spud67

Synthetic babies? Really? Grow up Mr Dolce. Kids are kids. If I had a choice to ban either 'synthetic babies' or overpriced purses, it sure as hell wouldn't be the kids.

Nope, never fooled. I can always tell. It's the hands that give it away.

Had an awesome time! 5555

"Santa Clause" The patron saint of TEFL teachers.

Our Lord Santa is very close to completing his LLB. Soon he'll be writing reindeer insurance contracts.

To clarify my earlier posts, when I asked mamasans and ladies in nearby bars, about the Bar 4 closure, they said 'Someone died.' When I asked if it was related to the man falling from Nana Hotel, they replied, 'Yes.' Further questions brought up the concepts that he was drinking with a lady and her BF didn't like it. A fight broke out. It moved to the hotel, somehow, and continued there.

No one mentioned anything to me about an unpaid bill; bar, lady or otherwise. No one mentioned anything untoward about Bar 4 that doesn't happen at other bars on Nana. In fact it's my perception that this bar is far cleaner than others on the soi.

Word on the soi: he was having a drink in the early hours with a lady at or near Bar 4. Her boyfriend took exception. Backed with 3 buddies the fight began and continued at Nana Hotel. It was 4 on 1. One man is dead and Bar 4 is closed for a week.

Is this related to the Bar 4 closure? The girls at H4 said someone died there early Friday morning and the police closed the bar down.

Must have been a wild night. At about 3-330 a.m., I watched 3 Arab dudes, at the 7-11 just south of the soi 6 intersection, throwing stuff at a tuktuk and a huge, I mean HUGE, Thai dude hopped out of the tuktuk with a club of some sort. That's when my company said we should get off the street.

Thanks

My apologies if this has been covered recently, I did a search and did not find the answer I was looking for.

I will be making my annual holiday to Thailand later this week. I will be bringing some cash to save on ATM fees. I plan to convert to THB from CAD at VASU. Most of the cash is in 100's and 50's. Is anyone aware if VASU or other money-changers do not accept certain denominations?

Thanks for the help.

The Kurdish state within Iraq has one of the very few functional, popularly-elected governments within the Middle East. For some reason, the people and it's leaders appear to be handling a responsible government and economy. If there is a nation-to-be within the Syrian-Iraqi bloc that is worth supporting, surely it's the Kurds. A recent interview I saw, suggested Turkey, a key regional NATO member, who is fighting Turkish-Kurds freedom fighters/terrorists within it's own borders, has been, quietly, holding talks with the Iraqi Kurds with the hope of reducing violence.

Depression is a rotten bitch that never truly goes away.

May you find peace Mr Williams.

My favourite line,"This happened from the Chinese tourists’ habit of giving officials five to 10 yuan.." See? We're just so used to getting tips now, sometimes we get a little too anxious and expectant that we suggest a 50 baht tip up front. Not our fault, blame the rich Chinese big spenders.

Haha I read the headline as 'Photoshop for ...' instead of 'photo shop....'. I was thinking that applying some Photoshop techniques to your passport picture would not be very copacetic.

Even if I believed that the parents are not abandoning their child and even if I believed that this woman is a wicked schemer who somehow accurately predicted that the parents would not want their own child, I still don't understand the vile hatred towards the surrogate mother. A hatred so strong that some of this baby's own, I presume, countrymen would rather condemn a just-born, but apparently defective, Australian citizen to a life of poverty in a struggling country instead of standing up and demanding a just and caring life for it with access to top-notch medical care, for no other reason than to vilify the mother.

This child is not a piece of trash to be thrown away. Most people love their children, even those that don't match expectations. Call me naive, but I hope the Thai and Aussie governments conduct proper due diligence of the heritage of the child and follow up with a plan of care shared by both countries.

One thing's for sure, in the future economies controlled by the Chinese and Indian mega-trillionaires, everyone will be much more understanding when some rich Chinese politico publicly commands his poverty-stricken, white, anglo-saxon handmaiden to have an abortion because he doesn't want her inferior spawn messing up his perfect family.

The Canadian system is very individual focused. I am Canadian and had tried to get a tourist visa for my former gf. An accredited immigration consultant helped us with the process because my gf case was not strong on her own, although she possessed, what I considered to be, substantial assets. In particular for a single Thai woman in her 40's she had a fair amount of cash in the bank and farmland rented out to others.

We felt that with my background that the Visa had a good chance: born a citizen of Canada, former elected official, no criminal record, income well over $100,000/year.

The reply we got was similar to your wife's reply, however, underneath was a note saying to not bother trying again unless her circumstances change drastically. I took that to mean that we would need to marry first.

There is only one reason that I can think of for Canada's immigration system to be so harsh with visas - including tourist visas. About a decade or more ago, Statistics Canada (a government agency) polled recent immigrants and refugees to Canada. Seventy-five percent of them, under the age of 30, came to Canada because they believed it would help them get into the US (some probably thought it was one in the same). I suspect that the US, in response, told the Cdn government to toughen up its immigration policies or see a less porous border in regards to Canadian vacationers casually crossing the line.

And yet, sometimes, when I see some of the people who do make it in...I just shake my head.

Good luck sir. I hope you and your wife will one day visit our beautiful country.

I just had a look at their website. The C208 is for scheduled flights and its located at Chiang Mai. The Hawker is for charters, based at Don Muang.

I tried the booking engine for a one-way flight, Hua Hin -> Chiang Mai in September and got a higher price than listed above. 3215 + VAT + taxes = 3490 baht

Still, if you're located in Hua Hin, the 1.5 hour flight to Chiang Mai would be much more convenient than driving or busing to Bangkok and going thru security there.

Presumably the 208 would fly lower than other flights and would make a more interesting flight during clear days.

I didn't know that Thailand have oil reserves in an inland wells, off shores yes, inland wells?

new on to me? are there any other oil well in the vicinity of that area?

Frakking maybe...

Frak off.... As far as I am aware there is no fracking going on in Thailand

Nor likely to be any fracking either.

Would need to be high pressure gerbils.

I think it was a DMF requirement that the bottom hole location was known. It can be several kms laterally from the surface location and the oil companies need to know it themselves for various reasons.

Forget GPS; very precise geophysical surveys are carried out to help determine where to drill and the surface location of the well is known exactly.

There don't appear to be many wanting to hear your reasoned responses. I have no knowledge of Thai oil industry but I did serve as a crew chief for a land surveyor in the Canadian oil and gas fields. The idea that a company secretly and quietly slipped a drilling rig into a national park, drilled a well and then expected no one to notice for the (hopefully) decades long life of the well and subsequent pipeline sounds like the results of a slapdash story. Further, assuming some sort of a land titles office in Thailand, why would the military use a handheld GPS to determine the location? They should be using a combination of lease papers and their own land surveyor prior to releasing their dumbed-down results to the 'news'. All this does is throw suspicion.... oh, I see it now.

"Other findings of the research include:

• showing that roughly a quarter of all Google Play free apps are clones: these apps are duplicative of other apps already in Google Play" - astounding 555

It's the emotional theatrics that turn me off from soccer. I don't like watching most South American teams because of it. There is nothing beautiful about watching some millionaires roll around on the pitch in an effort to deceive the ref.

Rather than England and others stoop to the level needed to win, England should call for more body contact to be allowed. Let the weak roll around on the pitch.

Given the huge amount of news coverage that immigration receives in Canadian media, it's astonishing the number of Canadians that fail to check out the legal standing of the consultants claiming to help them. CIC couldn't care less about your dealings with VFS because they have no relationship to them. CIC is not responsible for the doings of the people you hired. The only people legally entitled to represent you must be a certified member of the ICCRC, you can search for them at this link.

If VFS has been a dick to you in this process. CIC has recommendations on filing a complaint based on where they are located and if they are certified.

Good luck with the visa process. I fear you may still be on your own.

I honestly can't think of any other reason he has stayed in Chiang Mai other than a civil suit and the hopes of some cash. Am i missing something? You can go home and get free health care and welfare to help you out in your time of need. Why is he still in Thailand?

Healthcare in Canada is funded to a large degree by the federal government, but it is run by the provincial governments. If you are no longer are a 'resident' as defined by Canada Revenue Agency, you may no longer qualify for provincial health benefits. At that point a Canadian may be treated as a foreigner within the system and be expected to pay for treatment.

We all could be missing something here. It is difficult to know the factors at play. As mentioned previously, this is what insurance is for; but good luck in his efforts to normalize his life.

60,000 baht seems like an awfully steep barfine... wait a minute... oh I see... it's a bar fine not a barfine.

Ahhh patience. Air France/KLM just sent out a Flash Sale for all classes from N. America to Asia for travel through the fall. Booking time limit is in 5 days. Business class from $3500CAD R/T from Toronto and Montreal to various points in Asia including BKK.

I appreciate everyone's comments. I have not written off PAL but I am looking closely at EVA. I had no idea they flew to Canada (YVR and YYZ). The connection in Taipei is quick and it may be the most direct route from here (least amount of actual time in the air). The first leg from Toronto is almost 16 hours but the second leg is mercifully short.

>>Whizbang; Interesting prices you are getting. I've been checking the American carriers with little luck. I have tried prices from Canadian and American cities with little difference. I just tried another search with AA originating in NYC (SFO was the same). As you can see from the screen capture the price is a little high. Maybe it's too early.

I know the loonie is getting an a$$kicking from the greenback but it's still .90 on the dollar.