That's ok, me and KKF are BFF anyway. amplify's avatar is good but there are some I like better.

NT

Degen - this might be too broad a question, but if I had a week in Thailand, what cities / beaches should I hit?

-Al

why do you like thailand? what do you do there? describe a typical day. describe a nontypical day. does the political unrest bother you?

What is the approximate monthly cost to live well off in Thailand?

Are you worried about the Muslim fundamentalists or is that largely in the southern part of the country?

And are the women as insanely beautiful as I hear?

do thai women only like white guys or do (rich) asians actually stand a chance?

NT!,

"In your mind on your bed with your legs splayed out" doesn't count. Try again.

Degen - thanks, I'm 30 and into beaches and nightlife (at least that's what I'd try to get out of going to Thailand I think). I'd be going with a group of friends around my age (all single), guys and women. I guess cause it'd only be a week, I was thinking like "how long to stay in Bangkok, which beaches with limited time to hit" kind of question.

-Al

Excellent post man.

I too am interested in the cost of living and quality of life.

1. What would a middle class (North American standards) couple with no children have to spend per month on food/lodging/entertainment etc.. if they wanted to "upgrade" and live "well"?

2. What are the biggest issues with living in what is commonly accepted as a third world country?

3. How reliable is basic infrastructure (electricity/cable/internet/roads/public transport - etc...)?

4. How corrupt is law enforcement (a 2+2 poster was caught with some weed and extorted out of $2000 USD in exchange for not getting booked - is this common?).

TIA - I will ask more as I think of new questions.

Degen,
how do you get the 90 day visas?
I usually buy the 3x60 days tourist visa. The one year / 90 days visa require a lot of paper work and some "real" documents to my knowledge.

huh?

Sounds like buddy is a rich AZN and wants to know if the hookers will care that he is not white.

1. A couple can live very good for 2,000 USD a month. 3,000 USD and you are living very large.

2. If you are smart, its very safe. If you dont do drugs or keep bad company. It is pretty easy to have someone killed though if you keep bad company.

3. Infatstructure is great. You can catch domestic flights all over the place. BKK has subway/train, very effective if your apartment is well located.

4. See #2.

Tuq PM'ed me and requested that I ask you the following:

if you have money, you are good to go.

Not Degen, but anyway:
A couple should get by very, very well with 2-3k $. The reason why it isn't less is that you can afford to do many nice things. The price is cheap in each case, but it adds up.

You are far away from friends and family.
It is dirtier than in america/europe/australia.
The traffic is chaotic.
See question #3.

You have power outages (arund 1 per month where I live). DSL is not very reliable, so you should use a UPS and a second internet connection to be fine. The roads aren't great, but not that bad either. I don't know much about public transport because I use taxis (very cheap) in general.

You shouldn't have problems here with law enforcement unless you kill somebody or do drug trafficking.
That said, I always hear that before and after loy krathong (sp.), xmas etc. the cops need more money and stop more cars for speeding/motobike-driver for not wearing a helmet. 100 baht = around 2.50$.

here are my complaints about thailand

1. traffic is really horrible if you want to go somewhere outside of the skytrain/subway range. bangkok is pretty poorly designed. airport to your house can sometimes take upwards of 2 hrs if the traffic is bad.

2. pollution is pretty bad. are there any trees in bkk?

3. everywhere you go, you see 50 year old dudes dressed in shorts and a tank top walking around what is obviously paid company. these are mostly 'tourists' and not expats who dont give a [censored] what thai people think about them or how they are presented.

Freerollin`,

I said "boys", not "kids", so you changed my question. WTF?