MarkBKK

Central. Emporium. Villa. Saw an LBV in Tescos a few years back, but not recently. Foodland. Pacific Liqueur. Few other places. Paragon. You really only have to look.

Well, at least in Bangkok.

surayu, on 2011-10-04 22:39:44, said:

It really was weird at the time. One-on-one rather than 17-to-one. What must he have been thinking?  

I love Vietnam. The people seem very friendly. Less of a language barrier than here. I tend to go to Hanoi. I love it. Food is a problem (certainly for the wife ... great seafood, but they don't seem to use chillies much, and the rice can be ... a bit hard, at least up north.) Been to Da Nang, Hoi An and other places halfway to HCMC and the food was much better. The beer hoi keeps dragging me back to Hanoi though. Along with the vibe and the people. Brilliant kebabs too (well, for 25 satang or whatever they cost). And with the weather from October to February.

Please do not confuse the surly and abusive Thai woman who seems to run the visa section at the embassy with Vietnamese people. She would appear to be in it only for the money (that she can skim off the top.)

Twice I've applied for (and paid for) multi-entry visas only to receive single-entry. Both times she told me I'd filled the form out incorrectly (I hadn't, as she admitted when I asked to see it both times). Both times I was given the choice of paying an extra 2,000 baht or so to get the correct visa or to simply fcuk off. Both times I refused. (I fcuked off. I wasn't going to give her the extra cash.)

The last time I queued up with three other English people. Each of us was charged a different price for our identical single entry visas. Bloke at the head of the queue was even older than me, and he simply said ''She always does this.''

As for the Vietnamese not being afraid of confrontation ... the second or third time my wife and I were in Hanoi we saw a fight between a motorsai guy and someone else.

We both stood there mouths agape.

We watched the whole thing in shock.

It was ONE motorsai guy against one other person.

That's when I knew we were really in tune (me and the wife, not me and the motorsai guy). On the same wavelength.

Or maybe I've just been here too long.

We looked at each other and said ''But it was one on one! Why didn't all his friends join in?''

(And then I realised that they'd kicked Yankee arse, so why not?)

AyG, on 2011-09-27 07:42:33, said:

AFAIK it is only possible in Vietnam and Japan.

dick turpin, on 2011-09-20 20:39:58, said:

Actually ... it depends on the surname. The rendition of my surname into Thai proves to be a second name that is ''not allowed'', as the wife found out when she tried to change her name.

Er ... it's not ''BKK'', BTW, but contains consonants that don't exist in Thai and the transliteration turns it into a common noun that while inoffensive seems to be a word that Thais are not allowed to have as a second name.