joekicker

The point you're making is that by your own testimony you let this go on for 20 minutes, never raised a peep of protest - and it is the bar's fault because it is the sort of place where you will be badly beaten if you go to the management. AND it is another poster's fault, too, for bitxhing that HE only lost 40 baht, compared with your serious predicament. Just my opinion you are way out of line - about your actions, about your slur on the bar. You did the wrong thing, and your claim about the bar is not even credible, and thus really a libel.

This is a silly solution. It's sort of like removing the tyres from your car to make sure you never get a blowout. It, um, "works" of course. All it does is stop scripts from running. You can do the same thing by clicking on "fearful paranoid" in your browser configuration. Without scripts, the Net is kind of barren these days.

Install Privoxy, and all browsers will block all ads all the time. It's freeware, open source - do a search and download it. I put it on for Google Chrome, and it works quite well. To the OP. Look for the name of the pric... er, the company that is advertising the cure for your problem. Then google that name, and you'll find recovery instructions. From your description, it could be any one of a hundred scum-sites.

If your landlord pays the electric and water, he will charge you what you agreed, if you're careful to check. If YOU pay the bill, a very, very rough guide for someone living full time in an apartment/house might be: 1,000 baht for all electricity - lights, fridge, computer and so on 1,200-1,500 baht a month for 8-10 hours of air con per day - your bedroom at night, your office in the day, etc VERY rough. Huge variables of course. Water is almost nothing unless you run a car wash or a nursery - NEVER close to 100 baht for a normal person for showers, clean-up and so on (less for French of course).

For the Pattaya beach, just follow your nose.

Good for them. True story, though - ALL my medical is for free, thanks to the social security system that started up late in the last century. I was teasing my mother in law, who had to pay 30 baht for her quintuple heart-bypass a month ago (true story) that she was over-charged, probably they mistook her for a farang. The social security medical is not the same as the 30-baht plan, although there are similarities. But I pay a total of zero for all diagnosis, treatment and medicine at my assigned (private) hospital, and if they can't handle it they'll send me elsewhere. I have very good health, knock on wood with a prayer, so I haven't had to test anything near the limits of this thing, and of course don't want to. On the other hand, growing old is a hell of a lot better than the alternative.

Food stalls and go-gos. There are lots of prices for beer. If he'd strolled into Chulalongkorn he'd probably have got out for 120 baht.

Wow, they are STILL ripping off the farangs in Isan, I see. Terrible. I have given up explaining this stuff to my friends in the west. They think I'm lying. Congrats on the lower pressure Doctor M. Between Khon Kaen and tilak, sounds you're being pretty well looked after indeed.

I agree with Mrs Neaky on this (except I wouldn't recommend chipping yourself because you're likely to upscrew the machine). I'd say your last chance would be Pantip Plaza in the Big Mango. On the first floor there are guys who mod very well and knowledgeably. On the fifth floor, back in the warren of what seem like hundreds of little rooms of Area 519, there are people who make the first-floor people look like technology know-nothings. You'll really need a Thai speaker to get everything out of those rocket scientists, but if you can't get it done in Area 519, it won't be done in Thailand, period.

In the last 90 seconds, View New Posts and search have worked perfectly for me. If you get flood control, you have to start again, sometimes.

Or something like that. heh. Your word of the day: Mondegreen Take all the rope in Texas Find a tall oak tree, Round up all of them bad boys Hang them high in the street... for all the people to see There are some very good entries for this month's contest. It's going to be a close award.

Sorry to hear about Bradford. Lots of good som tam in Nebraska. In Nebraska, it's 2008 this year. In both places, though, you definitely will find people who get upset when something is advertised but not delivered. Same as Pattaya.

jeez. sorry.

BigD, are you actually going to venture out to Thailand? Good on you if you are. Stop and chat up some Thai people along the way.

Doofi. I like that.

bratpack, really I think you don't have to inject your horrible experience into every thread mentioning the hotel, restaurant or manager.

No complaint, just a comment in a thread complaining about your business and public relations. I'm okay with the fact your business is doing great despite the bad publicity. It doesn't reflect on me at all.

You're just transferring. My Thai staff doesn't affect your restaurant unless they eat there. By the OP's report you've failed to deal with your staff. He is discussing your business - not his business, not my business - yours. You're grasping, Dave. The customer really does not care if you and your restaurant prosper. In fact, after a horrible meal with shirty staff, he might lean towards hoping you do NOT prosper. You're supposed to know because you're the man in charge. If you don't know, that's YOUR failing, and has nothing at all to do with a customer who (credibly) was mistreated and insulted in your restaurant. All I can say is I think your response to the OP is disappointing and that's the most polite word I can think up. You don't credibly address the described meal and you don't credibly address the reported insult to the OP. Instead you switch it around to where, following a horrible meal and a dissing by the staff, he should have pursued you personally. I certainly would handle that kind of complaint and bad publicity somewhat differently.

If you see a clinic, bet that it is private. There are very, very few non-private (government) clinics on view in Pattaya. Clinics are an extension on hospitals, really, run by doctors and groups of doctors as a way to build their vertical market. Since they are private, cost varies. Figure 200 to 800 baht to get in the door and a quick interview and diagnosis. Then you WILL drop a couple hundred baht on medicine. Beyond that, you really can't estimate. Anything serious, they will direct you to their hospital.

Could be right, although I'm not convinced. IN THE BEGINNING... Girls were all free-lancers and they paid to be in the bars to be able to meet potential guests. The bar owners "allowed" them to help to clean the place, arrange the furniture, serve some drinks, etc. The go-go bars made it necessary to start paying some of them to show up on time. Then all the bars started paying all their girls, no matter what their purpose. Maybe the freelance revolution will return? I'm not convinced, because through all the pay-them times, there also have been freelancers. But it is for sure that there are more freelance places opening, and it is an attractive business model that you don't have to pay the staff, and in fact they might pay you. The Grace Hotel in Bangkok is one place that got filthy rich from this. Maybe it's time for a big, big comeback to all-freelance.

Link updated.

I'm sorry but the customer has no such obligation, real or implied. What you want need not move the customer at all. Your inability to get your staff to treat customers to your standards puts no onus on a customer, not in any way. This is a one-way responsibility: Owner->>-to-->>-customer. It is not a two-way street. It is entirely up to the customer to DECIDE if he wants to contact the owner/manager or whatever. He has no obligation to complain, comment, credit, contact or do anything else. His obligation to the restaurant is only and uniquely to legally pay or not pay his bill. In this case, the customer (credibly) contacted the staff about his problem. He didn't even have to do that, but even when he did the staff blew him off. Why does he have even a tiny sliver of responsibility to carry that complaint further? So he can go farang on farang? Heh. It is absolutely up to him. He has no ethical or moral responsibility to do more. It is also absolutely up to him whether to complain publicly. I might or might not do what the OP did, but I sure as hell wouldn't be taking any lessons from the restaurant owner about my actions.

Weekend market, Suan Lum night market and Bo Bae market in Bangkok - you may find stuff on any given day. I've never seen a place that always has them AND is stationary. Itinerant sellers mostly have this sort of thing.

Sure, and that's why the European team, the captain and all the media were on Westwood's side and have protested about it, and why the Americans were pretty well all humiliated and didn't have any fun at the party. Get real, Tom. He just made THE shot of the Cup for himself, and he was pumped. If that bothers Westwood, hard cheese - it didn't bother any of the other 23 players and two captains. If Westwood wants to play where the crowds don't scream at a good shot, he can play with me. In the sense that the World Cup final is just a bunch of boys kicking an old ball around and the Super Bowl is a Sunday afternoon gridiron game. It's not the sport, little one, it's the event. People who don't cotton to golf generally can cotton to this.

Not really. They are different places, for different reasons. So far as girls and nightlife, Hua Hin is a brushfire guerrilla war - while Pattaya is a free-fire zone with nuclear weapons.