leadpencil

Hello

Does anyone know where the Nakonchai Air bus station is please? I believe that it is near to Mor Chit bus station however I can not find the exact address, whether it is withing walking distance etc.

Any help much appreciated!

Good cheap fresh seafood in the places opposite the Beergarten on Soi Seven. Also good spot to check out the talent going into 'work' :D

The meet banner across the top of this site is more than slighlty out of date. I had assumed that none have taken place since April 23rd however I would be certainly be up for a meet in August when I am in Bangkok.

rules of Bangkok

1 always pay your bill

2 don't fall in lub

3 avoid drugs and girls you suspect maybe on them

4 avoid arguments/fights with the locals you will always lose

5 all plans go out the door once you hit the ground

6 visit oily/soapy massage places

7 dont get too drunk

8 only take out enough cash for the day.. if you must take a wallet keep it in your front pocket

9 enjoy the girls and treat them with respect and dont rip them off..Hell hath no fury like a bar girl scorned..some girls know some serious thai dudes and if you fuck them over with lack of payment or abuse and the girls see you on the street better run real fast

10 Above all have fun and keep a low profile and be a nice bloke and you will have the time of your life

 

11 use a condom

 

any more to add gentlemen??

Good set of rules. Can not think of anymore to add. All of them apart from the second should be easy enough to stick to - I have to remind myself of rule number 2 on a daily basis..... :D

Edit: make that an hourly basis...

Try this link;

http://www.bangkok-maps.com/bangkoksukhumvit.htm

No disrespect but a 30 second search on google would have bought up the same results.

I second Chatuchak -- lots of clothing wholesalers there, but I don't remember if I've seen knick knacks (wholesale). I've also walked through a couple of wholesale markets in or around Chinatown, but I can't remember exactly where.

I forgot about Chinatown. There are lots of wholesale shops between Hua Lampong and Yarowat Road. You will find whole shops selling just one item. Last time I bought some really old buddha statues from one of these stores.

Pratunam is certainly good for clothes.

Also try JJ (Chatuchak). I know a number of BGs who buy goods wholesale there in order to make a bit of extra money on the side.

I guess that for most people arriving to Bangkok, after taking the new train they will then need to get the skytrain and possibly a taxi as well (especially if carrying luggage) in order to get to their hotel. It costs me 350 baht to get a taxi door to door, airport to Sukhumvit Soi 8. The saving on the train will be about 100 baht - not really worth considering after a 12 hour flight.

Last month I took the one-on-one short course at Baan Phassaa Thai (Thai Language House) on Sukhumvit Soi 6. It is located in a mid-rise building next to the Dynasty Inn Grande.

 

The short course is 15 hours and costs 5,850 Baht. The little textbook is an additional 100 Baht. The short course is phonetics (Romanized)...no Thai alphabet or writing. It was a good course, and like anything else, you get out what you put in.

 

The format is this: you sit across from the instructor and work on vocabulary, pronunciations and phrases. They converse with you in Thai as well. They will also teach you phrases in addition to the textbook, so you are also writing things down. Tones are crucial in Thai...arguably the hardest part. The key to using the phonetics effectively is to be able to read them. I need to go back and work on that because I was writing down my own junky phonetics during the course.

 

One thing I found strange is the short course did not cover telling time or asking for directions. You would need to purchase an extra lesson for this, or tell them you specifically want to cover it (in the short course). They have extra text sheets that cover those areas.

 

The course is valid for one year if you want to spread it out over multiple holidays. The usual format is one hour every other day, but I crammed the 15 hours into two hours per day, every day! A little too mutt...I ran out of steam about halfway through the course.

 

Their website

http://www.thailanguagehouse.com/

 

Cheers

BBT

Thanks for the information, I am going to email them as I am interested in doing the same course.

Just out of interest, did you know any Thai at all before you took the course? You said that they converse with you in Thai, is that on the material that you have just studied?

Is the lack of customers noticeable in the bars? Have a lot of girls gone home?

Thanks for the info. The Festival is a week before I go to Thailand. I might well check it out as a warm-up for whats in store.