ollylama

also, they used to have great emcees on the shuttle bus tours (the "actual" night safari). really funny and informative. i went two days ago and the women on each of the two tours (predator prowl and savanna something or other) sucked big time. they spoke such poor english, with such absurd pronunciations that everyone on the bus was cracking up - including the english-speaking thais! the humor didn't last long, though. for 500 baht entry they could find some better announcers.

in short, don't bother. the walk around the lake seems much more dimly lit than last time as well - it was very difficult to see most of the animals.

the musical fountain was okay though.

i think the place is in its death throes. there were hardly any people there compared with last year. lots of stuff seemed closed too.

also: http://www.vgcd.org/activities_eng.htm

it's common knowledge that you shouldn't buy flowers from street kids: people may think theyre being "generous" but they're actually perpetuating a sick situation

Another idiotic statement. Not all street kids selling flowers are being ripped off, or are ripping you off in some way. Many famililies sell flowers honestly and deserve to be supported by folks.

sure, maybe if there are parents around. i see this often in the rasta area off of ratwithi. it's still pretty terrible, and i'm sure they could find more healthy ways to raise funds for the family, but that's a complex issue.

however, six year old kids hanging out by themselves at girly bars selling flowers at 1 a.m. is not something anyone should support with cash. supposedly a good portion of those kids are orphans who are taken advantage of by mafia types. of course, they're the ones who end up "graduating" into far worse trades.

my point was that being "generous" with your cash isn't implicitly the most pragmatic or moral behavior in the long run. it's up to the individual to decide, but they shouldn't only think about the short-term effects of their spending habits. if you disagree with my "street kids" illustration there are a host of other ones that would suitably support my point.

I think you are hanging out making your own assumptions about the kids, with no facts to back up anything.

if you're saying i haven't done a detailed investigation, you're right. however, you're missing the point - six year old kids selling flowers in the middle of the night at girly bars without the supervision of an adult is not a good thing to encourage with your wallet. who needs assumptions?

but just for the record, there are plenty of hard facts out there to suggest there are bad things afoot in that realm. ajarn, you'd be better off doing research yourself before calling my comments "idiotic" or saying that you "think" i'm "hanging out" whilst "making assumptions." methinks you doth assumpt too much yourself.

here are some links:

http://www.chiangmainews.com/ecmn/viewfa.php?id=538 (scroll to "Mean(s) to be Kind")

http://www.lbiworld.org/orphanages.cfm (scroll to "blossom kids home")

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/06/...l?from=storyrhs

http://www.hots-th.org/kids.php

it's common knowledge that you shouldn't buy flowers from street kids: people may think theyre being "generous" but they're actually perpetuating a sick situation

Another idiotic statement. Not all street kids selling flowers are being ripped off, or are ripping you off in some way. Many famililies sell flowers honestly and deserve to be supported by folks.

sure, maybe if there are parents around. i see this often in the rasta area off of ratwithi. it's still pretty terrible, and i'm sure they could find more healthy ways to raise funds for the family, but that's a complex issue.

however, six year old kids hanging out by themselves at girly bars selling flowers at 1 a.m. is not something anyone should support with cash. supposedly a good portion of those kids are orphans who are taken advantage of by mafia types. of course, they're the ones who end up "graduating" into far worse trades.

my point was that being "generous" with your cash isn't implicitly the most pragmatic or moral behavior in the long run. it's up to the individual to decide, but they shouldn't only think about the short-term effects of their spending habits. if you disagree with my "street kids" illustration there are a host of other ones that would suitably support my point.

also - if there are so many empty songtaews then the association shouldn't license so many. too much supply with not enough demand should mean that the supply should be reduced. but since the songtaew association are a bunch of crooks and not properly regulated by the government we have increased traffic, pollution and accidents (they drive like crackheads - swinging across lanes to capture a fare or pulling out unexpectedly or slamming on their brakes when someone pressed the buzzer).

again, feeling "sorry" for them is a back-asswards response.

I suggest we all pay 500 baht per trip to show how generous we are,

Although I live in Chiang Mai and have for more than five years I am new to this forum. May you can help me: What does unwanted member mean?

I stand by my original reply, remember I said a "little" generosity wouldn't hurt - not total stupidity.

generosity has no place in business transactions. if it did, soaring inflation would quickly cripple the society that expected it. basic economics. generosity has its place in interpersonal and charity situations, not with songtaew drivers.

i agree that often there's no point in quibbling over 5 baht. but if people were happy to pay whatever the drivers demanded soon you'd be paying 50 baht. and that may not be much for you qualityblend, but it would be disastrous for thais.

it sounds like you think you've captured the moral high ground with your statements, but blanket knee-jerk "generosity" often produces rotten outcomes. for instance, it's common knowledge that you shouldn't buy flowers from street kids: people may think theyre being "generous" but they're actually perpetuating a sick situation.

bottom line - it's your civic duty to be tough on songtaew drivers. it's selfish of you not to take responsibility for inflation. ironic, but true.

most thais i know think 15 baht is expensive, not even to mention the exorbitant 20. understandably they would have had difficulty during the price explosion.

but only 10 years ago or so it was 5 baht. how did they survive then? prices weren't that much lower. i think it was 17 baht to the liter then (now it's not much more). the rise to 15 baht a ride came during a time of low inflation, and not too long after it had already been doubled to 10.

i think the songtaew association is a generally unregulated band of crooks - they violently blocked any any attempts to install more modern, less polluting public transport until only a few years ago when the crap bus system was installed, probably crippled by the demands that the buses not tread on the songtaew turf.

rough way to make a living? the incredible glut of songtaews everywhere you go in the inner city underscores the fact that they're all probably doing quite well, and probably that the songtaew association hands out permits willy nilly. kad suan kaew has 20 annoying songtaews just sitting and waiting around at all times, often blocking traffic.

then again, private transport everywhere in the world is peopled with the most dishonest folks in town, so why should thailand be any different?

How come I see people go to Mikes all the time and still manage to go out of business!

dunno - but its a bit like nail clippers, some time sharp, sometimes blunt but always shining

now that's poetry.

nice to see there are such ardent, experienced rock critics in chiang mai to set the record straight.

why not just offer some kudos to a bunch of locals who've done good with their original music? they haven't won a grammy, but it's pretty cool nonetheless.

Follow This Golden Rule ,

Read it after me

" we are responsible for Our own Belonging "

if we had thing opening taken away , meaning your STEUP is BAd .

Is time to spend some Money for a CTV Video cam .

Oh, good---that's cleared that up then----<deleted>?????

yeah. that's not on. if we were all totally responsible for our own belongings then we wouldn't need police. to paraphrase homer simpson, we'd all live in gumdrop houses on lollypop lane.

i suppose we're also responsible for our own bodies, so murder shouldn't be in the police's interest to solve either? how lovely thailand would be without the rule of law.

november 222 - perhaps you should follow this fellow's advice to its logical conclusion and install armed snipers in the bar as well. if ta22 comes anywhere near the stage, show him just how responsible you are!

Hey those of you out there who were into The Tonic Rays when they were playing regularly at Guitarman in Chiang Mai and Bebop in Pai should get a kick out of this: We've now got a hometown hero. Read:

December 15, 2008

CHUCK EDDY

Billboard contributor

Top 10 Albums of 2008

1. Jamey Johnson, "That Lonesome Song" (Mercury).

2. Ross Johnson, "Make It Stop! The Most Of Ross Johnson" (Goner).

3. Rose Tattoo, "Blood Brothers" (Wacken).

4. Rick Springfield," Venus in Overdrive" (New Door/UMe).

5. The Knux, "Remind Me in 3 Days..." (Interscope).

6. The Tonic Rays, "The Tonic Rays" (thetonicrays.com).

7. Woodbox Gang, "Drunk As Dragons" (Alternative Tentacles).

8. Carter's Chord, "Carter's Chord" (Show Dog Nashville).

9. Phil Vassar, "Prayer of a Common Man" (Universal).

10. New Bloods, "The Secret Life" (Kill Rock Stars).

American music journalist Chuck Eddy was born in Detroit, Michigan. After beginning his journalism career with The Village Voice and Creem, where he published one of the first national interviews with the Beastie Boys in the mid-1980s, Eddy then wrote for Rolling Stone, Spin, Entertainment Weekly and other national and local publications. He also authored two books: Stairway to hel_l: The 500 Best Heavy Metal Albums in the Universe, and The Accidental Evolution of Rock and Roll.

In 1999 he was hired as the music editor at The Village Voice, where he served for seven years. After leaving the The Village Voice in 2006, he briefly wrote a thrice-weekly heavy metal blog for MTV Urge and a monthly page of capsule CD reviews in Harp magazine called The Last Roundup. He is currently a senior editor for Billboard magazine.

Tonic Rays CD news

There was a Trung Nguyen shop in the basement of Central Airport Plaza. When I say 'was', I mean about 3 years ago - no idea if it's still there. I thought they were going to take over Thailand like they did Saigon - so far it hasn't happened.

What I can say is that we've been putting Trung Nguyen (pron: Chung Win (ish)) through the office filter machine and it is outstanding.

Oh, and the Civet poop coffee is mostly a hoax. Yes it exists, but by far the majority on the market is just regular coffee masquerading as poop-brew. Not that the real deal tastes that good anyway.

where do you find trung nguyen, senor gato de la polla? please to point me in the right direction. any distributors in cm that you remember?

Olly your taste in coffee matches your taste in whisky. But if VN coffee is your thang (Thai northern-grown arabica are way better), basically what you want is a northern-grown robusta that lacks bite, so almost any brand of Thai coffee that doesn't say 'arabica' on the package will come close enough, although the grind won't be as fine (grind it some more if you need it that fine).

IMHO VN coffees lack the 'bright tones' or acidity of real world-class coffees (like Tanzania peaberry, AA Kenya, Panama Esmeralda, etc) and are more similar to mild beans from Sulawesi and Java. One variety of Thai coffee that reminds me of the better VN is an Aroma product, the one marked 'espresso' (though it tastes nothing like a real quality espresso roast). Every time we open a bag of the stuff, my brain blinks 'Vietnam'. I recommend you try the Aroma espresso, very VN-like.

The Aroma coffees I like most - not very much like VN coffeee - are the Gourmet Arabica (the best IMO) and the French Roast. Not sure whether Aroma coffees are available in CM though.

au contraire mon pere. my taste in whiskey is impeccable. it's my taste in rum that stinks - which is why i do love sang som so, much to the derision of my peers.

actually the weird thing is vietnamese coffee seems to taste totally different if you brew it in the cute little cups than if you put it in a french press or whatever - there's a weird coconutty taste that i really like when you do it in the cups that totally disappears otherwise. must be some kind of vietnamese voodoo.

so what's your favorite local coffee, sabaijamocha?

this is why i would never buy property in thailand - you never know what's going to pop up next door. heavy machinery, oil drilling, a death-metal rock club, a large hadron collider. no zoning or noise control at all.

i hope it really is just a festival at the big c. it seems amazing that noise that far away from the river would spread so far and wide. how awful it must be to live nearby.

My lady friend came back from a trip to Vietnam and brought with her some delicious Vietnamese coffee (the kind you make in the tiny little metal cups with the screw-in plunger). Sadly, we've run out and are going into detox shock. Anyone know if it's possible to buy real Vietnamese coffee in Chiang Mai?

I love the smell of Vietnamese coffee in the morning. Smells like Victory.

I just moved into the Wat Gate area. One of the attractions was the peace and quiet. Not any more. Suddenly there's some kind of loud live Thai pop music playing most nights. I've tried to figure out where it's coming from but to no avail. I live by the river and a friend of mine lives all the way to the east right by the Superhighway (near Makro) and I can hear it almost as well at her house as I can at mine. That's a diameter of shitty music measuring about two kilometers.

Does anyone know where it's coming from? I realize there's not much that can be done about ridiculously loud music in Thailand but I'm just curious. It's really bumming my high.

don't think so. sure would be nice.

where did you find the straight bar please? how much.

looked at my dumbells and did 2 curls.

its a start. I need to knock off the clay wasps nest they have build on the side first... maybe next month!

the sport shop in the central department store, the sport shop in kad suan kaew, on the second floor, and carrefour all have weights with straight bars.

i can't believe how expensive workout weights are here. an assortment adding up to a hundred kilos and a straight bar will set you back 7000+ baht. not to mention 10,000 baht for a proper bench. vastly cheaper in the states at least.

just bought a bike and i've been really surprised by the dusty gunk that's accumulated on my skin by the time i've arrived home after a couple of hours. i personally don't think it's polluted at all (though i hail from los angeles so i might have a high tolerance) but my skin testifies to the contrary.

of course, the gunk might just be my own - haven't exercised much in the last few months. maybe it's just a backlog of burger grease.

o

Hi, I want to produce a small plastic item. About five inches by three inches and about an eighth of an inch thick (13mmx6mm by 3mm). Black and chrome finish.

Are there any factories in Chiang Mai where this could be done in relatively small quantities - say a few thousand pieces?

Just thought I'd ask, thanks.

i don't find the official bottled, labeled variety all that hangover-inducing. 50 baht for a 600ml bottle, add some ya dong herbal powder, shake well and add it to orange juice. Good taste and good for you. i feel worse after a night of beering. but that's just me.

went to the new place across from the original mike's burgers on chiang mai road: "texas barbecue beef". my first impression upon seeing it was, oh crap this is a rip off of the "mike's formua" that gave us mike's and miguel's.

well, as it turns out, i was wrong - big mike is back in town. and welcome back, sir! as many have lamented the fact that mike's burgers-sans mike has taken a hit in quality since the man left, be advised that the real mike is running the show over at texas bbq beef.

i had a "philly cheesesteak burger" with a generous hamburger patty, slices of roast beef on top, peppers and onions and cheese on a nice bakery roll, with coleslaw and a nice pickle for about 130 baht (139?). It was easily one of the best burgers I've had in Chiang Mai. Or ever.

I felt good all day after that. At least until the loy kratong madness started up again (I live by the river).

Hey if anyone is looking for a house for rent, the one I recently moved out of on Nimmanhaemin soi 2 is available.

There are very few actual houses in that area - mostly townhouses and condos and such. Mine was actually a duplex, but it was quite a good place and good value for the area.

The landlord speaks perfect English and is very meticulous and honest - I got all my entire deposit back despite neglecting the small garden (they had to put in new grass). Repairs stuff promptly and happily as well.

It's two stories, with three bedrooms - one of them is very large and has an attached deck. Aircons in all the bedrooms. More or less fully furnished, including a nice washing machine and a microwave. No TV. You'd need to buy an electric hotplate. She won't allow a gas stove.

I moved out to a quieter area because I find the Nimmanhaemin area too busy. But many people don't seem to mind all that. It's a two minute walk to Kasem store, Mike's Burgers, etc. Very convenient.

The landlord is quite particular, and is interested in renting it to a couple without kids or pets. The place was robbed the year before we moved in and she's paranoid - would prefer if one of the two works from home. However I think it's really safe from robbery now that she installed strong metal gates on all the doors. If you're alone and/or don't work from home she might be up for a bit of kind persuasion, though.

The rent is 13,000 baht a month. She takes care of all the bills, which you reimburse her for when you pay the rent each month. (I'm not getting a commission, if you're wondering - just grateful to get my full deposit back, which seems to be a rare occurrence in Thailand, and want to show some kreng jai)

If this sounds like it might work for you, call Ms. (Ajarn) Paiboon at 053 277 633 (daytime) or 053 273 823 (nights and weekends)

apparently the show in bangkok was wild and very well-received. i'm definitely going and have been spreading the good word. after all the same same in chiang mai it'll be nice to see something different: rock and roll accordion music!

plus guitarman's been on the up and up. good vibe going on there. convenient location too for that night as it's close to the river so folks could just walk there after watching the loi kratong happenings.