paul1970

Someone on a previous post mentioned the w8-BEN, you must get this filed at your company or beleive me the US IRS will chase you everywhere.

I know as I'm in a similair situation as yourself, I'm a Brit who worked in the US for 2 years before coming to Thailand but I made the mistake of not filing a W8-BEN with my company and now I have the IRS chasing me for unpaid taxes for 2005 and 2006 even though I never had a green card and my work visa had expired, I was out of the country and am not a US citizen.

So whatever you do file a W8-BEN so it shows that your company should not withold us taxes from you, it will save you a lot of grief later.

I am in Thailand on a non-imm B visa and WP due to a skilled job with medical lasers but have often wondered of ways of staying in Thailand should my company decide that I was no longer needed in Thailand.

I could not see myself working for a Thai company and certainly not as an English teacher so that would probably limit me to becoming a bar/restaurant/shop owner.

Now I've often wondered how is it possible to have a visa and WP as a bar owner, so I was wondering if anybody could enlighten me as to what type of visa one would get to run a bar and how could you obtain a WP to it as I see it any Thai person could run a bar so I would have thought it would have been on the list of careers that falangs don't need to do ?

Hopefully somebody will be able to enlighten me, TIA.

I'm so used to seatbelts I feel uncomfortable in movie theaters.

Mobi, did you wear it or not?

No, I didn't.

mikethevigoman

A very big manufacturer of bull bars and bumper protectors has sent all dealers a notice to say that further supplies of bull bars will be limited to plastic/rubber as insurance companies in the uk will be refusing coverage to cars with metal bars fitted as the airbag sensors are affected by them, i know this dosent affect insurance in Thailand, however im sure there is some truth in this and that these safety systems are affected by any obstructions,im going to google to see if i can find any tests ,.

My bull bar was some kind of grey plastic compound, not metal. So presumably it wouldn't have affected the air bag sensors.

Maigo6

I will insist on an inspection of mine, my next Service is at 50,000 Km, I think I will also investigate over riding the auto door locking once the car hits 25Kph, as you say, it could have cost you your life cos nobody could get you out.

I'll probably never know if the angle of impact was the reason the bags did not inflate, but considering the force of the impact, which, for my vehicle wasn't far from head on, then I would be surprised. I think it is a very good idea to have Toyota check them at every service. (BTW I only used accredited Toyota dealers.) The auto locking thing is positively deadly in my opinion, and strangely enough someone had already warned me about this prior to the accident.

Skyline

The reality of the Fortuner is,a bargain basement SUV.It was designed,manufactured and built with a low purchase price in mind,and it shows.Its a pick-up with a lot more weight and less safety standards than it requires.

Well I won't deny that it's not good value for money, but at around 1,3 million it is the same price as a CRV and other SUV's, albeit they are smaller vehicles. I was thinking of changing out, not because I wasn't happy with , because I was, but because there are so many on the road it was driving me mad. I was thinking about a Camry or an Accord. but now I'm not so sure.

In spite of all the criticism that has been posted on this thread, the cabin of the Fortuner remained intact and probably saved my life. I'm not sure a saloon car would have survived the crash in the same state. And anyway the roads are so bad down here, that maybe I should stick to an SUV.

Plenty of time to think about it as I'm not about to get behind the wheel of any vehicle just yet. I seem to be suffering from 'post crash shock', if there is such a thing.

Which begs the question what where you thinking driving those kinds of speed, I understand this happened on the roads around Maprachan lake ? I drive fast but I wouldn't even consider driving those kinds of speeds during daytime on those crappy roads. And you should consider the scooters that drive around in Thailand if 1 or more of them had been involved you could easily have killed someone.

I'm glad your OK though but there are some serious questoins that need to be answered here.

1 Why the bags didn't go off, I beleive there should be a thorough investigation of your vehicle by either your insurance company, or Thai ministry of transport if there exists such an organisation or Toyota to find the cause, if it is found that a Toyata registered dealership disabled them due to a fault then charges should most certainly be brought against them, please please don't let this issue drop.

2 There is no way on earth should doors lock in the event of an accident and this again should be looked at and possible charges raised against who is to bame.

Hope your back on the road soon but hopefully at more appropriate speeds for the road conditions.

Here is a link to a post on the best eateries thread where you will find more restaurant reviews including cherries.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?s=...t&p=1836992

Oh Jeez, he/she is taking her mother out for dinner and you suggest cheap ass joints such as neeroys to eat some muck that cost 100b <deleted>.

To the OP stay well away from soi Choyapoon or whatever, it's a sh*thole.

Do yourself and your mum a favour and get across to Cherry's on 3rd road opposit to Xcyte Disco for some truly excellent fine dining at reasonable prices. Granted it will cost you more than 100 bht but is way cheaper than the top end resteraunts of Pattaya but of the same quality.

The guy who runs it used to be the head chef at Bruno's which is one of THE fine dining establishments in Pattaya but at much lower prices and much more casual. Believe me the food is great.

There is another thread but you would have to search for it, it was called the best eateries of pattaya and this place was having constantly good reports. The only thing it does tend to always fill up quickly and for 2 people dining I would budget somwhere between 600 to 1200 thb depending on what you eat and how many courses you have.

Please remenber guys that discussion of bargirls and URL`s to sites with such content are not allowed.

One such URL has been deleted.

Thanks for your cooperation.

I told ya so! I told ya so!

I think as long as we can keep the discussion about the ambience and atmosphere of the bars then we should be OK. The things I would be interested in are more about location, atmosphere, prices etc rather than info about the girls, we've all been in Pattaya long enough to know what that is all about.

I don't know if info such as the girls being pushy or leave you alone is against the rules but that is something I think that would be good to know as IMO there's nothing worse than if you just want to have a drink and theres pushy girls disturbing you, surely that would be general info about the bars atmosphere.

I'm hoping also that the thread will spread to all amenities on the Dark side not just bars, though bar information is well appreciated too.

Also, there is a very nice karaoke bar next to Rhun Thip!!! :cheese:

Is it possible to slap somebody with email?

LOL ..... off-topic slightly, anyone else with Google Earth fancy collaborating on a DarkSide .kmz file ?? perhaps then we could post it here for others to use.

I have google earth on my pc and it's great for viewing but even though this KMZ file sounds good I'm afraid I would have no idea where to start.

Here we go as promised a map of the darkside showing the locations of most bars.

I hope you are all able to blow the map up to full size, cause it ain't good like this.

Awsome, it blows up really good when you click on it and it appears to be extremely up to date as I beleive some of these bars have only been open a couple of months, I'm thinking mostly of PG Bar and Pussycat Bar both of which I believe are quite new. Looks like theres a lot more happening on the Dark side than we think.

Dark Siders

Lets use this thread to discuss other amenaties we have over here on the Dark Side basically anything goes except for restaurants which should be on the original Dark Side.

From the original Dark Side thread I have learnt of places I didn't know existed such as the Black Pearl, the Butterfly, Dark Side of Dao even to things such as Bakery shops and minimart that sell beer out of hours etc, so I would like to expand on thing like that on this thread.

Please remember to provide location details as sometimes finding some of these places on the Dark Side can be a challenge.

To start us off I will suggest a good wateriing hole on Nernplubwaan which is the Lucky Time bar, which has a nice atmosphere for a few drinks and a game of pool etc and much cheaper beer prices than what is found on the other side.

Good for you, dam_n good beer from Belgium, not sure about the food but what the h-ll try anything once. As an aside, I thought the original Dao was French ? May well have changed hands, but the food and menu have not changed from the original.

Changed hands just over a year ago i believe (may have been a bit longer) and thank **** it did, you are correct that it used to be French owned but it is now Belgian owned and run, the biggest difference and improvement is how that naughty place round the back is run, used to be a dump with staff with attitude problems but now is one of the best bars in town either side of suk road.

I'm intrigued about the naughty place round the back and it sounds like the gf will have to be out of town before I can try the food here as she has that Thai sixth sense for anything naughty.

Anyway I'm intrigued enough to start another thread about the Dark Side which will be hopefully as succesful as this one for all other pertinent information on the Dark Side, eg good or bad bars, naughty places, amenaties, shops basically anything other than eateries, as I've found from this thread there are so many places over here which either you don't know existed or you (or at least I) would never consider going to until you hear about someone else's experience. The Dao being an example, usually I would never consider eating there seeing the location it is in but know I just know I have to try their food as soon as the missus goes to her home town on her next visit and hopefully v8tfcorty will expand on what is on the Dark side of Dao , is it ago go, coyote???

Anyway let's hope the new thread will be as intriguing as this one is and that we all can find something new or good about the dark side, so look out for Dark Side II hopefully we will have the same quality posts as there have been here.

I think some of you may have the wrong idea as to what a Hot Cross Bun is, it's a British form of a sweet spiced bun that is popular at easter time but is also available year round but is not like bread as it's made with quite a lot of sugar and currants and a mixture of spices called Mixed Spice including cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, cloves, ginger, allspice, coriander from Wikipedia

Mixed spice, also called pudding spice, is a British [1] blend of sweet spices, similar to garam masala. It is often used to complement fruits or other sweet foods.

The term "mixed spice" has been used for this blend of spices in cookbooks at least as far back as 1828[2] and probably much earlier

For people who havent tried a Hot cross bun they are totally delicous.

The new Gullivers may be a good starting place just to case the joint

Get the missus to cook you some

http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/hot-cro...ns,1419,RC.html

I would, I love em but I hate cooking LOL

This morning, I went to Chonlada Coffee House for breakfast. (SSCC Rd, about 1.5 kms east of the intersection with Nongprue Rd.) The building is very pleasant, with both indoor, A/C seating, and a few tables outside. (Outside tables are a bit too close to the fast moving, dust launching traffic for my liking.) The owner is a very sweet and attractive young lady named Pook. Her English is quite good, as she studied it in university. She worked in BKK for several years with an English born, American raised boss; but she is married to a Thai gentleman. I was amazed to learn from her that she has only been open for 3-1/2 months, and had no previous experience in running a restaurant.

I had the American breakfast, which consisted of two eggs, a generous portion of well cooked bacon (I like it fairly well done, to the chewy, and slightly crispy point), a sausage of much better quality than most here, a large slice of good quality ham, some sliced tomato and onion, 4 slices of good bread w/butter and marmalade, a glass of (poor) OJ, and a cup of very good coffee. I added hash browns, which I saw listed on the "Swiss breakfast". They were, as I had expected, a bit disappointing, since they were the "frozen patty" variety. Not inedible, but not the great, freshly made hash browns that I love. Overall, I was very satisfied with what I had, and there are many more options, including (not on the menu) poached eggs that Pook told me they can make (thanks to instruction from a nice customer, she said).

They also have free wi-fi, which, according to a guy who was using it when I arrived, operates at a decent speed. (Of course, he was the only user on at the time, so it may not always be that good, if there are several users simultaneously.

In any case, this place will become a bit of a habit for me. I don't eat breakfast every day. In fact, it's usually more of a brunch for me (arrived at about 10 this morning), since I'm just not ready to eat early in the morning. But I expect to be driving the 2.5 kms to enjoy their food, comfortable facility, and sweet and gracious host, at least once a week. For those of you who do enjoy an early breakfast, there's good news too. They open at 7:30! It is breakfast and lunch fare only, with some soups, several salads, and a dozen or so sandwiches and burgers, in addition to the many breakfast options. I'll have to try a cheeseburger some day. It would be a real bonanza for me if they do those well! (If not, based on the poached egg story, perhaps Pook will take some constructive suggestions! I'm no chef, but I DO know how to make a good American cheeseburger!)

There, now I feel better!

I tried Chonlada coffee this afternoon and must agree that this is another one of the better places on the Dark side.

I had a ham and cheese sandwich and a ceaser salad and english tea, coffee is not my thing, and the gf had some rice soup and OJ

Everything I had and the gf's soup was fine but my gf agreed with you on the OJ, of course I hadn't told her what I'd read beforehand so when I mentioned your post and the OJ I was a bastard for not telling her rather than the good guy letting her have her own opinion .

Anyway I see a few early morning calls per week to have some breakfast and check my emails in the pleasant and so far very clean surroundings.

If she is divorced and have had the wedding party with sin-sod given once already, then a new party should not be necessary and an Ampur wedding, no sin-sod and a celebration dinner with only the closest familly should suffice.

If she has been "married" before but never had a wedding party, then a wedding party with sin-sod is a resonable request.

How much should be payed, how much should be keep and how much should be given back to you is on the other hand open for discussion.

Many of the girls i have talked to so far seems to want the amount given to match or be slightly higher than the amount and number of bath gold that their closest friends/family were presented with at their wedding. (Keeping up with the Joneses...LOL)

This is so true, it's all about face. The first time I went to the village I was paraded around every house like some kind of trophy, quite embarrasing.

But the more you get to know the culture the more you see that it's all about trying to be number one in other people's eye's. My gf would often tell me that so and so I met in her village got married and the sinsot she got was 80000b or whatever and she would laugh and say I was more and then vice versa gets angry if someone else married with a higher sinsot.

So the higher the sinsot the more face she and her family get in the village, like you said keeping up with the Joneses, but they seem to put more emphasis on it.

You are going to pay 300,000 for a divorced woman? Let me get this right, you are going to pay 3 times what the first husband was going to pay? Does this sound right to you? Then 5,000 per month to the parents? Does she not have any brothers or sisters? How much do the siblings send home every month? Do the parents live in a village? Here comes the gravy train... all aboard!

It never sounds right but this is the Thai / Falang pricing thing all round again, everything in Thailand is more expensive for a falang be it property or sinsot.

She is the eldest child of the family so there is nobody else to support her parents and 2 11 year old brothers and as you probably know once the children are of working age they are expected to send money home. I have been to the village and seen the living conditions which for a falang can only be described as horrendous.

quote]

Mama-san: Welcome to Walking St., how may I help you?

You: Yes, I'll have the #2, with a side of golden nuggets and some of that juicy 5k/month gravy on top.

Mama-san: Coming right up!

I can just see that your another one of those who automatically thinks that a Thai girl with a falang just had to be a whore, you sad sad person. Try spending sometime outside of the girlie bars and you will find that there are girls working real jobs who are just as happy to be with a falang.

I know my gf's complete history from when she left school at 15 with good grades but family didn't have money to send her to university so she worked in a factory, then MK and Bar-B-Q Plaza, all verified and I met her while she was working in MK.

As for the 5K gravy train my gf was quite willing to find a job in Pattaya to send money to her parent but 5k is a couple of hours work for me, hardly a hardship.

To put it into perspective when I went to her village I met an english guy up there who has fallen for a bg and is in the process of building a 1million baht home for the family and sends his gf 50k per month and her mother 20k per month and he only gets to see her about 3 months of the year.

I'm not sure I understand. If the sinsot is to payed for the girl's rearing, and the first guy a;ready paid it, why would you be paying anything at all? Additionally, this is the first case I've heard about where a divorcee's got a higher sinsot the second time around. Pretty young, eh? Better check her ID.

I beleive your right that if a Thai marries a divorcee no sinsot is requested but when a falang is involved well TIT.

Don't worry I've been in LOS smiles long enough and all the ID checks and divorce checks have been carried out and all in order, even spoke on the phone with managers of the factories and resteraunts she has worked in.

The Sin Sot as I understand it from my current gf is a repayment to the parents for the cost of bringing her up as a child and is usually paid for by the husband to be or his family.

My gf was married to a Thai man on her 18th birthday, he was 21 and he was to pay 60,000B and 5 baht of Gold which at that time would have cost probably another 40,000B so in total 100,000 THB. So I asked her where he found that kind of money where it transpired he didn't find it all as they both worked they saved together until they had the 100000 B split roughly 50/50 and gave it to her parents so the marriage could go ahead.

My gf is an attractive both to falang and thai with a fairly large breasts for thai and was in demand in her village as she had never worked in a bar, anyway the marriage lasted 2 months when he was found in bed with a mia noi and she sent him packing.

Now she has just had her 19th and is expecting our first baby but we are not married but we have discussed it and she would expect that a Sin Sod of 200,000 be paid plus some gold which may sound a lot but then putting it into perspective she knows that my income after all deductions is between 200,000 and 300,000 thb per month so taking that into account is not bad considering some of the amounts I have heard off oh and a 5000 baht per month stipend to her mama and papa for food etc which seems to be the norm for all girls that they have to send money back monthly for the parents.

So the money is not an issue but it still isn't comfortable as a farang to be talking about how much should I be paying for you, just doesn't feel right. Anyway no marriage until a prenup is drawn up then we will see if things change.

I run a project managment company here in Pattaya, my company insures builders i recomend or you pick are controlled to do things to the highest standards, giving me the headache, but insuring work is done to the proper standards & finishing you are expecting

There is a link to my companies web site in my profile

Surely you are talking "Best Practice" rather than any specific standards?

Or are you discussing BS, DIN or other published standards? I know a couple of Thai guys who have worked abroad to certain national standards, as set out in the contracts, but basically in Thailand they will work to Thai standards (there are some) at best. Usually they will just do as their mentors taught them years ago.

I have employed many Thai tradesmen overseas, and followed up on some of them when they return to Thailand. Very good when taught what we want, but most jump out of the construction industry and those that remain do not (in Thailand) apply the level of expertise that is required elsewhere.

I would be intersested to what standards as well that your company manages the projects too, especially from an electrical viewpoint. I am an electrical engineer and frankly in all the 3 places I have lived in Thailand when I have checked the electrical installation I have been horrified.

I lived in one of the top end high rise condos in BKK and the every time I touched the oven I would get a tingle if I didn't have rubber shoes on, when I checked it out the earth wire was just screwed into the wall and the tingle I was getting was just the standard earth leakage from such an oven, if that oven had developed a short circuit fault to earth there would have been a serious risk to anybody who touched it. That is without mentioning the risk of fire every time I used the oven because the installation contractor had used normal lighting wire to hook up the oven to the distribution panel, <deleted>.

Since then I have rented 2 homes in Pattaya recently built to Western Standards which again had no earthing on the electrical sockets which is OK if everything you buy is double insulated but for Kitchens and Bathrooms is a complete no-no. So I beleive a lot of this built to Western Standards actually the Western refers to Cowboy as in the Western movies, it's just marketing BS most of the time, I'm just lucky that by trade I can see what is wrong and take action. Anyway lets hear what standards you adhere to when you are managing the electrical installation etc.

You can get everything delivered in Pattaya, from Pizza, KFC etc to full restaurant meals from Door 2 Door.

There are probably about a dozen pizza delivery companies, the one I use is Nicks (thin and Crispy) 038373418

Where is Nicks Located? I like thin and Crispy. Do they use lots of cheese, or do you need to order extra cheese?

Barry

Apparantly Soi Bokote (spelling ?) opposite Xcyte and soi 2 of Bokote but beleive me I've tried to find the place and it's not a big area but I've never located it. IMO their pizza is crap but it may be because of my distance from this Soi but when I had a pizza delivered it was a soggy mess no crispiness at all.

But I sometimes get their chicken nuggets, god knows why but I do like their nuggets. Anyway I usually like to see where my food is cooked before I eat it but like I said never been able to locate this place.

Paul, the breakfast served at Sure Park is English style. I just told them to hold the beans and black pudding. However, it's not a gut buster, as you get a choice of one meat. It's also served with some sort of mash stuff, that has (I think) green veggies mixed in. (Another English thing?)

What I haven't found is a place that serves pancakes or waffles. Anybody know of a place here on the Dark Side that does that?

The mash you describe is what is usually called in England Bubble and Squeak and would normally be given with the full english brekkie only on a monday as a way of using up any leftover vegetables from the roast dinner that is traditionally served on a Sunday and can contain any vegetables that where left cut up into small pieces and then shallow fried. Bubble and squeak being derived from the noise this concoction makes as it fries.

Also full english should be eaten with lashings of HP brown sauce and never ketchup. Getting hungry just thinking about it, it's been a while since I've had a heart attack on a plate

I don't know anywhere on the dark side with Pancakes or waffles but then again I can't say I've really looked as I don't see the attraction.

Theres not much I miss about Yankee food from my days in California apart from the great Salads that could be found at most restaurants, my weekend breakfast at Denny's which was always the Olympic Omlette (delicious, though IMO the rest of Denny's menu was dire) and my fav hamburger place was Carl Jr's way better than McD or BK.

Bert used to have a commercial fishing boat in Alaska, so he knows quality fish.

He may well know good fish, however the challenge is to get it supplied consistantly. Unfortunately you need to check every delivery even from "good" supliers.

Bert's Friday special is good value even if he has had to put the price up. The description of a whale on a plate to describe the generous sized portion is apt. I hope he continues to be able to source good quality produce.

I think the Friday special may be Pacific Dory as I noticed that the cheaper F&C on the menu was Pacific Dory (which is a nice change from the usual white fish fillet or local fish, it's nice to know what your eating) from Wikipedia

The common name dory (from the Middle English dorre, from the Middle French doree, lit. "gilded one") is shared (officially and colloquially) by members of several different families of large-eyed, silvery, deep-bodied, laterally compressed, and roughly discoid marine fish. As well as resembling each other, dories are also similar in habit: most are deep-sea and demersal. Additionally, many species support commercial fisheries and are considered excellent food fish.

IMO if it is this fish that is used then I do concure with above and that it is indeed excellent fish. Well Done Bert's I say, I do not know if it was 170 B before and it has gone up to 180 and really I don't care as it is excellent value at either price. I will certainly be looking for this fish in the supermarkets for cooking at home, though it may be something that gets picked up at the local fisheries as I can't say I've seen it in the usual places, Foodland etc.

best breakfast bargain is at Canterbury Tales on Soi Chayapoon almost at Soi Bakaou (sp) 2 eggs(cooked to order), 2 pieces english bacon (ham) 1 sausage, fried tomatoes, baked beans, coffee, (1 cup), orange squash, 1 piece of toast with butter and marmalade. total cost B75 served 8am to 8pm.

Sorry, Bob. I don't want to start any national flame wars here , but the thought of baked beans and squash for breakfast makes me, and, I think, most Americans gag!

Food is most definitely a cultural thing. There are certain "staples" of just about every nation's food that don't sit well on the palate of other people. The English and American breakfasts have many things in common. But there are a couple of very significant differences.

I'll take some pancakes or waffles in place of those beans and squash, thank you!

Hey Pat,

Orange Squash is not squash, it is a cheap imitation of orange juice, 1 step above tang (liquid not powder). I am American also and don't usually eat beans for breakfast, but put them on my plate and mom taught me to clean the plate. It is more than I can eat, the bigger breakfast (B95) gets 2 pieces of toast, 2 sausages and black pudding so I opt for the smaller one and let my wife eat the toast to save on the waistline.

I have lived in both the UK and America and IMHO the GREAT British Fry up is far superior and a good fry up should include all the following;

Orange Juice (lets get the healthy shit out the way)

1 Fried Egg

2 Bacon

2 Sausages

1 Fried Bread (an absolute must)

Fried Mushrooms

Fried Potato

Baked Beans or tinned tomatoes (someplaces serve both but I think thats pigging out a bit !!!)

Black Pudding (you can take it or leave it personally I leave it bleuah )

2 rounds of toast

Large mug of Tea

Now theres not many places in Thailand that can serve up a good replica of that, especially Thai run places with what they try to pass of as sausages, the sausage in an English breakfast must be English style sausages. Probably the 2 best breakfast that resemble the above is Yorkies in Jomtien and the Sportsmans in Soi 13. I have never eaten an English breakfast on the Dark side as to be truthful I don't think there would be anywhere that serves anything resembling the above but I would be quite happy to be corrected.

If in Bangkok the best breakfast I have experienced in Asia IMO is the Irish breakfast at the Dubliner at Washington Square an absolute gut buster.

I guess getting a decent F&C is just about hopeless in Patters...maybe just give-up. At one time, the Pig & Whistle did a decent version...I think it used to be like B 350 however and of course, it's not located in East Pattaya.

I may have cracked it for F&C but unfortunately not on the east side. I tried the F&C at Tropical Berts in the week, there are some none cod and cod versions in the menu. I had cod and the fish was beautiful as was the light crispy beer batter, though the chips where OK not great because again another place that insists on using frozen chips. But I can forgive that for such nice Fish.

Today (Friday) I went back and ordered F&C again without realizing that it's the special on Friday, well the biggest piece of battered fish I have ever seen arrived on my plate and only 180 Baht, obviousley not cod but whatever it was it was a very nice fish and again the batter they use here is prepared perfectly, crisp all over the fish and for the size of the fish that is an acheivment in itself. So for beautifully prepared fish this is the place I just wish they would serve it with real chips cut straight from the potato, I for one would be willing to pay extra for it if they gave the option on the menu.