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

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...

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 missi

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

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

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 t

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

You shouldn't be surprised at all Baz, I always check Google or someother web search engine before I post ANYTHING that I may be considered sensitive. There is not a freaking thing about CG that is classified. Troops locations are known WELL in advance and even when they put a bunch of Marines down in Hat Yai some industrious (and now richer) Thai had already gotten a bunch of hookers down there from Bangkok waiting for them... Ships schedule and Port visits are broadcasted at least a month in advance... you just don't pull up a big ass ship and park it in a parking spot, all sorts of

For anybody from the US/Canada/Australia, goto http://www.tollthai.com, they have good deals on calling cards to Thailand, around 18 cents a minute to a mobile phone anywhere in Thailand from the US... I use it religiously and have never had any problems... Real easy to recharge your card either over the phone or via the internet... Cheers Joop

I have been out of the bar fining scene for a while now, but there is no way I would pay before the service... When I was an young buttefly, the girl was given a sliding tip based on performance... The happier I am, the more she is gonna get... And I tell them that before the night begins... Worked very well... Especially on the second or third time I barfined them... Cheers Joop

I bought a nice Nokia 8250 in Pattaya my last trip at one of the many Phone shops on second road... They want 12000 baht for the new ones (it is a triband and will work when I get back to the USA). But they also have a "used" section where I got mine for half price... I am very happy with the phone, they gave me a new number with the SIM, and all is well. I took the phone with me to Bahrain, bought a 10 Dinar($27US) SIM SIM card here and the phone works great... When I get back to Thailand I will just replace my old SIM card as we will see how it works... It has only been a month so it s

Philadelphia 27 Miami 10 Whoops, I thought you were talking about Football... ;D Joop

I believe the Penthouse is having problems right now due to a issue with Cats-A-Go-Go, which is downstairs and run by the same folks... I am not too sure who is running the Penthouse right now. The Penthouse is a lot of fun to be in for a night or two... Some of the rooms have bathtub jacuzzis, sex swings, and balconies over looking Soi Pattayaland... They are pricey at about $50 a night... Its not my recommendation for the long haul, rooms are just too small and dark and like I said, too much money. They are great to have a party in... It depends, you will probably do better stayi

You can get a hold of IB who runs the RG at ottesen@loxinfo.co.th I am not too sure about the HS modems... You can buy inexpensive internet deals that let you dial in for less then 200 baht... Speed is around 40K when you dial in using the lines at the RG. Beware the Thai power if you are from the states... 220V/50hz. Cheers Joop

Bearshare.com is another site like Kazaa... I am not too worried about Kazaa and them using my computer/bandwidth, if they are or not... I get plenty of free stuff (music/movies/etc) so it is ok with me if they do... Those damn pop-ups do drive me crazy... Good advice, maybe I'll go find a program to stop those buggers... Joop

It is the Vengaboys, from their "The Party Album" or from their greatest hits CD. I use Kazaa to download my MP3's , goto download.com and search for Kazaa, download, install, and then you can download all the free music you want... good luck Joop

I don't want to get too involved with ship schedules and all as that is bad for security purposes (and illegal). Plus I don't know exactly where the ships are stopping for their port calls. But I can tell you no single ship in the US Navy carries 8000 folks. Carriers will hold about 5000+ with the airwing and crew on board. They do of course have a whole group full of support ships (Carrier Battle Group) but they rarely bring the whole gang in. I can tell you no carriers are traveling until April through the asia area, so you shouldn't see 8000 sailors in Pattaya in March... Again, I