idman

All I can say is thank God for the numerous visa assist services here in Chiang Mai and for me to have the financial resources to avail myself of their services.  Complaint all you want about Immigration, you either deal with it, move to another country or use a visa assist service.

Hang in there for a short bit more.  The U.S. Treasury Department have issued a stern warning to the Bank of Thailand.  STOP MANIPULATING THE BAHT or you are joining China and India as the only three countries in the entire world who are manulipulating their currency.  The loss of face will be masive and the baht will nosedive to where it should be.  The Fed raised interest rates making investing in the U.S. more attactive,  Trump in Davos yesterday pledged to make the U.S. dollar a lot stronger and should these ja..ckoffs at the Bank of Thailand continue to ignore the warning the chickens are about to come home to roost.  I welcome this disaster for the Thai economy and fully intend to take advantage of the strong dollar.

Only if I sit on my ar..se drinking beer or hard booze everyday.  Only if I stop exercising early in the morning and after the sun goes down.  Only if I eat processed and fried foods on a daily basis.  Only if I have unprotected sex with the twinkies.  A heathy mind equals a healthy body.

After the U.S. Treasury Department puts Thailand on the list of the Worlds Currency manipulators to join China and India there will be no investing in Thailand.  The economy will take a major hit and righfully so.  These ar..seholes in the Bank of Thailand have been warned that there were serious consequences if they continued to inflate the Baht but oh no they wanted to make the Thai economy and thus their small group of the mega rich even more richer.  To hell with the consequences and how it's time to pay the piper.  The loss of face will be massive and deservidly so.

Having previously rented an Xmax at Pop rental here in Chiang Mai for three days and riding the piss out of it there were no surprises.  Since this new baby is mine I intend to treat it with kid gloves until after the 1000K. checkup.  I orderd an extra smart key, 950baht and worth every baht, I opted for the 39L top box and bracket, 13000+baht but it will be a two month wait.  I got comrehensive insurance that covers everything, 10500baht.  I am not going to change anything as it fits me to a tee.  No loud sounding exhaust for ego sake, the stock shocks do the job for me, the seat height is perfect as is the tall stock windscreen.  I am 189cm and this is by far and away the most comfortable scooter I have ever owned/ridden.  The Honda Forza 300 is not even in the same ballpark on any thing you might want to compare to the Xmax 300.  Thank you very much Yamaha.

Lucky old me, I went into the big Yamaha shop around the corner from Chiang Mai Ram Hospital to put a deposit on a Xmax as I had given up waiting for Honda to release a new and improved Forza 300.  Lo and behold what did I see on the showroom floor but three, yes three brand spanking new Xmaxs for sale.  To say I was shocked is an understatement as all I have heard, have been told was at least a three month wait.  Now there are only two available, a white/black combo and a dark grey one as I jumped on the brown color.  I will be taking possession of my new toy on Friday. As I said at the top, lucky me.

If Thailand isn't at top of list for most inept country in S.E. Asia it for sure is in top three.  This whole Yingluck saga has become another Thai soap opera.  Of course The Powers That Be are too stupid to know that and this Loss of Face mentality means they ill never admi to this stupidity.  Guys, no one cares about Yingluck, out of sight, out of mind.  You keep beating this dead horse, she ain't coming back, you ain't serious about bringing her back because then she becomes a lightning rod for her political party.

Another pathetic ejit from the U.K.  Sorry, this Bozo gets no sympathy, he brought all of this on himself

Tell that tosser to go pound salt.  24K for one year common area fee just means he thinks your are clueless Farang ripe for the pickings.  At Himma Prestige Living Condos the common area fee was only 1200 per month and in most cases was included in your rent depending on you negociating skills.

An absolutely wasted use of a topic which might have had relevance to Expats in the market for a new bike/scooter.  I'll bet that over 90% of the readers/viewers of this post have no intention, nor the funds to purchase these types of bikes you photographed.  We are living in Thailand for Gods sake and using these bikes in the ity only or on the highways is just plain idiotic.  Unless of course your bike is a reflection of your manhood or lack thereof.  Not enough photos of the "Pretties" as one person wrote, go online and pleasure yourself you pathetic earsling.

And of course this program will do absolutely <deleted> all to lower road deaths in Thailand.  After this 777 malarky is over the number of road deaths will have increased over last year.

And why no photos of normal everyday bikes, i.e. scooters, maxi scooters as the vast majority of Expats ride this type of motorbike????

Leave it to the Thais to demonstrate the follies of mankind on an epic scale.  Lucky phone numbers, lucky license plates are all available to those stupid enough to throw their money away foolishly.  What a country.

Mushy breaks, no real bite???  That is a load of twadle IMO.  I rented a new Xmax from Pop nearly a month ago for two days and put it through its paces as I intend to purchase one shortly.  I would pick out a long stretch of road open up the trottle and go like a bat out of hell.  Hit the breaks as hard as I could and never did the Xmax waver, feel mushy or lack for road bite.  I took it up and down the back side of Doi Suthep and never had break fade on the twisties.  In sum, the ABS breaks combined with traction control are a God send and are miles ahead of the breaks on the Honda Forza 300.  You dont improve on perfection.

The weather guessers know this because one of them saw a chicken cross the road with a capon and rightly concluded that it's cold outside.

That's right up there with "The checks in the mail." as far as the greatest lies ever told goes.  Why everything is just peachy keen in the Land of Smiles, not a thing to worry about, everybody is just sooo happy.

For God's sake it's not just the poor getting poorer the lower end of the Middle Class are quickly sinking into poor status. All due to rapidly increasing household debt.  Thais in this group have to have latest status mobile phone, they have to drive a car, they have to be seen as well off.  Prices across the board have risen steadly and will continue to do so but yet at the same time wage hikes remain stagnant or non existant.  The confidence in the Thai economy as expressed in polls of this group is very low.  It will come to a boiling point in the near future and it won't be pretty.

With the BMW 650 GT and 650 Sport costing 550,000 baht or more perhaps BMW are hoping that a 400 cc. maxi scooter will find a viable market here in Thailand.  Priced no higher than 350,000 baht if would be an attractive offering.  Their 650 cc. scooters are worlds apart from anything currently being sold in Thailand.

Assume every Thai motorist and motorbike rider are clueless morons with no regard for safety and the basic rules of the road.  Drive/ride in a defensive mode 100% of the time.  Practice this S.I.P. D.E.  Scan ahead, identify potential problems, prepare, decide on a course of action and execute that if it comes to that.  

Blah blah blah, more twaddle from these clowns.  As if the rest of the year Thai motorists are capable of safe driving or riding and somehow their peabrains turn to porridge during this holiday period.  Yeah right you are on that scenario.

And this friend is incapable of simply doing a Google search for Condos to let in Chiang Mai?.   Laziness, I have often gotten up from my chair to attend you.

Sorry but I just have to have a go tongue in cheekwise in regards this topic.  I would recommend talking to one of Lads who frequent on a daily basis the bar at Un Irish or Gekko.  Silly sots they may be but their advice would be given freely or perhaps for another bottle Archa and with their own personal demons being dealt with they are a treasure trove of help.

Today in the Bangkok Post Sport section the head noddy of the Football Association of Thailand (FAT) openly admitted that there are serious irregularities in the refereeing of football matches and that the image of Thai football has been tarnished.  Either this guy is the bravest man still alive in Thailand or he has already left the country.  He goes on to say that certain refs have been compromised, that certain influencial individuals have offered bribes to fix matches in their teams favor.  Of course none is this is shocking as money buys you whatever result you want in every aspect of Thai life.  The fact that this brave man has come forward is noteworthy and hopefully some of the more blatant abusers are removed from officiating football matches in the future.  The real problems lies with the Hi-So owners who have their way and can dictate to those beneath them.  Newin Chidchob of Buriram immediately comes to mind as he has used his massive fortune to buy the best team in the Thai Premier League and God help those who cross him or his team.  Anyway, reading this article was certainly an eye opener and quite refreshing.

In my own personal experiances with both Uber and Grab here in Chaing Mai the service has been very good for the most part.  However lately my trips have been more misses than hits.  I attribute that to the increased number of new Uber and Grab drivers who simply are incapable of reading or following directions on their GPS.  Most have no clue that you can have the directions spoken to you in Thai to help with the pickup point and destination.  On my last two attempts with Uber to go Honda Bigwing near Tae Pae Gate the Uber drivers called me, asked where I was and where I was going.  Excuse me you eff....ing moron your in car GPS tells you where the pickup is and where I am going then it's up to you to accept the fare or not.  I just cancelled with those two and lucked out with Grab drivers instead.  God forbid I should ask some of new drivers if they can even read or even have a proper drivers license, regardless of all this I will continue to use both as they sure as hell beat the rotten service by the taxi and red bus mafia.

Can't have the average or below average Thai get deeper and deeper into debt.  With household debt at an alltime high and no end in site this is the best they can come with?  Non performing loans AKA bad loans are in a similar situation.  But the Government wants the Thai people to go out and shop till they drop and dam the consequences???  Oh please oh please Mr. Businessperson lower your prices, it will be good for the Thai economy and save us a loss of face by being able to tout how much the people have spent.