding collisions at sea.

Insight into IELTS is the standard student book for many schools.

Thanks Loaded, I can't believe yours is the only response but "Is there anything wrong with this sentence" has 56 responses and counting!

Hi guys,

I may find myself in a situation in the near future where I will be expected to teach for successful completion of IELTS tests. As the college has never before attempted to do this, I was wondering if anybody on this forum might have suggestions on suitable materials to reference for course development?

Thank you,

Dave

Sorry, I just noticed that I only needed one more post to rack up 100 posts! Couldn't resist the temptation to post again.

I read with interest some article regarding the possibility of legalising casino's in the LOS. I thought it was unlikely, but at a meeting with two Australian businessmen today I was told that it is going to happen! Could this be the straw that breaks the camels back? If you think petty crime is rife now, what will happen when the gambling mad Thai population loses their shirt at a legal casino inside Thailand? I share my time between Thailand and Australia and occasionaly visit the Star City casino in Sydney, I can confidently tell you that the majority of the Asian punters hail from Thailand. I have many Thai friends and they all tell me that legal casinos will be the death of SANUK in the LOS.

For a good, no frills burger, I suggest Chokchai Farms steak burger at Future Park Rangsit. It is a decently cooked burger for a franchise. i ordered the bacon cheeseburger medim rare. It came with grilled onions, fries and a drink for under 200 baht. The ice cream isn't that bad either.

Just read this thread from the start, I have eaten burgers all over the world, having spent 37 years in the Australian Navy and I have never had a better burger than the burger at the Landmark hotel, sitting outside next to Sukhumvit road. It comes with a large bowl of fries, a decent size bowl of coleslaw and can be ordered with mushrooms, swiss, cheddar and blue cheese, or all of them! I highly recommend the burger there! The view of the passing human parade is quite interesting too!

AUA - ECC

The Mormon church offers free classes on Wednesday evenings at their church on Suk 77 at 6 pm I think. I only know this because their elders were the entertainment at On Nut Square, beer garden a month or so ago and they were handing out leaflets to that effect.

I didn't really care when I first saw this post. I'm just beginning to learn Thai, so this was clearly out of my league. I just thought that you would need to find someone not just bored, but without a life, sort of like a Guantanamo Bay inmate who's been in isolation for years and has nothing at all in his cell but this text, a notepad and a pencil. No, not even that, I think I would write poetry or draw pictures in that situation. Anyway, not worth a second thought, not worth wasting any more time on it.

The replies you got were just trying to poke some fun at it, but I don't think anyone was really annoyed with you. That was until we learned that you are a half Thai native speaker of English who can't be bothered translating 4 pages of PR crap. What is the opposite of "เกรงใจ"? But what's really the top is when you tell us that "they found somebody else to do it for them, which is why the op hasn't been back on this thread". What if someone had been translating the text for you?

To end on a positive note, and out of consideration for our fellow Thaivisa visitors, lets learn some new Thai vocabulary so as to not leave this thread with a what-a-waste-of-time feeling:

พลั้งเผลอ pláng-plĕr be careless ; be negligent ; be incautious ; be inconsiderate ; be thoughtless

ใจจืด jai jèut be indifferent ; be inconsiderate ; be insensate ; be unfeeling ; be unsympathetic; indifferent ; callous ; unfeeling ; unsympathetic ; heartless ; unkind ; harsh ; inconsiderate ; insensate

ใจจืดใจดำ jai jèut jai dam be unsympathetic ; be callous ; be unfeeling ; be indifferent ; be inconsiderate ; be insensate; unsympathetic ; callous ; unfeeling ; heartless ; unkind ; harsh ; inconsiderate ; insensate

ไม่ไว้หน้าใคร mâi wái nâa krai have no respect ; be inconsiderate

แล้งน้ำใจ láeng nám jai be without kindness ; treat someone ungenerously/unkindly ; not be helpful or considerate

Great post EZ