Kaoboi Bebobp

SM Negra has been around for many years in the Philippines. Never seen it here though.

Beer in the RP is vastly superior to Thailand's, and cheaper too.

Beer in Weatherspoon's is vastly superior to Thailand's and cheaper too.

This reminds me of Witherspoon's on Buakhao (in Pattaya, Thailand). One of the best selections of beer in town. Beer Lao light and dark, San Miguel Pale Pilsener, Old Speckled Hen, loads of Belgians etc.

Soi Kopai has several used furniture shops, shoulder to shoulder, closer to Pattaya Tai than Thep Phrasit.

A Thai couldn't possibly do such a thing. Just ask the General.

This is the Cambodia News section, by the way.

I have no words to express my revulsion to this despicable act. I hope the townfolks are let loose on this sub-animal being.

Big business outside Thailand couldn't give a shoot about the coup. The only thing that matters is the bottom line, if operating or investing in Thailand makes good business sense then the green light is given no matter who is in charge. It's only when big businesses "arrangements" come under scrutiny that things change, and the new government is definitely poking its nose into lots of dusty corners.

I posted this some weeks back, but from personal experience I know of a fairly large offshore owned Thai based company who were declined bank support (by HSBC) for their planned expansion in Thailand. The bank advised it would not do so whilst Thailand remained under a military junta as policy. The same company got the finance for the new factory in Indonesia. Subsequently they've made the corporate decision to relocate the current factory to the same country - 1000+ jobs gone.

Vietnam too, is doing very, very well from the Thai problems.

And VN will do even better. It has just signed a massive and comprehensive free trade deal with the EU that will see trade barriers come down on both sides. The EU has already signed one with Singapore and is going after Japan and India. Thailand is not on the radar.

Following the example of Tesco, in their never ending aim to beat inflation for the Thai people, Big C today started a similar promotion where they drastically change the price of some major products.

Only this one looks a little different.

Overnight they simply DOUBLED the price of a portion of steamed rice.

A 250 gram portion of steamed white rice which was 12 Baht until yesterday, and which sells for 5 Baht at the local markets by the way, was priced at 24 Baht as of today.

That is more than at your average restaurant.

Do I need to say that at 6pm there was plenty of steamed rice available?

Another promotion they had was for Talley's garden peas, which are 75 Baht/kg at Makro, and at Big C only 103 Baht for half a kg.

It looks as if Big C takes inflation serious, but only the inflation in their own books.

I know I stay here long time, but it looked as if I knew every customer that was inside the shop, if you understand what I mean.

That's good to know. I sometimes buy that brand at Foodland but can't remember the price. It's been a while. It may be in the 80-baht range, in fact.

Anyway, every import I buy has gone up tremendously this year.

It's amazing to have experienced this year the visible shift in passenger nationality to Chinese on the BKK-Pattaya bus service. More and more young Chinese (and Koreans) are filling the seats. Seems like hardly any Thais these days and not many Euro/NorthAm types. I do this run a lot and am having to wait longer and longer to get a departure time because of the growing Chinese herds. This past Monday I waited an hour and a half to get a bus to BKK on Monday afternoon (holiday rush over already) and well over an hour for the return Tuesday. I'm used to 10-20 minute intervals, at least it was last year and early part of this year.

I've had really good motorcycle cleaning experiences with a big car/moto wash on 3rd Road. It's on the east side of 3rd, about 200 metres north of Pattaya Klang. Look for a lot of trees hanging out over the sidewalk. The lot is before the street leading to the backside of Big C Extra. If you see the blue sign for Navin Mansion or Big C sign, you've gone too far. It's 80 baht and they (Myanmarese workers) do a really nice job.

Everything will be back to normal between 10 pm and midnight. So go get your shower, power up the tattoos or pull out a Chang wife-beater or put on the sandals and socks and go rock the night away.

It's very likely a lot of bars and clubs will start serving from 10 pm on. Some earlier, some later and some not till midnight. I heard this last night from a longtime Thai bar owner who plans to start full service, lights and music, after 10.

ACM Prajin just had to get the ususal xenophobic remark in didn't he "reduce foreign employee imports."

Just lovely words for the rabble. Next day the order goes out for the hiring of hundreds of westerners to help "retrain" Dept of Civil Aviation inspectors and train new ones. That said, it's not like giving a First Aid course in five days. You needs years of hands-on experience in the air and on the ground, to say nothing of the high standard of English needed to understand technical manuals. I just can't see it happening without five to 10 years of intense training and experience. Yeah, right . . .

My friend did his retirement extension this week at Jomtien. He needed his rental agreement and a signed copy of the Thai ID card of the person who signed his rental agreement. He did not need that last year.

I am surprised. How did this work with your friend? Did he have to go back to the building office and get the signed ID and go back to immigration? I want to try to figure out how ironclad this is. My building gives me a very official and stamped letter specifically for immigration, signed by the manager. It has been accepted without question before.

The pain continues. I've had to follow filthy diesel-smoking bus up narrow Soi Yume the 2 km to North Road on 4 or 5 separate occasions in the last few weeks. (I use Yume instead of northbound Sukhumvit to get to the Darkside.) Every one holds well back of the smoke cloud. You just can't pass because of the oncoming traffic. Traffic slows to a crawl, you can't help but inhale some of the horrible black cloud and one of these days the tall buses are going haul down the wiring in a big way. I've watched them weave in and out to avoid some of the wiring. This never used to happen when I lived near Big C Extra in early 2014 and before. Now these huge buses are everywhere. Will anything be done? No, because the local leaders are just too blind and stupid to understand they need to care about this tourist and weekend getaway destination.

No way would I pay 15 baht at an apartment building when the gov rate is 4.0-4.5. That's the highest rate I've ever heard of. My bill last month was 169 kw/h. At 15 baht, my bill would have been over 2500 baht -- a third of my rent.

Paying that rate would be like having a car dealer install the window tinting on your new-car purchase at three times the price of the shop down the street because you're too lazy and irresponsible with money to get it done yourself. It's just basic consumer smarts. Why buy the dealer another case of wine when it can be your case?

I've bought all beef hotdogs are Foodland. They're in the meat case at the back.

Yeah, we've bought them for 4th of July parties, nobody likes them.

Same here. I stopped buying them last year. Absolutely flavourless, like every other casing meat prepared here. But imports are so crazily expensive.

I was trying to decide whether to fly out of BKK on the 29th or the 30th. This solves it for me. The 29th it is!

I am too on the 29th. Although I knew a holiday was coming, I didn't think it was coming up so fast. For this and many other reasons, I'm off to Cambodia to look for a new home.

I've bought all beef hotdogs are Foodland. They're in the meat case at the back.

I did a withdrawal Thursday. Don't be surprised if some Kbank ATMs are out of cash on Friday. Do it early.

Nern Pub Wan is like a bloody race track late evening and the early hours. So you have to be doubly careful.

If she's really wanted in the US, the US embassy might be interested in knowing her whereabouts. Just sayin . . .

Cambodian immigration is generally pretty efficient in dealing out the visa-stickered passports. If flying in on Air Asia, pay the 100 baht for the front seating. Have your stuff filled out (an incredible 3 forms of duplicate info), passport photo and passport to hand to the officers. Wait for maybe 10-15 minutes, pay the $30 and walk to passport check line.

Tesco OnNut is quite easy. The traffic on Suk is a nightmare now with those new malls being open, especially later in the afternoon.

Why not just take the bus all the way?

This^^^. Park beside the Pattaya Nua bus station (100 baht for 24h), get a bus ticket for 119 baht. A bus leaves every 10 to 15 minutes. Stops 4 times before reaching Ekamai bus terminal: Home Pro Village after the tollway exit, Central Bang Na, then turns onto Sukhmvit and stops at Udom Suk then On Nut. It's about 1 hour, 45 mins to Udom Suk BTS station. No worries.

I haven't been to Lao in something like 7-8 years and quite liked it. I think it's time to visit again. Thanks for your thoughts on Lao.

"However, foreigners would only be allowed to own luxury apartments; they are still prohibited from purchasing landed property or low-cost apartment units."

So currently, foreigners cannot own anything in Indonesia? And people complain about Thailand....

I never complained about Thailand, because although its easy to stay here you cant own land. For me its easy to own land in a country like the US but its difficult to get long term access.

Its however changing, Vietnam has now got 50 year leases for foreigners that can be renewed and now Indo is making a move.

A draft decree last month plans to raise that to 100 years and allow a foreigner with proper visa and married to a Viet to have freehold tenure. The decree also widens the type or properties from just apartments to villas and townhouses.

Index is pretty, um, basic. GT Rider on Pattaya Tai at the corner of Soi 8, has a good selection of Shark, Bilmola and other good name brands. I can't remember if I saw first-tier Arai and Shoie in there. But they would be exceedingly expensive. My Bilmola three-quarter open-face helmet was 2200 baht. Tested and proven on Thai asphalt.