Oscar2

i too, feel there is a property crash right around the corner. all the signs are there... reminds me of another mountain community real estate boom in the USA that ended up in disaster in 2007. actually, there was another crash even before that one but i can't recall what year - maybe the late 80's or early 90's. this was in the area around Denver, Colorado; Boulder, etc. i visited there both just before and just after the crash. what's happening here reminds me exactly of that. that same feeling...

in the last 3 weeks they have been busy bulldozing all the beautiful vacant land along the road from where Meechok Plaza is to the Doi Saket Road on both sides. they are quickly building cheap, unattractive, poorly constructed shop-front houses and other commercial type buildings. but just around the corner in practically every direction are completed buildings that can't seem to attract a buyer. some of the asking prices are beyond absurd; 5.9 million Bath for a 3 story shop-front building 100 meters from Ruamchok Meechai intersection. some of these buildings have been completed 2 or more years ago and have 1 or 2 tenants.

Took a long drive around town on Saturday night and it was like a ghost town...no tourists and not many locals, expat or otherwise. (note this.....the CM forum is about weather/food/prices/tourist numbers...politics is somewhere else I think )

was in Central Festival twice in the last 2 days. like a ghost town in there too. was wondering what was going on. took some relatives kid to the children's play area. our relative was the only kid in there for about 2 hours.

"Don't worry about catching her in the deep south."

shows how much you know...

May 10th and we are still awaiting the True, May, programme schedule.In the last 6 months there hasn't been one single month where its arrived by the 1st of the month .incredibly efficient company

Hi all.

Very new to all this True Vision stuff.. so please excuse the dumb questions.

About the monthly program. I'm staying with Thai friends with True Vision Gold. They aren't familiar with monthly program. How do I apply for ? I assume it's in farang speak, read ?

Thanks..... Mal.

go to True in Kad Suan Kaew bottom floor or Siam TV along with your passport and a credit card. pick the plan you want and sign-up. ask for what promotions they have and act like you are only shopping at the moment. they will sweeten the deal by the minute. we held out for a week thinking about it and ended up with 4 months free, the cable TV package, 4 movie channels free, and 796 free minutes on their mobile network. they came all the way out to our house in Sansai twice to pick up documents and sent a little lovely over in a tight skirt and tight shirt to seal the deal. great service! i am assuming you want Internet package as well which is why i mention this. note that the gold package is fairly high - about 1600 a month as i recall.

we recently switched to true from 3BB (after at least 9 years and since before they were called something else) after a horrible customer support experience with 3BB (of which i posted a thread about a couple of months ago). we couldn't be happier! the connection is much, much faster than 3BB and in two months now haven't had a single problem. there have been a couple of bottlenecks around the dinner hour but that is normal as everyone is on-line around that time. they even threw in cable TV in the package and the picture is crystal clear. but the channel line-up is aimed at the Thai audience only so we don't even use it. we still prefer WETV for watching television.

Barbers usually closed on Wednesday

Thanks. Another Thai tidbit of information to file away.

David

I read a long time ago in an old Thai book that Wednesday is an unlucky day to get a haircut - I usually go then as it's quieter as the Thai's are scared to go lol

i'm not sure it has anything to do with luck. a hairdresser friend told me one time and i believe it was either the King never gets a haircut on a Wednesday or he doesn't work on Wednesday - i forget which one. but it's out of respect to the King.

he specifically said "we are looking for recommendations from parents with good outcomes and experiences with their own children."

why post if you don't know?

or just wait for a market correction. the supply vs. demand is way off-kilter right now. just drive around Sansai and take a look. or drive around near Big C. there are buildings everywhere (condos and shop-front houses, etc.) that have been completed for months. some of them have 0-3 tenants. there are more security guards than tenants. looks to me like they can't make a sale because they are too over-priced. the few i have seen with "For Rent" signs that indicate have been sold, can't seem to attract a renter. no doubt since too high a price was paid, unrealistic expectations for the rents being asked are the factor. or in other cases the quality of the construction is so poor that potential customers pass. i took a quick glance at a condo near Big C. I won't mention the name other than it starts with "My". the building was only a few months old and already there were cracks forming in the (much too small) concrete pillars and the tiles had already fallen off the pool, cracks in the concrete deck, etc. imagine how it would look in 3 years! who would even consider investing in something like that?

thanks. it's an accessory for a vacuum cleaner. i'll try Siam TV.

i did google the part number and it takes me to Electrolux Malaysia and the site indicates "discontinued model". I just saw their huge building in Bangkok the other day. hard to imagine such a large operation can be so useless when it comes to support for their products.

i can't recall seeing it in restaurants around here (Bangkok yes) but recall seeing it all the time in America.

Haha yes we do! For an Easter egg hunt the kids paint them then the "Easter bunny" hides them

I should have been more specific, haven't seen any chocolate eggs around...

As of the last national census in 2000 0.7% of the population of Thailand were Christian. Why would you expect to see chocolate eggs in a country where less than 1% of the population are likely to celebrate Easter??

are you sure that number of 0.7% is correct? the last census was in 2000? i would be willing to bet the number is much higher now. how high i don't know. i have met a very high number of Christian Thais in the last 10 years or so around here. i can't remember how long ago it was - maybe 8 or 9 years ago there was a huge event here in the North where thousands of Thais converted from Buddhism to Christianity.

does anyone know if there is a Electrolux service center in C.M.? we need to order parts and when i called their office in Bangkok, they could not give me an answer and suggested i call the parent company in Malaysia. now i don't have time for a runaround like this. at one time Electrolux was a fine Swedish company but now everything has gone the way of Chinese manufacturing...and service too it seems.

they are for Asian men (i.e. busloads of Japanese and Korean men) to go and get fleeced. falangs stay out.

i can't comment about the wine, but don't doubt what you say.

as for the chemicals being sprayed on our vegetables, this is getting worse with every passing year. we too, notice the headaches, etc. from eating vegetables outside the house (which we rarely do any more). we questioned one little old lady at a farmers market kind of place near Mae Rim and she told us that if she does not spray numerous chemicals on her vegetables to "make them look beautiful", no one will buy them. she said "Thai people will pay more for vegetables that look beautiful, even though they are full of chemicals and she won't eat them." it's scary that a little old lady who obviously knows nothing about chemicals (and may even be illiterate) is mixing them up herself and spraying them on the produce! now we mostly buy Royal Project vegetables or if we buy from Muang Mai we soak them Sodium Bicarbonate for at least 20 minutes and then rinsing them.

i'm surprised at some of the remarks, particularly when the OP said he thought today is the hottest day he can recall in 8 years. the Thais in my house are very sensitive to heat and we haven't even turned on the A/C so far this year. were using fans. i'm in Sansai. i'd say today was warm but not unbearable. there were many days last year much hotter than today where we kept the A/C running 20 hours per day for weeks on end.

the last time i recall seeing a Greek restaurant around here was in about 2006 or thereabouts. i think it closed around that time. i don't think you could call Olive Tree a Greek restaurant.

There are a few STDs that can display symptoms in two weeks so be sure to get a full STD screening and not just HIV.

Gonorrhea can display symptoms in 24-48 hours.

really glad you posted the photo. was thinking of going today but was worried about the crowds. you confirmed my fears!

don't know but that would be the most likely place for something like that to happen. every year at Songkran there are gang fights that break out there. the guys get drunk as skunks.

No, not at all useless. We have them sent every week from Makro and although I don't read Thai either, I can work out most of it from all the Pretty Pictures and the Prices....ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW!!!

So let me get this right, you get flyers through the door which have a photo of every item on promotion, and although the words are in Thai, and you don't read Thai, you look at the numbers next to the photo and somehow figure that that must be the price for that item! You are quite brilliant!

Northernjohn meet Torrens54, your saviour.

Is it fair to assume that you're not from the North? You're certainly not as blunt. In fact, quite sharp, by all accounts.

I wonder if you have to get a Thai to fill in the subscription form?

surely you are joking aren't you?

i'll add one:

King brand rice bran oil normally 100-120 Bath per litre is on sale at Rimping for 64 Baht per litre.

I've been peeling/slicing mine and mixing with some baby red onions that were 10 thb per bag, then marinating in the 40% pure lime juice that sells for 16.5 thb per bottle. Holy crap, what happened to the cheap limes? 7 thb for a ping pong ball size? Might as well sweeten with Grand Mariner.

we went shopping at Muang Mai market 2 days ago and limes were 10 Bath each! sellers were guarding them like bars of gold. we asked one seller what was in those bags of lime juice they sell. she said 20% lime juice and 80% chemicals and a little water. she said she wouldn't feed it to her family because she didn't think it was safe. wonder what the chemicals are that they use?

This is chicken.

this is processed food mildly resembling chicken.

I miss all the advertising flyers from the main supermarkets back home.

Every week I would go through them and check out the best deals in town.

eeeeeh. they have them in every country including Thailand. don't get out much?

i tried to contact them once about 6 years ago. tried calling for about 3 or 4 hours. never any answer. i finally called around 1:00 a.m. and a Thai guy answered. sounded like he was asleep and i'd woken him. he hung up on me. i doubt if anything has changed.