How long have you been here? It almost never happens to me but I guess I only spend time in touristy places (lower Sukhumvit) at night.

OTL: I'm butting in on this thread even though I'm in Vietnam right now since there isn't a Nam thread, nor contributors if there was one. tyty. I got fed up with these "Western restaurants" after I went in to two to order noodles: one gave me "authentic" cup of noodles in a large bowl with veggies, the other gave me Italian pasta made like Viet noodles. I get better Viet food in the States apparently than in the tourist areas here. Almost cheaper, too.

And not to trash Aussies, but I didn't travel 12,000 miles to hand out with carbon copies of Americans all the time. Cultural tourism and all that. Swedes would be interesting, though...

Nha Trang, and the "falang" area at that, yes, this might be the worst area on Earth for this. Restaurant owners don't even try to keep them away. You can be eating in a nice, Western restaurant, and they'll just walk in and come up to your table, one after the other, the evening entertainment, I guess.

And the moto taxi guys... please tell me they disappear outside of Vietnam. The worst.

i hope you're canadian

I was in Vietnam 4 years ago and again last week (just HCMC for a few days) and I thought it was much worse on my first trip. Maybe HCMC is different? I liked Nha Trang a lot despite the touts though. You will occasionally get the touts coming up to you at bars/restaurants in bkk but only in the super touristy areas and if you're at an outside table close to the street. We have moto taxi guys in Thailand but they don't even compare to the Viet ones. Those guys are so annoying. You get so used to saying no to them that sometimes they offer you something you're interested in and you just reject them immediately out of habit.

Just curious why you would get noodles at a Western style restaurant though? If you stick to legit Vietnamese places its pretty hard to have a bad meal ime. Also, what does a short term apartment go for in Nha Trang?

just wanted to share this since we are on the subject of "touts"

got to samui a couple weeks ago and me and my gf go wander around and hit up a massage. After we walk out this indian guy comes up and immediately my gf says "no we don't want any suits"

turns out the guy owns an indian restaurant across the street but you get so used to the indian suit guy that it is an immediate reaction.

Is there a restaurant that I can get pancakes or waffles in Bangkok? Not a hotel buffet please.

I've never had this happen to me in a retaurant in 8 years in Thailand.

In bars though, you will get people coming up to sell you stuff, including 6 year old kids trying to sell flowers etc.

The funniest is the guy trying to sell photos with a live snake, because 95% of the girls and quite a few tourists are terrified of snakes, and everything comes to a crashing halt when he comes by.

Air Asia also fly to Surat Thani airport which is closer and has more transportation to the ferry port.

You can also take a train from BKK (Hua Lumphong Station) to Chumpon and get the ferry from there. This is probably the cheapest option. The bus is another option.

Also with on the ferry ALWAYS upgrade to the top deck, it costs about 30 baht more and the seats are way comfier and you get to watch a film.

Just get the Bangkok Airways plane directly from BKK to Samui airport. It might end up costing 1000 baht more than any other way, but your travel time will be 1 hour instead of 6-12 hours, which has to be worth it.

Its about 3000 baht to take the 6am flight 1 way from BKK-Samui on Bangkok Airways

I honestly tried to read the thread, but I got about 400 posts in and realised it was a 139 page thread so......


I'll be in Thailand for 2 weeks at the end of September. What, in your expert opinions, would be the must see/do things around this time of year?

I'm pretty ignorant to Thailand and right now I'm expecting to get massively drunk on a beach with some other tourists and possibly hit on some Thai girls who will dig me cause I'm 'rich'. I do have a friend who is living over there and dating a Thai girl, so that may make my experience more authentically Thai. Thoughts?

I predict that following your trip you will post a story that will only be followed by PokerSpiv saying "see guys, I told you so!"

indian restaurant touts are just as bad as the suit and dvd kind.

going to phnom penh for visa run tonight, best hotel to stay at? (price not a issue)

Update:

So apparently it's a once-off 'maintenance' charge, required for landlord to service the wiring from the apartment office through to my room 'in case it breaks or needs fixing'. My girlfriend (who spoke to him) seems to think this is a standard charge that even Thai people would have to pay, I think it's bull**** especially given that this charge was never required when we had TOT installed. Am I right in thinking this is just a scam or is there actually some merit to what he's demanding?

I hate to be a nit over 1kTHB but I'm sick of this dude ripping us off and really want to make a stand. Any thoughts on how to deal with it?

my favorite hotel is a dirty, run down, cheap ass joint called the walkabout. it's my favorite because it's got a 24 hour bar downstairs packed with Hos at most hours.

I'm guessing that's not what you're looking for.......

nothing wrong with hos, just like good AC, bed, and shower.


gotta have good shower to make sure the ho gets clean!

Like I said earlier I really doubt the dude is going to have some kind of honesty-conversion because of anything you do. If he is scamming you it's because he scams everyone and knows he can get away with it.

You just need to find a different place with a landlord who isn't a scammer. The more quickly the better, the guy really doesn't deserve your money.

well, the A/C works, the bed didn't break from my fatass humping away on it, and the shower did about as good a job as any shower would of cleaning up PP Hos. also, the food downstairs isn't too bad, and it's a block away from Heart of Darkness... the obv best Ho disco in SEA

Thanks. Do you know if there are buses that run throughout the day? and about how much does it cost to get from sarat thani to koh phangan?

Unrelated question: shoes: can I expect to buy anything in Vietnam that will hold up for more than 4 months of regular use? I really want a new pair, but I don't trust the quality at all here.

Saigon (I refuse to pronounce three extra syllables for the sake of commies) was about as bad. Da Lat wasn't quite so bad. So far, oddly enough, Hoi An is actually better despite being a 2sqmi tailor store. Haven't been bothered by a moto guy in hours... it just doesn't feel right.

Edit: I was lazy and sick, and thought there wasn't a reason that a place that also serves pasta shouldn't be able to make the same 50-cent noodles everyone else makes.

No clue on apartments.

Cheekaaguan

If you mean buses from bangkok, then they generally leave Khao San Road at 6pm.

You can get an all-in ticket if you take the bus/train which includes the ferry. On the train this costs 850 baht for a seat or 1,218 baht for a bed.

Good website for trains in Thailand http://www.seat61.com/Thailand.htm#Ko%20Samui

If you fly to Surat Thani Airport, I assume you'll be able to buy a ferry ticket there which includes transfer to the ferry port. Would guess this would cost about 350baht to Koh Phangan.

Ferries run hourly from Don Sak pier (Surat Thani) to Koh Samui, and a little less frequently to Koh Phangan afaik.

Anyone that is looking for a place to rent in Phuket should try : http://www.phuketpoint.com/phuket-re...Contact-us.php . It can save you a lot of hassle, like driving around clueless into every side street(soi).

Don't take the buses from Khao Sahn Road, they are notorious for stealing from checked luggage. That is basically the primary reason for the KSR travel agents' existence, to book people onto buses where they are systematically robbed.

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntre...readID=1817974
http://www.bangkokscams.com/scams-in...el-agents.html

Take the train.

what's your affiliation with Gunnar? He got us our old house, good guy.

I really don't recommend driving and looking around for houses yourself either. It's is not worth the hassle, just go to one of the agencies.

I've dealt with a quite a few of them in the last weeks and figured out that most of them do not rip you off (siam excluded). They just take a cut from the first months rent.

I knew the location of some of the houses I saw on the various real estate websites, so what I did was go over there myself, talk to the owner and after some haggeling get qouted maybe a few k below the price that is on the real estate agents website. And in my experience the agents are always able to haggle down the price a bit themselves too, which should just about level the price with what you would pay had you been driving around, looking for houses and figuring out how to contact the owners yourself.

Anyone knows how hard it would be to find a 5 bedroom house/villa in the south of phuket for a reasonable price ? (100k-110k bills included)

With or Without an agency ?

Thanks.