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bombing over for a few months soon

give me some places and recs like, looking to check out more of SE asia too as well as thailand

so glad to be leaving this country for a bit, everythings doing my head in, contemplative temple sessions go!

Lumpini stadium for a bit of Muay Thai. Absolutely amazing atmosphere. Apart from that (no disrespect to the Barron von something) avoid Bangkok.

cityzen wrote:Lumpini stadium for a bit of Muay Thai.

would love to go see a proper muay thai fight if i was over there... wanna go to brazil and watch some vale tudo as well, would be too sick

cityzen wrote:Lumpini stadium for a bit of Muay Thai. Absolutely amazing atmosphere. Apart from that (no disrespect to the Barron von something) avoid Bangkok.

In Bangkok when I arrive, off as soon as I can!

thanks I defo want to catch me some Muay Thai

always try before you buy. get me!

i actually really liked Bangkok

wouldn't mind spending more time there...

noam wrote:i actually really liked Bangkok

wouldn't mind spending more time there...

i didnt really enjoy bangcock but that was probably down to the horrid malaria tablets i was on and the sour/tnuc faced bitch i met out there.


i also watched a guy taking a "lass" back to his hotel and she looked more like an orc from lotr's than anything human - male or female.

i just liked how big and busy it was

China town there was insane too, so vast

mikey g wrote: always try before you buy. get me!

Wow that was a nice read on Thai ladyboys!

capo ultra wrote:

cityzen wrote:Lumpini stadium for a bit of Muay Thai. Absolutely amazing atmosphere. Apart from that (no disrespect to the Barron von something) avoid Bangkok.

In Bangkok when I arrive, off as soon as I can!

thanks I defo want to catch me some Muay Thai

If you're anything like me you'll need about three, maybe four days to acclimatise. Lumpini while you wait!
I personally didn't enjoy Bankok that much coz it was a dirty, smelly built-up area - I live in one of those already, and as much as I enjoyed experiencing a new culture I couldn't wait to get out.
Plus, when I arrived in Bangkok they wouldn't let me through immigration without telling them where I was staying (they want to make sure you're not looking to live there) - they made me pick a hotel from a list and insisted I stayed there. When I got to said hotel I was dismayed to find it was slap bang in the middle of a/the red light district. My hotel had been built in the 60's and it's primary purpose was for American GI's to fuck Thai girls while on R&R from Veeet NAM. Needless to say the hotel was still being used as a semi-brothel.
LONG.
Every time I stepped foot outside the hotel I was harassed, almost till breaking point, by pimps and ladies/lady-boys of the night.
*shudder*

Serves me night for not planning ahead.

Dont do khao san road hostels. Thats now such a fucking tourist trap its unreal. There are loads of reasonable hotel/hostels along the skytrain stops off sukumvit road( btw soi 8 and 20). Go google map search "hostels" there. At least near sukumvit you're near more reasonable bangkok. Staying near the royal palace, sets you up for hassle after hassle. Theres a hotel i stayed in for a friends wedding in march above a shopping center call MBK. Its called "princess" or something like that. It was perfect because its sort of right in the middle between old bangkok and new bangkok, easy skytrain etc. My 2cents

I recommend Krabi town over koh samui too. More muslim there and less pingpong/sword shows and other bullshit.

i went Krabi... it was DRYYYYY

Pi-Pi was great

Koh Pangan was great

didn't manage to get to Koh Samui, which was a shame

Chiang Mai was cool, some nice bars there, generally more relaxed city, can do lots of fun activities if thats your thing, we did a massive downhill mountain bike down a proper mountain, through all sorts of jungley terrain, was class

from Chiang Mai you can get across to Laos and Burma really easy too

noam wrote:i went Krabi... it was DRYYYYY

Seconded

noam wrote:Pi-Pi was great

Seconded

noam wrote:Koh Pangan was great

Didn't get there because the roads to it were flooded or something - then again a lot of places were flooded about a week after I left because the boxing day tsunami hit

Am seriously thinking instead of paying thousands on a car I should just fuck off to somewhere, anywhere but here.

Well, Thailand is a marvelous place to fuck off to.

got a bit of a query actually

I was going to do some voluntourism thing that was going to cost a bomb until I did all my research and realised what a ripoff this certain company was, and I am definitely not looking for some gap year experience thing

I have decided to just fuck off backpacking on my own but the problem I have is that my flight return is for 65 days after my arrival which would mean I need a category B non-immigration visa (and work permit?)

The company has already sent me a letter of recommendation to send off to the thai embassy, so I am thinking I could still just apply for the visa, but am not sure if immigration might check with the company on arrival to see if I am doing what I said I would be doing.

another option I have is to book a flight out of Thailand from within 30 days of arrival to Vietnam or Bali or somewhere in order to satisfy immigration and then I won't need a visa

I still wouldn't mind doing a bit of english teaching to get some experience so perhaps it is best me getting the visa but the more I look into it the more I am convinced that as an unqualified westerner I could potentially be doing more harm than good and it might be better to just treat this as a long holiday and then sign up for a CELTA when I get back if i really want to pursue english teaching

any thoughts from those with previous experience are most welcome


tl;dr

seckle wrote:I recommend Krabi town over koh samui too. More muslim there and less pingpong/sword shows and other bullshit.

agreed ko samui was pretty touristy and sleezy. didnt go to krabi but ko toa was awesome, alot more relaxed and less people trying to scam/mug you

firky wrote:Am seriously thinking instead of paying thousands on a car I should just fuck off to somewhere, anywhere but here.

Buy car. Fuck off somewhere in cool car.

Koh Tao was my favorite place to stay. If you choose to visit hit up Charm Churee.
Diving there is amazing also. I could spend a month there and not get bored. It's kind of touristy but if I told someone to go ANYWHERE in SE Asia I would recommend Koh Tao.
Chiang Rai/Mai were a lot different than most places a lot of people visit because of the lack of tourists. Chiang Rai was the cheapest city I stayed in, during the Saturday markets you could get dinner for 5 for 200 baht with drinks. The people there were also extremely nice.
IMO Phuket and Koh Samui were overrated and were over run with tourists. Cool places to visit for a couple days but not for a while.

Another place to consider visiting is Siem Reap in Cambodia.I stayed at the Angkor Palace resort and loved it. The temples here are ridiculously huge and you'd probably want a tour guide for those. Walking through lake Tonle Sap is a good experience too, Cambodia's population is about 13 million? with about 6 million living around the lake. In some stilt villages the people there have never seen Caucasians before too. (They will grab your hair if it's blonde.)

I have a lot of experience with Thailand and Cambodia so if you have any questions PM me.
Spent 6 weeks in Thailand and 2 in Cambodia.