jybkk

If my reading of the small print above about the Rabbit Card is right, on the new passes it works the common sense way- a trip is a trip is a trip. So get the Rabbit card and it works the way it it would before if you were going all the way down the line (I think).

I read otherwise: http://www.bts.co.th/Stop_SmartPass_Rabbit.html

Almost all the way at the bottom, #

In other word, the rabbit card is pretty much a way to mask the fact that commuters on the extension have to pay 15THB extra per trip if they want to use a trip-based pass, the card allowing to store trips AND money so that you can pay at once for the extra 15THB.

In the end, most of those who commute from the extension will switch to the stored value system, as it is likely to be slighty cheaper in most cases, while those living in the more central areas will continue with the trip system, occasionaly forking the 15THB extra when they go further than On Nut (hoping that they didn't forget to put a few THB of cash on the card).

The worst is for those travelling daily from the extension to a station more than 6-7 stops away. They'll have to pay about 15THB more per trip. There are so many combinations possible, it's pretty difficult to make sure you'll go for the cheapest option when you refill your card, unless you use the BTS exculisevly for your daily commute.

The "e-wallet" to pay at McDonald's and Starbucks sounds more like a marketing gimmick.

That card is meant to be a unified way of payment... in the future. I'm delighted to see a bit of foresight here.

So far, it lets you credit BTS trips and cash on the card. Trips are used as normally with the BTS card, cash is for an e-wallet that is already accepted in a few retailers.

The plan is to expand this to more retailers as well as other public transportations, including the MRT.

I'm not sure there will be a discount applied if you're using both MRT and BTS in the same trip, but as a frequent user of BTS, and occasional user of MRT, it would already be very convenient for me to be able not to queue to get a ticket the few times I go through the MRT.

Is it just me, or the majority of posters advised for bars with live bands while OP stated he's looking for music "not too loud"?

I've never seen live bands being not too loud in Thailand.

If you're looking for a more quiet time, I'll go with the rest of the posters who recommend places like Long Table. Many higher-range hotels have very enjoyable bars in Bangkok.

Following the price drop of the Galaxy Nexus in the US (Google sells directly a GSM unlocked version for $399) it seems you can now find them in the grey market (MBK) at less than 14000THB. It's a very good deal for a very good phone with similar specs as the S2 (with the bonus of having the latest version of Android).

I think you need to delete everyone from your contacts list on the hotmail account. Otherwise they will keep sending spam to them.

Good luck!

I think once they got in, they've got all the email address, right? But for sure good idea to remove all the addresses and close out that account.

I've had my account hacked before. Just changed the password to a really complex one and haven't had a problem since then. Internet cafes are the worst place to check email!!

That's correct.

Once they got in, they already have all the emails. But at least they won't be able to use the hotmail account to send this spam which should help the anti spam of the recipients figure out it's undesired mail.

It's mostly about the humidity this year. Especially in the morning, where it's already around 30C but still close from 70% humidity.

This is why the "feels like" in weather forecasts is probably the most important thing to look at. It's an estimation grouping both humidity and temperature. 30C with 70%humidity feels pretty much the same as 35C with 50% humidity.

So fare temperatures haven't really gone up more than 37-38, but it felt way worse than that.

Different size compared to what?

There's a lot of standards around the world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mattress#Mattress_dimensions

Here, your'e most likely to find American and Asian ones.

You can find mattress in any department store (Central, Robinson, ...) as well as in places like Index, SB Furniture, Ikea... Lot of choice and price ranges.

All this legales is fine, but can anyone explain in which way this is supposed to benefit Thailand other than by playing on vague xenophobic concerns?

Just an observation but is the store in danger of Roti Boy syndrome? You may remember these bread shops opening 6 or 7 years ago and having huge queues outside all day. 6 months later the store(s) is empty. Is IKEA just a day out?

While the madness of the first few weeks of the opening are over, I doubt very much Ikea is just a fad.

While OP did not find in the store the service he was looking for, I believe it actually offers an in teresting alternative to those who are actually looking for something different.

I furnished my place few years ago, while Ikea was not here, mostly using the shops recommended by other posters (Index, SB,...). THe experience was alright, but now that I had to do more purchases, I found in Ikea things that I care much more for and that none of the competitors offer yet.

Here's a list of what comes up to my mind:

• Choice: Ikea is probably the place where you have the most chance of finding what you're looking for in one place. We all know how difficult it is to go around Bangkok, and the days where I managed to buy only half of the stuff I was looking for, before having to try another shop are over.
  
• Stock: Contrary to the Index and SB furniture shops I used (in central BKK, it might be different in suburb stores), Ikea has all the stuff they sell on site. If they have it, you can leave with it. I like this better. Index offers delivery and assembly, and usually don't have the furniture available immediately. Well, it actually bothers me because it means I'll have to make an appointment, and take a half day off to be there when they come deliver the stuff (and make sure they don't scrape my floor while doing the assembly). Home deliveries in Thailand are extremely unreliable. It's a big loss of my time
  
• Consistency: Ikea designs and manufactures their stuff. SB, Index, etc... are retailers. They sell a selection of furniture from various suppliers. For this reason, you might have trouble finding matching elements. In Ikea, birch veneer will always be of the same shade whatever the product line. Width and heights are standardized and you'll easily fit ilements in the shelves and dawers.
  
• Quality: Index, Ikea, SB etc.. all offer similar levels of quality. But Ikea is more reliable on that. They basically have 3 price level for everything and you'll know easily what you can expect from what you buy (cheapest: well, cheap, medium will be pretty good quality, long lasting, expensive will be the same quality but with a nicer design, materials). In Index, I sometimes had not so great experiences.
  
• A good website: Ikea is one of the only business in thailand where you can actually prepare your visit before going to the shop. They'll have up to date information, prices and availability
  
• Self Service: I actually appreciate that. Clearly we don't all agree, but many people like me enjoy to be left alone while in a shop. Nobody to bother me. I hate it when the salesman of index follows me like a shadow.
  

There's one thing I completely agree with however, is that I don't get what all the fuss is about those meatballs.

Since the youngest age Thai children are put in an environment where knowledge is force fed into them, and "achievement" only measured by a very theoretical test at the end of each year. Nothing is in place to reward curiosity, autonomy and self discipline.

I was amazed to learn that in many Thai kindergartens kids are already taught english, math and given exams and ranking even before they arrive to primary school. This is a very misdirected attempt at making your kids better. I am under the impression that this very high pressure is quite common in Asia, not just Thailand.

Well, I'm not impressed by the results so far. It seems this system is producing drones with very little creativity and ability to decide by themselves. Maybe that's the point though.

As fa as I'm concerned, when I have a kid, I'll be happy if the kindergarten manages to teach him that you're not supposed to poke the other kids eye, that you listen when the teacher speaks and that eating your boogers isn't really polite. I don't care if they can count to a hundred at 4. Let the little ones grow into social and balanced people first, they'll have a lot of time to learn academic subjects later on.

Bangkok Comedy, every other mondays at the Londoner

https://www.facebook.com/groups/bangkokcomedy/

As far as I know, the area of Phra Khanong and Ekkamai are affected. I have people reporting that true internet is down in Soi 65 and 63 since 9pm yesterday too.

And then decriminalise rape and murder as well, and make them behavioural issues.

One big fallacy about drug addiction is that it only hurts the addict, which is nonsense, as anybody who has dealt with an addict in their family will tell you. The moment you have been assaulted by drug takers rendered psychotic by their drug, you get a very chilling view of the prospect of the further spread of the abuse of stimulants.

We could equally say that it is acceptable to conduct public exhibitions of necrophilia, since the corpse isn't going to object, and the viewers would be there by choice.

The biggest argument is that decriminalizing drugs eliminates all the other surrounding criminal activities -- the smuggling and corruption, exploitation of minors and violent turf wars.

Well, that's true, in the same way that decriminalizing the stealing of cars gets rid of car thieves, illegal chop shops, vehicle smugglers and bogus licence makers. In fact, the ultimate cause of all criminality is law. As far as I am aware, no one has ever suggested that law should therefore be abandoned.

Then there's the argument "we're losing the war on drugs." What, and so we should just give up? Doctors are losing the war against death, but does that mean they should stop work? If every man has to die, it doesn’t matter very much when he does so.

If the war against drugs is lost, then so are the wars against theft, speeding, incest, fraud, rape, murder, arson, and illegal parking. Few, if any, such wars are winnable. So let us all do anything we choose.

Contrast free-drug Amsterdam, one of the most squalid and violent cities in Europe, with drug-free Singapore, clean and safe.

Do the streets become safer when they are full of people pumped up on 'yaba'?

I guess your an American who is ill informed ? Could you please come up with some statistics about the violence in Amsterdam. I believe bill o reily has been put on his place before when he was spreading lies about the Netherlands. Not to long ago even a presidential candidate was set straight on when he was talking about euthanasia in the Netherlands. It seems Americans love to lie about Holland to make a point and then when they are confronted with their lies act like Thai politicians denying it all.

Legalized drug use would not be a problem, just like alcohol you would not be allowed to use it in traffic and stuff like that. There are many people who can handle drugs not everyone will become an crazy addict. I believe its a free choice as long as you take responsibility for it. Meaning you will have to pay more for your healthcare and stuff. But just look at alcohol is a drug too and a bad one its legalized.

http://www.nationmas...ders-per-capita

Exactly what I thought when I read "RickBradford" piece. Pure Fox News "fair and balanced" reporting. Amsterdam "squalid and violent". What a joke! And what about Portugal? Is it squalid and violent too?

Then after that he goes on using the good old "reductio to absurdum" and suggest we abolish all laws.

There's a moment when punition does more harm than good. Mostly when you deal with mental illnesses such as drug addiction. Because that's the main difference with the other crimes mentionned here: drug addicts are sick. They need to be treated, and brandishing a stick won't really do anything good about their addiction. After all, that's already what we do when some murderers are deemed mentally ill and legally irresponsible. Fear of punishment doesn't work with these people. We have to find other ways.

Hmmm. And now their hotline number rings busy.

I just come back from Luang Prabang in Laos.

They are miles ahead of Rattanakosin in terms of preservation of their city, environment and history.

But the thing is: this award is given to projects that are presented to a panel, not through an actual assessment of the current situation. And in my experience, Thai institutions are the best at this. Actually, that's pretty much the only thing government officials seem to do here: PR presentations, shows, seminars and other self congratulation promotional operations.

I was always amazed how the staff of the school I was working with managed to transform the whole appearance of their institution for the few hours of a visit from some VIP/TV Station/Inspectors. Too bad it was done over the previous weeks at the expense of actual teaching.

Same here: Klong Toey area, went down yesterday at 21:00 and not back since.

When calling the support I just manage to get a message in (broken) english saying they are experiencing disruptions and apologize. I'm given the choice to leave my mobile phone number to be informed by SMS... or hang up.

From what I can see in the admin panel of the router, the DSL link is up, but no IP is attributed to the modem. On the device, the DSL LED is blinking while the Internet LED remains off.

Luckily, DTAC 3G is pretty good where I am and I'm using my phone as WiFi hotspot.

Microsoft Security Essentials: free, no registration needed, no expiry, no "upgrade to pro" pop-up, and probably the smallest footprint on your computer.

Regularly praised by professionals: http://www.pcworld.com/article/172808/microsoft_security_essentials_never_pay_for_antivirus_again.html

That's an important step because miniaturization of transistor was reaching its limits. However it's a bit insulting for these scientists to say they "cracked the secret of a computer" as if it was something that already existed.

And one transistor in a lab is far from being a computer. You first have to link together millions of these transistors, then make the whole operation commercially viable.

In other words: don't hold your breath. It's not going to be in your laptop any time soon.

I agree that giving your seat to kids is pretty useless.

I've been working with young ones for a while, and one thing they don't seem to care about is being seated.

Of course, there are exceptions where they happen to be exhausted because they walked too much, but how many times does this happen? Thai parents don't like to walk at all anyway.

But thai people love kids. Western parents are sometimes being blamed for being overprotective, my impression is that here is worse.

In Dreamweaver, you can use templates to do something like that:

The template would be a "blank" page on which only common elements are set (menu, footer,...) Then when you change the content of the template, all the files using it are updated. You still have to upload all of them then.

Another solution (more elegant in my opinion), is to use server-side script (php, asp) and have the menu inserted in your page when user loads it. In simplified: in your pages, instead of the menu you have a little piece of code that says "get the menu from menu.html and place it there". Then you only have to update this menu.html to have all your pages updated (without having to re-upload all of them).

A bit more detail here: http://www.sitefundamentals.com/include-menu-header-footer-web-pages/

> five year old

> notebook like toy

Sounds like an iPad to me.

Joke aside, toy makers have some simplified "computers" for kids (see in the toy section of big department stores).

In my opinion, however, it might be more efficient to install educational games on the home computer and let her use them under adult supervision, so as to teach the basic of "what is a mouse", "why you should be careful", "how to type on a keyboard", etc...

The most important teaching will be when she'll be teenager. Then there is a lot of teaching to do about not installing anything that passes by, and how to be careful on internet.

and the fact you have to accept the new privacy policy else no google.

You don't have to do anything accept these new privacy policy. They sent the users an email stating that after march 1st, continuing to use google services meant you accept the new policies. It's in no way related to OP's problems.

Which Nokia is it?

It lasts only 3-days in Bangkok and I certainly don't enjoy the ice water buckets stinging you like sharp needles but that is also part of the fun ... you need to try to avoid these folks and keep an eye on other people's reactions to know if they have ice water. Personally, I love this time and it is like being a kid again but I think it would be nice if it was limited to 1 day because there are certainly times we all are trying to get somewhere and don't want to play or be drenched on our way. 3-days. let alone longer in some places, is just too long and complicates getting normal things done.

I must admit I had fun the first time too. And it's not up to me to decide how people can have fun.

I just wish it was not "imposed" like this.

I also worry a bit as I see every year going a bit more "extreme". I'm really weary of excited crowds.

Last year we took a wrong turn and got stuck in Thanon On Nut during the festivities. It was dreadful and pretty much killed all the fun I had about Songkran. My thai friends who were in the car with us did not enjoy this either: teenagers zooming on modified motorcycle in the middle of a drenched street congested with kids and cars, young girls half naked, fights breaking up, lots of alcohol (and underage drinking). Our doors were locked and the hour it took us to get out of there felt really long. It was the first (and only) time in many years I felt unsafe in Thailand.

I'm not really a fan of Apple, but in that case I'm not sure the blame should be put on them. The recording company are probably the ones setting the price.