mic6ard

And the point of this article is????

When Mr. Thaksin comes back all their troubles will be over. He will make them rich, just like he and his philanthropic family.

No worries, life will be good. Trust him.

This comes as no surprise

IMO Thai people have for a long time lived beyond their means.

For so many Thais as soon as they get their monthly salary at

the beginning of the month they rush of to go shopping or they

go out for meals. Then when the last 7 - 10 days of they either

have no money left for food / water and they spend the last few

days of the month eating mama noodles.

They have no concept of saving and budgets, yet so many have

IPhones and Bloackberry's. Priorities are so out of whack, they

eat and be happy today and they do not think or worry about

tomorrow

This is not just thailand, but most developing countries. People will always chase trends/fashions to keep up with others.

The customer base in CM is just not on par with BKK.

Too few and certainly not enough Big spenders on expense accounts in CM, BKK have Too Much.

john

Lots of good meals available in CM.

True, so true. Smaller customer base, and people don't do 'business lunch' at all. Typically it's "sit, order, eat, leave".

It's all about 'value for money' and not 'I went there last night'.

People here want the best food for the least money. I rarely spend more than 1K on food for 2 person. Typically around the 700 range, and that's for 2 people!!!

In Bangkok you can barely get a decent meal for that, might have to spend around 30% more in the BKK.

Reporting back.

1st impression, really unexpectedly huge. Definitely western feel to the building and deco. To me, it would be perfect in Hawaii, California, or maybe Florida, heck any large touristy city in US.

Service: typical of new restaurants, still need a lot of work.

Food: Good food, nothing fantastic but good.

Problems:

a friend of mine brought a bottle of whiskey along, as we thought it's a Thai restaurant, so why not. OK here's where soem fun started. There were no drink tables, so all the bottles were on our table. There were no other type of glass, either goblet, or martini glasses, nothing to drink whiskey "on the rocks" Kinda surprising but not really damning.

Over all, would I go back, maybe to try other dishes that we didn't managed to, but not going to be a regular hangout, unlike the 'Duke's' across the river.

at 700/kg, that's a bargain. I find that grass fed tend to have a rougher texture and the flavour is different than the grain fed beef.

I seriously doubt that you can find free range beef here, if you managed it, it could be really tough. But then again, you might find something nice, can never be too sure of this.

I don't think that it'll be just the rank and file positions that'll get the cut. I think that managements will also be facing pressures to perform other duties as well. Personally I think that this is the time where having multiple abilities can come in useful. One person can cover 2-3 different positions. Right now it's coming in to the low season for tourist/service sector here in CM, I can see more people being laid off than usual.

Well AndersSN I'm sure that we would like to know what type of business are you running. I know that you a re expressing it from your business, but I really do want to know where and what are you doing?

Everybody else is having a really tough year, and here you are saying it's the greatest! Come on, spill, what's your business. Then maybe you're claim will be more credible.

Used to go to Duke's quite often. When it's busy the service is really S@#T, but when it's not that crowded, the service is acceptable and typically American Dinner style.

But am probably not going back for a while, due to UNCHANGING menu!!! Food's fine, service,s OK, but I ran out of things to eat. Had every burgers and sandwiched that have on the menu. Tried the specials.

Really do wish they have something new on the menu.

Still me and some friends are heading to the River Market on Monday night. Will keep y'all posted.

What type of bike to buy?

If you have motorcycle couriers in your city, have a look at what they ride as typically are super reliable machines, simple and easy to ride. When I worked in London, I spent a long time as a courier.

Just a word of fatherly advice, maybe don't give into the temptation to buy a NEW motorcycle for your first bike because for sure you lay it down a few times while you are learning the ropes.

And NEVER be tempted to ride without gloves as instinctively your hands are the first thing pushed out to cushion and balance your fall and come in contact with the road.

When it comes to 'right of way' ... he said that you can be legally right ... and legally dead.

Actually, even though it as a few years ago, I never had an accident riding in England and tip my hat to the drivers ... though things may have changed since.

OH ... aren’t you a bit young to be considering a licence?

Great story BTW

.

Don't forget helmets

Don't travel much do ya. My best advice is to hit a local hard ware store, typically there'll be packes with adaptors. Get one that contains "prongs" for multiple countries. I usually carry about 3 different ones in my luggage! Also buy multiple ones, don't forget, Ipad, Ipod, etc will need to be recharge as well.

It's easier to buy them here than in the US. Don't know why but I had the hardest time finding adaptors last time I went.

The main problem with this so far is in the service sector, which has "service charge'. Will it be included as wage? So far there's no definite answer, it's all conditional. Really messed up.

Can see lots of SME going belly up, if it's go up to 300 nation wide.

Which are the provinces slated for a wage raise April 1? Anybody knows?

http://www.mol.go.th/en/employee/interesting_information/6319

Here's the link to the english version of the wage scale across the country. But all this would be muted as the plan so far is for the wage to be 300 nation wide 1 Jan 2556 (2013)

We are all doomed. 300Thb at new year. Totally nuts:wacko:

Posted with Thaivisa App http://apps.thaivisa.com

I suppose it's all depends on what you needed done and/or the extent of the problem. Think of it like a GP and a specialist. One takes care of you and keep you going, but if you have a serious problem go see a specialist. Or you can compare to a vehicle, you take it to your usual mechanic when you have problems, but eventually you'll need to go to the dealer to get major maintainance done.

Please don't 'burn' the others, Electra seems to have some 'beef' with Thaipod, so does 'his' opinion hold any values? Sure it's bias but we all are in some way.

I don't really care if he's a Dr. or not, if he fixes your problem, then that's ok in my book.

Now, the main question would be, "what does the OP needed done?"

Umm. After reading most of this replies in this thread. People are talking about super sports, Harleys, etc. I think that we are forgetting that we are in LOS, most bikers are the Dreams, KSR, Waves, etc. The small run about bikes. Personally those machines are more dangerous than bigger bikes, with them skinny tyres. Now those are the people who ride like the devil's after them, big bike riders tend to be more careful. Weird mentality, I know, but rarely I see big bike riders doing something crazy (while riding). Maybe it's because the size and power, being heavier, it forces rider to be more defensive and take corner slower. Being more powerful it forces the rider to have more care, and be patient before hitting the throttle.

I think of it like driving cars. the differences between driving a little Honda Jazz and a Toyota Fortuner. Jazz cuts in and out of traffic while fortuner is more sedate.

I'm generalizing, I know and seen crazy stuff from Fortuners or H-D driver/rider.

People buys H-D because of it's look and the sound of the exhaust. I fell in love with the 'baby Harley - Sportster" back in the US. It's the look and feel of the bike. Definitely not the performance, for Pete's sake, its a CRUISER. If I want a sports bike, I would probably got Ninja 650.

Back to the topic of discussion, it's summer, it's hot and I wear an open face helmet, have a full face for the winter and a 'skid lid' for in city riding.

Thailand's economy is highly centralized, with most of the wealth and power focused in Bangkok. By increasing the wages disproportionally in Bangkok the government is making this problem even worse. Instead of luring even more workers to Bangkok and the nearby provinces, they need to develop industries and businesses upcountry, so that workers can earn a decent living near their homes, instead of breaking families apart, with working age people all in BKK and the grandparents and kids staying upcountry.

I am not opposed to this increase in principal, but the execution is flawed.

PS: Mr. Amsterdam, you're barking up the wrong tree this time, this suit wasn't brought to the courts by the Democrats, but by some big corporations, but don't let the facts get in the way of a good soundbite.

Do you even listen to yourself? This is Thai government you are referring too. They do things only that make sense and benefit themselves not the Thai people

Sad but true

What a load of BS. Propaganda, and self promotion to the extreme.

However, I'm sure Mr.T. can wait a while. So please don't come in Songkran, make it mid year or something during the tourist low season. Just don't disrupt an already crazy year. We've got the wage hike, increasing inflation (which the gov't is ignoring), (increasingly) useless P.M. I think that's enough for one year, don't you?

What a laugh. Disney land, been there, got Tshirt, lost my sunglasses, never going back. Heavens for kids, but totally boring for adults.

Sure Mr. Minister. You dind't have a clue did ya. O'course not, you always go throught the VIP section. Forget us regular travellers.

Personally that Airport is 10 years out of date when it was finished.

My god!!! she is a genious with her take on events as to 'why the prices of certain goods are high'.

Interesting to know how she is going to implement this 'stupid' "blue flag scheme". What is she to do - force people to sell their produce at unrealistically low prices whereby they don't make a profit??

I can recall only 1 'rediculous' and unworkable policy from the Democrat party and that is selling eggs be weight and not number!!! However, virtually every policy dished out by these morons is 'stupid beyond belief' - the kind of thing a 10 year old school boy with a vivid imagination would think up!!!

God help Thailand!!!!

High costs due to flood!!! But since you are also increasing wages all over the country, surely it'll offset the increase!! And look we are also DECREASING taxes for business to offset the increase wages.

Madam P.M. I think that you have lost the plot somewhere during the election campaign.

Fuels' going up, Foods' going up, wages' going up. But guess what, people don't think about the incoming money as much as expenditure.

BOT "inflation won't be a serious issue in the coming 6 months"!!! Where are you coming from??? Everything is costing more, so more THB to by the same stuff! Isn't that inflation???

Call me a 'Naysayer" but I can't see a silver lining or a light at the end of the tunner for this mess.

Try dropping by the Ruam Choke market on sunday, they have motobikes of all type on sale. Other than that, go online is probably the easiest.