DeepnHard

The German place at the end of Soi Cowboy (the one with the cool mist clouds surrounding it) has good German beer, at a premium of course (like Erdinger Hefeweizen). There's also "Otto's Restaurant" (or whatever it is), Soi 20 or so. No doubt decent and pricey beer there also. What really has to be done is show the Thais how to make a good beer. (but their taste has been irrevocably damaged by not having been colonized). Every country I can think of that Thailand has a border with has better beer than Thailand. Maybe I'll start a political party on this issue.

Ironic with Saudi Arabia alleging Quatar "supporting terrorists" (which I know nothing about either way) since all the 9/11 bombers came from Saudi Arabia, and it and Pakistan are the most fundamentalist Arab states in the world and ironically the only two that the US gives unconditional support. Moderate Muslim states like Iraq on the other hand are at risk of being bombed out of existence.

There *was* a time when the available medicines were pretty nasty to take. Many side effects, so I'm glad to hear that the situation has improved (greatly from the sound of it). I can very easily imagine the horror when you first got the diagnosis...I suspect in the back of our heads many of us here fear this. Well, good for you and I'm glad you're feeling well.

Good for you! Excellent first person information. It gives us all hope that such a thing is survivable without a lot of pain. Nice report and thanks much for sharing!!! I'm not acquainted with the new meds so I didn't know that there were so many to choose from, and as with anything it's good to have choices!

Just curious: How are you managing on the HIV drugs? I mean side effects....

Actually, I think there have been a few documented and proven cases of BBBJ HIV transfer, but only a few and *probably* in cases where the customer had bleeding gums or other oral lesions. In fact there's a guy on the Pattaya forum (if anyone remembers) a year ago or so who said that that's the way he got HIV. (That's all he does for sex if I remember right). There's also the fact that in the first few months of an HIV infection the viral numbers are off the charts, something like 50x greater than normal so your chances are that much greater if you have any lesions in your mouth...but normally it's not a big deal. I've sucked off lots of LBs without consequences. But the "your chances are tiny" rationale I think applies to the case where the infector has had the disease for some months so the viral count had gone down considerably from the original surge at the beginning. I don't want to be a kill-joy but just some stuff you might want to know.

My first and only time there was in '99. I just took it because it was a cheap hotel. Took me a while to understand why there was a full length mirror along the bed.

Can anyone recommend a nice ST hotel or room right near Nana Plaza? Something for 400B or less. ED: I usually hit the PB hotel on Suk 3, but it's getting rundown and is around 450B. Looking for something better or at least cheaper and the same quality.

Looks nice, but it seems a bit far from the scene.

You have my sympathy. It can be hard to correct, and I doubt there are forum settings to let you rotate the pix to how you want it. Maybe there's an app for your phone that will do this. I drive a Linux computer that has tools for setting picture orientation permanently, but wouldn't know an app for my Android phone to do the same thing.

1200 B for this! Sad, sad, sad. Try the "Sea of Love" on the MRT line. About three stops from Asok. Good furnished rooms about 550 B a night. The road from the MRT to hotel is about a 5-10 min walk and not much for sidewalks. http://www.seaoflovemansion.com/

I'd want to talk to the architect on those first two rooms.

Not sleazy enough for me

My 2 cents: you can get very decent German beer (Erdinger heifeweitzen) at the last place down on the right (a restaurant) on Soi Cowboy. Expensive though at 220B a glass (or something in that neighborhood). Not craft to be sure. My Thai pharmacist brews his own beer (spent some time in Germany) but it isn't that good.

At a certain age, a sexy nurse will do.

Sorry I made it seem like *you* had suggested such bad advice. I needed a context for what I had to say about immigration procedures and stapling. And you did mention stapling in comment #5 as above. The rest of the stuff was directed at what other people asked further along, about whether they stamped here, and (I thought) whether cutting a page out of one's passport was OK. I should have replied to those last 2 in separate comments quoting them.

They often don't staple the arrival/departure card if they're lazy or don't have a stapler, but you can simply unstaple it if they do and it'll be hard to tell they ever did. But they *will* stamp the passport and you can't erase that. Any alterations in passports are a big no-no. If you're really desperate, you can tell your embassy you lost it and they'll give you an emergency one in lieu of a permanent. But cutting pages out (usually the pages are sequenced) is letting yourself in for big trouble.

Thanks for that tip. I have a spam account with yahoo, but this would be useful too! It's about time somebody dealt with these sites that demand an email address (which they then sell to the spam armies).

Great pic!!!

>I've watched farangs call the Thais ignorant and stupid to their faces. I watched one farang get escorted out. I can imagine this happening, given what I know about the citizens of a certain rowdy country who have short fuses. It's a shit job too, low paying no doubt, and frequently shit people are doing it...the formerly powerless but now with a little power to work of their aggressions on people (us) dependent on them. Giving someone a little power is a good character test. So you've got the right technique I think, which is good to know since I'll be going the retirement route in a few months here and will be doing the 90 day reporting *inside* the country. At 70, border runs have lost their romance. > I thought the only thing God invented was the big bang. Actually, that was the ladyboys.

Thanks again! Yeah, register in both directions. I know what you mean about the bitchy farangs at Immigration, but I have some sympathy because Thai immigration (the org and the attitude) isn't exactly *friendly* and sometimes downright hostile...and frankly they sometimes don't even know their own laws, as I found out in Ranong when they told me I couldn't renew my enter-as-many-times-as-you-want 1 year visa (which has 9 months left). And then all the waiting in places like BKK and probably CM. That's why God invented earphones and music.

That's smart, doing it with registered mail...Then there's no way they can pretend they never received it. Or you also know it was lost in the mail if you don't get the receipt back. (if that's the way they do reg. mail here). The few times I've used it, I've found Thai mail reliable, though anything of value I'd always send registered or have received registered, eg from the United Snakes.

Unfortunately you still have to do the 90 day reporting, though supposedly you can send a reporting form instead of travelling to the nearest immigration post, but forms have a way of never getting there (as some have said), and then you're in deep doo-doo. (or Bribeland). For half a million, the services don't justify the price IMO. The primary advantage seems that it does obviate the need to get another visa every year, but renewal for the usual retirement visa is more or less automatic after the first one anyway. I have many friends who do it this way (vs the 5 year option), all in their 60s and 70s with no sweat. (and you have the same option to do the renewal by mail.) Seems more like a money making gimmick to me. Now if they'd do away with that fucking 90 day reporting requirement....

People should know there's a limit now of 2 land border crossings "per calendar year", according to what I've read. If you've had more than 2 you'll have to fly out and fly back in, say via Cambodia (for about $80 r/t if you plan ahead from Air Asia). Maybe they bend the rules a bit if you're doing this as you've done (as part of a group). The law is mainly to stop farangs working in Thailand illegally (say a diving instructor) on the islands. 2 land border crossings limit: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/959042-only-2-visa-exempt-entries-at-border-crossings-per-calendar-year-effective-dec-31st/ I'm in Ranong now on a visa run and it's interesting how they illegally apply this rule to folks like me with actual visas (vs "permission to stay for 30 days" as most BM probably have). I got told I wouldn't be allowed to use my visa (on which is printed "good for entry till Sept 2017") more than another 3 months. A subsequent conversation with Thaivisa.com confirmed that this was total crap. Ranong immigration said I'd have to pay for a 1900B extension in 3 months! I don't think this is merely incompetence. Ranong (as well as Poipet, where you went) is infamous for extortion. So I'll be flying my next visa run (one must still leave the country every 3 months under my type of visa).

For some reason my connection speeds and throughput (eg download time) don't go down when I connect through Zonealarm. It's main virtue of ZA is it's free and I don't need to trust it (eg for bank transactions) I use HTTPS Everywhere (addon) anyway, which forces https connections, which are encrypted (but as others have said, not invulnerable to "large malicious state entities" (eg my government) or at 1024 bits perhaps from Mafia types. I used to know more about computer security than I do now, having forgotten most of it, and the articles....well, I'd rather read a good novel these days.