Mole

Curiously, I did a search on the etymology of "รับประทาน" and found this:

http://www.royin.go.th/?knowledges=รับประทาน-๓๐-ตุลาคม-๒๕๕๒

It appears to be a mix of both Thai and Sanskrit word.

รับ which is native Thai word which means "receive"

ประทาน from Sanskrit pradana ปฺรทาน from meaning of "giving"

The above link explains the origins of this word.

The Thai word "ปรารถนา" with appears to come from same origin, but modern meaning of ปรารถนา has become "desire" or "wish".

Not just words in "royal speech" is from Khmer. Many Thai word in daily usage also have origins from Khmer.

As many has pointed out, most other languages also are in similar situation as in Thailand where there are lots of words which has origins from other languages.

Similar to other languages, where words which originated from other language, modern meaning may be different than original meaning.
This is very true for Thai language where not only the pronunciation has been corrupted but the meaning as well.

FTP showing current transfer speed from RDP in Holland.

AIS Fiber has no throttling throughout the day and I get full 12 MB/s download from RDP in Holland on my 100/10 mbit link.

A for sale sign in front of house is of course something you should have done to begin with. Most other houses for sale have that. It's a fair game if you manage to sell to anyone who contact you directly via your phone number on the sign, then of course you are entitled to sell it at your own discretion.

No agencies should have problems with that unless you have an exclusive contract with them, which personally I would not sign any exclusive contract with anyone. Why limit your own opportunities with only 1 company?

Have you even invested in a professional photographer to take photos of your house, so you are able to give some decent pics to the agencies? This surely should speed things up.
Or were you expecting them to do all this work for you, taking photos and all that?

Unless you yourself are a good at taking photos of properties, I highly recommend you invest in a professional to get it done for you.

You want to sell a house for millions, investing a few thousand in photos should be trivial.

Don't take photos with your phone and give them to agencies. They probably wouldn't take you seriously if you also don't take them seriously!

Well, you could take it as a hint that your property isn't that "hot" for the agencies to priority, except the most desperate ones who need all the portfolio they can get.

Could be not to good location, or way too high asking price, or house plan is weird or combination of all. Mind you, I've seen it all and often wonder exactly what's going on in the seller's heads...

If a house is really "hot", you can be sure that all the agencies would come and take pics and try to sell it for you as soon as you hung up the phone with them. Most already have a portfolio of interested buyers waiting for a nice house at a right price, so a sale can be made quite quickly if a property is good enough. The agencies would already have a good idea which property is suitable for which potential buyer.

The fact that you're telling that even the interests from agencies has been this lackluster, should give you some reality check. I'm surprised even thaivisa's own guys didn't get back to you, so obviously something is not quite right with your property...

There is a huge oversupply of properties for sale and everybody and their brother thinks they can make a good profit by buying empty land and building a nice house. The reality is that most of them end up with having that house for years (many putting it for short term rent on airbnb while waiting to sell) before desperately agreeing on a sale at break-even or even at a loss just to be able to get rid of it and get cash in return.

I wish you all the best luck to sell that house quickly. But there are hell lot of other sellers who want a share of that pool of "luck".

I read the khaosod news in Thai and I don't know who the hell wrote this article here in Thaivisa. I had to make sure if it was even the same murder case or not.

First of all, there were no reports of stab wounds, but 3 bullet wounds from gunshot to the head.

The deceased is a 44 year old male who was running a property business here in Samui.

There were 3 suspects, "George Michel" (จอร์จ มิเชล) is 64 years old, and "Yves (อีฟ) [last name unknown]"  age unknown, and "Jean Paul Celine" (ฌอง ปอล ซีริล) age 43 which is supposed to be the owner of the restaurant.
Names were only available as transliterated in Thai, so the correct spelling in Latin is unsure.

The story tells that the deceased was supposed to be sole agent of handling the sale of the restaurant. He then got news that the owner was gonna sell directly without the involvement of the deceased. The deceased arranged a meeting at the restaurant between 3 other people and confronted them about his frustration, when one of the men in the group shot him point blank to the head. When the deceased fell, he was shot 2 more times to the head (obviously to make sure he's dead).

The men then dragged the body to the back of the restaurant and wrapped it in black cloth. Then put the body on a Mazda pickup truck and drove to dispose the body at the stream near the waterfall.

The police managed to apprehend and arrest "Jean", the restaurant owner. They also managed to catch "George" when he was about to board the ferry.
The picture we see in the first post must obviously be of 64 year old "George" and not "Jean".

"Yves" is still at large, and the police are anticipating he is in hiding somewhere on the island because ferry ports and airports has been notified.

There are also police checkpoints all over Samui.

The chicken statues are also offered after somebody made a wish at that shrine and their wish came true. Usually it's about wishing to win the lottery or something like that. So Thai people believe that the spirit granted their wish, and if they don't come back to repay by placing a statue there, whatever their wish which was granted may be taken away from them.

A statue is placed there only after a wish has been granted as a gratitude to the spirit in that shrine.

If one starts believe in these things, it's a vicious circle. If you make a wish, and it gets granted, then you will forever be worried that you will lose it, until you go back to the same shrine to แก้บน "kae bon" by repaying the shrine again.

I had a friend who made a wish at a shrine in Hong Kong (he didn't tell me what he wished for, but I suspect it was wishing for a girlfriend). When he indeed got a girlfriend and they were even engaged, he traveled back to Hong Kong to "repay" the shrine. But not long after, I heard the engagement was broken and they've split. So much for "repaying"....

The น้ำแดง "red soda" represent blood. In the old days, one had to offer fresh blood to spirits, but nowadays one use the "red fanta" to symbolize blood offering.

Some shrines accept only cocks, such as the one near the viewpoint in Samui, while other shrines accept zebras. Many shrines people have forgotten why this particular shrine accept a particular offering, but it appears that if somebody got their wish granted and they place a zebra, then other people see it, they also do the same in the hope that the spirit which lives at that shrine will also grant their wishes.

I got it installed 1 month ago. Very fast and reliable. No throttling of international connection like True cable used to do. It's fast 24 hours.

I also had the Inkworld guys process my application. It would cost the same if you went directly to AIS, but the Inkworld guys will assist in everything.

This is actually very common in Thailand and even I do this all the time.

If you really feel left out, you could simply just ask them what they were talking about in an attempt to catch up with the conversation. Most of the time, it could simply be some mundane gossip, that even if you did understand what they were saying, you wouldn't probably know what they were talking about anyway.

The alternative option would probably for you to BUY the USD or GBP from banks here in Samui or SuperRich and request in the kind of bill you want.

SuperRich does that, I know because I've done it before.

We have the Chinese tourists which come pretty much evenly spread year round. Their numbers are increasing day by day, and since I work in the hospitality industry, I for one welcome the increase of the Chinese. Already today, there are lots of businesses here in Samui which would probably have not been able to survive through low season periods, so the Chinese does give a welcomed support for nearly all businesses in Samui. Most businesses has relations to another, so in the end the income which the Chinese brings will trickle down to everybody.

There are also huge number of Burmese migrant workers, both registered and unregistered. There is still a labor shortage in Samui, so there is still a demand for the Burmese.

Google throws up 14 thousand registered for Suratthani. Unregistered, probably about same amount.

Many Thai nationals who live on this island are registered elsewhere in their house registration (such as me).

I would guess that the number is about equal to registered residences.

Actually, tourists don't arrive evenly spread throughout the year. We have July-August when the Europeans have their summer vacation, which will create a minor high season. Then we have the major peak season from 15 December - 15 January. Then high season from 16 January - end of March.

So throughout the year, the number of tourists will wary according to season.

In additional, I don't quite understand the way your calculation works.

1 million tourists in 1 year equals average 2740 per day. You are right in assuming that arrival and departure dates doesn't overlap. I still don't understand how you can turn 2740 average people per day to 80-100 thousand.

They may ARRIVE in average 2740 per day, but don't forget that they also DEPART 2740 in average per day as well! Even if their stay do overlap, there will be about equal amount of people who arrived who will also have departed!

Actually "chan" ฉัน is gender neutral. However, the usage of it is a bit more complicated. It would have been used only when there is some intimacy between the users. Such as between friends, relatives or husband wife. It's perfectly OK for either male of female to use "chan".

In formal settings however, male should use ผม phom and female ดิฉัน dichan. A female cannot ever use phom nor can a male ever use dichan.

Also, don't use "ha".

In English "palm" can be used for any tree with similar appearance.

But there is no such thing in Thai language. Even though trees of the betel nut, coconut or toddy are all called "palm" in English, in Thai language, we have different names for them.

For example ต้นมะพร้าว would mean only the coconut palm and ต้นตาล is the toddy palm while ต้นหมาก is the betel nut palm. While the ต้นปาล์ม would mean only the oil palms.

However, for example this wikipedia article.

https://th.wikipedia.org/wiki/ปาล์ม_(พืช)

The word ปาล์ม is used to refer to palm trees in general.

So depending on context, you could for instance say มันเป็นต้นปาล์มชนิดหนึ่ง to refer to a palm tree.

For example ต้นมะพร้าวเป็นต้นปาล์มชนิดหนึ่ง

In other words, you cannot just say ต้นปาล์ม because people would think of the oil palms. You would probably have to say ต้นปาล์มชนิดหนึ่ง to refer to some palm not native to Thailand.
For species native to Thailand, one would use the native Thai name for it and not ปาล์ม.

Exactly what Sony model you want? I can look for it when I'm at Central.

Quote

Earlier it has been mentioned in this forum, that it is same owner – or family that owns – Sound Club, Bar Solo, the small arena at the end of Soi Solo (the old afterparty Solo Bar), Lake View (presently unused), and Cha Cha Moon.

Yes, I believe it's the Poolsawat family. This family is the biggest "big-shots" on this island.

FerrySamui actually don't have best prices. They are just a front for the various ferry companies and receive discounted agent prices from them and then resells the tickets.

Some prices on their site appears at first glance to be cheaper, but actually when you click all the way through, then suddenly they'll add "taxes and surcharges" so the total price will actually cost more than if you booked directly from the ferry company websites.

No it is not just because direct flight to Bangkok is too costly.

There happen to be direct flights to other parts of the country as well as international flights out of URT. So this speedboat service concerns people who need to go to Samui to URT or back.

Then suddenly some idiot thinks it's only about people who cannot (are unwilling to) pay the exorbitant prices that Bangkok Airways charges.

Dao Seafood market area, still electricity.

27th I will drive from Samui to Phuket.

I'm actually planning to drive to Bangkok on 18 or 19 August.

How big is your dog? I'll drive a Suzuki Swift, so the dog should not be too big.

http://www.khaosod.co.th/view_newsonline.php?newsid=1469620244

TFA is in Thai with pics

But the news reports that the (farang) manager of Bondi, Chaweng has instructed his Burmese workers to illegally re-paint the sidewalk in front of Bondi. Before, there would be white and black lines indicating it's legal to park. There would also be white lines on the road indicating parking space for motorbikes.

The manager instructed the workers to paint the lines to red/white instead, which indicates "no parking" and paint the white lines with black color.

Naturally the neighbors wouldn't have anything with what this farang manager wanted to do, so they reported it to the police.

Fine of 1000 has been given and instructions for him to re-paint the colors the way it used to be.

Looks like you farangs are also picking up bad habits by staying in Thailand for too long...

..... Combined with a promo flight ticket at 500-700, it's still a lot cheaper than flying direct with Bangkok Airways...

some people go to BKK and from there back to USM, when they want to go or have to go to BKK and back to USM. Q: you are not one of them

It's also obvious you are not one who would have any interest or any use of this speed boat service, so why the hell bother with useless non productive comments????

Of course if anyone needs to get to BKK and back on the same day, then going via URT is really not an option. Move on please!

If you have difficulty to comprehend... this thread is about a speedboat service between Samui and Donsak, and not about direct flight from USM-BKK...

Hope it is very clear for you now.

That's why I never buy combo flight+boat transfer with the airlines. This way, I have the flexibility to chose which company to take to get over to Samui.

It'll also actually be cheaper because the airlines add a bit markup on their combo offerings.

Of course for the average tourist who may have never been here before, combo tickets may be better solution because everything will be taken cared for.

When arriving at URT to Samui, one will still be at the mercy of what time the busses will leave. So unfortunately it will always be a bit more hassle and time consuming.

Perhaps that's why P&T charges 850 for URT to Samui, but only 750 for Samui to URT? Because they have to depend on the airport Pantip mafia?

The strange thing is that with Lomprayah, it's the opposite. It cost 700 to get from Samui to URT, but only 600 from URT to Samui.