you seem to be doing it wrong antibes

Not unless her **** was protruding from her stomach !!

Dunno


My girl has one. Said it was from an ovarian cist.

But then again this is the land of smiles....or land of lies

Dunno.

Have I been ****ing a ladyboy for a week then ?

Yo, planning a 3 month (or maybe 6 months at maximum) stay to Thailand beginning of next year with a grinder friend or two. I've read the bilbo's advice part 3 thread and it's replies and the SSNL goes to Thailand threads and some of their replies etc and am getting pretty hyped up. However, I have no clue on how to manage all the practical things. I guess we'll start with deciding a place to stay.

We are a bunch of 21-year old guys so nightlife is an important thing obv. There should be good night life with not just tourists and working girls. I also want to live in a tropical/exotic enviroment with a lot of friendly and young thai people. We live on cold and ****ty Finland so def looking for something different, warmn and unique. Beach should be nearby, definetly don't want to stay in some tourist hell, but it should still be somewhat modern with good DSL, good connections to other cities etc. Any thoughts on the place to stay? A lot of grinders seem to prefer Phuket, why is that? Since Bangkok is mostly just a big city it doesn't seem that attractive to me as for a place to live in, although it's def worth visiting I suppose.

Also, as for renting an apartment... what is the best way to approach this? We'd definetly prefer to rent our own apartment for the stay instead of a hotel. Something balla with a swimming pool and a beach close by would be nice, how much do you need to pay for this? Does three persons each paying like 500 USD cover the rent even for a sweet place to stay? Also, how are people doing this renting thing, via some site in advance of the trip (URL's?) or by first staying in a hotel and then finding a place and hooking up with some ppl via 2+2 and getting them to help with the apartment?

All of this seems very exciting to me but I'm on bit of a loss here where to start. Slowly trying to work things out. If any 2p2ers are willing to help that's just superb :P

I'm considering moving to Phuket in March. These are some places I found

http://www.siamrealestate.com/detail...-pool-modern/#
http://www.siamrealestate.com/detail...imming-pool-1/ http://www.siamrealestate.com/detail...pical-gardens/ http://www.siamrealestate.com/detail...-view-rental/#

http://www.siamrealestate.com/detail...a-view-rental/

http://www.siamrealestate.com/detail...rentals-rawai/

http://www.siamrealestate.com/detail...ol-loch-home/#

http://www.siamrealestate.com/detail...la-large-pool/

http://www.siamrealestate.com/detail...-large-pool-1/
http://www.siamrealestate.com/detail...-large-pool-1/
http://www.siamrealestate.com/detail...wimming-pool/# http://www.siamrealestate.com/detail...-rental-villa/ http://www.siamrealestate.com/detail...vate-pool-45/# http://www.siamrealestate.com/detail...g-pool-laguna/

i had subscribed to this blog http://www.bangkokdiaries.com/2009/0...rism-thailand/ and im assuming the price will depend on the hospital, and u have chosen a more upscale one, so i wont worry about that.

Some of us prefer Phuket for multiple reasons. Some of which you mentioned.

Beaches, mountains accesibility to all types of food and decent nightlife.
OBV, for widest selection of nightlife and food BKK is tops but Phuket is acceptable to many.

ADSL is fine assuming you come in with knowledge.
You want TT&T (changing to Triple T soon) maxnet, premier level if you are able to get a direct phone line in your accomodation. If you cant get your own phone line, many people are finding CAT Aircard as a functional grind option. Though with a group of ppl it's going to be a lot more cost effective to get a solid ADSL line then a bunch of aircards.

Finding a apt/house: Reccomend booking a hotel in the are you expect to want to live and expecting to spend a week hunting on MB or in rented car. If you want to find the place that truly fits you, it is not going to happen on websites. Rental websites in English are taking a huge vig as agents and often not accurate representing the locations.

Location in Phuket (were you t choose Phuket) depends upon your priorites.

If Beach was #1 You would most likely want to stay in Kata/Karon or Nai Harn. (the concensus 2 best beaches of us longterm 2p2 residents).

Staying in Kata/Karon you get awesome beache and good selection of restaurants bars etc, but give up the fact that they get heavily touristed during high season (OCT-APR).

Staying in Nai Harn you have awesome paradise but farther from a selction of services.

Other options:
Rawai: Best chance of finding multiple houses next to each other or A house to fit you all at your desired budget of $500/person.
It is between Nai Harn and Kata (separated from Kata by mountain pass road).

Phuket Town: Deffo cheapest when it comes to getting solid value for a house BUT. Also fits your desire to not have to stumble all over tourists. (I live here and see about 5 farang a day if I don't leave Phuket Town.
It has fairly thriving nightlife scene of NON hookers with a bunch of bars, clubs, discos that are like 99% Thai customers. This is good but also requires you to pick up at least some conversational Thai if you want to have shots at the Thai ladies.

Drawbacks: 20min drive to the beaches, 20 min drive to the Patong nightlife.


Patong: SOund slike everything you don't want. Heavily touristed year round. Full of working girls. A touristed out culture where you soon get the feeling that every Thai is looking to charge you for something.

It has a really nice beach (prob #3 on the island) but you have to stumble over fat German SexTourists to get to the water. It has tons of hotels,restaurants etc and bars and discos. IMO,once you've been here for awhile, but it's the kind of place you don't mind visiting once every few weeks for a western meal and perhaps a fun night out, but you don't want to live there.

Hope thats helpful.

PS:screename "Lessu" is Finnish friend who has been here ovr a year now. If you hav ay specific FInn questions I reccomend PMing him.

Just a few examples of things You won't get from the english

websites:

1)http://www.siamrealestate.com/detail...-pool-modern/#
It is in Khatu. This is a mostly Thai place with a large % of the
ppls being workers in the Patong tourist industry but unable to
afford living in Patong (it's just over the hill). 40K, even for a 3BR
, in this area is way expensive. I have a good idea which
development tis is in and it is FAR from everything except
Patong and even that is a 15min ride by motorbike. Also doesn't
have ADSL/phoneline.

I'd expect this to be 20K-25K if found locally.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2)http://www.siamrealestate.com/detail...imming-pool-1/
Once again, it's Khatu and overpriced at 50K, though it seems nice.

I'd expect this to be ~30K if found locally.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3)http://www.siamrealestate.com/detail...pical-gardens/

OK this is a better location than Khatu. Chalong is 15min from Phuket town, 10min from Kata and 10 Min from Nai Harn. This house is VERY expensive. Notice the top of the page says 55K then it small print at the bottom it says 65K. I expect this to be 35K-40K if found locally.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4) http://www.siamrealestate.com/detail...-view-rental/#

This is a really decent location. But..once a again tis a bit expensive though it it closer to what you would get locally. If I found this in person I would expect to get the price down to 35K-40K.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5)http://www.siamrealestate.com/detail...rentals-rawai/

Decent location, nice house BUT LOLtasticly overpriced.
60K? LOL NO. 40K maybe.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6)http://www.siamrealestate.com/detail...ol-loch-home/#
Um, back in Khatu so 64K just does NOT compute.
I expect 35K-45K locally.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7)http://www.siamrealestate.com/detail...la-large-pool/
Again in Khatu but looks nice. Elevated with view is a pretty important thing that adds value. Still at 65K it's well overpriced.
Looks closer to 45K-50K to me.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8)http://www.siamrealestate.com/detail...-large-pool-1/
Khatu again. decent and has 4BRs but not 65K.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9)http://www.siamrealestate.com/detail...wimming-pool/#
70K? LOL WAT?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10)http://www.siamrealestate.com/detail...-rental-villa/
Kamala is the ghetto beach just over the mountains north of Patong.

100K for this. UM NO.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11)http://www.siamrealestate.com/detail...g-pool-laguna/
Nice place but it's in Laguna. Way up north near Bang Tao. Super nice beache but like very little nightlife and for 120K you can get a LOT more house.

Hey, thanks for the thought out response. Appriciate it.

Just to be clear, I don't mind some tourism, tourists and some working girls at all. It's probably pretty good to actually some ppl around you who speak English since none of us speak a word of Thai. Just personally think it's kind of ruining the mood if each guy is a white boy and each girl is either a ladyboy or a working girl.

I suppose the budget doesn't necessary have to be 500 USD/person for rent but it shouldn't be super expensive either. How hard is it to get a good apartment for rent during high season (beginning of next year is partly high season, I assume) with reasonable price? I looked at some real estates and 100,000 baht for month or something similar was pretty common for the nice looking looking 3 bedroom houses in our area in the time we're going to be staying there.

I have no clue what you just said regarding DSL and TT&T, lol.

You're probably right that we should book a hotel first and then start looking for the house. Does a std hotel have a working dsl connection so we can grind during this period too? How well are a few young foreign guys expected to do at finding an apartment from a country they've never been, from people who they don't speak the same language with? :P

Also, I've read stuff that people who go to Phuket expecting everything to get everything really cheap are in for a suprise. And also that Phuket's kind of ruined by tourism etc already and that there are much better and cheaper places to stay too. Any truth in these claims?

Fair enough. Then I think I was fairly accurate in Patong being a place you won't mind visiting but don't want to live in.

How many are you? 3, 4 5? It makes a huge difference when you get above 3.

There are several ISPs. TOT is the government run one and it is shiiit service, shiiit interwebz and overpriced.

TT&T is the primary private competitior which provides decent interwebz at decent cost if you KNOW what you want/need.
3 have 3 levels (INDY, PREMIER, and BUISNESS) with diff speeds in each level. The level is important not so much the speed variances in the levels.
EX: 2Mbs Premier is MILES more reliable than 8Mbs INDY.

Many hotels will have wifi but few will be grindable.

These 2, have had recent 2p2s grind in them
http://www.katabeachstudio.com/
http://www.summerbreezehotel.com/


Honestly, I expect you to be very bad at finding value on your own speaking NO Thai. Add to this you will be arriving in the heart of high season when prices are highest and availability is lowest.
It is still possible. If you are nice peoples and not afraid to buy lots of vodka (or bacardi breezers in Lessu's case) usually one us will help out.


Expecting cheap compared to Europe. Hell Yes. Expecting cheap compared to rest of Thailand? NO.

My standard Thai meal at local eatery costs like <$2
You can also go get a steak at the Boathouse in Kata and pay $100/meal.
It's up to you how much you spend and where.

Partially true. PARTS of Phuket are hyper touristed. There is a lot of buildup going on but I wouldn't say it's ruined. Most of those comments come from people whose primary experience is PATONG. PATONG is an adult disneyland MADE for tourists full of beer, womenz, hotels and incidently a rlly nice beach. Get out of Patong! Phuket is a hudge island. Living in Phuket town, I see very little touristy BS.

YO Eric, What it do?

Easy to open Bank acct. Details when u get here.

DEFFO get travel med insurance!

DaGrunt,

you can PM me for my msn if you want some phuket specific answers in finnish. there are also several posters here who live in bkk if/when you need tips from there.

Visa questions...

If you have overstayed your visa, where is the best place to do a visa run, and where is the quickest place that turns around multiple re-entry visas?

not really sure what you are trying to ask...

you have overstayed (you can't overstay your visa, you just overstay. visa just gives you the permission to enter the country and you will be stamped accordingly)

i guess you want a tourist visa with multiple entry? only place that issues multiple entries is vientiane, laos. it takes overnight for them to issue it

if that suits you post more and i can give you some url's to help with that trip. or just ask people that have done it (like vlad, otl, lon)

havent booked anything yet but drinks when i arrive sir

hey =)
anyone knows a good place ( max 1000baht/day) with reliable internet in bangkok/phuket/koh samui/koh tao or koh phangan? i grind sngs, so the internet connection is very important =) im also willing to stay for a couple of weeks, so setting up my own inet connection isnt gonna be necessary.

I will give you a very good advice:

Check in to a cheap hotel for a week, rent a motorbike, drive around in the areas where you want to live and look for houses that are for rent, instead of using online websites for your search and booking which is going to be much more expensive.

You then also will have easier to find out what area you really want to live in.

All the houses that are for rent have a sign on them, and if you contact the owner directly you will get much cheaper rent. I have not lived in Phuket for some years but I guess there are ALOT of houses out for rent.

IF you must rent a house via an agent, make sure you get discount when signing long term contract.

Sorry, just saw that you already have gotten the same advice from NewTeaBag.

You guys who live in Phuket. What is more expensive in Phuket than in other tourist parts of Thailand?

Besides the house rent, is not the difference in cost more about tourists stuff? Like hotels, restaurants, tuc tuc and so?

If you live in Phuket, not visiting as a tourist, what is it that costs more in Phuket than let us say Pattaya?

I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest we need a new sticky linking to known places in various cities in Thailand that have connections suitable for grinding.

tuk tuks/taxis are ridiculously priced compared to BKK, inspiring most of us in Phuket to own motorbikes.

Indeed.

Metre for metre possibly the most expensive in the world. Concorde was cheaper.

If they actually charged a reasonable price , people might actually use them !

people use them because they don't have many useful choices and there are so many tourists that are willing to pay the overpriced fares

Yeah, what are these areas again? Bangkok, Phuket, Pattaya (lol at living there and being able to grind though )? Anything else?

NewTeaBag: Thx again for taking the time to respond. You're certainly right that living in the Patong Beach area does not sound like a hot idea at all. The amount of ppl going is going to be 2 or 3 very likely, don't know for sure. How much would you estimate we would have to pay for a balla 3 bedroom house monthly in the Phuket area? Not in Patong or other expensive tourist places but maybe a bit further down, with still having good connections to party places. I have no clue since the online real estate companies are renting houses with overpriced tags and I don't live in Thailand.

As for Internet, thx for clarifying. I assume it's not going to be that big of a hassle to set up one of those TT&T DSL's working? Just get modems and **** and hook them up?

I looked into the hotel rates for those "grindable" hotes you mentioned.. 1700 baht a night for a standard room? Damn. I suppose most people on their first visit to Thailand just chill there and enjoy, staying on a hotel that's not as damn expensive during the time they are looking for an apartment? Or how are most ppl handling this in practice? I suppose it can't be that hard to find a decent place for an ok price even on our own but since we are most def nice people and can afford to buy other nice people (yes, 2+2ers) a few shots for helping a friend out we should get along nicely..? :P I'm kinda stressing mostly about the apartment issue, other things like getting a visa and setting up DSL and finding our way around there shouldn't be that big of a problem. :P

Good to know

I'm in the early stages of research so this is really helpful. I thought Khatu would be a decent place because it's outside of Patong yet accessible, and the homes are in a quiet looking golf community. Sounds like it's not all that great of an area though

I haven't committed to Phuket or BKK yet but I like the idea of having a nightlife scene but also some peace & quiet, and beaches.

would you put a % to how much we could expect the homes to be overpriced on the websites? The fact that these listed prices are "overpriced" is excellent, I thought of them as cheap. Sick.

6 months? your nightlife will only consist of working girls! do you speak thai?
are you gonna spend your sundays in church? you get the picture!