Jambo

The definition of eccentric is "unconventional and slightly strange."

Is that not how the general public as a whole view (at the very least) all expats? 😄

As for solo regular male visitors to Thailand? They think we are all having sex with Thai females half our age.

I wish 🤣

16 hours ago, Stillearly said:

I use Wise as well , if you transfer under £1k it gets there in seconds, £2k seems to take a couple of days ... fees are good and exchange rate is close to interbank 

Me too with same positive experience.

Personally, I have never liked beer bar complexes.

Or maybe, more accurately, I infinitely prefer the ambience of the individual bar/club with a good but not too loud sound system, air con, cold beers and hot slim friendly girls. I mean, whats not to like?

Given how it would seem Pattaya already has an over-abundance of existing beer bar complexes mostly devoid of paying customers does anybody think adding new ones to the mix is going to be any more successful?

14 hours ago, Phantom51red said:

Ye,I thought id catch a motorbike taxi from airport to town,just to see how wild,didn't know what side of the road they drove on for the first 10 minutes.

Regarding hotels,can't remember specific name of area but near a night market 10 min walk from main drag.

I took a Tuk Tuk just the once from the airport to street 136 in Phnom Penh and several times thought I was going to end up in hospital. Apart from the terrifying ride breathing in the air pollution was awful.

I have only stayed in the Riverside Hotel in street 136 which was fine and right in a busy entertainment area.

On 3/26/2024 at 9:03 AM, Derek Dangleberries said:

Yes mate, I lived in Kamphaengpet for 8 years.. (I also put the first AIS GSM sites on air in Maesot and Umphang back in the day !)

One consideration is how you intend to get to Maesot. If by car then you could get totally cut off by the floods in Nackon Sawang (including the ring road) like I did once .... 😲

EDIT = I was refering to village standard football whereby each village all over Thailand play their neighbours in a weeklong competition... Sort of like a village fete...It sometimes includes a women's competition too (That is where the real rivalry appears to be ..Eat your hearts out Leeds v Chelsea this can get REALLY dirty!!!!)

I will fly Nok Air to Mae Sot where my car is waiting for me to use during my stay having been basically in storage. Sai and her sister have a Ford truck and some monster Isuzu.

I finally changed my flights today.

I will fly to Bangkok on the 20th October and then Don Mueang to Mae Sot returning to Edinburgh on the 15th November. On the way back I will give myself a week or so in Pattaya. I picked those dates to hopefully miss the rainy season both "Up North" and in Pattaya.

Qatar Airways ripped me off to the tune of four hundred pounds to change my flights. I suppose that reflects how much the fare has increased since I originally booked.

22 hours ago, Derek Dangleberries said:

September is my favourite month when "in the village" because that is when there is village football tournaments for a week Nationwide, normally held in the village school. It is great fun watching, drinking and eating food... Try and find out from the missus when yours is due and book it for those dates ..

I will be spending the first 19 days of my trip way "Up North" in Mae Sot  which is a large town with both a football and separate athletics stadiums. The local football team is not (too) bad and enjoys very enthusiastic and good support from the locals.

The climate is somewhat different to Pattaya and usually September is the last month of the rainy season . So if I arrive in October I probably will miss most of the rain but my recollection of mid to late October in Pattaya was often huge thunderstorms and the occasional extended period of several days of non-stop rain which does not usually happen any other month.

I think I will change my flight to arrive mid October which means when I get to Pattaya it will be a week or so into November which always used to be dry and was the start of my fair weather golfing season. 😊

Unfortunately, I believe last year was an exception with heavy rain well into November.

The worlds weather has gone crazy so why should Thailand be any different.

14 hours ago, Stillearly said:

I wonder if this complex will be open by the time I come back in October ....? 555

 

 

I have to change my flight back to Thailand and I am trying to decide between September and October.

The rainy season usually ends "Up North" by October but in Pattaya (second half of my visit)  invariably October is the last and by far the worst month for rain is it not?

Decisions, decisions. 🤣

Either way, there are already way too many entertainment venues so maybe it just becomes another white elephant like Tree Town.

19 minutes ago, Yesitisdakid said:

Within 24 hours of my arrival back home I would have my next trip booked if I have that to look forward to I could get through the Blues.

Me too! 🤣

I distinctly  recall  booking my second trip quite literally the same day as I returned from my first. My two grown up daughters were far from impressed and very suspicious. I dread to think what their reaction would have been to my 10 bar fines. 😊

12 minutes ago, Binlid said:

Does anybody know whether Gabapentin is available over the counter in Thailand.I have worked out I will be 6 days short of it on my upcoming trip, its such a palaver to get an advance of a controlled drug from my Surgery so just looking for some to put me over until my prescription is due.

On another note I was put on the waiting list for a left Knee replacement yesterday.Surgeon said It was almost bone on bone 

I wish you well.

I waited well over 2 years for my hip replacement operation and only jumped the waiting list when my hip became so bad that the surgeon mentioned the possibility of complete collapse.

On 3/16/2024 at 6:56 AM, Golfingboy said:

Finally gave this a watch after being in my recommended for so long…..I don’t care if it’s rated 7.3/10 or whatever ……

Bloody masterpiece IMHO

Beware, watching this film. It could affect your pocket.

Following such a positive recommendation I decided to try to find this film.

Firstly I searched on Netflix but they did not have it available. Then I tried Prime video as I have an account through Amazon. I do not watch a lot through Prime and never films that require an additional payment. Up came this film available for free for 7 days through a streaming service which included the word "Chanel" in its name. 

The film starts to load as a message comes up on my phone telling me that I had subscribed to "Channel" and my first monthly subscription  will be deducted through my bank details already held in my Prime account after 7 days!

f**k that!

 I spent the next few minutes cancelling my "Channel" subscription then started to watch the film as entitled by my 7 days free period. 😊

I am sorry but we must have very different views on what constitutes a "masterpiece". I have nothing against a film containing a high degree of violence. For instance, "Pulp Fiction" is one of my favorite films with a lot of violence but you find yourself cheering for the bad guys. I have never watched a Tarantino film I haven't liked.

I gave up on "The Place beyond the Pines" after the young policeman started to go to pieces. I just didn't care enough whether he got over shooting the character played by Ryan Gosling. The Ryan Gosling character was impossible to relate to because he had absolutely no redeeming features. He was a complete violent waste of space and there was absolutely nothing to like about him. I simply had enough of watching him and thus when he was shot dead by the policeman I gave up on the film.

I don't believe I have ever watched a film before that didn't feature a single likeable character. Maybe the female shrink excepted? 😃

My first proper paid job was a morning paper round for the princely sum of £3.50 a week but as I delivered to an extremely posh part of Hampstead, North London I made more than a years wages in Christmas tips.

The owner of the paper/sweet shop which was in Highgate Village loved bowling. So at age 15, in the School holidays, he put me in sole charge of the shop from 9 to 3 twice a week and paid me £3.00 a day. I loved it as it not only gave me access to all the top shelf magazines but the pick of all the bars of chocolate for my ex gratia lunch. Given I had nobody to give me a break for lunch I felt that was the least I could reasonably expect.

At age 18, having passed all my exams, I commenced full time employment at Sun Life assurance society at a branch overlooking Nelson's column, and thus Trafalgar Square, as a junior clerk.

My salary was initially £550 per annum and part of my duties was to make the tea for the whole branch both morning and afternoon but I only had to wash up in the morning.

All the salesmen met together in the branch every Friday morning after which the Sales Manager took all of them to a local Pub. As one of my additional duties was to manually produce all their quotations for potential sales they took me to the pub with them and refused to allow me to buy a drink. I quite often returned pissed which would explain why the stamp book never, ever, balanced on a Friday.

Three years later my salary had risen to £800 pa which enabled me to buy my first house being a new 3 bedroom semi costing £4,100. Sun Life would lend staff a maximum of 5 times their salary for house purchase and I couldn't afford the additional £250 for a garage.

Happy days.

1 hour ago, Painter said:

Blue Ratree complex...

 

 

For some reason the words "Ratree experience " popped into my mind? 🤣

I do the same post cardiac event walk every day to see if it is getting any easier.

The first time took me a full 10 minutes to recover after virtually inducing a panic attack thinking am I about to have another heart attack and blowing like a steam train.

I would not say the walk itself is getting any easier but today it took about one minute for my breathing and pulse rate to get back to normal. That is a vast improvement.

I am handicapped to some degree as the last 200 yards or so of the walk is a killer (hopefully not literally) being up a steep hill. 

The cardiologist tells me to exercise patience as I had the heart attack only about three months after my new hip. Two major events I know but very frustrating to be so unfit.

  Spring has sprung in Scotland!  🙂

I am sure this topic has been a feature in every forum I have been a member of which goes back almost 25 years.

In an ever changing world if there is one thing that never changes is the Thai's inability to make any road repair survive the first half decent downpour.

First time tourists have been known to ask how much does the baht bus cost to Soi Pothole?

I think the only airline food I have ever looked forward to was the "cream tea" of scones, clotted cream and jam one used to get on the evening BA Shuttle back from Heathrow to Edinburgh.

Two curries on Thai Airways flight turned my lips blue with an allergic reaction. Unfortunately, I only found that out at one of the "clap clinics" on second road I visited on day 2 thinking I had contracted some kind of social disease during my first night. 😆

22 hours ago, coxyhog said:

The RAF museum at Henlow is also pretty good.

I thought "Henlow" was a miss print when I first read your post as I was quite a regular visitor to the RAF museum in "Hendon" which was quite near to where I  lived in Finchley, North London.  I had to Google Henlow which I can now delete from my list of English Towns I have never heard of before.😉

I always had an affinity to this museum as I had an uncle who had been in the RAF. As a wee sprog I can recall having model  WW2 aeroplanes hanging down from my bedroom ceiling.

I recall my last visit to The Imperial War museum was the day before I made my first trip to Thailand. I stayed overnight in London and spent the afternoon in the museum. It was the first week in November and was a freakishly warm day.

On 2/27/2024 at 9:58 AM, Stillearly said:

Some customers left Mai Thai Cuisine without paying ... the restaurant would like to get in touch ..

"These lovely customers enjoyed our Belgian beers, our French wine, and loved our best tenderloin. Only one small problem, They were so happy that they left without paying. If somebody knows them, or sees one of them, can you please ask to come back @ Mai Thai Cuisine and pay their bill? 🙏"

https://www.facebook.com/100063549352323/posts/pfbid02NLzPubUekhsHmY6ZEqRRnnXgBVSwurZ2x1m99fLoQb8DsHx7Rjxk4PAKN8HMUwRpl/?

 

 

I hope the Service girl didn't get stuffed with the unpaid bill.

It is quite common practice to deduct the equivalent of an unpaid bill from the service girls wages.

On 2/23/2024 at 10:58 AM, Butch said:

I'm saddened to see that, I had a couple of good evenings in there. The girls were fun, decent attitudes and it's a shame to see it go.

 I wonder how many bars in Tree Town are making a profit?

I would hazard a guess, very few.

Same old, same old.

Too many bars all chasing the same diminished number of potential customers. Yet new "beer gardens" continue to open hoping they will be different.

Give me a comfortable air conditioned bar with a good sound system, nice eye candy and reasonable prices any day.  

22 hours ago, Painter said:

Much the same as you, figgy.... take it 3 times, 2ish minutes apart, and average them out. Omron device in the uk, a lazada special in Thailand, but it has WHO on it, so might be good....

Then an app on my phone that averages the averages....  My gp is happy for 135/85. In Thailand it's under that, back in the uk it's that or slightly over.

That is exactly how I monitor my BP also using an  Omron device with the band that goes around the arm. I also still have my original Omron wrist device which is well over 10 years old which still gives broadly very similar results but always with slightly higher readings.

The cardiologist who telephoned me yesterday told me to stop getting fixated about daily BP readings. Just to take them once a week as my readings were now very consistent.

I am due a telephone consultation with my GP at 7:30 this morning.

I don't believe I have ever had a problem with my BP but I left hospital after my mild heart attack in December with a whole batch of medications to take each day including one for BP. As requested I sent my own subsequent PB readings to the Practice and he subsequently reduced the amount of the PB dose.

Earlier this week I sent him my BP results for the last two weeks which average out at 115/52 which presumably is good. On the other hand, my pulse rate seems very low and I previously drew this to his attention and also to the Practice Nurse who takes and monitors my bloods from time to time. Neither seemed to be concerned but I intend to raise this today during the consultation.

It could be that I am getting a false reading from the pulse rate. When I was in the hospital they discovered that I apparently have an "extra" beat in my pulse. Again, that did not appear to be of any major concern and may be heriditory as my grandaughter has the same.

All my telephone conversations these days both to and from Thailand are either using Line or Whats App.

I make a video call to Thailand most every day using Line  and it still amazes me how clear these calls are thanks to the wonders of modern technology.

Which reminds me..........I am late!

I was given a Hornby train set one Christmas with the engine exactly like the above. Over time I added accessories until it completely filled the available floor space.

I remember that it could be a little temperamental  with something array with the electrical connection at times.

Long after it ceased to be a toy the engine was on show in a display cabinet but what finally happened to it I do not recall.

33 minutes ago, galenkia said:

Famous words.

Few days after that post I ended up in hospital for over a week after having a mental breakdown. Shows how your life can change in an instant.

Sorry, I just gave that previous post of yours a "thumbs Up" in a sort of reflex action!

I forgot it got overtaken by circumstance. I hope things look better for you soon.

I am finding it hard to mentally get over the fact I have actually had a mild heart attack. I expect to be able to get back to the long walks I was doing after my hip operation but it is just not happening yet. Got a long way to go to get back to normal.