Hi Guys,

I'm in Phuket at the moment and interested in buying a new, fancy-ish laptop. Anyone had any experience computer shopping here? Am I better off making a trip somewhere out of the country for computer shopping? (I'll need to jet off for a visa run at some point soon...)

Thanks,



Bill

The new rules of bars and nightclubs in Bangkok/Thailand is insanely anoying. If it keeps up like this I dont think Im going to ever go back to Thailand.

Everything closing at 1 AM is simply ridiculously ******ed.

For laptops thailand is not a really good place. I saw a couple of new sony that were cool in pantip plaza, but still not as good as a dell one for sure.

For the nightlife everybody say there a new chief of police and new governement that want to establish his rule in the underworld so it should be back to normal after some time, from what i heard. But still theres always a couple of places that are open late like funky dojo in patpong, baryan tree in ratchada or the old spicy (wich is supposedly owned by the police).

everything doesnt close at 1am. plus good citizens dont need to be out past 1am.....lol.

are places being forced to actually follow the rules now? or are just the beer bars being closed a little earlier?

Last night all of Nana Plaza got closed down at 1 am. It was crazy. Afterwards we went to Soi 7, hoping that some pool bar might be open, but the police got there before we did.
We went to some random small sketcy places until 3.30 am-ish, when we realized that there was nothing else left but Spicy. So we went there, and got rejected at the door at 3.45 am, they were about to close :S

i stand corrected. for the time being 1am is closing time for major pleasure providing places.

anyone gone to vietnam?

i'm in chiang mai right now but it isn't as fun the second time around so i'm goin to siem reap soon think i might add hanoi. who knows. other option is to immediately hit the beach.

ps 1 am pretty ****ty, glad i got out of bangkok soon since nightlife is what makes it cool

Yeah what the hell is going on?! The new government is really cracking down on the nightplaces.

The only reason to buy a lappy in thailand is for the thaikeyboard I guess, but if u want that u can prob just buy some stickers and glue them to ur current.

Koh tao:

cant blame the thais. maybe they want a different image....lol.


there r other things to do in los that dont involve beer and gurls......lol.


what they r i dont have a clue.

well imo, 1 isnt that bad.. we can just go out earlier..
I was kind of tired of waking up at 1 or 2pm
Im back to a decent shedule now and i like it.

Anyways, gf is out for a week @ krabi and im back in bangkok so... MANDARIN baby
chess and b00ze

i miss staying out till 8am

Nobody is forcing anyone to be out after 1, but its damn nice to have the option.

we just picked up 2 hotgirls in the traffic and brought them home to p^lay drinking games with the taxi driver..
awesome
unfortunately they're in love with me and dont want me to go pay for sex

alright guys, this has surely been asked before but i can't be assed thrawling through this mammoth thread..

i'm looking to get 1 bed apartment in bangkok for 2months and willing to spend up to $1.5k for a decent place.. i've spent hours skimming through google and it seems a serviced apartment in the sukhumvit area would be most appropriate..
i'm unsure though of what area of sukhumvit i should be looking at or which websites are best for these types of apartments??
if anyone could throw out a few links or nice areas or apartment complexes it would be much appreciated, thanks..

I've read through most of this awesome thread-now my girlfriend and I have bought our tickets and we are hardly able to sleep we are so excited. We're looking to maximize beach time. A few questions-

We arrive on May 2nd to BKK and leave (tentatively) on May 18th.

1. Should we buy a flight from BKK to Phuket? If we only have a few weeks, is there anything totally awesome that we will miss by flying rather than driving to Phuket?

2. I'm leaning toward splitting the trip between 2-3 beaches. Esteemed posters, where should I stay? I've narrowed it to Koh Samui, Phi Phi, Kata, Had Yao, patong, and Nai Harn Beach. If someone could offer up a breakdown of pros and cons, that would be awesome.

3. Is it really stupid to miss the full moon party? Should I stay until the 20th? No one's mentioned the half moon parties. Do they give an adequate taste or not even close?

Here's some more background on us: We're both in our 20s, we love to party but also love to just relax. We've been teaching English in Tokyo (and playing lots of poker) for the last year so we do have some insight into Asian culture. Before that we both lived in San Francisco.

Please feel free to PM me as well. I wouldn't mind meeting some of you for a drink--If it's as awesome as you all say, I could be convinced to move for good. Thanks everyone.

Tru

Sounds like a plan........

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index....owtopic=172530

Nope. Not much to see. I've never driven from BKK to Phuket but the buses/minivans are usually very uncomfortable. The airlines are cheap and will get you there with your sanity in tact.

Koh Samui is an island, not a beach . You might want to check out when the rainy season starts. I think it hits Phuket some time in May/June, and then Samui about a month later. I can't really comment on the beaches in Samui since I only spent 1 night there, but it feels a bit less developed and more exotic than Phuket. I would not stay in Patong if I were you. The beach sucks and it's a very seedy place. The nightlife there is good, but it's only a short drive from Kata/Karon. Kata beach is really nice, and the town is developed and caters towards tourists. Nai Harn is about 10 minutes to the south and is my favorite beach in Phuket. Smaller and quieter than Kata. I would recommend staying in Kata just because it's in a better location, and is a bit more developed than Nai Harn.[/QUOTE]

The full moon party is a lot of fun, but I wouldn't plan your trip around it if you're only here for a few weeks. If you decide to stay in Samui, then yeah, definetly make it over for one night. If you stay in Phuket, I think it will just be too much travelling. The half moon party is just a watered down version of the full moon party. Maybe 1/4 of the turn out. If you're going to go, try to make it for the main event.

Sure. PM me if you want more help deciding on where to stay.

hey guys,

so a friend of mine and me wanna spend some time in thailand.


1- hows the inet connection in hotels? (poker,bla) if we'd start from there
2- shall we directly rent a apartment or house throu the internet? (urls? :<)
3- will there be any bail money to pay for houses?

we wanna stay for about a year or so :<

thanks!

question:

i read somewhere that the conversion rate for USD/baht is about $2.50 = 100 baht but i believe the source i read that is at least a few years old (not sure), could someone say what the current rate is? ty

the rate ****ing sucks now

1- very bad, usually impossible to play poker, time outs and mass discs
2- for apartments, I usually go for http://www.9apartment.com
3- usually you have make a deposit of 1 or 3 months rent beforehand

according to www.xe.com

1.00 USD

=

31.4849 THB

Ryu
SRB

1: Different from place to place.

Take a nice weekend trip to Hong Kong and buy a 'dirt cheap' MacBook Pro.
Hong Kong is a nice city for a few days anyway

One night in BKK made an island man crumble.

PANG MAK MAK EVRYTING!


WTF? Nana shutting down at 1AM?

Spicy was decent but didnt pick up until 130AM and was friken PANG!


Off to Laos.

I reccomend the VIP bus to Nong Khai.

Me and the gf got Mo CHit terminal at 130PM and took the 1st available bus up (a 2nd class bus to Nong Khai for 375baht) because she didnt want to wait around until 7pm for the VIP overnighter.

Holy chit! DO NOT take the 2nd class bus!

The 2nd class cheapo bus stopped about 47 thousand times, the seats were cramped and barely reclined, the bus was baking hot inside WITH the AC on and we reached Udon Thani the bus steward packed us off into the back of a pickup truck to finish the journey to Nong Khai with an old lovestricken Thai dude and a mao young Thai dude who for an hour was trying to convince my Tirak that she should abandon her farang for his poor, angry arse. She spurned him quite nicely without me ever having to say a word. On an amusing note; funny to watch a darkskinned Issan dude turn bright red when we got out of the truck and I spoke to him in perfect Thai, "Thank you very much for the compliments to my girlfriend, but as you can see she is quite happy with me. Best of luck in finding your own lady."