northernjohn

“I would like to ask the human rights and media organizations what they want the government to do.

I think it's clear for 84 days already what everyone wants the government to do.

Bu the way, didn't Human right watch condemn the government already for the SoE ?

The upper middle class human rights watch responed as required by the rest of their clique. No crediblity there.

Most people are supporting the Government stance and certainly with regard to democracy.

So they paving the way now to limit a backlash if they have to go in and move these idiots.

For me, the more money the complacent middle class of BKK lose, the better. Might set in chain some thought process but I doubt it. Only thing that will shift them is if a lorry load of Skin Whitener can't get through, or if the SOE results in the Soaps being taken off on a night.

Chinese new year... bye by 40-50 billion baht. Not from farmers, PT, but directly from the business who are supporting this clown.

Just because the Government are letting suthep melt down in public and lose his support, does not mean there is no opposition to him.. There is, it is massive, includes many in the army and more than half the country.

You'll hear from them when the time is right.

You really should do a little research before posting. You seem to know nothing about either side of the line.

Baseless accusations for what purpose I don't know. You may convince some TV posters but not many and you certainly will not get through to the Thai people.

When will the time be right. Those chowder heads are going to spend good money on an election that is totally meaningless. There is not enough seats to form a quorum. Hence a bunch of lame ducks collecting government money for doing nothing. The only reason they will get so many votes is there is not a qualified contender. If the Democrats were in they would have a lot poorer showing if in fact they even won.

Have you taken a look at there red shirt supporters lately. They are fighting among them selves and in two out of three past elections in red shirt territory they lost the election. The only one they won was the Chiang Mai one and that was with a smaller majority than the last election also being Thaksin and Yingluck's sister helped her.

If the Government had tried to run the country instead of taking sides in the Bangkok election they might have won the Mayor there. The rice farmers are unhappy with them. They do not have the base they think they have. If they did why would they have killed the white wash Thaksin bill. Make no mistake about it. They had a lot to do with the Senate not having a quorum. It was the only way they could weasel out from under it but they took way to long to do it and people started looking at the other things they had been doing. That is where the real trouble began.

Funny thing is Suthep has come up with a solution and Yingluck agrees to it. The catch is it has to be after the election. She wants nothing changed now. Might be afraid she could not win if it was. Or the chance to rake off huge chunks of money would be lessened to much to make it worth while. I don't know you tell me why.

60 sec a day tops on CNN and BBC

don't know about CNN as we don't get them. But we do get BBC and when they report you wonder what country they arte talking about. Maybe they are still mad that they didn't get a chance to rape Thailand as they did many other countries.

I think the British reporter uses the same speech writers Yingluck does.

It's only busy in the evening. Usually clears out by around eight for a nine o'clock closing. It is a pretty small space as is the locker room. Pool is VERY nice though.

Towel service there is great. Don't know how crowded it during the day.

Where is it located? Also are the machine's maintained?

If any one knows about the use in the day time could they post it.

You are in luck it is at the Maya.

Nah, Maya is an SFX cinema. If it's anything like the one over at the promenada I will give it a miss.

I still haven't been to Central festival yet, I guess I'll have to go to it to see 12 years a slave.

I've heard wolf of wall street is a big let down. 3 hours long totally drawn out.

I enjoy movies so I am not so picky. I go for the movie. I like the big screen beats the crap out of watching a big screen promotion on a small TV set.

For the first time, we can go shopping, take in a movie, etc. without taking the car or spending time trying to find parking. We live about 300 meters away from Maya in Mooban Nantawan. Going food shopping, arranging for delivery and walking home in ten minutes. What a pleasure! Did anyone see the new Rimping Supermarket?

You might be disappointed.

The Rimping which is not open yet is in a small space on the 4th floor. My guess is that it's a glorified and overpriced mini mart.

What a hassle to get your groceries back out to the street or to a vehicle in the garage.

Huh? I was there 30 minutes ago, the Rim Ping supermarket is on the bottom floor, and it opened exactly at 4PM. It's not as large as a couple of other Rim Ping stores in the area but I wouldn't call it a "mini." About the same size as the one at Promenada?

I wandered through the entire place and only saw a few spaces that weren't opened as yet. I would note that the roof garden place isn't open and access (the escalators) to that area is blocked off.

The roof garden was accessible this morning 10am-1pm albeit the escalators were not running people still trekked it up.

They probably closed off the area as I saw workers doing some work during the afternoon as it was definitely not completed.

You get a nice panoramic view of doi suthep mountain, but it wasn't high enough to get any breath-taking views (6th floor)

I posted some pictures of the roof garden on page 1 of this thread.

Have they made allowances for a coffee shop up there?

If they have KFC, I will go.

Enjoying KFC at Festival, but 3x a week I am at the Maya area.

Where is the KFC at Festival, please?

On the right at the front entrance.

The tables overlook the front entrance and m/c park.

Great people watching seats, and an upsized zinger burger meal great value at 104bht.

For desert you can go right next door and have some ice cream at stone cold. Hope I got the name right. It is high priced but some pretty awesome concoctions there.

Crazy, one or more of the three have to fail, Promenada, Central Festival or Maya, there isn't enough customers nor money,

How do you know this? The mall investors likely did their research, along with expected increase in population and wealth over the coming 5 years. Not saying they can't be wrong, but they likely gave it more thought than the average Thaivisa pundit.

Also, competition is good. If two of them prove to be much better than the others then it's just fine if the lesser ones don't make it.

Excluding KSK for now (as it doesn't really compete unless work is done on it), that means four proper malls in the Chiang Mai area. (And pretty much the whole of Northern Thailand). Wikipedia has the population of the Chiang Mai Metropolitan Area (which includes Lamphun) at a million people. Plus tourists. Plus that also for people in, say, Lampang it's an hour and a half to drive over and go shopping.

Four malls does not seem completely unreasonable. Sure, maybe one of them doesn't make it, or shifts focus away from a general mall. That's okay. Maybe the other two new ones only turn a profit in 10 years. That's probably okay too.

Have to agree with you. These are not small time noodle shops. The people behind them have done their research. Promenada will take a while but there is lots of people living there in that area and it is a growing area. It will take time. Some of the shoppers at the Festival will lose the attraction of the new mall and just go to Promenada. Maya well ..................................................... access to mall could play a part in it. KSG I have never seen it overflowing with customers in going on 4 years now.

Yes the Festival does have some different and some up grade shops but they will not be attracting the people all the time and they will just start to go to the closest one for their every day needs. How ever I do like the Tops food floor there at the festival. I believe it has a better selection of cheeses.

Would be nice if the Maya offered a different selection of movies. It is owned by the same group[ as the one at the Promenada and even at that you can see some of the movies in the airport or Festival malls.

You are in luck it is at the Maya.

Thank you for correcting the wrong information chuang gave. Where did he get <a fix route from point A to point B..>

<going from Thapae gate to the airport is deviation from the standard route..>

Leaving aside that there is NO standard route, he obviously is another one that doesn't read the OP, as I said that after leaving Central they have to go down to the airport to do a U turn, so it is part of the journey anyway, not going somewhere extra, and why does chuang think a one minute drive is worth 80 baht or more?

One would think that he has never been to CM to be writing such erroneous waffle.

By standard route i mean routes that the songthaews primarily operate example if you take one from opposite the Airport Plaza that it plys along Hang Dong road i think maybe 20 baht..but if you asked to be taken to say Nong Hoy...then its deviation from his normal route..if he is willing to take you to your destination then the price is subjected to mutual consent..I did not say or think "a one minute drive is worth 80 baht or more".

I may not be dependent on songthaews but i got all these notions from the locals and common sense...

The ones that go to Hang Dong are yellow, and they do have a fixed route, so yes, it is extra to go off route. The red ones that this thread is about do not have a fixed route and are supposed to take you anywhere in the city area for 20 baht, but they can pick up other passengers as well, and do not have to take you by a direct route to your destination. Had I asked for the driver to only take me directly to the airport, yes, it would cost one hundred or more, and I would not be complaining about it.

Pattaya has a far better system.

The basic fare I believe is 17 baht most every one pays the 20 baht.

No where in any code law or rules does it say they are supposed to take you any where in the city for 20 baht. Also common sense tells us that.

Try telling a songthaew driver he has to take you from the bus station to the university for 20 baht. Traffic being what it is he might balk at taking you there from the North West corner of the moat. These people do this in order to make a living and feed their families they are not a charity.

The Pattaya system is OK if you know the city and the places the baht busses stop and start at. Also in many cases are willing to walk a bit. They have set routes and just like the yellow songthaew's here in Chiang Mai will charge you extra to deviate from that route. Not that familiar with the various routes I don't know if they do service as much of the area in Pattaya as the red songthaew's here in Chiang Mai.

In the interest of raining on every body's parade I read the article.

It said rent not live on. Also if you checked the reference she cited it gave a very different story.

I will post it here.

5. Chiang Mai, Thailand

Monthly budget: $1,100

Monthly rent: $400

Thailand is arguably the cheapest place on earth to live well. Expat friends in this part of the world have long tempted me with tales of $1 Pad Thai lunches and $11-a-night hotels (including breakfast and free WiFi).

My top recommendation for retirees considering Thailand in 2014 is Chiang Mai, about 450 miles north of Bangkok, in a fertile river valley surrounded by mountains. Chiang Mai, home to more than 17,000 foreign residents, enjoys a more temperate climate than other parts of Thailand and is an area rich in history with a culture distinctly different from that in central and southern Thailand. Another big plus for Thailand is health care, which is both very good and very cheap. Downsides include the distance from North America.

The OP was a troll post that sucked every one in.

Well done CMfoodie

They have "free" medical in Canada, too. But, The Cleveland Clinic is the hip replacement capital of Canada (and it's not in Canada). Perhaps one of you lefties could explain that.

It's because in Canada they don't have a viable private health care system, so people have to live with long wait times for "elective" procedures like replacement of a degenerated hip in their gov't health care system.

It's my understanding that in England, they have a combination of both public and private health care which seems like a good blend. Actually, it seems to be similar in Thailand. A traumatic hip fracture is going to receive the urgent care it needs in the gov't system. Someone with a degenerative hip problem is going to be placed on a waiting list. If they don't like the wait, they can go to a private hospital and pay for short wait times for a hip replacement.

That option doesn't exist in Canada and thus, Canadians who can afford private care can elect to come to the U.S. for short wait times.

****************************

To address another misconception from another poster:

Thai citizens aren't creating unpaid medical bills for Thai hospitals.

All Thai citizens are covered by some form of gov't health care -- the 30 baht health program is the insurance of last resort for Thai citizens who otherwise aren't covered by some other form of insurance. Sometimes it's very frustrating for their Thai family members, that the 3 - 6 new cases we see each month at Lanna Care Net are not receiving the same health care that they would receive.

Also my mother in law has the Thai health care. Yet it cost me 1,000 baht a month for a shot she needs.

Alluding to the earlier post, I smile to myself trying to imagine the reaction if a fluffy toy or balloon sales person set up their wares outside a UK or USA University graduation day!

That is one of the big differences between Thailand and the west. the Thais know how to get enjoyment out of life. Not just exist.

As a young backpacker living on a shoestring, it wouldn't be a problem. I lived here on far less that $500 per month when I first arrived. Ate well on street Thai food and got drunk on laokao and chang 3 or 4 times each week. the other nights were early as I recovered from this abuse. I paid 2,500 baht for a room and I ran a 15 year-old honda dream. i did not want a relationship but had many 1 to 3 night stands with women who enjoyed a good time but knew they wouldn't get any money from me.

However, as a retired person I would want far more comfort. I would also need to consider medical costs. i would also like to be in a relationship which adds expense. I would want a feeling of financial security.

How long ago was it you were back packing? Could be like $1,000 today or even more.

what do you want. try reading this special thread and draws your own conclusions if it is a 90 day report you want.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/692904-90-day-reporting-comments-experiences-2014/

The is an old saying in My home land, Mongolia

"He who laughs last, did not understand the joke!"

The damage this Sethup man is a causing to Thailand, get in there and break it up,about 06.00 in the morning should do its

And then watch the anti-government protesters gain momentum (and a Martyr) and things will really hot up...

... and the Government knows this, thats why they are sh*t scared to do anything.

-I really don't see where Yingluck can gain any thing out of this. Just because she breaks up groups of over 5 isd not going to change the publics opinion of her and her government in a favorable way.

If any thing it will influence the ones who haven't made up their mind yet. They will look at it and say the government calls for Democracy but will not let any one protest. On the other hand if she doesn't enforce it the undecided will think she is just all talk.

I think she has made another mistake. Bad as it was for her this will just make it worse. The people who have gone home will still be against her. Seems strange to break up the opposition protests when they are the ones being attacked. I wonder if her brother approved of this.

Saw the title and thought 'oh no here we go again on the cheap charlie stories'

But then I thought US$ = 16400bht. Cheapo room = 3000bht. 13400/30 = 446 bht a day.

Unless there is something wrong with my math (always possible) , surely that isnt a major challenge, even without argument/discussion over 20 bht meals?

Breakfast at home -20bht, lunch and dinner out - 200bht total , 226 baht left over for 'luxuries' (!!)- or 1600bht a week.

Where am I going wrong?? Have I got a zero in the wrong place??

Well your math is right but you forgot to figure in utilities which raphe probably not cheap in those type places. Also you are assuming he only walks so he would be limited to the areas he could afford to live in.

What I was wondering is why would some body that cash strapped pick a city like Chiang Mai when there are a lot of cities and villages they could live in at a cheaper price. Lets face it on $500 a month your luxuries are going to be few and far between so why not go where they don't have them any how.

Also the US$ is at a high. This to shall pass It might go to 30 baht. It has been lower than that. right now it is on a roll.

I agree with Nancy's opinion on the author. Living here for a month on $500 is OK but living here for an extended period of time on it you would have to be a hermit.

The last time I did my yearly extension. The fellow doing it told me they generally do 50 a day some times more.

Assuming they are open 250 days a year at 50 a day that would be. 12,500 give or take retirement. Have no idea how many of the other type visa's extensions or what ever people want to call them there are.

Got to be Married ones, student ones and work permit ones. It could add up to a lot.

I don't go to immigration, I imagine a whole lot more don't too. Double it or treble it & you might be close....

Not sure what you are talking about. My figures were for yearly extensions for retirement.

I said I don't know about the other permanent residents here.

Have you any thing to base your statement on.

For example there is two officers doing yearly extensions on a give and take average of 25 a day. This is information the fellow at the back desk gave me. There is only one officer doing the marriage extensions. So I would guess that there is only about 20 a day as from what I have heard it can involve more paperwork. So that would be 5,000 a year. I have no way of knowing if they have a waiting list like they have for the single ones waiting list of 4 or 5.. For all I know they just go in and maybe wait a few hours and it is done. So in fact it could be less. I have no idea about the work ones Maybe they go out of the country and come back I don't know. All I know is I have two friends with their own business and they have to leave the country every 90 days. I think I will ask them about the one that they have to renew. I think they have to do it every 15 months. Not sure.

It would be interesting if people that had knowledge of the other visas could give us a estimate based on what they have seen and heard from the immigration officers.

The last time I did my yearly extension. The fellow doing it told me they generally do 50 a day some times more.

Assuming they are open 250 days a year at 50 a day that would be. 12,500 give or take retirement. Have no idea how many of the other type visa's extensions or what ever people want to call them there are.

Got to be Married ones, student ones and work permit ones. It could add up to a lot.

Who in their right mind is going to lend this government any money to do anything? Would not think they had the best credit

Spot on Dave. That's why they're constantly trying to dream up new ways of creating revenue - arrival tax on foreigners, stripping banks, state funds and entities of their assets etc etc.

Their outgoings must be very high and with the gravy train currently derailed and the 2,2 trillion in abeyance, the cash flow just ain't there. The poor farmers will be way down the list of priority payments.

China is probably their best hope for a loan - although the terms will probably be akin to the merchant of Venice !

The Chinese will be happy to help build and finance a railway through Thailand and Malaysia down to Singapore just as they have agreed with Myanmar to build a route through to India. They aren't interested in expensive high speed nonsense just a line where the trains stay upright on the tracks.

Whether that will appeal to the Thai government is another matter

It wont appeal to them as it was stated defiantly that it would bypass Chiang Mai as it is financially not feasible. but they were willing to put a spur line in to Chiang Rai.

A few grenades thrown at peaceful (?) protesters, a murderattempt on a high-profile red, A few other people killed or injured along the way!

And when the dust settles sometime in the future, who are the winners of this chaotic scenario??

As usual the amart aka the real powerful elite and their high backers!

The feudal system is saved once again and it is business as usual!

Conspiracy theory?? Yes! But as good as any of the other theories thrown around here!!

Just out of curiosity.

Can you explain where all the foreign investment money pouring into this country

relates to the hi so elite? Do they own Toyota or Ford or Honda. Just looking for information.

This is a first report and first reports always get modified.

Still, it's no secret an assault rifle is far more powerful and devastating than a handgun, so this is a serious development. If the elite groupings are involved going after one of their own, broadly speaking, then none of them are safe.

And this is a bushwhacking, a targeted pickoff attempt, which begins to add an eeriness to the shadow boxing already going on.

Interesting turn of events. shot with an assault rifle in red shirt country. Maybe there are some red shirts who disagree with him. I know there is a portion of them who want Thaksin out of politics. In the last by election in red shirt country the democrats won. Plus the traditional red shirt seat in Bangkok. Sounds like they best get there own house in order before telling others what to do.

I see in todays paper the B P you know the reputable one or as reputable as a news paper can get where the army spokesman Winthas Sunwaree was saying that there is weapons being smuggled into Bangkok. He said that both sides must talk instead of using weapons against their rivals. So far the only one weapons have been used on is the protestors.

The red shirt demonstrations have been left alone. quite a change from 2010 where you put your life in danger every time you joined them. Now you join their protest to feel safe.

There has to be some thing in that. As for the shooting in Udan Thani deplorable. Kwanchai may be a skunk but he doesn't deserve that any more than the ones in 2010 he helped start and carry on deserved it. But there are some people you just don't mess around with. they only know what they were tought violence. I hope they catch them.

edit. Spell checker not working right.

Only Chalerm can solve this

I think he takes 90 days to solve problems.

Thanks for the information.

Not familiar with the land lines here in Thailand. Is this a common problem with them?

Good timing. Suthep has run out of moves.

The goverment has handled these "protesters" (terrorists would be a more accurate description) extremely well so far.

You may wish to re-visit the definition of "terrorist" and try again...........

. terrorize - coerce by violence or with threats

terrorise

coerce, force, hale, pressure, squeeze - to cause to do through pressure or necessity, by physical, moral or intellectual means :"She forced him to take a job in the city"; "He squeezed her for information"

You see , some people here reading terrorist think about bombing, shooting etc... but you can also terrorize people, countries, etc... by moral or intellectual means ... but I assume you know better.

It has many meanings depends on the context it is in. I think the poster OP on this post was referring to violence.