tom yum goong

Better no religion than no desire. We could all fuc_k in peace.

amen to that

IT City in Phuket Town, Land Rover building, has quite a few Acer and HP laptops. Usually slightly cheaper than Bus/Digital in Big C.

yep, i'm in.

saw it at IT City a couple of weeks ago for about 14,000

can confirm Oishi charges around 300 baht per person, plus tax and service charge, no matter what time of day. they used to have different pricing for different times, cheaper at lunch than dinner etc but scrapped that quite some time ago. definitely looks like they ripped u off.

the maki is not great compared to Fuji but sashimi is fine. did get food poisoning from there about 4 months ago though =(

if u were sat outside this afternoon you would definitely be getting a tan

If you want emails to come straight to your phone without you having to keep checking (Push email), get a Blackberry. I believe you can get one in Thailand for about 30k but not sure as never seen one here in Phuket. I've been told they are much cheaper somewhere like Singapore. Blackberrys do Push email very well and has a qwerty keypad which makes typing emails a lot easier. Everyone i've met who has one swears by them and can't do without their Blackberry.

Being a cheap skate and not being able to find a shop selling Blackberrys in Phuket, i opted for a Nokia E61i which also has a qwerty keypad. It supports Push email using either Blackberry's own Blackberry Connect application, or an application from Nokia which i haven't looked into yet. AIS charges around 800 baht/month to use Blackberry Connect push email. Not sure if its easy to set up a gmail account to use BB Connect though.

I haven't subscribed yet and am currently checking and replying to my emails using a Java app from Google to access my personal gmail account, as well as a separate app (Mail by Google) to access my google apps email. This uses the IMAP protocol and is working quite well, although i have to check for new mails each time.

To avoid having to check yourself, u can configure your phone to retrieve mail at regular intervals using the POP protocol as 2008bangkok has mentioned. if u do this you probably want to be on a data plan and pay monthly. I use AIS who charge 350 baht for 100 hours, or 900 something for unlimited. I imagine Dtac has something similar.

ps. i'm using my nokia e61i for web browsing and its pretty good for light web browsing. Web browsing on the Iphone is much better but the Iphone lacks a lot of functions which are vital for business use. Looking forward to seeing the new Iphone though.

have u thought about looking at similar cars to yours which are listed for sale on the one2car.com website?

I do not think it has anything to do with a religious (it can't happen to me) attitude, but more out of necessity. Yes, I do agree that what would make the 11 o'clock news in the west is common place here. When I found out that my wife was pregnant, I bought a car. Fortunately i could afford to, but many Thais simply cannot. Many Thais can barely afford their 1000 baht a month motorbike payment. It costs just as much to buy a car in the LOS as it will cost you in the west, yet look at the average Thai income. Personally i get a sick feeling every time i see dad, mom, and baby on a motorbike thinking about the "what if" then I remind myself that i am no longer living in the west, therefore you learn the accept things that you normally would not accept in your mother country, But then again I often wonder how an average Thai would tolerate the "righteous west" attitude

i wouldn't discount the role of religion/beliefs in this. sure, Thai ppl use bikes out of necessity, but the acceptance of karma/luck/fate as the reason for accidents and misfortune is very widespread here. if you have an accident whilst not wearing a helmet and die as a result of head injuries, you'd be surprised how many Thais will chalk it up to karma and bad luck rather than something that could have been easily prevented by wearing a helmet. just buy a nice amulet with special powers and you won't ever have to worry about it =)

no idea who Telcom Multimedia are, but the current rates for ADSL on TOT and TT&T are much cheaper.

I'm now paying 790baht for a 3megabit line on Maxnet (TT&T), which is pretty good so far and included free installation. They included a free ADSL mode. Previously I was on TOT which was 1,000baht for a 2megabit line.

For that premium price, I guess Telcom Multimedia would have much lower contention ratios and provide better customer service/support than Maxnet and TOT.

^^ awesome post Cuban, should be stickied

^^ I've got a Jazz Vtec manual. its done 40k kms and i'm now getting around 12 - 14 km/litre mostly driving around Phuket, which has quite a few hills and mostly stop and go traffic. I usually have the aircon on the lowest setting which is cool enough. Without using aircon i guess i could get close to Ozzydom's figures

lol, thanks for this. pure comedy. you couldn't make this stuff up if you tried.

its never going to happen but they should at least think for a second first before they make ridiculous announcements like this.

no idea if its southern Thai or not but i'm pretty sure its not central Thai. nice song though.

^^ Samkong market is just behind the teaching university. Operates Tues, Thurs and Sat from early afternoon and ends maybe around 8pm

And if you are located more in town the Health club in the Royal Phuket City is fine as well.

(though I think it's time they gave the place a face lift and updated the machinery)

we got new wooden floors a couple of months ago which replaced the nasty old carpet, at least thats something

if they didn't have a pool then i wouldn't bother.

So basically you are saying that the government should not respond to the concerns of the "vast majority of Thais" that have a genuine concern? Do you have any understanding of how bad the heroin problem is in the north or the impact that yaba is having on alot of families? It's wreaking havoc with the economy in some places where the drug trade corrupts everything it comes in contact with.

What too many farangs do not grasp is that the drug trade fuels a great deal of the corruption and how many thousands of new yaba addicts are created in a year. When you have a deadly tumor that's growing out of control sometimes a bit of healthy tissue gets cut out along with it. Thailand does not have the financial resources to fund rehab programs to the extent that they are needed. Unfortunately, this is the best that can be done.

Your argument only holds if you believe that the government is initiating this second war on drugs out of concern for its people, and that the police who are carrying out their orders are not heavily involved in the drug trade themselves

Surely you can't be that naive?

As far as Phuket goes, it does not have item 1. Yes there are high speed internet connections available but they are not reliable - could be down for days on end.

I don't think thats necessarily true. My home isp in Phuket (TOT) is remarkably reliable considering how cheap it is, and has been for the last 3.5 years. The main problem is you can't rely on their tech support so have to diagnose your own problems.

We also use KSC (leased line) and CSLoxinfo (ADSL business package) in the office and rarely have problems.

^^ yeah that is Chai Auto Sound as Gerd mentioned. I've used them a few times and no complaints. Not sure if their prices are better or worse than other places though.

Anyone found out when the reduced transaction fee and tax rate takes effect?

How about the OP, Siam International Legal Group. Can you confirm that the changes to the fees/taxes will definitely be enacted next month?

I'm surprised to hear that. On the four occasions to date I've been there, the service has been relatively excellent. What happened with you? Were you sitting at a distant outside table or indoors?

outside on the beach. i think the first time they got our order wrong and also forgot one of the dishes. the second time they were just very slow.

as i said, i think these were just teething problems and i mean to go back and give it another shot.

if ur coming during low season you'll be spoilt for choice. Decent rooms can be had for 500 baht all along Nanai.

The food is pretty good but let down by poor service the 2 times i've eaten there. Although its new so I'm willing to give cut it some slack.

if you're sitting in traffic most of the time, surely a drop in a power or mileage isn't going to be noticeable?

i'm half thai and its definitely my fairer 1/2 farang skin that is causing me to age more quickly than my Thai compatriots. These crows feet are seriously beginning to diminish my beautiful looks

my vote is for farangs aging worse (especially due to sun aging).

but i guess you are referring to Thai women (as you mentioned the word beautiful)? i've seen plenty of hi-so Thai ladies who look great at 50 (big hairdos aside). but venture out into the sticks and people worry less about their appearance as they get older.

I think if you compared well-to-do Thai ladies with European/American ladies from a similar social/economic class there wouldn't be much difference in how well they maintain their appearance in spite of age.

if you want to compare rural Thais or those from low income groups, there isn't really a direct comparison in most of Europe. maybe somewhere like Romania where many people still perform manual labour and live off the land.

i'm not sure what role ethnicity would have in this except those with more melanin will be better protected against UV aging, (which can be offset if you can afford face creams/make up with sun screen).