I found it hard to get any sort of good rice anywhere in China. Usually I found that upmarket Guangdong eateries had the best rice, and also jiaozi, which is surprising.

Hong Kong has by far the best Chinese restaurants anywhere in Asia. It's a no brainer!

ou can always get great Thai cuisine in the upmarket hotels in Bangkok and Chiang Mai. My ex-wife used to cook Thai food all the time, I really liked it. Home cooking is almost always better than eating out, but when it comes to Western cuisine I'd prefer to eat out all the time.

Several foreigners in Pattaya have told me they think the Thai food there is "crap" and they don't eat it. Maybe that's true. I have eaten some local grub there over the last two years or so, I did not really like it, although I'd stop short of saying it was "crap".

The thing is, in Pattaya, it mostly exists to cater to the every whim of Western men, mostly in the 45-70 year age bracket. There are more Chinese and Arabs and Indians in Pattaya, but in general the White Western Male still reigns supreme.

That means, whats most popular is steaks, spare ribs, roast lamb, pork, chicken, English breakfasts, traditional British and Australian fish and chips. I always liked Thai soups, tom yum goong, and tom yum kai for example, with corriander, limes, lemongrass, coconut, etc.

In China I also mostly ate Western food. One place I went to in Nanning a lot was "Ban Xian Ju" at Yang Guang 100 ( Sunshine 100 ) That place has great Guangdong cuisine. I like Sichuan also. Cow and Boy for steak in Nanning.

Generally, I don't like either Thai or Chinese cuisine however.

Thai fried rice is a superior dish than the Chinese version don't you think. The best fried rice I've had in China was in a university restaurant. But they changed the cook one day and it reverted back to swimming in oil.

Chiang Mai is a good place to get Chinese visas, isn't it?

Taking the plunge then, there for good soon. Will you rent a house? They allow you to buy a condominium I understand.

Sorry, mate. The mods have rejected my original response to you. I'd better watch my step, or else all my posts will be deleted in one fell swoop!

Oh Dear! it's not 'new brooms' one has to worry about so much as old brooms gummed up with detritus and cobwebs but with new agendas- final attempts to rule the pavements and gutters before they get unceremoniously tossed into the skip. Bloody Hell!! I can still come out with total bilge.

What's it like with you? Quiet here. I think half the households have returned to their villages to sweep out some tombs.

What's happened to that poster you passed your mantle to, 'foxy?' I think I might be to blame for his disappearance. I think I made some unfair comments when Trumpsey had me boxed in a corner- clever that Trumpsey- but foxy I refer to, like you was a really first class poster- be good to see him back. His view could have been "I'm not standing for this twaddle any longer."

There was an elephant in the room who used to post regularly who could tell us what Germans mean when they use the word, but I haven't come across any recent posts from him on the board.

Ah, you must have been away and missed all the fun. A sort of modern day Emmeline Pankhurst went on the rampage. That German was the first sent packing.."And take your bloody old man's posts with you!!" Then Silverboy wouldn't walk so he was pushed and kept nowt but the cool boxer shorts he stands up in...when he's feeling frisky. Then and you'd better sit down mate and open a tinny....then Emmeline turned her sights on me and I was gorn. However, SB sneaked back through the back door aided by none other than a very fair-minded and unlikely saviour his former condemner. Trumpsey Poster, God Bless her. Then there was just enough room(your truly) for a rat to sniff out a hole and regain entry. As for Emmeline, I think she has done a runner. I hope not, she's important too.

Scrambled eggs with stubble! Disgusting!

Yep, you can trust home-cooked food 100% so long as you are one doing the cooking. The way to go if you have the time to cook for yourself.

Well, we can't all. If you don't wash your hands after going to the toilet one is just as likely to poison yourself as somebody else poison you after they have emerged from toilet. What i am saying is if I didn't have any hand-washing-water I'd prefer somebody else to cook- either way you might poison yourself or he might poison you but it would save the trouble of cooking it yourself. It's the taste of restaurant food I don't like.

By the way did you know that washing your hands in hot water isn't any safer than cold water because the water would have to be hot enough to strip your skin off to kill the germs. It's that health and hygiene in catering wants you to have hot water on tap otherwise you wouldn't bother to wash your hands in cold water which is just as good. It's transferring food and cross-contamination that washing your hands helps with- like clods of food.

Got another transferring money contraption from Construction this time- never been offered them in UK. By the way, the BOC has now told us we can transfer to UK up to £40,000 at one time. This is totally unlike any information I have gleaned from the Internet.

We need to interrogate SB on Thai food when he has time.

I have read your disparaging remarks about Chinese fayre. How about Thai grub? What do you think of it?

Who me?

My wife and I went on holiday to Thailand and ordered scrambled eggs one morning. They served it with stubble emptied from an electric razor- the most disgusting thing ever. Don't think they liked me.

There's restaurant Chinese food and home-cooked- I detest the former and like the latter.