guruofvinyl

This must be the most Rip Van Winkle moment of the week. At this point I am an old timer, I arrived for the first time in Thailand in MAY 1968. Yes, there were bars and barfines at that time. From that time until now the whole scene has just progressively increased, year by year. Wars, economic slumps, government changes, crackdowns, etc. have essentially no effect in any way of reducing the number of bars, foreign tourists, or punters in anyway. All of this time it has been illegal to take humans out of bars and play with them in various rooms. So you must understand that there is a system at work. I managed a bar once, only for a week, on Soi Cowboy, in the late 70's while the owner took a visa run. On one of those days I placed a parcel at the bar next to a visiting officer and after he left the parcel was gone. This bar only had 37 people that could be bar fined, some of whom lived in a clump in an upstairs room. In those days the only game being played was "showing". Many bars had nud_e shows but when certain police came in, a signal was given and panties and bras materialized. There were other minor hurdles from time to time like drug testing--lining up bar girls to pee at Nana comes to mind. Overall nothing stops the bar locomotive and anyone in power who was serious could shut it all down in a matter of days. Of course about a million people would be without a job or trickle down money. It is not going to happen. It is absurd to even think it will. Thais, as Spalding Gray said, "are the nicest people money can buy".

I have used the same clinic for about 6 years for removing warts. It is in MBK second floor. The cost is always the same-500 baht. There are two doctors who rotate. They speak excellent English but they don't like to take looky-loo farangs who waste their time. The receptionists don't speak English and are instructed to deflect farangs, but if you speak Thai or come with a Thai friend they will take you as a patient and then on repeated visits you just show your patient ID card and you get in to see the doctor. The doctors were educated in the US and are very professional. They inject a small amount of pain killer into the area and use a laser to remove the wart.

Hey Everyone. I ended up in Chumphon. I like the town not too many Farang and plenty of Thai living. Taxi bus to the beach was 30 baht and renting a moped for the day was 150 baht. I'm staying at the Suda guest house which is close to the train and the woman speaks English and is very attentive.

I will get more into the remote zones after the meditation retreat. Thanks for all of your suggestions!

I'm still trying to figure out how Prachuab Kiri Khan got placed between Chumphon and Surat Thani.

Went to Capture it with shotguns and machete's

Thai style to "capture" endangered species...

But hasn't the army and police ordered some millions of rubber bullets? Hope they don't mix them up...

While staying at my wife's land south of Ranong, a member of the family captured a fairly rare fairly endangered animal--a pangolin which is sort of an armored animal like an armadillo in the US. So I was excited and interested in this creature. When I asked the family what it was, the answer I got was "200 baht a kilo". This is Thai peasant mentality.

All this stuff in Phuket is starting to make Pattaya look pretty good.

It is not possible that Pattaya will ever be pretty good again. Pretty awful is more likely.

It is refreshing to be proven right to quickly. As I stated in the other thread, the tourist got what he deserved. It isn't stated here but I'm quite sure by 'assault' they mean kicking the tuk tuk driver - you just don't do that in Thailand.

Proven? That's a joke.

I have been going to Phuket a long time. And the price of tuk tuks, the mafia label, and various other negative aspects of transportation in Phuket are well known to non-tourists--even guide books mention the problems. Since the beaches have grown into carnivals of "nightlife"(Patong) or just tourist traps(Karon/Kata) I usually stay in Phuket town, favoring it's low key ambiance, restored architecture, and faceless qualities. And transport to beaches is easily accomplished by public sangtow transportation--about 50-60 baht each direction to Patong is the norm as opposed to 500 baht by taxi.

Several common sense rules exist in Thailand. First of all, when a price is agreed upon both parties keep the deal. If you think the price is too high, you negotiate before the trip starts. Secondly, never ever go violent in Thailand because you seldom take on one guy but a collection of his peers who will beat you down.

It amazes me that with all the life sentences handed out, fully covered by the media, that fools in full knowledge of the conditions in Thai prisons still take a chance with their futures when most have the safety net of a welfare system back home. I wonder if the success rate is so high that most mules make it through and they consider it a safe bet. Junkies numbed beyond repair, I can understand, but the rest. Madness beyond belief.

Regards Bojo

Bojo, only around 12-15% of the runners are caught.

But, what I would like to know is where and from whom he obtained the "parcels"

And where and to whom he had to deliver.

I have a feeling that not much was done to try to find the source or the destination.

If you follow the history of these arrests you might come to the conclusion that the same parcels are used over and over again and the people arrested are arrested because they buy the parcels from the same people over and over again. No one is going to be able to buy kilos of heroin from a clean source--the sellers and busters are the same people.

I have a valid tourist visa from US for 60 days, but today I noticed that the immigration official stamped my in for 30 days by not seeing the visa in my passport. I also noticed that this is mentioned in the first paragraph of Lonely Planet guide book under the visa topic--so it must happen often. Now it is after the 30 days and that valid visa is still bright and shiny in my passport. Can local immigration handle this in Prachuab Kiri Khan or do I have to go to BKK? Can anyone offer pointers or experience with this problem?

I have a long history with the Atlanta Hotel. I stayed there when the owner, an Austrian named Max(who had a diplomatic history in India)was still alive. He used to read the paper every morning and had a calm bemused attitude. It was a bare-bones room one could rent there and it had the first swimming pool in Thailand and the arty lobby with little writing desks with their own stationary. It was a preserved time warp type of place. And Max's a Thai-Chinese lady managed the place. At the time the place was accepting of bar girls and free lancers and there really were very few problems. Thermae girls used to joke about going up the stairway to the rooms since there was never an elevator. If you came in late their would be some katoeys sitting in the lobby waiting to snatch some business. But Max grew old and his son returned from the UK. He was the moral guard that changed everything. I was staying there when the first sign went up about sex tourists. It was in the hallway facing the pool. Soon afterward the sign went up outside. Then they stiffened up on Thais. My wife occasionally went there for a room without me and was turned away and referred to Golden Hotel on Soi 1. Then I was rejected too, because the only people they accepted had to reserve by fax only. Very peculiar! It was obvious that the clientle preferred was the sort of arty backpacker, intellectual non-sex tourist type of person. It became impossible to stay there and the restaurant, mediocre at best with it's emphasis on vegetarian bland versions of Thai dishes became chilly too. I know several Thai female businessswomen who were refused service and were furious about it--to the point of writing it up in the Thai press. The last time I went into the Hotel was about 3 years ago with my Indian girlfriend to take some pictures using the lobby as a backdrop. After ten minutes the son was giving us the evil eye and we left shortly afterward. One guy screwed up a great place. He is running a museum not a hotel at this point.

I have lived in Thailand, Mexico, and India. In fact odd to see the name Sayulita in this thread for I spent months in this place. For me Mexico is just too close to the USA in culture and the violence is much worse than it was only a few years ago. Thailand is still one of the best places to live because of cost of living and style of life, plus there is the historical influence of Chinese and Indian culture. Small towns in Thailand are still decent places to live. But now let me throw out something that will cause many people to groan---India. Since you are female I will assume you don't need an endless stream of bars and bargirls to make your life livable. India has beaches and beaches, the longest history in the world and very liberal visa policies. I have a 10 year visa that cost me 150$. This visa allows me to enter the country for 10 years and stay six months at a time. Visa runs to Nepal or Sri Lanka are easy and common. The cost of living is about the same as small town Thailand and English is spoken and used everywhere, especially in the south. Internet places and good food are found everywhere. The culture is not as westernized but it is civilized. Violence is not of the gangster type but more political with little effect on foreigners. There are expats but they are usually people with some interest in the culture like music, dance, yoga etc. There are many women doing this also. Try to keep an open mind and check out a user friendly place like Mahabalipuram or some of the western beaches south of Goa for starters.

80,000 Burmese workers--that leaves 79,999 who are not murderers or rapists. Sounds like Mexicans in the USA.

An Ode to Siam

I want you all to know

that I once saw a banana show

in a bar upstairs that had no escape

from fire and Reign

I walked home on crowded sois

amidst the whores and noise

happy to be in the land of free

where life was there to see

I'm older now but still engaged

living with the animals uncaged

I fear the sidewalks crumbling stone

but not to spend the night alone.

The essence of this thread isn't so much how coming to Thailand has changed one, but how leaving one's home environment has changed one's perspective of the world. It is a healthy thing to make a move, to experience cultures with a different set of values and lifestyles. In my case I was a graduate student in California and then the Vietnam war was in swing and one day I got the letter from the government that they thought it was a better idea for me to fight Vietnamese people than study sociology. My back was against the wall, so I looked for any alternative and found the Peace Corps and not much latter I was living in a small town in India. So my conversion was forced. I lived a different life with a different set of values and environment. I had to adapt to this new world. After a year we had a 3 week vacation and I went to Thailand in 1968, during the R&R days of the Vietnam conflict. Bangkok was wild then too, and Chiang Mai was almost a village, and, believe it or not, Pattya had one or two small hotels. Hooking up with women was very easy then too. After than I lived in Japan for a year. Then I came back to the states and was a major fish out of water. My life became a series of jobs-for-money-to get back to Asia. Thailand seemed the best trade off of a place to live, less money more fun. I kept this up for 10 years, then I married a Thai and we moved back to California with her two young daughters. Now they are adults and have little desire to go to Thailand. My wife and I divorced and she went back to Thailand. Now we are still close and are growing back. I find Thailand a better place for me to live than the western world. Why? As so many have stated, the average person in the west, the friends who don't travel, the dead end jobs are all factors. I spend half the year in the states making money and half the year in Thailand spending the money. It works for me.

Let Don Muang die a peaceful death, it served us well but it is done. After all the librettos of Swampy I must admit that it is a functional place with uncrowded areas and impressive, with somewhat overambitious, architecture. It seemed that Don Muang was a quicker shot by taxi to the city center but the Swampy ride is acceptable. Although I don't use the bus terminal it is hard to quibble that it is not useful and the Sky Train will complete the picture. Compared to an embarassment like LAX, Thais can hold their heads high--not a problem for Thais anyway.

The Thai Consulate in Los Angeles is incomunicato on visa fee being free. Nothing on the web site, no phone call or email questions answered. I guess I have to go into the office and find a human.

Can you just imagine all these border post immigration officials and the money they make, on both sides, by this circus that farangs are subjected to. The posters here don't seem to mention the fees they pay to enter the countries that host these Thai consulates. One does not enter Laos for free, nor Cambodia, nor Myanmar. It all adds up and thousands of Thai and neighboring citizens are living off this condition. A note: The Thai consulate in Los Angeles has no information on "free" visas on their web site, does not return email or phone requests for information, and rejects all photos when applying for a visa as not correct so they can send you across the street to get new photos from a well connected friend with a polaroid--a visit to Thailand starts at the Consulate!!!!