petepete

Got a re-entry stamp on Saturday at BKK. Quick notes:

• As others have mentioned, you can't use Priority Lane to get to it - the man at the Priority Lane seemed a bit unsure what I was asking, so I played it safe, went through normal lane, and was glad I did
• 4 people in front of me in the queue, I reckon I was there for 45 minutes. The person behind me in the queue just as I was almost done was probably only there for 10m in total, so give yourself enough time. "Occupation: Husband" caused much hilarity for the two people working the counter.
• Multiple re-entry was fine BUT ... they'd only give me validity for ~45 days on it. I'm not really sure what was going on there, but the validity date matches when I'd been admitted until. I don't know if this is policy, if I don't understand the implications of my visa properly, or whatever. So no trouble getting the multiple re-entry, but with 45 days, it probably won't be value-for-money for most people, and the guy at the check-in counter tried to talk me out of it on that basis several times. Cost all in was 4,000THB for re-entry.
• I actually had preprepared renewal documentation, including photos - they told me not to bother next time, as that's what their 200THB fee is for
• They have a really odd sign up there that I should have taken a picture of. It basically says that their service is only meant for emergencies, and that you are required to get the stamp at your local office ... but it hasn't caused any of their "members" any problems yet, and then included a literal winky-face. My interpretation is that it's meant to be for emergencies only, and there's potential that if immigration REALLY wanted to kick up a fuss about your re-entry stamp, they could, but it hasn't happened yet. All that's wild-ass-guess based on a badly worded sign.

Moved back to Bangkok after some years absence recently. Our apartment was prearranged and miles from the BTS but close to BRT.

Almost everything I could find on this forum was pretty down on the BRT. Noisy, uncomfortable, slow. Clogged up by mercs and motorbikes, etc etc.

Anyway, been using it for a few weeks and it's great. Gets a bit busy at peak times, but generally they seem to come every 5-10 minutes. Journey from Thanon Chan to Chongnonsi just under 10 minutes. Good air con, 5 THB on the Rabbit card, never seen a car in the lane. Noise has never been an issue.

In short, for anyone searching in the future, it's a viable transport option, but also the only viable one if you need to go up and down Naradiwas at peak hours.

I'm here on a spouse visa; my wife has a work permit.

This year I need to complete a dissertation - I am a registered student at a university in the UK. The dissertation will involve a lot of time at a computer, and I was thinking of getting a desk at a coworking space like Launchpad.

Any serious risk of falling foul of labour or immigration if I do this? University in UK very well known, I have a student card, and uni would be happy to verify my status if needed.

I'm trying to translate the menu of my local Chai-Si noodle stand for a friend, and print him out a Thai/English copy so he can point and order.

I'm good with most of it, but: เย็นตาโฟ? What is this? I assumed "cool tofu" from the name, but apparently tofu is spelled a bit different. Googling gives me lots of images of noodles ... which I'd kind of assumed :-)

While we're at it - does anyone know what makes the 'piset' version special, and does "2 ก้อน" mean I'm going to get twice as many wontons? I'd ask them in Thai, but my spoken Thai isn't so hot ;-) I'm going to have fun experimenting I guess

I note a lot of Thais starting sentences with "actually" - leading me to believe there's a similar Thai word that's used a lot. Am I right? What is it? Whn would it be appropriate to use it? Most obvious when 'posh' service staff are telling you you've broken or

are about to break some regulation:

"Actually sir there is a dress code; no flip flops"

"Actually all those seats are full, and we usually charge, but I have assigned you one anyway"

any ideas?

I tend to bring Myoplex sachets in with me; yet to be stopped though, so no idea of the legality

I've had some really good and some really bad work done here in Thailand. Worth bearing in mind that the individual dentist you get at a clinic is going to make a big difference - I've been to a couple of highly recommended places, and been paired with bad dentists...

My g/f did work experience (when she was considering studying dentistry) at a few different places, and on her recommendation I went to see this woman:

http://www.bangkokperiodontist.com/

Who was really really really good. Highly recommend her work - so much so that I decided to get some of the cosmetic stuff I'd wanted done for a long time done with her, and I couldn't be happier with the results.

While we love it here, we're seriously considering Montevideo, Uruguay when we move in 9 months.

As far as I know, 35 THB = 0,64 GBP. 3,00 GBP = 162 THB. So I don't know how you got to that result?

...

The flag fall for taxis in Thailand is 35THB.

The flag fall for taxis in London is £3.50.

If you divide 35 by 10, you get £3.50.

It turns out that that fits for quite a few other prices too - such as the examples above.

-P

3,500 pounds for a 2 bedroom apartment? No wonder there are so many Brits living abroad.

The qualifier of "in embassy district" on that one is pretty important :-) (two bedroom apartments near Thai embassy in London)

We seem to pay significantly over the odds here for living on Soi Ruam Rudee - if we were going to be here longer, we'd probably look for somewhere else...

Quick thought: a little while ago I realized that there was a pretty strong correlation between dividing a THB price by 10 and getting an equivalent London price in pounds...

Taxi flag fall: 35THB - £3.50

Bus journey: 7THB - £0.70

Street Food: 30THB - £3.00

Three-hour coach journey: 139THB - £13.90

Two-bedroom apartment in embassy district: 35,000 THB - £3,500

1.5 liter bottle of 'luxury' water: 14THB - £1.40

Seems to work for a lot of things, and has been helpful for getting a quick idea of relative prices here. Falls down for beer and expensive foreign food... Maybe helpful for people who've just moved from London...

+1 recommendation for Bangkok Fight Club - did a bunch of training there in Western-style boxing

Found today:

"Bread" on Ruam Rudee. Breakfast, which is a shot of orange juice, coffee + a big tasty croissant for 105THB all in. That said, the croissant (actually, pain au chocolat) was so very good I ended up spending 4 times that on other stuff too!

Having put a little bit of money aside over the week, there's an excellent buffet at La Gritta on Sukhumvit Soi 19 that's 500THB - probably hitting that tonight.

Garage does a lunch-on-the-run for 199THB that's super-tasty - really great burger.

Might try catching the bus to Khao San road tonight - should save me 80THB worth of taxi...

Any other suggestions welcomed! What I was really looking for when I started this post was other bits of mini luxury at prices that I could slot in to a 500THB daily food and fun budget. For example, the views and offerings at Sirocco are awesome, but 600THB for a drink is too far...

-P

I've used MoneyBookers a few times. Has taken 3 days from my debit-card payment to money being in Kasikorn account.

Dunno if this will help anyone, but here's a way to learn the Thai tone rules in 10 minutes:

Thai Tone rules are facts that are keyed on two indexes - you need to know two pieces of information about a Thai syllable in order to know its tone.

These are:

a) The tone mark it has (although it's a tiny bit more complicated than that) - we pretend there are 6 to make it a little easier

The character class the first character is - confusingly, these are also called 'low', 'medium', and 'high' - these have to be learned by rote, but about half are low, so really, you only need to learn which are medium and high. If you don't have these down, there's an excellent ebook/application on the internet that'll teach both using some memory tricks...

OK, so tonal mnemonic. I'm using a location mnemonic, where I assign each tone mark to a room in a house with which I'm familiar.

So the tone marks are:

–่ - mai ek - I link this to my upstairs bathroom (looks a bit like a shower head)

–้ - mai tho - attic room (looks a bit like an up arrow)

–๊ - mai tri - the airing cupboard (looks a bit like folded laundry)

–๋ - mai chattawa - linked to the master bedroom (it's a plus sign)

and then:

no tone mark, live syllable (ends in a sonorant sound or long vowel) - living room (live/living, see? ;-) )

no tone mark, dead syllable (ends in a plosive or a short vowel) - the front-room (as there were only two downstairs rooms in the house I'm remembering)

In each of those rooms, there are three locations - the floor, the walls, the ceiling, which I use to correspond to the syllable classes.

Example: แม่ - which is the Thai word for mother. It has 'mai ek', and the syllable class of ม is low - corresponding to the floor of the upstairs bedroom.

Almost done :-)

Now you need to assign an object to each of the five tones, and imagine it in that place. I happen to use:

Rising: balloon

Falling: plasters

Low: cow

Mid: tapestry

High: joint

Then picture each of these items in the locations, according to the Thai tone rules - these you can find at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thai_alphabet#Diacritics

The one exception to this is: no tone mark, dead syllable; you'll need to remember two different items for if the vowel is long or short.

Took me about 15 minutes to remember the objects in the right places in the right rooms...

So a few worked examples...

แม่ - first consonant is maw ma, which is low class. mai ek is the tone. I remembered a picture of a joint on the top bedroom floor, so that means it has a high tone.

โรค - first consonant is raw ruea, which is low class. No tone mark, dead syllable, which means we're looking for the object we remembered on the floor of the front room. This is where the exception comes in. Sala Ohr (the vowel) is long, so it's the long item there, which I remembered as a plaster - falling tone

เป๋า - tone mark is mai chattawa, which is the master bedroom, which is stuffed, in the picture I made in my head, of balloons, on the ceiling, walls, and floor - it's rising tone.

Does that help? If you've not used visual mnemonics before, it's all likely to sound a little strange...

-P

Thanks PetePete... I'll give it a try soon... What's good there? What do you like???

It's ALL good ;-) - although their specialty is seafood. We usually order the larb-mu, fried vegetables with garlic, pad-si-ew gai, and this yellow crab curry they have. I can't eat spicy food without getting ill, so my range is limited - my Thai friends say it's all good

-P

To the OP.... I also live in the area... and I know Suk Soi 1... Where is the food stall/food court you are talking about? Can you locate it a bit more clearly. I'm always around there... but never really stopped for eating there.

Just to the right of Gazebo is an open-air covered area, with a bunch of various food things in it. You want to go to the one right at the back - name (written in Thai only) is Oowan Im (Fatty is Full?). It's normally pretty full.

-P

Arnoma hotel do an Italian lunch for around 200 which includes buffet starters, main pasta or pizza dish and a dessert.

Excellent, thanks - will give it a go!

I'm always amazed at the folks that insist they must spend 10,000+ baht for a night out. Maybe they are bragging? Whatever

That said ... it's far from impossible to spend that much. Took the lady out for the buffet at the Marriot ... 6,000THB with wine ... and we managed to spend 5,500THB at Circle for a dinner for two (which came as a nasty shock) a few weeks ago. Anyway, this is all on the point - it's possible to spend lots and have a lot of luxury, but I'm also convinced it's possible to spend a lot less, and have medium luxury - every extra baht buys a little less.

So what I'm really looking for here (and which there's not been yet :-( ) is ideas for luxury on the cheap ie: great bargains for someone who loves to eat and drink and live the high-life, but is trying to be a little budget conscious. Here's another idea: JJ Delivery are a tasty and cheaper alternative to ChefsXP - nowhere near the range, but it's tasty Thai food delivered...

-P

150 Baht at a foodstall ???????????????? GOSH !!!

certainly no regular Thai people will eat there..... well yeah, you seem to live in a super-touristy area (suk Soi 1 !).

here in my BKK suburb none of those many small foodstalls and hole-in-the-wall-restaurants charges more than 30 or 35 Baht for an excellent meal..... otherwise they wouldn't have any customers....

It's always full of Thai people. Because the food really is that good. Most food stalls near my place are also 35THB max, but, this place is incredible. We've started going a couple of times a week.

-P

I could do it on 200

- 30 bt - cow car moo (thai leg of pork on rice with vegtables)

- 140 bt - beer

- 30 bt - rubber johnnies.

I do plan on eating more than one meal a day tho ;-)

PS: Suggestions for good massage places especially welcome. The g/f and I phut leh aan enough phasa thai that we can probably deal with a place that's Thai-language only

I'm having to make a lot of investment in my business over the next three months, so I've decided in the interim to try and cut down my spending this coming month... I'm cutting my 'discretionary budget' down to 500THB a day - from 2,000THB - to include basically everything that isn't a utility...

I've got a live-in, self-supporting other-half, so lady-drinks and the like aren't a budgetary requirement... But what I'm really trying to achieve here is to cut down while not really reigning in the life of luxury - I think I can probably get very good value out of 500THB a day ... right?

For example:

- I know the food stall at the back of the food court near Sukhumvit Soi 1 has hands-down some of the best Thai food I've ever eaten, and costs ~150THB per person, if you go all-out

- Bacchus, on Ruam Rudee, does a 2-1 happy hour - house wine is 160THB a glass - so that's 100THB for a nice glass of wine if you're with a friend

- The bami-giaow-mu-daeng stall outside the 7-11, also on Ruam Rudee, does exceptional food, at 35THB a dish...

- Cheap Charlies has beer lao, is in walking distance of me, and is, as the name suggests, pretty cheap

- Instead of going to Sirocco for the view with visitors, you can just use the glass elevators in the Landmark, and get an awesome view for free going up to the 54th floor, pretending to be lost, and go all the way down again ;-)

So: what else? Where else can I get some luxury on the cheap? I'm based by Ploenchit, so anywhere I can walk to is also a bonus

-P

Would the cheapest way not be to transfer one year's rent 432,000baht, all at once, and pay only one SWIFT charge - it would still 20 pounds, right?

Almost certainly, but sadly don't have 432,000 THB lying around! :-)

I will look in to MoneyBookers - could be an awesome solution. I'll have another look at opening my own account, although if I can register my g/f's account, there's no real downside there

Everywhere in the world I've used Regus, they've been great - probably expensive tho