Nuff Said

They have been operating normally since at least a week gone last Saturday, when I caught train 109, 1430 Bangkok-Chiang Mai. All trains are operating normally today, subject only to the customary hours or two's delay!

The flood damage just north of Lopburi, a pohoto of which appeared on another another thread on this forum a fortnight or so ago, as been repaired, the track replaced, and is operating normally, subject only to a 20 mph speed restriction.

To see SRT's Train Tracking Service, go to http://www.railway.co.th/tts/ It defaults to the Northern line. The top right box, under the little picture, is for trains from Bangkok and the one below is for trains to Bangkok. Its in Thai, but is easy to understand if you know your train numbers. If you don't, go to the SRT homepage, click on the English version and to to Timelables.

When I previously lived here I had UBC, but got sick to the back teeth, not only with the level of repeats, but also of 40/45 minute programmes on channels such as National Geographic and Discovery, that were padded out and interupted every few minutes with streams and streams of repetitive trailers, so as to fully occupy a 60 minute slot. When it comes to programme slots, one size does not fit all.

This time I will do without UBC. I only wish that Multichoice from South Africa, with its excellent cricket coverage, was still avauilable here, but unfortunately, to my knowledge, its satelite footprint no longer covers this part of the world. If anyone wishes to correct me on this matter then please do so as this is a subject on which I would like to be proved wrong!

Count me in please.

I said in an earlier post that I was returning to live in CM, and its good to be back.

Go to http://www.seat61.com/

It is a very comprehensive website for rail travellers.

Hull also issue visas to those in EU countries. I have very recent personal experience of this.

Also, if applying to them for a Non-Immigrant 'O' on the basis of converting it to 'retirement' status when in Thailand, no proof of income is required. Just a straight forward single sheet application form and a signed declaration that you can support yourself financially when there. Again, 'been there, just done that'.

The UK consulates are all honorary, and the consuls do not recieve a salary for their work. The visa fees are theirs for providing the service, so I find it difficult to understand why some require more paperwork than others, especially during a period when tourist visas are free. Having said that, some only allow a single entry free, and others charge an 'administration fee.'

Update to the above.

Just got my passport, complete with nice new Multi Entry Non Immigrant 'O' visa, in the post today. Excellent service from Hull, turned round the same day. I wish I could say the same about the postal service. That took a week each way!

Hull also issue visas to those in EU countries. I have very recent personal experience of this.

Also, if applying to them for a Non-Immigrant 'O' on the basis of converting it to 'retirement' status when in Thailand, no proof of income is required. Just a straight forward single sheet application form and a signed declaration that you can support yourself financially when there. Again, 'been there, just done that'.

The UK consulates are all honorary, and the consuls do not recieve a salary for their work. The visa fees are theirs for providing the service, so I find it difficult to understand why some require more paperwork than others, especially during a period when tourist visas are free. Having said that, some only allow a single entry free, and others charge an 'administration fee.'

I've just sent a PM with the contact details of an on-site (at home) technician who should be able to help.

Thank you for your referral. I called Nik and he came to my home an hour later.

Everything is cool with my computer

Glad everything worked out OK. I alway call him when I have problems.

I've just sent a PM with the contact details of an on-site (at home) technician who should be able to help.

I did it back in May.

Rode the train from Kanchanaburi to Bangkok in the afternoon, and checked into here for the night: http://www.thetraininn.com/room.php

When exiting out of the train station, make two lefts and follow the wall-line for about 50 meters; the inn will be on your right.

Had pork noodle soup and a big Leo for dinner at the nearby noodle shop, read a book and crashed for the night.

Went to the train station early, minimarted it for breakfast/coffee, read some more on the train.

Train did stop quite a bit, weather was nice and warm, and we had just the right amount of good ol diesel smoke to inhale.

After arriving at the Pattaya station, we had to wait for about 10 minutes for some minivans to arrive and ferry the passengers around Pattaya.

Pretty uneventful ride.

It really boils down to how much time you have to burn vs. how much you want to spend getting to Pattaya.

I had all the time in the world, was going to be at the train station anyway, and no matter what city I was in would have had to rent a room to sleep in and spend a few baht on food, so worked out just fine for me.

Good train info website www.seat61.com

Thanks for the hotel link, very useful.

The train from Bangkok to Pattaya is an experience, provided you are not in a hurry. It leaves at 0655 as train number 283 and arrives Pattaya at 1035. It also calls at Pattaya Tai, oficially a station but little more than a lump of concrete on the south side of the level rossing where the line intersects Soi 87, at 1040. It returns as train 284 from there at 1414, departs Pattaya at 1421 and is due Bangkok 1825.

The trains run Mndays to Fridays only, and I'm not sure if they operate on public holidays either. They are normally formed with a locomotive and about 6 coaches.

There's no buffet car, but plenty of self employed food vendors on board. The accommodation is advertised at third class only, but it has been known to convey a composite coach (half second class and the other half third), for which you may be charged extra if you wish to avail yourself of the relative comfort of the second class seating.

Links the the timetables here.

From Bangkok http://www.railway.co.th/timetable/Neggo.pdf

To Bangkok http://www.railway.co.th/timetable/Negre.pdf

They are in Thai but not too difficult to understand. Some stations are also shown in English.

Getting rid of those reclining seats would be the best thing all airlines could do. Nothing worse than getting behind some selfish bastard who reclines that seat into your knee caps 5 minutes after the plane takes off.

Rather than condemning someone who reclines a seat that is actually designed to recline shouldn't you be slating the airlines which squeeze such seats into too close a configuration?

You're too fast to condemn the airlines. I'm sure you don't want to pay double the cost, so they have to do what they have to do. If you want more real estate to sit in, you unfortunately have to pay more. No, it's simply the selfish a hole that cares little about anyone other than his/her self that leans back with little concern. Pure jerkoffs if you ask me.

Its not only the selfish passenger in front, I get irritated when the one behind grabs my seatback to steady himerlf evey time he leaves or returns to his seat, rather than using the armrests for leverage, which is probably too much like hard work for some. If I detect this is about to happen I press the recline button but leave the seat upright, and the passenger behind finds my seatback isn't as fixed as he thinks it is.

It is interesting to see how this thread has changed since it started. Back then the Aussie dollar was around 22 baht. The Ausie pension was also some $20.00 lowerper fortnight. As of today the Aussie dollar is at parity with the U S dollar and expected to overtake it. The average Aussie pension is around 40,000 baht a month if you have no real assets. The average cost here for a carton of beer is $50.00 ...a pack of smokes $16.00...car registration average $800.00 pa for a medium sized vehicle...rent for a crappy one bedroom flat $250.00 a week if you can find one...thousands of speed camera's taking in a minimum of $180.00 fine for 5 k's over the limit...and the list goes on.

The only way a broke pensioner can live in Australia is to find an abandoned caravan and a mate with a farm to park it on.

So Chiangmai has lousy foot paths used as parking lots for scooters...gas mask season during burn offs and traffic to test ones survival instincts daily. It is also facinating in it's diversity . A people watchers paradise. A food lovers heaven. A place where you can mix in or drop out according to your interests. And you can survive quite nicely on 40,000 baht if you have to. I for one am glad there are places like Thailand as optons to go to when things get really tough at home.

Didn't realise that Aus was so expensive, not that I was thinking of going. My pension wouldn't last very long there.

Yes, you can certaily live comfortably in Chiang Mai on 40000 Baht per month, even if you paid 25% of that for a decent studio. It doesn't matter where you go in the world, nowhere is ever absolutely perfect. The more devolped the country the higher the cost of living, hence why retiring to Thailand, with its relatively low cost of living means accepting lower standards of infrastructure and poorer quality services.

The Chiang Mai footpaths are far from perfact. Its motorcyclists are inconsiderate and couldn't care less where they park, simply because, even if the parking bikes on footpaths is illegal, they know the law is never enforced.

Its all about taking the good with the bad. Nowhere is perfect, but there's far worse than Chiang Mai.

SRT will, as part of normal permenant way maintainence, trim lineside vegetation and cut back adjacent trees so that they do not obstruct the normal operation of trains. But any suggestion to cut down every tree that may possibly fall and obstruct the railway is about as daft as they come.

I have just read on another site that the tree fell because its roots had been loosened by recent heavy rain. If this incident was to be the subject of a coroners court type enquiry, the verdict would be 'natural causes'.

Thai trains are safe. There's always media hysteria whenever there's a rail accident, for one reason; they are so rare. If a bus had collided with a fallen tree it would have hardly got a mention.

Train travel in Thailand is safe. Clearly the tree wasn't in a safe condition, so perhaps the landowner should be held responsible. This train is not a neccessarily a 'wreck', so cut out the hysterical media style hype. It will be re-railed, then taken to a maintainence depot for inspection and necessary attention to vehicles that are not beyond economic repair.

Trains have been striking fallen trees since the year dot. It is nothing new, but such instances are very rare, and the risk extremely low. It is totally wrong to question the safety of SRT. The the root cause (no pun intended) of this accident was the fallen tree. If it hadn't fallen the train would not have struck it or become derailed. Can't put it more simply than that!

The heading for this post should be 'Six Seriously Injured After Train Strikes Fallen Tree'.

I left Chiang Mai.

That's why I'm posting at this ungodly hour.

Sadly I am forced to return next week. Woe is me.

I also left Chiang Mai.

I am also returning, not because I have to, but because I want to.

Can't wait to get back! Bags partly packed already. Just 2 weeks to go.

Its not all one way traffic.

Thanks for sharing your experience. I have yet to hear of anyone who had a problem obtaining a visa from Hull.

I have had several Multiple Entry Non Immigrant 'O' visas from there between 1998 and 2004, and am about to apply for another based on retirement. Even though I am not in the UK (I am in an EU country that does not have Thai Diplomatic representation) they said it would be no problem. Standard fee of £100 plus £12 for postage.

What's better, an empty or near deserted establishment that charges high prices, or one where the owner has cut his margins to get the punters in, and makes passers by think 'that place is full, must be good, must check it out'.

A lot of these places, the farang puts the money in but the Thai wife / gf takes it out and pulls the strings.

It's not the Thai way to drop prices for farangs when things are bad, rather they tend to increase them in farang establishments.

However, if you check out the 100% Thai owned bars you will find that their deals are good enough, that no discounts are necessary....yet they still tend to make offers whether you are Thai or farang....they just want the custom.

When I lived in Jomtien there was just one local go-go bar, totally Thai owned and run. When things got bad the owner increased the price of a draught beer in B10 stages over a 2 year period from B45 to B75! Yes, a two thirds increase in 2 years. Thats the Thai mentality. Once it went to B75 I never set foot in the place again. I don't know if its still going, but I wish my pension increased at the same rate!

Thai owned bars do have one advantage over those owned by foreigners, as the owner can actively work in the bar, as opposed to simply sitting and entertaining customers. That gives them the advantage of, if neccessary, being able to act as cashier, not only saving a salary, but also ensuring that financial irregularities, (polite term for fiddling) for which cashiers are well known, are eradicated. During hard times this could make the difference between a bar surviving or going to the wall.

When I get back to Chiang Mai at the end of this month I'll check out some Thai owned bars to see how their prices compare.

In my circle of friends, several are heading back home or going back to work simply because they have run out, or are running out or cant live on what money they are receiving each month.

There is in my eyes anyway a large exodus of people leaving and going back to work.

DK

I have no doubt that what you say is true. I too am packing my bags, but the traffic is not all one way.

I left Chiang Mai early last year for pastures new, but, despite the poor exchange rate, am returning in just four weeks time. I will have a little less cash each month than last time, but can, and will if neccessary, forgo such luxuries as UBC. Nice to have, but not essential. Will make do with WETV, shop around for the best internet deals etc, and 'discretional spending' will mean just that. Fortunately I never sold my condo, so rental costs aren't an issue.

Its the businesses such as bars and restaurants that rely heavily on 'discrectional spending' that have suffered, simply because people need to buy food and pay their utility bills, but don't have to eat or drink out. I think this explains why so many of these establishments are either up for sale or have failed compltetly.

Bars and restaurants had it good when the exchange rates were high.

Now there's such a drop in rates, a lot of people are hurting and as you quite rightly said a lot of people now rely on 'discretionary spending', so you'd think these bars and restaurants would be decreasing their prices accordingly to help out their fellow ex-pats, who propped them up during the good times..... but instead choose to throw insults at those who dare suggest the very thought.

Businesses, large or small, must take the good with the bad, and,as you quite rightly point out, the bars and retaurants had it good for many years while the Baht was weak. But, regardless of whether they are Thai or foreign owned, such businesses are not immuned from the effects of the exchange rate now that the boot is on the other foot. If the going gets tough for high street stores they set about turning things sround with offers, sales and promotions. If bars and restaurants don't do the same thing, albeit on a smaller scale, they don't deserve to stay in business.

What's better, an empty or near deserted establishment that charges high prices, or one where the owner has cut his margins to get the punters in, and makes passers by think 'that place is full, must be good, must check it out'.

In my circle of friends, several are heading back home or going back to work simply because they have run out, or are running out or cant live on what money they are receiving each month.

There is in my eyes anyway a large exodus of people leaving and going back to work.

DK

I have no doubt that what you say is true. I too am packing my bags, but the traffic is not all one way.

I left Chiang Mai early last year for pastures new, but, despite the poor exchange rate, am returning in just four weeks time. I will have a little less cash each month than last time, but can, and will if neccessary, forgo such luxuries as UBC. Nice to have, but not essential. Will make do with WETV, shop around for the best internet deals etc, and 'discretional spending' will mean just that. Fortunately I never sold my condo, so rental costs aren't an issue.

Its the businesses such as bars and restaurants that rely heavily on 'discrectional spending' that have suffered, simply because people need to buy food and pay their utility bills, but don't have to eat or drink out. I think this explains why so many of these establishments are either up for sale or have failed compltetly.

Of the 8.77 million figure quoted, how many are genuine tourists, and what percentage are not really tourists at all, but just perpetual 'long stay' visa runners using tourist visas or visa exempt stamps as a way of staying in Thailand?

Try this comparison site

http://matrix1.itasoftware.com/cvg/

Its very good, and, unlike Kayak, is quick. It also offers a 30 day search facility for those who are flexible regarding dates. Unforunately, neither use the 24 hour clock!

Both Emirates and Gulf Air offer a 30kg economy class baggage allowance. Also check the allowance of Jet Airways, their website is none too clear on this issue. Etihad offer 23kg's.

It appears to be another one of Chiang Mai's many non-earning businesses that are a labor of love for the owner. My guess is that It has never sold many copies and it is easy to see that it has very few advertisers, but they distribute free copies every week to numerous locations and are free on the Internet. Who can argue with that?

There are a number of free publications about that are appreciated by those of us who read obsessively, but I don't know how most of them can make ends meet without having a big pension or personal bank account

Perhaps the Chiang Mai Mail is a labor of love, and the owners do it for love and not money, as I recall a statement from the owners to this effect some time ago. It attracts little classified advertising because of its B10 per word charge, while there are other local printed and on-line publications that offer free lineage advertising. Publications usually attract advertisers on the basis of the number of copies circulated, be they paid for or otherwise. It's a viscous circle. If they don't achieve the circulation figure they don't attact the advertising, and if they don't get the advertising the publication ceases to be viable.

When I was last in Chiang Mai a real estate agent told me that Citylife, which is free, had sharply reduced the number of copies available for circulation. Was this because they were genuinely printing more than were needed, or simply an economy measure? When setting up a print run, the major cost is for the first so many copies. There then comes a point where printing more costs little more than the paper and ink. This probably explains why the Chiang Mai Mail is so keen to give copies away, as they, in effect, probably cost very little to produce.

The fact that both the CM Expats Club and CM Mail have recently downsized their frequency is, in my opinion, a reflection of the fact that there must be fewer foreigners in the area to cater for. Neither will have cut back on their activities just for the sake of it.

Sorry, I said 'Chiang Mai' in my earlier posting, it should have read 'Chiang Mai Mail.'

This is probably the begining of the end for the Chiang Mai Mail. It always seems to struggle to fill its pages, as, like its sister paper in Pattaya, it doesn't risk upsetting people by venturing into the sometimes shadey world of investigative journalism.

I wasn't aware that it shut down for 6 months in 2007 as I didn't live in Chiang Mai then.

Since 2006 it has had at least 4 addresses changes, maybe 6.

I wasn't aware of the either.

I can't help getting the impression that if the reduction in frequency to twice mothly doesn't work financially, then it will be curtains. Downsizing will mean that the news that it does carry will be even more stale that before. With the availability of news and information on such the web and forums such as this, who needs a printed option?

I wonder why the circulation is falling. Is it more on-line readers, or are there simply fewer foreigners to actually buy the printed version?

Sorry, I said 'Chiang Mai' in my earlier posting, it should have read 'Chiang Mai Mail.'

This is probably the beginnig of the end for the Chiang Mai Mail. It always seems to struggle to fill its pages, as, like its sister paper in Pattaya, it doesn't risk upsetting people by venturing into the sometimes shady world of investigative journalism.

I wasn't aware that it shut down for 6 months in 2007 as I didn't live in Chiang Mai then.

Following hard on the heel of the Chiang Mai Expats Clubs decision to reduce it meetings to one per month, is the Chiang Mail, which has just announced that it's going from weekly to twice monthly publication with immediate effect.