VISA INFORMATION AND MOVIE REVIEWS

NARRATIVE

There are good points and bad points about getting things from the expats that hang out in any given area. The good things include insider information, common language, depth of knowledge. The bad things include machine gun delivery style and differences of opinion leading to contradictory information.

One of the things I learned from the expats is that the reason people often seek to join the police force is to make money through extortion or blackmail. If you call them out, it will cost you. In this country, it is 'guilty till proven can bribe well'. On the upside, if you have a lot of money and influential contacts, you can do as you please.

I've been taught that Pattaya has many pros and cons. This description may also be broadly applied to many who work with the tourist population as well.


Some of the other things I've learned from the expats include:

In Cambodia, Allen Dillon cigarettes are actually 'Galouise Blondes'.

If you need any information about visas, go to Soy 6 (the 'short timers' street, and within the Queen Victoria Pub/restaurant is a lady named 'Pa'. She knows a lot about these things. I did indeed go to see her and she told me some information I have put in the section labeled 'visas' below.

To find out more about Pattaya, go to the websites Pattaya Secrets and Pattaya Addicts. Although these websites look fine, I am thinking that my leisure activities at this time mostly involve watching movies. I am pretty sure I will be sick of Pattaya by the 26th when I no longer have a place to stay and will start hopping around the country to see more of it before my visa expires.

Hands down, the best Thai food is at the Lenke Restaurant. [I've no idea where that is but I will eventually find out.]

Thailand would be Disneyland is Minnie Mouse offered blow jobs for cash.

What I learned from a combination of the expat community and Pa is that living in a major city (the capital) of Cambodia (or even one of their beach resort places) is even cheaper than living here in Thailand and getting a long term visa is pretty easy.

Some other city named Pukette is even more expensive than Pattaya.



VISA INFORMATION (read this - really)

If you are coming to Thailand, you want a double entry visa. Really. Fight for it if you might want to stay longer than the normal time. If you have a multiple entry visa, you can do the 'visa run' for a sixty day extension as opposed to the thirty day extension. Or something like that. Multiple entry better - get it. When I go to Cambodia if I am going to get a visa to come back to Thailand then I will be applying for a 'double entry tourist visa'. Actually, that sounds vaguely dirty as well. According to the internet, the reason for this is you can only extend a single entry once, a double entry twice.

Thailand - visa extension for 30 days costs 1900 BHT ($63) or if you want Pa to do it (see above) it is 2600 BHT ($86).

Cambodia is one of the easiest countries for a long stay visa. A one year visa is 10,000 BHT ($333) - you just go to immigration to get it. Now, getting into Cambodia is a bit shaky. Apparently, the cost for the 'hi welcome to Cambodia' visa is suppose to be $20 but the guards tack on their bribe - which can be whatever they want. And they apparently do like it in USD. Hence, when I go there, I am going to take a $20 and two $10's in different pockets (if I remember to) so that I can give the bribe and (if that doesn't work) a bigger bribe. Or end up negotiating if I have to. Best not to severely irritate the nice man with the automatic weapon though. After you get into the country past the corrupt border guards you go to the capital city to immigration and pay them money for the extended version. For me, the 30 day one will tell me 'do I want to stay here for any length of time?' If I can stand it, a year in the capital (or wandering around the country) might be just the thing for building up my still depleted finances.

Laos has short (30 day) visas only for 1700 BHT.

Although it use to be free, apparently the US government is starting its own shake down if you want extra pages in your passport. This formerly free service is now $82 and something I will need to stop by a US embassy (probably in Bangkok) to do soon.



THAI CUSTOMS

Swearing is more offensive in the Thai culture than in most.



YOUTUBE STRANGENESS

Thanks to Tonto for this. [Logan's note: No, I don't think it's real because the AK47 has kickback. The little chimp has a small body mass. Plus, the noise and such would have freaked it the fuck out. But it is entertaining to watch.]

And, for those who love the movie "The Princess Bride", check out this gem.



MOVIE REVIEWS

"Hanna". For some reason, this is movie number 82 on IMDB. I guess we're a bit desperate for good entertainment. Well, that would explain why so many people read the blog, I suppose. Anyway, unlike IMDB who gives this movie a 7/10, I'm giving it a 5/10. Although there were some good action scenes, a lot of it just dragged and dragged. The action scenes weren't quite worth all of the dragging. Also, there are a lot of strange inconsistencies in the movie. The bad guy having way too much rein from the agency, the father apparently swimming his way quickly from the article circle to Germany, etc. I understand that they did this all to keep us from having to sit through the tedious bits but it felt like there were still way too many left. I did have some flashbacks of River Tam on the fighting but this character wasn't as interesting. Combined with the little girl from "Kick Ass" (and God knows how many other movies with this theme in I've missed), I am beginning to wonder what is up with all of the young women warriors out there? I'm thinking it's in movies because the actuality of it does not exist or is such an anomaly that it pretty much doesn't exist.

It does feel as though they left the door open for a sequel but I'm not really sure where they would take it and the actress in the lead role seems to have a lot of other projects going on. If this was just the introduction to something that will get better, that would be nice. Otherwise, you'll flush 90 minutes to see 5 minutes of decent action.


"Your Highness". This is another of the 'we talk in American English' and try to make it a modern film. I'm a bit surprised that Jack Black wasn't drafted into this as he is often stuck in shitty movies like this. 3/10 - I couldn't get past much of it, even though I am glad that Zooey is still getting work. I just hope she gets better work in the future.


"The Adjustment Bureau". I do like Matt Damon in movies. I wish he was i more that I liked. Anyway, in this movie, the bad guys reminded me a bit of the ones from 'Dark City'. Probably as a result of the hats. During the 1930's, they paid people to go out and walk around in hats. Watch any old news reel and you'll get to see that. Since then, those sort of hats have fallen out of fashion. Probably because they are a pain in the ass and require things like 'hat boxes' and that doesn't fit in with our busy life styles. You know, if I could do foot notes in this blog, all of that kind of rambling shit would be in them. On the movie itself, interesting premise. There are parts of this movie that do stretch the credulity level. I can accept that there is a shadowy network that goes around adjusting reality. I can accept they can go through various doors and end up in places that have nothing to do with the room that would normally lie beyond. What I can't believe is when the main female role told the hero that - although she hadn't seen him in three years that this well adjusted, funny, adventurous and attractive lady was still single. That got a 'no way!' from me. Also as an interesting bit of trivia, although Emily Blunt played the lead female role, she isn't listed on the first page of IMDB's cast for the movie. You have to go into 'list the guy who got the coffee' list of cast. Someone really hates her ass. It had some pretty dull parts and made me bored. I managed to get to a predictable ending so it gets one more star than the 'I turned this shit off part way through' movies. 4/10.


Where the Buffalo Roam. Gosh, you can tell what I'm spending a lot of my time in Thailand doing, can't you. No, it's not drugs and hookers. If you've seen "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, you've already seen better insanity. He does a better job of trashing the hotel room, it doesn't look like Bill Murray in a Hunter costume, the lawyer looks more criminally insane, etc. The special effects are better even. I couldn't make it through 'Where the Buffalo Roam'. 3/10.



PRICES

The usual cost for a shirt to get done is 10 BHT. I negotiated it down to big items for 5 BHT, small for 3 BHT. Rather than try to keep track of what is big and what is small, we agreed to set the price for each piece at 4 BHT. Since I am huge compared to the laundry lady, I figure this is a good price for me as all of my laundry will look big. So, I paid 400 BHT for 100 pieces. [Note, I don't have that much laundry - I turn it in for cleaning as needed. It is about 5 cycles of laundry, more than I'll probably be here for so she'll make some extra.]

Mini golf, per person, 150 BHT. [Not a popular activity in Pattaya as we had the course to ourselves. Literally.]

Shitty rum, 275 BHT, but it does have alcohol.

DVD movie, 100 BHT. [From some people, you can get two movies per DVD still at 100 BHT total but most of the time it is one. These are for people that have never heard of downloads.]

Guava juice, 20 BHT

Decent Thai meal at a 'locals' place, 35-55 BHT.

Decent (not great) Mexican food, with beer, 315 BHT. Clearly, my 'big meal' for the day. And tomorrow. I do miss me some Mexican food but the stuff in the US (well, the good stuff there) absolutely blows away anything overseas. Clearly, Mexicans need to fill up other parts of the world so I can get some Mexican food whenever I want it.



MOVIES

Logan's place!