islandguy

My wife enjoys all kinds of Western food, loves Japanese, and likes but doesn't love some other Asian foods (except Vietnamese, that gets a big thumbs up). The rest of her family no, except for suki, they all like that. Mom, however, who cooks and likes the kind of old fashioned healthy food Thais used to enjoy in preference to the current high fat, high sugar Thai food has, in her 70's, developed a great love for avocados. Now her other kids buy them for her from the big supermarkets and we have to bring her some whenever we have been to somewhere where they are in season.

My wife (Thai) and I (USA) both love Vegemite. Go figure...

Gets my vote for post of the day

Seatrans Discovery is a first class boat. Not cheap. If you work in the hospitality industry here talk to their sales staff about a discount or familiarization trip (the latter probably only available to hotel management and activities staff).

Spa Samui is the original one. Don't know what their prices are like these days. A google search should turn up quite a few......

I have mostly found the song taw in Chiang Mai convenient and helpful. The tuk tuks are another story.

Yes, didn't think about the fact they had my passport in hand, so not much chance I would not be in Thailand somewhere. My accountant keeps photos of each client in their files, so whatever they needed those photos were not it. Probably all the photos they take there are digital, would expect so.

Got a call yesterday from my accountant asking me to go to Immigration immediately. I needed to have a picture taken there (not sure about the there part, seemed to be what was needed) as part of my paperwork for obtaining my next extension of permission to stay. He told me that this was a new requirement he had just found out about and that it was to prevent people from applying without being currently present - not sure if that meant in Thailand or (this is what it seemed) on Samui. So heads up for those going through this process. Since I was able to get there right away, all I had to do was sit down, have the picture taken by their staff, and leave.

PM me for the name of a good Thai physio who comes to Bangkok on weekends. He uses traction and also does manual therapy.

This is a tropical country of Thailand and people have traditionally going around shirtless! So, naturally I have been brought up in this environment and shirtless is nothing strange. Maybe you should open your freaking eyes and look around in what freaking country you live in right now??? See any snow?

This is also about freaking BK and not fine dining or in an aircraft, so your comparison is moot. Nobody is conducting any "official business" at a freaking BK joint.

And what the xxxxxx hell does my parent's has to do anything with this?

I had parents as much as you had one.

Traditional Thai style is to always wear a shirt. Thais frown upon young Thai boys who run around and drive motorbikes w/o shirts.

How many years make up a "Traditional Thai style"? From Wikipedia:

In Thailand, the government of Field Marshal Plaek Pibulsonggram issued a series of cultural standards between 1939 and 1942. Mandate 10 issued on September 8, 1941 instructed Thai people to not appear in public places "without being appropriately dressed". Inappropriate dress included "wearing no shirt or wearing a wraparound cloth."[9][10] Before the westernization of dress, Thai women were depicted both fully clothed and topless in public. Until the early 20th century, women from northern Thailand wore a long tube-skirt (Pha-Sin), tied high above their waist and below their breasts, which were uncovered.[11] In the late 19th century the influence of missionaries and modernization under King Chulalongkorn encouraged local women to cover their breasts with blouses.

I find Thai people to be very conscious of bathing and have never noticed body odor from them in a public place. I don't however, enjoy the frequent sight of local Thai men walking around with their shirts pulled up over their pot bellies. My impression is that this is not something I see around Chiang Mai. However, it is their country and I don't feel I have any standing to say how they should dress.

Yes, but this is tropical island of Samui and in a burger joint where the average clientele aren't really "high class", nor is the food, it's really not a big deal.

If you notice, for example uniforms on many places, like AIS center etc, they all wear shorts, which elsewhere in the country would not be acceptable. But this is a tropical island famous for its tourist industry, so the "standards" are a bit different than elsewhere.

If you don't like it, then move elsewhere.

I noticed in the other thread with old pics from Samui, and I'm pretty sure most farangs way back then were shirtless too. But of course there where no burger fast food joint back then. But I'm sure there were farangs eating shirtless at the Thai cheap charlie restaurants.

Maybe it's not the shirtless tourists which are new, but these tourists with "high standards" complaining about things which has been going on for a long time.

I also find shirtless diners unhygenic and low class in their behavior. At the same time, I strongly support you Mole, in exppressing your point of view, especially against the kind of personal attacks shown here.

Yes, be concerned. Some places better than others, don't go into the sea with open wounds. Avoid fresh water when muddy because of leptospirosis.

Try the road south to the Krabi highway and then to the main road near Donsak (look at a map). Pretty much no traffic and no trouble passing slow car

Bangkok Air flys from both Krabi and Phuket to Samui every day. May be sold out already, check soon.

No, just back from the States, no comparison (and all the Thai food I ate there was cooked by Thais). Having said that, I no longer eat street food (except for khanom and a few vendors of one item - like hor muk - known to me) and I don't eat meat. Living in the South, I know where to go to get fresh high quality sea (not aquaculture) food.

Thought of you, Mole, yesterday. It was dead calm where I live on the West Side, and little rainwater leaving the land into the sea. So that picture shows a best case scenario for the impact of the high tide on the property.

Today, according to tide charts, the level of water is almost at its highest. The highest is on December 24, but there's only a tiny difference.

According to the charts, there's about 2m in difference between today and lowest tide in July.

The water today was relatively calm though. But if you imagine a storm and high waves, I don't think I would have felt comfortable being in those houses.

Really bad judgement of that Nikki Beach villa building it so low.

isn't there are public bus from the public busstation at the Nathon hospital street directly to the public busstation in Phuket town?

Not sure about that one, but there are different bus services to Phuket without a doubt. I am not familiar with them since I rarely go there and would usually drive myself or fly. My post was just to let people know that they would be ending up on a slow local bus with another company with many stops (and the usual hard sell of onward tickets) if they booked a Samui to Phuket ticket with Lomphraya.

Bloody 'ell, Costas, you got that just about right! There was a medical doctor, somewhere in the States, some years ago, who was diagnosed with terminal laughter. He went out and bought all the Marx Brothers movies, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and laughed himself silly for a couple of months. It's only anecdotal, not a scientific study, but he reckoned the laughter put him into remission!

I enjoy a good laugh to the point of tears. A lot of movies, even serious ones, have their lighter side. And I love the dry British humour. The old Monty Python group...brilliant.

Norman Cousins

http://www.laughingdiva.com/how-laughter-therapy-cured-norman-cousins-of-a-life-threatening-form-of-arthritis/

Not a medical doctor, but a great story and very influential in moving medicine forward

Mark Brothers, Monty Python, and Mel Brooks all work for me. They all have lots of physical and visual jokes, so even nonfluent speakers of English can enjoy them

Forgot about the the Full Moon party and didn't book a flight to Phuket from Samui in time. Since I was flying out of Phuket in the evening took the bus to get there, first time in many years. The Lomphraya part was fine, but in Surat they transferred us all to a Pantip bus. That was a local bus with something like 20 stops. At least it wasn't racing along, was warm instead of freezing, but not worth doing for it's own sake. Once I got to Phuket island I had a choice of getting off near the bridge and taking a 500baht taxi ride 5k to the airport, or going 25k more into Phuket town and taking the airport bus, neither a great choice. Meanwhile, the original big buses that started in Donsak continued on to Krabi without going into Surat. Next time, if I had all day again and good weather, I might try going to Krabi and taking the boat to Phuket, just for variety. Those buses probably still go to a transit center far from Krabi town, with every connection only with the same company. Mai pen rai........

Took the Pantip bus from Surat airport to Donsak this week, and went a totally new route I will be using in the future. The driver turned right coming out of the airport and went South on A18 (the road in front of the airport) until he got to 44, the road that goes to Krabi. He turned left and went East until he hit the 401 (the main road from Surat to Nakon Si Thamarat), turned right (East) and then turned left on 4142, the road to Donsak. All divided highway except the last part, nothing in town. From Donsak that would be go to 44, head towards Kanchanadit and Surat, then take the Krabi road until you get to A18, turn North and it goes right by the airport without going into Surat.

When I asked for a 7 day visa and handed over $15, I was told that the price was the same for the 7 and 30 day visas.

TI (That's Indonesia)

One thing that is happening now is that the electric company is stringing lines on the new (giant) poles that they have been putting in from the transformer station in Pang Kha to the other side of the island. I am sure that they are turning off the power when they change over each section to be on the new lines. This happens during work hours on days with no wind and no rain, unlike most prior outages. It will probably go on for several years. This is not to say that there are not other problems happening also. I used to be spared frequent outages due to my location, now they are frequent, but usually back again in a couple of hours. Definitely should unplug computers whenever you leave the house! Maybe even the UPS.

This resort is owned by a long time local family. In my opinion, very nice people I have known slightly for 15 years. They have had a lot of problems with tourists and expats walking through their property and using their restaurant area and the area in front of their bungalows as if it were public land. This has included idiots changing clothes with no cover at the tables that are next to the walkway and staying all day at those tables without ordering anything at all from the restaurant. Some of this problem may have gone down with the reduction in Russian visitors since that was the worst group of offenders last winter when my friends stayed there for a month. As most of us know, it is not easy to have your Thai staff make such people move. I am sure the signs are to indicate that you shouldn't go from the beach into their resort if you are not a customer. As far as to whether some of the coconut trees are on the beach rather than being on private land, that is a very good question. Anybody know the relevant laws? Anything to do with coconuts must be codified around here.

Just found out that there is a 30 and also a 7 day Visa On Arrival for Indonesia. I am going there soon for 5 days and wonder if they will actually let me get the 7 day one for $15 or tell me 'not available' and make me get the 30 day one for $35. What have your experiences been when asking for a 7 day VOA? If they try to make me get the more expensive one and I try to get the 7 day one it could easily mean 30 minutes longer waiting in line to get through Immigration.

Thanks for sharing any actual experiences, yours or second hand.

Mantra resort features yoga

http://www.mantrasamui.com/relaxing/salt-yoga-studio/

A policeman said it was for a member of the royal family when asked by a Thai friend last night. Notice the blue flags along with the yellow ones.