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I lived in Thailand and taught English there (and in Taiwan and China) for two years, and this thread and Ringo R have my stamp of approval! (PS you can use my Thai food with a bad cook joke if you want Ringo I don't mind.) (PPS this is going to be the best thread in Travel and Tourism unironically) raton fucked around with this message at 03:12 on Jan 30, 2010 |
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Jan 29, 2010 23:16
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A Thai language primer First, two sidebar points. Then, some phrases. Sidebar one: Thai is a tonal language (as are most of the languages of the region). You know how one "Laa!" is different from another "Laa!" in music because they have different sounds? Well, in Thai it's not just L+a+a that matters, the sound matters also, and this quality of sound is referred to as "tone." It's fairly systematic, though. Thai, like Chinese, has five tones, or five different sounds for any given syllable. This post isn't a course on the Thai language, so I'm not going to get into it other than to say you need to say it the way they say it, don't just say what they say. If it sounds like a goofy little song it's not because they're being goofy, it's because if you sing that song another way you're actually saying different words. If you want to hear the words below said, you can try this dictionary site. Sidebar two: Khap/Kaa. This is called the politening article. You say it at the end of your sentence to indicate that you are speaking in a polite manner. Men say Khap, women say Ka. (Also, you will probably be amused to know, some trannies and butch lesbians use an invented article, Ha.) Also, people who say Khap/Kaa at the end of their sentences are seen as cultured and debonair, or at least cute, while people who don't are harsh country slobs. Because Thai people are almost ceaselessly trying to be polite you may find yourself wondering "Why is everyone saying Crap all the time..." but now you know. Khap/Kaa also often takes the place of the word for "yes" in polite discourse. Also, while this doesn't really belong, the words for "I" are different if you're a man or woman as well. Men say "Phom" women say "Di chan" or sometimes just "chan." There are overtones of men having a superior status in that, but most Thais don't think about that much and a woman saying "Phom" is more likely to just sound like she doesn't speak Thai rather than sound like she's liberated. They're also circumstantial, though, and it's possible for a woman to refer to herself as Phom if, for example, she was talking to a group of other women at work that she outranked. Thais will frequently refer to themselves in the third person, however, and this may in part be a way to avoid having to find the right status related pronoun before speaking. ============================================= Phrases One: Pleasantries -- most of these will have Khap/Kaa said right after them, don't forget about it... hello : sawatdee thanks : khap kun how are you : sabai dee mai (lit. "Are you well relaxed?") it doesn't matter / it's fine / don't be angry / let it go : mai pen rai No one can explain why "mai pen rai" means what it does, but no one will deny that "mai pen rai" is a Thai cultural cornerstone. You'll hear it all the time. Where do you want to eat? Mai pen rai. Aren't you mad about your sister getting a loan for her sick buffalo that doesn't exist? Mai pen rai. Why did you put meat in my soup, I said I was a vegetarian! Mai pen rai. I just rammed my piece of poo poo motorbike into some dude's BMW so before I peel off into traffic again I'm going to look at him sagely and say "Mai pen rai, khap!" Trying to get this phrase accurately translated by a Thai person is a hobby of about half of the people who visit Thailand but it's never going to happen. "Mai pen" means "it isn't" so you would expect "rai" to mean "a problem" or whatever but it doesn't, on its own "rai" is the name of a little bedbug like critter. And no, there isn't some deep symbolism about bedbugs in Thai. When you take the phrase apart the component parts don't seem to have much to do with what the phrase means anymore. Thai people assure me that this kind of lexical misbehavior is a fairly regular thing in their language, with many compound words/phrases being made up of what are apparently random (or near random) parts. Phrases Two: Food waiter! / waitress! : Nong (lit. "younger sibling." You're yelling out "Little sister!" or, in English, "Miss!") not spicy : Mai sai prik a little spicy : pet noi spicy: pet very spicy : pet mak water : nam plao (lit. "nothing water" this is how you ask for bottled water) beer : beeah rice : khao chicken : gai egg : kai pork : moo beef : neua (Many Thai people don't like beef, they think it's stinky.) fish : plaa crab : poo shrimp : goong it's delicious : aroy (Thai people love to ask you "Aroy mai?" if they eat with you. It's inevitable. The answer is "Aroy.") smells good : hom I'm a vegetarian : Phom/Chan ben ahaan-jay If you say Phom ben ahaan-jay you also mean you don't eat garlic or onions but if you insist on being a vegetard when you're traveling in a country renowned for its cuisine then whatever, you can do without those as well. There's another word for vegetarian but that word also seems to mean to Thai people that you'll eat meat too and just vaguely prefer vegetables. Phrases Three: Comfort comfortable : sabai sick : mai sabai (lit. "not relaxed") hot : rohn cold : yen ("Yen!" is a word with generally very positive connotations in Thai. See if you can figure out why.) hungry : hew sleepy : norn bored : boouh drunk : mao injury : jep ouch! : jep! cockroaches : seb (seb can be used for some other bugs as well, but not all of them) stinky : men Thai people are very sensitive about bad smells, especially body odor, and many Thais shower three or four times a day. If you stink they will definitely tell you -- Indian people, for example, are often complained about for being "men". Odor has a huge influence on food in Thailand as well. I already talked about beef above, but also I've yet to meet a Thai person who liked lamb as they hate the way lamb smells, and many Thais also don't like ripe papaya or butter or stinky cheeses because of that kind of rich odor that they all share. Phrases Four: Emergencies help : chuay duay allergy: phaae peanut : thua shrimp : goong shellfish : hoi hospital : have someone translate for you, it's hard to say, try "Mai sabai! Chauy duay! Doctuh! Doctuh!" Phrases Five: Leave me the gently caress alone already! no thanks : mai ow khap/kaa (lit. I don't want anything) have one already : mee lao khap/kaa no, really, leave me alone : mai ow! STOP IT! gently caress! gently caress OFF! : yut! (this is a pretty rude order to "stop," only break it out if the tout really has it coming) If someone is going to try to sell you something and you don't want to interact just don't. Walk past, don't make eye contact, don't say poo poo. In the touristy areas touts can get pretty aggressive, but almost never to the point of touching you or blocking your way. Don't lay your hands on anyone, obviously, as all the other touts in the area won't hesitate to join in on your rear end and will probably do so with weapons. Thai people are very very tolerant, but once the line has been crossed they go loving apeshit. Phrases Six: Rude Thai oaf : kwai (lit. water buffalo -- commonly heard at sporting events when someone screws up) retard : kwai pussy : hoi (lit. "clam," say "hoi wan" or sweet clam if you're trying to be cute) dick : kluay (the sound is very close to the Thai word for banana, but the tone is different) jerk off : chuck wow (lit. "hang on to a kite string" -- go fly a kite...) masturbate (female) : dop pbaet (lit. "beat the duck" -- winner, I think, for most hilarious Thai phrase, duck is kinda hard to say correctly though and the phrase is maybe a little antiquated these days) pig (as in, cop) : hua ping pong (lit. ping pong head after their white helmets) fag : duut (lit. butt -- though why you would go to Thailand if you had an issue with gay people is loving beyond me) scumbag : mung (lit. "you", Thai has several ways to say "you" based on status relationships -- saying "khun" is like saying sir, saying "mung" is how you would talk to a dog) you loving human being friend of the family cocksucking piece of poo poo : hia Hia, which literally means "monitor lizard," is a word so beyond the pall of rudeness that we don't have an equivalently offensive single word in English. Don't say it. Just don't. You may hear groups of Thai friends calling eachother this in jest, but don't you think you can get away with it. Note that to use most of these words as an insult you don't just say the word, but you first call someone a nasty form of "you" (ee or ai depending on gender and how rude you want to be) and then drop the f-bomb. So in Thai you don't usually call someone a "fucker" but you would instead prefer to say "You gently caress!" where the you is laced with an incredibly derisive tone. Phrases Seven: Bargaining how much : tao rai khap expensive! : peng (usually you say "peng na" where "na" is an article like "ka" that instead means "I'm making a gentle suggestion") numbers : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egxp_Y13NGU Thais love to bargain and are much better at it than you are. If they assume you're a tourist you should probably start bargaining at about 1/5th the price they quote you. Don't try to go all cutthroat on them, though, as Thai people actually want you to be happy with the situation and want to be happy themselves (unlike, say, Chinese bargainers who only care about the best price and not feelings) and will gladly not sell to you if you're a jerkoff. If you treat it as a learning experience and try to keep a smile on your face and have fun you will usually get a better price than you would by hardassing it anyway. Also do keep in mind that it's not worth giving yourself an stroke over 25 cents back home, paying a little extra can be a knowing act of generosity (in Thai "jai dee" -- lit. good hearted) that Thai people very much recognize and appreciate. In fact, the farang kee nok (cheap rear end foreigner -- the phrase doesn't mean "bird poo poo foreigner" like many assume but rather has connotations of refusing to return the generosity that almost all Thais consider it their obligation to extend to new people) is the most commonly complained about sort of foreigner for Thai people. If you feel a vendor is gouging you just don't buy from him, if a taxi driver refuses to use the meter just get out and get another taxi. Don't go apoplectic, that gets you nowhere in Thailand. Keep it lighthearted, and you'll get a better price. Seriously, Thai people are the very best bargainers in the world (superlative diplomacy is the chief reason that Thailand is the only country in SE Asia to have never been a colony) and you should really look at bargaining in Thailand as an opportunity to learn from the best rather than as an obstacle. Phrases Eight: Thai of Love Consult what Ringo wrote in his post on Thailand above. Also: goodnight : fan dee fan wan goodmorning : duut jep na Final Note Like with the numbers video above, most of these words you can find spoken for you on language primers on Youtube. You'll get the most mileage out of the numbers, so learn those first. After that what you should learn depends on what you plan to do in Thailand. Thailand, by the way, in Thai is "Pratet Thai" and the word Thai itself has connotations mainly of freedom (if it has any at all beyond identification with the nation-state and language itself), making Thailand the other Land of the Free. raton fucked around with this message at 09:57 on Mar 25, 2010 |
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Jan 30, 2010 05:10
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvESuQYzo_E Thai Country Music Literally called "The Music of Life" in Thailand, it's what country people who've since moved to the city listen to. That means it'll be playing in your taxicab, that means the little dude who cleans up the beachside will love it over the more modern pop music that the owners of the bungalow listen to. The themes often run close to the ones you hear in western country music. The men sing about not having enough money, which means the girls won't like them. The women sing about the inconstancy of their men. There are songs about the pride people feel in their national character (though expressed very differently, see the second to last paragraph below). There are songs about your only buffalo dying and now you can no longer work your farm. The above song is sung by what is basically the Thai Elvis -- I uploaded it and put in a rough English translation so people could understand what he was singing about. If you want to hear more just click around in the related links Youtube gives you -- I've tagged it with the singer's name in Thai and his songs and the songs of other people from the genre will all be primary results. If you want to go electric, the band Carabao is probably the most popular single Thai country music act in the nations history. Of course, part of what's interesting about Thai country music is where it differs from American country music. Because Thai country music became an identifiable unit in the 1960s and 1970s in Thailand it is also the music of political resistance and counter-cultural opinion. In other words, its political themes are often a lot closer to Woody Guthrie than to loving Toby Keith. Also take note of the few comments the video has gotten from Thai people who watched, notably "the watermelon look delicious." raton fucked around with this message at 06:36 on Jan 30, 2010 |
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Jan 30, 2010 06:03
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Oh this should be in here as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Pn9cEsjv1w MR18inches posted:But anyway I was planning a trip to somewhere in Asia, (maybe Korea or Japan as well), and my question is: which place would I go to have the most likelyhood of scoring (prostitution excluded)?. I've heard stories from friends about Japanese girls who go crazy over American guys. Jesus. I thought Ringo was being ironic with the "choose your own adventure" subtitle. You seriously only want to go to Asia to gently caress Asian girls? No other interests in a specific country or anything? Because if you're not a loving retard you should be able to get your dick wet on a vacation anywhere other than, say, Saudi Arabia. quote:Also, maybe a section on packing and what to bring would be good? From advice I got here I went over with about 3 tshirts, 2 pairs of shorts, a few pairs of undies, a pair of shoes and a pair of thongs ('flip flops' you sickos) I'm probably a bit odd about this but I actually suggest bringing just one T-shirt for long bus rides and bringing button up collared shirts for your time in SE Asia. Long sleeve or short sleeve you're going to sweat the same, but long sleeves can be rolled up anyway, or rolled down to protect against mosquitoes or the sun, plus if it's really that hot you can at least open a few buttons. Also, most of the people in the region treat you very very differently if you don't look like a backpacker (even if you are one), they really give you a lot more credit as a good or interesting person if you're wearing something other than a T-shirt. The shorts may be too much to ask, but I also usually wore pants for the same reasons as above. Jeans are a huge loving no-no as they're heavy and will just get soaked with sweat, but any lightweight travel pant (just plain khakis if you can find any in America that aren't made out of cardboard thick cloth, or get those REI things that are made out of lightweight nylon but look like NORMAL pants -- don't get those stupid loving ones that can zip off into shorts) is great. You should bring shoes. If you rent a motorbike, want to go to a disco in Bangkok or want to go on a mountain trek you'll want them. You can buy better and cheaper flip flops in-country as well (hell, even 7-11 sells them), whereas hitting a shoe store might be out of your way. One final thing I'll say about clothes is that WOOL socks are much much better for hot conditions than cotton socks. Obviously you want lightweight wool. Wool wicks moisture and is naturally antimicrobial which means they're the only socks you could wear two days in a row in SE Asia and not have to cut them off of your feet afterward (though I wouldn't recommend rewearing socks if you don't have to). Cotton socks suck. Best shirts: http://www.amazon.com/Arrow-Wrinkle-Pinpoint-Fancy-Sleeve/dp/B000VZKBB2 (or anything similar -- wrinkle free, pinpoint, buttons on collar is a small bonus) Best pants: http://www.rei.com/product/784059 Best socks: https://www.smartwool.com/default.cfm#/Mens/Socks/_/_/211/ Best shoe: http://www.shoesforcrews.com/sfc3/index.cfm?changeWebsite=US_EN&route=c_store.viewDetailsOfProduct&partnumber=8024 Best pack: [1] [2] [3] (These are all slightly bigger than you should need -- going bigger than this is stupid, if you don't have enough space bring less loving poo poo) raton fucked around with this message at 04:15 on Jan 31, 2010 |
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Jan 31, 2010 03:24
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Ringo R posted:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IUyH_MHzag Holy loving poo poo. Showing that to mah Thai buddies here in NYC. IMO another contributor to seeing farang with the darker ladies is that your typical Issan girl is much more likely to be a go-getter than her whiter Northern or Central cousins, who generally trend toward wallflower. The most significant one though, of course, is the SE Asian love of white skin which often means the darker girls have a lot more luck with non-Thai men. raton fucked around with this message at 10:18 on Jan 31, 2010 |
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Jan 31, 2010 10:11
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Medical Precautions for SE Asia Some people don't pay any attention to this and some people get worked up like they're going on mission in the Congo. The right amount of prep is in-between those two extremes, but the right amount for the vast majority of travelers to SE Asia is much closer to the former than the latter. SUMMARY
========================================== Things everyone should get before leaving home Go to the drugstore. Any old drugstore. The first thing you want to buy is the smallest bottle they have of Motrin (or a generic ibuprofen, but I recommend Motrin for reasons I'll get into in a second). Then buy a blister of generic loratadine (Claritin -- allergy relief with no drowsyness) or diphenhydramine (Benadryl -- stronger than claritin but will make you drowsy, which isn't really a bad thing as they can double as mild sleeping pills for the bus). Then pick up a package of Immodium AD (generics are rare). When you get home tear open all the little blisters and dump all the pills into your Motrin bottle, then on the bottom of the bottle in magic marker write O-pain W-allergy B-poo. That's orange (you bought Motrin because they're not white), white, blue. For all pills you take one when needed, and can always take two if one doesn't work. Yes, all of this stuff is available in Thailand, but it takes up almost no space in your pack and it's better to have it right off the bat. Don't worry about the pills poisoning eachother or anything, they'll be just fine hanging out with eachother in the little bottle. Wait, though! Don't leave the store yet. You'll also defintely want to buy some cheapo foam earplugs (like those Hearos ones) and an eye shield. Spending more on those silicone earplugs with the flanges is a total waste, you can reuse the foams ones too (a few times at least), the foam ones are actually easier to clean, and they're much more comfortable to wear and effective at blocking sound. For the eye shield just get one that looks comfy. Also pick up a three pack of condoms whether you're male or female. You'll be able to get more once you're there (and yes they're a slightly smaller size over there but we're talking a 51mm to 53mm difference and condoms do stretch) if need be. At home write down your emergency contact info on a little card, then copy that over to another card. One card goes in your wallet, the other goes wherever it is you keep your other valuables (in your pack, under your shoe bed, wherever). You info should include your name, the country you're from, your passport number, the phrase "If hurt call:" and the phone number of the person you want called if you get sick or injured, plus their name and probably their relation to you. By the way, before you leave home you should tell that person that you've got them down in case of emergencies. It's also great if you have someone back at home that can get access to your money for you if need be (create a shared account beforehand and put your travel money in that account) or overnight you their ATM card if yours gets stolen or whatever. ========================================== Known Medical Needs Thailand has a very good healthcare system and you'll be able to get stuff that you need when there. Malaysia is also okay. Most of the other countries in the region can be a little rough, though. The meds you should bring with you is a weird subject. On one hand, you can walk into most pharmacies in Thailand and buy low level opiates (not vicoden, a step down from there) or lorazepam (a cousin to Valium) or a few different antibiotics without anyone asking your for a prescription. On the other hand, if you need prophylactic meds for asthma or some kind of weird anti-arrhythmia pill or maybe you're on dilantin for seizures you should have a full supply of that with you when you come. I'm really hoping I shouldn't have to go over this, but seriously, if you need certain meds to stay alive bring them with you. You should also bring your little prescription note from the doctor in case customs wants to know what it is you've got in those orange bottles. Another important consideration is allergies. If you have a known severe allergy to any food or medication you should buy allergy cards to bring with you. You should also learn how to say "no peanut at all!" in the local language in a very definite and firm way. You may also want to get an Epi-pen (you'll need a prescription -- an Epi-pen is a one-shot idiot-proof epinephrine auto-injector, if you start going into anaphylactic shock it'll loving save your rear end) and bring it, particularly if a lot of your vacation is going to have you in a SE Asian destination other than Thailand. The stuff I'm talking about in this paragraph is only necessary for people with severe life-threatening allergies. The rest of you will do fine with your Claritin. Also, for the record, I used to have horrible bouts with allergies in the summer when I lived in Portland Oregon but had not trouble at all with allergies in Thailand, so don't take this paragraph to imply that SE Asia is some kind of allergy hell. The last thing I want to say about allergies is that many common allergies in the west (peanuts, wheat) are almost unheard of in Thailand so don't be surprised if you yell at your waitress for an hour about NO loving PEANUTS and it comes out covered in Jiffy -- after all, no one gets killed by a peanut, right  ? Thua aroy...========================================== Vaccinations and Malaria Pills Most people go way way way overboard with these. However, most people also got their last round of vaccinations when they were four and should probably get a lot of things updated anyway. I'm going to assume that if you're willing to let your tetanus booster slide in the US you're willing to let it slide in Asia and not go over all the stuff you should have anyway, but rather the stuff that a lot of people probably need to get. (FWIW though if you haven't had a needle in you in two decades you should probably get a MMR and a DTaP -- the doctor will know exactly what those are.) It's important to plan ahead for your vaccinations as some aren't a one-shot-go thing but need a few shots spread over a few months (as described below). Vaccinations can be kinda pricey. If you live in NYC call 311 and ask for low budget options (I was recently able to get a full course for free on a walk-in!). If you don't live in NYC Google for clinics in your home town -- if you get your shots at a hospital you'll probably pay three times more than you should. Also, if you are going to be in SE Asia for an extended period of time you may want to consider getting the shots in Thailand instead of at home (which puts you at risk of illness at first but saves you a poo poo ton of money). Here's a list of things I think are good to get.
There's absolutely no reason you can't go in and just get all of these shots at once -- on my last round I got a total of six shots at once, three in each arm, and literally the only side effect was soreness in the ol' delts for a day and a half. The cost will vary a lot based on what the clinic has purchased and how common the vaccinations are. Flu might be 10. Hep A might be 70 a shot, it might be packaged with Hep B and only be 50 a shot. Use your finger to push buttons on your phone, use your voice to ask "How much is it?" and if you have the numbers of three convenient clinics call all three. Now, a note about malaria pills. Don't get loving malaria pills unless you're literally going to be living in the jungle for a month straight (or, say, at least a week). They are totally unnecessary for casual travelers in the region who will spend most of their time in busses, on beaches, and in the cities. Now, if you are going to be literally living in the jungle for a month, do get malaria pills. They've got new ones now with much lesser side effects than the old pieces of poo poo that your parents maybe know about. They'll be able to hook you up with a prescription at the clinic you get your shots at (or possibly the pills themselves). Malaria is a resurgent illness like Hepatitis with nasty flu-like symptoms -- you'll probably be bedridden for at least a few days every time it pops up. Malaria is a strange disease -- there's no vaccine for it, but if you take your malaria pill every day and you get bitten by a malarial mosquito you probably won't (but there's no guarantee) catch it, whereas if you catch it the pills don't fight it off at all (though there are medications that make the symptoms much more bearable while your body fights the good fight). Japanese encephalitis is a scary disease because it makes your brain blow up. Another mosquito disease, however the vaccines are super expensive (two shots at like 350 each even at a clinic) and the chances of getting it even if you're working in rice paddy for six months straight are minuscule and it's an outbreak disease too so if you read a little news you can just avoid it. I'd skip it. The same thing goes for rabies vaccines which your paranoid doctor will want to ram you with but hey, just don't play with the loving soi dogs (soi = alley) and you'll be fine there, plus you can always go get rabies shots in Thailand if you do get bit, they got those there. ========================================== One final word about the biggest single non medical threat to your health in SE Asia: renting a motorbike. I knew a very level headed responsible 50 or so year old guy in Thailand that had ridden bikes his entire life, I mean from the day he turned six. He was one of those guys who rode his bike into work every day, rain or snow, for pretty much every day that he ever worked. He died in Bangkok when he got hit while riding his bike through the city -- and he'd been living there and riding in the city for years already, and he always wore armor and a Shoei helmet. On one full moon party that I attended (I went to two in the two years I lived there -- one was enough) the girl I'd gone down to the island with splashed her bike out and debarked her whole right side while going maybe 20 mph around the little town near Haad Rin. Her family had never owned a car and driving a motorcycle was how she'd gotten around since she was 14. When I was in Thailand I rented a bike frequently and enjoyed the poo poo out of it. But it has to be said that when I was driving it around in the mountains near Mae Hong Son I was having trouble staying in my lane and other super basic issues with not-dying-on-a-motorcycle and it's basically a dice roll that I didn't die playing around on it. My verdict: Rent a bike! But never in a major city, never when you're partying, and drive it like a loving Vietnamese grandma 100% of the time. Educate yourself on what it means to ride safe on a motorcycle (find Pompus Rhombus's post on his bike trip around the region, there's a link to it in the OP I think) -- sand isn't a problem for cars but it's a big issue for bikes, even a little moisture is a big issue for bikes while cars don't care, etc. Also, one highly suggested activity for any tourist in Bangkok is to take a motorcycle taxi at least once -- I suggest taking one from your hotel to MBK (a big mall known for its cellphones, there's also a cool Thai foodcourt and lot of souvenir shops on the top floor though, plus your pirated software and DVD guys sprinkled about) to do a little shopping on your last day in the city (then probably taking the skytrain from MBK up to Jatujak if the Jatujak Market is open that day -- then a taxi for the long rear end ride back to your hotel with your loot). raton fucked around with this message at 03:15 on Aug 2, 2010 |
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Feb 1, 2010 01:35
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freebooter posted:I wouldn't take them in Thailand, but what about Laos, and southern China? Your doctor will always steer you toward the most cautious thing that he thinks he can make seem reasonable. This is for liability reasons, but also because as a doctor if you give the best advice for 70% of your patients to all of your patients you will eventually kill someone and feel bad about it, so you start giving the best advice for 90% of your patients to all of your patients instead. Usually this advice is quite a bit more extreme or at least inconvenient than the 70% advice. You should ask your doctor if he's ever been to SE Asia himself, not to show him up, but just to get an idea of how much they're guessing. Doctors constantly have to guess, they very rarely know anything for sure, and knowing his background will allow you to weigh what he's saying vs. what you're hearing here a bit better. It's also a good habit to get into to ask your doctor a lot of questions -- most people are far too passive when they go in for a checkup when what you should be doing is asking everything you can think of. I'm not trying to tell you "don't listen to doctor HE LIAR" but I lived in Thailand for two years, never took a malaria pill, and was fine. None of the many foreigners I knew (or knew well enough to comfortably guess fairly about their medical regimens anyway) who lived there took them. Of course, I lived in Bangkok, but I did my share of traveling and didn't worry about it then either. I'm sure you can guess how many Thai people take anti-malarials regularly. Even the new pills have side effects (though they're a lot better than the old ones whose side effects were pretty much as bad as a mild case of malaria itself). If you take malarials all the time while you're in SE Asia there's still a chance you'll get malaria and there's a certainty that you'll have to put up with mildly irritating side effects from time to time. There are places in Thailand where you should take malaria pills. It's not a country by country thing, it's more of an urban vs. rural kind of thing. If you're going to be in a really rural area for an extended period of time then you should start thinking about malaria pills. So the question is: what are you going to be doing in Laos -- smoking bowls full of weed next to some lake with a hundred other farang or camping on some misty mountain peak with Hmong refugees? It's your pair of dice to roll, but in my opinion most of the people who actually know the risks and have had experience with the region don't take malaria pills unless they plan to go on lengthy jungle excursion in Borneo or hike around in the barely populated parts of Nepal or something similar to that. One final piece of advice about malaria: SE Asian mosquitoes (aka the Thai Airforce) behave differently from North American ones. The North American ones are almost perfectly silent, quick, and sneaky and will bite you anywhere at any time. The ones in SE Asia are big, fairly loud, and loving lazy. They very rarely put in the effort to fly more than knee height off the ground, and this means a pair of pants and shoes with socks at sunset is the best single thing you can probably do to keep from getting malaria. I remember waking up one day in my rickety beach bungalow having forgotten to close my mosquito net on Ko Chang and was predictably covered with mosquito bites -- less predictably, though, was that every loving one was from the knee down. The little assholes are foot lovers. Long pants might seem a little impractical for the beach, maybe, but keep it in mind. Loved my long sleeve shirts. Sleeve rolled up during the day, sleeve down for sunset (and sunrise when applicable). Didn't need gallons of sunblock to snorkel, just wore my shirt while I paddled around in the sea. Didn't look like a loving Israeli backpacker. Etc. raton fucked around with this message at 05:11 on Feb 1, 2010 |
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Feb 1, 2010 04:49
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Ringo R posted:
Just had it spot checked for you by a Thai and the language is correct and carries the meaning you meant it to. Also: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbQplLOm59M
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Feb 1, 2010 09:59
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Lrrr posted:Also when poo poo does hit the fan, or hopefully just the toilet/hole in the ground repeatedly and you are stuck in some small town w/o any english speaking doctors, just take the drat immodium/loperamid or whatever pill you brought to completely shut down bowel movements and get to the nearest city with a real doctor. I was guilty of this too. Picked up what I thought was a flu in Malaysia on my first visa run and suffered under it for a month before I went to the pharmacy and bought some loving antibiotics and my symptoms were gone in two days -- I'd picked up some kind of bacterial something down there and didn't do poo poo about it. Also you can go and see a real doctor in a real hospital in Thailand, which will be very nice and the doctor will be very good, and it'll cost you 20 or 40 bucks for most things. Don't hesitate to go in. A few common sense things really help out, too. If you're taking a long bus trip in the morning don't go get thrashed the night before and then have a huge helping of new-to-you streetfood in the morning. raton fucked around with this message at 09:44 on Feb 2, 2010 |
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Feb 1, 2010 21:52
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Ringo R posted:My experience with car drivers in Thailand is that they're complete assholes, looking down on you because you're on a bike and can't afford a car, so they always have right of way and you should just get the gently caress out of their way. I personally feel it's better to just think of right of way rules being different in Thailand as then my ego doesn't get involved. I remember one time riding around on Phangan (don't ride your bike anywhere near Haad Rin, the roads are deathtraps down there, the rest of the island is okay) a big truck had his right turn signal on (they drive on the left in Thailand so that's the equivalent of a left turn) and girl on the back of my bike freaked out that I didn't stop to let him cross my lane and turn. When I looked in my mirror all the traffic behind me had stopped, so it's more than just them getting away with what they can get away with (which is how right of way actually works in China). Also, FWIW, your average Thai driver is better about seeing motorcycles than drivers in US are and I acutally feel safer surrounded by Thai drivers when I'm on a bike than I do bleached blond Jersey mothers in their Kindertanks yaaking away on their phones. Doesn't mean you're safe in Thailand -- whenever you're on a bike in either country you're going to have to dodge getting hit eventually even when it's not your fault. One good rule about you and motorcycles and Thailand is that if you plow into a car Thai law apparently never makes the motorcycle fiscally responsible for the crash. Of course, my barometer for knowing that is word of mouth from Thais and long term farang residents, which means it may or may not be true. Fiskenbob posted:I'll leave it to someone else to write a segment about the Philippines. Like you, I don't feel I visited enough of the country to write a decent piece. Something's better than nothing. You'll probably get a link instead of a quote, but that'll get other people started on the rest. raton fucked around with this message at 22:51 on Feb 3, 2010 |
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Feb 3, 2010 22:47
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ziebarf posted:Phnom Penh: I went there when I was in Phnom Penh too and it's pretty small, usually dead, and apparently the only reason to go in there is to potentially get harassed / assaulted / killed by the local mafia-wannabes that (very) occasionally show up. Sharky (lol they've got a website) is where people often end up. Full of whores, of course, but this is Phnom Penh we're talking about. Martini Bar is pretty much the same thing. If you want to avoid the whores and the sexpats (link is p.  you've been warned) stick to the smaller operations along the river.Random Phnom Penh list:
Of course if you go to PP and don't visit the Killing Fields and Tuol Sleng you're doing yourself a disservice. raton fucked around with this message at 10:18 on Feb 5, 2010 |
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Feb 5, 2010 09:55
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I had a couple of guys try to rope me into pretty much the exact same poo poo in Bangkok in my first week there. I went along with it out of pure curiosity (I realized what it was long before we got to his house) and even ended up playing the part of the shill in the game with OMG Houseguest. My host had "loaned" me 200 bucks and we were making 100 dollar bets. After the second win (with ridiculous overblown prompts from the dealer, my "buddy," as to when I surely could not lose) the bet mystically quadrupled to 800 which I couldn't cover with the host's money so I just shrugged and said "oh well guess you win" to the houseguest. Cue about a full minute of my supposed co-conspirators faux-whispering at me that "It's a sure thing!!!" while our supposed mark pretended to not listen. Utterly ridiculous. I faux-apologized later and asked them to please write down their address so I could get more money for next time (I planned to give it to the cops) which they wouldn't do. Went out, got in a taxi, went back to my hostel. About a year later I was on Ko Phangan and behind me in a restaurant was a Thai guy in his 40s telling these two white kids about all the money he was making and how cool it was. And hey, if they wanted they could stop by his hotel room later and he'd let them in on how he did it. After he left I turned around and told them "Don't play any card games with that guy." raton fucked around with this message at 10:32 on Feb 6, 2010 |
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Feb 6, 2010 10:21
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SonicDefiance posted:I have a few quick questions about Thailand, Kanchanaburi in particular. I spent one New Year's in Kanchanaburi. It's a fairly small town and I rented a bike and managed to find where the bars were by just following younger Thais around on their bikes. Ended up running into some of my former students there at a bar and saw a hot as gently caress performance by some local performer on the stage. While I was there I also went to the more touristy areas. They have a smallish market near the bridge that's tourist centric, and a mess of bungalows all over there next to eachother, many of which have rooms on little rafts on the river. I was staying in a hotel more toward the center of town as I'd just decided to visit Kanchanaburi for New Year's (having spent the previous one in Bangkok mostly sitting in a taxi) and took the local Thai bus there. I don't understand why you would want to go rafting but not elephant riding. The two are inextricably linked tourist pastimes in my mind, I was never interested in either. The only advice I have along those lines is that, if it's an option, sit on the elephant's head rather than its back as it's a much more comfortable ride (and the elephant obviously doesn't give a poo poo). Two things that are cool to do in Kanchanaburi: 1) Visit the tiger sanctuary. Go on one of the arranged songtaews (pickup truck turned bus via benches in the back and a little roof) out there, probably set up through your bungalow operation. There's a totally non-eventful tiger temple near it and people who try to find it on their own end up at this stupid little nothing temple next to the road instead (like I did) and give up on seeing the tigers (I didn't -- I found a monk instead and he gave me directions to the actual sanctuary). When I went they still had two baby tigers you could play with (they played loving rough though, goddamn tiger scratched the poo poo out of my shoes), but they're grown up now. Still, if you're brave, you'll probably get a chance to pet a live tiger while a monk feeds it condensed milk pellets. Don't wear red, the monks all told me that it attracts the wrong kind attention from the tigers -- also don't squat down or bend over to take pictures, for the same reasons. 2) Buy some little Burmese cigars. They come by about 50 in a cellophane bag, have a greenish wrapper (I think it's supposed to be banana leaf) and are slightly bigger than a cigarette. Very mild sweet smoke. Because Kanchanaburi is toward Burma you can often find them there. As per the post above me, booking anything online is unnecessary. I doubt the gouging is as extreme as I See Things says it is, and even if it is and you end up paying ten bucks a night for a three dollar a night room oh no Batman that's seven bucks you'll never see again. The reason to not book online isn't a money issue, it's an options issue upon arrival. Pompous Rhombus posted:Just ask them about how sad it is hill tribe villages are getting electricity and running water. "Thailand is not a real country any more. I have been coming to this island since the 1970s and now there are so many bungalows and people running businesses." -- Fat German Tourist brendanwor posted:Yeah, that's ridiculous. If you're some smelly loving backpacker in fisherman pants walking down Khao San or visiting Chiang Mai, you're still as much of a tourist as anyone else. "It's not always spicy. It's never spicy. I've been living in Chiang Mai for a month and I eat cashew chicken all the time and I've never had it served spicy before." -- Canadian Woman Tourist in Fishermen Pants raton fucked around with this message at 09:57 on Feb 11, 2010 |
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Feb 11, 2010 09:32
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Ringo R posted:Bangkok photo ops I'm not a big fan of the river taxi in general but you can get some pretty kickin pictures from it. Get on at Sapahn Taksin (the southern most stop, there's a bridge and a BTS station there) and get off wherever you feel like on your way north. One of the stops is at Khao San if you want to see that, but not every boat that leaves from Sapahn Taksin stops at Khao San and it may be hard for you to figure out which one you're on. If you miss the Bunglumpoo pier just get off at the next stop (so long as it's on the East side of the river) and take a taxi back. Another place to get off potentially is the pier right next to Wat Pra Kaew so you can go see the Emerald Buddha and Wat Po. If you visit Chinatown be sure to also stop by Little India (Pauhwarat) which is right next door. Best photo ops in Chinatown IMO are the gold stores and Trok Sampaeng (a narrow little alley with shops in there that used to be called the Thieves Market). Be aware that both Chinatown and Pauhwarat are loving grotty and dirty and crowded and bustly and inconvenient even compared to the rest of Bangkok, so don't plan on spending more than a couple of hours there before you start your escape. There are, of course, many cool temples to visit. Rather than trying to hit the major ones, just stop by whatever temple you happen to be walking past when something seems to be going on there (best times for this are usually in the evening -- you may see a monk induction ceremony, a funeral, or any number of seasonally oriented things). They're also pretty stunning breaks from the heat and noise of Bangkok. Monks are often a bit better educated than the general Thai population and a somewhat surprising number of them will be able to have a basic conversation with you in English. My favorite temple is actually a tiny Indian one simply called Wat Khek (which means "Indian Temple") by most Thais -- it's on Silom between Sois 13 and 19 somewhere, I don't remember the exact cross street. It should also be mentioned that the hooker cauldron that is Nana Plaza makes for some pretty cool pictures, as does Soi Cowbowy, the other fairly genuine sex for sale depot. Patpong, Bangkok's third hooker haven (and the last out and about with neon for farang one), is more of a fake watch and DVD market these days than it is a genuine sex alley, but the nearby Japanese oriented soi (the girls are in kimonos instead of bikinis or school girl outfits and make little Japanese noises at passing prospective customers instead of yelling HELLO HANDSOME MAN!) is pretty cool. There's even some fairly authentic Japanese street food over there if you look around a little bit, a ramen shop, a curry den, that kind of thing. raton fucked around with this message at 02:57 on Feb 13, 2010 |
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Feb 12, 2010 04:32
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Astian posted:I've found some decent places by the riverside, but there's pretty much the same formula of a few cool young people passing through, bargirls, and depressing expats. I spent about five days in PP and that's pretty much my wholesale impression of the place. You're looking for English teaching work? I think it can be had there but you're going to have to dig around a bit. Not a ton of extra money floating around to pay teachers with after all.
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Feb 16, 2010 02:47
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Ringo R posted:
Ugh. You know how much time I spent in that pit of an old immigration office? It was like the receiving area of a Sri Lankan prison or something. The picture makes it look like they just moved the same horrible setup into another room a few floors up though.
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Feb 22, 2010 22:33
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Dana Mania posted:I have to be in Phuket, since I fly into and out of there. The oter places I've looked at are Krabi/Railay, Koh Phi Phi, Phang Nga, and Koh Lanta (but so far it doesn't seem to offer anything that I can't get on the other islands). I know I can't do all of these. 2 or possibly 3 if I can manage it would be more than enough. I'm more concerned about getting to do the things listed above It doesn't matter if you fly into Phuket or not, just get on the bus/boat and go to Lanta or Phi Phi. Phuket is not a great destination unless you want to eat German food, stay in a big hotel on a beach crowded with fat white people from Continental Europe, and bang a lot of hookers. Going to Phangan is probably more work than it's worth as you're already on a coast, but I would recommend you go to any two islands on the Andaman coast that aren't Phuket. For what you listed those islands should probably be Phi Phi and Krabi. April is going to be middle-of-hell hot but you'll manage. You may pick up some Songkran tailings too, and while Songkran always annoyed the gently caress out of me when I lived in Thailand it is a great time to visit. Bring a garbage bag for your pack and some baggies for your passport / camera / cellphone etc. Also you said 3.5 weeks but are only on the islands for five days? That's enough time for a week and a half of islands, four days for getting to and seeing Ankor Wat, and then plenty of time for Chiang Mai and probably an extended hilltribe trek out of Mae Hong Son as well, and then a couple of days at the end for shopping / seeing Bangkok before getting back to Phuket for your flight home. The whole itenrary request thing goes better when you post one first and ask for suggestions. Maybe: Phuket: 1 day, hope to catch some Songkran Krabi: 3 or 4 days -- extend for the activities you mentioned if necesscary Phi Phi: 3 or 4 days -- extend for the activities you mentioned if necesscary Travel to Siem Riep in Cambodia: about a day, fly if you can, rest up Angkor Wat: Two or three days, fly to Chiang Mai Chiang Mai: Two or three days, fly to Mae Hong Son Mae Hong Son: One day for the town, three or four days for extended hilltribe trek Rest of time: revisit a favorite (more beach, more NE, whatever) and concentrate on doing nothing much Second to last two days: Bangkok (a few temples, a few nightclubs, a few malls, maybe Jatujak, maybe Chinatown) Last day: Back to Phuket for your flight home These little inter-region flights aren't too pricey and don't have to be booked to far in advance to be affordable. raton fucked around with this message at 23:57 on Feb 24, 2010 |
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Feb 24, 2010 22:26
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joedevola posted:For those of you who have may have lived on Koh Tao or know a lot about it, if I'd decided to get into a fight with that dude and it had got serious, what was the worst that would have happened legally? Not being an internet tough guy, I'm just curious. Other than getting beaten up by him, nothing. The police are never going to take the side of a bottle hurling British fuckface over mildly drunk dude in his 50s carrying around his walkman and looking a little confused. If he was somehow friends with the policeman or whatever you'd probably be taken out of sight and let go. If he was friends with an rear end in a top hat policeman maybe he would pretend there was a 1000B fine first. Odds of that happening are one in a thousand. Your guess as to why that happened is probably accurate. Every fight I saw in Thailand was between an Aussie and a Brit, usually just after a Rugby match got finished. A vile drunk is still a vile drunk when on vacation and he probably didn't have a reason to throw anything at you other than he was drunk and mad that you'd, um, interrupted his heart to heart with the lady he'd somehow picked up earlier that week. Strong Sauce posted:Hrm.. yeah seems like numbers will be my downfall. Do the free ones (for Thais) just let you pass through? The most irritating double pricing bullshit I ran into was when I visited Dream World, which is an okay amusement park outside of Bangkok. Often when confronted with the staggered admission fee I'd just say "Khon Thai khap" and smile show them the bank card I had from a local Thai bank with my picture on it along with the Thai fee. This isn't an option for tourists as they won't have the card, but I lived there and felt I should be getting the Thai price anyway. This didn't work at Dream World, where I had to pay 800B instead of 500 to go in. You also have to pay a separate fee if you want to see the Snow World attraction, which is indoors and has some North Pole animatronics and snowmen you can take a picture with and a sledding hill -- fee is the same whether Thai or foreign for that. It's important to remember, though, that even if the admission fee is 200B for farang and 20 for Thai people it's not a huge deal to just pay the extra 180B. Oh noes four dollars. It's annoying, yeah, but come on. You'd spend four bucks on a small popcorn back home for a movie. Like the heat it's just an annoyance and if you aren't possessing of aircon (in the case of ticket prices that would be a little charm and probably the ability to belch out at least a few phrases in Thai) it's better to just passively let the heat be hot and get on with what you're doing than to get fixated on it and start fanning yourself and panting. So basically my advice is to just take it in the pooper and then laugh at that one bitter German in line wearing a singlet, fishermen's pants and no shoes who wants to have an argument in distorted English with a ticket girl who couldn't care less. When you come in you get in a customs line, look at the little webcam, they take a picture, usually stamp your passport without looking up from their comic book, and you walk out and get your taxi in. And just like everyone tells you, go to the departures gate and snag a taxi that's just disgorged its passengers rather than dealing with the moronic line for the arrivals. Unless it's 3AM or something an no one is departing anyway. raton fucked around with this message at 09:39 on Feb 26, 2010 |
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Feb 26, 2010 09:31
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Strong Sauce posted:Thanks for that, unfort my flight lands at 1AM. I'm planning on staying until morning though. Still may be worth a try if the line is long. Bangkok is a major flight hub afterall. The last time I flew in I think I got in at midnight and had a cab the minute I walked out the door.
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Feb 26, 2010 11:13
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joedevola posted:Thanks, I'm actually 28, I was joking about being older because, y'know... late 20s angst and that. Anyway, my main concern was what would have happened if I'd hurt him at all. Now I'm sort of annoyed that I didn't. OK, internet tough guy discussion over. Oh if you got in a brawl and won then you'd either walk off and never hear about it again or they'd catch you and throw you in the clink and you'd probably end up paying a 10k-20k baht "fee" or so for the privileged of taking the taxi back to the airport. Also there's a good chance his chick would have bashed you in the back of the head with a rock when you weren't looking. You did the right thing.
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Feb 26, 2010 21:43
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pblol posted:Also if we can only spend one or two days in the area what are some of the things we should definitely do? What do you mean by "the area?" And is this a two day trip or a three week trip? I don't understand what you're asking for. Top three overall things to do in the region IMO are a hilltribe trek (multiple day out of Mae Hong Son is the best option), Angkor Wat, and spend some time on a Thai island. I've also got a huge hardon for Bangkok but it's not for everyone.
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Mar 4, 2010 07:29
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Ringo R posted:I'm sure Bangkok Post, The Nation or even thaivisa.com will keep you updated. I'm surprised I haven't mentioned the forums at ajarn.com yet. They're meant for teachers but because so many of Bangkok's expats teach it can also be a decent source of interpretation or news for Thailand (along with thaivisa.com). Of course, the population base on the ajarn forums is smaller than most and you have the usual problems you do with forums (people don't actually know what they're talking about, are racist, and sometimes combine the two into a sweet sweet gumbo of ignorance) but still. There's even a FYAD-lite for all of your vaguely-related-to-Thailand shitposting. http://www.ajarnforum.net/vb/ raton fucked around with this message at 18:55 on Mar 6, 2010 |
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Mar 6, 2010 18:53
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Be Depressive posted:If you want to add something to the first post - I suppose that would be best placed in my medical post but I have a huge stick up my rear end about the casual use of antibiotics and can't in good conscience do so. You shouldn't be gobbling antibiotics every time you have an upset stomach or a runny nose. For a absolutely appalling number of disease we're left only one antibiotic that they're not resistant to and new antibiotics are incredibly difficult to come up with. Hell, in the "antibiotic misuse" portion of the Wikipedia page on antibiotics the very first example they give is excessive use of antibiotics by travelers. Of course it would be hard to outpace our Asian buddies in antibiotic misuse but there's no reason to enter a competition where the end result is everyone ending up dead.
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Mar 7, 2010 05:33
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therobit posted:Also, does anyone have advice regarding traveling with a child in Thailand? Thai people will constantly play with your baby. They may also compliment it for being very white and fat, which are good attributes in a baby I guess. It's a very good country for traveling with kids. You'll be able to get a plastic kind of shallow bucket/tub thing in Bangkok that Thai people like to use to wash veggies or sometimes clothes in for washing your baby. If you stay at an expensive hotel it'll probably have a bathtub, but if you don't expect a shower. No one really takes baths in Thailand because who the hell wants to soak in hot water when it's a million degrees out anyway. If I had only eight days I'd probably spend the first day resting up, go to Koh Samet for five days, then come back to the city to do some shopping before going home. Koh Samet is a small island that you can reach from Bangkok in less than a day's travel time (literally from door to door in less than sunup to sundown). Find an aircon bungalow and stash the baby in there. As for price, you can spend whatever you want in Bangkok. If you spend like 50 a night you'll probably have a pretty nice western style place. If you know where you're going you can get the basics of what you're asking for for 20 or so. If your company is paying for it well hey go get a 800 dollar a night room at the Oriental Hotel.
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Mar 7, 2010 09:52
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Ringo R posted:Koh Samet which is an island about 2-3 hours or so from Bangkok. Might not be very baby-friendly though because the roads are in pretty poor condition (dirt roads). The roads aren't great but there are lots of places to stay near the pier that are great and on a really nice beach anyway so just don't go all the way to the southern tip of the island and your road problems are solved. I prefer the north end anyway because I like to have an internet cafe and a few bars close at hand, the further south you go on Samet the more Robinson Caruso it gets (though Samet is a really popular weekend island for Thais and thus none of it is wilderness). My biggest complaint about Samet was the huge aggressive mosquitoes, but it's hardly the only island where that's an issue. Oh and by the way the bucket thing I was talking about for washing a baby in is called a galamang in case you have trouble finding one. Pompous Rhombus posted:If you wind up there, get the Long Island Iced Tea, it's strong as hell. Spicy is a terrible club but it's pretty awesome for people watching for that same reason (a delightful intersection of clueless tourists and freelance hookers). Is Thermae closed now? That used to be the place I'd take people to shock them. loving midgets and amputee hookers and the goddamn place never closes and had a back exit just in case... The original location that gained all of the noteriety has been closed since 96 but the place I'm talking about was on Sukhumvit and I assume operated by the same people. As for "secret" hooker elevators there's a lot of that in Bangkok. In some areas (Patpong, etc) most of the second floor spaces are things like that and people end up stumbling up there drunk all the time. Ringo posted:Location is not the best though but MBK (famous large shopping mall) is just a short taxi ride away and from there you have access to the Skytrain. Please note that I'm not recommending it, just mentioning it. I would consider that a pretty good location for Bangkok. raton fucked around with this message at 06:58 on Mar 8, 2010 |
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Mar 7, 2010 19:26
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mental jipsee posted:I lived in Thailand a bit a while back. Is getting a job teaching English there still as easy as it was several years ago? What about with schools on the islands/near the beach? I assume everyone would want to teach there so they'd be the hardest. I don't know about the current state of English teaching work in Thailand but don't think it has changed much. Visit the ajarn.com forums for the best info you'll get on that (a few posts up there's a link). Getting English teaching work isn't hard, but it's not China-easy nor are all the jobs perfect. That being said I met a lot of POS English teachers while I lived there so so long as you have a BA and there isn't a loving spiderweb tatooed on your face (one guy asked me on the Ajarn forums one time "I have a spiderweb tatooed on my face, can I teach in Thailand?" gently caress no you can't you loving moron) you can probably manage. It must be said, however, that there are NO loving EFL ON THE BEACH JOBS. This is by far the most commonly asked question about teaching English in Thailand (How do I teach on the beach maaannnnn) and the only way you're going to do that is if you move to Thailand with enough capital to start your own school. To stress that again: THERE ARE NO JOBS ON THE BEACH. Give up on that now. You'll be teaching in a city where there are actually students. I went into Burma one time but that was just a visa run (though I did have a chance to buy a 50 dollar .38 snubnose while there). I also tried to get a visa to travel into Burma where I planned to totally Rambo it up by hiring local guides and more or less hitchhiking around, but went to the visa office for my visa in the morning, signed my name on a piece of paper, waited until noon when they kicked literally everyone out so they could have lunch, came back at 1:03 to find they'd taken me off the list because I wasn't there when they opened the door again (supposedly at 1:00). I said "Isn't there a list? Wasn't my name on it?" and the guy just gave me the biggest gently caress-you face I've seen outside of the goddamn Post Office here in NYC. So I basically said "gently caress you guys there's a few places I haven't been in Thailand yet and I'm sure they'll be great" and they were. I would also recommend NOT going to Burma as unless you totally shoestring it you're funding probably the worst governmental regime outside of Africa (maybe the Taliban puts up a challenge IDK, but the government in Burma is literally that bad). Want hilltribes? Mae Hong Son in the NW of Thailand is a loving excellent place for that. Want Sea Gypsies? Any of the small islands on the very lower SW coast of Thailand will probably have them (Koh Tarutao has a tiny island near it called Koh Lipe where you can stay with a sea gypsy village in the middle full of horrible dogs that will chase you and snap at you if you walk through it at night -- which you will as some of the bungalows are on the north shore and others are on the south shore. It is the single most beautiful island I visited in Thailand, but it's also very crowded with bungalow operations at this point and those bungalows are loving jammed with fat eurotourists and it's waaaaaaayyyyy in the South so it's not a top flight destination IMO). If you insist on Burma the best way to get your passport is to give up, go to Khao San, and pay one of the travel agencies to do it for you. They give your passport to a dude on a motorcycle along with a huge stack of other ones, he bikes down to the Burmese embassy on Satorn, he waltzes in and bribes the Burmese rear end in a top hat running the front room and takes them in the back where they all get stamped and he walks back out 20 minutes later and bikes it back to Khao San (after stopping for a Som Tam probably). I had the privilege of seeing this go down while I sat in a loving plastic chair for four hours only to be told to gently caress off for coming back three minutes late from their lunch. Things to be aware of with EFL in Thailand: You can get a job without a BA/visa but it'll probably not be a job worth working, there's plenty of supply in Thailand and so you'll want to be minimally qualified to get a tolerable position (that means having a BA). If you're white it's pretty easy to get work, if you look Asian, Black, Philipino or especially Indian you will probably not get an (acceptable) EFL job. Women are in high demand because western women go on the fritz and leave after they live in Bangkok and have to deal with no longer being able to get attention from local men (Thai or foreign) when they go out there. Thai teachers have a uniform of black slacks a white dress shirt and a tie (for women it's less specific but still formal business attire), so that's what you wear also. If you show up at the interview in sandals or a T-shirt or a Bill Cosby sweater you won't get a job. If you show up at the interview and tell them you're staying on Khao San you won't get a job. If you don't have a Thai cell phone number you won't get a job (go buy a cheap phone in MBK like everyone else). If you have dreads or stretched lobes you won't get a job. If you're Beaver from Leave it to Beaver and you got a BA then you're set. raton fucked around with this message at 07:10 on Mar 8, 2010 |
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Mar 8, 2010 06:50
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da keebsta knicca posted:If you are in Bangkok go clubbing in RCA it is better I think and you can hang out with the local young middle class. Also if you are in a group bottle service is actually a money saver... RCA for those who don't know is short for Royal City Avenue and is a street with a lot of clubs on it. It used to be kind of a hellhole that was semi-notorious for having clubs full of thirteen year olds but they remodeled it a lot in like 2006 or something and now it's fairly nice. Best movie theater in Bangkok is also out there (because it shows a lot of weird little foreign movies and such and is also nice inside) and probably my favorite all you can eat barbecue place is nearby. That being said there are tons and tons of great clubs in Bangkok and the best place to go changes from month to month.
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Mar 9, 2010 07:11
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freebooter posted:What powers sockets do countries in the region use? American? Wikipedia has a loving enormous article with maps but it's next to useless because it includes every single type of socket that can be found anywhere in the country, even if like 95% of them are European or whatever. http://www.travel-images.com/electric-plugs.html Adapters are easy to get locally. Keep in mind that if you look at the power source on your laptop that it can probably handle 220 just fine, you just need a small adapter to allow the plugs to plug in. If you're bringing something other than a laptop you're probably better off buying it there.
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Mar 9, 2010 08:44
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Ribsauce posted:Is that 800 a month plus a place to live? How do you survive on that salary? What are your expenses like? They don't give you a place to live in Thailand as rent is almost free. I had a place that was walking distance from a BTS station / Silom / work for like 120 a month (with aircon). Most foreigners pay about three times that for a one bedroom with kitchen (I had a studio with no kitchen). This is in Bangkok, it only gets cheaper if you're outside of the city. I really liked my little apartment, and it was cheap because I looked around a little bit and found it instead of just going from giant tower to giant tower on Silom or Sukhumvit like most farang are prone to do. It is crucial, however, that you have aircon (and that your apartment is near the BTS if you live in Bangkok) as not all units do. I had two English teaching jobs in Thailand. One paid about 1,100 a month the other about 1,500 a month. I could have gotten by and gone out conservatively on 600 a month. As it was I saved about 200 a month for future airfare and spent the rest because every time you spend a dollar in Thailand it's like spending four or five dollars back home, so there's really no incentive to save. Some foreigners get sort-of-trapped teaching in Thailand as they don't save any money so can't afford a flight home, but beyond that they just can't bear to go back to a place where they're a retail schlub instead of a teacher and where they're plain instead of handsome, and also the whole town is full of fat personality-less white women who were raised to think of themselves as queens of the moon. If any island has highspeed it's Samui. I know that internet cafes there are connected through some kind of DSL line so I'm sure you could get a line if you lived there. Whether you like teaching English or not depends more on you than anything else. It also depends a lot on the classes you get. When I taught at a university in Bangkok I had four groups of 35 or so students. Three of the groups were all girls (Thai people sign up for classes in groups with their friends, almost never will they just pick what they themselves are interested in without seeing if they can match it up with what their friends are taking first), 85% of whom wanted to learn English and probably 85% of whom wanted to hump me (I didn't, other teachers there did...). My fourth class was a class of "engineers" who were basically tech school guys who couldn't speak a word of English and weren't much inclined to learn, acted about like 13 year old Western kids act, but were overall still a great group to teach I just had to plan different kinds of lessons for them (even though their test was going to be the same at the end of the year...) so they could hopefully at least get a D on the test and pass it. More work for me but hey if you're going to be a teacher you have to be willing to do what needs to be done. The support you get as an English teacher varies a ton from place to place. Some schools the students won't even have a book (they plan to share with their friend or else the book is just outside of their budget -- this is despite the fact that 80% of the textbooks used by Thai students are made in a photocopy shop on site at the university that just copies textbooks all day long) and you'll have mixed groups of people in there who maybe are not even supposed to be in the same book. Some schools you have an experienced teacher leading a team, a syllabus, suggested activities, people contribute lesson plan ideas and game ideas for upcoming chapters together, a lackey to make copies for you, etc. Most schools are somewhere between the two extremes. Thai students are easy to teach, however, they are not very good students. The idea of "sanook" or fun (the philosophy that if something isn't at least a little fun to do you simply won't do it) applies to being a student as well, so it's crucial with Thai students that you present a lot of your material in a game or activity form. It is almost impossible to get them to do their own homework and you will have to constantly stress that if anyone copies work everyone who has copied work will get an F if you're at a school where grades are an issue (most of the EFL work in Thailand isn't with tutoring facilities like in Japan or Korea, but rather normal government run schools where the students need grades -- there are plenty of tutoring-type places as well though). Thai people are natural communicators though and you won't have to work hard to get them to apply what they learned to talk to eachother to voice their own ideas or opinions freely (both of these are major issues in, say, Japan). I even had a lesson at my last job where the students were required to go somewhere, find a foreigner, and interview them (the students wrote the interview questions in small groups during that day) and literally every kid in the class went out and did it and came back with really great results. These are 12 year old boys I'm talking about. quote:I guess that makes sense. When you consider you can get your own room in a guesthouse for like 5-8 bucks a night 10 bucks a night for a place you rent all month seems reasonable. How do you find it? Can you just rent one for like 90 days or whatever or is it a year lease type thing? Most places you pay one month deposit and your rent for the month and can move in. Sometimes you will also pay for electricity (if you have aircon) sometimes not. Formal leases are uncommon in my experience, though they do exist and you could probably get a discount if you bargained for one. It's month to month, usually. The best way to find a place is to first figure out where you want to live and then go there and find a motorcycle taxi driver who can understand your English (they're around). Help him to understand that you need an apartment and need his help to find one and will pay him XXX baht for the day/afternoon to help you out (500B should be enough to get the job done, but even if he won't do it for less than 1000B that's still like 30 bucks oh noe). You then hop on the back of the motorcycle, he takes you to every apartment around there (and may even do the language footwork of asking "have a room? how much is it? can he see it?" for you) and you find a place. There are realtors too, but I've always promoted the motosai method. raton fucked around with this message at 01:19 on Mar 10, 2010 |
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Mar 10, 2010 01:09
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Pompous Rhombus posted:Yeah, voluntary English classes in Thailand are almost all female. Guys think it's gay to study liberal arts type stuff. What uni were you at? I'll keep that in my pocket in case I want to talk poo poo later, but it wasn't Chula or Thammasat. This class was required, I just got lucky with the classes I got assigned. One of the teachers had all Engineers. hehe And I guess you don't really need aircon, but I just think it's so worth the money that I'd never live in Bangkok without it. Had a poo poo day? Come home with your bag of basil clams, pop a couple of aspirin and crank up the AC. When you come out of the shower everything will be great again. quote:I pretty much stopped using it once I started the Minsk trip though; it was too much a PITA to keep it on my body and take a glove off every time I wanted to write in it. It's cool to look back and see old to-do lists, names/addresses, and what I was spending money on though, I recommend picking up a little notebook and collapsible pen or something to keep in your pocket during your trip. I left my journal and sometimes-expense-log on a loving bus about three months before I left Thailand after I got back from a trip to the south.  That's what I get for making out with the cute girl who sat next to me during the bus ride and then seeing her boyfriend pick her up back in Bangkok at the station.... Jet Age posted:Has anyone done a homestay thing like this: I never did anything exactly like that but during my last year in Thailand I'd taken to just going to random small towns by bus, figuring out where there was a place I could stay once I got off (there's always something, and it's always cheap) and seeing what I could see. Never had any trouble meeting a couple local people and finding something out about the place I was visiting. It might be a bit harder to pull that off outside of Thailand, but TBQH it's easy to do that once you try it a few times and figure out how it is you get that kind of stuff done. Ain't that hard. raton fucked around with this message at 03:32 on Mar 10, 2010 |
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Mar 10, 2010 03:24
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freebooter posted:That link also lists multiple plugs per country... is that actually the case? Before I went to Korea I heard they used both American and European, and bought both, and then never once saw an American plug anywhere in the country. Yep, many countries have multiple kinds of plugs sprinkled around. Generally there is one kind of dominant plug, but then you'll be poking around and go "holy poo poo why is that American plug there...". It doesn't mean that both are always around, just that both are sometimes around. Just like the money adapters are easier to get overseas than at home in the US in my experience, even with the language barrier. If you can't communicate at all just bring your cord with you and pantomime what you need. If you do know a place in the US that has what you'll need go ahead and buy it in advance, but there are tons of cities in the US that I know for a fact don't stock anything like that. Pompous Rhombus posted:Also going to throw out Ratchada Soi 6 for the lower middle class crowd. My Chula friends refused to be seen there. I was going to mention Ratchadapisek Soi 4 but we're probably talking about the same place as it's big enough to span two sois. It's a big collection of small almost impromptu (but still generally nice) looking bars but the great thing about Ratchada Soi 4 is that it often has live music by Thai bands inside, the vast majority of your other going-out options in Bangkok are either DJ based or there's some cover band in there that plays exactly the same set every drat night. The only farang you're going to see on Soi 4 (Ratchada Soi 4, not the other better known Soi 4...) are ones that are studying in Bangkok and whose Thai friends took them out there (and me). It's pretty cool, you'll stick out there a bit if you're over 30, but no one really will pay you any mind anyway and if you can speak a little Thai there'll be plenty to do. Maybe we're not though because Ratchada 6 was always a megaclub / massage area in my mind while Soi 4 is that weird mix of small bars all kind of sitting in a giant parking lot. Maybe I just never realized they were right next to eachother. raton fucked around with this message at 18:09 on Mar 10, 2010 |
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Mar 10, 2010 18:01
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Pompous Rhombus posted:Oops, poo poo, you're right, it's Soi 4. I used to live on Soi 10, closer to the massage/soapland places. Thai people thought it was the most random place to live, but I had some good friends that lived across the street from me and the area was pretty convenient to a lot of stuff. I lived off of Satorn nigga but I been up in yo poo poo.
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Mar 10, 2010 19:10
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khysanth posted:Is there ever any Taiwan travel discussion in this thread? I've been checking it the past few weeks but haven't noticed any yet! It is possible to ask Taiwan questions, you know. I lived in Taipei for two months but didn't do a lot of traveling outside of the city.
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Mar 11, 2010 02:35
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SonicDefiance posted:We're in Bangkok at the moment and at a bit of a loss as to what to do regarding travelling around. Our original plans for the next couple of days were: Relax buddy, busses go down to Surat Thani too. If your train gets hosed just find a bus, go to Khao San if you have to, or the Southern Bus Terminal. You'll be able to get down there. Instead of being worried look at it as an opportunity to see a little living politics -- who knows, it might turn out that you're in Bangkok for the equivalent of the Berlin wall coming down (though probably not). It's Thailand. Do what you want, roll with the punches when they come. In your position I'd stick to my original plan and hope it worked out fine (which is probably will 80 to 85% of the time as far as I can guess). If it didn't, gently caress it man I can find a bus. You're not in any physical danger so chill out and enjoy the goings on if it comes to you being stuck in Bangkok for an extra day while you figure out a roundabout way down to your island. When you get into Kanchanaburi ask your guesthouse operator if there are busses that go directly from Kanchanaburi to Surat Thani. It's unlikely that anyone outside of the Kanchanaburi bus station would know this (Thailand...), so encourage her to call them and ask. If it turns out that there aren't busses (or that they don't run on that particular day) oh well back to plan A. raton fucked around with this message at 07:14 on Mar 11, 2010 |
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Mar 11, 2010 06:45
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Oh hey they're going across the river to Wongwian Yai? Bangkae gunna be hosed.
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Mar 11, 2010 20:03
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moflika posted:Dumb question, but it's annoying me at the moment: How easy is it to find cheap rear end umbrellas around? Should I bother bringing a light rain jacket? Don't bring an umbrella. In most of the region this is how the rain works: Every day during the rainy season at exactly 2:45 it suddenly starts absolutely flooding down for exactly an hour (you'll know it's coming because Thai people start rushing out of shops with big patio umbrellas to protect whatever it is they're selling on the side of the street), then it suddenly stops. This is the kind of rain that an umbrella is helpless against, and the other 23 hours in the day it doesn't rain at all. The time of day it rains shifts a little depending on how far north/south you are, but the pattern is the same in almost all of SE Asia (if you're talking Singapore south sometimes you get rain that goes all day, but again this is often the kind of rain that would just trash an umbrella anyway). You'll be able to buy rain slickers and umbrellas once there (if you're in an area where an umbrella does any good). You'll also be able to see Thai people walking around with plastic bags on their heads to keep the rain off. Even during the rainy season the rain is a non-issue (unless you're on a motorcycle I guess), the only precaution you need to take against it is a couple of garbage bags at the bottom of your pack. One is to throw over your pack if you're stuck outside in the rain, the other is for you to poke head and arm holes in if you're stuck outside in it. Should never come to that, though. As for the money I've done both but the smart thing to do is just bring an ATM card and withdraw decent chunks of money as you go. Finally 600 bucks ain't that much to be carrying around. I don't really leave the house here in New York without 150 in my wallet and I used to carry like 4k in cash down to AC to play poker with pretty regularly. It's hard to imagine doing that when you're just out of college and you've never held 400 bucks in your hands at one time in your life before, but you get used to it. He better not carry all of it in one place though, should be split up in two places plus wallet. raton fucked around with this message at 20:49 on Mar 12, 2010 |
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Mar 12, 2010 18:29
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSO4fBTskYE Only 23 views as I post this (though it's two days old). As of then nothing big happening yet, first protesters showing up in Bangkok. I can't find any fresher video yet, but that's likely because it's 2AM in Thailand right now. There should be tons of new stuff up come this evening (which will be morning in Thailand). [Embedding disabled going to have to click twice OMG THE EFFORT] A fairly recent article: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article7059353.ece To stay up to date the best place to go is the Bangkok Post, which is home to a startlingly large number of world class journalists and is probably one of the best newspapers out there: http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/politics/171214/protesters-spread-across-the-capital A hotline has been set up for tourists who are inconvenienced by the rally. Call 1672 from any Thai phone and you'll get connected. Rally efforts most likely to impact tourists are concentrated on major roads and intersections, trains should still be running fine, busses may be delayed. If you want to look around the capitol today and tomorrow I recommend you take motorcycle taxis and should probably avoid wearing a red, yellow or pink shirt. This is a great time to be in Bangkok, so if you're there get out and see what's going on! Don't be a chickenshit motherfucker! Only serious trouble so far has been in Surat Thani province (down in the South) where the resident Muslim separatists (probably) have set off five bombs. This is likely to be totally unrelated to the Red Shirts, and more a crime of opportunity. This kind of bullshit has been going on in the south for a decade now, and at its root is supported by Saudi money and propaganda in small Muslim schools in the south, though the South has a legit beef with the Central Thai government as they don't get their share of what should come to them (nor does any other province apart from those that the capital sits in) especially considering that probably Thailand's biggest tourist attractions are islands Samui, Phangan and Tao which are all technically a part of Surat Thani province (but which have never had bomb problems so it's okay to go there). http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/171223/five-bombs-explode-in-surat-thani Pompous Rhombus posted:I used empty rice sacks I bought at a market to add an extra layer of waterproofing to my saddlebags, they're a bit more robust than plastic garbage bags and make cool souvenirs/laundry bags. I recently bought an apron made out of one of those for my girlfriend here in the US for 15 bucks 
raton fucked around with this message at 20:47 on Mar 12, 2010 |
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Mar 12, 2010 20:16
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Steve. posted:Does anyone have suggestions for good diving islands off the west coast of Thailand? We're as keen to party as we are to dive, but since we can do that on Koh Tao I suspect we'll be more interested in the diving. I'm not a diver either but there are at least a half dozen great dive spots on the Andaman coast. The Similans alone (you stay on Koh Lipe if diving there thanks to a legal loophole that Chinese bungalow operators figured out with the Sea Gypsy people who live there) are one of the world's finest collections of dive sites. I snorkeled off of Lipe one day and saw clown fish and a giant clam and herds of parrotfish and everything else you see on TV. That's without a tank. brendanwor posted:Yeah there's tons of diving/snorkelling around Railay - was there last week, and like Shnicker said, lots of dive cruise advertising - just don't expect much of a nightlife on the mainland (Krabi, Ao Nang), even if you say you aren't interested in partying there! Lack of nightlife is a signature effect of a dive town. If you find a spot with nightlife that usually means the diving can't be all that great, and vice versa. raton fucked around with this message at 09:31 on Mar 15, 2010 |
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Mar 15, 2010 09:24
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brendanwor posted:Yeah, probably true in general, though IMO the nightlife on Koh Tao is loving great, and seems like I'm not the only one! I hated the nightlife on Koh Tao. My biggest complaint about the place (also it's a little pricey for a Thai island) 
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Mar 15, 2010 10:15
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freebooter posted:What are the best islands in Thailand? My best friend and I are flying into Singapore at the end of April and will be working our way north, and so far the only cool place appears to be Ko Tarutao National Marine Park. Everywhere else appears to be uber-developed and swamped in tourists. I think you mean "undeveloped" not "cool." All of the islands are cool. If you want your Robinson Caruso hut in a jungle thing the best thing to do is get in a time machine and go back about 40 years. However, there are still spots on the islands in Thailand that are not very developed at all -- a whole island though, no (apart from some of the totally-jungle places in near Tarutao where there aren't even bungalows). The NE coast of Phangan and the East coast of Chang spring to mind, Koh Lanta maybe also. A good beach is the first thing that gets developed on an island, though, and dive sites are next, so often your most laid back locations on Thai islands don't have the powdery white sand beaches that everyone demands of their Thailand time. What you're asking is "Is there some place that would be a perfect spot to develop in a country full of tourist minded entrepreneurs and a constant supply of tourists that isn't developed and that will be just mine?" Try Micronesia or some place in Indonesia, or maybe even Western Africa. Drawbacks to those may include the expense or fact that the nearest village may be grumpy Muslims instead of cheerful Thais or relative inaccessibility. Some tourists are disappointed that Thailand isn't third world enough for them. Maybe you're one of them. A warning in general then: Thailand ain't a mess of bamboo huts and people hunting monkeys and wearing bones in their noses. PR posted:Thaitaxidriver.jpg raton fucked around with this message at 19:12 on Mar 15, 2010 |
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Mar 15, 2010 19:03
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