Asiantravel

sprayed with insecticide until distributed to buyers

I suspect there would be those who would say rice, that is milled rice, sprayed with insectside was no longer fit for human comsumtion.

Consider would you like to eat it?

how would we ever know though ? whether sold in packets or eaten

in a restaurant we would not have a clue what went on before ?

Yes Richard, you are right, but when most of us here the word Mini Van, it brings up pictures of an idiot, racing twice as fast as he should be, and of course coming up behind you, only two meters away. Usually there are two or three, all racing together, so other cars wont be able to get between them.

while quite often using his mobile at the same time ....

y guess is you would be safest and most comfortable going by VIP transport company bus and paying for the excess luggage if you need to. Vans drive with varying degrees of skill. Mostly in the "We think we are better than a F1 driver" range and varying drug and alcohol levels in their blood.

Thanks for the advice. I have driven for two years in Thailand, but have never hired a van with driver.

Maybe I will just rent a vehicle big enough for our luggage.

i agree with harry

Why dont try this 1st class bus Brad ? ( if you are lucky - because you have to book a few days ahead

because they fill up quickly )

Very comfortable and great safety record.

http://www.nca.co.th/firstclass.php

Horsemeat found in British supermarkets 'may be donkey'

If horse, donkey and cow have never been monitored or seen a vet in their lives, it is highly likely that they would have been diseased as evidence will show. Because Romanians are so poor it is highly likely that the cows slaughtered in Romania have never been checked for CJD , (BSE when transmitted to humans) commonly known as Mad Cow Disease.

The BIG Problem : If cow, horse and donkey have been slaughtered at the same abattoir then minced, CJD will contaminate the abattoir plant, knives, saws, hooks, trolleys, buckets, baskets, containment cages, equipment, tools, cages and just about everything else. If they are mincing meat that equipment will also be contaminated with CJD from the cow. Evidence shows that normal thorough sterilizing methods of anything that comes into CJD does not stop the CJD from spreading. From what I have seen and read hygiene would be the last thing on their minds, especially if you have seen the evidence on how they treat animals all over Romania.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/horsemeat-found-in-british-supermarkets-may-be-donkey-8489030.html

Six French supermarket chains - Carrefour, Monoprix, Auchan, Casino, Cora and Picard - have also withdrawn ready-meals made by Findus and Comigel.

And guess who owns the Big C chain here in Thailand? - Casino! Be careful what you buy!

yes indeed !

http://veryvietnam.com/2011-01-22/china-makes-fake-rice-from-plastic-vietnam-reacts/

Thais Love Thais....?

they " wai " at each other one minute and then they want to take a punch the next minute

Being from 'the continent' I really don't 'get' what the big deal is here, can anyone explain what's the scare here?

Is horse meat good for you? It’s a little better than beef. A three-ounceserving of roast horse has 149 calories, 24 grams of protein, and five grams of fat. The same amount of beef tenderloin has 179 calories, 24 grams of protein, and nine grams of fat.

The deal is that companies were using horse meat but selling it as beef. This is against the law. Yes beilieve it or not some countries do have laws so that businesses can't tell lies sorry, misrespresent goods, to customers.

No problems if someone wants to buy and eat horse meat - but don't sell it as beef.

Interesting to see if there are prosecutions to come out of this.

this is only the tip of the iceberg

http://realfoodblog....from-last-year/

Asked if Israel’s actions constituted war crimes, Ms. Chanet replied that its offenses fell under Article 8 of the International Criminal Court statute. “Article 8 of the I.C.C. statute is the chapter of war crimes,” she said at a news conference. “That is the answer.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/01/world/middleeast/un-panel-says-israeli-settlement-policy-violates-law.html

Yes, the headline is misleading, because the U.S. has no mechanism for a popular vote on gun control. This is a news story from an unreliable source about an alleged survey. Yet, none of the survey's rationale is explained: how many people were surveyed, how was the sample selected, what questions were they specifically asked, etc. In light of this, it wasn't worth reporting in TV. I don't trust the numbers, as I have seen other surveys performed by reliable organizations that put the likely number of people in the US in support of gun control by a slight majority, somewhere in the 52%-60% range.

For less than 100 Baht you can buy a nice looking cardboard box. It will have the same security and safety properties as a 1000 Baht safety box and probably will be much bigger.

Who exactly is Open Society.? Founded by George Soros.

Read it here: http://www.opensocie...alizing-torture

Thanks for the link.

Read it with dismay, and the Bios of its staff. Very depressing.

At least Mr Soros is not doing anything useful with his billions, that he was happy to "earn" in the U.S.

He could be funding clean water projects, cataract reduction programs, malaria control programs, birth control programs, but no, he wants to bite the hand that fed him and promote anti-western propaganda, and encourage terrorism.

It is time the U.S government considered such people guilty of treasonable behavior, and "discouraged" them.

George Soros' Open Society initiate was formed to open up former Communist societies, first in Hungary, then in the Soviet Union, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Romania. He tried to open up conditions in those countries in order to 'free' the common person. Truly the work of a Commie!

His real impact on America, and his first foray into American politics was after Bush invaded Iraq. Growing up in Hungary and observing the rise of Hitler and Nazi Germany, he felt that Bush was a similar danger for the United States. He never called Bush a Nazi; he simply felt that Bush represented the same type of danger to the U.S. So he started funding Democratic leaning political causes in an effort to see Bush defeated in 2004.

And for that, he has forever since been vilified by the right wing of America, and accused of funding every left wing, liberal cause fighting the right - which is an absolute lie. He did drop some money into the 2008 campaign, again into left-leaning groups, but I don't believe he dropped anything into the 2012 campaign. And he hasn't put in nearly the kind of money into the U.S. elections as conservatives have.

But then again, you would prefer to believe everything you hear on Fox News, and from Drudge and World Nut Daily about old George, instead of looking into the truth.

It seems that Soros believes he was anointed by God. “I fancied myself as some kind of god …” he once wrote. “If truth be known, I carried some rather potent messianic fantasies with me from childhood, which I felt I had to control, otherwise they might get me in trouble.”

Who exactly are "Open Society Justice Initiative"?

Who elected them, or are they self-chosen?

Why do they think they have the right to lecture and pontificate about the correct methods of capturing terrorists who murdered thousands of people?

Although I am not a U.S. citizen, I believe the U.S. government had the right and duty to destroy the people responsible, and organisation behind them, by any means possible. If that includes torture, then so what? It would not have been worse than what the people in the Twin Towers and the airplanes suffered.

If other governments had the courage to act as the U.S. did, then this scourge of Islamic terrorism could be contained and reduced much more effectively. Thailand take note of what is happening in the southern provinces!

Congested current airport in CM?

Sometimes I think I'm living in an alternate reality.

It's like pigs to the trough! Everyone's getting in on it. They even want to expand Pattaya airport.

" outside a Pattaya department store "

I'm curious as to whether this happens to be Central Department store again? There seem to be many incidents like this here if it is this location. Surely it would be easy for security to send away any young boys who happen to be loitering in that area.

Anything that improves the infrastructure serving Pattaya is a good thing.

Some very good advice from Manarak for you.

If you are anywhere near Bangkok next weekend (Feb 7 - 10), they have a huge mobile phone show with all kinds of equipment to suit all budgets and specs.

I suggest that you pop along there with your sim(s) card and ask to try out a number of different handsets so that you can actually see what suits you most.

The actual phone manufacturers will be there, i-Mobile, Oppo, HTC, Samsung, Nokia etc etc and I am sure that there will be some very good offers with discounts free gifts etc, website address below for you:

www.thailandmobileexpo.com/

you said you want to use the camera, I listed models with 5 MP, if you want to use 3 MP, go for it!

OP: first make a list of features you plan to use on your new phone.

SMS (flat or threaded - CPU and RAM intensive)

Email (keyboard and/or bigger display if you type a lot)

GPS (bigger display)

Wifi (long battery life necessary for prolonged use)

Apps: twitter, facebook, thaivisa...

maps

photo camera (photo performance)

listen music (check earphone plug format and size)

calendar

contacts

mobile office (excel, word, powerpoint...)

etc.

then make your choice...

That's a good approach manarak. Thanks very much for that tip.

I think it's just these. Other than just the telephone use yes being able to listen to music would be one important feature because right now with my basic phone I use a separate Cube MP3 player for this purpose. Everything else is not that important to me or it can wait until I'm back with my computer.

SMS (flat or threaded - CPU and RAM intensive)

photo camera (photo performance)

listen music (check earphone plug format and size)

calendar

contacts

You should be able to buy a Samsung with Android, decent camera and Touchscreen for about 5000 to 6000 Baht.

Tesco and Big C had the best deals last time I checked.

Make sure the phone of choice uses standard USB or micro USB and standard 3.5mm jack for earphones and a standard Micro SD card.

Nice phones in this price range with good cameras include:

Samsung S5830i Galaxy Ace

HTC Desire C

what about this one for only 4250 baht .( Samsung Galaxy Y Duos S6102 )

One reviewer said

" If u use it for only making calls and listening music.. then u can go for it. "

http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_y_duos_s6102-reviews-4385.php

OP: first make a list of features you plan to use on your new phone.

SMS (flat or threaded - CPU and RAM intensive)

Email (keyboard and/or bigger display if you type a lot)

GPS (bigger display)

Wifi (long battery life necessary for prolonged use)

Apps: twitter, facebook, thaivisa...

maps

photo camera (photo performance)

listen music (check earphone plug format and size)

calendar

contacts

mobile office (excel, word, powerpoint...)

etc.

then make your choice...

That's a good approach manarak. Thanks very much for that tip.

I think it's just these. Other than just the telephone use yes being able to listen to music would be one important feature because right now with my basic phone I use a separate Cube MP3 player for this purpose. Everything else is not that important to me or it can wait until I'm back with my computer.

Clearly you do use the internet, since you're here on Thai visa. If you also use (or want to get into) facebook, twitter, skype & other IM's amongst a ton of other stuff, once you switch to a smartphone you'll wonder how you ever managed without it.

It would be a good idea to start with a cheap one. It's not a waste of money and will work just fine as a phone if it's other features don't pique your interest - plus it's a small enough investment to not cry over if you find you like it and later on decide to ditch it in favour of a more 'bleeding edge' device... If you do end up getting hooked and "using" the thing, probably the first thing you will crave is a bigger and/or higher resolution screen.

What I mean is that I have no intention of using the Internet on a tiny mobile phone. I'm quite happy to wait until I'm front of my computer. And anyway, I have the latest version of Dragon naturally speaking on my computer, which after about one year of voice training ( as you use it ) is now 98 % accurate, so I never touch the keyboard. I just speak into the microphone for all my correspondence, e-mail everything including this post on Thai visa.

Well it's 9 January already and still no sign of life at Pao. Say it ain't so, say it ain't so!

1/31: Signs of life...

Squatters?

i just passed the place at 11pm and they were both in there - lights one preparing the

kitchen ! wont be long