BKjohn

In my opinion, the management should split the operation into Bangkok and "up-country" outlets and vary the goods offered accordingly. The up-country versions could even be named differently than the ones in Bangkok and concentrate on low price local produce with may be a "Euro" corner in each store for those farangs living there. The Bangkok stores should go more up market Thai and Farang with more international food at prices well below Villa or TOP but more choice than Foodland or TOP.

A foodcourt offering farang food as well would certainly help.

None of the existing chain stores here is perfect or anywhere near perfect, even though they could be considering their resources. Foodland for example is usually out of bread and bread rolls by noon, even though they salvage stale bread by turning it to bread-crumbs which they sell very well. Tesco is a terrible store whith very limited selection of groceries and generally of low quality.

Carfour was the closest in Bangkok and its a shame they are closing.

Speculation on the identity of those responsible is unhelpful and merely exposes the prejudices of those doing the speculation.

I'm sure that whoever is responsible will announce themselves in due course.

The reds have shown clearly that they are cowards and won't admit to their actions. They will not admit to this one either and claiming that the government did this is total rubbish. The reds lost the by-election and acted once again like thugs. They are actually worse than your normal terrorist, at least they admit what they did.

Counterfeit substandard spare parts used in maintenance of lift?

also very possible

If they ever (I hope not) do get a nuclear reactor here I shall move as far away as possible if there is a single Thai involved in there for anything else but sweeping the floor on the OUTSIDE

Hey OI how much is that valve ?? ... oh 1 million baht .... awww .. I can get one from my mate for 5,000 baht and we can pocket the difference .... yea great ...

If the lift was build to international standards this would be impossible. Someone was either incompetent or did not build this thing to specs and pocketed the money, which is the most likely scenario here. Since building inspectors are as corrupt as most officials their inspection is usually over by the time they get their envelope.

There is "normally" a "shock-absorber" at the bottom of the shaft as a "last resort" safety measure which will stop the lift without too many injuries to the passengers, but this is a last resort and will not be too pleasant. This is what probably happened here since a 10 story free fall onto concrete would have resulted in a number of death's for sure- 10 floors = approx. 40 meters.

TiT

The HD quality is good, no complaint, except the blackouts but if NGC and Discovery / History channels are not added soon to the HD channels, I will cancel it. HBO shows Children's programs at 9pm and more repeats as well as crap movies than one can bare.

Stopped at Home Pro yesterday and had a look at the new 3D set from Samsung - wow - reached for my wallet already but when I heard the price - 100k for the 50" LED TV and another 30k for the 3D DVD player I stopped quickly.

The system is supposedly also able to turn normal DVD's into 3D - but they do not show this, only a presentation DVD - gather (hope) they will become a lot cheaper soon like with all TV stuff, but it is without a doubt the future of TV / DVD watching.

He, if he is innocent does have a real problem under the Thai "justice" system though. If he pleads not guilty when he eventually faces the Judge without his lawyer present and has his charges officially read, is going to be told by the Judge that if he pleads guilty, he will have a much shorter sentence. Should he insist on a "not guilty" plea, he will than spend a min. of one year in jail waiting for his trial. At 72 or any age, Thai jail is no fun.

Most don't know those little details about the Thai law. His lawyer will not be able to see any evidence the prosecution has against him until the day of the trial. The prosecution is not forced to show any evidence proving that he is not guilty and he may have been set up by the mother who was trying to extort money, may be even with the police .....

There are very few cases that go to trial here because your chances of winning are ... well none .. unless you have a lot of money and know the right people

If he is guilty, meaning really guilty and not just a plea, he deserves what he gets

As a long time Thailand resident it is not surprising we have continual discussions on corruption at many levels, whether it comes from politicians, the police, or even the military. The number of extremely wealth individuals in all of these three sectors of society is startling. There is graft, extortion, protectionism, favortism at many levels and we see it daily, I understand why the rural poor and the lower middle class get so upset and are so concerned, they feel they are not getting their fair share. I have been married to a Thai citizen for a number of years, we have 4 children, one studies in the US and 3 study here, my 14 y/o told me the other week that he wanted to join the Military and make it a career. When asked why he proudly stated that he can work his way up and become rich. I offered him a suggestion that he join the military to help his country and protect the citizens of Thailand, this should be the motivation and not to 'get rich'. He went on to say that if you are in the military long enough everyone knows you have money and he wanted to have that too. I will council more on this topic later as he grows up, but needless to say I was rather surprised to hear such a statement from my son. How is is possible that high ranking officers are perceived or are actually wealthy when the Thai military salary is so low? (retorical question, I can guess the answer )

Corruption must be tacked at many levels and needs to be part of the educational fabric that we bring our children up here in Thailand, they need to learn, it may be actually too late for those in politics today to change but with education and persistance I'm hopeful that the future will be less corrupt. If Mr Abhisit can work on better education, better quality of education and more consistent training then the future will be brighter for so many of Thailands citizens.

Cheers.

C

Thank you for your post. The BLOODSUCKERS do not want the Thai people educated. The BLOODSUCKERS do not love Thailand. Thailand does not know what democracy is, nor does Thailand understand consequences. There will be little if any change in most of our lifetimes. Pity b/c the beautiful, Spiritual, hard working Thai people DESERVE better.

Given half a chance those "beautiful, Spiritual, hard working" Thai people would fill their own pockets - it is a national sport from low class to high class from the copper on the street to the village headman to politicians and will not change in the near future - live with it or move ... but there is another problem, look at the UK MP's, just as money grabbing and dishonest ..... it's human nature and called opportunism and there are very, very few individuals who not give in to it.... most of those who don't are so rich already they don't need to anyway unless their name is Thaksin

POWER CORRUPTS - TOTAL POWER CORRUPTS TOTALLY

Agree with the general sentiments expressed but do understand it's low season (after years of low high-seasons) so money it tight. It's just such bad form for the TT drivers to all converge in a scrum like this and attempt to gouge visitors like this. (I assume the deep-water port in on the east-coast side mid-island the it's maybe a 20-30 minute ride over the mountain to Patong, so B2000 per person is ridiculous.) Now, having been to Phuket many times, I know these drivers (and their "masters" are pond scum) but even scumbags have to eat (unfortunately). So why not organize something reasonable like maybe 200 baht per person and stick 2 sailors in each TT...generating a cool 400 baht a trip (and of course, they could arrange time and place for a return trip for the same price as well. That would be a nice bit of work for most drivers no?

That would be ok if one was dealing with people, but those cockroaches would not accept this - they are only happy when they can rip off foreigners. Lankawi is much nicer than Phuket which has by now been covered in concrete and Hotels and is fast approaching Pattaya standards - and the people in Lankawi are friendly and speak English. Phuket, once the perl of the orient has become the dung beetle of the orient - but the Thais will eventually wake up to the fact that you can not treat tourists like shit for ever, especially in today's world with the internet.

Can't wait until the end of the year when all those idiots checki their pockets and find nothing in there becaue the season has not materialized thanks to the red shirts antics and the way westerners are treated in Phuket. the only way Thais can learn is by pain and pain they will feel

The financial crisis in Europe, and a very expensive Thai baht will do the rest

Just tried to send them an email to their customer service and as I tried to send it "this service is currently not available" - why was I surprised?

True have outdone themselves this time. Yesterday I thought I'd have a look at the WM only to see that they do not have any sound available. According to some text they show, there is a problem with the license ....... but they still advertise the WM in HD

A real case of TIT

sounds very dodgy to me - to start, who leaves 12 Million cash in a pick up ? why carry 12 Million cash in the first place ? how did the old bill track their phone numbers if they were not known to them ? one chap has left the country with most of the cash ?

sure

new Mercedes parked in some police office car park soon

Even if you would double their wages nothing would change, they'd just want more - the police here (the ones in brown) are a society in itself, everybody else hates them and sees them as for what they are.

However, if you find yourself upcountry in a pub and there are two drunken cops at a table playing with their guns, its time to leave. A lot of people get shot here every month in such situations, especially if the cop fancies one of the ladies who happens to be the girlfriend of another guest ....... or if she is his ex and has a new boyfriend .... or .......

To start with, the government should raise the level of acceptance of new cops as far as their education and IQ is concerned. Just raising their wages will do no good.

For sure not all police are like that but I never met one . With their little salary no wonder they need to have extra cash .

small salary is not an excuse.. if the moneys not good enough, find a better job. a policemans duty to to protect and serve and uphold the law.. period...

In Thailand ????? at least here the Mafia can easily be spotted, they wear very tied brown uniforms

By the way, they get about 10 k (lowest level) plus 45% officially of the fines they bring in - do the math - plus what they take on the side plus free medical plus housing support

Got 2 Thai dogs (Bangkeau) and a Jack Russel - they are clever enough not to attack the snake but surround it and make a hel_l of a racket - and a spate

Was watching French open last night and just as a match got exiting it started to rain and even with the new box - the signal went and I had to wait 20 minutes for the picture to come back by which time the match was over

Will they ever solve this problem? This is a country with a long rainy season after all and there must be a muppet responsible for customer service at true?

Not completely.

They transmit on the Ku-band, which is susceptible to "rain" fade.

The only thing you can do is get a bigger dish/better LNB, but still, if the rain/clouds are heavy enough, signals will still disappear.

Have noticed a difference, with the signal at 100% the interruptions are much shorter like a few seconds instead of minutes - but still, at their price level, there shouldn't be any

Got the HD box from true and on my 42" LCD the quality is great - only problem that still remains besides more channels is :

Was watching French open last night and just as a match got exiting it started to rain and even with the new box - the signal went and I had to wait 20 minutes for the picture to come back by which time the match was over

Will they ever solve this problem? This is a country with a long rainy season after all and there must be a muppet responsible for customer service at true?

Some Irish lad, described as 'Australian" blathering some tinpot revolutionary gibberish in an American accent, trying to preach about something he doesn't know, in a place he shouldn't be! What a dumb <deleted>!

I wonder if his so-called "Charity Work" included offering charity mercenary service to a multi-billionaire and displaying his alleged sniper prowess, clad in a black shirt and face mask, for the billionaire's covert terrorist army?!

After his 15 minutes of fame (infamy), I hope this douche enjoys countless hours in the Bangkok Hilton!

2 years of spooning at the Bangkok Hilton - than deported to Australia where he will attempt to write a book, only to find out that no one is interested - what a nutter

The best way to convince to get more HD channels is to subscribe to what they offer today, if noone takes them up on it, they could well think there is no demand for it. They are only going to listen to cash. So pony up now and we'll get some moe channels, its well worth it for the world cup alone!

and for the French open as well as Wimbledon next month - Williams Bottom in HD

Why not use the forum to try and have a bit of influence over True TV ?

Example, everybody who would be interested in HD if more channels would be added - state which channels you would like to see to shell out the extra money

I know, true TV is overpriced and mostly a crap monopoly, but it beats the day's a long time ago when you had to wait until Friday 11pm for the "Big Movie" and get the soundtrack via your radio - there was nothing else besides REAL crappy Thai soap operas or bad Chinese movies

Anyone here have any experience with True Satellite Tv ? How much is the rain/cloud effecting the signal ? Will there be times that you can watch TV for a long time ?

Anyone tried the HD package and what is your impression ?

Right now I have cable TV and that is of course always available no matter the weather conditions, would it be worth changing since its not possible to get HD through the cable.

Got True HD - picture quality on the 2 HD channels is excellent, watched the French open yesterday - fantastic - same with HBO IF there is a decent movie on

True said, as soon as more people sign up, they will increase HD channel number. Cost is THB 2,000.00 for the Decoder and 280 or so Thai baht per month which will include additional channels as they come on line.

The Decoder however also delivers better picture quality on other non HD channels and comes with a HD cable allowing for more services and easier use if you TV has those features,

Not bad, would love to see Discovery and NGC in HD soon

Anyone else here being flooded with emails from chefsxp ???

internal emails - orders - and suddenly I receive 30-40 subscription emails from all over the place - all due to something going on with chefsxp

send emails to the owner but had no response so far

right or wrong

No one takes you serious here until you have at least 6 months membership under your belt

that's about 50-100 posts

That's an awful lot of posting. in 6 years I haven't got that many. Personally, I think that anyone that spends a lot of their time posting on internet forums(i.e 5 a day or more) needs some kind of counseling. Not counting Admin. and Mods.

I wonder how long a lot of you posters have been in Thailand and know the value(or lack of) of life. How many really know the way that Thai politics works. I find it depressing to read all these opinions by people who haven't really a clue about any of it.

The Thai's have a fascination with violence and death, there is a magazine that publishes nothing else but pictures of accident and murder victims which is a best seller since ages. The murder rate in Thailand compared to population is higher than the USA. Business conflicts are resolved by hiring hit-men on motorcycles to kill the opposition. Rape and assaults are rampant. According to statistics there are up-country areas in Thailand where every second pickup has a gun stashed under the seat ..... the land of smiles - those fathers placing their children on the rubber barriers show clearly how they respect the life of even their own children.

Welcome to the wild east

Total M A D N E S S

I'm praying for the baby

Is this not enough proof of the total malignancy of the reds ?

Using children as human shields will even alienate the foreign press who seem to be red oriented at this time but .....

Anyone here supporting them and by doing so their actions should be outcast

Well that have about half an hour to get out of there... Yawn

Get out the candles to light in memory of the innocent women and children about to die.

Well I know that some were evacuated... and that an airplane has been dropping leaflets over the site. I hope the Red leaders know what's coming and get any others left there out.

If Thaksin was in power and the situation was the other way, machine gun fire would have been heard weeks ago and any mob been eradicated, never mind women and children, just like he did during so called war on drugs