tonititan

So where are you from? Unless you are a Thai woman, you fit into one of the 2 groups you are disgusted/annoyed with.

You're a little obsessed about "defending yourself," aren't you?

Well, there's a couple trains of thought on this one. Some people find that they still need a little bit of the "guilty" foods every so often. If they don't, they feel deprived and usually end up binging on that food eventually, or blowing off the whole diet. Other people find that they need to go "cold turkey" when in comes to unhealthy foods. I'm in the second group - if I'm trying to avoid a certain type of food, it's easiest for me to just not buy it. If it's not sitting around my house, I can't eat it. At the grocery store, I don't even go through the junk food aisle, or other aisles of food I'm trying to avoid.

Maybe you could try both methods and see which works better for you? Maybe you need to allow yourself a small amount of your favorite foods every week? Just try to plan ahead for this so it's a conscious decision, not an impulse in which you're likely to eat too much.

Another idea, which I know is a huge waste of money, but sometimes necessary to stay healthy and lose weight....if you get home and realize that you bought things you did not mean to buy, get rid of them! Ideally you can give them away, but if you have to, throw them in the garbage before you get a change to eat them.

Actually, it says all EXclusive. What a silly way to advertise fares.

Wel this is Thailand. What do you expect commonsense????

all around the world its a usual way of advertising like this.

I didn't mean it was silly to advertise fares and then add on fees and charges. Of course that is a normal practice with nearly all airlines. I meant that it was silly to specifically have a banner proclaiming "all exclusive," as if it's something exciting for the consumer. But, I guess maybe it's brilliant rather than silly....I bet it brings a lot of customers who didn't read carefully to the website.

(its written clearly: All Exclusive- so where is something wrong ??)

And I never said (or intended to imply) that there was anything wrong with the ad. Just that it was silly.

Actually, it says all EXclusive. What a silly way to advertise fares.

Look at all my posts, emoticon, my signature (when l remember). I cannot go into details of my suggestion for the OP but my thoughts were that gay partners have more problems with latex, for obvious reasons and so my post.

Maybe I misunderstood because I am not aware of the "obvious reasons" why gay partners have more problems with latex. Care to explain? I'm serious - not being snippy. I really don't understand the connection.

Not explaining, no need. Not going down your road.

Ok, fine, your decision. If you don't want to explain, then I have no choice but to assume that you actually did NOT have a logical reason for your initial statement.

i thought that generally you would go home more often, seems you do not.

Some people do. I have several friends who go home 3 or more times per year. I would probably go home more often if it wasn't so expensive (and time-consuming).

Look at all my posts, emoticon, my signature (when l remember). I cannot go into details of my suggestion for the OP but my thoughts were that gay partners have more problems with latex, for obvious reasons and so my post.

Maybe I misunderstood because I am not aware of the "obvious reasons" why gay partners have more problems with latex. Care to explain? I'm serious - not being snippy. I really don't understand the connection.

I don't really think anything, thats why I posted. I was just checking out her options, but as an aside there are many many internet sites offering TESOL, are they all no good? Has anyone here done an internet course. There are no courses available in our area.

I haven't taken an online TEFL, but my ex did. It taught theory and strategies for teaching non-native speakers. Of course, there was no "hands on" component. I agree that a course that includes real-life training is best. However, if that's not an option, I think that an online TEFL can be ok if you get a job with a company/school that provides training. My ex's company provided training that included observations of experienced teachers, practice lessons, and training in writing lesson plans. For the first week of school (or longer if needed), all new teachers were accompanied by teacher trainers who co-taught lessons and then observed to make sure the new teachers were comfortable and effective. I can't imagine teaching for a school that just dumps you in the classroom the first day with no support - no matter what kind of TEFL you have.

Hmm.....it sounds like an experiment is in order. If only we could find that guy. I'd be willing to volunteer.

I go once per year, unless there is a special circumstance (death in the family, etc.) that necessitates a second trip. I know of lots of people who go home every few years, or even less. If you have the time and can afford all the tickets, I think your mother will really appreciate you coming home 3 times/year.

Try the Gay forum.

Because only gay people think about safety?

To widen his field of enquiry.

You were probably trying to be either helpful or funny, but I still think it was kind of a ridiculous statement. The General Topics forum is for everyone. The OP could have also widened his field by posting in the Health Forum, since the question is health related. Or the Ladies Forum, because women care about protection too. Or even the Pattaya forum, because there seem to be a lot of sex-related conversations going on there. Or any forum really. There must be a reason why you decided to suggest only the Gay Forum.

Wow, I think that guy can move his hips better than I can.

I'm still watching it an trying to decide if it's hot, hilarious, or repulsive.

Try the Gay forum.

Because only gay people think about safety?

It seems to me that the mere fact of having to start (yet another) a thread to espouse the merrits of taxi drivers that the OP thinks the taxi "service" is worthy of praise. If the Taxi service was indeed worthy it wouldn't need to be trumpeted. It would be self-evident, obvious and therfore not newsworthy.

This is actually the first thread I've ever seen that was created to talk about how good the taxi drivers are. I'm not saying that they don't exist. But I've seen so many threads talking about how BAD the taxi situation is around Thailand....not threads like this. I thought it was a refreshing change from all the taxi-bashing threads.

Sizzler has a great salad bar - have you eaten there?

Be careful of the salad bar. Salad does not always = healthy/low cal. I'm a Sizzler fan too, but their salad bar is full of cheese, meats, salad dressing, creamy soups, mixed salads with lots of pesto/mayo/dressing, sweets, etc. And the salad bar is all-you-can-eat, making it a dangerous place for someone who is trying to cut back. Also, the salad bar comes with a huge slice of buttery white bread. Unless you can resist the bad things and stick to veggies, then the salad bar isn't necessarily a healthy alternative.

With the mass hysteria in the west over paedophilia and Thailand's terrible image abroad, it's hardly surprising tourists would jump so quickly to such appalling conclusions. Very unfortunate that and a sign of the kind of brainwashed society we are living in.

And I don't think it helps when men on this forum have lengthy debates about whether the legal age of consent is really 15, 16, 17, or 18.

Personally, I don't think it's appropriate or wise for anyone to be posting pictures of their teenage daughters on forums like these. I understand that parents are proud of their children, but why would you want other men drooling over your daughter? Unless you're a newbie to TV, you will have seen the kind of comments that posters make about most of the pictures that are posted of younger women/girls (it hard to tell the difference sometimes).

It's interesting.... I've stayed at all 3 of the hotels I priced this morning. I just chose at random places I've stayed before... But I've stayed at none of the places TW25RW listed, all of which have nightly prices about double or more the places I listed...

Could it be...for some reason...Asia Rooms tends to have better prices on the more moderate priced hotels, whereas Agoda may do better with the higher priced properties???

I certainly think that could be a factor.

I tried to do some comparisons myself when this debate first started, but it was frustrating because a lot of the search engines didn't have the same hotels available. I'd go to Agoda, type in a city, and date, and choose the first hotel that came up. Then I'd go to Asiarooms (and other sites) and search...no availability, or the hotel not even listed. I did the same thing in reverse, and still no luck. After several tries I just gave up. I think there could be some truth to the idea that different engines may be cheapest for different types of hotels. I tend to stay at nicer hotels, not always the cheapest hotels, which could help explain why I've almost always found Agoda to be cheapest while others have not.

I intentionally did not choose hotels I have stayed at in the past, because I used Agoda for most of those bookings, and obviously I used Agoda because it had had the best price for that given hotel/date (I always comparison shop). I thought that those results would be a little biased/misleading. I noticed that a couple of the people who "randomly" chose hotels for comparisons actually randomly chose hotels that they prefer or have stayed at. Nothing wrong with that, but again, same potential for bias. That could also be one of the reasons for conflicting comparisons. That, and the fact that there are tons of hotels out there, and as others have pointed out, no search engine is going to be the cheapest for every single hotel.

It's been interesting to hear about all the different search engines. Reading this threat has reminded me why it's so important to compare different sites. I tend to use Agoda first to choose a hotel that I like because I am comfortable with it's layout and features, and I feel like it provides pretty comprehensive information about a hotel. Then I search for that same hotel on every other site I can think of. Of course, my methodology may have something to do with why I tend to find good prices on Agoda....

I clearly stated from the second I walked in that I had suffered from food poisoning but was now recovered fully and just needed a doctors note.

To be honest, if I were you I would be happy that I even got a doctor's note at all. I get that you didn't feel up for leaving your house to go to the doctor, but I believe it's customary to go see a doctor while you are sick, not after you are better. I'm a little shocked that they would even give out a note to a completely healthy person, as they have no idea if you were making the whole thing up for whatever reason (and I am not saying that you lied...only that they have no way to know). But, I guess you can buy pretty much anything here in Thailand, can't you?

I recently read an article about a similar research study done in the US. I think it was on the CNN website, but I don't want to look up the link right now. It found that, yes, married people had less health problems. But, the catch is that it only applied to happily married people. I believe that it found unhappy married people to be even worse off than singles. And how many unhappy marriages are there these days? A lot.

I wonder if Taiwan is one of the countries with a declining birth rate? Perhaps that is the real reason for the minister's statements. Maybe he was trying to pressure people into getting married and having lots of babies?

Sorry, I did not mean to imply that no Western women would stick by her man, only that it is as unusual amongst farangs as Thais. There are plenty of good women out there, but too many of us prefer the naughty ones until it is too late.

It's ok, no offense taken. Just pointing it out.

The other thing is, how many Western women would stick it out for long with a guy who is dead broke?

I did, for quite a long time. Yes I was the sugar momma, lol.

I don't think the main difference is Thai women vs. Western women. I think it is more a matter of women who need a man for financial support vs. those who don't. (No judgment either way, everyone has different circumstances in life.) Lots of my female friends are the breadwinners in their relationships. Not all of us women equate men with money.

Well, I do think it is a very different scenario if your brother found love before his disability developed than if he met the woman afterwards. So really, he was not even one of the men you described in your original post, yeah?

I think the real point here is that she stuck with him. I could be way off base on this, but I don't think that was any more likely to happen in Thailand than in his home country. I would go as far as to say that it might even be more likely to happen at home where the woman might not depend on the man to provide for her. Some partners can deal with it, and some just can't, and personally I don't imagine it's anything unique about Thailand that made your brother's partner stay.

She sounds like a great woman for your brother. Best of luck to him!

I think the only thing you can really do is to forgive yourself from being human and start again. Even if you have to force yourself. The hardest part is often getting started. You'll be glad you re-committed to your healthy lifestyle now instead of waiting another 6 months, or 12 months, or.....

I think that a lot of successful "losers" (weight, that is) will tell you that it's a long process, with lots of ups and downs. I know it's hard, but try not to focus on the daily blips. Look at the overall trend. There will be good days and bad days - no one is perfect. Just try to make progress towards your goal. If you're trying to lose weight, shoot for an overall downward trend, and know that there will be tons of small gains and losses along the way. There are even free graphing programs online that will help you track this if you want.

A few bad days/weeks does not constitute a failure, only a small setback. And you can learn from it. Remember how you feel now and remind yourself of this the next time it it starts to happen...because it probably will, and that's ok. Best of luck!