PatLogan

I only liked the snake house. Of course you have to pay extra for that.

Well I did not pay for it, and it was last Saturday

Oh, and I paid only 50THB at the entrance, I got my wife to explain to the ticket counter I was not a tourist, and I should not pay more than her, or my kids. And it worked

No one is forcing anyone to eat anything but look at the obesity in Chinese kids now and the 'rush' of junk food outlets there now. It was even written up in Time Magazine around 10 years ago - The Fattening of China - showing kids so bulky they could not even sit up without help.

I think that even nowadays in cities like Beijing there is not as many outlets selling fast food, donuts, ice creams than in Bangkok (and even Bangkok back in 2000).

The article might have mentioned what I think is the main factor or kid obesity in China: The Little Emperor syndrome.

But I agree with you, nobody if forcing people to go and eat there, and nobody forces the parents to bring their kids there too...

"

Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and unto the Belgians the things that are Belgian.

French fries are not American, they are Belgian. It has been recounted that potatoes were already fried in 1680 in the Spanish Netherlands, in the area of "the Meuse valley between Dinant and Liège, Belgium. Many Belgians believe that the term "French" was introduced when American soldiers arrived in Belgium during World War I, and consequently tasted Belgian fries. They supposedly called them "French", as it was the official language of the Belgian Army at that time. "Les frites" (in French) or "Frieten" ( in Dutch) became the national snack and a substantial part of several national dishes..."

It is recounted, but not proven. I quote a Belgian website about the Meuse valley story:

Jo Gerard, a famous Belgian historian, claims to have proof that fries were invented in the region of the Meuse in 1680. Based on an unpublished document, he writes that the poor inhabitants of this region ate mostly fish. When the river frooze, they cut their potatous in a fish-shape and fried them.

Unpublished?... Hmm...

Anyway, it was popular since the mid 19th century in both countries, so who really care where they come from?

As for the US, I think they brought us the "MacDonald" slim cut of French Fries. When I was a kid a before they invaded Europe, the "frites" were cut much larger.

I LOVE KRISPYKREME doughnuts, but haven't had them in YEARS. Oh man, just when I move from BKK they appear. OK when will they be in Isaan? They are goooooooooooooooooooddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd.

Well catch an Air Asia flight (AK). They sell them on board now, 90 THB for 2 + a coffee

Prices weren't too bad 249 thb for a dozen, by comparison Daddy Dough is 247 thb.

That's cheaper than I expected. Not good...

On par with KL prices: 25 THB for a glazed one, 28 THB for the other ones, 130 THB for 6 glazzed etc.

I had one yesterday there (no queue, actually nobody in the shop at 4pm), and I still prefer J.CO Donuts (where people always queue up)

Thanks for the reply here PL.

On the chart list I have with Thai prices of set up & choice of channels etc.

They list having HBO HD (channel 431) Regular HBO, Cinemax, & Star Movies. I actually did not take the movie package this year. I had to hold the money line some where!

So I basically have the "gold package" less sports & movies. But like the fact Granada & the Aussie Network BBC, Algeezara, CNBC, Bloomberg are included,for some reason CNN is hit & miss. Nat Geo, History,(both regular & HD) Cartoon channels, plus a bunch more "foreign ones"... which you listed.

Thai Prices quoted on the sheet I have: (not the company I used) Set up 9900 baht, included dish decoder & new wiring. I actually paid a bit less.

The packages listed on my sheet: Run from 10,000 baht without mini package, to 4 mini package and every thing 22,800 baht per year... Plus music channels. (Actually True's Music channels are better choice) This is where I think it is better to head down & get the decoder card renewed/topped up, in Malaysia next year?

Astro lately, keep making announcements to leave the decoder on as they are "updating services" so perhaps when this is done things will get better again?

I think anywhere in the world, on Satellite or Cable, they create these packages , in hopes you'll get the next package up!

You are most welcome

Well in the 1000 MYR I was paying I also had AXN, Discovery (but not all them, TLC, Turbo etc i had to pay extra for it, as for E! and AXN Beyond).

I was actually in KL these few days, and I go down there pretty often. I might check out the prices again next time, directly at a counter. I will see how True goes, and if in one year I am not happy. I will consider switcingh to Astro (plenty of friends down there you can subscribe for me), but I kinda doubt it. Again, I have had Tru for only 3 months, but I enjoy the programmes way more than I enjoyed Astro and I have way less rain related issues...

To PatLogan in KL the dish I have is green.... out of curiosity what do you guys pay down there? Perhaps worth a trip to get subscription on card next year ? Just take the card down to Penang to an Astro office...?

What I used to pay you mean, I left about 2 years and a half ago. At that time I was paying about 100MYR/month to get the channels I wanted, quite equivalent to Gold Package here I'd say. It is actually a bit complex to sort out the cost as they have mini package, family package, etc etc. But at that tiem they did not have (and I think they still don't have) the HBO packages, and there were only 3 movies channels (HBO. Star Movies and Cinemax). That is if you don't count the Chinese, Hindi, Tamil and Malay movies channels of course

PAT LOGAN - ok heres the checkmate !! You walked into your own trap!!

If these people in France are so well assimilated into your culture after 3 generations as you claim. Why do they as a group have grievences? How did they come to be together to identify one another ,form into a group, an plan and take action together. If you question this I can send you numerous links showing the ethnic background of rioters in France. Ill even send you some in FRENCH if you like!! The fact is that Moslems do not lose their culture just because they get a French passport. If we denied them this with their Fathers and Grandfathers there would be more riots in our respective countries.

I suggest you read this post twice and this time think about what the opint of my argument is.

Have you ever met some of them or even lived along them? Because it seems you get your facts only from news papers or articles and lack a bit of information about what happens on the ground.

First off you have no idea what the "banlieues" are. They do not group together, they have been living in these poor and shady neighbourhood for decades, as some moronic architects built up the HLM in he 60s thinking they would be a nice place to live while they were creating ghettos. Again, you are mixing up everything: immigrants, Muslims and "banlieusard". A very common generalization I have heard heaps of time in far right politicians in France. Sorry, but that does not work.

As for the assimilation and religaion, yes it is a very interesting question. The fact is, the elder brothers or even fathers of the people you are pointing fingers at only (North African Muslims) had a very different way of seeing things then these kids. And I think since I come fro ma town where probably 20% of the population is coming from North Africa, and went to school wit them, and counted many among my friends, I think I could see how the felt and lived. Drinking wine, eating pork... Problem is, in the late 80s and early 90s, "cellar mosks" funded by the Saudis and hence heavily influenced by Wahhabi. It was easy for them to lure the poorer kids living in these HLM (which were the worst error made ever in modern France in my opinion) and convert them to a hard-line form of Islam. I even had friends who fell for that. So yes, the big issue was not a failed assimilation process, but more a failure to see everybody needs one day to know where he/she comes from., that one cannot leave all their origins behind.

Anyway I have also been lured into derailing this topic, so it will my last reply on the matter here

RUBI & PAT LOGAN - seems to me your getting the message - YESSSS!! we LET foriegners have passports - now where can I go to get one in Thailand - even if im married to a Thai and have a baby with her thats BORN in Thailand. or do they think Fathers just disappear?? time for some serious reflection on just how stupid we are in the west to foriegners coming into our country - we should apply the same standards to them maybe - or is that level of equality racist??

Gosh it shows you have no idea what you are speaking about. Most of the so called foreigners you mention rioting in France had their parents or grandparents coming to France after their country were decolonized by France and because we needed the manpower. And like it or not, we will need more immigration soon in France because the population is getting old and according to prediction, in 30 years or less, we will need to get foreign workers to fill up the vacant job.

I won't speak about UK, not my business, but if you want to speak about France, maybe study a bit its history and assimilation approach to immigration first.

As for getting a Thai passport, well, honestly I never felt the need to get one, even if I am the only one in the family who does not have one. And I have no problem in not being able to get one. And it never disturbed me as a father.

Oh and yes, saying the people who were rioting in France are foreigners is not racist, it is simply WRONG.

Time to get your facts right - The rioting in france was from mainly north African - Morrocan, Algerian immigrants and in London from mainly West Indian and pakistanis. = you see we LET foreigners have rights in the west!!

Not foreigners! Most likely those you mentioned had a valid passport for either the UK or France

As for France, most of them (if not nearly all) had French passports. They are as much French as I am, second of third generation probably.

But again, it seems for some the fact they have a different skin colour makes them less French or even make them foreigners...

So this was just a topic about a guy going away for a few days?

Quite a successful troll thread actually.

Good work OP.

On the other hand, I still wonder how can one can live more than a few days in Paris (ok, a few weeks, time to visit everything, I'm exaggerating, I come from a city well known for that my cliche lovers Parisians)

Hope you had not to clean your shoes too often to take out the dogs sh1t, and enjoyed passing though Les Halles at night to go from one RER to another one, while hoping you won't get mugged... And I could go on and on and on like you did for Thailand. Easy to see only the negative side .

/ well TBH, I decided to leave for Asia a long time ago to avoid going to work in Paris, as it was the "place to go" to have a successful career. , so I am not totally objective

But J.Co donuts & coffee it still to open a store here

I know it is arguable, but I think they are even better

I don't know which dish you guys are using with Astro in Thailand, but from my 8 years experience with Astro in KL, I would say it is much more sensitive to the rain than True (in Bangkok). It was very simple: I could know it was about to rain just with my decoder, as 5 minutes before the sky opened, my signal was already out. And that was from either personal dishes, or the large dishes the condo I moved in later was using.

As for the price, yes it is quite cheaper indeed...

Just amazing they've got so much rebuilt/reopen already. In a western country the company would still be trying to get a construction/rebuild permit, tied up in court over claims/insurance, etc.

In a Western country - or in China - it would never have been permitted to happen in the first place.

It is not like if the Mandarin Oriental in Beijing burned to the ground because of illegal fireworks in February 2009, 2-month before opening, and 18 month later nothing has been done yet to demolish it or restore it .

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/4579647/China-TV-admits-it-burned-down-new-HQ-with-illegal-fireworks-display.html

And it looks today as the day after it burned...

Looks like there may be a big price drop for LCDs in the near future. Check out this article.

http://money.cnn.com...rices/index.htm

Unfortunately I highly doubt we will see any difference in Thailand. I checked the prices in PowerBuy yesterday to compare against the prices I wrote in this thread two months ago:

Samsung 55" Series 7000 is still 130k THB

Samsung 46" Series 7000 has INCREASED from 80k to 100k!

Thailand is the only place I know where the prices never change. I wish I could buy in the UK and ship to here. I'm still interested in finding a way to buy a TV and amp from outside Thailand and ship in if I could avoid a colossal import tax and shipping.

The 7000 series I have seen in Power Buy are now mainly 3D models, which might explains why. The non 3D should be much cheaper than that, around 70K for a 46" (at least it was the case 2-3 weeks ago)

Quick update: through friends of mine I got in touch with the Nakhon Sawan dealer, and it seems I can get the Alpine GPS for 25K THB + a free external 5" inch display as (according to them) if you watch the GPS on the integrated screen at the front, you cannot watch the TV/DVD on the additional display at the back... Well it was not very clear as in Thai, but the boss who speaks English will call me tomorrow to explain again

Thanks for that. So if I understand well the different in taxes is about 10% between them for the 2l. Seems they make more mark up on the CR-V

Wow these interests are good. I jsut managed to get a bit lower than 1.5% here, but not better.

As for the down-payment, well, if less than 25% they ask me for a local guarantee (which I can get from my friend)

Mistu finance is currently handled by the Bank of Ayudhya (AKA: Car 4 Cash). They have no problem using combined incomes for married couples, and if married to a Thai, your foreign income is golden - Thanachart and SCB are the only other banks I know of with similar policies - for the rest you'll need to make your money in TH OR your wife will need to be the one with all the Baht. You can also push for 20% down payment if that's important to you, plus you can push them on the interest rate (1.1 - 1.3% seems to be as good as it gets).

They proposed me 1.55%, over 3 or 4 years. I am letting the sales guy perspiring a bit before making the 5K deposit, see if we can get anything better

Oh, and I test drive it today.

CRV and Nissan X Trail are CHEAPER to make and ex taxes sold CHEAPER than Fortuner/ Pajero Sport. The LOS excice tax system benefits LOS made SUV on frame with wheelbase more than 275cm and not more than 3200cc engine, making them appear inexpensive in LOS.

CRV/Xtrail derived from cars have some benefits, but off road they are useless, engines low on tourque and payload is low.

Fortuner/Pajero Sport are offroadvehicles handling acceptable on road, with 7 seats great tourque and high payload (for suvs).

Foton Chinas SUV in LOS will have to compete on par with other imports, so ad 180% of taxes to its price. 3 makers presently have 99% of LOS SUV on frame market.

They plan to build up a plan here, as in Russia. Which is why I highly doubt that even if the development is well advanced according to their say, they can put the car on the market by end of next year as they said. And in a very Chinese fashion, when I mentioned Mitsu or Isuzu, they just discarded them and said "we want to compete with Fortuner"

No doubt the CR - V is not made to go off road, but let's face it, how many Fortuners and Pajero or Mu-7 go off road among all the ones I see in Bangkok?

I don't have the exact excise tax (would be glad if you have that, I am very interested), but the CR V is assembled in Ayutthaya. So would the tax make a difference of , say, 20%?

Unless you want to use it in the US, I don't see why going for a Nexus instead of a Desire, which is really easy to get in LOS.

Oh and unless you can't wait a few more weeks than the owners of a N1 to get the latest Android version

I have an Iphone 3Gs, and my wife an HTC Desire... sometimes I really feel like convincing her to use my Iphone and give me the Desire

Most buyers know sod all about motor tech, but thats OK, everybody thinks it has 4 wheels, brakes, wind screen wipers etc. Thats cool, why want to know more.

Manufacturers know that and some don't give a toss that their braking system is well under par but that is where this forum really can help the novice to take on board stuff they have never considered.

WE, are very lucky to have real tech info that's accurate and up to date, members katabeachbum and moonriveroasis are at the forefront of the critical information that WE want. So, it is well worth putting your question forward here to satisfy your thoughts about a purchase. I am sure they and others will be only to pleased to feel they have helped you in what you think is important to you.

Me, l just want a big V8 in my ride but not to be.

Well at the end of the day, people should understand why a truck-based "SUV" is cheaper than a crossover designed from a mid size sedan car like the CRV or the Nissan X Trail and why you can't expect the same thing.

Honestly, I would buy this one because they are the cheapest people mover around (I need 6 seats) and I would never expect to have a performing car in my hand.

Maybe some people are misled in thinking they have a Pajero "sport" and could actually race on the Dakar with it

PS: for those interested, Foton China is now developing a SUV to try to compete with the Fortuner here. Might be on the market end of next year.

You can even see BKK's improved air quality with they eye. I recall landing here several times in the late 80ies and the air was so poluted one could barely see the ground when only a couple of hundred metres in the air. Perhaps its only a visual thing as I never had a way to measure what was IN THE AIR, but it looks much clearer these days.

Or simply try to fly from Beijing to Bangkok once a month like I do and see how you feel when back in Bangkok. At least you can see the sky and not only greyish colors.

And since Beijing air pollution has decreased quite a lot lately, it must mean than Bangkok is not so bad.

And on a side note, I have no reason to not believe the people I know in ERTC when they tell me their monitoring stations show improvements, and that the data they have corroborate their say. Too bad they don't put their data online.... http://www.ertc.deqp.go.th/ertc_en/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=24&Itemid=38

I'm bait surprised you went to the dealer and still have so many questions ? Or maybe it was a Proton dealer? Anyway I'm heavily prejudiced against Proton, probably because I used to live in Malaysia, and had to drive these piece of sh1t they call Wira and Waja for 3 years...

And also probably bcos part of my income tax there was used to fund this "national company pride of the country" developing crap cars beyond imagination. Ok, rant over

The 2.5 is a diesel, common rail turbo charged. If you went to the dealer you probably have the brochures showing you the torque and power over rpm. My opinion is that for a 2 ton people mover in 2wd version 140 Hp would be enough for city and short trip use. These are SUV, but it think the S should not mean Sport

As for comparing to the Triton... Well first the rear suspension was redesigned to fit SUV like comfort and not truck like comfort. And the cabin on the Pajero is made to transport people quite comfortably, way more comfy than any double cabin truck... I think you should try to drive both to feel the difference.

As for the good deal, tell your Phuket dealer you can always go and buy it in Bangkok. You have the details in my post

I'm bait surprised you went to the dealer and still have so many questions ? Or maybe it was a Proton dealer? Anyway I'm heavily prejudiced against Proton, probably because I used to live in Malaysia, and had to drive these piece of sh1t they call Wira and Waja for 3 years...

And also probably bcos part of my income tax there was used to fund this "national company pride of the country" developing crap cars beyond imagination. Ok, rant over

The 2.5 is a diesel, common rail turbo charged. If you went to the dealer you probably have the brochures showing you the torque and power over rpm. My opinion is that for a 2 ton people mover in 2wd version 140 Hp would be enough for city and short trip use. These are SUV, but it think the S should not mean Sport

As for comparing to the Triton... Well first the rear suspension was redesigned to fit SUV like comfort and not truck like comfort. And the cabin on the Pajero is made to transport people quite comfortably, way more comfy than any double cabin truck... I think you should try to drive both to feel the difference.

As for the good deal, tell your Phuket dealer you can always go and buy it in Bangkok. You have the details in my post

OMG, and now, how can I publish all the BS of my life on the web???

Well one still has TV for that .

No personal pun intended , but we could go on for ages about FB

Anyway since last night, my internet is also bloooooooody slow for web browsing on True. I could not even see properly this page without using my VPN!