JimmyConway

As Ray Winstone said in "Sexy Beast"..."People say, dont you miss it? I say what, England? Nah. fuc_king place. It's a dump. Dont make me laugh. Grey, grimy. Sooty. What a shit hole. What a toilet. Every cun_t with a long face, shuffling about, moaning, all worried. No thanks, not for me"

Excellent quote, excellent film, excellent post, have a beer on me ;-)

When a 20 something wears Hello Kitty flip flops, gets over excited when sees the teddy bear cart vendor and irritatingly laughs at every 'boing' on the TV it does make you wonder.

watching the soap operas on TV, to which the half population is glued every evening, helps to understand.

It seems to me like one woman slaps another woman then a woman cries then another one cries and one will have that look of scorn and revenge on her face in a close up camera shot slowed down and the cycle continues. Saying that, is still beats sitting in farang land with a once good looking 20 something woman turned into an overweight, hair in a bunch, no makeup tracksuit bottom wearing slob watching Pop Idols on a Saturday night.

When a 20 something wears Hello Kitty flip flops, gets over excited when sees the teddy bear cart vendor and irritatingly laughs at every 'boing' on the TV it does make you wonder.

By the way, consider the numbers when you come to the faulty conclusion that US usage doesn't matter:

USA population: over 300 million

UK population: over 60 million

Australia population: over 20 million

Over 240 million more 'uppity buggers' then us ;-)

Polly can put my kettle on anytime.

Not another business idea Syd And what is it with sausages in the Pattaya section its sausages this and sausage that <deleted>?

I am not sure which ones are worse, the tatooed, skin-head, lager lout , 20stone monoliths who hail from Essex (supposedly a suburb of London where many traders (scallywags) come from and Kent or the middle-upper class (you know the ones who get caught being spanked by a Dominatrix, whilst hooded and handcuffed).

Don't forget the bitter fat Eddie Yates lookalikes from the North West of England who's misses plays away whilst he's trucking to Tammy Wynette in his Eddie Stowbarts lorry and hates anything and everything from the south.

The only thing she MAY get a bit of a shock with is the shopping

I have found that, like for like the goods over in Thaiand are either on a par with Western prices, or even higher in some cases, like for like

But.............good on her for wanting to broaden her horizons (and you for suppoerting her)

I know a short while ago a mate of mine and his wife went to Greece and his words on returning were "<deleted> THAT.....£5 a pint !!!!"

Penkoprod

Tell your mate not to go to Singapore then. We went to see Oasis 2 weeks ago, a bottle of larger over there was 16 Singapore dollars about 8 quid pi$$ take!

Sounds like syd barrett may have gotten one of his business ideas for wife off the ground.

I am sure the authorities will "reward" him for his efforts.

Yes rewarded with permanently disappearing which wouldn't be a bad thing.

There's some good information here: http://www.ptshamrock.com/shame.htm

After spending 15 months in Thailand and then a weekend in Hull City Center waiting for the Consulate to open the reverse culture shock was that much I wanted to throw myself under a bus! (apologies to any one from Hull)

Hello Greece ;-) love your country and your people. (taking it your Greek?)

I find it quite funny seeing the Yamaha Fino's that are all over the place with the little national flags flying from either the front or back. Its like a dead giveaway a German bought me this, A Brit bought me this and so on ....

Good the hear your all up and running billaaa777.

Here's a few tips for anyone who wants/opens a PayPal business account. There are many circumstances where one may have a business outside of Thailand but may need to transfer to their Thai bank for convenience.

If you want a PayPal business account and withdraw to a Thai bank then name your business at PayPal your surname. Think about it......when the monies lands at the bank it will read, (using Smith as an example) deposit x amount to Smith and then the account number, it works. Even for a Thai it is not straight forward getting a business account at the bank, thus calling your business at PayPal for example Siam Computer Spares when withdrawing, that will be the payee's name when arriving at the bank so they wont recognize it. Name your business/website whatever you like just use your surname for PayPal.

When operating a NEW business PayPal account and your website is e-commerce if it is feasible send with online tracking only (EMS, DHL FEDEX etc) If it is not, use your common sense, does the shipping address match the card holders address? Is the customers order 'odd' IE, 20 of the same product? Is the order value unusually high? After time it becomes instinct and you will spot the 'tell tale signs' of a fraudulent order.

Do not login from another country they will more then likely query why you have done so and flag your account.

Don't send large amounts of money to anyone else's PayPal account, only withdraw to your bank account. Once your account has been running a few weeks and you have some transactions in your history tab then go ahead and transfer to other PayPal accounts (if you need to)

If for any reason your account gets flagged as PayPal 'screening activity' on new accounts is extremely tough do not panic! What ever they ask for IE: Invoices, Proof of address etc, fax the required documents and wait for the response.

Do not under any circumstances get irate and contact them aggressively as they are 'holding your money' act professional and calm as you would expect any professional business person to act.

If you follow these simple guides lines you should have years of trouble free PayPal use although I hold no guarantees!

Here's the proof in the pudding that natural raw talent does not have to come from the young and beautiful. Susan Boyle, born with slight brain damage and bullied at school performs on the TV Show 'Britain's Got Talent' and leaves everyone emotionally speechless. It's not often you will witness this in your life time, a real lost talent found at the age of 47. If this don't bring a tear to your eye nothing will!...have a look...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

I have marked Bangkok Bank and Kasikorn Bank from the source code at PayPal. The first 2 in the drop down list to make it easier for anyone else.

I was born and raised in the west. I cannot remember ever seeing anybody drive a motorbike with an infant onboard.

They even have baby seats that attach to the steering column. Since moving out of the west I have witnessed it as common practice. Why don't we do it in the west?

There could even be export opportunities exporting the steering column baby seats.

Most people in the west have a choice, where as here many don't. Anyone who has half a brain cell who has a choice wouldn't use a motorbike to take babies or kids from A to B on a daily basis. I'm sure you must be taking the piss......

I think it is the wrong business, from reading this thread I think you should start a few shower stalls near the bars. That way the guys don't have to miss any showers or any drinks.

There you go you could call it the 'Shower Bar' overweight farangs sitting in their undercrackers drinking Chang when every 30 mins or so sprinklers comes on and showers the lot. What a sight for sore eyes that would be!

I love this quote from Jerry Hall......

"My mother said it was simple to keep a man, you must be a maid in the living room, a cook in the kitchen and a whore in the bedroom. I said I'd hire the other two and take care of the bedroom bit"

I suggest anyone considering getting into contextual advertising (Google AdSense) educate yourself over here have good read and post your questions. I have been a member since 2004 and learnt so much from these guys its unbelievable.

My son just bought me over 64 packets of Walkers square crisps, 6 boxes of Jaffa cakes, 5 boxes of walnut whips, 5 giant packets of custard creams and chocolate Bournebon creams, well he had to earn his flight fare!

Im back in pattaya 16 april to celebrate our first wedding aniversary with the inlaws and i held on to fly back untill the last min. I have a house 5 mins away from pattaya centre so when i go to see friends who are staying central i will have to be traveling with my pregnant wife in the pick up as any bike travel will be too dangerous, due to morons aiming water cannons at youre face so it basically means i will be sat in traffic everywhere i go for the next bloody 4 days 2 days are more than enough for fooks sake!!

Songkran or not your misses shouldn't be on a motorbike anyway if shes pregnant! Congratulations anyway on your first anniversary, hope there's many more to come!

part of an existing (pretty successful) Hong Kong based site.

What's your niche?

i get about 30 dollar per month for a site with 2-3000 hits per day.

2-3000 uniques or pageviews per day?... $30 a month? maybe your ad-placement needs adjusting, you should be earning much more then that unless your site is a very low paying niche.

I sense your enthusiasm that's a good sign but unless your wife shares that same enthusiasm then I'm afraid your business idea will fail considering foreigners are very limited in Thailand to what they can actually do.

Then I can just sit back and wait for the cash to come in.

If only life was that simple.... Behind every successful business man is a good women.

Any true entrepreneur will firstly have a vision for something and a passion for something. You will also make an opportunity happen rather then waiting for the opportunity to come along or searching for one. Nobody can give you a passion for something, that's got to come from within yourself. Once you have that, your on the first run of the ladder. I honestly think hand on heart no one here has got the right answers for you.