calibanjr.

At least he didn't steal a little British boy's ballons.

"In other tourist places, Hua Hin, Koh Chang, Samui, Phuket, Bangkok I heard nowhere near this number as a percentage of foreigners".

Haven't you compared the prices?

The answer is pretty obvious.

But then they seem to be very frivolous with tips, so I'm not sure the prices have much to do with this.

Yanks don't tip that's why in the states they add on 15%.

I believe you have it exactly backwards. In the states, salaries for wait/bar staff are supported at a lower minimum due to tips, so it's understood that the wait/bar staff make the substantial part of their income through tips. There are seldom added-in service charges in the states, generally set service charges are for serious restaurants and set for groups of 4-6 or larger. The reason Americans have the reputation of heavy-tippers is because of our system of pay for waitstaff. Standard U.S. tipping is 15% unless service is substandard, 20+ if excellent. It's not an insult to the Euros, they have a different remuneration system, but we used to (when I was a waiter at a high-end restaurant in Boston) inform them ahead of the bill. I was so charming, being a silver-tongued Boston Irish boy, that it generally worked out well in the end.

Is the location on the googlemap on expatnewsletter correct? I was unaware there was a river market there. So its just south of Chedi?

Just north of the Chedi, right next to the iron bridge.

Yeah, my take is that we're down two movie channels. Used to have 17,18, and 19, plus Universal and SYFY. That seemed like a perfect setup for me anyway. Now channel 9 only, plus Universal and SYFY. Probably gonna have to pay to upgrade when I can figure it out.

I just got back Mon. night (around midnight, flight 851) from a long trip to the States on China Air, flying LAX-TPE-CNX, so they are still flying the route. That being said, I had a 14 hour layover in TPE because of the new scheduling.

Good to know Caliban. Thanks.

14 hrs ! Do they put you up, or are you on your own for that time slot ?

Well, I fly often enough to be a goldmember (without the Dutch accent) so I hung out in the ChinaAir lounge (pun intended). Wireless, showers, free dim sum and alcohol is great. There are worse places to be stuck for that long, obviously, but it's a bit of a big drag on the schedule stuck in between 15 hour and 5 hour flights.

I just got back Mon. night (around midnight, flight 851) from a long trip to the States on China Air, flying LAX-TPE-CNX, so they are still flying the route. That being said, I had a 14 hour layover in TPE because of the new scheduling.

Speak to make yourself understood in the circumstances you find yourself in.

Why do so many people feel the need to come on here and try to dictate what other people say or do, or how they live their lives.

Got sod all better to do possibly ?

Seconded, Cobalt. My general take on life.

What's wrong with a command-line ping?

For very simple, clean, thin-crust NY style, Paradise Pizza across from the UN Irish is good. If you like loaded-up slices, then the Dukes.

Surpise that nobody bring up .. The Jear Tong Heng - is one of the better place and also the price is very reasonable..................................................................

Probably the best in Chiangmai for authentic Cantonese food....Excellent!!!

I eat at Jia Tong Heng at least once a week. Tour buses with Chinese and Chinese/Thais roll in there all the time, if that means anything. My Chinese/Thai landlady got me into it. I'm stuck in LA for the next 3 months, but there's plenty of good Chinese (and Thai) here anyway.

"United we stand, divided we fall" goes back at least to the American Revolution (Patrick Henry, I think) and probably a LOT further than that, back to extreme antiquity. My favorite version of it is Ben Franklin's darkly humorous:

"We must, indeed, all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately"

Stole that from wikiquotes.

My number one: Massage Culture. Can't afford to indulge very often back home (US).

1-hour foot massages for 4 bucks (120 THB) A foot massage while reading allows me to leave the planet for a mini mental vacation.

2-hour oil full body massages for 13 bucks (400 THB)

Special massages on occasion. (varies)

looks like the marmite mixture (guiness) is back in town

Where's that at?

If you're talking VOIP for personal use, you're usually fine, depending always on specific location. Skype is very lean, you don't need massive speed and I've used gprs AIS way in the sticks of Nong Khai and been fine. Biz is another matter, if you need to have rich 24/7 uptime, you need to do homework and pay up a bit.

Mexicans don't even drink Corona. They will tell you that is for export.

I'm not a fan of Corona, but it's the #1 selling beer in Mexico. Mexico Brewery website

I think pilsners match well with Mexican food and prefer Pacifico of the Mexican pilsners. I also like Dos Equis. I don't think that much of Tecate.

Negra Modelo - the best beer out of Mexico.

After Bohemia and Negra Leon

Wow, you nailed it on those two, but if you can find 'em in Thailand, you're a better detective than me!

None Starter, Forget It

Go and have a Soapy

I think that's good advice 24/7, any circumstances. My wife disagrees with you and me, though.

Everybody I know loves that store at Icon. My wife wants to put one in her village in Nong Khai. More for her convenience than to make any money, I'm sure.

portforward dot com has instructions for most routers, yours included.

I'm a little dense this morning. Could you boil down the "fact" that has been stated for me? Usually when someone uses that as a statement, I give it the Inigo Montoya "I do not think that word means what you think it means" treatment, but I'll withhold judgment for now.

I'm surprised that nobody mentions the lack of a real property tax on sale prices. When you effectively pay no property tax (the property tax here is nominal), you can hold on to the property and of course you're giving up opportunity cost, but that doesn't seem to flummox Thais. In the states, it would be too painful to hold a property for too long, giving up opportunity cost and substantial property tax.

No frills, dependable hotel. Pantawee Hotel. Won't change your life for good or ill. Just standard service, reasonable rates (haven't been in 3 years, though), VERY centrally located, that's probably its strongest point. Other than that, it's a low to mid star level Thai hotel to lay your head in for a few days in order to get out and see Nong Khai. They have a website as well.

She said she felt compelled to give it to him when he asked, I can't imagine a young Thai girl saying no to someone wearing a uniform who has discretion to enter the country or not. Well I realize the default thaivisa response is to say a story is fishy or fabricated because of previous experiences, but I assure you I listened to the messages (they were voicemails, not texts) and I wouldn't have posted it if it wasn't unique. Yes, I told her to archive the voicemails. She didn't get the guy's last name but I'm really hoping he's married to make the evidence all the more damning . The guy appears to have been the manager of the actual officers on the floor, and he said as much, so I'm a little concerned he was knowledgable enough to know if he was getting himself into trouble or not... my assumption is he tactifully stayed within bounds of the regulations so he can't get in trouble for it. He probably gets a lot of "dates" from his job

Understood and agreed on feeling compelled. hel_l, the way things are with my police-state "homeland", I'D fell compelled and I'm a 43 year-old male citizen!

That being said, then, keep the voicemails for insurance and avoid the guy at all costs.

I hate to be a wet blanket and work counter to someone's initiative, but I'd have to back the warning comments above.

My CV: Half-partner in a short-time bar/guesthouse on Soi 6 (yeah, THAT Soi 6) from Nov 2003-Jun 2004. Great life adventure, lots of anecdotes. Came out $13k poorer and wiser. Moved up north and doing my own export thing, less adventure, actual profit.

One IMPORTANT thing to note: I met bar owners from all over Pattaya in that time, at pool(billiards) tourneys, piss-ups, and the like. In all my time there, I NEVER heard a bar owner say he was having a bad month. Everything was always fine/ok, even from guys who sold out/went home the next week.

Not saying that I'm a great biz-man and that it's not possible to make money doing it, just that my story is close to many others I've heard elsewhere. My advice would mirror that mentioned above. Find something novel, a new twist, and pound that.

I think she has maybe compromised the situation by giving him her tel no. - just a thought.

Whole thing sounds fishy/overblown to me. BUT, I'll go along as if it's as advertised. If she gave him her phone number, bad idea. Then again, her phone number may have been in her visa profile. If this really happened, the most important thing in my opinion is to make sure to archive those texts. Regardless of the actual tone of the text in question, an immigration/border control officer sending texts to a traveler who he has processed HAS to be against policy. If not definitively against specific policy, it is at least compelling evidence of improper behavior if he tries to make trouble for her down the road. Outside of keeping the texts for insurance, I say let sleeping dogs lie.

What about an anonymous letter with cut-out script from magazines, like the ransom notes in the old movies? Other than that, I'd stay out of it.