northernjohn

I see no problem with it. many cities in the world have art communities that do not dictate the whole city lifestyle. Here in Chiang Mai they will probably improver the life style of the artsy fartsy community with out any affect on the rest of the city. I live in the East part of the city and they will have no affect on my life style nor will I on there's.

the complaint if it was valid would apply more to a community such ass Pai.

I wonder what town it was that turned there major street into dirt and left it that way for a movie.

I have a 3BBB here in the building. Yesterday it was so slow some of the pages would not even connect. I plugged in my AIS 3 G stick and was instantly back to normal. can hardly wait to get my 13M wire in from True next week.

Ate there once and wasn't impressed. Ordered 1 pizza but they couldn't do it half half. So we went with meat lovers and it was not even close to good. The pizza was very think base. Spagetti meatballs was average. Bill came to 700 baht!

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Do I sense a pizza thread coming up? To be honest with you I am not that impressed with his pizza either but it is the best I have found.

Pretty sad to judge a restaurant on one meal.

Any how back to the topic.

The meal as I said earlier that we had was enjoyed by all It had pizza mahogany wings, ribs and french fries. Plus some desert's. I am judging the Dukes at Promenada as a good place to eat because I have ate there and eaten more than one thing. It was only once but I have eaten at his other two establishments more than once and more than one thing and they were very good. So I have no reason to think that other meals at the Promenada will not be just as good as the last one I had.

It's only a small minority of restaurants in Chiang Mai that charge the + 7% and + 10% respectively. It's very easy to avoid them as a consumer if you don't agree with their business practices. Vote with your money.

I mostly avoid them, but there are a few that are worth it. The Dukes, Zen and Fuji for example.

I mostly avoid those kinds of places too. It's just that to me Duke's doesn't feel like 'that kind of place' so I do go. It would make much more sense and be a lot more transparent to just include it in the prices on the menu though. I honestly can't see a reason not to include it.

So I just don't tip at Duke's. I realize it's VAT and not service charge, but this is just my own little protest at the menu being needlessly obfuscated.

On the bright side Dukes doesn't charge the 3% for a credit card. Many do only they hide it in the price. To me makes no difference. I know I am paying it one way or another.

Now if I could only talk to the tax people it would be a different situation. I would inform them that some people don't care how much they pay as long as they don't see it. So up the tax to 10% and pay the farmers.

How exciting.

And raising the excitement one more step, I've seen the smaller cans for Pepsi and Pepsi Max.

It's undoubtedly a way of extracting more money from customers for each ml of drink delivered.

People look on the bright side of it. Pepsi Max comes in one and a half liter bottles.

This lady is tough. No matter what she will not quit.

I would say hard hearted These are her own people she is doing it to.

She knew that by dissolving the government she would be unable to raise the money and make a lame attempt at blaming it on the anti government protestors.

Fact is if she had not dissolved the house they would still owe the farmers.

Corruption can be a fun ride on the way up but now the birds are coming back to the nest.

she gets no sympathy from me.

My experience here is that menu prices are normally quoted gross - ie all in. The food would have to be exceptional for me to go back after seeing '7+10' added.

I think it is deliberately misleading and therefore dishonest. Like buying a new car and being charged extra for the wheels

So if the price all in on the menu is 234 baht you would go back. But if the price was 200 baht plus 10% plus 7% which works out to roughly 235 baht you would not go back even though it was marked on the menu that the prices were to be added.

Don't know now but when I left Canada they had a provincial tax added on at the bill plus a federal one on some items and if you bought six of them some did not get it. 30,000,000 Canadians got used to it.

When you come right down to the bottom line the people who add it on to the bill are being honest they are right up front with how much for their meal and how much for tax.

Try Northern Farms

I've eaten twice at Dukes at the Promenada, good food, lots of it at reasonable prices..It's not going to win any Michelen stars, it's not molecular gastronomy or nouveau cuisine or whatever the latest trend is. Basically you get large portions of tasty food without breaking the bank. The staff are attentive and the setting nice enough. It Didn't appear to be any pricier than any of the other branches of Dukes.

I have been there once with the family when he had the special offer of 2 large pizzas + Mahogany wings and a bottle of pop. It was all good. Not sure what else we had but the 6 of us were very happy with it. The menu is the same as the one on the river.

In addition to the good things that have been said about it you know if you care to check out the kitchen that it is prepared in a clean atmosphere. Was in the one by the river the other day talking to Dave's wife she said yes they were going to open one in the Maya. She said Dave was over there at that moment talking to them.

Does any one know if the roof at the Maya is open yet?

Forgot to mention. Nice to have unlimited water

I check the bar-codes and if it doesn't match I get a store clerk to find out the price.

It;s either error, laziness to change it or deception.........take your pick, but it won't go away unless people check the price and complain.......every time!

Yeah I do that too - especially with stuff I don't usually buy. Started doing this after got hit with BigC once, they had a toaster up for 250 baht, very cheap - wanted a cheap one as it was for someone else that had asked me to get it if under 300 - when I got to the checkout it was almost twice the price. I queried and they checked at that was the price, 480 or so, I walked back down and the label was still there under the boxes. Checked the number and it was different from the boxes, in fact no toaster on the shelves at all matched the label. Once bitten. Also usually have my daughters with me, so I think it is good training - I get them to keep a running tally of the amount too (good to encourage that mental arithmetic - and they enjoy hunting down those scanners to check for items with no prices too) - I also keep a running total to compare - in 7-11 they always seem impressed when I give them a basket full of stuff and the correct change to the satang (always seem to have a full pocket of change) or so that I get a note back rather than shrapnel.

Great idea. Save money and teach your kids to do simple arithmetic with out a calculator.

This also happens in the Big C and larger Tesco stores as well, it's been going on all the years i have lived here. Last week i caught out Big C on three items in our shopping amounting to 120 Baht overcharge in comparison to shelf labels. Of course you have to wait around while they run off to check things themselves or send for someone else to do it but things do get sorted if you are patient. Just imagine how much over the odds they are making when this is happening in every store, every day !

Personally i've never been quite sure if it's deliberate or just piss poor management of stores and staff. Of course; knowing Thailand as we do we are drawn to think it is the first thought but also knowing Managers here barely understand the meaning of the word 'Manage' I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if it were the latter. Suffice to say i don't let them get away with a single baht more than we should be paying, and if everyone adopted the same attitude things just might change....well, we would like to thinks so anyway.

I think that having cash registers that showed the price of every item in large print so that you could read it as they input the item would be a big help. Defiantly there is not a lot of concern in the stores to make sure the price sticker is in the right place.

Not sure if I could read a bar code and for sure I am not willing to spend that much time in the store.

line o Chiang ai. t

It has to happen at some point what century do you think this is ? Its about trade and logistics more than passengers and China are very interested in shaving off a few thousand miles by sea or an hr or two by air.

You can bet Myanmar will be opening up hugely in the next couple of decades and there its a blank canvass. Look past the obvious and cynical issues and realise Thailand has no comprehensive rail service and its way outdated, be a good option to forget about a sub standard out of date diesel system and connect a few high speed quality routes instead.

It'll come and it'll be safe its like an airline, when you start getting into high speed rail the standards have to go right up, no one ever accuses Thai airlines of being deathtraps safety on HSR wouldnt be an issue.

The funding of course would be a concern but the gossip about it being a scam on such a scale are just another market story. Besides we are about to have major reforms here and when the shins leave politics there wont be massive corruption anymore remember ?

It would be nice and modern and itll take a decade or more to install, stop being dinosaurs and look to the future like China etc are doing, i heard all the same crap about the BTS and the MRT ... try imagining BKK without them now

Well I have to agree with you it will come. But why put it in now when it will be 30 years before the need for it is there. Yes there are some lines that could go in now and pay for them selves. Then there are others that will never pay for themselves. I am all for them if the need is there in the next five years. But Bangkok Chiang Mai is not in need of them.

Just out of curiosity if they did put one in I wonder how much cheaper it would be for a passenger than one of the cut rate air lines.

The talk about it being a scam is based in fact. Witness the line to Chiang Mai. Where is the justification in that? If it is justified why not just make a plan to do it. Start at each end and work to a meeting post. Also if it wasn't a scam how much do you think would go into the projects and how much into pockets? It is just a scam like the rice price was. looking to get votes and damn the results of the ill thought out promises.

I would like to know what ever happened to the plan China proposed that would run from Singapore to China. It would have covered some of the needed routes. Also China would have paid for part of it. I know it did not include a spur to Chiang Mai but it did make allowances for one to Chiang Rai. some thing to do with impractical terrain for the Chiang Mai spur.

"...saying that the route had been divided into two parts: Bangkok - Phitsanulok and Phitsanulok-Chiang Mai..."

Meaning of course that the hi-speed line will only run from Bangkok to Phitsanulok at first and then they will run out of money or get bogged down fighting corruption charges. I believe that the Bangkok - Nong Khai line will also only run to Khorat. Obviously no hope of any line South of Hua Hin while PT is in charge and Southerners don't vote for them.

I believe the original plan called for three sections Bangkok to Chiang Mai. The Government was to build the first section and private interest the other two. I can just see a line of private investors to build the rest of it. NOT.

There was nothing concrete about it but they did have some plans as France said they would not be interested in doing it for the price Thailand was willing to pay. I believe China and Japan were the only one's interested in doing the job but ball park figures or maybe bar talk figures had Japan about twice as high as China.

The original one proposed from Singapore to Peaking was talking about double tracking and moving it away from cities and using bridges over roadways.

I wonder who they were surveying for the one to Chiang Mai. My bet says no one in Yala but the residents of Yala could let their great grandchildren pay for it. 52 years to pay it off. Some one did the math on it and said if they would just bank the first 12 years of interest they would have enough money and not have to borrow any money.

China had a proposal to go all the way through Thailand but miss Chiang Mai. They figured it was out of the question but it would be feasible to build a spur line to Chiang Rai.

Well it would be more inconvenient for you but a sure thing if you went into immigration the day before and paid it.

Not sure but then you would know where you stand and not have to do the last minute shuffle an hour to late.

On the other hand they might get upset that you are not leaving today. Might have to get a 7 day or what ever time period it is .

So now that all the bloody ATMs are charging 150 (costing me 7 per translation now) witch bank has the best exchange rates. Don't mind what it says on their windows, who's give the best rates on your statements?

Check your statements and see if the banks were charging you. Mine was $5.

Take out a larger sum of money 7% is only on small withdrawal's.

It gets smaller with larger withdrawal's.

My ATM card if I draw out a small enough amount would be a 100% charge as the charge for the withdrawl is the same on 1,000 baht as it is on 20,000 baht.

Being here for 7 months we can't bring that much cash! 12000 baht a time is the most we're allowed to withdraw from an ATM in a day. On the one occasion we went to the teller and asked to withdraw 20000 baht, she just escorted us to the ATM (where we could only withdraw 12000). She just shrugged her shoulders and went back to her desk.

Go to Bangkok Bank at Kad Suan Kaew. Don't go inside the bank. Use the foreign currency counter on the outside.. Present your credit card and your passport and tell them how much you want to withdraw. They'll use a chip and pin machine and give you whatever cash you want as long as your CC will stand it.

I think if you go inside any bank they will let you withdraw up to the credit limit set by the issuing bank. There problem is that they don't always have their machine in order I use the Siam bank in the Night Bazaar and several times they have told me their machine in the bank is not working. Use the one outside. One time I was insistent and one of the tellers took me to a bank where the inside machine was working.

I believe to withdraw it you have to see one of the workers art a desk not a teller. I could be wrong on that.

Personally, I wouldn't buy a secondhand Kindle. I've owned 3 and my daughter 2. All have died at around 18 months old. As you won't know for sure how old it is, you might not have it long before it becomes useless.

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Don't get me wrong, I love my Kindle - that's why I've had 3! They just seem to have a planned obsolescence of around a year and a half but I use it every day and gives me a lot of pleasure and they're cheaper every time I buy one.

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Are the books you buy saved on your computer so you can down load them on your new One when you purchase it?

You can transfer kindle to kindle, since amazon has a record of your downloads. just register your new kindle, log-in to your amazon account, and make the transfer. or, if only on your computer, plug-in new kindle and go to "documents" folder on your new kindle and put in the .mobi files. i've had a kindle break twice while flying, not sure if that is a coincidence. by breaking i mean lines all across the screen. both replaced for free.

Thanks for the info. I think when I fly I will use audio books. LOL

Personally, I wouldn't buy a secondhand Kindle. I've owned 3 and my daughter 2. All have died at around 18 months old. As you won't know for sure how old it is, you might not have it long before it becomes useless.

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Don't get me wrong, I love my Kindle - that's why I've had 3! They just seem to have a planned obsolescence of around a year and a half but I use it every day and gives me a lot of pleasure and they're cheaper every time I buy one.

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Are the books you buy saved on your computer so you can down load them on your new One when you purchase it?

> I thought they dont let foreigners open a bank account with transfer abilities?

This is to get money into your Thailand based Bangkok Bank account, routed through their US office.

Any bank account anywhere you can transfer money into. That's how banks do.

Not sure on that. I have been under the impression it is only the bank of Bangkok that has a branch in another country that you can do that with.

I know I can do it with my Canadian bank but the rates make it not worth it. Easier to go into the bank use my credit card for hopefully enough money for the month put it in their bank bank of Siam in my case and use the card from their bank no charge at any Bank of Siam.

I understand the OP when he talked about his ATM as against his credit card. My bank charges me big time on the ATM card but I have a Visa with the same bank and they do not charge me.

Some day I am going to try to use my ATM card for my Visa and see if they charge me then. I have the card set up to get money out of three different accounts. Each with a large maximum withdrawal.

Being here for 7 months we can't bring that much cash! 12000 baht a time is the most we're allowed to withdraw from an ATM in a day. On the one occasion we went to the teller and asked to withdraw 20000 baht, she just escorted us to the ATM (where we could only withdraw 12000). She just shrugged her shoulders and went back to her desk.

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Where are you from? If you are from Europe then just call your bank and ask them to raise your withdrawal limit. Your bank sets the limit; not AEON. When I used to use Maestro Card to withdraw from ATM's, my daily limit was 5,000 CHF or 180,000 THB appx. I tested it once and withdrew 70,000 THB in 24 hours; one transaction for 55K THB and then 15K THB about 9 hours later. Both at AEON Super Highway.

If you are American well then you are probably out of luck as the U.S. Nanny State doesn't want you doing stuff like that. I could be wrong but I suspect the same applies to citizens of the U.K. and Australia.

Your sarcasm is totally inappropriate and incorrect.

He did it years ago. Now it was 20,000 baht max. but you could make two withdrawals. My one bank would not allow me more than $1,000 a day Canadian But they had no problem with a $6,000 hospital bill. I called them and they said it was their policy No matter that my credit limit was far higher than that.

The withdrawals were not free AEON did not get any money out of it but my Canadian bank got $5 out of it. At the time it was a saving of about 3 baht on a 20,000 baht withdrawal. Hardly worth the effort unless the machine was handy.

One day last week I withdrew 10,000 baht and then went to the K bank and with drew 10,000 baht. I had to pay the 150 baht at the K bank. When I finally got the figures on my computer I had saved .23 cents Canadian.

this is the most stupid idea yet .........people are on the verge of killing themselves and theyre going to

let suthep waste all the donation money employing lawyers to take on thousands of court cases against the govt

which the govt will defend with their own lawyers paid from taxpayers money .......

gives suthep the perfect excuse to skim more donation money into his pocket too and later claim he used it to pay

for all the lawyers and court cases ..........

I have read some idiotic comments which were obviously written by village idiots over the years, but ................................................................................

Seems like they are getting goofier and goofier supporters. I am thinking some are just troll's. At least I hope they are. If they are they have a chance. If they believe the nonsense they put up I would classify them as hopeless.

How any one can support a government that has exhausted all it's funds and is instead of doing some thing about it they just on one hand say we have it. Then the other hand says we are trying to borrow it In the mean time 5 months later the poor farmer doesn't get it.

Let us not forget that besides going through all the budget money and falling short they needed less money than the former governments did. did because they were paying the 1997 debt. The PTP transferred that debt to the BOT and pocketed the money.

Great comment! But name one time YL and the PTP have followed any court ruling be it civil, constitutional, or criminal. They could easily use interpol to arrest Suthep. The only laws this gov admin follows are the ones that benefit themselves and their party.

The farmers can do all they want through legal channels but i dont see any help for them until this admin is gone.

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The Bangkok post has an article saying Yingluck is telling the farmers the government has the money and they will pay the farmers.

Then it has another article saying that several commercial banks have shown an interest in loaning the government money to pay the farmers.

Is there a fib in there. Seems to me the government has already admitted it was OK to twell them if it made people feel good.

Problem being the Thai farmers already know the truth and they know thaty the government is trying despertly to borrow the money. But Yingluck says they have it.

The left hand doesn't know the lie's the right hand is telling and the right hand doesn't know the lies the left hand is telling.

PTP can't wriggle out of this one for the simple reason their whole 2010-onwards existence was based on them being the Agrarian Robin Hood, their whole entire political platform was based on "farmers need representation and empowerment, in the face of corrupt and uncaring elites in the capital." If they had not tied all their horses to this single wagon, they might be able to weather the rice-scandal in a slightly more robust way. Unfortunately they have sunk their only flagship, and the number of people willing to throw them emergency flotation-devices at this point appears to be small.

You forgot the minimum salary. The one that pay's some of them 300 baht a day while others loose their job and we all pay more for the cost of living. We as retired expat's can afford the increase in the cost of living but can the poor. Especially the ones who are not getting it. Even some of the ones who are getting it but make less now because there is no overtime.

I can understand how a lot of people on TV do not like Suthep or the PDRC for their hard core tactics of blocking streets, invading government offices and the seemingly undemocratic vote block etc. but am I assuming correctly many of these Suthep critics also support PTP and Thaksin? Or do you support the red shirts?

The protest movements we are seeing are a result of people being fed up with corruption and tyranny from the current government.

It started with the student protests and Guy Fawkes masks and gained momentum with Suthep joining the fray.

But it is not about Suthep or any single person. It is about how a group of politicians who were elected in by the majority of the population in the North and Northeast and financially supported by Thaksin abused their powers as can be seen by the passing of the Amnesty Bill in Parliament and the rice-pledging scheme to name a few instances.

The government run by Yingluck and the PTP clearly showed their incompetence, poor governance and lack of ethics.

This government is supported by the red shirts. How does reflect on the red shirts if they insist on supporting PTP and Thaksin?

Is there not a clear line between right and wrong here?

I'd really like to hear a good argument from all of the supposed detractors of Suthep on how Thai's can get rid of a very corrupt government elected into office? In any other developed country I think they would have all resigned in shame but not Thailand.

Can the red shirts and majority in the North and Northeast not fathom the level of corruption? Right now the farmers are feeling it.

If we insist on using our voting rights who do we vote into office? PTP? Democrats? Who?

By the way, where is yingluck, unseen for days.

She has probably been in Myanmar, joining Somchai for the meeting he had with Thaksin.

yup - top level PTP cabinet meeting taking place in Myanmar

all bets are off as to what to expect next, I suspect it won't be pretty

and J Head (BBC) needs to keep his mouth shut, he could very easily cause British alienation here with his stupid reporting

smileydude

great post

Yes It would not surprise me one bit if Yingluck was in Myanmar for a face to face set of instructions. Not being a tech man myself I can see where they might fear their Skype calls being over heard.

Besides she is probably going into withdrawal from traveling and needed the trip to stop the DT's

I think J Head is a disgrace to reporting. Nothing more than a third rate wannabe spin master and failing at that level. If some one told me he never left a bar to get his information I would believe them. He probably resents having to be on a street to do the live interviews.

"Democracy is being sacrificed on the Shinwatra high altar..."

The People's Republic of China

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea

The Lao People's Democratic Republic

The Democratic Republic of the Congo

The People's Democratic Republic of Algeria

Despite the name, none of these are considered to be democratic. Why do you believe that the People's Democratic Reform Committee is any different?

Not to be controversial but may I point out to you that their is no People's Democratic Reform Committee in power. In fact there is no country other than Thailand with one. Also may I point out that they just wish to reform the government. They are not putting forth any candidates to run the country.

Just eliminate some unfair practices and make them illegal and backed up with severe penalties. After they have made there suggestions there would have to be a vote on them and then the country could hold an election. Imagine that an election in Thailand where any one excepting a bribe would be fined twice the size of the bribe and the candidate offering it disqualified as well as jailed.

That is just a thought of mine that would make sense. Of course there would be ways of working around offering the bribe but pretty hard to do that on excepting it.

The fact is there is not a lot that needs changing but what does need changing needs it badly as any one can see it has torn the country apart. A government openly thumbing their nose at the constitutional court. That is just one example.

Sorry you seem to be getting short changed with your Bluesky subscription. Try a little googling or try listening to people who know more about the country and it's history than you do.

Social Order policy

Opened the airport at Swampy after 40 years of Elite/Dem corruption

Healthcare for all

Education extended One Tambon One free Uni Place in effect.

Student placements and expansion of University system

OTOP

war on Drugs really lowered the amount on the street and now almost everybody just misquotes the figures. The policy was a success. PS, read the section on that and see who praised him for it!!!!

Lowered Debt, balanced budgets

After facing fiscal deficits in 2001 and 2002, Thaksin balanced the national budget, producing comfortable fiscal surpluses for 2003 to 2005. Despite a massive program of infrastructure investments, a balanced budget was projected for 2007

Income in the Northeast, the poorest part of the country, rose by 46% from 2001 to 2006.^[62] Nationwide poverty fell from 21.3% to 11.3%

Thaksin's economic policies helped Thailand recover from the 1997 Asian financial crisis and substantially reduce poverty. GDP grew from 4.9 trillion baht in 2001 to 7.1 trillion baht in 2006. Thailand repaid its debts to the International Monetary Fund two years ahead of schedule.

Hmm Now where was thaksin in 1997? Who was in power of the country that set off the Whole asian financial crisis and almost broke the back of the country? Lucky he came along or we would still be very much third world status.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thaksin_Shinawatra#Economic_Policies

Strange that people who have not lived in Thailand for very long, don't know anything at all about him.. Other than what they hear in a bar or go-go bar where the social order policy affected the trading in women. Bars are the only place in Bangkok that I really hear open critisism of him. I don't hear it at schools as part of my work, not from teachers or parents. Just the bar folk supporting him now

One of the teachers at my daughters school is educating the students about all of the wrongs that thaksin and PT have done. She comes home on a regular basis and tells me what the teacher says in class.

As for the bars being the only place you hear criticism of him I would suggest you spend less than 18 hours a day in the bar. I live in chiang Mai and I hear criticism about him from a lot of people. The teacher and principal at my kids school,the hardware store, the market etc. Of course I hear a lot more people that praise him but like I have posted before, the more educated they are the more likely they are to dislike thaksin.

I work with an MNC with lots of Thai engineers/technical people, and although I never talk politics directly with them, none of my business, but get the impression over 90% of them hate his guts, the PTP and his dear sister...based on the remarks they make

Knowledge of what he is all about is finally starting to come out to even the dimmest wits. There is now a whole section of red shirts who want him out of government. As some people post you can see there is some who still have a light on but nobody home.

Thailand can be thankful that they don't really have any input into the reality of the situation to the Thais. They can just hide behind their computer and extoll their garbage onto other expats.

Generally they get their information from the guy on the bar stool next to them at a red shirt bar. That or they just enjoy trolling. Yes there are that type of expats here. People where they came from didn't want them around any more they had lost the attraction of being ridiculously controversial on every thing just for the reaction they could get. So here we have them.

If they thought they could get away with it they would have the clones up for saint hood.

I know I just sank to their level of ridicules.