pattayadingo

Seen this happen a few times on hills. On a hill, handbrake and leave it in gear. Too simple for some, I suppose LOL.

The box that sits behind the seat. It can take a helmet or a small amount of shopping or other small items. Saves them being carried in a bag on the hook by your feet.

My cable is at least 50 metres.

Runs from the back of the house upstairs, along the wall, down the stairs, along another wall, round built in cupboards, another wall and then to the box.

No problems at all.

Personally, I wouldn't order sex toys to import because they ARE illegal. Let us know what happens. For people directly importing in their luggage, be sure to remove or disable any BATTERIES. Picture the scene if your luggage starts vibrating ...

I brought two with me on my last trip in checked baggage and bought rechargeable batteries too.

Great fun

The more Freelancing Russians there are, maybe the more problems will surface.

I often wonder why the local Thai women put up with these freelancing white women without more trouble.

My view is you're asking for trouble not to pay for food that you've ordered. The best way to "punish" any business is to simply stop giving them your business in future. Given that so many businesses here only expect one offs anyway, many don't indeed care. That's why I try to avoid foreign tourism focused places, but some of them offer food that I want, so being a purist isn't in the cards either. Places with expat followings that are conscious of that tend to have better service as do places catering to Thai tourists and locals.

Agree 100% on the payment issue, I always pay the full bill explain that the food is taking too long to arrive and that I have an appointment and leave the establishment never to return. The point is then made in a proffesional polite and correct way.

If you have not received the food after a very long wait, why pay?

Previously I had seen a storage box for a m/c at Tesco on Pattaya Nua at 800 Baht but the bracket was missing. It was the only one in stock.

Yesterday as I rode around Pattaya along Sukhumvit, Nua, Naklua and 3rd road asking wherever I saw a shop that dealt with m/c and asked for a rear storage box to go on my Fino.

Only two had boxes. One was 3500 Baht and too expensive in my opinion considering the Tesco price. The other had a box at 1500 Baht including installation but no bracket to fix it to the the bike. He rode off to another shop but they had no bracket either. So I am still without a storage box

These boxes can be handy for smaller amounts of shopping or other items and I would like one without paying a through the nose (3,500 Baht).

Any ideas where I can buy one, please?

As a regular in several places I tip depending on service, smiles and other base criteria. On return to most of the places they know I will tip if I am happy. If the service is bad they know I will not tip.

2 bars in particular will make sure I have plenty of ice without having to ask for it or be kept waiting. They get a personal tip on top of the tip for the bar. Sometimes I will buy them a drink instead of a tip.

Other places I go to regularly I will tip the place and not the person if several serve me. But I have found that in general I get better service from regular haunts and from the same ladies who will give service with a smile and often some banter between us.

Believe it or not I rarely tip above 50 Baht and generally tip 20 Baht. My tips reduced drastically after several Thai friends during the early years were shocked at how much I did tip. Now the only time I increase my tip is if at a party or similar and some women have worked hard to keep the party happy.

Education.

In my day we were taught manners. Open the door for females, old people. Give up your seat for the same. Say please and thank you. Say excuse me in a variety of situations.

Many of the yobbish culture in 'Farang Land' have no manners because their parents do not teach them.

I feel it is the same here. Many are not taught manners.

If the Thai cannot afford it, then it should be up to the partner to pay. Not a third party.

Jimbeam need to put himself in his friends shoes. His friend is paying while a 3rd person is evidently not. Apparently the GF paid nothing yet is complaining that somebody else that did pay did not pay 'enough', I know what I'd have to say to that and it rhymes with cough.

If people want to make deals where the partner is excluded from paying, they should negotiate everything first. If they don't and the other person wants to split the bill equally (and fairly) they only have themselves to blame. If a deal is struck then fine, it is the EXPECTATION that is just plain wrong and made so much worse by having the nerve to complain. Especially by somebody that didn't contribute, what a fuc_king cheek.

I have to agree with Rakers on the points he is making about this.

It does not matter how poor (or not) the g/f is. Why should the friend pay extra because the other guy has his g/f along? And why should this friend be called tight when he stumped up a reasonable share?

Initially in the OP's post when he said the friend paid 1,000 Baht for the trip I was going to side with him, but after reading the full post I am in agreement with 'Rakers.

Unless of course the friend gets to share the g/f later in bed

It's the rules we set when we go out, there are far more people wanting to go with us, than we want to take.

You don't like it, go on your own or with someone else.

Our rules for people in the group are also very simple. Each couple or person in the group get their own bills. Sometimes there are odd numbers of people so each person or couple have their own bill at the end.

We all drink at different speeds and all have our own needs and we pay accordingly. That way there is no argument and everyone is happy with that arrangement.

If the Thai cannot afford it, then it should be up to the partner to pay. Not a third party.

Jimbeam need to put himself in his friends shoes. His friend is paying while a 3rd person is evidently not. Apparently the GF paid nothing yet is complaining that somebody else that did pay did not pay 'enough', I know what I'd have to say to that and it rhymes with cough.

If people want to make deals where the partner is excluded from paying, they should negotiate everything first. If they don't and the other person wants to split the bill equally (and fairly) they only have themselves to blame. If a deal is struck then fine, it is the EXPECTATION that is just plain wrong and made so much worse by having the nerve to complain. Especially by somebody that didn't contribute, what a fuc_king cheek.

I have to agree with Rakers on the points he is making about this.

It does not matter how poor (or not) the g/f is. Why should the friend pay extra because the other guy has his g/f along? And why should this friend be called tight when he stumped up a reasonable share?

Initially in the OP's post when he said the friend paid 1,000 Baht for the trip I was going to side with him, but after reading the full post I am in agreement with 'Rakers.

Unless of course the friend gets to share the g/f later in bed

Service in Western restaurants has been like this in Thailand forever. If one wants to eat out at different restaurants, you just have to put up with it.

BULLSHIT. If the food isn't good... complain and DON'T PAY. If the service isn't good DON'T TIP. Maybe then they will get their heads out of their yabba pipes and do it right.

+1

Drinking Street up 2nd road. I went to a 'European' establishment. The Thai g/f got her food very quickly. I waited for a further 15 minutes for an English breakfast. By this time my g/f had finished her food. I looked at the bill, paid for her food and got up to leave.

The staff quickly saw I had not paid the full bill and a discussion ensued. The staff insisted I pay as they would have to cover the cost. I refused. No food, no pay.

What really annoyed me is the fact there were four customers in the establishment. You cannot say they were exactly run off their feet.

No, I never went back. And no I did not pay my half of the bill. No tip either

I was not embarrassed but my g/f was.

Next time, give them a reasonable amount of time depending on how busy they are and walk away. Maybe they will learn a lesson.

A few places have the ban in effect but that can depend what part of the country you are in and what the owner of the bar has decided upon. Time and laxity has let the smoking creep back in from the initial ban level.

Some bars have sections where you can smoke / not smoke. Seems to me that in Pattaya especially most bars seem to allow smoking again.

Walk into the bar and look around. If there are ashtrays about they allow smoking even if there are signs stating no smoking.

They are cheaper than a bar fine

Unless it is maybe whiskey and water, alcohol and water normally do not mix, a bit like idiots in boats drinking.

Sad end result though.

I and 5 friends were out down near Beach Road on New Years Eve. Everything was friendly and light-hearted. No real problems at all. Does that make us some of the lucky ones?

We started on 2nd road and headed off down to Soi 8 area on Beach Road. We went to 3 bars where we got seats each time without too much trouble, saw the fireworks, and later headed off for some entertainment in the go-go bars. About 4 in the morning we got home.

No price increases. The firework display was brilliant. The staff may have been hassled but certainly seemed friendly enough.

The one minor incident was the m/c taxi on the way home. He tried to ride off without giving any change from a 100 Baht note. I managed to collar him and he stopped, gave me my 40 Baht change and then he rode off.

All in all a good New Year.

I and others were sprayed by Thai women in the World Bar. Sprayed on the legs only.

No stains, no ill effects. Brushed the snow off and carried on drinking and having fun.

There is obviously a difference in attitude with some who do not give two hoots who they upset by spraying it in peoples faces.

I use a good quality surge protector on the computer and its peripherals. Obviously if you have or are inputting important data into the computer a UPS is a good safeguard.

Have to admit I have never had a problem with televisions or other electrical devices suffering in 6 years due to spikes or surges so I do not really see a need to protect the television with a UPS unit.

Are you in a condo unit or a house? If in a condo, are other people suffering similar problems?

Have you got multi-boot? As in when you start the computer up you have the option of which XP version to load?

yes i can choose. the old version will not boot up. i can all the files on hd with the new version but can not accesss them.

I presume safe mode in various forms has failed to work as has 'start windows normally and also last known working configuration' on you boot up attempts.

If you are after recovering files as opposed to the old XP itself, try recuva it is a free download. It might be able to recover any data you have stored in the other windows.

Easy to use. You can direct recuva to the folder. If it can see any files it will recover them. Only thing is the files come back without their headers. Depending on what files you need to recover such as text, music, photos that are in there you will have to rename them. You will also get a load of junk type files so be patient in your scanning through whatever might be recovered. Old deleted files that also have not been overwritten are liable to show up.

None of the files get deleted during the process but depending on the amount of data on the drive it can take quite some time.

Make a separate folder on the drive or on another drive to save recovered files to.

HTH

Have you got multi-boot? As in when you start the computer up you have the option of which XP version to load?

The more toilets there are the more ladies will be employed sitting outside charging 5 Baht a time for you to go in.

Maybe it sounds a silly idea, but if you cannot afford a car and cannot get Taxis, can you afford to buy a Tuk-Tuk? Cheaper than a car?

Before anyone shouts about licences etc, you can get one to drive it.

Unidentified Flying C..........

No idea

Anyway, football is on this weekend, watch that anywhere.

The bars are open until 06-00?? I'll be wasted before then

The fireworks are liable to be inside my head the following morning