fennielyn

is Thailand bashing allowed from in here???!!!!

Thanks for making me smile on an otherwise crappy night.

But our mods being omnipresent and omnipotent beings........I wouldn't try. In any case, aren't we here coz we've got mad love for this country?

Oh God, I am mortified.

And you're absolutely right Dave, gotta lay off the booze. Though being drunk is a lame-ass excuse for overlooking something as vital and obvious as a date stamp.

I am beyond sorry sbk.

Thanks for all the awesome recs ya'll. I'll be sure to check them out, hopefully the drinks are not insanely priced though. =p

Would be good if the members who voted could tell us where they live and why etec etc.. Just a thought!

Where - SG

Why - Definitely not by choice or anything.

Gosh, I wouldn't even know where to begin......this awesome, inexplicable love for Thailand. Being almost dinner time, naturally all I can about is the food which can strangely overcome my sudden craving for a juicy thick slab of steak the minute I just *look* at it. I know I"m a glutton. So? Gastronomical reasons aside, there's just this weird joy that makes my heart goes skippity skip even when I'm just walking back to my apartment. Oy, do no scoff at my street just coz it's on Soi 4, it has it's charms, yo. =P

Arran, I was, out of sheer perversity going to offer myself but then it hit me that you were very specific in wanting a local Thai girl and to my consternation, I've got to drop out of the race before I had a chance to join.

However I have no doubt and have absolute faith that you will find the dream girl who'll fit your ever criteria. After all, you do have an entire year to do it, at leisure to boot. Which leads me to the next point.

It's quite unnecessary for you to seek advice here (virtually) when you can experience for yourself FIRST-HAND all the various types/qualities that might meet your strict specifications and with all that fun trial and error thrown for extra thrill factor. Don't forget now, you have a WHOLE year ahead of you to treasure hunt, while mere mortals like us have to contend with this lil thing called Work.

All the best!

found a 1000b on the floor in tesco's today really ........

Dam.n, this sorta thing just NEVER happens to me. The most I've seen are satangs lying around and have been guilty of dropping them myself and not bothering to retrieve...so I could be the culprit. *shrugs* The closest I've been to discovering money is my own that I didn't know was there until I reach into the pocket and pull out a note of sorts. Oh happy day!

Personal : Drowned during a water baptism by the sea when I was 5. Even though I wasn't the one to be baptised I'd wandered away from the adults and ventured out to sea being the ever-adventurous explorer that I was. I don't wanna talk about the miracle that it was (I was already purple and foaming when I was found) coz of the skeptics and whatnot. But that event really did change me in many ways.

Kinda Personal : Was in Manhattan during 9/11 but thank God not anywhere near Ground Zero. Re-affirmed what I always knew...that I'm truly blessed.

Pink - different moods will call up different variations of it, right now it's gossamer pink =p

Never heard of it. It's not toxic is it?

Vegemite and Marmite are yeast extract spreads.

They contain heaps of Vitamin B.

Eat it regularly, like on toast (yummy) for brekky and mosquitoes will stay away. True

It is abasic food in Australia and New Zealand

Makes good rugby players too.......PMPL

Why not try some?

Being a vegemite addict, I'm having some now, would anyone like to join me?

Newton Faulkner, guitar prowess is up among there with John mayer, Ecric Claptona dn john Jackon. And his voice.....OMG.

RIght now listening to All I Got [

I have a Seagate hard drive that needs repair. For some reason plugging in the power supply fired a chip on the board. I had this happen once before (in the US) and someone at Seagate replaced the chip and it was fine. Seagate does not have data recovery or repair in Thailand. If I want them to deal with this I need to ship the drive to the US. I was wondering if there is a good data recovery or repair service in Thailand. The content on the disk is a nice to have – not critical to my life. That said I would like someone who knows what they are doing. It’s just an 80 GB drive so if the easiest thing was to get the data off to a new drive and toss the old one that’s OK.

Recommendations?

Sorry I don't have any good advice coz my seagate HD crashed with neither warning nor symptoms which make me all the more upset and pissed of. And the sad thing is only my data, pictures and MP3 that could be recovered...all the other important stuff were all fried. IT as a deep, sad and painful day for me. (As you can read it on my blog post, I went almost apeshite but fortunately had a strongstiff drink take off the madness somewhat. If you think it's worth recoving the data, then by all means find someone who is REAlly good. Someone who specialises in Forencic HD diciphering. WOuld love to hear if you managed to get back the data adn if so how much will it cost? Good lluck!

What's your definition of toxic?

Haven't you heard that Ms Britney the Spears is Toxic?

The menthol/pepperpint inhaler is not unique to Thailand. Long before we started importing those cute lil tubes from LOS, the folks here had to rely on good ole, big-ass Vicks which trust me, is way freakier looking stuck up a nostril than the Thai version. I remember being awed by my uncles who had no problem walking around with the HUGE Vicks inhaler in their noses. I myself could never manage that and I should know. =p I've come to the conclusion that guys tend to have bigger nostrils, that's why.

Prickly heat or talcum powder is commonly used after shower for well...the obvious. =) So yea, when applied damp, powder can become somewhat paste-like.

Of late, I've been hanging out alot in local pubs (Ratchathewi area - coco walk) fronted by pretty decent local bands. And as much as I love them, I am starting to miss listening to stuff that I can actually understand (being still sucky in Thai and all but I'm trying!). So are there places out there that have bands that play music along the likes of Oasis, Greenday, Keane etc? I know Hillary has a great band but there style is more rockish which is all well and good but just not for me.

Any recs will be greatly appreciated. =)

....In which folks can't tell the difference between a whine, a complaint and an account of sorts.

Uhm, I was in no way complaining but if you choose to misinterpret, you may take it as such. I will just giggle.

End.

Hey, Villa is bestest lil market stores in Bangers.

Even sell "Vegemite"........lol

Do you shop there?[/color][/size][/b]

I know they're awesome that's why their name is the first thing that pops into my mind when I think about food which is like all the freakin' time anyway. =p

Omg, I can't believe there''s another Vegemite fan. Are you for real? Everyone I know thinks the stuff is vile (even the Australians where vegemite comes from!) and I say, you don't know what heaven taste like til you try vegemite with butter on very hot toast. I love that <deleted> man.

Why, are you asking me to?

So really, what qualifies as a hooker then? The way she dresses, talks and walks? So, I suppose any girl who is well put together, looks halfway decent and strolling along soi nana is naturally one? Oh gosh, then I guess I'm a pro then, coz I have the ass-luck to be living down soi 4 and usually walk past nana plaza to cross over to Foodland (their cold cuts rule especially the Hungarian salami) and also for dinner at soi 5 several times a week. And God forbid should I be seen holding a white man's hand because that is practically shouting out to all and sundry that *this moneybag's mine and you'd better keep a wide berth or I'll gouge your eyes out with my freshly manicured talons* Presumptuous much?

But thanks for the heads up in any case. I shall now only dress in drab sacks and maintain a distance of at least 4 feet from any farang.

mikethevigoman - See above

Where ?

Why do you Villa folks keep such a poor inventory of my Chocolate cookies?!

Why not ask Pillsbury?

Why is the Double Chocolate Fudge and Chocolate Chip Delight always out of stock??

Because at time of booking, I managed to spot a 200baht one way ticket before taxes, I grabbed it without much thought. HELLO? $200baht, yo. I'm such a cheap-ass that I do a routine hourly check on all 3 budget airlines on a daily basis a coupla weeks before I fly to snag the best price possible and whaddya know, it always ends up to be Tibloodyger. I can't even begin to describe what the experience the last 2 times I flew with them was like. Right from the time I checked in til I had my butt seated (talking about departure from suvi here), I was given grief, oh the endless grief....

-There were no smiles all around at the check in counter and it's not like it was ridiculous o'clock or anything. My flight was at 8pm and I was there at 7, maybe they're pissed that I didn't arrive 2hrs before check-in time? Whatever. I was asked brusquely for my passport, well if you could consider, "Passport Please" uttered icily as asking then yea.

-When it came to lugguage weighing, I had to haul the dam.n thing onto the scale myself even when there were 3 male staff hanging around doing nothing. Ok, mai pen rai. I'm no frail waif so I won't begrudge them this. Turned out it was 2kg over weight, well you know what happened next. OF COURSE they didn't let me off. But I was smiling calmly and barely saying a word throughout coz seriously dudes, I was actually intimidated. It was like a 5 vs 1 kinda situation and you could cut the tension with a knife (though God knew what the heck anyone had to be tense about). Remembering that I had that never-ending trek that went onnnn and onnnn and onnnn to make before reaching the gate, I quickly dug for whatever baht I had and of course since Murphy's Law never fails me, I was short by like a 100b. Their supervisor (really nasty guy) said in a berating tone," Ok, we give you discount. Please run now or the plane will leave without you. They are boarding already."

-After running, at times slowing down to as brisk a walk as I could but all the time panting and gasping for breath, thought legs were going to give out and heart go into cardiac arrest any moment (I hate running and have never successfully completed the mandatory 2.4km even during PE in school so.) the gate was finally in sight. I'd made it just in time. And I was not yet dead.

-Air stewardess did not show me to my seat nor indicate in any direction but merely asked,"Seat number please?" I told her and she replied," Oh, 11B is over there" then resumed whatever the heck she was doing. Ok, right. I forgot that I'd paid for budget service, Onward then to figure out where over there is. Could feel the heat of other passengers' eyes boring into me. What? Like I'd have the guts to look them in the eyes. Uhm, no. Slided as inconspicuously as I could into my seat when I finally managed to find it (on a completely full plane no less) that is.

-Thinking that I had all woes behind me, heard a grating voice asking me if I would like to check in my hand lugguage. I said, no it's ok, I'll just tuck it under my seat. Like a gnat that refused to go away, she stood there and then said,"Oh but you have to check it in because it's too big" (Then why the fudge didn't you tell me in the first place? Why even bother asking me?) Ok, fine, who cares if I embarrass myself some more by begging yet more attention. Especially since everyone was only nicely buckled up and ready to take off. And mind you, no help was offered to store the carry-on in the overhead compartment either.

-Did you really think with my kind of ass-luck it ended there? Remember how I was in a rush and even making it to the gate in time proved to be no mean feat? Do you reckon then, I'd have the presence of mind to switch of the mobile? No, right? (Thanks for backing me up here) So naturally I took out the phone and noticed a miss call, curiosity edged reason out and come on, it takes all of 3 seconds to check a number. BUT lo and behold just as I was looking at the screen, that same voice, this time louder and snottier, trilled from above me,"You know you're not supposed to switch on your handphone on the plane? Can you switch it off now? By being this irresponsible, you're putting everyone's life here in danger, you stupid cow." Ok, so I only heard the last line in my head. The look she shot me clearly translated into that though, but then, you'd have to be there to fully appreciate the moment.

So yea, all in all not that bad a flight. No, really.

But knowing how forgiving (read : cheap) I am, I'll probably still use them if they're having one of their 200baht deals again. ;p

[This is NOT made-up and neither am I Thai nor Thai Chinese. This isn't some nationality prejudice <deleted>. No need to let your imagination run wild here or anything, just sayin' is all] =p

just passed through singapore's changi last weekend on a 2 hour layover en route to oz, and was pleasantly reminded why it's just leagues ahead of the rest. the 2 plus hours whizzed by, they had an art exhibition on the 3rd floor, a little drawing and play area for kids, a cozy lounge screening live sports from all over the world, a busy gym on the second floor (made me wonder where on earth all those threadmill joggers came from, did they pack their hand carry bags expecting a gym workout at changi?), 24 hour dining, the famous Harry's jazz bar was kicking, free wireless broadband, quiet reading areas, great shopping and lots of sitting areas for just people watching. and everywhere you look its just information, direction signs, suggestions. its not the hardware, its the software that makes changi such a buzz.

I'll go along with that, Singapore Airport is exceptional, Hong Kong is OK, but it's huge = lots of walking, for some that could be a problem.

I can only see one clear winner, Changi.

I like BKK's airport upon arrival (could be that onset of happiness just to be here though, who knows) but absolutely hate it when departing, obvious reason aside, my airline gate is always the one at the very end and God knows I'm not the most punctual person in the world so most times I can be seen making a mad run that goes onnnnnnnnn and onnnnnnn and ooooooonnnnn just to reach my gate. Bah. Other than that one teeny complain, it's got my vote. =)

Changi airport just brings back nightmarish memories of harried cramming for my O'levels after school with my mates. Yup, we're a weird bunch of folks alright. Instead of libraries, we go to the airport to do our cramming. During exam time you'll see hordes of uniformed students at the viewing gallery where it's the quietest, sitting on the floor mugging away. I wonder if it's only unique to us and if folks do that in other airports too...hmm...granted..Changi is kinda big though, so free space is never an issue. So yea, I can never view this place in the same light ever again.

I definitely need to learn some basic Thai if I want to penetrate deeper into the society.

Nice double entendre there ;-)

Omg.....this has got to be the most perfect post ever. This should so be a sticky, it'll be totally legendary.

Carl, you're my hero. ^_*

I wonder though, are these stereotypes only unique to Thailand or can they be witnessed in other Third world/developing nations in Asia or (taking a leap here) maybe in South America as well? I'm curious because I have on occasion met a few of the well-defined caricatures described (excluding the obnoxious ones , they're actually not that despicable once you get to know them better, some are even friends. =p) but coming from a SEA country myself, I don't really see the same types here. Hmm. That said, if we're too quick to pigeon-hole someone, we never really give him/her a chance to develope into someone real and not one-dimensional and I guess that's how stereotypes are perpetrated. I certainly know what it's like to be casted as someone I'm not by some presumptuous ass and have been guilty of ass like judgement as well. Now, being less inclined to fiery emotions, I take it in my stride and just giggle.

Are you smoking hot? If you are, or aren't, you should worry. In my years here, I have seen most foreigner relationships go up in flames. Thai women can be some of the most beautiful and loving in asia, if not sweet mother Earth, and most western men (read 99%) simply cannot resist the charms of Thai women. (pardon my French)

Dammit, why wasn't I born a Thai girl? Lucky bastards, uhm...wenches! (there just ain't a good enough equivalent yo)

Haha, I get where you're coming from but I was only trying to make a point that hand-holding is not only unique to *Thai* girls. I'm certainly not Thai but I've never questioned holding the SO's hand in my life. All I'm sayin is that it's a very natural part of a relationship and I don't see anything curious about it. And of course I'm not talking about extremely religious or traditional societies/culture where even looking at a woman who's not your wife is courting certain death.