MrY

I doubt that ANY town/City in Thailand needs a light-rail LESS than Phuket City. Due to the fact that the Transport-Mafia ruled for decades and public transport did not exist and has therefore almost no history in Phuket, virtually EVERY Phuket local owns his/her own car/Motocy. I doubt it would be profitable to operate even if it runs on just an hourly frequency. nobody will use it and after a few years, it will be discontinued.

where as a lightrail Kamala - Patong - Karon - Kata would be very successful and could afford to charge higher fares, therefore reach profitablity at one stage.....

Don't agree. I am used to move around driving a car, but if there is a really efficient public transport system like the Skytrain in Bangkok, I certainly use it.

But this project in Phuket......first see and then believe.

Kickbacks are probably the only reason it is even under consideration, but it could work. On the other hand, like Skytrain it probably wouldn't run at night, so you still need a taxi [of some kind] or your own transportation...

Not sure where this comes into it ?? paper say's totaled his 10-million baht Ferrari ? maybe is a copy ? or a heap of junk that is why he could not stop in time ?

cheapest Ferrari here is 23 million up to 39 million !!

​Edit: looks like the F430 spider, costing 24 million, maybe 10 million is the value the Insurance will give ?

That's a Ferrari 360, and certainly not a Spider (which is a convertible/cabriolet). He may have paid 10 Mil for it couple of years ago, but you can get one for 5-6M these days and even a Spider is less than 10M.

Edit: I posted straight from page1, so I just saw Gerry (Je suis aussi 1011) beat me to it [with pictures]. If the stripes on it are original then it is a Stradale and maybe [was] worth close to 10 Million.

And this guy was Chairman of Thai Airways until August...............

...and therein lies the answer. It's not that budget carriers are taking away business from bus companies (ZFG), but other carriers low fares are eroding Thai Airways' and Thai Smile's (and Nok Air's, of which THAI is a major shareholder) share of the market.

This has been a news flash from Singkhon Border Crossing Upgrade Organization (Established 1995)

As a 500E owner I kinda understand the elephant in the OP. A nice old Mercedes W124 gives me a hard-on too...

Take a songtow all the way to the end of Jomtien road one evening and there a a couple Thai seafood restaurants that have tables right on the waterfront ;-)

I agree on the thai seafood restaurants , you have to take a baht bus all the way up to Na Jomtien beach . Not so many touists there and best seafood in this area.

The best one on the beach is called Pupen Seafood. The name is in Thai, but a giant crab in front marks the spot. It's 100m before the southern end of Jomtien beach road.

Walk down to the beach from the Pinnacle and 100m to the right is one of our favorite daytime hangouts, Drifters Cafe. A little Aussie run place with great pizzas [from a real pizza oven], cocktails and a relaxing atmosphere.

Glass House nearby is of course worth a visit, just don't expect the food to quite match the surroundings (great drinks though). Some of our friends love it, some refuse to go. Let me know what you thought.

About a mile south is Seaview (Na Jomtien Soi 14), another good to excellent seafood restaurant. It's a bigger place and you can choose between proper tables and the beach setup.

Enjoy.

Hope he gets shanked.

Cars have seat belts, airbags and are engineered to absorb impact Force by crumpling, yet preserving an area surrounding the driver and/or passenger.

Motorbikes have nothing to protect you in an accident, except your helmet.

The "we're all going to die anyway" is a logical red herring. If you believe riding a moto is a justifiable risk, you should also take up base jumping, free style rock climbing, injecting heroin, changing all your online bank account passwords to "password" and playing Russian Roulette with your spouse to settle disagreements, leaving your door unlocked with a loaded gun on your table and always carry your life savings in your pocket when walking through crowded markets.

Hey, we're all going to die anyway...

You forgot extreme ironing....

The idea that in Thailand cars are built to a lower standard is a popular old wives tale on ThaiVisa

but it has little connection to reality. I used to work for Honda company and can assure you Hondas

built in Marysville, Ohio, Saitama, Japan, or Rayong, Thailand are all built to the same standards.

I don't doubt the quality is similar, but as far as standards Your Mileage May Vary. Where this "old wives tale" originates from is not build quality, but the practice of omitting some safety features in vehicles built in the emerging markets. It is clearly evident today in the safety equipment specs of the average vehicle sold in Thailand today.

More importantly, in the years long gone, buying a brand known for it's safety in the First World may not have guaranteed you the same level of protection in other markets. Missing side impact protection bars (verified by peeking under the door panel of one Japanese brand), solid tube replacing the bumper impact shock absorbers, use of lesser gauge metal in non structural areas (that nonetheless contribute to safety as crumple zones), were all practices used to cut costs. My colleague's new locally manufactured Japanese car weighted 30kg less than official weight on the C.M. airport cargo scale, while my new & imported version of the same model was 10kg over. These checks were done in response to a newspaper article (either B.P. or Nation) highlighting the problem at the time, as my colleague was furious at having paid a premium for a 'safe' brand. The negative publicity has diminished this practice .

Sounds like a very amateurish conspiracy theory idea. The 30 kg difference in weight between 2 cars made for different markets hardly proves any thing to a reasonable person.

Right. But 30kg plus 10kg equals 40 kg. Of the same model car, sedan made in Thailand and an estate made in Japan [for the Japanese market as you say]. The published weights from the owners manual were the same. Thai cars were lighter. And I think a side impact protection bar (from a different Japanese make and model) that is shown on the brochure to be same as the European model missing from a Thai built car proves something. Anyway, I was involved simply because I had that same brand car and the owner of the Thai made car wanted to know if the article could be right. 40kgs is a lot of weight.

And while I do believe conspiracies exist [as proven by history] I do not 'theorize' about them. We wanted proof. Got it. No theory.

Edit: To make it clear, I'm not saying the estate weighted more than a saloon, they always do. I know which way to hold a calculator. Capische?

Both cars were less than one moth old, same equipment code, washed and cleared of personal items, no accessories installed, full tank of fuel (the weight of which was deducted from the scale reading), and even the slight difference in fuel tank sizes accounted for. Thank you for asking.

Do people really think Thailand is somehow unique in inaccurately reporting traffic fatalities? Many have named countries they consider worse than Thailand. For example India, some Middle Eastern countries, and most African countries seem far more dangerous than Thailand. In Southeast Asia, Vietnam was considered the worst but ironically it may have been because their statistics were more accurate. In the 90s an independent study (by an Australian? agency) polled hospitals in one region of Thailand and put the traffic fatalities at 27,000 while the government reported 18,000 deaths [on the scene of accident as they do]. (A few years later the government targeted a reduction to 10,000 deaths a year in 10 years so naturally the statistics got even worse over the years). Emergency vehicle drivers commonly reported a practice of listing a dead motorist still being alive when sent to hospital as this was less paperwork for the police. In the same report it was mentioned that car fatalities per capita were seemingly on par with the safest countries in the World due to less cars, mileage, slower speeds (!), etc. Essentially they were confessing that even if your numbers are correct, making sense of it all is a different story altogether.

Knock On Wood, but personally I've managed to drive hundreds of thousands of kilometers in Thailand without a serious accident myself. I have spent 3 days in hospital having been hit by a speeding bike while I was stationary and I have been in several taxi accidents as a passenger, yet spread over 20+ years I can't consider driving in Thailand overly dangerous as long as you're the one in control (or more accurately "in control"). I've racked up over 100 countries visited [plus many overseas territories and such] so I may have an idea whereof I'm talking about.

One's perception is of course also extremely deceptive. I've gone a year in Thailand without seeing a car accident, but on the other hand I've seen thirteen (13!) car and truck accidents (11 scenes of an accident, most of them recent, and two as they happened) on a 700km road trip in one day [during full moon...]. How do you think you would see traffic safety in Thailand if that was your first day in the country?

Of the road from Nairobi to Mombasa the saying was "If you didn't see an accident, you were in one".

The idea that in Thailand cars are built to a lower standard is a popular old wives tale on ThaiVisa

but it has little connection to reality. I used to work for Honda company and can assure you Hondas

built in Marysville, Ohio, Saitama, Japan, or Rayong, Thailand are all built to the same standards.

I don't doubt the quality is similar, but as far as standards Your Mileage May Vary. Where this "old wives tale" originates from is not build quality, but the practice of omitting some safety features in vehicles built in the emerging markets. It is clearly evident today in the safety equipment specs of the average vehicle sold in Thailand today.

More importantly, in the years long gone, buying a brand known for it's safety in the First World may not have guaranteed you the same level of protection in other markets. Missing side impact protection bars (verified by peeking under the door panel of one Japanese brand), solid tube replacing the bumper impact shock absorbers, use of lesser gauge metal in non structural areas (that nonetheless contribute to safety as crumple zones), were all practices used to cut costs. My colleague's new locally manufactured Japanese car weighted 30kg less than official weight on the C.M. airport cargo scale, while my new & imported version of the same model was 10kg over. These checks were done in response to a newspaper article (either B.P. or Nation) highlighting the problem at the time, as my colleague was furious at having paid a premium for a 'safe' brand. The negative publicity has diminished this practice .

I clicked on this thread thinking "Let's see what this <deleted> thief looks like", and <deleted> me! I got a <deleted> mugshot of this <deleted> <deleted>. I guess I <deleted> got what I <deleted> asked for...

(Note: I preempted the deletes )

(Note 2: I don't really care one way or another, just not really enthralled by her 'personality'. The Shins have done so much to preserve "The Thai Way of Life" (=relative poverty), but if it wasn't them it would be someone else. Maybe to a lesser degree, but none-the-less. Absolute power corrupts absolutely and all that.)

What to expect in a country where Service Counters are frequently labelled 'Counter Service'..?

You'll Never Walk Alone with Schizophrenia

(Courtesy of my oddball friend's T-shirt)

Salt? I'll bring my moose along then...

Like the tip jar in my bar [years ago] said: "Tipping is not a city in China!"

Tipping is for a job well done, expedience, service above and beyond, and for generally a good attitude towards work. If you felt good, then it's a way of sharing that feeling (except in countries like the U.S.). If you are miserable no matter what, then don't worry, it shows and no one expects you to tip. Just don't forget, Thai business owners in touristy areas are taking advantage of the farang habit of tipping and pay the staff less and many take "their share" from the tip jar! Don't be surprised your no-tipping-no-matter-what policy does not go across too well as the staff will be thinking you are short changing their salary.

If I do tip, at restaurants I usually leave a small amount of change on the tray and tip the waiter/waitress directly. The tip on the tray is to be shared, but the money in hand is personal. If I'm with my wife, I'll have her tip the waitress (again, this is assuming there is a reason to tip) so there is no misunderstanding about me having taken a liking to the waitress.

Living in the States I used to leave the tip under my plate or coffee cup and if there was any comments or bad attitude shown then I would simply go and remove the tip... I do that in Thailand to tip hard working restaurant cleaning staff when the waitress is clearly too snobby to touch the dishes. They never get tipped and it's a nice surprise for them to find some small change.

The best tipping quote (Hint: It's a comedy):

"It's not tipping I believe in, it's over tipping"

Steve Martin as Vince Antonelli in My Blue Heaven after tipping a flight attendant $100.

During my first year of teaching, whenever I took attendance this one heavy-set mischievous 7th grade girl would call out in an unusually loud voice, "I here!"

It wasn't almost till the end of the year that it dawned on me that she was actually making a play on words, and shouting out the obscenity, "Ai hia!"

Years ago I scored some mega points at the orifice by telling some of the staff how to use this to tell the Farangs off without them knowing what you really said. "Ai hia! everything you say..."

Honey can we buy a woe woe = Volvo.

She was onto something... (I once had a Woe-woe Wee70)

"I cut your head, bo?!" (I was in need of a haircut)

"Better you not visit." (After I apologized for coming to Thailand for only a few days. Later found out it was "Better than...")

...and air, as mentioned before, is already 80% nitrogen. What advantage there is in changing the less than 20% oxygen content to a slightly less leak prone gas is minute indeed. The quality of the tire [and possibly inner tube] and how it is installed (bead seal) plays a much bigger role. Some shops have advertised free nitrogen fill with tire purchase, but you'd have no way of knowing what goes into your tire unless you fill it from your own bottle. I have a nitrogen bottle at home but I use it for my wines, not my tires...

RE Post #21

Nitrogen expands when heated as do all gasses including the atmospheric mix => air (69% nitrogen).

Remember from high school chemistry Boyle's law of perfect gasses:

PV/T=k

Pressure x Volume divided by Temp (Kelvin) is constant.

Volume in the filled tire is pretty constant, so if T goes up, P goes up proportionately.

Correct but the pressure change is much less with N2 than it is with air and the N2 it's dry whereas the air is water wet, which also affects the pressure.

No.

N2, O2, H2, CO2, H2O, NH3, CH4, CCl4, argon, helium,... all gasses change the same.

Please consult some basic chemistry resource to verify this.

...or physics.

The first thing you learn about the Ideal Gas Law is that it is not actually true and correct for all temperatures and pressures, but it does represent the properties of gases we deal with quite closely.

Nitrogen has it's minute advantages, mostly for aviation and racing. It is also quite cheap per bottle, thus quite profitable to sell as a miracle fix for your tires. There is no practical or cost efficient advantage for using it. Buy an air pressure gauge for the money.

On the subject, my tyres deflate slowly over three weeks down to about 15 psi. Happens on all six wheels of my three bikes.

Have I somehow picked up a batch of bad valves or is this normal?

Mine every 2 weeks....

I already had countless punctures due to deflated tyres. Never happened to me in my country.

I guess it happens because of the poor inner tubes quality..... they are really cheap, aren't they?

Poor quality inner tubes, poor quality tires and poor quality mechanics who wack in as much air as humanly possible! Saying that I have had very few flat tires but do get the air loss over a week maybe, it's very easy to let the air out after the mechanic has had a rush of blood to his head and tried to put hundreds of psi in!

In my experience most local tire guys will inflate the new tires to near 60 psi. Over-inflating the tires will cause air to find paths through the inner tube and will ruin it permanently (I suspect some of these 'mechanics' are fully aware of this, but hey, fixing flats is what they make money out of). After a few days (?) lowering the pressure to recommended values will not help, the tube will always leak. The high pressure helps them seat the tire bead on the rim, but should be let out immediately. I carry a pop-out style tire pressure gauge [that I've checked for accuracy] and always immediately check the pressure right after they are inflated by anyone without a pressure gauge (that is to say, anyone).

Using 35 psi for the front and 40 psi for the rear on my scooter, if I'm gone 3-4 months away from my bike there's still enough pressure left to drive slowly to the fill station. In 22 years I have never had a puncture I could not find an external reason for. Any inner tube that leaks gets replaced immediately and any tire that has been driven flat never gets re-used.

Hope this helps.

i live in a gated community and the woman accross the street has 3 dogs which she leaves out in her front garden every week day whilst she goes to work from 7a.m. till at least 6p.m. sometimes even later they bark at anyone who goes past at the postman the refuge men the children in fact they even bark at themselves,they are like shitzu dogs with a constant annoying bark, when it was mentioned to her about this all she says is they not welcome inside they make mess and chew things up. I have lived her for only 4 weeks and never seen her exercise them. They are a pain in the arse as even at weekends she lets then out into her garden so she can relax.They are not the kind of dogs you can go up to and pat or stroke,in fact if anyone even goes within 10 feet of her gate they yap like <deleted>, yes i have considered rat poisened meat but there are cats nearby so why should they suffer. Anyone any good suggestions

Poster AlanAunuum already answered your question:

I SUGGEST YOU BUY A GUN problem solved

That's odd....i wasn't aware that vote buying, threats made concerning the 'correct' party to vote for etc were part of the German model !

They are looking at the pre 1945 German model!!

My first thought about the headline too ("Which year German model are they talking about?). I'm surprised it took 3 posts to get there...

I was in Farang Legion, 2nd Pussytroop Regiment...