how long you want to stay?

if long i'd suggest getting a hotel for a few nights and driving around looking for places (with adsl installed). you can also buy a cdma aircard. it works everywhere in thailand expect in bangkok

if only few weeks-a month i would probably go to some agent and book a place for a month if no one here have any places that they know are empty and just make sure the place has working internet and test it before you sign anything. for under a month's stay i wouldnt recommend cdma because it costs $200 or more to buy and might not be easy to sell on short notice

That may be true but it wasn't what the person asked.

this

im moving pretty soon and gonna choose between silom/convent/saladeng and rachadamri. looking at an apartment when i get back thats dangerously close to scandi towers!

Miscommunication?

There should be many many more rental places around, this is not general practice, usually they want a copy of the first page. I wouldn't give my passport to ANYONE (except Immigration) there's no need if u have copies made.

It really is a catch 22.

Obviously you don't want to give your passport to anyone cause those things are valuable and hard to get.

But the insurance law in Thailand is so bad that if anything happens to the bike, either it gets wrecked or it gets stolen, then the rentee has to pay for it. So if he's a dishonest guy, he can just **** off on his flight back home. Wtf good is a copy of the passport to the rental dude then?

plenty of places to rent from, if they won't budge just say you will go to another place

nothing but i still wouldn't leave my passport.

obv i would never to rent out my bikes to anyone i didn't know well without something in my posession that i knew 100% they would come back for

what kind of budget?

I suggest you start driving around in chalong/rawai area. you are still close to beaches/shopping but about 30mins away from patong for example. also the hill between kata and chalong is a good spot imo. some of the posters here live around there. you don't have tourists walking around when you step outside but you are still close to everything.

Guys, Im now living in Chaweng in Samui. So if anyone else if out here please send me a PM and we can hook up for beers/partying.

As for accomodation/internet, Ive rented a house and the internet seems quite good. So far in a week its only cut out twice, for like 2 minutes at a time.

Ian

i plan to be going to thailand pretty soon so i was hoping there are people there who i can live with and can show me how i can go about setting up stuff.

FWIW your passport is property of your respective government and consulates/embassies take passports *very* seriously.

If a scooter rental took your passport and wouldn't give it back a call to your embassy would sort it out pretty fast, and the dude who refused to give it back would most likely end up in jail.

Police cannot take your passport - I have personally seen an Australian embassy official go berserk at the NYPD when they tried to withhold a passport of an Australian they had charged with assault. The Thai government can not take your passport either. All they can do is flag it so you can't leave without talking to the BIB at the airport.

Of course it's best not to threaten anyone with calling your embassy, but simply smiling and saying ok and then calling the embassy anyway works fine.

However they will probably be pretty pissed off with you if you actually did leave your passport as a deposit. It's pretty much expressly illegal to do that.

i have rented scooters on multiple occasions and have always left my passport as a deposit with no problems

well done

up to 17k baht


so i just drive around between kata - chalong/rawai and ask ppl?

You look for "for rent" signs and/or a small office if its an area with multiple houses

Chalong will be the cheapest area but you will also be the furthest from the beach and will usually have to drive a bit to get to restaurants/bars etc.
The plus side is there are almost no tourists,- even in high season and that means almost no hustlers either, so there wont be a ton of people bothering you when you go somewhere (having to say no 10 times to people selling flowers/toys/whatever random crap or constantly turning down the blind/deaf beggars who all seem to have extremely good feet coordination/good at lip-reading while eating can get really f_cking annoying).

Basically you just want to figure out how important view, proximity to beach (which also means proximity to tourist stuff (western-restaurants, bars, wh0res etc) ) and price is to you and choose the area that suits you the best. The good part is that Kata/Chalong/Rawai/Nai harn are not really that far from each other and almost all 2p2ers live around there so either one of those areas will put you near the 2p2 community.

They have insurance for the bike, not sure if it covers theft. You put down a deposit, but it's not nearly enough to pay for a broken bike. I tend not to worry about the Thai side of things when they feel its fine to overcharge me for everything I do.

I would be interested to know what kind of power they do have with the copy of your passport. I've given mine out so many times it seems like it could come back to bite me.

hey germany people

I'm a 30 yr old pokerplayer from Holland and I am in kind of the same situation. I'll be going to Phuket soon also to rent an appartment, play poker and have fun.

Would be great to meet then.

So leave a message and see you soon!

Which islands? Is it worth staying on one of them for 2 or 3 nights of an 8 night trip?

don't mind his post imo...

phuket is so much more than patong and bangla road

i would take atleast a daytrip to phi phi islands if you come to phuket. possibly stay night or two if you like it

I've been staying in Bangkok for a week now and planning to travel to the islands. I'd love to go to Koh Phi Phi but is it possible to get good enough internet connection there? How about this CAT CDMA? Where can I get it?

well i wouldn't go to phi phi and waste my time on the internet. there are some things to see there and i would just use my time to see those things and get to somewhere a little bigger place to worry about the real world.

I don't know how well i am putting my thoughts in to words but phi phi is a very small island where people usually go just to have a day trip or spend 1-2 nights. there are no phi phi expats and the only people living there are the people working

i don't know about other places but you can get cdma from phuket from central festival 2nd floor. cat telecom that provides the service has office there

Thailand! Arrived here yesterday, staying in Bangkok at Dream Hotel for 6 more nights. I like the warmth, low prices and the people (when they are not trying to hustle) but the problem at the moment is that we're two white boys in a big city, neither one barely speaking the language or knowing anything about the places to go. Can anyone recommend good food places/clubs/bars/places to shop for clothes in Bangkok? Preferably near Sukhumvit but elsewhere is fine too. Both of us already got scammed by Thai people for ~3000 baht each so decided to ask around here, it's kinda brutal in here especially since we're staying on a tourist area.

Thanks!

555 glad you like it. language shouldn't be much of a problem. a lot of ppl speak at least broken english, and if you can say kap you basically speak the entire thai language. if the touts are bothering you just say 'mai ow' (don't want) and they'll leave you alone.

shopping - mbk if you want a phone. just hop on the sky train to the interchange at siam then transfer to another train to national stadium. for everything else go to paragon (siam station).

food - suk soi 11 has a lot of great options. venezia (close to bedsupper club) is a great italian restaurant, so is lemocello (across from the grand president hotel). on a small side lane you can get some of the best (and cheapest) mexican in the city at Charlie Browns. My favorite Indian Restaurant (Barwachi) is also on Soi 11, next to the villa market. I've never been, but a lot of people like longtable (Central World I think). If you want to eat atop a high building overlooking the lumpini park, try banyan tree on sathorn road. And of course, if you're lazy and don't want to leave your room, but sick of room service, just go to www.chefxp.com and place an order from a ton of restaurants around the city.

Bars - Molly Malones Irish pub on convent road! and of course the standard go gos on cowboy (shark bar is best) and nana (dont know whats best there now)

Clubs - before 2, try one or many of the many clubs RCA (Royal City Avenue). Same goes for Ratchada (pisek maybe?) and the Ekkamai/Thonglor area. Or you could try one of the many g clubs (Florence and The Bank are the last 2 a bunch of 2p2ers went to). After 2 your options are limited. You can go to scratch dog in the windsor hotel on a soi close to asoke, or you could go to climax (formerly spice) under the ambassador hotel on soi 11. there are probably other options out there, but a majority of 2p2 seems to love going to these places only. if you go to ratchada, they may have a club called karafun (2). the original used to be by far the best 2 - 5/6am club in bkk, so if you go there please let me know how it is. after 5 comes spicey or bossy or spicey 2. if you're very horny or want to keep drinking, go there.

post in chatter for more detailed answers or if you want to meet up with some of the bkk 2p2ers

you sure you'll be able to handle more finns?

How did you guys get scammed?