IsaanUSA

Great news.

Will I be able to buy more with the new 100 baht than with the old style notes?

No, it is 100 baht.

The fuss about the AEC is much ado about nothing.

Remember that only 7 professions will be able to "move freely" between countries. Of those 7 professions I predict only Tour Guides and Nurses will really take advantage of this in any significant numbers. However, even though they can "move freely" between countries and their professional certifications will be cross-recognized, they will still have to get the proper visas and work permits.

Free trade. You will be able to buy products from neighboring countries more easily, but realistically, people in neighboring countries will be able to buy Thai goods more easily. I'm excited for the beer selection that will be expanding in Thailand.

They can't buy houses, they're foreigners.

Is this the same plane that couldn't have its door shut in lampang?

http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/nok-air-flight-cancelled-lampang-plane-door-fails-close

is there a pattern here?

They only have 2 ATRs, so it is most likely the same plane.

You see now? This is a typical example of why Thai fails to make a profit. If they've configured their A340-600s in a 267 seating layout, then something is seriously pear-shaped there because the standard seating capacity in a two class configuration is 359 passengers according to Airbus.

That's why people loved to fly on THAI's A340-600. Tons of space!

I've never looked into this topic before, but I wonder why they don't reconfigure the planes? I guess it's cheaper to just get rid of them.

In my experience, the chances of finding Viet products in Thailand are slim. However, there is a Viet specialty shop in the Trendy Building, Bangkok, soi 13 Sukhumvit. I haven't been yet largely because I don't live in BKK. I think I saw this soap in Phnom Penh supermarkets and markets where a lot of Viets live.

perhaps this one but it looks to be for only coffee related things http://www.trungnguyenthailand.com/

Trung Nguyen Thailand, 10/7 Trendy Plaza, Soi Sukhumvit 13 Khongtoei-Nue, Wattana, Bangkok 10110

Tel: 082-8888-548

similarly http://www.coffeevina.com/

Have you never heard of Trung Nguyen?

Hopefully with AEC there will be more Viet products in Thailand

I thought I'd post this Yahoo Singapore story re HST.

It seems the Malaysians have plans to build a HST system from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore. Just wondering if the Chinese/Thais have their plans organized or is this a case of who's going to build from Padang Besar to KL?

https://sg.news.yahoo.com/bullet-trains-japan-shinkansen-experience-malaysia-future-120400063.html

You probably won't get a good reply in a Thai forum in a thread talking about a Japanese rail story, but I Googled it and this deal *might* be something.

http://www.therakyatpost.com/business/2014/12/02/china-firm-wins-kl-ipoh-highspeed-rail-award/

http://www.ecns.cn/business/2014/12-02/144965.shtml

Better to look on other forums that more enthusiasts use, such as skyscrapercity or others.

EDIT : Actually clicked your link. Looks like nobody knows whats going to happen. China and Japan are both trying to win contracts.

Geez, you can place and detonate a couple bombs, with idiots standing 1M away......BRAVO.

Interesting is that there were people 1M away. Were they trying to cause physical harm to these people, or did they just not care? Some initial reports said they might have just done it as a statement and not intending to harm anybody. This looks like they didn't care if they injured people or not.

Just looked at the photos.

I know I am an old fart, but that is supposed to be fun?

I'm a young guy, and the pictures look horrible

As an aside, what's with the 'Standard' gauge of 1.435 metres? I thought perhaps it was a conversion from feet and inches, but when I googled the conversion, I got 56.496063 inches.

Huh? Where did that gauge come from? It's not an obvious number to come up with. I mean, did a bunch of early railway engineers sit around discussing how wide to make the tracks, and decide: "Yes, I think 1.435 metres would be a good width". Why not 1.5 metres? Any railway buffs out there who can enlighten me?

I googled it for you : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_gauge

I know it's easy to go to China for help, but why not try to strengthen the core ASEAN?

Maybe they can service helicopters too?

I dont know anything about aviation, but their website says helicopters. "We support an array of products manufactured by the OEMs listed below, for everything from General Aviation to Helicopters and Rotorcrafts." http://www.twa-dubai.com/index.php/products/parts-a-components.html

I cant wait for the ASEAN beers to arrive in Thailand!!

well, apparently on the website it says

Adult Ticket (Height 122 cm and above) for 1,000 Baht

lol, wow.

Here's a link to the jungle's website. Looks impressive.

http://www.vananavahuahin.com/

Thanks. So it's not really a "water jungle", it's just a water amusement park.

Seems like a great place for snakes and monitor lizards to live around, doesn't it? I've read plenty of "snake in my yard" posts in the Hua Hin subforum.

Kudos to Bangkok Airways. I'm so sick of the obsession with Bangkok as Thailand's only hub as if it were the country's only city. Not everyone wants to fly into Bangkok, come to Bangkok to accomplish simple tasks or anything like that. Thai Airways has abandoned every regional city in Thailand to the point that now it only flies internationally out of Bangkok, with the exception of 1-2 routes from Phuket. Some years back you could fly from Chiang Mai to Kunming on THAI, but the geniuses at THAI decided to stop flying there at the expense of China Eastern, which operates at least 5 weekly flights on the route. And so much for Chiang Rai, which is now also served by China Eastern to/from Kunming, something that THAI would never do with it's Bangkok obsession. Similarly, THAI used to fly from Chiang Mai to Yangon and Chiang Mai to Chittagong in Bangladesh both only for a few months; the latter was probably a dumb pairing to begin with, instead of choosing a route which would show promising demand, such as Chiang Mai to Vientiane, Chiang Mai to Luang Prabang, or perhaps Chiang Mai to Hanoi. THAI Smile looked promising when they paired Phuket and KL, and Phuket and Mumbai/Delhi but for whatever bizarre reasons could not keep those routes going for more than a couple of months.

If only THAI could follow in the footsteps of Bangkok Airways. All the useless hubbing out of Bangkok when Phuket and Chiang Mai, for starters, could easily be used as major hubs for Thai airlines to compliment Bangkok allowing passengers to fly directly to/from these cities and ease congestion at Bangkok. After all, nobody is forced to fly to Los Angeles if their destination is actually New York or Chicago. So why funnel everyone into Bangkok in Thailand - makes no sense to me at all and if you look at how much increased traffic Chiang Mai airport has received mainly from Chinese carriers (yes you can even reach Chiang Mai from Beijing now!) it seems ludicrous that THAI Airways has not aggressively sought to do the same.

Oh and why is basically no one flying to U-Tapao? With I dunno, something like 1/5 to 1/4 of all visitors to Thailand going to Pattaya and a perfectly good airport there, it would be more than logical to fly directly to U-Tapao, which is fairly close to Pattaya thus taking away the burden from Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi and to a lesser extent Don Muang airports.

Many good points in here.

Phuket does have several more international flight options compared to Chiang Mai, but it would be nice to have more options so we don't have to connect through Bangkok nearly all of the time.

Phuket domestic flights are really lacking : Bangkok, Samui, Udon, Chiang Mai

Domestic flights from random smaller airports :

Surat Thani : Bangkok and Chiang Mai

Hat Yai : Bangkok, Hua Hin, Udon, Chiang Mai

Ubon: Bangkok, Chiang Mai*

Khon Kaen : Bangkok, Chiang Mai*

Udon: Bangkok, Hat Yai, Phuket, Chiang Mai

Chiang Rai : Bangkok, Chiang Mai

U-Tapao : None (wow PG pulled out!)

Krabi : Bangkok, Samui, Chiang Mai

I don't have really any knowledge of how airlines work, but what about a few more circle routes like Kan Air? I know they do some now, but 2-3 flights a week doesn't seem like enough. It seems like Thailand needs some RJ's so the planes would be full and they could fly more often. Of course I have no idea if it is easy to just buy more smaller planes and hire more pilots, or if current mechanics can even work on RJ's.

Repost : http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/772227-bangkok-airways-designates-chiang-mai-airport-as-hub-for-north;-introduces-4-new-routes/

New routes are always nice

FYI, sticker shock refers to prices of goods.

lol @ California. Move out to the midwest! Cheap housing, guns, nice people, but cold winters.

I'm not European, but the murders have not changed my plan to visit Thailand. All the bad press have caused me to stay in other places longer and shorter time in Thailand, but I still plan to visit Thailand. It has caused me to never go to Koh Tao, and to be careful when visiting small islands anywhere in the world.

Here's a video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSsbisSE9yg

2 months with a budget of 20 million baht.

i think for this airport i know it is really too much money.. after fire it is only painting and new cables ...thats all.

again a few clever knowing the system will make a great money on the side

Actually if you look at the pictures in the news, 20 million baht doesn't seem like enough. It is pretty severly damaged.

well the 15 kg of very good paint is about 2000 baths... and it is a lot of superficy you can paint with that.

the day paid for a worker is about 300 to 500 baths a day

the cable is about 7 baths per meter

so please make the math....if they give me that money i do it myself

Did you see any of the pictures online? It's not just paint

I write LOL but I write it backwards to be different

LOL

I laughed out loud at my desk here at work