MarkyM3

Wouldn't disagree the Russian girls are hot but their stolen aircraft are worthless now, they haven't been serviced properly and are cannibalising parts to keep them flying. No thanks 😄

I've had positive experiences with AA flying domestically in Thailand and to Vietnam, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore. The aircraft are new and the flight attendants generally have a good attitude. Some of the full service carriers could learn a trick or two from them. Bangkok Airways' aircraft look tired out compared to AA's. Btw - always worth paying for the exit row ime because you invariably have a spare seat beside you because most punters don't want to pay for it and the staff always eject them if they try sit there. Would I want to fly in a single aisle aircraft from Europe to Asia with a stop en-route? Not really. Also, you need to factor in luggage, buying meals and drinks etc. But for budget-conscious travellers it could be just the ticket. Personally, I prefer direct flights now and try to go business with EVA. But a return is nearly £3k a pop in that. Even the economy is pushing £1k now and I am sure AA will undercut that by a good margin, even factoring in the above costs.

Not sure where you got your stats from but different parts of the UK get very different weather. So that may be true for some places but not where I live (South East England i.e. near London, where this girl comes from). Following the driest spring on record, it's been wall to wall sunshine for weeks here, 33c last 2 weekends, it's completely clear skies as I type this. I returned from winter in Thailand in early May and have seen virtually no rain here. There's a water shortage brewing in some places already. So yeah, she should have known better but as you say, the sun in Samui is intense, even compared to Spain etc. It's easy to burn even with cream on in my experience. No pollution layer either to mask it. As for the most vocal critics on this thread, I wonder if they knew it all at that age.....probably hadn't even been abroad or popped their cherry in some cases. 😄

Magictoad....not everyone has a Thai bank account. Unless you're a retiree or working in Thailand it's near impossible to get one. My UK bank cards are free of ATM fees in most countries and use the Mastercard rate but I can't escape the Thai ATM fee. It used to be free of charge up to 2009 so we are being had, basically. I pull out 20k baht at a time which minimises the impact (I would take more but that's the daily limit on UK cards) but the fee is still not justified, I can pull out money fee-free in Vietnam or Malaysia. Meanwhile, the Thai authorities moan about lower tourism while their banking oligopoly pulls these stunts.

You might not like it but that's the reality. Saw the same thing in lower Suk a number of times when I dropped by there earlier this year - groups of Indian guys trying to bargain with street hookers for a g**gbang. They didn't get anywhere, the women clearly didn't wish to lower themselves to that indignity. And...I've heard plenty of women say they won't go with Indian or Middle Eastern guys due to their questionable behaviour towards women. It's hardly a secret. Your average Western or East Asian punter may not be a paragon of virtue at times but we are the preferred option. Penny pinching - over egged perhaps but there's plenty of truth in it too. Indians are brought up to barter. You don't know them very well obviously. You'll be back on this forum soon enough, I'm sure😄

Musk is right on the money here. You don't have to be a "leftie" (and I am definitely not) to see that pumping up already huge amounts of govt debt and passing it down the next generation to fund tax cuts for the super wealthy totally contradicts what they were trying to do with DOGE etc. The leftie characterisation doesn't quite work when Musk calls it out as bs 😄 Also, the fact Trump's private organisation is explicitly pushing billions into crypto while he pushes to relax legislation on it is surely a conflict of interest as well. A shyster all the way.

I tried that journey this year one way for a change. Taxi Lamai to Nathon, ferry to Donsak, bus to Surat airport, flight to DMK. One checked bag. That took about 8.5 hours door to door. OK, saved maybe £60-70 versus Bangok Airways but I didn't feel it worth all the hassle.

A lot of these guys will get married off via arranged marriage by their late 20s so are having their fun before that in most cases. As for the group mentality - sharing and frugality does seem to be a feature of Indian culture, hence the various stories about the coke with 5 straws in it, cliched or otherwise 😄 Obviously extends to saving money for bedroom activities too. In the past, most bars around NEP and the area didn't allow Indians in but that has definitely changed it seems. As for the various groups of guys I saw, they were out on the street pestering the girls standing around looking to pick up a punter. I didn't see any go off with them tho!

Visited soi4 a couple of times this year for beers, both times seeing several different groups of Indian guys trying to hire a single girl. Thankfully even the brasses didn't wish to lower themselves to that to earn a crust. Never used to see these guys there in the past - grim.

Indeed, and the pr!ck can't even spell properly.

If you knew anything about the effects of weed, it mellows people out. And he was trying to buy e-cigs, not weed, if you bothered to read the story. Moreover, the bloke was confirmed to be p!ssed, not stoned. I think you'll find there's a lot more violence from alcohol than cannabis misuse. Seem to recall you spouting similar garbage on a story I read yesterday And yeah, I don't particularly like the proliferation of weed shops nor the smell of it but I do know what causes more aggro....

Met one off Tinder. Late 30s, runs a nail salon in HCMC, had flown in on the aforementioned tourist visa. Had a great attitude and lot of fun. One or two Viet girls contacted me on ThaiFriendly but one look at the numbers on lower Sukhumvit will tell you this story is total BS 😄 More African than Viet girls.

This I can agree with. I just returned to the UK from a 3.5 month stint in Asia, mostly living in Bangkok and I can say I found a number of my day-to-day expenses were close to or sometimes more expensive than they are here in the UK, and the choice of imported foods (and domestic produce) is pretty poor (using Foodland, Tops etc.). Take a look at your next supermarket receipt or Food Panda/Grab receipt and compare to your home country's one and you may be surprised. I earn good money and stay in a high-quality serviced apartment when I'm staying in BKK or wherever. It's certainly cheaper than something in London or Edinburgh but still, my 4* BKK residence was looking for £140/night during early February around Chinese New Year. Hardly "cheap". I first came 20 years ago as a backpacker and have been back most years since, living there for some periods so have seen the changes in recent years. Obviously, exchange rates play a part but the £/baht rate has been depressed for some years now. Where Thailand scores is on lower housing costs (lots of choices), eating local foods and not Western ones, jobs requiring manual labour etc. Not all of which benefit your average tourist vs someone living in the country. Having said that, I was in Samui (Lamai) in February and March and both times it was as busy as I've seen since circa 2010. During my Asia stay, I spent a week in mainland China (which isn't collapsing btw, it has problems for sure but the worst is probably over, though it has a looming demographic crisis still). A very good meal for 6 of us in a mall restaurant in Xi'An came in at £30 thereabouts. I paid way more in BKK for meals only approaching that quality. Other things are way cheaper so I'm not surprised some Chinese won't come. Thailand also has an image problem there as well, I was asked more than once if it was dangerous etc. I also found Vietnam quite a bit cheaper but I still put Thailand comfortably ahead in the experience it offers tourists. Ha Long has to be one of the most overrated destinations in Asia ime.

Private Dancer by Stephen Leather is a very good book imo. Fiction but realistic and some characters are supposedly based on real people the author was acquainted with. That's set in and around bar scene in Bangkok.

Food Panda was the best app for foreigners ime. Exiting Thailand will leave a big hole in the market. Grab doesn't display menus properly in English half the time and has rubbish offers. LineMan - couldn't even get it to download to my Android phone in Bangkok despite switching VPN to Bangkok or turning it off completely and having location services picking up my physical location there. I never had that issue with Food Panda or Grab. I've noticed in Play Store the country of registration can be reset but there shouldn't be a need to do this, never had to do it with other Thai apps like Foodland etc.