CallumW

Just go to Procomm in Surin.

They will order one for you will just take a few days (maybe longer with the flood situation)

I've used them since 2003

Hang on, which one is Procomm? The place on the corner on the road to the elephant roundabout?

Cheers.

Just go to Procomm in Surin.

They will order one for you will just take a few days (maybe longer with the flood situation)

I've used them since 2003

Yes, that's the easiest option, good idea.

Cheers

I am in Surin and 99% sure I can't get one here so know I am going to have to travel, hence the wide scope

Cheers.

Does anyone know of a supplier of replacement batteries for ASUS netbooks in Isan?

Thanks in advance.

The success of any business hinges upon the perceived value of the product or service it sells.

Value is not simply a monetary consideration, price is simply one part of the calculation.

You could probably sum up value in the restaurant business as being:

price + quality + availability + service

So let's take a look at each of these in the light of recent comments about FC

Price - Most people seems to find the prices acceptable, only really issue seems to be the rumoured double pricing for regulars and passing trade.

Quality - It would seem that quite a few people have an issue with the quality of the food, a quick Google also brings back a lot on negativity in the results for FC.

Availability - Even back when Martin was still alive, there were often multiple choices missing from the menu, and this is understandable, this happens in just about every restaurant from time to time. However, it would appear that the situation has become much worse in recent months.

Service - The service used to be OK (note I say OK, not good or great), but since Martin is no longer there to make sure the staff actually work, this has become a major problem. I'll vouch for this 100% through experience, I don't go into the FC much any more, I pop in now and again when I feel like reading the newspaper, but two weeks ago I walked in, sat at a table, lit a cigarette and waited. When I finished my cigarette and one of the waitresses had yet to acknowledge I was there, I got up and walked out.

Looking at things this way we can clearly develop a set of coals, which once achieved, should improve the FC experience.

price - no real problem, but the double pricing needs to be stopped if it is actually a reality.

quality - It's not as simple as finding a new cook, like many Farang restaurants, the menu at FC is full of dishes that the chef has probably never tasted in a Western environment. How can a Thai cook make good Western food when they don't even know how it's supposed to taste? My advice would be to cut the menu down, and specialise in a handful of farang dishes, making sure the chef can actually cook each one of them. Obviously keep the breakfasts, sandwiches and that kind of thing.

availability - offering a small menu would also help significantly with this problem

service - This has to change entirely and it's going to take somebody supervising who is not scared to tell the waitresses to get off their <deleted>, stop playing with their mobile phones and start doing some work. This means teaching the value of greeting customers and monitoring the tables to make sure people do not need to shout across the restaurant to get their attention.

So does this mean the end for uneducated oafs, who wouldn't be allowed to be anywhere near a classroom in their own country, coming here to "teach" English? Good riddance.

There is a major flaw in the original post.

When terms such as own a fridge, own a motorcycle, own a pickup are thrown around, then the OP should really state the facts more truly. In the majority of cases these items are not owned by the villager, they are owned by the bank or the finance company that leant them the money to buy them.

Not many farang options left in Surin center now.

That can only be a positive for the local society.

Why is there this obsession in place when it comes to Farang eateries catering to Western cuisines, less Farang "hangouts"?

Eat local.....

Nothing to do with obsession, I eat local 99% of the time. But on the rare occasion I feel like eating Western food the options are limited.

Where's Green mango?

If you are standing on the street looking at Ivan's place, sports bar is to the left and green mango is about 20 metres up the road to the right.

It looks OK and a few people have told me it's OK, I just don't bother with farang places much anymore apart from popping in to say hello to Ivan now and then, so I have not tried it yet.

If you do, let me know what you think.

Not many farang options left in Surin center now.

Crazy Ivan's place is a great drinking hole but not exactly famed for it's food, more of a night time bar.

FC has gone downhill since Martin passed away.

Starbeam can be good but unless Mike is there you just never know if it's going to be open or not.

Sports bar is alright, nothing special.

Heard good things about Green Mango but not tried it yet.

Hi folks, a bit of a long shot, but I was wondering if anyone knows a Thai company which manufactures safety vests?

Picture attached to show the kind of thing I am looking for.

Cheers.

Oh great that's fantastic news, looked everywhere else and can't find one, I'll take a ride up there today.

I wouldn't totally dismiss the massage idea. It' seems to be increasingly popular in Ubon.

Wife of a friend is a hairdresser, finished a 3 months massage course, got a license and had no problem getting a job at a decent massage place. She is at the same time attending courses to be educated in herbal spa massage, and I think the thought of having a future hair/beauty/herbal spa/massage place, have crossed their minds...........

I have to agree with this, the options for (good) massage in Surin are actually quite limited. There are a couple of fairly decent places but even they can be hit and miss depending on which girl actually massages you.

Not quite sure which restaurants and resorts you think you can sell vegetables too. It's not like the local market isn't fully stocked with fresh veg at a price cheaper than you would need to charge it you are hauling it and keeping it refrigerated.

Perhaps you mean sell it to those 5 star restaurants and boutique resorts? Oh wait... This is Surin there aren't any.

Not wishing to rain on your parade, but I just don't see a market.

Anyone seen anywhere in Surin selling USB headsets? I can only find the type that come with micro jacks.Cheers.

Thanks to all the people that have contributed so far, my bookshelf is going to be entirely refreshed, so sick of reading the same hundred or so books I shipped over from the UK time and time again.

Upload it via FTP into the wp-content/themes directory.

Then login to the admin dashboard, select the themes option from the appearance menu, locate the theme and click activate.

I'm really glad I started this topic, I had never heard of around half of these, great stuff thankyou.

Thanks folks, please keep them coming!

Hi Folks,

I'm trying to put a list of books together which might be of interest to expats in Thailand.

Anyone have any recommendations? Fiction or non-fiction both.

Thanks.

If by soft you mean more polite, considerate, better mannered and less selfish then I would agree (overall not every Westerner fits that picture, although most of the ones I have met living up country do)

Laab made of anything.

Goy Moo (same as Laab but raw pork, even nicer when it has live red ants running all over it).

BBQ anything (big BBQ fan).

Sticky rice (although it has a habit of putting me to sleep when I eat too much)

Cucumber (can't spell the Thai word) used to scoop up dollops of nam prik pla too (very nice alongside a beer).

Oh yes that reminds me, fried pla too for breakfast, Isan equivalent of kippers

Jok or Khao Tom (Mrs makes a big pot and you just eat it all day).

That's a few of the things I like to eat in Isan, although in truth I like it all. The food is one of the main reasons for being in Thailand in my mind.

Perhaps, dreaming of the license for debauchery issued only to artists, he becomes a "writer", imagining himself a Bukowski or Hunter S. Thompson. He is not a Bukowski, nor a Hunter S. Thompson

Loving the irony.

All of the charity work that I've seen is done by the temples in each community. This decentralized system is very effective because it is localized.

I for one would be wary of centralized charities and do diligence to make sure your money is getting to the people it is intended for.

Yeah that's the kicker, too much cash would end up in several back pockets if I chose the wrong charity.

Maybe looking for a farang run charity might be best (such as the one the previous poster emailed me about), the thing is I've been ripped off more frequently by farang in Thailand than I have by Thais! ha!

Cheers for the advice.

Hi folks.

I'm looking for a list of Isan only charities, preferably ones focusing on children.

I'm planning a walking tour of ever town in Isan once the weather cools down a bit (I've done it by car, I've done it by motorcycle now I want to do it on foot).

So I figured why not raise some money for charity along the way.

Anybody know where I can find a list?

Thanks.