G'Day all at Teakdoor

[Philby]

Thought it was time I did an Intro, I've been lurking and reading here for some time and after following AO's house building saga and having a bit of a look around I have decided to get involved a bit more.
I've been a long term traveller in LOS for about 25 years, managed to stay out of the way of many of the pitfalls, more good luck than good management,was married to a Thai woman some 20 years ago and that is a story in itself , but not one I will be putting up here for reasons I'm sure many of you will appreciate!
Just an aside, I was down at the Thai Food Festival at Darling Harbour here in Sydney the other day and met a few of the guys from Thai Visa who had managed to hook up for a meet and greet sort of thing, I was surprised by some of the opinions they expressed about Teakdoor and concluded that by and large they comprised of disgruntled net denizens who for a variety of reasons had been kicked, barred, booted or just ignored from Thai Forums for some time, boring resentfull crew mostly but it was good to get an idea of what I might come up against from time to time .
Anyways, Just to fill in a few of the gaps, I'm 57 y/o, currently single and planning to stay that way, have 1 son who has flown the coop, work in Central Sydney, have just returned from Vietnam after my first trip there and must say I loved it, went trekking in the Sapa Valley, visited Cat Ba Markets, hung out with a mate in Saigon for a week and was given a guided tour on the back of a scooter that really raised my blood pressure, basically loved every minute of it and will be back for an extended visit some time early next year. Hanoi was the highlight for me, I have another mate who is in business there and has been a resident for many years and he and his wife were very gracious and generous hosts who introduced me to Hanoi in a wonderfull way by letting me into thier lives in Hanoi for a couple of weeks.
For now, thats it Keep up the good work Teakdoor, I do enjoy some of the oldtimers posts and will no doubt work out how to post apprpriately in time, in the meantime forgive any blunders I may make and Chok Dee to all Cya!

[Spin]

Hello Philby and Welcome though our teak doors.
Great first post, feel free to start a thread about your trip to Vietnam.

[Philby]

Might just do that when I have some time, it really was a refreshing experience, I did spend a few days in Bkk whilst on my way to HCM and was not at all as excited to be there as I used to be, must have something to do with breaking the 50 barrier I suspect but its also got a lot to do with my feeling that Thailand has changed to, cant say I think its for the better!
Seems to be a good deal more attitude towards farang these days and its not restricted to Sukhumwit, I got mighty pissed of at Suwanapoom when all those grubs from the Limo service rushed me on arrival trying to charge some ludicrous amount to get to Thong Lor, I pushed em out of the way and ended up getting a metered taxi right to my front door for less than THB200, tipped him 100 for being decent polite and knowledgable, made his day!

[Ice Maiden]

Hello there welcome.

I like your avatar by the way.

[Philby]

Thanks for the welcome Ice Maiden and the avatar does not signify that I am a geek, I'm in denial about the amount of time I spend on the net

[pasko]

Hello Philby, just for the record...I am not disgruntled.

[hillbilly]

... I do enjoy some of the oldtimers posts and will no doubt work out how to post apprpriately in time...

When you do let me know! I haven't figured that part out yet.

Pull up a chair and enjoy the TeakDoor experience.

[meepho]

welcome philby
i'm pretty new here myself and it is a lively board, you'll enjoy it.

[walkingwarrior]

good day! how are things going in your life?

[Begbie]

You're not posting a lot Philby. You need to jump in with both feet.

[MeMock]

^
how can he? Take a look at his avator!

[JoGeAr]

G'day, Philby from another Aussie. I'm currently in Brisbane and will be heading back to LOS in May next year. After 16 years in Thailand I needed a bit of a reality check. We're heading off for a drive up the Queensland coast tomorrow. We're doing Bundaberg, Rockhampton, Airlie Beach and the Whitsunday Islands, Bowen, Home Hill (my home town), Ayr, Townsville, and Magnetic Island and then all the way back to Brisbane again. Going to take around four weeks and should be fun.

[Umbuku]

G'day mate.

Welcome to the forum, board, web watchamacallit thingy.