errant said:

seriously, take the vacation.

Fauxie said:

i was actually looking at flights to asia the other day...la to bangkok is only $730 in the fall

Me!!!!!

evenstar3 said:

My aunt has a house

Imago said:

your slideshow of your thailand trip made me look it up, actually

i think i have a travel addiction problem now.

evenstar3 said:

Spend 200 bucks on a TELF certification class.
You can live comfortably middle class in Bangkok teaching English.


lawd, I fucking love Bangkok

Dirty, naughty, overpopulated, noisy, hot, dingy, wonderful city that it is.

Imago said:

enabler!!

wouldn't i have to speak thai too?

TRON said:

yes, I think I will. I think I'll use the time and money to get my shit together and do some big boy stuff that I should have been working toward in the last 2 years. really should have been enough time and money to get around to it sooner.

there's always a silver lining.

evenstar3 said:

GurRL, no of course not.

There are business men and teachers here who barely no how to tell the Taxi man where to go.

Every street sign is also marked in English in addition to Thai, and all the malls and shopping complexes have English speaking clerks.
Also, all the movie theatres show more English movies than Thai (except you might have to put up with Thai subtitles ).

Now, venture a couple of hours outside of Bangkok and if you don't know Thai, your ass will need to do ALOT of hand gestures and draw pictures

Imago said:

shit.

i need to look into this. thanks. it's either disappear to a foreign country, or buy a car.

Imago said:

200 bucks? I paid a thousand GBP.

Comfortably middle class? I was only so comfortable when I was making $880 a month in my first teaching gig. It wasn't enough for very long, not once I got used to how cheap beer is.

Aksel will be here soon! Seeing him on Sunday. Going to try to get our friend Nok to come to keep him company. I just want to see them standing side by side. She's like 5ft and 90 lbs and Aksel, he's a very big man.

Imago said:

Or half-Thai, Laos-born clip-ons.

Are you still learning Thai, by the way? Or is the TEFL stuff taking up all of your time? You must've picked up a fair bit already though, right? It doesn't take long once you're here. Speaking it passably is sooooo easy.

Fauxie said:

GuRRRL, she has a bachelor's degree.

I know you Brits have a habit of pissing away your free college educations but we Americans get shit done!

Fauxie said:

The TEFL stuff is taking up 8 hours of my day.
I jump on the org on and off to keep from going insane.

I've burned through 4 unites in 2 days. And there are 20 units.
At this rate, I'll have my TEFL in 2-3 weeks tops.

Imago said:

Even so. Voldemort's still only paying his degree-laden, TEFL-having teachers $1000 a month, rising to $1100 after a 3 month probation period. The 'head teacher' gets about $1150 for being a snitch. Even with a BA someone would need to land on their feet to make more than $1300. For many farang guys a better option is underwear modeling (something that was never an option for me ) or having a child with a Thai and pimping them out to soy milk companies as models. (Voldemort's son does Nestle ads)

Fauxie said:

i can survive on very little. when i was saving for my first trip to england i cut back to eating once a day.

cheap beer? british and german men? i'm THERE.

evenstar3 said:

We have a bed here. Obviously you couldn't actually sleep or stay here, but we have a bed. Just sayin'

Fauxie said:

there will be no sleeping. oh no.

Imago said:

Nice! You really don't mess around.

See you in Koh Phangan in October? No pressure.

evenstar3 said:

Same here, but I run the air-conditioning too much. It makes up over half of the power bill, and there are 3 televisions, about 6 fans, 3 fridges, a washing machine, fish tanks etc.

a 640ml bottle of Singha is $1.70 at the mom and pop store or supermarket. In a local restaurant about $2.35 and in Khao San Road about $3 A 10 minute taxi ride costs about $2. Thailand is definitely very cheap.

evenstar3 said:

We should be roomates!

I'm the perfect roomate--I'm never home and I never talk to my roomates. It's like I'm a ghost
[Edited 8/19/09 20:25pm]

Lawd, I'd love to go to a dingy, nasty old-fashioned karaoke bar just outside Bangkok with Dan and Laurel, just drinking and hanging out with the girls, local mafia and police officers. I wonder who would get the prettiest girl.

Imago said:

You look like a ghost in that FB profile pic. In a good way.

I want us get a place with Jane so we can afford to live in a palace. Mon can take care of her baby once it's here and I can have free roam of the house.

Imago said:

By 'she' you meant you didn't you.

What is this kumbaya bullshit

My thread is about stress!

p.s.

http://www.sublet.com/Spi...id=1367370 $350/month

http://www.thaiproperty.i...stID=15208 $290/month

http://www.thaiproperty.i...stID=14789 $235/month

http://www.thaiproperty.i...stID=15098 $220/month

http://www.rentthaihome.c...id_ads=482 $205/month

http://www.rentthaihome.c...id_ads=625 $175/month

Fauxie said:

DAYUM!!! But I just moved so...

RenHoek said:

That $350 one, a friend of mine found something similar too, with 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, for $200 a month. It was a detached house too, not a semi like that one.

Fauxie said:

I LOVE the "no flood if heavy raining." disclaimer...

RenHoek said:

Yup. It's important though. Looks like a decent house for the rent they're charging, but it's kinda out of Bangkok. Wouldn't really want to be out there near the airport.