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Been checking out Istanbul today.

Hello guys Planning to moved to Thailand in the near future but have not set a time frame yet. Places I am considering are (not in any order of preference) Hua Hin, Cha Am, Chiangmai, Chiangrai, Ayutthaya, Rayong or big four towns in Isan (Khon Kaen, Korat, Udon, Ubon) or some places further south from Hua Hin. Places I am leaving out are Bangkok, Phuket and Pattaya because of their higher costs of living. Currently also learning Thai and reading more about the Kingdom and culture. Chok dee krap and sawadee krap to everyone

Hi! Currently spending time in both Pattaya and BKK.. need to pick one or the other soon

Hi, been travelling to Thailand since 2006 love the place, love the food, the people, temples and the weather. Joined here to see if anyone knows where to find decent IPA in Chiang Mai or Pattaya when I’m over (amongst other things😊) chok dee krab!

Last shift at work for the month. Checked in for my flight already. Bags are 90% packed, just got to add meat and freezer blocks before I set off.

Not a bar as such, but I miss the way LK Metro used to be, I don't like it now full of gogos and constant fecking mind numbing noise.

Hello all. I saw this forum advertised in the Stickman weekly column. Very much hope this forum can live up to its promise. I am a regular visitor to Thailand with plans to become an expat.

Loving your contributions, thanks 👍

If I had to choose Krapow, I would choose the years 1999, to around 2005/6 as that’s when it got really busy. Stupid really, I know, because we had a business there, but we never were out to make a fortune and we ran it like a club. We didn’t advertise it, we didn’t even have a sign up, we figured if you could find us, you were welcome to come in. We had time to do what we wanted, we even closed the place one day a week and paid our staff to have the time off, no business did that back then. In late 2001, we were in Pathum Thani at the inlaws and someone rang to say our business was in The Bangkok Post, I didn’t believe it, so got a copy and there was a full page spread on the place, pictures and all. It turned out that the editor of the Post had heard of us and visited the place, eaten some of the wife’s cheesecake, liked it and the setting, so sent for a photographer and wrote the article without our knowledge. The day after the article, the phone was ringing off the hook with people asking where we were. That was the end of our quiet life, as the Bangkok HiSo crowd started coming and we got so busy 7 days a week, we didn’t have time to ourselves. Not exactly what we had planned for an easy life. So after a few hectic years, we had another house built, so we gave the business to the wife’s family and spent our time traveling. Back then, the pace of life was a lot slower, most visitors were from Europe, US, Australia, now it’s more Chinese, Korean and Thai, with the rest made up of farangs. Of course, things never stand still and the building and traffic problems are the same with any growing city and that’s to be expected. It’s just not what suites the wife and I. In fact, on her visit to Thailand in July and August, they only went to Hua Hin for one day to visit the family and the rest of the time was spent in the North. I’m not saying Hua Hin was better back then, people must make up their own minds on that. I just preferred it back then. 👌

The City of Hua Hin that I moved too in 1999 bears no resemblance to the Hua Hin of 2018. Thousands of new houses, shopping malls, hotels and guest houses and of course, much more traffic, which the roads can’t handle, despite having a bypass. I remember the party and balloons, when Tesco opened a small shop in a petrol station on the main road through the city. Very few European restaurants then. A couple of Italian ones a couple of French ones and two or three Swiss ones, that was it. My wife supplied a few of them with sweet tarts and pies, at between 1000 -1200 a time, good business back then. Did have a Mc Donald’s though, but getting a good, English breakfast or steak, was almost impossible! One Englishman had a place called Buffalo Bills, which did steaks and a couple of English run pubs did English breakfasts, now almost every street pub sells them, along with Sunday roast dinners. If you wanted to find European foods in the shops, you were out of luck, unless you went to the restaurants above or the large hotel restaurants. There was a 3 story “supermarket” on main st, which sold mainly makeup, toiletries, girls clothes and not much else, I remember spotting a box of those individually wrapped small packs of butter in a freezer once, I bought the lot! The place was actually very small, with toilets that a rat wouldn’t go in. My wife made all the cakes for our coffee shop, but we had to go to BKK once a week to buy flour, chocolate, cake butter (which was white?) and Marscoponi cheese, for cheese cakes. Now, you can get almost anything there now., there is even a cheese factory owned by a couple of Dutch guys. The areas with bars was mostly centred around the Bintabaht area and you could walk it all in around an hour. The council seem to want to move the bars out to other Soi’s now and gentrify that area. So whole streets on the outskirts consists of small bars that are mostly owned by farangs. They tend to open for a few months, then it goes back on the market again, although there are a few good bars that last the test of time. Luckly, when I took money out to Thailand, the £ was worth 76 Baht, land was cheap and you could build a 3 bed, two bath bungalow, for under 2 million Baht. The inlaws bought a few properties there back then, when they were cheap. A new, four story shop house could be had for 2.75 million Baht in 2003, not sure what they go for now. Now, land prices and building costs have gone through the roof and there are hundreds of second hand condos and houses on the market at stupidly high prices, which never seem to sell. Yet they still keep building them. Having said all that, I’m glad of my time there and would do it all again in a heartbeat. 🤗 Sorry, just the ramblings of an old man with time on his hands, I’ll get me coat.

Very nice Phots. Thanks for Sharing must get myself out there for a visit myself

One of my favourite vloggers Mike, We went to Chanthaburi for 3 days in May and while we were there we went to one of the restaurants he fimed in. He was raving about the Massaman Durian Curry which Wie had and I had the gaeng moo chamuang. it was the Chanthorn Restaurant.

Mark Wiens.

Nope, I find them very boring and childish for most of them. A very few have cute gf, makes it more bearable when shooting near the swimming pool..... Naah, watch a few, bored to death....and thinking that some send them money ......🤣🤣🤣

Didn't realize it was that long boss.

https://magsdirect.co.uk/magazine/q-legends-the-collectors-series-paul-weller/ Not sure mate. I haven't looked at this properly yet, but the site does described itself as your online newsagent.

Correct, from Queensland, really nice bloke, bar is busy with at least 15 ladies, he must be doing something right, some of the girls were there in May, so he must look after them, knows where his bread is buttered

Great pics Sherlock thanks for sharing. I'm currently cooking a chicken rogan josh. I think I'll be taking up the mantle of the curry king now that M is no longer of this parish.

Istanbul is a wonderful city for four or five days. That Hagia Sophia is in my list of 10 ten most beautiful buildings on earth. Breathtaking and can say it on here ...the meeting point of Christianity and Islam ....... Europe and Asia ............ West and East ........ stunning sight. 😍

Safe travels Andy.

Welcome to the board @AramisTuscany i'm sure you will pick up a few tips here.. There's a few on here including my self that has spent a lot of time in up in the sticks.

He had him on the show before.

Snowballed up!

I was there too mate. I'm getting well into Weller and going back to the Jam. I'd forgotten what a brilliant band they were.

Water, but it will be a pint of Guinness on the weekend.

I am when i do the shopping mate.. lol

You just cant go wrong mate 👍🏻

For me would be the old butterfly bar on Soi 6 opposite Rudy club. Would drink in there all afternoon where I first met Robbie and when Dillen was the owner and had many a good drink in there with him.

Welcome to the board @bababobo

I can't see how.. no one has used the word fontok

Sounds like the conversation in the beer queue a Thai Festival in Blighty

Here's a few:- Pak waan - sweet mouth (as in sweet talker) Jai yen - clam down Mai pen rai - don't worry Mai son - I don't care Pang - expensive Jep - hurt Seea jai - to be sorry A rom seea - to upset Nam jai - generous Jai dee - to have a good heart Farang roo mak my dee - Farang who knows too much is no good (usually used if they think you can understand Thai)

A few that come to mind.. Sabaidee baw? - Lao version of how are you? Suay talub juub mai hom - she's pretty but lazy (full of herself). Always gets a giggle out if the girls. Namman prai - potion believed to put a spell on people to love a person (black magic). Diaw kon! - Wait! Peb nueng! - Give me a second!

He said he doesn't speak Thai very well (pod/pood/puut)

Not my own picture obviously.

the band still play, they are in a bar down soi 2 or 3 near big c (toibar i think its called)

Spent many happy hours in Lennies on my early trips. Ironically, next door to where le pub is now. Great for people watching...

Go to Chariots spa and sauna after, share body fluids. Na, I think you'll find @Nightcrawler is the Liberace fan on here, @nampla69 can confirm.

TQ2.

Scots corner bar, Cowboy bar.

Breakfast on the terrace before heading to the pool for the moonrise....

Butterfly Bar Soi 6 ....... best ever on that quiet little Soi.

Reading this thread again reminded me to take a pie out of the freezer for tea tonight. Steak and Kidley. Thanks sis. 👍

Brendanarsebandit

Al Mcready on PL MCCREADY8 on Secrets Alanbhoy on addicks and Twitter on PT

I think as it is in Prachuap Khiri Khan it is classed as southern Thailand. Cha Am on the other hand is in Petchaburi and may just count as Central. Hua HIn by the way is a wonderful place, lived there 5 years.