bangkokburning

Sorry, you simply cannot walk off the side of the road in most provinces and kill yourself a pig, grab a bunch of fruit and nab a few handfulls of greens. If the land is not owned, it is controlled by locals. Sbeeeesh.

Thailand is increasingly very urban and with that comes all the other nonsense we see in our homes countries.

Thailand has two very distinct populations, urban and rural.

The world crossed a threshold recently, now more people live in cities than on the land. Tjis will only increase as will associated urban issues.

Thailand is a heaven of cheap food. Cheap even by international standards, not simply western.

It doesnt mean people dont go hungry.

People have very low paying jobs (its part of the reason food prices are so low)

People trap themselves in debt.

People trap people in debt

1 in 6 children in the US lives in poverty and is uncertsin.where their next meal will come from.

Can we have a rule please?

Only TV members 1yr+ and +500 posts can start these theads? PLEASE.

OP why dont you strap a pack on your back and take your lazy ass out for a walk.

Im really starting to loathe these threads.

If I was back in the USA and had a daughter with a foreign boyfriend who didnt even attempt to speak English I may lose some respect for him as well.

Ditto.

Yeah but you'd still call him his NAME as soon as you knew his name. Right?!?

Yea, I wld certainly use his name. My post starts by saying its disrespectful. I am not condoning their actions, rather simply trying to show the other side of the coin. He should make an effort as well.

This at its core is a very valid point but life is more complicated than that.

English is the worlds lingua franca. How many billions speak English.

Thai. Its tedious, complcated, arcane and a dinosaur of a language. How many speak Thai, perhaps 80m max. Thais know its not an easy language as well.

Thais would be well served at the very least to follow Malay, Indonesian, Tagalog and Vietnamese and at least convert to western alphabet.

In the end it is a dying language. Cant deny that.

My sister in law is married to a Burmese guy (hah 2 farangs!). Family often jokes about how shixxy his Thai is as well. Cop pulled him over once, he pretended to be a mute (yeah, hes "overstay" ☺ )

Ive gone back and forth with the language thing. My Thai was actually much better before I met my wife. Now days Im in BKK with her, I dont get out and about like I used to in so many ways.

Then we have my wife's insatiable international travel habit, which I have encouraged her to learn English. Especially so when traveling in states she wont feel so foreign. Meeting my parents first time was a bit iffy. Next year meeting my entire family her English was quite good!

Next, we take lots of trips and she likes communicating and befriending foreigners. In the three years plus together we have made some good friends and invited to places like Oz, Nz, Korea and Italy. Her trips have put her in a different league than the average drone at work, she has exchanges with two high level execs who lived in US. Its slowly leading to a promotion. Not the English, but the door English and travel opened (well, me) .

Now she is trying to excercise her writing skills a bit. She writes in English now on FB often, nagging me constantly about how to spell this and that.

Many of her friends speak limited English, some a great deal and some still live or have lived abroad.

Finally, I have a friend in China bailing out after 12 yrs. Hes fluent amd I mean jaw droppingly so. Reads equally well. Had enough, back to Canada. Told him he will really wow his date ordering in a Chinese restaurant cause thats all that study will be good for now.

I do need to get on the stick and get my language skills up.to speed but the longer I stay I realize there is no one to have a real intellectual discussion with, not farang, not Thai. My wifes family are simple folk, Thai are simple folk.

There is nowhere I csnnot go or almost nothing I cannot obtain with what I know know but I do need to really get my vocabulary back.

Its only important that you can communicate with your SO no matter what language you do it in. After thst, no one rlse matters if you are willing to put up with your own shortcomings.

6 posts but Ill bite...

I let my now wife (then gf) know after my first visit to her parents and family that I do not wish to be referred to as "farang".

Simple people they are yet not once prior to marriage nor a year after (3+) years I have never been referred to as - farang.

You are right to be angry. In fact, Id tell your gf if they cant get it straight, you are gone.

For me, its not that farang per se is insulting its more like - him, that man, other, alien. The beast for which no civil person shall utter thy name.

My wife's friends are pretty hip, they would never tefer to me as such.

Dont worry about being close, distance is a blessing.

Thais should have a pp, they are given two weeks I believe.

Get where via Poipet?

Dont hassle with your car, especially hiven the basic questions you ate asking.

PhuketRichard - reason I ask.is I hear that the mafia has shunted all.the taxi touts away from tje roundabout and it is not ez to get a taxi from there. Further, not ez from bus station down the road unlesd you pay some stupid rate.

Ive never paid more than 22 solo or 10 / 12 for a seat myself.

To glom on to what theblether stated, maybe shes just a country girl and misses routine and simple life on the farm. Maybe she is overwhelmed at the challange ahead (new life).

I can tell you though, for 20-60 yo urban, educated Thais its all about traveling and seeing the world. My wife fb page is just buzzing with people tripping. Then there is Panthip and TrekingThai brigades.

While visiting her friends this Songkran I was asked if Id make a group trip for half dozen people to the Southwest US.

Wife must have three friends abroad at any given time. I bet I have one Thai aquaintence as well.

Then there are the really old friends met again thru facebook that now live abroad. Just last Saturday she had lunch with a very old friend who has been living in Oz.

My big problem is talking my wife out of staying longer. No babe, you're gonna lose your job!!

Another issue if he had brass balls and was going to go up the Karakoram to China and on to Tibet (where op not interested in returning anyway). I eanted to do this many years ago (I did the kkh to the border but went back down and on to Chitral and Peshawar)

There are loads of spies along the road from border to Lhasa and anyone taking a foreigner is subject to some serious hassles. There.are very strict instructions not to let foreigners in there. It is also militarily srnsitive. You can proceed up kkh and over sooner or later ending in once mythical Kashgar which like Lhasa the Chinese culturally genocided the place.

OK, so I have slagged China a lot but a trip thru the outer western peripheries of Tibet and down into the area that butts agsinst Burma would be very worthwhile. Of course, its totally closed, but determination might prove a worthy ally.

From there down into Xishuanbana (sp) and then to Lao and on to Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.

HCMC north to Hanoi and the up to Mongolia, bike as much of that as you can and then train to Poland or Moscow

For me, aside from using Tibet to bypass Myanmar - the only overland that would really count is entering Myanmar via Bangladesh, India or China (into Kachin state), traveling thru the dicey but exotic Shan state and exiting into Thailand the farther south the better. The rest is just bs.

This will no doubt be accomplished by loads of people before the first motorcyclist pulls it off. Owning transport and crossing borders just dont mix, especially in of all places, Myanmar.

PS imo Bangladesh aint gonna open up for years to white devils after that Rohinga massacre. That leaves only East India.

I personally know a guy who owns a Gypsy so I think you can have the papers in your name. He also told me that he might be able to get me (together with my Thai wife only) into Buthan independently. Hes somebig Buddhist dude and knows a bunch of Rinpoche's in the region. Sometimes they come stay with he and his wife in Himachal.

Nothing to do with Philippino's, that is certain.

As glassdude stated...

I used to stay overnight in.bkk for early flt out, found b600gh down there. Was only 2-3 @ 600.though and that was 5+ years ago. But really, will be just a few at 600 and you will have to look hard.

Bangkok is quite pricey for rooms now days. 850 will get you a nice room if you look.

Fan rooms dont exist anymore and you really do not want a cramped, crappy room without ac anyway.

Best advice is to not stay in that overpriced area. The Khao San of sex tourists.

If you have loads of time and esp live in trendy metro area, start scouring thrift stores for clothes. Any smaller sizes will do, focus on quality, name brand and great condition. Toss it all in a box and when you get here, have it all wadhed and pressed.

Buy clothes from infant to 4-5 yrs. Theyll love ya fer it!

PS saw tv show once, said never to buy used mechanical baby stuff (car seats especially). Car seats, cribs, strollers...

Entering from Bangladesh no way. It was the most likely spot in past but with that Rohinga blow out, Id forget that option.

Id say best option would be to enter MYANMAR from China and try to head south and X at Mae Hon Son. I had read there is a cadino up on the north border and is pretty free flowing for gamblers and trade.

Id posit it would be easier to get out than in.

Must be a tough ride on that dinosaur of a machine, at least youll look cool. Lucky to get parts outside India and Nepal as well.

Still reiterate, I tbink China a totally overcrowded and polluted bore. Places that are marked on tbe map are well overdone.

If you ever get into MYANMAR there is always a chance you will get turned back or jailed snd sent to a larger city. I eas caught out 2x in 94 and 96. Once held overnight, once held snd turned back.

My wife loves her family very much and no doubt would have hardship being away from them

BUT

We have already made two trips and ticketed for her third two month trip

She loves the states, the national parks and all the nature arond my folks house.

She loves my mothers (and my) cooking and has often said my parents home is larger and prettier than a dream.

Wife loves to travel.and a dream of hers is just to travel around camping like two hobos.

She misses somtam but has found Cheese, milk, ice cream, pastrami, steak, lobster and crab a comfort.

No tears bro

Wow. Well a certainly have some answers!

Honestly, never thought of asking the office. They seem like they would be indifferent as its "working" (gets cold). They are good about maintenance though.

We will be changing to another flat when one frees up, but I was just curious. We don't use it all that much, an hour a day and few hrs on weekend in warmer months.

I dont want to theaten to move, I like the place!

Thanks for the education - really.

PS unit is standard bog box outside the unit with a newer blower thingy inside. Seems to me the dial is jacked up on the temp but also when fan is moved from M to L it shuts the whole unit down. Comes back on and only fan works for five mins. Not my problem, just hate to waste money and bad for environment.

Not suprising, Europeans would not fly to Changyi, so they will never know. Nor Incheon or Hong Kong. I mean what the F would Euro tourists know about East Asia?

One thing I still love about Thailand...

I leave my flat with a few hundred baht in pocket. Pick up quite a few small items, have lunch and return.

Empty my pockets, I still have the better part of 100b. Ive got my stuff, my stomach is full.

I still love you Thailand ☺

Looks like we are back on the 'rice and water' diet - personally, I'll just slip this bag over my head and crank up the nitrogen when it gets that grim .....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_bag

Will seem extreme to some TVers, but there is a major difference between 'living' and 'existing'. There are refugees in God-forsaken camps in Jordan who could tell us about that difference, but I dont plan to wait until I get to that stage before I check out.

I simply do not understand the mindset of people that think that somehow "subsisting" on Thai food is a hardship. It must be one of the best cuisines in the world. Further, unless one is paying top dollar (and I do mean top) the farang food here is of marginal quality and preparation in the cheap restys in the tourist ghettos and same old garbage in the fast food joints.

Further, I would have to go out of my way (from my flat) each meal simply to consume fast food, let alone a proper western meal.

People just never move beyond life in the tourist ghettos.

Next week my wife and I are going on a daytrip up near Nontaburi. We are going to spend the entire day sampling hard to find sweets and snacks. Bet the entire day including transport wont cost b250.

Please post evidence that you can enter and exit from Myanmar and what points.

Thanks.

Ive never stepped foot in Phuket save for the bus station, Thap Lamu, Similian snd Ko Tachai

The annoying tourists are enough to keep me away but then you have the Thai mafia and the young English aggressive drunks.

But Ive have always seen it as a total ripoff.

Living on Phuket is more like living in Pattaya then living on Tachai.

What about Phuket wouldnt be a rip? Its a province totally fashioned on.tourist dollars.

BKK can be quite reasonable.

Newsflash: Phuket is not the only province with a beach.

My prediction is that they will not increase the amount of thb that qualify for visas. 800k per annum is still.a lot of money for a single person to live a simple life here. Ive pointed out the distinct imbalance hete for years.

400k divided by 2 (husband / spouse) is 200k per person. Thai govt has in affect stated that is what it takes to support a simple but adequate life here.

If they are ok with it @ 31 to dollar they are ok at 28.

BOT will have to do something, Thai exorts are about to disappear overnight.

With or witbout us slackers.

Atrociously foul. No wonder the people are walking heart attacks. Women age so rapidly after childbirth its shocking.

An expat refugee here once told me...

The world cookbook is 1000 pages long. The Philippine contribution is a page and a half.

My first trio to Kampong Som was in 93. Beaches remained clean enough for few yrs after that.

I never liked the place. Beaches notbing conpared to Thailand. Distance between beach and town, the moto mafia that dug itself in ages ago. The hill (what a hike) with its marginal accomadation and pricey backpacker food.

Fast fwd...beggars, trash and whatever else.

Live in Phnom Penh, use South Thai or Malay beaches.

Its a complicated, poor, corrupt country. Sad.

Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Lao (dull/visa issues).

People that cannot manage a simple life on a thousand US a month never get their heads around managing anything locally.

I tbink Cam/Vietnsm best visa situations.

You can have a blast not spending money, rspecially if Asia is all brand new to you.