montrii

only two reasons why someone has a big gut.

1/ being a pig with food

2/little or no excercise

Clearly written by someone who has not experienced a changing metabolism. Or a metabolism that some people were just plain born with. Before 50 I was thin. Now I eat less and exercise a lot more, but the change that happened is, if not impossible to reverse, at least damn difficult. I'm managing a holding pattern, but it takes a lot of effort. No need to be judgmental, it can happen to the best of us . . . or some of the best of us are just born that way.

To my mind the place was unbelievably pretentious. Tasteless concept, bad lighting (read "too much lighting"), bizarre (pretentious again) entertainment, uncomfortable seating arrangements. I could go on. And I actually worked there for a bit. I agree with those who say "about time," and wonder how it lasted as long as it did.

Dosa King, Soi 11/1 Sukhumvit.

Ah, it always makes me nostalgically sad to think about the old days. Tha Bo was my first Peace Corps assignment in 1965. I was the only Westerner who lived there, and it was in a room of the school where I taught. There was an American Catholic priest who occasionally came through and stayed a night or two, making rounds on his motorcycle, but not too many farangs came through at all. Boats crossed to the Lao side constantly - at the time the sandbar/island had not been formed which now blocks the view of Laos from the street closest to the river. There was no Nongkhai bridge, nor a thought that one would be needed. There was one road through town, pavement ended 100 feet before and after Tha Bo, and no river road from Nongkhai - you had to come over 20km of dirt road from the Friendship Hwy just to get there. I still go back fairly often to see my former students & the few fellow teachers who still live there, or are living, but the place is unrecognizable, and growing more impersonal by the year. My Matayom school had 200 students; that's long gone, and the "new" one has about 3000, and a marching band. There was one telephone in town that I knew of - at the post office - and now, of course, everybody has cell phones. And cars. And there's a 7-11 which is so crowded it's sometimes hard to get in.

I can see coming the day when Tha Bo will be bart of what will be called "The Greater Vientiane Metropolitan Area." And . . . Vientiane in the old days, that is another story . . . how weird to see that charming little town with its hints of French architecture turning into just another urban sprawl, with Toyota dealerships and . . . on and on, and packed with farangs passing through for a week or two who think they're seeing something quaint and primitive.

Anyhow, the place still has a little of the old charm left, just a little, and if you can find a nice bungalow to stay along the river, more power to you. Enjoy what's left, and enjoy the sweetness of the fun-loving people of Isaan.

This is a great ride. Bangkok to Butterworth, you change trains there. I took a few days in between legs, Penang is a great stopover destination. I strongly suggest, though, going first-class sleeper for the Butterworth-Singapore leg. Those compartments are pretty cool, but the second-class sleeper is much funkier than the corresponding one on the Thai side. Mix and match.

I solve this my amazon shipments go to a US address first. I have a US address for my paypal and paypal debit card which is a private shipping and forwarding company in Oregon, USA. They even group shipments for me. You can google US shipping forwarding companies in Oregon. Oregon is also tax free. I also have a free google voice phone number to in the US registered with paypal.

I have a US address for my PayPal debit card as well, but Amazon will still ship here, even if its billing address is in the US. To them it's just a MasterCard, the payment goes through one way or another. I also have a Thai PayPal account, but don't know if it's possible to get a debit card for that one. Hope you can work something out . . . .

ADSL is by phone lines but it may be just the line without a phone number if installed just for internet. Several decades ago, under another name, True installed several million phone lines and although they are billed by TOT they are still considered True lines it seems. Believe normal TOT lines can get used by other providers. 3bb will ask for your phone number if you request there service so not sure what happens if you do not have a line they can use.

Thanks. This is a relatively new line (2+ years) and does have a phone number attached. I think TOT itself is the provider, but really don't know. Probably a lot of this stuff is deliberately opaque. I do notice upload & download & ping speeds vary greatly day to day even with the same servers.

Interesting info, didn't know about 3BB, but from what I can gather, TOT (Telephone Organization of Thailand) and True are two completely different entities. Is the OP saying, and is it true, that TOT internet, which I have through my landline (and the only reason I have a landline), is subcontracted out to True? I thought True came through the TV cable for True TV subscribers.

TOT has been kind of up and down for me, but generally acceptable service.

Thanks for the post, John, I'll post on my Facebook. Mine is O+, can't help in that way, but will help spread the word.

I hate to say this, and this may be my first really bad post, but: who gives a <Snip!>?

Leave them alone. If they can't figure it out, someone else will, and they'll get comeuppance somehow. There's nothing horribly wrong with shirts off. It's freedom, mon, you don't get that?

I almost always have a good sleep on the overnight trains here, but that's because I almost always get a lower berth. Up high you're too near the A/C, the lights are always on right there beside the bed, and you get shaken more on that narrow-gauge railway because you're further from the rails. Reserve early and get a lower bunk. Also I have a beer or two before bed. If you ride in a first-class cabin it's pretty comfortable, but you might want to bring some duct tape to slow the flow through the cold air vent . . . it's really cold!

Some people don't take to the train, but I love it. There are usually people to hang out with and talk to in second class. I prefer talking with the Thai folks, if there are any near - have learned a lot from those conversations, and maybe they have, too. Anyhow I don't understand why anyone would think it's a dismal experience unless they find it's hard to sleep. That could be boring, but then . . . these days we have tablets and ipads and can watch movies or listen to music. If you have 3G you can connect to the net and do all the other things we've learned to fill up our time with. But the trains here are still cool to me, and I've been riding them a long, long time.

I go often, have for many years, though that has led to accusations of my being a massageonist . . . anyhow the average of the answers here comes out about right. I always give at least 20b per hour, and often 50-60 for 2 hours. For the best ones, people I go back to regularly, I tip 100, partly because the service itself is so cheap and they only get a percentage of it, and partly because they've really put themselves into it, which isn't easy. They really appreciate it, it makes them happy when I come, which makes for better service, and what is it to a Westerner? about 3.50 American. Not a fortune.

In my view, there's no sherry in Thailand for "a good price!" Not quite so true for standard reds and whites, though they're generally overpriced. But for sherry and other imported staples of the trade, so far the prices are still outrageous compared to back in the old country. One man's opinion.

I think it would be only fair that some proletarian sculptures be added to the mix.

Well, as I understand it there are six varieties of this baby . . . I've had one (I think picked up in Vientiane), and once you've had one variety you're immune to that one, but can still get others. That one had me on my back for about 5 days, but wasn't one of the severe types. None are fun, but the worst causes hemorrhaging through the skin - hence the Thai name for all varieties (โรคไข้เลือดออก, literally "disease blood come out") and can be fatal. I do hope the vaccine works out, dinna wanna get any of the others. Apparently they are all carried by a large tiger-striped mosquito which is mostly active during the day. I think that's right, but I be no medico.

I agree with one poster: any way I've seen it, the PayPal conversion rate is awful. I get around that by getting money in dollars in my US account, then withdrawing cash $400 at a time with my US PayPal debit card (using Aeon here in Thailand, so no local fee). That way the conversion rate is entirely outside PayPal, and much better, and PayPal only charges $1 per ATM withdrawal. The cash I take out immediately goes into my Thai Bank account, which is right around the corner from the Aeon ATM. Of course, if you're dealing with large sums of money, this may not be viable, but for my cheapo world it works great.

Similan Islands, yes. Did 4-day liveaboard there and it was fantastic. On the other side of the ithsmus, in the Gulf of Thailand, is Koh Tao, which is now pretty much a single-industry island for divers. Especially great deals there for courses, long-term stays, etc., and the diving is none too shabby. Closer to Samui is Ang Thong Marine National Park, which I have been wanting to visit for a long time, supposed to be some spectacular stuff. Thailand definitely has it for the diver.

I had exactly the same problem. Before upgrading the OS, I got incredible battery life. The new OS is great, but something is screwy with the battery calibration, or something is draining power. I've been to every forum I could find on this, and there seems to be a consensus that completely discharging the battery, turning the thing completely off and then recharging to 50%, unplugging for an hour, and then charging to 100% is the best solution - something about the OS needing two points of charging reference to accurately measure battery capacity. I tried this numerous times, and while I am getting better results than before, I've accepted that it will never have as good battery life as before. I used to just let it sleep without charging between uses, and opening it up again it would have drained very little. Now that's not the case, as even sleeping the level goes down relatively fast. So now I turn it off between uses if I'm not somewhere I can charge. Annoying, but that way I still get enough battery life to use it pretty much as much as I want, say, on an intercontinental flight. I really wonder what is going on with this, but am not anymore a serious enough geek - tho once I was - to spend the time figuring it out. Wish I could be more help, but anyhow I do sympathize.

I suggest the Ranong route, coming out at Chumphon and going up. If you're going to Koh Tao, it's closer from Chumphon than from Surat, anyhow. Ranong is one of the less touristy places, but has hot springs and some gorgeous islands which are worth a visit if you have time. On the road from Ranong to Chumphon you're often close enough to Burma to look over and see it. Really pretty country.

I always take mine with me, but I don't fly when I do it. On a bus or train, it's easy, and I'm pretty sure Lom Phraya wouldn't have a problem with you taking it on the boat from Surat. Of course, this wouldn't get it there before you. If you need info on how to do the bus or train, feel free to IM me.

I have both Thai and a U.S. PayPal accounts. Generally I find that for transferring money into my Thai SCB bank account it's better to use my U.S. Paypal debit card at an Aeon ATM and deposit the cash into SCB, rather than putting the US money into the Thai PayPal account first. Exchange rate seems to be a lot better, and it's faster, too. A little clunky, but what the heck.

Actually there's quite a nice little music scene here if you know where to look - I used to be involved in it myself. But you didn't mention what kind of music you're interested in.

I'm not sure, but I know it's not commonly sold at standard pharmacies. The Thai word for it is ดีเกลือ (dii glueua) or ดีเกลือฝรั่ง (dii glueua farang). I believe the Thais think of it as something to be used for teeth whitening or to cure acne . . . I'd suggest Chinese herb shops, or some of the health food stores that are popping up everywhere. I do think it's readily available here, just not sure where. Good luck.