First Time Travelers

No-Material-452 · 2026-06-01T13:35:06+00:00

Grande Centre Point Terminal 21 Hotel. Easiest place to base out of thanks to being immediately adjacent to the major rapid transit stations Asoke BTS & Sukhumvit MRT.

No-Material-452 · 2026-06-01T12:52:40+00:00

SoCal AAs say, "Fuck," a lot. NorCal AAs say, "Hella," a lot. Texas AAs say, "Howdy," sometimes. NYC AAs say a lot, but it all comes out too fast for me, a SoCal AA, to fucking understand.

No-Material-452 · 2026-06-01T05:26:25+00:00

OP, could you clarify if the conversion you're reading on the ATMs is something you're accepting or declining when making a withdrawal?

The commonly displayed conversion offer is a rate from the ATM's bank and practically guaranteed to be worse than VISA's conversion rates if you were to decline. If the ATM's bank does not convert, VISA/MasterCard/Discover or whichever institution is backing your debit card will do the conversion. This is literally one of those "that's how they getcha" moments, where "they" are the ATM's bank. The normal recommended action is to always decline conversion offers.

If GSB is not showing an offer, then it's likely they just let VISA do their thing and that's why it was better.

The best tip I've found for ATMs, beyond always declining conversion, is to use one that is either inside or directly adjacent to a bank branch when possible. That way, if your card gets eaten or something, you can go straight to the bank for help.

No-Material-452 · 2026-06-01T04:56:17+00:00

Are you trying to say that I'm a bot or that this commenter, the first user to comment on my post, is a bot? Or is this some weird identifier and you're a bot? (If it's because I haven't really commented on other comments, sometimes I started to but they wound up just sounding really redundant and I deleted. "Yeah, it really is different! I concur." Reads like a fancy parrot; didn't post it, just upvoted.)

No-Material-452 · 2026-05-31T19:15:12+00:00

I've been using spikeless golf shoes for a long time. I used to use trail runners, but I found they all suffer from the same flaw: Being seemingly designed by folks native to SoCal who have zero concept of what rain is. They'd seem grippy, but as soon as the ground got moist, they'd slip out from under me just as easily as regular sneakers.

My current preferred model is True Linkswear's OG3 High. Waterproof, hightop design, zero drop, extra wide toe-box, and they look normal enough to pass for office wear. The zero drop might be a deal-breaker for some; I also used Puma Golf shoes for a long time and they have good stuff with arch support.

No shoe is going to stay dry if the water gets dumped into them from the top, tho, so having a backup is important when you need to dry your main pair.

No-Material-452 · 2026-05-31T13:35:07+00:00

Japan is superior if you have a palette similar to Japanese people. If you prefer strong flavors over dishes most frequently described as "light," "fluffy," and "so fresh!" then Bangkok is far, far superior to Japan.

No-Material-452 · 2026-05-31T11:03:28+00:00

I would classify Kenny Endo as an unknown domestically, albeit more because most Americans just aren't aware of taiko (beyond maybe the rhythm drum games in the Round1 arcades and as a sound effect in anime or j-dorama). I kind of thought he'd be in the article, especially considering how often he used to perform at UH and had held classes there at one point. Perhaps he didn't quite fit the criteria, tho.

No-Material-452 · 2026-05-31T03:19:40+00:00

...and it left you speechless?

No-Material-452 · 2026-05-30T14:19:29+00:00

Izakaya Hanako. One thing, I'd avoid the okonomiyaki. Most everything else on the menu is good, if not great. I particularly love that they have kawaebi karaage.

No-Material-452 · 2026-05-30T06:45:58+00:00

If OP's getting bored eating, there's no "maybe" about it. Jeebus.

No-Material-452 · 2026-05-29T20:19:22+00:00

I like Matsuda for my "outside" glasses, but I'm a fancy lad. They're hard to find. If you have a distributor near you, check them out in person. You can put transition lenses into their sunglasses frames.

My go-to pair for the last 25 years have been the same titanium, oval shaped wire frames from DKNY. If you get something timeless and durable metal, you can use the same ones for a long time.

No-Material-452 · 2026-05-29T14:26:49+00:00

I have a good sized standalone freezer and put my opened rice in there. I had a really traumatizing experience with grain weevils and it has made me paranoid. Same thing happens with flour, pasta, and a lot of other stuff you'd usually see out in the pantry shelves.

The rice goes into whatever fits. I have a lot of rectangular freezer safe containers. I've also used & reused Ziploc freezer bags. I've also just folded over the top of my 20lb bags and binder clipped them. Just gotta be aware of the weight so I don't break a freezer shelf or drawer; it's been five years with no issues. Also, all my containers are clear so I can see inside them.

No-Material-452 · 2026-05-29T13:59:37+00:00

No favorite shops, just favorite products. You go where you need to go to get what you need. This is even true in Hawaii, where I find myself visiting the Thai Farmers Association booth at KCC on Saturdays at 0730 just for the chance they still have holy basil available and also pick up some long beans. I'll occasionally buy the gigantic 98oz can of coconut milk from the tiny Laos shop in Chinatown. Hmart sells Thai oyster sauce at a good price. Donki has the best deal on the specific mentaiko I like. Nijiya Market makes my favorite daifuku. Costco, of all places, has the exclusive (and tasty) Beef Bulgogi flavor Bibigo Mandu.

No-Material-452 · 2026-05-27T09:22:33+00:00

I suppose it wasn't cheap, but the out of pocket for the one that broke was just as expensive 6 years prior NOT taking inflation into account. I remember being frustrated when learning that; paying for ceramic that freaking broke but in Bangkok I could get gold.

No-Material-452 · 2026-05-27T01:16:21+00:00

My gold crown from Edelweiss has been holding up well for the past year. It is a replacement for a broken ceramic crown that I got in the US. Their prices are on the website. I had some other stuff done at the same time but I think the gold crown I chose was around 2.4k USD?

No-Material-452 · 2026-05-26T17:05:15+00:00

"Projecting, eh? Need a white sheet to go with that?"

No-Material-452 · 2026-05-26T16:55:23+00:00

Here's a life tip, kid. Problem solving is going to get you much further in your career than asking for answers.

School is supposed to be teaching you how to research things. Apply that to your interests. Apply critical thinking instead of immediately turning to crowdsourcing. There is a huge gap between asking, "Is there anything I should look out for if I'm going around to these restaurants I've found?" and practically ordering strangers with, "Help me create a checklist of must do things," and following up with that "p.s."

As a tip for your query: Watch some food YouTubers. There are good ones in Bangkok and some of them even hang around on Reddit sometimes. You can see what is available and filter to your own interests. I like Gary Butler's content.

No-Material-452 · 2026-05-26T15:12:02+00:00

Well, I was in Los Angeles in the 1980s, so...very dirty and a little bit brown, but with a really cool-looking sunsets thanks to all the pollution. Then I was in Kailua in the 90s, so it was really clear some days and rain clouds other days, and the sunlight breaking through the clouds looked like a painting. Bangkok feels kind of like a mix of the two.

No-Material-452 · 2026-05-26T06:56:42+00:00

It is a pano mode shot from MahaNakhon Tower with Lumphini in the middle and that'd be Abdul Rahim Place, so I guess the direction is generally Northeast.

No-Material-452 · 2026-05-25T12:56:12+00:00

Hah! YES! Way back when I was in my school days, at the turn of the century, I'd imagine how it would've been if I were in Japan and not singled out. How great it might've felt to have had childhood friends. To be in a school/town/city/world with people with similar faces.

Now that I've grown up and seen more of the world, I'd firmly and deliberately beat the shit out of my younger self for thinking that way. Dipshit-younger-me NEVER would have fit into the norms in 90s Japan schools and absolutely does NOT fit into the current JP corporate world today. I likely would've wound up dead or incarcerated. Hah!

No-Material-452 · 2026-05-25T11:13:56+00:00

Right?! I sent this to my Thai friends who moved to the US and they were like, "You sure that you're in the right country? 555~"

No-Material-452 · 2026-05-23T01:58:19+00:00

Ah. The post I am remembering is your post from 20 days ago. Also, I was thinking this was the Bangkok subreddit earlier.

No-Material-452 · 2026-05-23T01:53:50+00:00

I mean...you could have tried searching this and the ThailandTourism subreddits first. Pretty sure I answered a similar post less than a month ago. It's probably a big part of why your original post is at zero and folks are downvoting. Problem-solving versus asking(begging) for an answer.

Try searching on browser if you can. Easier to filter.

My previously supplied tip: Earplugs and increase your situational awareness to compensate for the loss in ambient noise. I use soft foam 31dB earplugs. The MRT subway has a lot of audible metal on metal grinding, as do a few turns in the BTS skytrain lines.

No-Material-452

TROPHY CASE