I have been lurking on this thread since its inception, As a very frequent visitor ( 3 to 4 months a year for 8 years ) to Pattaya, a few comments on what has been posted already #1 internet conections , It is never going to be as fast as US maybe 1300 kps with 320ms ping . that is with ADSL at hotel room 1000baht a month ,I have never tried the wi-fi . With tradestation expect some lag in times of heavy volume .IB seems to work better because of the snapshot quotes , but also I have had nights where it has slowed to a crawl and went off altogether , I have a friend who lives here and posts on elite, who lives in a private house . He has used combinations of every provider available within reasonable price and comparing speed tests it is about the same as I get at the hotel, except he has a backup line . You just need to put hard stops in the market and park bids and offers to get filled because of the lag . #2 Accomodation 500 sq ft room about $550 a month including water and electric and close to everything . You could rent a condo for the same or less , but the bulk of them are in Jomtein about 3 miles from the main night life but prob would not have ADSL , more and more hotels have it in house now . # 3 As for the comments about dentists , I had 17 teeth crowned about 5 years ago for $5k , so did a buddy . even worked on a Sunday when the stuff was late back from the dental lab and was leaving on the Monday. Bangkok Pattaya hospital is a smaller version of Bumrungrad in Bangkok . Go look them up on youtube, state of the art at a fraction of US prices ( check out their complete checkup packages with results on the same day) # 3 The nightlife I have to agree with retaildaytrader s reply to clubber lang and the getting older issue , I am 49 divorced with 2 grown up kids and live in Seattle if you want to go clubbing and try to pick up younger women women good luck .unless you are flashing a big wad of cash drive fancy car etc , either that or some 40 somthing divorcee with tons of emotional baggage and is looking for a sponsor . I dont go to the gogo bars as often as I used to . There are plenty of younger hotties in them , but they are way more money driven, just trying to maximise their earnings potential before their looks fade , Beach road is the other end of the spectrum .lot of ones well past their sell by date . But up on Soi 7 and 8 . there are about 100 beer bars with plenty of good looking women in them . # 4 with regards to the social issues , not all of these girls are illiterate farmers . I have had ones who knew their way around an excell prgram , a lens inspector at Thai N**** factory , QC at big Japanese paint factory , all walks of life . 90 % of them are here of their own free will because they can make a lot more money and have their own hours than stuck in a dreary factory job . added to that if they can hit the jackpot and eventually land a farang husband ,they may as well get paid whilst doing it . Once you having been coming here for a while you build up a whole revolving list of numbers ,you can call of previous ones Prostitution in Thailand is , and always has been a grey clouded issue , After you stop getting wound up in all the Christian morality issiues and just regard it as renting a girlfriend for the night and probably one you have known before ,you are over the hump so to speak as retaildaytrader said the money changes hands either way it just here you get a gaurentee LOL , .The biggest problem for a trader here is having the self disipline to stay at the keybord till 4 AM knowing that all the fun is 10 min walk away or you have 6 text messages from girls trying to get a hold of you PS RETAILDAYTRADER check your PMs if you wanna hook up
