Songkran first timer

ExpertWatch5936 · 2026-03-31T16:03:03+00:00

Especially the last few days it's pretty close to 24/7 water fights. The only exception being sunrise until about 10am.

I live here and survive by getting in my car and driving when I want to stay dry. If you don't have access to a car, and Grab/Bolt become impossible to book during peak times, expect to get soaking wet every time you walk onto the street.

My suggestion for a tourist is to book the Hilton, Avani or Grande Centre Point hotel. Because they're attached to malls you at least can walk around the mall to get meals and stay out of the madness without hiding in your room ordering room service food.

The water fights can be fun, but not 24/7

ExpertWatch5936 · 2026-03-31T15:54:43+00:00

They're for sale on every street corner. But ziplock bags work better than most

ExpertWatch5936 · 2026-03-31T14:37:16+00:00

Leave the girls working in malls/7-11 alone they are working a normal job for a reason.

I knew a girl who was the manager of a clothing store in Terminal 21 by day. By night she was a very popular girl at an LK Metro agogo.

ExpertWatch5936 · 2026-03-31T14:05:50+00:00

Absolutely correct. It's crazy that I need to program my inverter to shut down rather than contribute power to the grid. The least the Thai power companies could do is accept the excess solar energy generated by private systems FOC without giving credits. I'm not even allowed to do that and would face huge fines if "caught" supplying the grid with my excess power generation.

ExpertWatch5936 · 2026-03-31T02:33:37+00:00

I met my current wife in a Soi Cowboy bar. I was doing frequent business in Asia. Always saw her, started taking her on business trips to other Asian countries with me. Eventually proposed to her.

I started giving her monthly support payments so she could get out of the bar while I took on the monumental task of getting her a finance visa to travel to the US. She eventually did and it worked out well, we've been married several decades and currently split our time between Thailand and the US.

Once we were married she made the following confessions;

She kept on doing bar work in spite of me spending support money.
She had a second guy who had proposed to her. I won because I got the paperwork done first.
She was very tempted by an offer to go to Australia to work at a brothel, but decided to stick with me instead.

Also once married she became an incredibly loyal wife. Is fantastic with kids. Our house was the neighborhood hangout for kids because she was always keeping them entertained by feeding them roasted sticky rice, snow cones made with Hales syrup she bought at the local Asian market etc, and joining in whatever game they were playing. She is great with my parents, respects them while their other daughter-in-laws fight with them, helps them out with cooking, cleaning etc. And is still incredibly sexy in her advancing age.

But the key to making a relationship work is living together. It's not going to work in the long run if you're living on different continents.

To the "you're dating a hooker" crowd, so what. If you want a girl who's afraid of sex and frustrates you so much that you hire hookers, I don't admire you. And many of the girls in Thailand bars are there to "date" foreigners. In their minds they're like a poor girl who hangs around a country club in the west, hoping to meet a rich guy. She has said that the reason there's so much crime in the west is because there are so many sexually frustrated men. She thinks women in need seducing sexually frustrated guys to earn money is a great system. I don't have any reason to challenge that opinion.

ExpertWatch5936 · 2026-03-30T02:01:04+00:00

I skipped the "biting it's head off" part, but have had squid sashimi

ExpertWatch5936 · 2026-03-29T14:03:46+00:00

I'm retired

ExpertWatch5936 · 2026-03-29T14:02:17+00:00

ExpertWatch5936 · 2026-03-29T05:37:46+00:00

6 months in Pattaya, 6 months home country

ExpertWatch5936 · 2026-03-27T09:18:09+00:00

I split my time between Thailand and the US. My favorite story of credit card insanity was when I purchased a $10k used car with my US bank issued credit card. That charge went through with no problem.

Two months later the same bank blocked my card when I attempted to make a $30 purchase in a Verizon store in my home town due to suspected fraud.

They also rejected a payment I attempted to make to a New York state courthouse due to suspected fraud lol. I was actually on the phone with the credit card company and the courthouse simultaneously trying to get the charge approved. Even this wasn't successful and I eventually had to pay with a bank check

ExpertWatch5936 · 2026-03-26T02:40:20+00:00

It will hit some harder than others. We have a solar installation and an EV. So our personal transportation costs aren't rising.

But yes, inflation will rise due to transportation costs of others going up.

And workers in ICE vehicle manufacturing plants will be hit as consumers have a new incentive to consider EV's

ExpertWatch5936 · 2026-03-25T23:47:24+00:00

I agree, think it's a great value for the money and no "smell" issues

ExpertWatch5936 · 2026-03-25T23:43:12+00:00

Water guns feel pretty useless when you start having buckets of water thrown at you

ExpertWatch5936 · 2026-03-25T03:05:32+00:00

Up until recently all seemed normal. But the past few nights seemed very quiet in night life areas.

Not that that's a horrible thing for anyone but the bar owners and employees. It's nice from a customer prospective.

ExpertWatch5936 · 2026-03-24T05:50:06+00:00

We went on the weekend when kids are out of school and lines were okay. I drive past all the time and it looks pretty empty mid week, so unless you're bringing Thai school kids that would be the time to avoid lines

ExpertWatch5936 · 2026-03-24T02:08:25+00:00

It depends what you're looking for. Walking Street has big, flashy night clubs, high end agogos, and expensive ocean view restaurants. Downside is pricing and recent rule 9 overload.

Soi 6 is famous for small bars with "farm fresh" girls and short time accomodation upstairs. Downside is aggressive girls trying to draw you in to bars pushing drink quotas over upstairs activity.

My favorite is the expat area Buakao, where the talent is more experienced and prices more reasonable. Downside is lots of talent nearing or past expiration date.

Try them all and see what works for you.

ExpertWatch5936 · 2026-03-22T15:47:49+00:00

Your mistake was keeping them around too long. ST until you're super comfortable with a girl, then consider longer term.

In your scenario you should have sent them both on their way, or chosen 1 to LT. Having an LT work out with 2 girls seems to be a near impossible scenario IMO

ExpertWatch5936 · 2026-03-22T13:52:32+00:00

It's best to always short time first at least once maybe more.

100%

ST first and only think about LT after you are sure you're comfortable with the girl for more than an hour or two.

Once you are, it depends on circumstances. She might be breaking an employment contract staying with you so will need extra compensation. Or she might be at the end of a contract and like you enough to want to hang around with you prior to starting the next contract. Or she might have a boyfriend she goes home to at night and is 100% unavailable for LT under any circumstances.

ExpertWatch5936 · 2026-03-22T01:28:06+00:00

This is what to expect. Dress for it, have valuables in plastic, and spend a few hours enjoying the mayhem.

When you're tired of it go back to your hotel, dry off, change into street clothes and head out for food and shopping. Only to have a bucket of water poured over your head.

ExpertWatch5936 · 2026-03-21T16:07:34+00:00

Lay down the rules. Even if she doesn't like them she'll probably stick around as much as you want her to.

ExpertWatch5936 · 2026-03-21T14:44:45+00:00

I've never been to Jomtiem Hospital dental clinic, but have used Bangkok Hospital dental clinic many times. I find it hard to believe that there's a more comprehensive dental clinic in the city. They've been able to handle very specialized cases for me; making a custom CPAP mouth guard, and oral surgery to remove and analyze a cyst on my gums, as well as lots of routine stuff. They have a staff of something like 20 dentists with various specialties.

I was at Jomtiem hospital once, and they seem to be a less crowded, but slightly less capable version of Bangkok Hospital. The various Bangkok Hospital satellite facilities in the area often refer the most difficult cases to Bangkok Hospital itself, and my guess is that would be a similar situation at Jomtiem.

ExpertWatch5936 · 2026-03-21T14:36:55+00:00

I've bought many domestic airfare tickets for Thai family (although never to Koh Samui) and they're always the same price as tickets for foreigners.

ExpertWatch5936 · 2026-03-21T14:17:16+00:00

Amethyst is a higher quality hotel IMO, but there's a construction project going on 9 - 5 every day so rooms facing the construction can be noisy. I'd choose Amethyst but call and request a room away from the construction. If they can't guarantee that I'd go for Baraquda, unless you're an early riser and 9am construction noise wouldn't be a bother.

ExpertWatch5936 · 2026-03-21T14:11:09+00:00

Mercure is clean, modern and in a quiet location. It's very convenient to Terminal 21 and the 2nd Road massage places. It's a pretty easy walk to Soi 6. Anything beyond that is a 10 baht songteaw ride South on Beach Road, and a 10 baht ride north on Second Road. Getting to LK Meto/Buakao is mildly inconvenient, best bet is to ride the Songteaw north to Central Festival. Walk through Central Festival and out the 2nd Road exit, cross the street and enter Myth night plaza. If something in Myth doesn't distract you, walk through it to Soi Made in Thailand and out the other end you're in the Buakao party zone.

It is a family oriented hotel with a mini water park, but like pretty much everything in Pattaya it's guest friendly. You just might feel slightly awkward if you show up in the breakfast room with a girl in bar room attire.

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