hermespan

Ghost within.... You write that street markets are being phased out. Reminds me of even Kluang in Johor in 2013. Even though shopping in an outdoor market has many advantages (fresh sir, social, fresher produce, cheaper) it was actually a hassle to get to. Had to take the car for 20 minutes. So, they are marginalizing one of the best features of SEA!

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Sunshine51

Care to play a guessing game? The 4/5 places - are they in Asia, Europe or Latin/South America? No names!

A friend swears by a certain mountain city in Colombia. Sri Lanka has similar advantages to Malaysia but several downsides. But I find SEA in general to be my second home. Work will take me to West Africa, but I have no expectations that Cameroon will be suitable for a non-Francophone.

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I invite others who have *experience* sojourning, working or retiring in Penang and OTHER places in SEA.

I am creating this thread as it is distinct from the housing-specific one.

Why am I giving Penang a go?

I am close to 60, have cultural affinities to Mahayana Buddhism and Hinduism, am vegetarian, seek ongoing medical care for minor chronic problems. I like to eat local food, including street food. Am fed up with the venality of Philippines, the poor health care of Cambodia, the sheer size of Bangkok, the sexpats of Pattaya (been there done that, not a moral judgment), the lack of a bus system in Chiang Mai, and the monolithic Theravada Buddhist cultures of mainland SEA (I don't have issued w/ Theravada, I mean a non-cosmopolitan culture w/ no significant minorities). Indonesia is in the race but I find most places I have visited in Java grungy. But it's a close second. Hue or similar smaller city in Vietnam is also a place to be considered. But Vietnamese is a skull-cracker language to learn. Bahasa Indonesia/Malaysia.

A significant factor is also that already I have local male friends in Malaysia (one Sri Lankan Tamil, one ethnic Chinese) - from years ago. Although they are not in Penang I find it curious that by comparison I have no local friends in any other SEA nations.

Also, I am tired of the 'nightlife' aspect of Yangon, Angeles, Udon etc. Normal Malaysian women seem friendlier.

So, in brief I have matured, and am looking for a civilized good-value place to lead a boring life. Penang might fit the bill. Reminds me of Taiwan more than Thailand.

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Please move to appropriate sub-forum. Apple app does not show suitable section.

I have lived in Chiang Mai and Phnom Penh and am going to try Georgetown or vicinity soon.

I found PNH moderate value, CNX good value but I am headed to PEN because I more comfortable there for many reasons.

My concern is finding and renting a local's working class standard 1-bedroom apartment - practical matters of lease, deposit, visa requirements, cost, security and amenities. I don't know how it will compare.

I am not in the millionaire's club so I won't be getting a retirement visa but instead sojourning there as an experiment. Mostly it's just a place to stash my many bags, to write and hang my hat. I will stay there only 6 months a year and I will be on perpetual tourist visas (apparently Malaysian Immigration doesn't care if you stay a million years as long as you leave every 3 months for five minutes.)

Most Penang rental ads are for the jet set fancy condos. Hey, I'm a budget. I am looking for very secure (bar gate), quiet, places away from audio advertising mosques are.

Comparing apples with apples (class, type, duration) are rentals the same, more or less than Chiang Mai, Phnom Penh, Pattaya etc?

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I was happy with the price of Eva, stopovers in my second favourite country in Asia (Taiwan) are almost free, and service was adequate. My only complaint was the plane was PACKED full. Or was that China Southern? Hmmm ...

All round a great deal.

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I am in Canada and arranging a flight from California to Bangkok. Eva Air has the cheapest rate for a safe airline (The other Taiwanese airline saves you 2 dollars and you risk your life if their safety record is accurate).

Anyway, I find Eva Air difficult and weird to book. Firstly, their reservation office (both Vancouver number and toll-free - same guy) is closed on weekends. They don't take messages and don't even have a polite normal voice mail greeting or instruction.

When I use Momondo it takes me 'directly to Eva Air' but even though the webpage has the airline logo its address is something strange ... wtfc3.e-travel.com

So, firstly, what the heck is that?

I see they offer four different economy rates - the cheapest being 'Eco Wow' at $518.50. In the middle of the night last night only one seat left . Next rate up is $658 or so, then regular economy $800+ So, naturally I want the bargain.

But the website doesn't work. After I fill in step one I get a box on top that advised that one must bring one 's credit card or go to the office, blah , blah . On my iphone5 the box is only half the full content and has no way to confirm . Cancel, submit page again. Same problem. Round and round the mulberry bush. In Samsung tablet (Android ) I guessed I had to scroll down the box (no instructions) and I get the confirm box and press it. Nothing happens. Can't get to next steps.

So, I don't get it. Great price ticket impossible to process. Third party vendor? Scam? Website down?

Naturally I want to inform

Eva but they do not list their webmaster. All long distance phone numbers. Like I said, even next day closed on weekends. I found a comments email form but after I detailed the problem I get a box in Chinese, something 400. So I have wasted my time.

Do others have this problem booking Eva Air online?

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I never got involved with the TM movement as you did, but while I agree with you that I too found many aspects of the organization disagreeable, it shouldn't detract from that fact that the practice is extremely effective and has benefitted many people.I don't mean to pry, but I am curious as to why a medical condition would prevent you from practising a technique that is after all just thinking.

I have tinnitus 24/7. It is most noticeable when in a quiet place. For the benefit of those who have not bern initiated and practiced TM, the instruction for dealing with a distracting sensation (other than a fleeting one, in which case the instruction is to repeat the mantra as usual on the level of attention more than sound) is to focus on the location of the disturbance (leg wound source of pain or whatever). With TM I would spend my entire twenty minutes dwelling on the body if I practiced now.

I have considered other forms of meditation that are less passive (e.g. Loving kindnrss, walking and breathing meditations of Theravada Buddhism) , and indeed practiced ritual pujas (worship ceremonies) to Hindu deities (I was once a fan of South Indian Saivism - so I don't discredit religion so much as find the misrepresentation od cults unethical).

Another issue I have with TM is that unlike say joining a religious sect (regardless if it is Ortjodox Christianity, Mahayana Buddhism or whatever) is that one discovers as one goes what is expected of one. TH group did not tell me in advance. First it was twenty minutes twice a day, then plus hatha yoga, then plus vegetarian diet (one of the practices I continue), plus longer meditations in residence..... At one point in Iowa I was doing my 'program' 5 hours a day, while disliking the local TM leaders and seeing seekers told to stop attending lectures by renegade teachers or other gurus, and seeing Maharishi having built for his visit a security barricade. I left to meditate without any association with the movement. I find the TM movement moronic and now largely commercial. At one point while still a 'true believer' a Canadian leader who barred me from taking additional courses until I was 'one-pointed' told me, and I kid you not, to 'put all my booksvon philosophy, religion, Sanskrit and mythology - in a big bonfire and burn them.'

I recommend TM or any meditation. And unlike the Hare Krishnas there were no bizarre murders and meglomaniac lower level leaders. But now westerners pay big fees to support schools of very traditional (but not popular) Vedic Hinduism of the TM movement in India.

We were duped.

The technique itself I benefitted from and I have no fault with (it definitely is not contemplation or like Buddhist meditation of gently controlled thoughts and feelings). I would continue if a medical condition does not prevent me from practicing. Currently, I would be following the instruction to 'feel the body' rather than drift sweetly in between random thoughts and coming back gently to the mantra. The obvious Brahminical Hindu and yogic origins never bothered me. although I find the TM movement and Naharishi himself disingenuous. Better Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Yogannanda or so many other real teachers.

I have fond memories from the seventies of when TM was less of a religion - then came the embarrassment of. 'yogic flying', 'Vedic architecture' and perhaps worst of all Maharishi's grandoise projects.

TM - pros and CONS

I practiced TM for about ten years. I lived in its centre in Fairfield, Iowa. I learned the fraudulent 'TM-Sidhi' program. I quit the movement when the negatives outweighed the positives. However, no one put a gun to my head and forced me to sleep with my head east, avoid garlic and onions, listen to Sama Veda before bed and think uncritically.

Pro

1. Like Scientology, it is highly critical of big pharma

2. It kept me away from recreational drugs when I was a teenager

3. I had an incredibly enlightening mystical experience in my first meditation

4. Its members tend to be harmless.

5. It encourages health and ecology

6. I met many kind people

Con

1. Organization encourages very expensive priestcraft ceremonies (yagnyas)

2. It lies a lot (too many examples)

3. There is zero morality teaching

4. It is expensive to learn

5. Leadership is dictatorial like many cults

6. New worlwide and zonal leaderships were sold to a 'Maharaja' and 'Rajahs'

7. It has perverted traditional Indian medicine

8. It encourages astrology

9. Unless things have changed interest and participation in other self development techniques of a spiritual nature is prohibited.

Anyone here tried this one?

Is it under Royal patronage?

Prices have got to be cheaper than the Trad Chinese hospital next door. I stopped going there for reasons of price.

The location suggests they attracting the same customers.

Is trad Thai medicine like trad Cambodian medicine, which is the 'poor cousin' (more folk and home remedy tradition) than TCM?

millwall fan...

'slice of the pie' could be worse...

To speak frankly I think the original poster means 'prostitute friendly'. If you check in with an 'age appropriate' and similar weight gal who is not Thai the situation will be different. But if you are a 200 pound Australian of 65 and show up with an 18 year old Issarn girl who they recognize as ganging out in the parking lot of Nana - don't expect a welcome at a 5-star.

davejones...

numbeo is crap. Very inaccurate except for the jet set. It is not a realistic comparison since instead of comparing costs for local fruit in season it lists apples. Likewise veggies are potatoes. Very upper middle class foreigner-oriented. And much of it is guesswork.

and

'is Thailand cheap for foreigners on a budget of $1500 (USD) a month?' No.

'Is Thailand cheap for employees of international corporations, NGOs and governments?' Yes

More useful questions are...

'is it good value? Maybe

and

Is it cheap compared to other ASEAN nations? Depends

and

Is it cheaper than other Theravada Buddhist nations (Laos, Sri Lanka, Burma, Cambodia)? NO!

Not the same of course.

But the short answer is no.

.

me too. Go to other competing forums for that.

don't know if it was a glitch or intentional but the train running from Rajathewi to Morchit went one stop in the wrong direction before there was a flurry of announcements in Thai and then it reversed in the correct direction. Glad there was no train coming!

Taxi driver to DMK said radio announced that BTS was 'seeyah' (broken) for 11 minutes.

Reminds me of pilot accidentally trying to land at old airport in Medan.

Human or technical error it all comes down to human weakness as last time I checked humans design the machines.

I am somewhere inbetween a doomsday prepper and an investor. I buy physical precious metals not so much because I think that the world economy will collapse, as that I don't understand, or more importantly don't 'grok' derivatives. I understand gold and silver. I can hold it in my hand. It is more or less anonymous. I don't trust governments, banks etc. But I keep 15-20% of my net assets in precious metals.

I intend to buy stocks, bonds, etc but bristle at the regulations and controls. If I could buy bearer bonds I would do so. But these days one doesn't even actually own the stock, it's in the name of the broker. I am no financial genius to be sure, but I find financial markets complicated and the movers and shakers (especially central banks) suspect.

The only significant disadvantage I find to silver is the storage costs and lately collapsing prices.

Having buyer's remorse, before I stepped on the plane to Penang I checked Bangkok Hospital for price of a CT angiogram. Firstly, on the holiday (and maybe always) there were significant language obstacles.

"What is the price for a CT angiogram?"

'For what?'

"Lungs"

'One moment please... A CT of chest is THB15, 270'

"How much is a CT angiogram, the multi-slice image of heart only."

'One moment please... THB25,000' (USD811)

Once in Penang I called Lao Guan Lye Specialists Hospital. Staff told me price is what worked out to USD483.

So, one can fly to Penang on Air Asia, enjoy the vastly superior food, have almost no language problems , deal with people whose brains seem to be wired very similarly to Caucasians, maybe even enjoy some entertainment and shopping too - and still save money. Go for multiple checkups, tests and procedures and it is a bargain.

Thai governmental leaders and economists, are you listening? You lost me as a customer for nightlife ten years ago. And for medical five years ago.

Whenever I go from step one to step two booking a Nok Air I find the price has jumped $15-20. This is without any luggage etc . There is no warning (on the mobile site at least) that it doesn't include fee or tax.

I find Air Asia 'all-inclusive price' more honest.

Does anyone have experience buying gold etc in Hong Kong and Mumbai/Kolkata so can compare?

why would anybody buy gold in India with an added tax premium of meanwhile 18%?

EXACTLY

i didn't think $50 shoes were cheap in india. but a bargain compared to $300 German shoes retail in Canada. In fact they are the Indian version of Timberland. One loop broke in the store so I guessed what it would cost to modify them.

No, I am neither ethnic Indian nor an Indian citizen, though I speak two Indian languages and was once Hindu. What is the televance?

I found a Pro Express nearby which seems more professional. See under Bangkok section.

The price per replaced loop in Medan was 83 USD cents each, here in Bangkok $1.56 I do not expect the results here to be twice as good as the Indonesian Mr. Cobbler type chain kiosk results were 99% perfect (aproximate colour match for thread)

Pro Ecpress on basement of Robinson's Sukhumvit soi 17 has a larger kiosk than same company in basement of Terminal 21 nearby. Robinson's two workers tonight were friendly and creative: "We'll send it to our head ofgice because they can stitch if there" Pro Express Terminal 21 would have done it for half their price (if he meant per pair, or the very same if he meant per shoe). And instead of promising it in one day it will take three .

Good. I want good not cheap Time will tell...