sleepyjohn

LOCATION?

that whole society is turning into a punks culture, thanks johnnie rotten

Hang on steady, are you insinuating anything about the Pistols? Great band.

I used to live with a long haul BA stewardess called Annie McKay in the Punk days, and she had Johnnie in first class one flight. Said he was a gentlemen.

Spent 6 pleasant months at Chiangmai Pacific Mansions, it's full of regular residents so quiet.

No gym no sauna.

The pool's small but big enough for exercise and comfortable seats.

Pleasant staff.

No UBC but WE TV

ADSL share available

I recommend the top floor....the rooms are smaller but I think much nicer....best face west I think.

. . . my glass, however, seems to be half full . . .

...unlike Tesco's Sultana cakes!!!!!

I reckon you should change your NIC to "LuckyJohn"

HAHAHAHAHA!!!!

OK Mum I know it's late.....

My battery is considerably narrower than I'd expect back home. Maybe 60% the size. This might be because it's doing less work on the occasional very cold startups than in freezing England, the engine not being so stiff on startup. In other words the batteries back home have to be big enough to handle the occasional bitter morning, but do not need that amperage most of the time. in other words they have extra capacity.

This might mean that here, on a lot of startups, the moderately cold and warm ones, more current's running through the plates, they being smaller. Yes as someone said these are not deep cycle, but nor are the ones at home.

So this could be the cause of short life. I also have experienced it and yes they go without warning.

I may replace each year, they're cheap.

I wasted a lot of time and money telling the consulate in UK that I wanted a retirement visa. They asked for a No-criminal-record thing which took a month and money from Scotland Yard. Also medical certificate from my doc which cost £25. Etcetera.

When I got my passport back it had exactly the same OM visa I had got the two previous years when I filled in the form where it asked "reason for visit" as "visiting friends", and hadn't mentioned retirement. I had been told to put this in by a friend who's been coming for twenty years.

The "retirement visa" is actually an extension stamp issued in Thailand.

Hope it helps.

Good luck

I think I'll send this to Tesco head office UK.

I have now done this.

John

By the way, does anyone know what happened to the loathsome Dame Shirley Porter of Tesco?

Last I heard she'd gone on the run to Israel to escape corruption charges to do with the GLC elections.

I also am not happy with Lotus especially, and a lot of others in general. I have started keeping a list of gripes like this, and was actually thinking of starting a thread about it. Have a look:

I bought some T-shirts at Lotus and the colour ran.

I bought a relatively expensive light switch at Lotus and it simply didn't work.

I bought the best broom I could find at Lotus and it broke in two after two weeks.

I bought an Otto vacuum cleaner at Lotus and the nozzle broke off.

I bought a couple of extension leads at Lotus they both fell apart.

I bought a knapsack at Lotus...the zip lasted a month, the tags fell off two of the other zips.

I bought some wheely boxes at Lotus and two wheels broke off out of maybe 36

I bought a 100% cotton towel at Lotus. It squeaked on my skin, obviously 100% plastic.

I bought a hammer, Homepro I think. It broke the first time I pulled a large nail out.

I bought a spade at Kam Tieng and the spade bit bent on the second use.

I bought a saw in Mae Rim it was wrongly set I couldn't even use it once.

I bought two "Anglepoise" lights at Homepro. One NEVER worked, the other just packed up after 6 months.

I bought a mattress. It developed a "hole" in the middle very quickly, I had to replace it.

The central locking broke down on my car. I took it to a specialist auto electrical garage. After 40 minutes they gave up and gave me the keys back. I fixed it myself without buying any parts in 20 minutes.

I turned off the main electrical switch to my house to replace a tatty cable. As I cut the cable it exploded and I was lucky not to die. The electrician had bypassed the fuse box!

It's about time the people here learned how to complain....This sort of poor quality stuff is very expensive for them in the long run. I think I'll send this to Tesco head office UK.

I was very touched by your story, and your reaction to it.

A few things have occurred to me:

Would it be too disturbing to the monk to be anywhere else than his well known room?

Presumably the Jow-a-wat is somewhat insensitive, but might it be worth having a word with him to raise his awareness of this monk's situation, rather in the sense of "you're volunteered".

Is it an option to pay someone to care for him? I for one might be willing to contribute a little and am in CM. I would think some others here might also.

If you know a good monk from that area might they visit him regularly and perhaps give him a bit of dharmic inspiration in his latter days.

Whatever passes....good luck and well done.

Sleepyjohn

"Dealing With Potentially Drunk Thai Men Who Want To Talk, Whats yours ?"

Don't understand this title.......

.........isn't everyone potentially drunk????

My frend had some sort of colon problem in the UK. THey put him on a 6 month waiting list. He came here for a break and it started going wrong. Went to Chiangmai Ram. You need to see the specialist urgently said the admitting doctor. He went out, came back and said "He's on the golf course but nearly done, can you wait a little while?". The specialist arrived after a moderate wait. "Can your girlfriend pick up your things?" he asked, I'd like to operate tomorrow morning. They put him in a very nice room with a spare couch his girlfriend could sleep on, and cable TV.

Next morning a colostomy to give the problem time to heal. Two months later a reversal and everything's been fine for three years.

Total something in the order of £2-3,000.

My friend's verdict...FANTASTIC! and the difference was it wouldn't have been allowed to get to the serious stage in Thailand as it was in Britain.

I had a virus and was admitted to CM Ram couldn't breathe in fact too much pain to lie down...was admitted and spent two nights....didn't die though I thought it was possible for a while. Total bill, emergency room, medicines, nursing and stay I think was about 15,000baht, a fair bit of which was for cultivation of samples.

I see American's worrying terribly about being able to pay for their healthcare, trying to pay insurance so they can go home for ops of they have to.

My feeling is this is itself very likely to affect their health.

Why not take a chance?

We all have to die sometime. You'll probably get good treatment here, but hey there's a chance it won't be the best. Take a chance and relax, and do it at Thai prices. If the worst comes to the worst hey you're missing all that old age stuff!

What's lacking, just occasionally, in expertise here is made up for in care and timeliness.

I have no insurance at all and guess that if I had really really big problems it could cost up to a small number of tens of thousands. Nasty but do-able, and most more likely serious scenarios might be more likely in the three noughts area.

I think the American medical profession should be lined up against a wall and shot along with the lawyers and start again....they are worse than normal criminals who only steal from healthy people.

cheers Sleepyjohn

The problem is finding someone who can inject the vitamin c?

Do you realise the 30gm would make your 6 litres of blood a half % Vitamin C?????

That's ONE PART IN 200 PERCENT VITAMIN C!!

Do you want to be the guinea pig for something with no real history??

Do you know it's an acid?

Are you feeling lucky?...you'd better be.

Hi,

I am moving to BK in a couple of weeks and have an account with Nat West. I asked them about transferring money (large amounts e.g. £20k) to BK once I am over there, they said that I could not do it. I would have to physically be in the UK to do this, to provide ID, e.g. passport etc.

I lived in Holland six years ago and made regular transfers from ABN Amro (NL) to Nat West (UK), just by filling in a form and sending in to the bank, no problem. I was in NL, but could have been anywhere.

I have on-line access to my account, but Nat West on-line told me that I cannot do international transfers on-line, shame would have been ideal.

Looking through the forum, I am trying to summarise the options open to me, which I think are as follows:

1. Use an ATM card, costly due to charges on each transaction and daily limits, would take

ages to get my £20k

2. Pay a UK cheque into a BK bank, can this be done for such amounts?

3. Make a deposit into a BK bank using my ATM card???

4. Can I use my credit card to make a payment into a BK bank?

5. Use a money transfer agency, e.g. Western, Interchangefx

6. Make a bank-to-bank transfer, e.g. Nat west to a BK bank, (have to be in the UK for this)

I appreciate that this topic has been discussed and that each option is probably a discussion in itself, but could someone help me choose the best method?

Thanks.

I would avoid any of the Big Four like the plague....they are one step up from child molesters to my mind. The Natwest comes in worst for me....i once had a considerable amount in a high interest account there. They did the trick that the Sunday Times exposed and after the first year introduced a new high interest account with a new name, whilst regularly reducing the interest on the original account until it's next to nothing....so that people who don't watch the account like a hawk, like your mum who hasn't got a clue, get ripped off. It cost me about a grand. When I called up about it the guy said "Oh it says all about it on the statement". I had the statements in front of me. The information only entered the statements years later when they were forced to do it.

The fact that you seem to be paying to get money out of an ATM is a typical example of these slimeballs. Use a decent bank, perhaps one of the ex-building societies like Nationwide, or if you're better off UBS who will send funds on a phone call or email. You should NEVER pay a penny to withdraw from an ATM anywhere in the world, these machines save banks a fortune. The only cost to you should be a very modest spread on the exchange rate from the provider eg Visa.

You can use your ATM card INSIDE the bank for a very modest fee to the Thai bank and at the same exchange rate.

Hi.

I'm looking to get a few USB headsets for small office LAN to talk with their head office via skype & MSN etc. Sound quality is important in this instance, can anyone recommend a model/manufacturer?

Also looking for a recommendation on a bluetooth model for laptop users.

Finally does anyone know a Bangkok provider/consulatant for VoIP gear? (eg SIP phones, ATA adapators, switches with Power over Ethernet). Links to any website would be appreciated.

Thanks.

I can't even find a USB headset here in Chiangmai.

When I bought my car second hand it came with bigger tyres. So big in fact that when going off-road and doing a tight turn, the tyres would scrape against the wheel casings.. duh. So when the tyres were due to be changed I changed back to the more standard size. What an incredible improvement, and not only because the speedometer and odometer now show more correct values; also wheel-torque improved dramatically.

Changing to big tyres/wheels as is the fashion is generally a terrible idea, they are designed that size for a reason.

It:

Makes a bumpy ride.

Probably wears the steering.

Reduces the downward pressure to cut through water and mud to get to the surface below.

Alters the gearing.

Sprays mud up the sides of the car.

And is expensive!

I had a Thai girlfriend who used to turn up either in a Fortuner, when they were just out, or a top of range Toyota saloon. She dressed beautifully, and when we ate out, she'd say she was going to the loo, and try to sneakily pay the bill!!

It felt good being picked up by a great looking bird in a great looking Fortuner, and we would use that instead of mu humble Vitara. It only took a couple of trips to change my mind. I absolutely hated the Fortuner. Possibly OK on the open road, except one is so low inside one feels like the boy peering over the wall in "Wot me?". Terrible to park. I believe it still has leaf springs on the back, so if you cut the top off you could load it up with garlic and feel at home.

The Vitara however is still the perfect car for Thailand!

whoops!

"Science may not only have limited relevance for interpreting Buddhism, but may distort our very understanding of its meaning."

The whole of the Buddha's most self-recommended discourse, the teachings on Satipatthana, is about learning about and seeing for real our constituent parts.

This being the case I am convinced if the Buddha were alive today he would make the Laws of Natural Selection compulsory reading. They explain so perfectly our physical, but more importantly MENTAL makeup....in fact I might say everything about it....that they are a huge help in seeing through the illusion of self.

I have to say it actually rather worries me when I hear people questioning Natural Selection....I feel if anyone could find reasons to disagree with it they conversely could find reasons to believe in anything at all, and that I'm afraid scares me.

To go a little further one can look at what might have come about through NS.....what about Dukkha for instance...there's every reason why having elements of dissatisfaction in our makeup could be an evolutionary tool that aids our survival until the moment when our genes are passed on....the only period that counts in natural selection I'm afraid.

To know that tha dissatisfaction elements of Dukkha arise from NS could be very useful as one can "follow the path" of it's arising, see it's origination for real, rather than have to wonder at where this kind of magically inbuilt thing comes from.

The same can be said of the notion of "self"!

Just as a thought provoker before bedtime.....could time be merely a product of the mind that's evolved as a useful tool. Just another useful illusion?

Of course it could be!

Sweet dreams

Sleepyjohn

i just looked at your fund. did you know the fees on that are 1.89%! that's very high!

I agree!

Are you aware that index tracking funds have been shown in numerous studies to outperform regular equity funds....Yes that means stockpickers don't perform, they are just there to take your money. They are taking a considerable percentage of your post-inflation gains.

in other words....if the average return is 7.5%pa, (might be higher here actually), for each four average clients they will earn the same as one of those clients....BUT AT NO RISK LIKE THE CLIENTS HAVE!

I can only presume index funds exist in Thailand....can anyone tell us?

Typically they cost 0.25% pa.

Good Luck.

Actually in Mae Rim near Chiangmai at a junction I was shocked as I went past a junction and saw a terrible wreck with a motorcyclist indented into the bonnet (that's hood for heathens) of a pick up. My friend then pulled up to me and we very safely shouted between windows. "Did you see that?" I called. "It's been there for days" he shouted "it's a road safety thing"...it was a mock up. On my way back I saw they'd completed it with a bottle of Sangsom in the back pocket.

Well you gotta start somewhere...well done Mae Rim.

SECRET PLACE...can't remember name... *******

go along the road following the river on the west side going north from US embassy. Cross at the lights and keep following north . A few hundred yards before the superhighway there's a row of shophouses on the right. Drive into the central entrance and you'll see a row of dwellings attached behind. ALmost opposite is a quiet little very low key fish eaterie with tables on the river. Try it.

Dtai Ton Ma Feung (under the Starfruit tree)

Don't let the simple surroundings fool you.

Excellent seafood dishes. Open in the evenings and I think at lunchtime.

Enjoy!!!

Been going up and down that street for an hour os so; cannot find it. Am going past the fruit and vegs market, cross the light, that is the street of rama 9 bridge. Go past the Cowboy restaurant. Am going on and on and when I see the Super highway still have not seen anything. Am I what, stupid? can even read Thai, but nothing. Anybody can help?

I'm not sure how to add to the directions....it's the only longish row of shophouses between teh road and river. It has a row on the road with a central entrance and a row behind facing you. It's right opposite the entrance....VERY low key advertising like one small board, and you must go in the entrance to see. The restaurant backs onto teh river, making it very pleasant.

Talking over movies is a bit annoying. I find back seat driving when she can't drive to be a little irritating!

You're one of those poor souls that just feels too strongly about things aren't you Savage?

There seems to be a lot of misplaced aggression concerning nose-picking here.

After all, it is a victimless crime.

What about the nose?

BRILLIANT METHOD for slightly more advanced readers.

I have been relaxedly trying to improve my reading of Thai and I've found a marvellous new place to do it.

I watch and listen to a movie on UBC.

I automatically try to translate what's said to Thai.

When I don't know something, I press the OK button on the remote....it freezes the frame....I read how it's said.

I learn the language as it is actually spoken...and how it's written!

IT"S BRILLIANT!

And to the original poster with the Union Jack i suggest you get a kiddie's wall chart of the Alphabet, pictures and all, and start there.

The Jazz is abysmally low....

OK for Holland but I wouldn't dream of owning ANY saloon car in Thailand let alone a Jazz or anything like it. Scraping the bottom is an everyday problem here.

Water quality labelled 'poor'

However, he said, there was less air pollution last year. Noise pollution also did not increase partly due to the environmental campaigns.

--Bangkok Post 2006-01-03

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He obviously hasn't been to Chiangmai.

I've been doing a little research on diesel engine fumes, and so far it seems this problem, the diesel smoke, is caused by lack of tuning, clean air filters etc., rather than the engine being worn out. This makes it all the more doable to get this problem under control, it just takes political will.

It's a disgrace...there should be a campaign and the cops should have pollution checks rather like the helmet checks, except not accepting bribes....instead of disappearing all day long.

By the way what do the police do between morning and evening rush hour?

For those of you who lose sight of the subject so quickly (we are talking about the tragic death of a British citizen) and insist on bashing the Yanks at every conceivable opportunity:  at least get your stats right.

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/cri_mur_cap

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I just had a look at the murder stats sight and find it absolutely fascinating that Canada's per Capita murder rate is almost exactly a THIRD of the US's.

Didn't Michael Moore do a documentary comparing the two countries? Finding that in Canada doors were left unlocked and so on?

This is just an extraordinarily huge difference for countries that are so similar in many ways.

I'm afraid it says something extremely damning. Perhaps the government of the US should be sub-contracted to Canada....it would obviously be a great improvement.