witold

Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Benjamin Franklin

Ah yes, the good old liberty to cheat on taxes. Things were much better when IRS wasn't computerized and didn't have all the checks and balances it does no.

It's also quite amusing for someone living under Thai monarchy, weak rule of law, and fairly rampant corruption complaining about Liberty.

Mexico No.2? They've got to be joking. OK if you don't mind the drug war shootings & kidnappings. Even the Mexicans are sick of it.

If one stays out of Mexico City and shady border towns like Tijuana, then what you say is simply not true. Mexico is indeed very safe and very friendly.

I have seen girls make this kind of money before and no they are not hi so. Most of the girls i met and dated paid if they did not i would not go out with them again. I never dated the really poor girls because usually they did not speak any english.

I think it depends on the kind that you meet and how you look yourself. If you date a 20yo while your 50 fat and ugly then expect to pay. Are you both in the same age range and there is real love then its more likely.

Before i get flamed... this is in general there are of course 20yo models girls that like older fat guys.. but they are rare.

We found the full and complete answer to this question. End of thread.

In regular relationships where both parties are on equal terms financially, you have a good variety of who pays. I think it is representative of girl personality. Some just expect to be taken care of and be more submissive, whereas others want to be be more domineering or equal in every respect...

That said if you are the 50yo 'dating' a 20yo hottie, then think of the dinner tabs as good value for this sort of arrangement.

To compare relative costs across various countries, let's pick some standardized units of measurement. I suggest people post the cost of the following items in their locations:

1. 500 ML bottle of drinking water *standard local brand...not fancy import)

2. Mc Donald "Big Mac Meal" or cost of a single Big Mac

3. Can of Coka Cola (12 oz) and/or 1 litre bottle

4. Local daily newspaper (not a standarized item but informative nonetheless)

5. 1 litre of diesel fuel

6. Base model of Toyota Camry (MSRP, no extras, before taxes)

Any others to suggest?

These are horrible points of comparison. These expenses are not representative of daily life or what most people's monthly budgets are mostly spent on. IMO, a better comparison would be something like:

1 - housing. rent example, house price example, and condo price example. Need to compare similar properties. It doesn't make sense to compare $350,000 Sukhumvit condo with a $35,000 ghetto condo in Washington, DC.

2 - transportation. Metro/bus. Car/Fuel. Thailand generally wins in public option and coverage, and loses in private options.

3 - Food. Cooking at home prices. Eating out cheap - for Americans, this would be McDonald's, but in Thailand, it would be 25baht road side stand, NOT Thai McDonald's.

4 - General entertainment. Club prices, regular bar prices, real restaurant prices. Bangkok really shines in here IMO because there are a lot of options available at the low end without feeling low end. Of course, there are plenty of options available that cost exactly the same or more as NYC.

5.Then you have some real life family expenses, like education, daycare, etc. These may be major expenses for some people that need to be compared.

In other words, it doesn't matter what something costs if you spend only 1% of your income on it every month or never buy it. These items are inconsequential to your financial well being regardless how overpriced they are.

It's just a silly article written by some English major who has never been to any of these places. I wouldn't stress too much about what some random publication I've never heard of has to say.

A lot of times, what happens is that costs are really a matter of requirements and taste. If you want to live by US and EU standards, you will find such a place in almost every 3rd world country where the rich people live. Usually, it ain't going to be cheap and the 'average' statistics for those countries don't apply to these rich areas... It will be cheaper, but often times not cheap at all and some of these enclaves can be much more expensive to live in than in the US/EU. (Especially in Africa, where security and education can be costly.)

As such, Bangkok is still pretty decent value in this respect. The city is now fairly international and offers the sorts of things that premiere cities around the world offer. You may not have as many choices, but you can find the same things or decent substitutes. Life in BKK is still cheaper, at least for those with no families... It's not dirt cheap by any means but BKK is pretty good value. Pattaya/Phuket/etc seem the same way.

As for other non-beach parts of Thailand they are nothing special. They are perfectly fine places to live, but similar sorts of environments are a dime a dozen in other developing countries - cheap everything and local women will love you and your wallet there as well.

The thing is that NONE of those shops are tailors themselves .

They all let Thai tailors make it all for them , so they have the same tailors .....

Then the second thing is that almost every tailor only can make the same OLD fashioned designs ,

those stiffy one which make you have the feeling having a sea-elephant under your shoulders ......

And they can't make new designs , they always will tell you no problem , but eventualy they all look the same .

I know it my wife is a really good designer , she also rents out clothes for parties and marriage ,

some of the tailors are okay , but we want something genuine for the customer , none of them can do it .

Change is hard to impossible for them . My wife designs everything she has got in her shop , she is to busy to

make suits herself , but we will do those as well in the future , she only wants quality , and sorry to say

but the tailors are just not good enough , especialy when you know what you talk about .

Anyway the Indians overcharge you for the same product , a lot , so a possibility is to look for material yourself at the market ,

find a Thai tailor and the quality is the same , or for convenience you could let them take care of everything .

Anyways some do give a good job .

+1.

Almost all "tailor" shops are just fronts for factory workers - at least in BKK.

Trying to find a tailor who actually does the work, offers high quality materials, and good designs and quality stitching is dam_n hard. I have no idea why Bangkok has such a positive reputation for tailor clothes. My experiences have been either negative or average.

It is quite possible and likely that his situation is self inflicted in some way, perhaps via nasty drug habit.

But keep in mind that some people take different medications that may have serious side effects. Perhaps he ran out of or lost some sort of medicine he needs to function properly? Once his location is known, I don't see any harm in contacting TP to have a talk with the guy. Even if his situation is completely self inflicted, it sounds like he could use some help and hopefully accepts help. Trying to see if help is needed or necessary is certainly a good deed one can do... even if this leads to nothing more than deportation...

Is anyone aware of a lasik center that offers c-TEN (custom Trans-Epithelial No-touch)? Is this available in LOS yet?

This procedure is the latest in lasik and offers substantial (I think) advantages over the traditional methods. I searched already and find references only to regular lasik and prk...

People who have never run a business think 'ideas' is what is important.

People who have ran a business know that it's the execution that is 95% of what makes a business.

It's pretty silly to hear all these 'ideas men' hold on to their ideas thinking they are actually worth any more than the paper they are written on.

Your employees are more than willing to show up to work - or another location - while CW is closed.

You should not penalize them just because your landlord - CW - decided to shut their doors on you. This is your business and this is your problem, not your employees' problem. If you have a problem with this situation, talk to your landlord.

Doubt that, he rather get bored from his primary interests "Women were easy and cheap. Weather nice"

what a superficial, pathetic, inconsiderately crap

I personally think there is truth in this statement, if you took the "Cheap and easy women" out of the equation, would half the expats living here be living here ?....think not.....I am of the opinion that the driver for a vast number of male farangs settling here is one reason and one reason only....Women....... and cheap booze may be an added bonus

Climate, temples and Thai culture are not reasons...

I got a question for you; how many older western women do you see retiring in Thailand? LOL.

It appears that older western women don't care for temples and Thai culture as much as older western men?

It is pretty sick when I see old men mentally undressing young slim Thai girls yes

I'm pretty sure men all over the world, regardless of country and culture, find 20 something girls very attractive and at least look/check them out. And although we might get older each year, the women we find most beautiful are still about the same age.

I have driven around CM areas quite a bit. I haven't seen any glaring abuse of signs. Quite frankly, I think you are seeing something that is not there, or you are just shilling for the other company. Take some pics, and post them here and we can all judge for ourselves. But realistically, Thai people should focus on maybe not throwing trash on the ground at scenic areas/side roads and doing some trash cleanups at these areas - that would be much better time spent than complaining about some promotional signs. That will do a lot for making Thailand prettier.

You might be talking about Flight of the Gibbon. Jungle Flight is a better attraction and Flight Of the Gibbon has about 500% more signs around than Jungle Flight. Including a lot on took tooks. Jungle Flight is a better attraction. You are wrong and you should know it. Do you work for Flight of The Gibbon? If you do remember this, they have a bigger attraction with longer lines and better food. No wonder you are posting.

I did both FotG and Jungle Flight. I did see the Gibbon when I was there. In my tourist opinion, do both. It's not like CM is so full of stuff that it is impossible to do everything. But if you have to choose:

FotG indeed has shorter and lower zip lines. However, FotG is definitely in a prettier area. You have these wonderful ancient trees that are 20 feet wide and look like they came out of a movie. For Scenery FotG wins hands down.

Jungle Flight on the other hand has better and higher zip lines. If you are a zip line aficionado, go with Jungle Flight. But they are definitely in less pretty area. Just regular trees that look very tall.

Food is pretty blah at both of them. I guess one of them might be a bit better but it's certainly not a brag for either company - both offer sufficient nondescript food you will immediately forget.

What SE Asia countries do you plan to visit? Getting "big bikes" into some countries can be near impossible...

Realistically, you should buy a bike from a company that has the biggest presence in the region.

It doesn't matter if bike X is 3% more reliable, but when it fails you have to wait 2 months for a part or pay Air shipping from Europe/US. Much better to buy something with regional presence and support and immediate fix available. Secondly, like most of us you are probably not a super-expert-rider and most paper spec differences will mean little to you once you're on the road assuming you get a Western quality bike. These bike reviews just nitpick on mostly little things that don't make substantial real-life differences.

Find 3 brands with biggest regional presence, and test ride their top bikes to see which one you feel most comfortable on. That will be the right bike for you.

It's amusing to read the same people who said foreigners are stupid and deserve to be hurt in the action when things go down in the other thread now spinning things the other way and saying it's discrimination and hate against foreigners.

Maybe, just maybe, the redshirts don't want foreigners around when the clash happens? All it does is create more havoc and eventual bad press when some random tourist gets killed and his country restricts their citizens from going to LOS. In addition to this, they should rightly be suspicious of motives of these people who generally have absolutely no good reason to be there, and generally appear to be very anti-Red.

The reports of North Korea printing US C notes surface quite often. US Govt will not confirm any of these allegations because of the sensitive nature of the matter. There is no 'smoking gun' evidence on this issue (at least info that is publicly available). Only strong evidence and occasional suspicious links.

Why do you think they would go through this process again? Redesigning and recirculating currency is not easy or cheap. It doesn't matter whether it is North Korea printing money - someone is obviously printing excellent fakes. Technology has moved leaps and bounds in this area in the last 20 years and the good old plain C note design is no longer enough.

It's actually cheaper to live in USA, Europe and Australaia at the minute compared to pattaya.

Not talking about bars or ladies. General everyday expences.

rolleyes.gif

Hate to break it to you, but you can buy a 2 or 3 story townhouse 30 miles from Washington, DC for as low as 75K. And if you get out of metropolitan areas, there's a ton of $120K-150K houses.

In the US, almost all goods are cheaper. Cars are cheaper. Supermarket food is cheap. Heck, there are people in the US who use so many coupons/discounts they get their food for free. Thailand imports and taxes everything and produces very few things. You can compare your local prices - if you can find stuff available to begin with - to Amazon.com prices. Even health care is very cheap in US because it is covered by health insurance for most people.

Restaurants? I guess if you call road side stands that rewash dishes in dirty water 'restaurants', then yeah, restaurants are dirt cheap in LOS. But have a look at some higher standard dining options in LOS and you'll find plenty of places that are quite expensive. For example, look at lobster prices all along the coasts - all more expensive than US. Sushi? Same price, etc.

Now what is cheap in Thailand is human labor. But there are only massages and taxi rides you can get...

I know that LOS is cheaper if you live in London, but you don't have to look to developing countries to bring costs down. You can move to the US and save nearly as much.

I often get a discount at hotels .. even five star sometimes ... unless the hotel is near fully booked. And I especially get these discounts when the hotel has few guests. Often the desk clerk doesn't have the authority to give discounts so I ask to speak to the owner or manager and then I bargain the room price much like I would when buying a shirt in the market. You just need to hone your bargaining skills ... and in Thailand lots of smiling and respect can get you a lot.

When I read your post above, for a second I thought it was one of my old ones. It reflects my experiences very well. Only a handful of times I wasn't able to negotiate - this was because the person who was able to lower rates was not on premises to discuss.

I think you are overestimating the uncertainty in Thailand, particularly how it will affect you.

You are married to a Thai and you can stay here for as long as you want. Whatever political trouble happens will have zero bearing on your day to day life. Over the next 20 years, Thailand will become more like a developed Western country, with increased rule of law, etc. Particular leadership changes and structure changes don't matter for 99% of us.

So it sounds like it comes down to finances. To me, 90K in Italy sounds dreamy. I would leave almost every Thai city in a heartbeat for that... with possible exceptions being Bangkok and a few beach front locations. So maybe what you are leading up to is financial uncertainty in Thailand... if you don't have a good retirement plan and savings, and exchange rate continues to sour over the next 20 years, things will not look good.... you know your situation better... But you can be sure of one thing - as Thailand joins truly developed world, everything will become more and more expensive. Thailand will be cheaper than Europe for a very long time, but the disparity will narrow as the standards of living also marrow.

It seems like a pretty fair deal for people who bought for 1M. Some may not like the design, but open layouts are becoming very popular (at least in the US). They offer a sense of space despite small actual footprint. Same with windows.

Projects get delayed, especially during tough economic times. In Washington, DC, there are many projects that were canceled, converted to rentals. Projects that were shopped around in 2006 are only now braking ground since the economy recovered and banks are lending again. Thailand is no different. If the developer was thinking of walking away, they would not be doing any daily work, as there would be no point and it would decrease the money they walk away with...

Her reasons to return are strong family ties, family land, young daugthers and the desire to return to Thailand and get married in November

I have submitted a sponsers portfolio containing 75 itemsed pages. I have also booked a flight toThailand for the 30th of May.

I just can not find a box to tick for the length of relationship question, because there isnt one. So when is a relationship too short or just right??

Use a little common sense. 2.5 months? I've had longer relationships in grade schools. Once you start looking at 1+ year of you and her actually being together, then it will start looking like a real relationship.

As I read above, the only reason she may have to return to LOS is young daughters. Other things don't really sound like convincing reasons at all. So you guys should probably stress the fact that she has young kids, but if I was immigration, I would ask why she is going on 6 month vacation leaving her kids... (In other words, if she is willing to leave her young kids for 6 months, she is probably willing to overstay her visa for a lot longer...) Uphill battle for sure... look at things from immigration's point of view to structure your arguments... post some updates on how things progress...

I have a number of friends (yes, FRIENDS) who are bar girls in Patpong. They don't gamble, don't use drugs - just work to support their families as best they can. Two have called in me in the past few days. They are desperate. They were told not to come back after Songkran. They don't know how they're going to pay their rent or send money home at the end of they month. One asked me if I could send her 500 baht to buy powdered milk for her children. I've been to her home in Kalasin; it's not a scam. Just to point out that this mess is truly hurting people in ways that most of us can't imagine.

This makes no sense. These girls make a lot more money than poor Thais and supposedly have worked there a while so they already earned a good bit, and they still have zero savings? Life in Thailand - particularly in poor areas where they are coming from and living in low-standard conditions - is very cheap. So where is all the money they make going? They just spend everything and more from every paycheck?

You should seriously consider Suzuki Vstrom 1000, if it is available to you. It's basically a cheaper version of BMW GS. Very nice and reliable bike that handles well on the street, and can do a little dirt too. I was very impressed with this bike.

As a newb who decided to pass on visiting Pattaya, my impression is that it has only one primary attraction; red light district. Beaches are a lot better down South - around Krabi, for example - and city life is a lot better in Bangkok.

That is my outsider impression of Pattaya, and I don't think I'm alone in this. Maybe in years past it was a cheap alternative to Bangkok? But today things like real estate appear just as expensive in Pattaya...

People - especially guys - are not blind.  We have an image of what is attractive and what is not.  Some of this is environment driven.  Thais grew up in a different environment, so their perception of beauty will be somewhat different too.  I don't see the point in trying to tell them/persuade them that x is prettier or y doesn't matter.  Aesthetics are - and should be - in the eye of the beholder.  

Well, at the end of the day, it is just bullshit Dave.

Another example of how superficial Thais are.

Still a long way to go but this is probably part of the attraction.

Of course it's bullshit, just like someone's preference for dark skin, or someone's claim that they don't have a preference.  Same with other attributes like hair color, weight, etc, etc.  

I have a question.  How well do these whitening creams work?