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Fairly passive posted:I'll be in Cebu city from next week until April 13th.One of my planned excursions is to Panay to look for Rafflesia in Sibalom Natural Park. Apparently some kind of motorbike might be involved. How likely am I to kill myself given that I've never used a motorbike before? Are you going to rent it? Bring some ID for the rental place, any ID will probably work, but be prepared to hand it over as a form of deposit, so bring something else than your valuable passport. I read online now that if you have a local (for example American) driver's license, you can drive for 1-3 months with it upon entering Phili. Alternatively, try getting an international driver's license. The law in Phili requires a helmet, but in rural areas, the laws are more slack and the police either don't care or don't enforce it. The Panay island will likely be like this. All in all the actual traffic laws in Phili are somewhat strict, but enforced very loosely/subjectively. Welcome to SEA. I'm not sure what your health/travel insurance is going to say if you have an accident, and don't have a motorbike driver's license in your own country... they probably won't be happy, I dunno. Personally I'd say there's less risk riding a motorcyle in rural Phili than riding a slow and out-of-place (with regards to the other traffic) bicycle (which would naturally be OK with no license required), so morally I give you the thumbs up, just wear a helmet to be safe.
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Mar 15, 2017 11:43
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I managed an e-bike OK in Myanmar, but that was more like an electric scooter than a motorbike. And the traffic there is way less hectic than in Philippines - admittedly I haven't been to Cebu or Panay, but I've been to several other islands and the drivers everywhere were insane. If you can ride a bicycle OK and they give you a motorbike with auto shifting you'll probably manage. But I'd be 99% sure your travel insurance won't cover you for anything if you don't have a relevant license in your home country. The PH rental agency won't care, but your insurer definitely will. Oh and spend 20 minutes going over the bike in minute detail, taking photos of every single ding, scratch and scrape. Filipino ones are better, but in Thailand and other parts of SEA it's a super common scam for the company to claim you're responsible for a ding that's been there for years. It's not like you can argue when you have no proof it wasn't already there, and they have 20 friends agreeing that it was there!
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Mar 15, 2017 18:42
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I just saw a video on Soei in Bangkok. I think I would love it, but my friend with his no fruits/vegetables/seafood/spicey/flavorful palette is an issue. Would there be anything there that he wouldn't just refuse to eat?
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Mar 15, 2017 22:22
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Waltzing Along posted:I just saw a video on Soei in Bangkok. I think I would love it, but my friend with his no fruits/vegetables/seafood/spicey/flavorful palette is an issue. Would there be anything there that he wouldn't just refuse to eat? Rice.
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Mar 15, 2017 23:23
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Waltzing Along posted:I just saw a video on Soei in Bangkok. I think I would love it, but my friend with his no fruits/vegetables/seafood/spicey/flavorful palette is an issue. Would there be anything there that he wouldn't just refuse to eat? Invite him to gobble your balls while you gobble fish balls
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Mar 15, 2017 23:41
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Waltzing Along posted:I just saw a video on Soei in Bangkok. I think I would love it, but my friend with his no fruits/vegetables/seafood/spicey/flavorful palette is an issue. Would there be anything there that he wouldn't just refuse to eat? Don't go to restaurants with this person and tell him to grow the gently caress up.
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Mar 16, 2017 07:24
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Waltzing Along posted:I just saw a video on Soei in Bangkok. I think I would love it, but my friend with his no fruits/vegetables/seafood/spicey/flavorful palette is an issue. Would there be anything there that he wouldn't just refuse to eat? how fat/thin is this guy
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Mar 16, 2017 07:44
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Bardeh posted:Don't go to restaurants with this person and tell him to grow the gently caress up. Well, I can't really avoid eating with him. I think I'm just going to make him drink till he has a buzz then order food and see what happens. He really needs a girl to yell at him to try new things. Anyway, anyone here been to Soei?
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Mar 16, 2017 07:46
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really though, maybe bring him, order the least spicy tom kha gai for him and then order everything you want, then make him drink and see if he'll taste something without dying
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Mar 16, 2017 07:55
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Waltzing Along posted:Well, I can't really avoid eating with him. I think I'm just going to make him drink till he has a buzz then order food and see what happens. What the gently caress is he eating if he's not eating fruits or vegetables? Pad Thai and Fried Rice? I cannot fathom how someone would come to Bangkok of all places, and then not try the food. And no FRUIT? In Thailand? Not even a taste of mangosteen or fresh ripe mango or any of the other dozen plus amazing fruits you can find cheaply and everywhere? I'm quite serious when I say that I would find it difficult to be friends with someone like that.
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Mar 16, 2017 08:24
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Waltzing Along posted:Well, I can't really avoid eating with him. I think I'm just going to make him drink till he has a buzz then order food and see what happens. You should never talk to person again, fixes your problem
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Mar 16, 2017 10:50
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i don't think you can even avoid vegetables in the usual thai dishes, unless it's that thai-chinese baked vermicelli with prawns in a claypot thing?
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Mar 16, 2017 11:02
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The Saddest Rhino posted:i don't think you can even avoid vegetables in the usual thai dishes, unless it's that thai-chinese baked vermicelli with prawns in a claypot thing? He said no seafood either! Are you trying to kill the weird man?!
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Mar 16, 2017 15:21
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poo poo Order him potato chips and call it a day
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Mar 16, 2017 15:28
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There's always rice and omelette. Hopefully, he can eat a bit of onion, yes? Maybe kai/moo-pad-kratiem (stir fired chicken/pork). And how not-spicy are we talking about here? If he can handle a bit of pepper, I guess he can eat sticky rice and grilled chicken/pork/all the bits too. Addition: He can handle fish sauce, yes? FortMan fucked around with this message at 15:42 on Mar 16, 2017 |
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Mar 16, 2017 15:39
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Waltzing Along posted:I just saw a video on Soei in Bangkok. I think I would love it, but my friend with his no fruits/vegetables/seafood/spicey/flavorful palette is an issue. Would there be anything there that he wouldn't just refuse to eat? OK, I guess a simple fried rice with egg, where you request the cook to not add any vegeables would suffice?
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Mar 16, 2017 15:41
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Waltzing Along posted:Well, I can't really avoid eating with him. I think I'm just going to make him drink till he has a buzz then order food and see what happens. Sam Sen station is surrounded by excellent places, Soei was one of them, but Rosabieng is another famous one - I think it spawned a second location on Sukhumvit Soi 11. I forget the names of a couple of others. The old school ones are on the East side of the tracks, for old school reasons, but there are a few scattered up North along the tracks, down South, West as you head to the market on Nakhon Chai Si and so on. My personal pick for the best restaurant no one knows about is here - on the North end of Bang Sue SRT platform (big train, not little train): https://goo.gl/maps/wr157QyTBTt One station up at Bang Sue. Walk along the railway tracks North past the end of the station and keep your eyes left. It looks like a rickety shack from the outside, and it kind of is, but it's not what you think. Probably need to have some Thai to eat there, though. I could drop in a few written ideas. Restaurant name is Makkham in Thai, which is tamarind in English. It's sort of the unofficial restaurant of the Bang Sue SRT depot workers and the posters on the wall alone make it worth it. Until I started taking a social club I belong to there about 6-7 years ago you would never have seen a foreigner, so it won't show up in your searches, but it's worth it.
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Mar 16, 2017 15:42
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Maybe this friend is just a giant goon. Like 80% of the goon meets I go to all over the world. It's always about hamburgers. That's the best way to bring everyone together, mother loving hamburgers. Not salad, not Thai/hot pot/Muslim or whatever different cuisine. It's always about hamburgers. And sometimes burritos.
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Mar 16, 2017 17:52
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I've met a bunch of skinny goons in Vietnam and Beijing, the myth isn't totally true!
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Mar 16, 2017 19:30
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caberham posted:Maybe this friend is just a giant goon. Like 80% of the goon meets I go to all over the world. It's always about hamburgers. I'm proud to be part of your 20%! Though I really don't get the mindset of eating food you can get at home while travelling, it genuinely makes no sense to me.
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Mar 16, 2017 19:35
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webmeister posted:I'm proud to be part of your 20%! Though I really don't get the mindset of eating food you can get at home while travelling, it genuinely makes no sense to me. I don't see an issue with it. Food isn't always the main draw when traveling and people are creatures of habit. Sometimes after several days of trying different cuisines of varying quality, it can be comforting to just sit down and eat something you're familiar with. I also am more interested in eating well than I am in eating locally. When I was in Phnom Phen I ate at a well known burger joint just because it came highly recommended and I wasn't disappointed. The guys were legit. But yeah you should at least give the local stuff a shot while you're there, but you don't have to like it.
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Mar 17, 2017 04:35
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He says he gets an easily upset stomach. I said well maybe if you ate vegetables and fruits and not processed poo poo and meat your stomach would be happier. Deaf ears. I suspect his parents never made him eat normal food.
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Mar 17, 2017 05:12
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I knew a student last semester who refused to eat in street stalls because his stomach would get upset and would instead order McDonald's for breakfast every morning
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Mar 17, 2017 07:28
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Speaking of stomachs when traveling, how have you folks' stomachs "evolved" as you have traveled? When I first visited Thailand 3 years ago, it only took one day and I had a bad stomach for the whole week. Not diarrhea, no pain, no "involuntary discharge", but you know.... lots of gas and not-solid. The next time I visited SEA it was almost as bad, then slowly got a bit better as I have visited over the years, and during my last 2-week visit a month ago, my stomach was precisely as normal as back home in my Western, hyper-hygienic country. I'm surprised the stomach can get "hardened" when there is 6-12 months between my visits.
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Mar 17, 2017 09:39
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Pilsner posted:Speaking of stomachs when traveling, how have you folks' stomachs "evolved" as you have traveled? When I first visited Thailand 3 years ago, it only took one day and I had a bad stomach for the whole week. Not diarrhea, no pain, no "involuntary discharge", but you know.... lots of gas and not-solid. The next time I visited SEA it was almost as bad, then slowly got a bit better as I have visited over the years, and during my last 2-week visit a month ago, my stomach was precisely as normal as back home in my Western, hyper-hygienic country. I'm surprised the stomach can get "hardened" when there is 6-12 months between my visits. I got terrifically sick my first week in Thailand and had to call out of work for fear of making GBS threads myself, but after that everything was fine with no problems.
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Mar 17, 2017 09:55
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Pilsner posted:Speaking of stomachs when traveling, how have you folks' stomachs "evolved" as you have traveled? When I first visited Thailand 3 years ago, it only took one day and I had a bad stomach for the whole week. Not diarrhea, no pain, no "involuntary discharge", but you know.... lots of gas and not-solid. The next time I visited SEA it was almost as bad, then slowly got a bit better as I have visited over the years, and during my last 2-week visit a month ago, my stomach was precisely as normal as back home in my Western, hyper-hygienic country. I'm surprised the stomach can get "hardened" when there is 6-12 months between my visits. I've had food poisoning 4 times in my life that I can think of, two in the US, two here. The best advice is not specific foods to avoid usually (though some things like mussels, yeah), but to eat food that moves fast. A Canadian acquaintance came over and got sick off McDonald's. Why? Sits in the window for ages sometimes. Soup guy knocking out hundreds of bowls at dinner, much less likely. So, the trope about industrial Western food being safer is just that a lot of the time. Still, yeah, uncooked foods or certain seafoods supposedly have an elevated risk, but I've never had an issue with any of that. One time here was at my favorite Mexican restaurant I'm pretty sure and the other time was bad luck at a favorite soup place I think. You never really know unless you only put one thing in your mouth every 24 hours.
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Mar 17, 2017 10:01
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quote:making GBS threads stories I've been all over the world, and the only time I thought I was going to poo poo my pants and die was after drinking coffee in Amsterdam. It was my first and last time drinking coffee.
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Mar 17, 2017 10:36
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ladron posted:I've been all over the world, and the only time I thought I was going to poo poo my pants and die was after drinking coffee in Amsterdam. Caffeine will do this to you in general. I'm glad I'm an office worker never more than 15 seconds from a toilet because my pre-workout with a massive dose of caffeine sometimes just destroooooys me
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Mar 17, 2017 11:24
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I ordered some noodles very spicy, that was the only time I thought I was going to poo poo myself. Mouth can handle it, but the stomach definitely couldn't!
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Mar 17, 2017 12:02
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In China I had the shits twice a week about for the whole time I lived there which was months. In Thailand I had normal poops from day one for two years, interrupted with maybe one or two very minor cases of indigestion from obvious culinary dares, the only one of which I remember exactly involving som tam plaa raa. The girl I'd eaten there with wanted to have it again from the same lady like the next day and I complained about the diarrhea and she said something like "Oh, I get diarrhea every time I eat that one, but so delicious!"
raton fucked around with this message at 13:50 on Mar 17, 2017 |
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Mar 17, 2017 13:45
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I'm in hangzhou china and I'm BURGING out because I'm lonely. I have been here a bajillion times and do eat good local food all the time. But tonight I'm BURGING out at and out of all the times in have been in this city I'm in expat central. Holy sheeeeet this place is playing cheesy 80s and full of fake nyc decor.
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Mar 17, 2017 14:24
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Sheep-Goats posted:she said something like "Oh, I get diarrhea every time I eat that one, but so delicious!" This is a thing here.
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Mar 17, 2017 14:45
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Yeah even the locals would do that
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Mar 17, 2017 14:56
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Atlas Hugged posted:This is a thing here. Yeah my wife will eat the stankiest, spiciest Som Tam plaa ra, and every time she'll complain about an upset stomach later in the day. Then when she next orders it, I'll remind her and she just shrugs and chows on down. I guess the sacrifice is worth it  It's always funny watching her eating the really spicy stuff she orders because it genuinely looks like she's having a bad time. Like, she'll be sweating and her eyes are watering, but somehow it's still delicious? I dunno, I have my spice threshold (1-2 chillis in my Som Tam) and beyond that food is just not pleasant to eat IMO We tried a new restaurant the other day and I ordered a Yum Kor Moo Yang and it had loving 7 chillis in it. I ate it anyway because I was hungry but I don't know how it's possible to enjoy food like that. E: I was googling Kor Moo Yang Recipes and I came across this:    It's just slices of processed cheese. Why would you do this? We don't need the extra delicious Bardeh fucked around with this message at 16:22 on Mar 17, 2017 |
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Mar 17, 2017 16:02
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Currently travelling through the region for a few months for the first time and currently in Chiang Mai, I like this city w lot more than Bangkok but I miss the islands already. Off to Cambodia and then Vietnam over the next few weeks but this thread has been a great help to read through, thanks goons!
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Mar 17, 2017 16:46
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Do we get to post about the king's skydiving adventures here or is that still a no-go area?
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Mar 17, 2017 17:27
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Rich fatty foods like pork belly, thickened cream etc just go straight through my digestive system in like 20 minutes. Doesn't stop me eating them
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Mar 17, 2017 19:46
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Jeoh posted:Do we get to post about the king's skydiving adventures here or is that still a no-go area? How quickly do you want me and Reindeer to flee the thread?
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Mar 18, 2017 03:03
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Jeoh posted:Do we get to post about the king's skydiving adventures here or is that still a no-go area? 
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Mar 18, 2017 16:32
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VISIT PRAE IT IS THE GOOD ONE. THAILAND VERY GOOD TAKE CARE FOR YOU. DO NOT WORRY YOUR PROBLEM BECAUSE ANYWAY WE ARE HERE.
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Mar 18, 2017 16:40
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