Updates to the Thailand Guru Website

Starting on January 1, 2007, new pages and major rewrites of old pages will be logged here, but not most minor additions nor minor editings. One reason for this is so longtime readers can see what's new without needing to read what they've read already. However, if an update is noted in the Commentary or News sections, then it will not be noted here. For updates by email, so you don't need to check this page periodically, but just request here.

New system for updates under development in March 2011.

October 3, 2010

I have moved Thailand Guru to a new server. If you experience any anomalies, please report them.

The entire website has been converted to a new content management system (CMS). It looks pretty much the same to visitors, but behind the scenes it is maintained by a whole new software system.

Along the way, I have reviewed most of the website, made countless small edits, a smattering of major edits, and rewrote several long pages almost entirely. Some of the material was written in back in the 1990s and shortly after 2000. While most of the website is fairly up to date, there are still a few sections which I have put on my list to update soon.

I will soon have a new system to list updates here -- which pages are new, and what content has been added to existing pages. The new CMS has a provision for that, but it still needs tweaking. I've neglected to list these updates over the past two years, though there are many such updates (such as the new airport skytrain page which I added a month ago). I will soon start to resume listing updates.

I have a list of updates to make during the month of October, so do check back in from time to time.

October 1, 2010

You can expect a lot more updates in the future, as I have finally completed the conversion of Thailand Guru to a new program which makes maintenance of the site a lot less laborious.

I've finally converted Thailand Guru to a Content Management System (CMS) -- completely. I had almost accomplished that is November 2007 but there were still a lot of technical glitches as well as problems getting all the old content organized and into the system.

January 2009

Significant updates on the page on visas. I have verified with many people over time that you can now get back-to-back tourist visas or else get border run visa-on-arrival stamps indefinitely. The old "90 out of 180 days rule" which went into effect shortly after the military coup is no longer enforced, starting sometime in 2008, but I wanted to get more and more feedback before announcing what I've heard. (It doesn't apply to me, so I depend on feedback from website visitors and associates.) Also, many people are truly staying longtime on "education" visas by just taking Thai language classes! See the above link for details.

December 2008

Updates were mainly about the political situation, especially around the airport seizure in late November and early December, and then the change in government. See the News section for that.

Besides that, mainly just minor updates and small changes on many existing pages.

November 2008

Major update of the page on shopping centers and superstores
Major update of the page on health insurance
Minor updates of many pages.
With the economic slowdown, I seem to have more time now, so feel free to ask me questions!

October 2008

Fixed the forums. They now work, and this fix should be permanent.

Starting in February, our forums started getting overrun with spam postings by automated computers (just like Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo started getting problems with spammer automated registrations, since the spammer software could read their captcha box graphics). Our software vendor was unable to defeat the spammers, and some of our own fixes simply broke the forums. We would get over 100 spammer registrations per day.

Eventually, I suspended the forums until I could implement an anti-spammer measure.

June-September 2008

Had a lot of changes in my businesses and moved offices. All I did on the website was post news and commentary as it happened, and minor updates and corrections, based mainly on user feedback.

June 2008

Taxi fares changed, so I updated the page on Thailand taxis and took the opportunity to edit it significantly. I've made minor edits to a lot of pages, but this topic was in the news.

May 2008

Due to visitor feedback, updated the page on HIV and AIDS in Thailand a little bit, but because this page is so important, I do want to point it out here. Also updated the page on Other Ailments, Tips, and Bites

Forums are still broken, but as of May it was concluded there was no fix in sight (until October, see above). Spam fixes didn't work, and we were left with no feasible solution until the software vendor provides a fix. All old posts are kept, but no new posts were allowed except in News by me.

April 2008

I've had to disable posting in the forums from time to time because we have been targeted by spammers, especially in March and April. I continue to post News myself in March and April into the News forum, but public posting has been disabled most of the time until we have implemented a solution to this problem.

New English language daily newspaper - Daily Xpress - free

March 2008

The Nation was split into two newspapers, the tabloid Daily Xpress given out for free, and the classic but much thinner The Nation still at 25 baht. The Nation now covers business and politics, and the Daily Xpress most everything else, especially trendy stuff. The Daily Xpress is stuffed inside The Nation for free, so the bundle is just as thick, but it's a whole different format, and can also be found separately for free (advertiser supported). Thus, I updated the page on Thailand newspapers to include the Daily Xpress, and to further discuss the currently evolving newspapers landscape in Thailand.

There were announcements all over town, such as this huge billboard on Lad Prao Rd.:

Foreign Language Schools for Foreigners

February 2008

Want to learn the Thai language in a class room? I've added a list of schools and branch locations, for foreigners to learn Thai, totalling 44 locations as of this time. The list starts about halfway down the page.

Public Holidays for 2008

January 2008

Updated the page listing Thailand national public holidays for 2008.

Overhauled the list of Hospitals in Bangkok and Thailand.

Meeting Mainstream Thai Ladies

January 6, 2008

I normally wouldn't note a minor edit like this, but due to a lot of inquiries about meeting mainstream ladies from guys in Thailand only a short time, and feedback on internet dating, I have edited the Thailand Guru page on meeting maintream Thai ladies to clarify a couple of recommendations for this subset of guys:

It's difficult for a tourist to meet a mainstream lady while on a short trip to Thailand. It's much better to live here a long time, whereby the ladies see the guy as here long enough to get to know first, less risk of the usual problems of long distance relationships, and you get a better selection over time.

As this is not an option for so many guys, I get a lot of inquiries for advice.

Internet dating is one obvious option, whereby you can meet them well in advance of your arrival and develop the relationship over that time. However, ladies with a photo and profile on-line usually have a lot of guys hitting up on them ... need I say more? Also, you just don't know about personality compatibility until you meet them in person, so should you put all your hopes into one lady?

For those who choose to try internet dating, I advise you to put up your own profile and wait for Thai ladies to go to the effort to contact you. Many mainstream Thai ladies don't want to put their photo up on an internet dating site. Ask for their profile, and if they don't have one or are shy to put up their photo or personal information, then that's usually a good sign. However, do be aware that there are scammers who reach out to contact foreigners this way, and if you get serious about a lady then you may want to verify her background and current status.

An alternative is to meet mainstream ladies is in a commercial environment, such as sales and service ladies. It's their job to talk with customers, but with a smile and genuine interest you can meet many of these ladies in one day. Only a small fraction may be available (no husband or boyfriend)and interested, but in a good long day at shopping malls and markets, you may be able to come up with a few prospects. However, many sales ladies "use" guys just to make sales, so you must be careful, and at some point you could ask if they have a husband or boyfriend. If you can get their mobile number, then send an SMS or two. If they don't reply, then cross them off your list. However, while it's a good sign that a lady has a real job requiring real effort rather than making money on her back, do be aware that some sales ladies use their job to meet multiple men, and of course pretty ones will normally have multiple guys in pursuit.

For the full monty, see the Thailand Guru page on meeting maintream Thai ladies.

Thailand Election Update

December 10, 2007

Many updates to the pages on Thailand politics and election projections, especially on the Commentary page.

Fixed a page formatting problem in some versions of Internet Explorer which caused the floating menu to overlap the page.

The newest version of Kaspersky antivirus has a new parental control feature which by default is extremely sensitive, blocking many normal non-adult websites, including Thailand Guru. Kaspersky users must go into the default settings and either turn off Parental Control, or else raise the settings, or else add thailandguru.com to its exceptions page. This is what has been reported to me by multiple people. (It's probably due to the Thai Girlfriends subsection. I did some quick research, and it appears that Kaspersky reads every web page and looks for any keywords on it, maybe in the links, too.)

ssBKK.com and Thailand Guru Forums

December 1, 2007 (pre-announcement)

From June thru October, we entirely reprogrammed and are launching a new website, www.ssBKK.com , on places to go and things to do in the greater Bangkok metropolitan region, but with emphasis on places near the skytrain and subway stations. ssBKK = BKK, the popular abbreviation (and airport code) for Bangkok, and the ss in ssBKK.com can be remembered for "Skytrain Stations, Subway Stations, Sukhumvit Sois, Sathorn-Silom region, Siam Square, and the Suburban Side of Bangkok". This site has only a couple hundred places on it, and we could use your inputs.

ssBKK is a sister website to our well developed home search website, www.kkBkk.com (Knock Knock Bangkok). We plan to announce it on December 1. If you want to submit your business or other place for consideration into ssBKK before then, just drop us an email.

We also have a December 1 scheduled announcement of our new web board forums on Bangkok and Thailand (now taken down, see comments elsewhere on spambots) for Thailand Guru and ssBKK combined. Before December 1, don't hesitate to jump in and use the forums. There just isn't much in them yet. You can ask questions, answer others' questions, and discuss topics in the forums. Questions that other users don't answer will usually be answered by my staff.

We have started a daily News section, which is selected news articles in Thailand of popular interest to foreigners, and I will add some of my own news commentary into that section. We've had a few articles per day entered since November 3. The old news section will be absorbed into the website in other places over the next month.

Bangkok Houses, Condominiums and Apartments
in Central Region and CBD

November 23, 2007

I have overhauled this subsection on the Central region and the Central Business District (CBD). I threw out the multiple subsections which previously existed, and put all the information on one page, condensed. For more information on a particular living region of interest, there are links to the corresponding sections of www.ssBKK.com

A few of the ssBKK sections already exist, but it will take me another week or so to finish putting together the other sections. Target date for completion is December 1 (like other parts of this website). I and my staff have been working mainly on ssBKK.com these past several months ...

Thailand Guru Website Overhaul

November 11, 2007

You don't see many changes in the appearance of Thailand Guru, but behind the scenes I've been working with my programmer on a major overhaul, including a custom programmed new Content Management System (CMS), from June to November. Thailand Guru was mostly created in 1999 and had been manually edited ever since. It simply grew too big to manage, and I was already way past the point where it needed complete reorganization and a lot of added automation, as every addition had been a major chore. Now it's quick and easy.

Expect Thailand Guru to grow quickly from now on.

In November, I have also hired new staff to help me with research and updates of this website. You will see major additions and updates of text content in November and December. Part of this will be led by Khun Pakapat (nickname "Aoi" or "Pretty") who has a Master's degree in Communications Arts from Chulalongkorn University.

I have pushed aside other projects (thanks to very good management staff taking them over) and am now focussed 80% on Thailand Guru and ssBKK.

Thailand Guru started as a social hobby, not a business. I developed some other businesses to support my existence in Thailand, and my staff work primarioy on these other business. Just a few of us work on Thailand Guru. It was essentially only me on Thailand Guru until now. Thailand Guru has become somewhat of a fun social adjunct to our business, and most all good natured comments and inquiries are welcome!

TV - Satellite and Cable

July 11, 2007

Almost completely rewrote the TV, Satellite and Cable page. The old cable company UBC (United Broadcasting Corp.) was bought up by the giant conglomerate True Corporation (a division of CP, the brand of much of the food in the grocery store) which is also one of the two phone providers in Bangkok ... and the Cable and Satellite TV division is now called True Visions. Their new website and also their separate IP TV (internet TV) are introduced and discussed on this page.

(I've made many page updates over the months, but none so significant as to point out.)

Clubs, Meetings

March 15, 2007

Updated the Clubs and Meetings page. I hope this relieves some of the loneliness that some expats and especially their spouses feel when they first come to Thailand. I encounter this quite often first-hand, as well as hearing about it thru the grapevine. The Clubs and Meetings page was one of the worst for dead links (due to transient expat leaders?). Even the Rotary Club nationwide guides just disappeared, www.rotary.or.th , www.ThaiRotary.org , and www.rcth.org , as did the chapter I attended. But some new groups and quasi-institutions have sprouted websites!

Spring House Cleaning

February, 2007

Much of February was spent cleaning up this website, especially deleting a lot of dead links. I continue to be astounded at how many major websites die, just disappearing from the web altogether. During review and cleanup, I made a lot of minor additions and changes to particular pages wherever I saw fit, but it's not worth singling out any particular page here.

Internet WiFi Hotspots

January 27, 2007

Added a section on internet WiFi hotspots, particularly as regards signing up for WiFi using your True or TOT account for your home or office. (I did both, True at home and TOT at the office).

Household Tips

January 7, 2007

In the "Miscellaneous Tips" and the "Housing" sections, I added Household tips:

Air conditioning, insulation
Drain blockage, unstopping, sewage

What's Hot:

Terrorism: Your Risk in Bangkok and Thailand

New Year 2007 Review of Thailand

Commentary: Military coup -- economic and sociopolitical outlook

2006 and 2007 in Thailand

December 29:

I added a New Year link to the home page with a brief review of the most significant changes in Thailand in 2006 as well as in our company.

AIDS / HIV in Thailand

December 23:

Thanks to an inquiry from a gentleman stressed out over his chances of getting AIDS, I have updated the AIDS / HIV page. It was current as of a couple of years ago, and now it's more developed. I get this inquiry quite often!

The gentleman was stressed out because he had sex with a prostitute without a condom one night when drunk, found my page specific to on HIV / AIDS in Thailand, particularly the subtype E strain which researchers have deduced is much more contagious than other strains such as subtype B found in the western world, as regards heterosexual transmission, and an email discussion ensued over the next two weeks. (He also wanted me to try to find the lady and get her to take an HIV test, even though it's moot now.)

I'm a scientist by background (actually, a physicist, not a physician) and who has performed research, presented technical papers at professional conferences, and published in peer-reviewed publications in the distant past, so I'm better able than most of my readers to both analyze a scientific issue and critique hypotheses of other established scientists by a fairly objective scientific viewpoint. It's important to review all sides to an issue... In fact, I have corresponded with various scientists in the field about HIV, some of whom contacted me after reading my page on HIV subtype E in order to update me for my public dessimination.

You should read this website's section on HIV to really understand this update, but to summarize the issue at hand in one paragraph: There are many different strains of HIV, most of them tending to be regional, with subtype E being prevalent in Thailand where the mutation apparently originated, but still relatively rare in other parts of the world. There is a lot of evidence to show that subtype E is transmitted heterosexually much more easily than subtype B which is predominant in the west.

What I find interesting is the more contagious subtypes found in Thailand and Africa don't seem to be spreading around the world as quickly as I would expect from travellers. Therefore, I wonder if there is more than one factor here.

Contrary to popular belief among many laymen, subtype E does NOT require blood-to-blood contact to transmit itself. Based on research studies, scientists have found that subtype E attacks the Langerhans cells (LC) at the skin surface, particularly those located in the penis foreskin and on the surfaces of oral and genital mucosa, with HIV subtype E infecting and reproducing itself multiple times more quickly than other strains of HIV. Subtype B prevalent in the US and Europe doesn't seem to have ever had (or possibly lost) the same viral sequences as subtype E for transmission this way.

However, this may not entirely account for increased spread of subtype E in Thailand and the lack of spread of subtype E outside of Thailand.

In Africa, there are widespread trends for ladies to dry their vagina before intercourse in order to create more friction for the man and presumably pleasure, rather than a well lubricated vagina. In fact, the ladies often insert powders and herbs and other things. These things can cause irritation and even bleeding, which could account for the increased transmission in Africa, not the particular strain of HIV.

Is there some custom in Thailand which could serve a similar role? I think maybe so, for reasons similar to those in Africa. ("Same-same but different" as is joked here.)

HIV seems to be transmitted mainly thru the prostitution community, not the mainstream Thai community nearly as much, even though many young Thais are promiscuous in their multiple romantic and casual relationships. What do prostitutes do which is different from mainstream Thai ladies? Talk to any guy who goes with prostitutes, whether they are picking up the lady from a bar, going to a massage place, or just a knocking shop. It's all the same -- the lady takes a shower and cleans herself first, and requires the man to do likewise. Unfortunately, this removes natural lubrication.

Of course, prostitutes having mercenary sex are generally not as naturally lubricated as a girlfriend with sincere sexual or emotional attraction to you. However, the cleaning just exacerbates this.

Never, not once, have I ever been with a mainstream Thai lady who stopped the action to go take a shower first, or require that I do so. Same thing with foreign ladies. I don't want to brag here, but for the sake of research and statistics, I've had sex with many foreign ladies and many mainstream Thai ladies, and none -- not one -- ever stopped to take a shower first or required me to do the same. I've rarely had any significant lubrication issues in these encounters.

I've also never had a broken condom, but I've heard of many, many cases of broken condoms in Thailand. I have spoken with these guys, including brand of condom, and one of the clear answers is that there wasn't enough lubrication for complete penetration before the condom broke. If there wasn't enough lubrication on the condom, then imagine penetration without a condom with the same lady and circumstances! That must be creating irritation, not only in the lady's vagina which makes her more susceptible to infection (and whereby she passes it on), but also to the man by pulling the sides of the front end of the penis so that its inner urethra & mucous membrane are not only exposed but seriously contacted in a way which just doesn't happen with well lubricated sex. That exposes any HIV viruses to the LC targets in the man.

Therefore, pack both condoms and a water based lubricant. Durex sells the lubricant all over Bangkok. There's also K-Y jel available at pharmacies and department stores all over, and it's water based.

Another thing I've found out from talking with guys is that a lot of them who don't like to use condoms (and try not to) will take an antibiotic prior to visiting prostitutes and immediately after, in order to prevent infection by gonorrhea, chlamydia, and other things -- the same broad spectrum antibiotic that is given to cure these diseases, with the theory being that just a little bit will prevent infection by a small number of bacteria, rather than curing a full blown infection several days later. They take these antibiotics shortly before and immediately after sex, but don't need to take them for long, and apparently that works from their reports.

Besides the unrelated issue of developing antibiotic resistant strains due to not completing an antibiotic regimen, I also wonder if attempts to decrease bacterial infection may increase HIV infection.

In the West, heterosexual HIV transmission tends to occur much more frequently when another sexually transmitted disease (STD) is present. This infection could result in more LC's being available as part of the body's natural defense against the bacterial STD.

If someone takes antibiotics, they artificially raise the number of infection-fighting T-Cells. This creates more targets for the HIV virus to find in the same places that other STDs come in. Does this cause a significant increase in one's chances of contracting HIV somehow? I don't know, and I've never seen this "prophylactic antibiotic usage" issue researched.

Maybe I'm wrong about all of this, but I've never seen these two issues really analyzed and addressed. If I'm right, then a few lives could be saved here. I welcome comments and critiques.

Anyway, these are the two issue updates to the Thailand Guru page on HIV / AIDS in Thailand prostitutes.

Thailand Guru Website Updates

December 22

The Thailand Guru website will resume its News and Commentary sections. These were interrupted in June 2006. In October 2005, a new programmer had moved new commentary to a fancy database format (linked to a forum database). In mid-2006, he left to work for another company, and I switched the format back to editing my plain old HTML files, but I was unable to recover the commentary from his database. The fault is mine. In any case, as of this time, all I have is the commentary from before October 2005. (The forum also went down...)

I set up a simple system again on December 22 in preparation for resuming the News and Commentary sections starting January 1, 2007 ... and am going ahead and posting some News and Commentary articles before then.

This section on website updates is a new section which did not exist before.

This section is about website updates. I have two separate pages for

• News You Can Use, and
• Commentary (personal)

Most items noted in one of the three pages is not noted on the other two.

 > sitemap > Updates history

Additional, children pages of this current parent page:

Updates history :

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