masuk

They are in Chiang Mai and every establishment is filled to the brim

Even at a local hotel they are here screaming on the 3rd floor ..I had to remind them they can just talk which they do now ...nice folks

Ask for an ang bao !

Funny. I thought I would never meet people that talked louder than these good folks here in Esaan. But that was before I went to China and visited a restaurant.

Chinese are loud! They drive me nuts with their screaming.

That's what they say about Americans!

It is my opinion that only the Chinese 'talk' louder than Americans. Must be noisy places.

I once politely asked 3 Chinese in a KL restaurant, if they'd continue their fighting outside and not disturb those of us eating.

One guy replied in perfect English, explaining that they were only 'talking'. They did quieten down considerably.

try and find one with no dogs within 250metres. the locals have absolutely no idea how to train them. There appears to be no limit on how many per household, and if you think there's a dog inspector..ha! Then there's the soi dogs....

I am a born sceptic too, but I am happy to take this story at face-value.

don't tell me the lost key had the hotel name and room number on it!!!

I think we need a new sub-forum for crimes committed by the Thai police.

I agree !!!! If you actually gathered up every police gone bad story for one year, I think it would be astonishing in its scope.

There are so many I can hardly keep track of them..

The Chiang Mai Mail reports two serious drug busts, both involving senior law enforcers. The first, a Lieutenant in uniform, caught with 1.3m tablets and 30kg of crystal meth. . Now we have a third: Maybe these folk need 'special' treatment, resulting in tough sentences.

...any photos taken?

I'll see if I can add some....

Nothing spectacular - just cleaning up.

Yeah, we copped that storm cell also, 5km north of Maejo Uni.

Had no power for about 10 hours, woke to survey the damage: 1 lovely jackfruit tree snapped off at the base. Wow, that sap is stickier than used chewing gum!

A broken window, but not from the hail - it slammed rather hard.

One interesting phenomenon: I had the kitchen louvered windows set to about 45degrees, but the wind was so strong, the insect screens were blown open, and rainwater and shredded leaves forced up onto the ceiling. A lot of mopping inside and outside the house. The street was carpeted in leaves, and some folk nearby lost a huge mango tree, spread across the intersection. One street light twisted almost off.

I've just written to a company in Canada, who used to supply me with starter cultures when I was in Indonesia. I made my own yoghurt from these cultures for some years.

Some cultures will set at room temperature here in Chiang Mai, but others need slow heating in a yoghurt maker.

Acidophilus yoghurt, which is good for keeping away 'bad' bugs is not so easy to obtain here, and is more difficult to make.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactobacillus_acidophilus

Our family of wife and four teens survived 2 years in Indonesia with no tummy bugs at all, as our maid made yoghurt for us which she inherited from her previous employers from Denmark.

I'm also making enquiries in Australia with a company which produces a pack complete with powdered milk in various flavours, and I'm hoping to convince them to sell this product in Thailand.

I'll post on this forum any progress made.

The best way to secure an old Hard Drive is to use a 10mm drill. Right between the eyes!

There are some clever folk out there who will happily go through a discarded HDD and find all sorts of things you'd rather they didn't see.

No residency certificates?

That's going to put them in a bad mood for a while.

I thought I was doing the right thing and downloaded the pinned Residency Certificate on the Thai Visa site.

I carefully filled it in, took it to the Chiang Mai Immigration office, and was told 'it's the wrong form' . The girl there was very helpful and cheerful, and when I pointed out that this was what the Bangkok Immigration office have listed, she said 'this is Chiang Mai'! I was given a totally different form to fill in.

Having done another residency certificate a few months ago, which took an amazing 15 minutes, I was floored when she told me to come back in 5 hours! I asked what the problem was, and it was 'the boss is away'.

Came back at 3pm, and was told to wait another hour. I eventually got the certificate at 4pm.

The number of people in that cramped little building is truly amazing.

I'm about to start looking around for a decent moo baan, with pool. This place sounds nice.

It would be really great if it is a 'dog free' zone. Am I being hopeful?

What are the shopping facilities?

I've only recently started to use Rimping at Mee Chok. It's a bit cramped but they have such a multitude of duplicate products.

My main beef with that particular store is that the staff do not appear to understand the English signs on each aisle; if you want dried fruit, you need to look under 'Macaroni'.

I've also started to use the market nearby, which impresses me with its variety, its cleanliness and also so many of the folk behind the counters seem to have a much better understanding of English than the supermarkets do.

One of these days I'll remember to get to the stores which sell wine after 11:00 am!

It's all so

FORMER Indonesian vice-president Jusuf Kalla has criticised key elements of the Australian opposition's border protection policies, including Tony Abbott's plan to turn back asylum-seeker boats.

Read more: http://www.news.com....4#ixzz2JREIRg6d

Hey tuky.

Why doesn't Indo take in all those refugees in question?

They pass through the country ,don't they?

..and last time I checked Indo is a 'stable' country

Hypocrisy of the highest order.

It's all very complicated, and no doubt difficult for the Oz Government not to totally p..s off the neighbours. As I understand it, the Australian govt paid for a large Immigration detention centre in Jakarta, but the illegals manage to slip out of this quite easily, and then mysteriously reappear a few thousand km away in the eastern islands, where they are able to pay large amounts of money to charter old wrecks of boats, and somehow manage to get to Christmas Island.

For some reason they are not keen to stay in Malaysia or Indonesia. They are not terribly welcome by most Australians, but there is a humanitarian aspect to be considered.

It is no different to what the Aussies did a couple of times in early 2000s (until the refugees started sinking the boats and/or throwing children overboard).

It is no different to what the Aussie opposition party want to do if they are elected this year.

FORMER Indonesian vice-president Jusuf Kalla has criticised key elements of the Australian opposition's border protection policies, including Tony Abbott's plan to turn back asylum-seeker boats.

Read more: http://www.news.com....4#ixzz2JREIRg6d

The legend of throwing children overboard by the Australian Navy was disproved long ago. It pays to keep up with the news and not what the sensational headlines printed before the actual truth came out.

There were kids in the water, and Aussie naval personnel helped fish them out.

As Australia is a signatory to the UN Human Rights Charter, the government is obliged to take in those seeking refuge until they are either cleared or found to belong to organisations not desirable in the country.

Malaysia is NOT a signatory, and I must assume that neither is Thailand.

I had some advice from a medical person here in CM, and was told that the water is considered good enough to drink, though few actually do.

The Local govt folk should know, or maybe the water testing laboratory.

Never heard of a tornado in Australia

We don't get Tornadoes here

Australians are funny about tornadoes. Most of us have a strong belief that they don't occur here. It's hard to shake. Sure, we have violent thunderstorms. Hailstones as big as cricket balls. Violent winds that blow down trees over wide areas. But no tornadoes. They only occur in America -- like in the movie Twister. In America but not here.

We get tropical cyclones. They call them hurricanes in America. Everybody here who's old enough remembers when Cyclone Tracy devastated Darwin on Christmas Eve in 1974. But suggest that winds from a violent thunderstorm that destroy property or take lives might be a tornado, and everyone talks about damaging wind gusts or mini-cyclones. Never tornadoes.

continued: http://www.home.aone...ng/tornado.html

http://en.wikipedia....es_in_Australia

a good story mate! goes to show - we do get 'em!

Never heard of a tornado in Australia

plenty of tornados or big willy-willys.

maybe you're thinking of typhoons which occur other side of the equator.

Didn't I read on these pages a few weeks back that legal Viagra pills, manufactured by the state pharmacy, were now being sold by Thai Pharmacists at a fraction of the previous rate?

The reasoning behind the 'safe' Viagra was that it would prevent the need for the fake drugs.

so what happened?

Hmm. so buyrentchiangmai is too busy to read your requirements. That's not a good sign.

I lived near Nimman for 6 months, before moving out of the city.

You commented about aircraft flight paths. Bear in mind that the planes fly due north over Nimman before banking to the south, so being in the north part of the Nimman area won't help you a lot.

I used to walk every day around that area, and there's quite a few interesting places to look at, both from a rental point of view and also design etc.

Now that Nimman is going to be a one-way road, it will be interesting to see what happens, esp with the huge shopping complex being built on the super highway intersection. The intersection is bad enough now.

Shopping in that area will also be expensive, but you no doubt know that.

Good luck.

Sounds interesting: I'll have to try them.

Considering that there are tropical varieties in South America where the potato originated, it's surprising there are not more here.

the Travelex charges are one off. No extra charges apart from the 150baht ATM fee.

I been using the Travelex cards for years, and no problems and made withdrawals from ATMs in about 5 countries.

You get two at time of purchase (in Australia from the Post Office or some banks) each card has a different PIN. If you lose one, cancel it on the internet immediately or change the PIN. Balances etc can be checked on the internet at anytime.

As mentioned, there's a 150baht fee at the local ATM. WARNING: do not try and withdraw money not used back in your home country. there is about a $30 fee.

If you have a big hotel bill coming up, make withdrawals over 2 or 3 days. Pay it off at the hotel if you doubt the security there.

I've just discovered this site: It looks interesting and will check it out this week.

http://www.dutchsnacks-handmade.com/#!

I can see there have been others on this topic in the past two years, but none actually tell me 'what' and 'where'.

So basically can anyone tell me the THAI for these tablets and where I might buy some.

I know they're good and every little shop around Java has them, but I'm a bit stuck for the Thai name.

It's usually around the end of November but I didn't see anything about it this year.

It's a few months off then, if it's November, 2013.

I was teaching English in Indonesia for 6 years, and we used a variety of text books, depending on the school.

Without going into who copied what in bulk, I can give you my opinion: that is I think the "Headway Series" (British English thank you) is by far the best. Probably the least expensive source would be Singapore.

These are not cheap, and each level has a Student's book, a Workbook with key (good for homework), Teacher's book and a cassette. The cassette is key to the text so easy to follow and there are a variety of English accents.