nikkoid66

I am French and I know very well Carrefour.

It is a very arrogant company. They are doing everything they want in France.

When you go to a Carrefour in France, you have to bring your own bags (they won't give you some unless you pay them) there are only 10 cashier open out of 50 so you always have to wait 15 min to pay, only one person at the cashier so you pack your stuff yourself while the attendant is counting.

They have a monopolistic power in France and they impose their rules on the prices, salaries and are above the laws.

I think they expected to impose their law here too and they are not selling enough. Doing 30% margin is not enough for them, they want to make 2000% margin, buy sh.it vegetable and package them so they look wonderful, the farmers makes nothing, the customer pay hi-price and Carrefour is doing a huge benefit.

This system works in France where people have no choice than buying there and spend big money on everything, but it is not working in Asia.

They probably realized that they are not going to impose their view and their system here and they are focusing on markets where people will buy gazed tomatoes 2 EUR / Kilo when they purchase it 20Cts... not enough profit margin here.

Bye Bye Carrefour, buy food at your local market!

Now they also cut in Europe, in Belgium for example: http://www.itnsource...480310/?v=1&a=0

Wallmart suck in the USA only for black or really poor people, if you want to get cancer, buy food at Wallmart, they buy whatever is cheap in China and sell it full of conservative and chemicals... please don't sell to Wallmart!!!

Wallmart is in the wing.

Is this a rumor or based on some facts? I like Walmart as much as I like Big C! NOT!

If they come here, will the Thai people start looking like this?

http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/

I'm outta here if they do!

When was this filmed please?

The day it was posted on YouTube : July 26, 2010

I live on Beach road in Central Pattaya.

I have traveled a lot and I do not know one place in the world where you have so much entertainment in walking distance.

From my condo, I can walk 5 min to go to see a Movie (I saw Despicable me in 3D yesterday), find huge restaurants and food courts (Central Festival Mall), go to the beach or take a boat to the Island, find a girl for 500 baths on the beach, or 1000 baths on 2nd road bars, 10 min from walking street, and I do not mention DHL, post offices, copyshops, massage shops, 7/11, Big C, Home Works, Carrefour etc. etc. etc.

All at walking distance!!!

Forget Miami Beach, The French Riviera, Greece, Spain, Cuba and Barbados, Cancun and everything else.

Central Pattaya is not the place to rise a family, but it is definitively one of the best entertaining beach city in the World! You can relax, do nothing or f.ck all day it is your choice. You can't do that in BK where you need to take the transports for anything.

I gave a try to the colored sushi at Central's Pattaya food court (the one in front of Burger King) for 10 baths each, and I'm sick.

First time since I'm sick in Thailand, I eat in the street, in lot of restaurants, but the colored sushi are tasteless, probably unfrozen and give you a nice stomach pain and well you get the picture!

Better avoid and eat Thai.

Central Festival 3rd Floor Powerbuy. Lot of choice, some are excellent. I'm a musician, I can tell...

There is an EXCELLENT and very honest dentist in Central Festival Mall on 2nd Road, floor 4. Not crowded (yet), US/EUR top notch quality and value, very clean. Bridge on 3 tooth cost me $480, same in Europe would cost 4000 EUR and in the USA I didn't made it because they were charging more than $10,000.

http://www.youtube.com/user/nicolaschoukroun

I posted this video on Youtube made at Central Festival last night... enjoy the rain!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alUjuQwMomY

The Thais do not need a better wealth redistribution, what they need is a better education system.

Most Thai in the country finish school at 12 and are not able to read and write Thai correctly!

Even Cuba has a better education system than Thailand...

Better education will give the Thais the power to innovate, and create companies that can compete internationally.

Also they need to learn English at School... no English, no money in this world.

Oups there is an error in the previous post and I cannot edit it :

This is the results for Cando / Kirz

And this one is the result of 3BB / Maxnet

Here is the deal. When I first rent at View Talay 6 in Pattaya, I was not happy with the Cando-Kirtz speed and I decided to go to Carrefour to get 3BB instead. The next day, Cando fixed the internet, and it was speed again, so I got 2 internet, the one with Cando and the one with 3BB.

Now I decided to pay the 500 Bath for the building to switch to 3BB just to test the connection speed with each of them and do a report online about which one is best. After the test, I immediately asked to switch back to Cando / Kirz, as the result with 3BB was too bad for my job.(I paid again 500 baths, expensive to unplug and plug a cable hu?)

Some people here think that because 3BB is bigger, internet will be faster with them, well it is not what my today's test is showing.

Internet is always changing so this test is valid for the day it was made... if something change, I will update this thread.

Statistics made with http://speedtest.adslthailand.com an independent and trustable source of information

It was done Wednesday 28 July 2010, between 1pm and 2pm, which are the best time to test the speed with Europe and US because it is the middle of the night there.

Thailand Cando Download: 3249 Kbs

Thailand Cando Upload: 520 Kbs

Thailand Cando Ping: 94ms

Thailand 3BB Download: 3849 Kbs

Thailand 3BB Upload: 320Kbs

Thailand 3BB Ping: 78 ms

UK Cando Download: 1298 Kbs

UK Cando Upload: 461 Kbs

UK Cando Ping: 242ms

UK 3BB Download : 234 Kbs

UK 3BB Upload: 277 Kbs

UK 3BB Ping: 322ms

USA Cando Download: 1389 Kbs

USA Cando Upload: 388 Kbs

USA Cando Ping: 283 ms

USA 3BB Download: 341 Kbs

USA 3BB Upload : 283 Kbs

USA 3BB Ping: 317 ms

Legend

green : means that it is a good speed for any internet professional. Good for doing video conference with Skype, watching video on youtube (non HD) and streaming music for example.

orange : not industry standard, should be improved, but is ok.

red : ok for emails and basic google search, but not good enough for professional, realtime video or streaming, not Euro/USA standard of quality...

Other problems with 3BB

- I could not use my corporate email ([email protected]) because 3BB blocks the port 25, so it obliges you to use a gmail account for example : not suitable for any professional purpose.

- you cannot use the newsgroups for the same reasons : forget if you want to download %#%#%#% movies, newsgroup's port is blocked. I tried to download files from Giganews using the port 80, the speed was near to 0, timeouts and such...

- at 3BB they didn't gave me a wireless modem.

Note you can contact Bee if you want internet with Cando here : be.in at can-do.asia (replace at by @ this is to avoid spam!)

Here is a screen shot of the result with UK and Maxnet / 3BB

Here is the same screenshot with Cando / Kirtz

I agree that because most people take buses from Pattaya to Vientiane I was not really thinking about flying there...My intent was not to critic any destination. Maybe I will test Vientiane next year, or Pnom Pen.

The Evergreen hotel is an expensive choice, but very it is a very high quality hotel - business style. 2700 bath is not expensive compared with our hotels in Europe or even most hotel in the USA... people who are on budget can easily find something for $30-$40 / night I totally agree with that. I don't use to go in luxurious hotels so this time I decided to play the rich guy with my Euro in the pocket, I liked it! But back in Pattaya, I'm more than comfortable in my 16000 baths/month condo!!!

[bug] : duplicated post, erased!

HaaaaaaB) at least some freedom!!!

I read this forum for a long time and it helped me a lot to plan my stay in Thailand. However I didn't found any report from anyone doing an ED (education) visa at Pinang Malaysia. It is time to give back, so here is my report about the Visa processing from the Pinang Consulate.

First I decided to go to Pinang to avoid the painful trip to Vientiane (8 hours in bus to go, 8 hours to come back)

I took a ticket to Pinang (1:30 min Flight) online and I paid 5400 Baths for the round trip. After checking on Stripadvisor.com I reserved online at the Evergreen hotel which was a great choice after all. I stayed 3 nights / 4 days.

My stay was from Tuesday to Thursday, I think it was the best to avoid the weekend crowd and get the best fare price.

I got my Visa papers from Wallen Schools Pattaya, very easy and professional.

When you arrive at Pinang, you get a 90 days tourist visa. It is interesting to notice that Malaysia is not as picky as Thailand with Tourists.

Taxi to the hotel costs 30 Ringbit ($10). The system is very controlled so that you have to pass thru a counter and they affect you the next available taxi, no bargaining, no traps.

Choice of the hotel: the Evergreen is a business hotel, located on Gurney Road on the beach. It is an excellent location because it is at walking distance from a huge shopping center, it is a very clean and safe area even late at night (or early in the morning), the buffet and breakfast are much better than anywhere else, and it is located between the city and the beach. My advice, do not go to the holiday Inn hotel or any hotel on the beach, they are located in very touristic area that are plain ugly and dirty, the beach is not worth the "Pearl of Asia" reputation and you will be disappointed. Also you will be at 30 min from the Ambassy on a very sinuous road, and maybe one hour from the best Heritage monuments. The Evergreen is a ***** star hotel, flowless and absolutely gorgeous inside. The room and the staff are top notch by US/Euro standard. I can compare this hotel to the Crillon in Paris in term of quality of service. The food is very good and its buffets is the best in town (for about $15). I noticed that the food in Malaysia is not as good as in Thailand so having an excellent buffet gave me the opportunity to eat some local specialties without having to worry about being sick. The rooms are spacious, Internet is quick and free. I got +300kbs up and down all the time which is good enough for Skype or work.

The Visa itself: having stayed 3 years in the USA I'm used to fight with the bureaucracy and I was ready for a painful process with the emigration. Big mistake, that was VERY EASY. I took a taxi to the Consulate (15 Ringbits or $5) and I arrived at 9:30am. They accept Visa application from 9 to 11am so I was late. There were 3 people filling their application. There are 2 counters with very nice people, they gave me the application and I had to pay 240 Ringbits ($80). Then they gave me a receipt and asked me to come back the next day between 2pm-4pm.

The next day I was there at 2pm, a couple of people here too, no waiting, they give me my visa and that it!

No body search and security gates, everything is done in a nice garden outside, the security guard told me "have a nice day" when I left and that was it!

It took me about 10 min the first day and 1 min the second day, no waiting queue.

I must say that it could not be a better experience!

Pinang: I have read that there is nothing to do in Pinang and that's a plain stupid statement. If you want to see everything in a short time, don't go by yourself or in bus! Most heritage building are hidden in small streets and you will miss everything. Just HIRE a TAXI. It costs 30 Ringbits ($10) per hour. the guy will be your guide and will drive you everywhere. I hired mine 3 hours the first day and we visited most of the Heritage monuments and more in the city. The next day I hired him again for 3 hours and we visited the beaches and the Spice garden. In 2 days I have seen it all, and got a good English speaking guide, and someone to watch at my camera and money while I was swimming in the green water in deserted beaches like in "lost" or "Survivor". I spent $60 to have a full tour of the Island and I encourage you doing the same. This trip was so much better than doing a bus trip to Vientiane!!!

The cost:

Hotel : $80 / night (deluxe room with sea view) book on internet as the hotel is booked all time.

Food : breakfast included in the room price, Buffet lunch and diner : $20 / day

Taxi : $100 total with airport in and out.

Monuments entry fees : $10

Plane : $170

Visa : $80

Total : $520 for 4 days (3 nights) in a paradise Island all inclusive with Transportation and the Visa!

Conclusion: I am very happy of my choice, I will go back to the Evergreen luxurious hotel, do a very painless visa and enjoy the beaches again next year!!!

Evergreen Buffet

Evergreen Lobby

Evergreen view

Beach

Beach

Heritage House

Chinese Temple

No place is perfect

Thailand changes and is still the land of smile. I live here for a short time and it is a beautiful place compared to a lot of other place I've been traveling.

Do no stay in the past, yes now there is internet, and kids are playing video games, and Thailand is not a paradise for you anymore.

But for a lot of people here, it is still a wonderful place to live.

Just a word about justice, this concept does not exists anywhere on earth, the best way to get justice is avoid any kind of trouble!

:jap:

She left her ID card??? What a joke!:blink:

Well here is what happened, I'm still AMAZED.

They sent some technicians (the NEXT DAY) and they upgraded the bandwidth.

Now I have a very good internet.

The boss and 2 technicians apologized and explained me what was the issue and how they fixed it.

Thailand is a special country, but in the same time, can you imagine this happening in the USA or in Europe? Even in Thailand, try to get 3BB to care about a technical issue, not speaking about TOT!!!

So thanks to Kirz and their super duper upgrade and support, Rune Andersen, Bee at CANDO the company who managed the problem are the best as far as customer service is concerned!

:jap:

I attach the stats from from today... BIG difference, and I am now a satisfied customer.

duplicated post moderator, please delete.

Can Mr Thaksin make a come back in politics after that?

Good luck Ironman,

But the faked picture is not a good idea. How can people stand on their feet on a vertical ice wall like the 2 other guys in the back?

This picture has been made on on the ground and rotated 90 degree clockwise

Misleading advertisement, welcome to Thailand.

You can ask for a refund but knowing Thailand I think it would be a waste of time.

The cops would most likely just laugh at you.

TiT

Yeah there is probably nothing to do, but at least warn people to NOT use this ISP.

All ISP are selling coupons and ask you to pay in cash upfront so if it does not work, you are f.cked.

I have done the speed tests with Europe and US, I NEVER get better than 400kbs transfer rate and 100 ms latency, whatever it is at 3am, 9am, 2pm, 4pm etc...

I will check with 3BB and post the same speed tests, it will cost me some $$ but at least I will see if it is the same with all ISP.

I'm in the View Talay 6 in Pattaya and I got Internet with CANDO, and they advertise 3Mb download / 2MB upload and better quality than the competitors.

The reality is different.

I can't get better than 500ms latency even with the US, and download speed is around 300kbs or worse upload the same or better...

It is 10x time slower than advertised.

What can I do, can I get a refund? Should I fill a claim with the police?

It is missleading advertising right?

I have Kirz in Pattaya, quality is not US or EUR standard, latency is around 300ms (should be 25ms) download 300kbs upload 200kbs even if they advertise 3000mbs and 2000mbs upload...

It sucks