when in doubt leave it out!

i think most just buy new clothes

I haven't washed my own clothes in years. I don't even like the hotels where they want you to count everything before it gets collected by the laundry service, it's too much work.

most guys have steady girlfriends in LOS or just rely on hookers?

or both.

Is there Dell in Thailand?

just hookers

Does anyone here play poker over EDGE? My TOT connection is absolute crap, disconnecting several times a day - occasionally for hours. Triple-T doesn't seem too cooperative either as it's taken them well over a month just to figure out whether it's possible to set up a connection in my house.

However, I just remembered I've actually got a Huawei USB Modem lying around which would be awesome to use as a back-up for now. Unfortunately, there's no 3G where I live in Thailand.

So has anyone been consistently able to play poker over EDGE? Which service providers/plans have you been using?

Cheers

I thought the girlfriends were hookers

now i am confused

where do you live? if not in bangkok get cdma. works as primary internet or as backup

triple-t should be ok. just get your landlord to put some pressure on them, offer some money or whatever it needs if you really need it

Thanks for the quick and solid advice. I live in Trang and it looks as if CDMA would work here. I'll have to go to the CAT office to find out where's my nearest tower though.

However, I just read this on ThaiVisa:
So it seems I wouldn't be able to use mine after all?

I've had my landlord pressure them and have even offered money but they're still giving me some random bullsh*t like "maybe next month" etc (any further advice on dealing with Thai people like that?). I'll call my landlord first thing tomorrow morning and give it another go but otherwise I'll probably still have to buy the device and go through with the CDMA thing.

And, well.. if Triple-T finally decides they could actually use a new customer - fair enough. It's clear to me now that there can never be too many (back-up) internet connections in this country.


As of now, though, playing poker is more or less out of question and this is f*cked.

ill be heading over to thailand/singapore later this month for a 3 week holiday (travelling with a friend).

can anyone recommend hotels/hostels or even just general areas to stay in the following places?
(anything up to around $40 per night per person)

bangkok
singapore
phuket
koh samui

places to go out at night? things to do during the day?

any other places not on my list that you can recommend?

any general advice or links for a newb tourist appreciated. thanks!

it's weird bc now that i've been there i know of some deals and know just how much something like 20k baht is valued. i mean for like 600$ u could get a really nice 1 bedroom with all the western amenities u want. but it may not be on a central location that u want, especially if u only have a week or two to commit. try agoda.com for hotels, it may not be the best, but it will defiantly be cheaper than just showing up on a whim to the hotel.

as for things to do the great thing about Thailand, and why i'll be moving there and setting up a poker condo there, is the variety. you can literally do almost anything. well not everything, but almost. what are your likes or dislikes? whats a great night out for you? a lesbian show? rock climbing? scuba diving? swimming? strippers? 1 week girlfriends? malls? 5 star restaurants and credit card roulette with 2+2ers? black out drunk? clubbing? ultra degeneracy? rooftop restaurants and bars? it depends on individual taste and of course, budget.

for bangkok i would definitely check out vertigo rooftop restaurant and bar. such nice views especially at night. also clubs on rca and siam paragon for an ultra western tourist feel.

phuket is different. patong is hooker/tourist central and doesn't justify other parts of the true natural beauty and relaxed atmosphere of the island. search for different secluded beaches off the beaten path. rent a motorbike and flirt with thai girls in malls who will go out of their way to show you around. visit jungcelyon mall and do some shooting at the firing range. jet ski, scuba dive, there are pamphlets all over the major tourist streets, u can't miss them. above all watch for lady boys there!


also do some research on this long thread, and browse past through informative posts here. there's a ton of advice although somewhat jumbled and scattered, in 584 pages!

thanks for your response guy.

scuba diving, sailing and chilling on the beach are the sort of things we want to do during the day. any specific recommendations for this? ive heard you can sometimes just hire a thai guy and his boat for the day and he will take you around the islands.

clubs / bars, would prefer to meet regular thai girls as opposed to hookers, is that possible in the places ive listed or should we expect all the girls we meet out to be hookers?

any specific recommendations for areas to avoid or good areas to be in for accomodation in bangkok? or does it really matter?

i said $40 per night each but could stretch it up to $50.

i mean if beach activity is what u want, some of the people who live in phuket may be albe to chime in. ive spent only about 3 weeks in phuket, the rest i've been learning the ins and outs of bangkok.

however i will say know this for sure: in phuket especially, ladyboys are sometimes had to spot and will look like, especially when ur drunk, similar to thai girls and talk softly and flirt with you the same way. all the bars there don't employ a girl-working only policy, as many places in bkk do. however u said ur into normal girls so this might not be a problem, but coming from a western country, i can tell that sometimes especially on a short vacation such as urself, that girly bars are extremely hard to resist.

anyway, patong beach is really going to rip u off in terms of beach things. like u have to pay for a chair on the sand, pay maybe 2k baht for water activities, and the water isnt clean. kata beach is slightly better in that the water is cleaner and beach activities are slightly cheaper. i would say go around with ur friend to the beaches and explore the island less tourist scene and beaches.

patong phuket is where all the attractions are such as nice clubs, and western restaurants and activities,. however, that is where all the hookers are well. it might not matter if u only have a week, but if i lived there i wouldn't stay in patong, i would prob go to phuket town,. however, bc u only have a week or two, it may suit ur needs for entertainment and convenience. normal girls are most of the time going to be easy to approach, and friendly unless they are insane hot or hiso, in which case u have to put in time an effort on dates, which u may not have time for on such a sort stay. either way, after the booking of hotels are done, everything is easy to find and its super easy to relax and have a good time.


in patong if u met a girl at club u can be 85% sure she is working. in bangkok u can choose. meaning there are clubs and bars with 95% normal girls. There are clubs w/ 50% working 50% normal. then there are places, like patong discos, with 95% working girls. it's hard to say to avoid this area or stay out of this area, because ur on such a short stay, and with only a week, the major fun is located in tourist spots, which do contain large % of hookers. but overall, especially when u explore, Thailand has so many options that go beyond tourist places, and venues to meet "good" girls. its just as i said, with only a week in each area it going to be difficult, but none the less most likely fun!

in phuket, if you are wanting to go out and meet normal girls, you need to be able to speak a little thai, and will be wanting to go out in Phuket Town. even so, you'll not want to be staying in Phuket Town, based on what i've read, you should probably stay in Kata, and do your clubbing in Phuket Town. If you change your mind and go the more degenerate route Kata isn't very far from Patong, and has options of it's own.

i meet all my girlfriends at spicy2, i suggest there if you want fun legit girls

how does cat cdma work? do you get a card of some sort to put in the cellphone? When you connect to the pc, does it connect like WIFI, or do you use usb?

it's a usb stick, nothing to do with phones. no sim cards or phone lines or mobile phones needed

it connects like dial-up. usually there is a program that you can use to connect or use windows' own connections

Ok, thanks a lot for that info. I need to check it out. The electrcity for most of the province went down today, and i was chipleader of a big mtt on ps with 50 left, a sad day.

So, my plan now is getting a laptop as a backup pc and using cdma with it. I have an asus eee with linux, but i guess that will not work with cdma, or?

The immigration office moved to somewhere near Don Muang airport, as I found out yesterday. Unfortunately no one has seemed fit to update the website, so I just found the new address here: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Immigr...t-t295058.html . And yes, it seems crazy, but that's the way it is.

More praise for CAT CDMA.................

Having used successfully in Phuket & Samui I can report that it works a treat in Chiang Mai

It really is the fing nuts and all for the price of two LT girls in BKK and is fundamentally more satisfying.

And as for Chiang Mai compared to Phuket , Samui & BKK.......It's my fave so far because.........

Cheaper and more varied accommodation

Cheaper women (though I have now tired of whoring) And not so in your face/pushy girls

Cheaper food

Less pollution than BKK

Slightly more sensible drivers ( though still lots of fun )

Pandas (supposedly)

Nope

umm no

you get 30 days from the day when your permission of stay stamp was going to expire. it doesn't matter when you go get the extension but some people suggest to do it about a week before.

example: i got my last extension in august. i came in to thailand 26th of june and got permission of stay stamp for 60 days as i should have and was stamped until 24 august

13 of august i went to immigration to get the extension and was granted the extension and stamped until 24 september which is actually 31 days more but that's not the point.


offtopic visa information in case you are interested:

your visa expiring and your permission of stay expiring are two different things

your visa expires on the day when it says "enter before" in your visa(the sticker you got from the embassy/consulate). if you have entries left and you come into the country on this day you have to get lucky to be stamped for 60 days since your visa is officially expired already

what you are extending is permission of stay which is the stamp you get at immigration when you come into thailand. with tourist visa you are stamped for 60 days and then during those 60 days you can go to immigration and extend it like you know. and remember if you have entries left in your visa (the sticker) and time left (not the enter before day yet) you can enter anytime before that day and be here for 90 days total. your visa expiring doesn't mean you have to leave the country

ill be arriving in phuket around 3 or 4 november but havent got an exact date. how far in advance do i need to book accomodation? will it be a problem if i book say a week before when i have a better idea of my plans, or do i have to sacrifice the flexibility to be sure of a decent place?

It's great now, but the air gets so toxic from the fires after January that I wouldn't be surprised if the yearly average was worse than Bangkok. =(

So if I'm backpacking through SE Asia, would any 2p2ers wanna meet up for some brewskis and partying?