Joop

Dude, no way in hell I would let anybody shoot my balls with DMSO... Foolish to let Indian medicine anywhere near your nuts... (1.2 BILLION Indians BTW) Good luck to ya Joop

I am going to post this in my trip report this next week but figured I would plug a former board members new coffee shop which has wi-fi. Paul Pitini, who used to post as BeachBoy, moved to Thailand a couple years ago and has been settling into the expat life real well. He has a lovely wife, a new baby girl, and seems very very happy. Anyways, he was looking into starting a business. He looked into all sorts of things and ended up going into a quality coffee/gourmet ice cream shop. He ordered his gear from Italy (Paul is a Sicilian-American) and put ALOT of effort/thought into this place. I think it is a great spot, he does high end specialty coffee, hand made gourmet ice cream and has a nice little menu of some pretty good food. He also has beer/liquor but his specialty is his coffee. All of his prices are very good (Latte-35 Baht, Beer-55 Baht, Salads-60 Baht and his ice cream is well priced too 45-65 Baht for sundaes...) I spent over 3 hours there and could barely get my bill over 350 Baht (mostly Heineken) He also has wi-fi available. It is free and all you have to do is ask him for the login/password. The shop is located on Soi Buakhao not too far from Lolita’s, so it makes a nice little stop off on the way to or way home from Lolita’s. Here are some photos of the shop: And one of Paul and his staff: Please stop by and say hello, it is a great place and Paul is a really good host. Cheers Joop

I love UAL, they have never booked my United FF trips on their airline but they set you up pretty good on both Thai and ANA... No prblems what so ever redeeming my miles... When I fly for work, United gives me free upgrades to business class all the time... Don't know how NWA is but I will always fly United because they treat me too good. Cheers Joop

I have also heard that Koh Chang is beautiful... http://www.koh-chang.com/ If you make it down to Koh Chang you will probably want to make it an overnight trip... I have seen some great photos of the place and will make a stop there my next trip. The other one that is highly recommend is Koh Sichang, which is a little closer then Koh Chang and can be done as a day trip.. http://www.kohsichang.com/ or some other info here http://www.ko-sichang.com/beach.html. Good luck and enjoy whichever island you go for!! Cheers Joop

Just went to the Holiday Bowl here in last night and enjoyed watching the Cougars bet up on Old Texas!! :) I have been pretty lucky with my Bowl Picks so far... I already do a free Yahoo league with my coworkers, I will just set up two next year and see who wants to play... I am expecting to be in Asia(Japan/Korea) mid January, which would probably put me in Thailand sometime during your stay, would enjoy hooking up for a few beers. Cheers Joop

It was fun... A different sort of Fantasy Football league then I was used to... I like the head to head leagues and will start a free FLB one for us next year... It involves drafting a team before the season starts and keeping/trading those players throughout the season. This league was more of a salary cap league... Very different but both are very fun... Anyways, congrats to the big winners... SteelPower and the kids... and to Greg for starting this up... I will definately play next year. And John, looks like you bested me 9 out of the 17 individual weeks so I owe you a beer... But I did beat you in the final talley so what the heck!! Give me a heads up when you will next be in town and we can have a couple together... Cheers Joop

I think Gren has some good ideas there... Chicks on the course would be good... As I have stated in another post... Dudes were way fucked up by the time I got to the party... so drunk in fact they couldn't keep posession of their own trophy... hehe Anyways, you guys have a good time, may stop by for the night before with my new bride... Have a good time guys Joop

Sorry ff29, The 2nd is an important day for me and will be heading off on my honeymoon on the 3rd!! I will have operatives nearby in the event the trophy needs rescuing again!! :) Cheers! Joop

OK, as some of you know the trophy for last years RideHer cup mysteriously vanished the night of the event... You see, the Europeans where in such a sad drunkin state they were unable to protect the treasured ill gotten trophy they had "won"... Not being a golfer, I came to the party a little later then most and heard various descriptions of how the Europeans had fixed the tourney and some horrible accounts of handicap fraud and turncoats... It really wasnt very hard as Duece and Doggie were very preoccupied to know quite what was going on and I am sure no one even knew it was missing til the next day... hehehe USA USA USA!!! So, wasnt too sure what to do with it... after confiding with a couple guys decided that the trophy was to travel the US/world and we would take ransom pictures and post them periodically on the board... sounded like a grand idea then this little war popped up so the trophy and myself spent most of the last 8 months in the middle east... First, immediately after the tourney it went with me to Australia, we spent a week in Darwin then went to the Gulf to prep for the war. Here it is in Barhain at the Grand Mosque Here it is in Saudi Arabia at Prince Sultan Air Base. It flew out to the USS Lincoln, USS Kitty Hawk, and USS Saipan While on the Saipan we went through the Suez Canal which was way cool… Here is some compound in Egypt… The Trophy enjoyed a short stay in Sicily, enjoyed multiple helicopter rides and three landings on aircraft carriers… he made a complete circle around the globe, going From the US to Italy, to Bahrain, to Thailand, back to the US via Japan… He did have one small accident in his trip to Saudi… but nothing a little superglue couldn’t take care of!! Since he was in Bahrain and Saudi during a shooting war I attached a copy of the Anti Terrorism Medal to the trophy as a little reminder of his travels… In all, it didn’t quite work out the way we planned it but it was fun traveling with the little guy… We will see what the losers do this year with him aye… I will be in town during the tourney so if you Europeans decide to fix the tourney again you had best keep your eye on the trophy!! Cheers Joop

dtom, I actually bought it in Bahrain... You can get them in Thailand too... they are about 15000-16000 baht... The price has already come down about $70 since March when I bought mine... I like it cuz it is small, color, and has polyphonic ringtones... I just got a data cable yesterday so now I can interface with my laptop better... Samsung makes a nice color flip phone, the v200 that looks pretty cool... http://www.directmobilephones.com/samsung_v200voda.htm Panasonic has a nice one too... both are pretty pricey right now but I imagine they will come down soon... Cheers Joop

On my Nokia 6100, I have a function in Settings, Call Settings, and then I can scroll down to "Send my caller identity". Options on this phone are "Set by network", "Yes" or "No". I select No and then no one gets my number. Works great here in California, I didn't try it in Thailand though... Good luck Joop

Jesus, are you guys a bunch of jaded SOBs or what?? "All thai girls are the same" "Most important thing is money" "You can take the girl out of the bar but you can't take the bar out of the girl" "Money number one is required newbie reading" "Private Dancer is so true, everyone should read it..." What a crock of shit guys... I think you guys have used every cliche in the book in this thread... You guys are killing me... TGs are no different then any other girl in the world... You can't spend 10 days with a women and have her trust you... that is what everything boils down to... trust. These chicks don't trust you any further then they can throw you... Trust takes time... Even if you are sending money whos to say you will keep sending it... I had one of my "sisters" go through that one... dude supporting her for 6 months and then nothing... just dropped off the face of the earth... Screwed her up real good... She wasn't messing around on him either... contrary to this threads opinion, not all TG are the same... The reason these girls act like this is because we give them every reason too. You talk about the girls lying, bet you have never lied to one have ya... Also, I bet you that money is not important in your life either... Food, rent, med bills, ah heck, who needs money... I know my world revolves around my job and the money it provides... Money is #1 in my book... why should it be any different for these girls?? Like attracts like, if you are pulling all the sharks you need to look inside yourself and try to figure out why that is... Check out my trip report on the members board(relationship and culture section) and tell me they are all the same... 2.5 years and going... How long now for Pete, Ben, Gerald, Mats, etc... Good luck. I need a beer Joop

Sounds like you are having a great time!! I echo Davys comment... Phuket is where I would take my Mother if she came to Thailand... NOTHING compared to Pattaya. The one or two "hot chicks" you find in Phuket are average in looks compared to Pattaya and Pattaya has WAY better Go-gos and Discos... Beer bars are pretty much the same but Phuket still can't hold even a close second to Pattaya in that department... Soi Bangla was a real dissapointment in my opinion... Trust me... Pattaya is the place to be for the women. Cheers Joop

I was a Bellmen in college... so tipping is real important to me too... If someone is giving me good service they will know it... Works great if you go to the same place often... Like here in Bahrain, I call the radio taxi dudes, they say "We are busy and it will be 1 hour"... Once they ask my name, "Oh Mr Joop, we will be there in 10 minutes!!"... So my nice tips to them are money well spent. You guys will met Dale at PIC, he is one of my better friends in Thailand but I will NEVER go shopping with him... He makes me feel like I am taking food off of the poor ladys table... Last time after he bartered her down to pennies on the shirts I slipped the poor lady a 100 baht note to make up the difference... I felt bad for her man... Upto you guys... You sure as hell won't find me bitching about a few bucks here or there... life is too short... See ya guys soon!! Ole Tom, I will probably cook the pig on the 8th or 9th... depending on a trip to Phuket I wanna make... I will let you know. Cheers Joop

Come on guys... 10 baht, 50 baht, 100 baht... so what? My friend Dale will haggle to the death over 20 baht on a shirt then go and spend 5000 baht on a lobster dinner... "Its the principle" he tells me... I don't get it that is for sure... I think it is crazy to get wound up over money... We are in Thailand to enjoy ourselves and just have fun... I work hard for my money but I guess I am just charitable, 20 baht is not anything to any one of us... It is a meal for a Thai person... So what is my point... I don't know, but why bitch about the small stuff, just let it go off your back and enjoy all the good stuff around you... My two cents... Cheers Joop