Today was a day of firsts for me.

For lunch, I went to a roadside little restaurant where no one spoke English, nor were there English menus. They had a bunch of stuff and with the help of my Thai phrasebook, I was able to match up the Thai written spelling of what I wanted to what they had posted on the wall, pointed and successfully ordered Kwetiauw Gai, soup with noodles and chicken.

Best one dollar meal I've ever eaten.

Today was almost my first ride on a BKK motorcycle taxi.

My first visit to site with an actual real Buddha relic.

mY first time posting 3 threads in a day on the AF.

And lastly, my first time playing ukulele in a public place in Bangkok. Ako Ako Joko to the Golden Mount, Tour d'Joko a eh. Seasons of the Uke 64ish - YouTube

I'm not quite sure if what I write qualifies here but here's my blog about travelling around Asia (the entries so far have all been about Thailand).

We've got some Bangkok, some Koh Lanta, some Krabi, a lot of Chiang Mai and a bit of Pai. A veritable smorgasbord if you ask me.

There are pictures, and after recent feedback I plan to have a lot more pictures for each entry.

Ben Bails Out | a blog about solo travel and other fly shit

Any comments, critique and/or fawning praise appreciated.

Two weeks ago, I was told my teaching assignment was still not finalized, but it's supposed to be in BKK, and we'd know for sure in a few days. A few days later, I was told it would be another 10 days, the final word coming down tomorrow. I'm only booked in my hotel until tomorrow. I went looking at places to live yesterday, which I was somewhat successful at doing, but there were a few listings I simply couldn't find because I am new in town and don't fully understand the whole street address system here yet... I wanted some help today from a local for day 2 of apartment hunting, the deadline being tomorrow for me to find a place...

So I call my contact...

Oh, no, Friday is when the paperwork is finalized, she tells me, but the school won't have an official decision until Monday. What if I hadn't called? When was she planning on telling met this? Why do I think Monday will come and they'll still be thinking about it? Arrrgh!!!

I just want to unpack and get my stuff spread around and stop spending 550/night on a hotel room.

What the hell am I doing here???

Your top 10 documentaries.

I'll start...

Hoop Dreams
The Devil and Daniel Johnston
Grizzly Man
The Last Waltz
Super Size Me
Murder on a Sunday Morning
Bowling For Columbine
King of Kong
Comedian
Zoo

Just saw this on facebook and thought it was a fairly funny idea...

So, name your penis with a movie title.

Much ado about about nothing
Stuart little
The colour purple

A famous Thailand teaching agency is famous for printing fake degrees for its teachers now has 25 teachers in BKK that they are unable to place in schools, has taken to threatening a teacher who took off to work directly for a government school (not one that agency introduced the teacher to). Threats include you will never get a Non B, work permit or be able to work in Thailand legally.

"It is about women who open up their feelings (or breasts) because they experience tightness in their chests." Not sure I follow that ..

9 million hits in two week ain't too bad



'Splash Out' music video gets 8.6m YouTube views
Published: 14 May 2013 at 16.46

"Splash Out", a music video by Thai hip-hop group 3.2.1 and singer Baitoey R Siam, clocked up more than 8.6 million views on YouTube by Monday after it was uploaded on May 1, 2013.... [Read More]

...we need thousands more like this guy: those who will not tolerate the hell of other people:

by Kevin D. Williamson (CNN) I have the great privilege of writing the theater column for The New Criterion, the arts-and-culture journal founded by New York Times art critic Hilton Kramer and pianist Samuel Lipman in 1982. Some people have to be in an office at 8 a.m., but I get to be at the theater at 8 p.m. It is a pretty sweet gig.

The power of theater comes from its ability to surprise. Once or twice a season, I am treated to an unexpected discovery: While movies so often are cut, polished, CGI'd, and market-researched to death, even the most commercial piece of tourist-bait theater -- lookin' at you, "Evita" -- contains within it an element of unpredictability.

The audiences, unfortunately, are drearily predictable. It's the old one-in-every-family phenomenon: They will be late. They will talk. Their cell phones will ring, and some of them, by God, will answer them. They will text, and they may even play a few rounds of Words with Friends during the third act. They are the enemy. They are depressing not because their bad manners surprise us, but because they do not surprise us.

I found myself in the news this week after offering a surprise of my own at a New York theater: The woman seated next to me was on her phone throughout most of the show. (It was "Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812," in case you're wondering, a musical based on "War and Peace." You know what show you shouldn't see in New York if you have the attention span of a goldfish? One based on "War and Peace.") When she was not on her phone, she and her... [Read More]

Hi Forum, I am very new here.

There are some very fancy language schools in Bangkok (Wallstreet, Boston Bright, to name a few). They especially focus on fun. What is your opinion or expericences with those fancy schools? Do you believe that thai-students make great progress at this kind of schools?

No surprise here ...

Where Americans Tweet Messages of Hate

Our friends over at Floating Sheep released a series of fascinating, if depressing, maps today of the "geography of hate" across America.

The interactive maps are based on a keyword search of geotagged tweets. Students from Humboldt State checked each tweet for a negative, positive, or neutral connotation, ultimately identifying more than 150,000 hateful tweets with this location info. Each negative tweet was totaled by county and then normalized by comparing that to the county's total tweets, enabling the Floating Sheep geographers to identify places with "disproportionately high amounts" of hateful tweets.

Here's their map for racism:
http://cdn.theatlanticcities.com/img...5/10/hate2.jpg

And one for homophobia:
http://cdn.theatlanticcities.com/img...5/10/hate1.jpg

The researchers point out that hateful tweets are... [Read More]

As you might be able to tell from my full figured physique, I do love food. I’ve mentioned before how I can occasionally get frustrated seeing all this delicious looking stuff here in Thailand and not knowing the words for it. I get a little shy about ordering because I don’t want to look like an idiot, nor do I want to order the wrong thing and have them bring me a shoe with cheese on it.


Yesterday, I hung out with some new friends and the topic of food came up and one of them mentioned rice porridge. I’ve never had anything similar to rice porridge in America, but I remembered back when I was young in Indonesia and rice porridge was one of my favorite things to eat. It’s delicious; my Filipino friend who was talking about it shared my enthusiasm. Most importantly, he told me not only the Thai word for it: jok, but also where to find it in my neighborhood. I went home counting the hours until breakfast where I could wander over for a nice Bt20 (60 cents) bowl of jok. No chance that I would forget the word; it’s the first three letters of my name!


Well, this morning being Mother’s Day in America, I had an appointment to Skype with Mom. This is the first time we had Skyped, and it was really cool. Technology is wonderful. Again to compare this overseas journey to my last venture to SE Asia in 1990, back then, we exchanged written letters that took 2 to 3 weeks to cross the Pacific.


Anyways, after the call, I headed out in search of jok… You’ll have to watch the video to see what happened next.

... [Read More]

Hi, first post here on your very informative site.

I was hoping that there is someone reading this that has some knowledge/ experience with Songkhla International School. I have been looking at their website but would like some first hand opinions from either parents with kids at the school or even teachers at the school.

My plan has always been to go back to the UK for my kids schooling as frankly the costs to put 2 kids through most international schools in Thailand are a little out of my price range.

However I have recently been offered a chance to work out of Songkhla and whilst looking into the area I noticed this school. Its fees are considerably lower than any of the Bangkok school and it got me thinking that perhaps I wouldn't have to head back to cold, wet depressing England?

Its probably a case of you get what you pay for, but i thought i would look into it as an option. Is it comparable to an average UK school?

Obviously I will do whatever is best for the kids

Cheers

Chris

I am considering moving out to Thailand next year to complete a TEFL course and then hopefully find a teaching position shortly afterwards. Not really too fussy on where I would teach initially as I appreciate I am getting into this on the ground floor and would be happy to just gain a teaching role to gain experience and hopefully earn enough to cover living costs (I believe 30,000 baht per month is an achievable amount).

I do not have a degree though and I believe this would prevent me from securing the most sought after teaching positions, that's fair enough I wouldn't really be looking to move over for financial reasons it is more of a lifestyle choice. I'm 35 years old and in full time employment in the UK but have been to Thailand a few times now and fallen in love with the place, really fancy trying to combine business with pleasure and taking up a teaching job in the Land of Smiles.

Any thoughts or views would be appreciated.

Hi guys,

I know it is ultimately my own choice.

I have been pondering with the idea for a while now.

I have been back in Japan for 2 years now. I had planned to make open a backpacker's lodge, but the earthquake hit, I wasted a lot of time and money, and ended up teaching.

I teach in private high schools. I commute long hours on crowded trains. My wage is not so bad, and I have 4 months paid holidays per year. But I am just not happy here.

Tokyo is so hectic. The winters here really suck. Those things would not be so bad, but I broke up with my girl a few months ago - who had a 4 year old daughter who i adored. Since then, I really do wonder why i am here.

I am 45 now (yep! it was 10 years ago when i first posted here!) and although i have a bachelors degree, i have no certificates in education. that has never been a problem in japan getting teaching work - though of course, i can't get the top paying jobs in universities, etc. i know that Thailand is a lot more strict when it comes to being employed in schools, without education certificates.

so i am thinking of re-starting my private tutoring for japanese expats. i actually found it rewarding - more so than any other time i have taught before. i visited my students homes, and was free to teach them what i liked - and as it was up to me to get as many students as i could (and keep them) i used what i had learned in my earlier teaching years in japan, and developed other ways, which proved to work really well. i have learned a few more tricks since being back here, and feel i could do even a better job this time around.

can anybody give me any info on... [Read More]

Way up here in Ramkhamraeng, I can't imagine it's possible, but I thought I'd check nevertheless. Other than the microwaveable pizza-food stuff they have at the FamilyMart across the street, I'm hungry. It's the middle of the night. What are my options?

https://www.facebook.com/AjarnDotCom...0&notif_t=like

I seemed to upset him a bit. Dudes a loon, his FB is mainly him arguing and talking to himself 5555

Foreigner Beaten by Tuk-Tuk Drivers after not Paying Extortionate Fee at Karaoke Bar – A word of warning if you ‘want to do it your way’


CityNews – A foreign man was badly beaten by tuk-tuk drivers late April after the driver had taken him to a karaoke bar where he was charged 17,000 baht for a few drinks and forced to pay lest he suffer the consequences.

The man, a Chiang Mai long-term expat, explained that on the night, “I had a tuk-tuk driver, one man from the karaoke and two girls – one being the manager – escort me to the ATM. After some polite bartering I paid the karaoke place 4,000 from the 17,000 they had asked, a bit over priced but I thought a payment I could do for me being silly enough to get myself into that situation.”

But he then says the tuk-tuk demanded 2,000 for his fee. A fee that had not even been discussed.

“The next thing his friend turned up and they said they would escort me to the police station.”

They took him into some land nearby the karaoke bars on Chang Klan Road (close to Chiang Mai Land) and beat him up.
“It was all captured on a CCTV camera and I have got the option to press charges,” he says, “but retribution does not thrill me. I just want to warn others.”

He was fortunate that a local rescue worker, as well as workers from nearby bars, saw what happened. He was picked up by the rescue team worker (Koh) shortly after he was beaten up.

Koh, who is also a teacher at Rajabhat University, told CityNews:

“I was driving out of my house in Chiang Mai Land to work a night on the rescue shift when I saw him running away from somewhere covered in blood. I... [Read More]