dhream

Students do this in the UK, nowt to be ashamed of, especially not here in the land of gash rfor cash.

Prove it !!!!!

He don't need to Jock, google it, the girls themselves are writing about it.

Anyone have a username for the lass on the right?

"Convictgirl 1" as of today, sadly for everyone involved.

Never could figure out why the Buddhist calendar is like 5 and a half centuries ahead of us while the culture is 2 centuries behind.

Government BUTT T.F. OUT of people's private lives!

Shit is just beyond the pale here, I just shake my head in bewilderment, it's not just us, most locals I know can see this is absurd, why can't the coppers?

"A poster on the Thai news site announcing the arrests said sarcastically: "You weren't shy when you were showing your body on Line, why are you bowing your heads now?"

Lets' hope the author of this spite filled nasty vicious comment is cleaner than Sweet F'n Jesus.

These coppers should be doing their jobs on the blood soaked roads, not bothering with sex for sale, and here, of all places, where it's 'illegal', heaven help this place, heaven help it.

I hate to be the bearer of dread, but I think you can kiss it goodbye.

I actually logged in a second ago to vent about the SECOND renewal of a credit card that's gone missing.

2014 RBS renewal debit card went missing (to add insult to injury, this was renewed early due to a scammer, probably an Alibaba employee, somehow scraping account info on Ali Baba, and then buying something on Aliexpress in China!)

Feb 2016 Birthday card never arrived, suspect some thief at some post office though there'd be money in it, haha my ladyfriend is not as dumb as them, but it's a bloody pain in the arse!

Last month, standard renewal of credit card from my Aussie Bank failed to make it after being repackaged and forwarder REGISTERED, but not tracked.

To make matters worse, my mate is now all offended, because I simply asked him to buy tracking in future (at my expense) he has now huffily decided he does not want to help me forward my mail anymore, all because some choice turd at the post office, is ratting the mail.

This is a serious situation down the line because I now no longer have a 'home' address in Australia which backward thinking organisations, like banks and governments, need, or they will 'fire' me.

All because some <deleted> jobsworth in some PO somewhere is a mail thief.

Dude, they already found her.

thanks Soi biker, cheers, no harm posting when lives are at stake.

Dude, they already found her.

Admins if my post failed, can you facebook search grace taylor, actually, everyone reading this, many thanks...

Face book is very 'in' but poor about sharing 'out' i have attached the link, hope the admins can weave some magic and post more, please bear ith us, its a big deal, thanks.

details here

thanks.

Hello there all,

Clueless male here needing a shopping tip.

I'm heading to the EU in a few weeks, and want to take something nice from here (Chiang Mai) to my 'surrogate' mum, a lady in her 70's who has been very kind to me.

I thought of the usual triangle pillows and pashminas, yards of silk, but it's just so much same-same.

Any unique ideas out there?

She's fairly well off and has a house full of stuff, any upmarket gift hampers of toiletries out there I should consider?

You helping me might help support a creative, deserving, local business...

Thank you in advance!

D.

Meechai says future elections are not winners take all affairs

In Thailand the winner does, indeed, take all.

That's because the true power base is already well sewn up, the eventual elections will make everybody feel the happiness, for a wee while, but whichever party 'wins' might well be hamstrung by whatever invisible 'defenders of the constitution' bid them.

So the state will soon be deporting religious organizations, which undermine, by evangelism, the home team? Just looking for clarification on that bit about the state having to 'defend' a religion.

Religions! The self appointed 'defenders' across all faiths get more absurd the more they decline into irrelevance!

The day they 'firewall' the net here, is the day I'll already be 'retired' somewhere else, just me, and my money.

The BIG 'takeaway' for Thai audiences can only be...

Sometimes you gotta lose face, to gain face.

What a rrradical concept, Thailand!

I thought the idea of this "government" was to erase corruption and allow another elected government to take over (and then repeat the process from 2014 till then every 5 years or so). Why are they faffing about with stuff like this when the next and real government might just kaibosh it anyway?

Well, it seemed like a good idea, at the time, and then... oooh look! A butterfly! Woof!

Hmm, scammers targeting skinflints, this will be interesting!

In the name of

The Father

The Son

The Donald

Amen.

I took a look at the ingredients listed for the Allowrie Butter and for Anchor Butter. For Anchor only one ingredient was listed in English and Thai: cream. For the Allowrie butter the ingredients listed were: Butter Oil 82% and skimmed milk powder 2%. And lecithin from soybeans but no percentage given. It also says its manufactured in either Indonesia or Malaysia. I forget which. So it seems the stuff is manfactured. Lecithin being the emulsifier.

I suspect that what happens is that some cream is of lower quality than other cream. Maybe wasn't stored properly or something bad got into the feed. ANyway, rather than discard it or feed it to the pigs, it's rendered into butter oil (ghee). Which is then sold to nations unfamiliar with high quality butter where it gets turned back into a simlacrum of butter. But that's just a guess. What is indisputable is that the stuff is manufactured.

Also, australian consumer protection law about spreads wouldn't apply here since what is exported was not butter, but butter oil.

I did my own research over the weekend, you are correct. My apologies.

They are in fact reconstituting ingredients here, I have switched to Anchor upon discovering this, I trusted the Allowrie Label, more fool me, I should have learned with Cadbury, Mars, etc selling out to palm oil factories in Indonesia.

More dairy vigilance will be applied from now on!

What nonsense is this? Allowrie ( http://www.kimchuagroup.com/products/butter-spreads ), available is regular salted or unsalted; as well as DOZENS of spread varieties, is butter. Butter. And only Butter.

Sure the company says so on its website so it must be true.

I just looked at the Allowrie Pure Butter in the fridge and it's far from pure - 80% butter oil and the other 20% is "not butter" - 2% salt, 2% milk solids and I'm guessing the rest is water.

Hope you can find some pure butter before anyone dies there jaideeguy...

I would suggest that 2% salt and 2% milk solids and water, are all 'legitimate' additives. Australian food regulations actually Trump UK particularly with chocolate products. UK Cadbury has less cocoa butter, and can't be sold in Oz! Don't even get me started on the branded rubbish they fake, sorry make, in Indonesia. But I digress. Allowrie butter is butter, not some unholy mess With palm oil. If you want farm churned in 2016, you'd pay a fortune back home too.

Why would churned butter be more expensive that reconstituted butter? Actually, the reverse should be true. Since you have to separate the butterfat from the butter. That's an extra step.The more steps, the more it costs. And then you've got to reconstitute the stuff. Even more steps. I just did a quick check on the cost of butter in Australia. In 2014 it was about US$4.00 per kilo. Which comes to about 144 baht per kilo.

I'm guesssing that the reason they reconstitute butter here is that it's cheaper than shipping it chilled.

You're guessing all right, reconstituted Butter the cost of setting up plant to do that (and still ship the ingredients) makes no sense! Raw ingredients maybe, butter, or any similar food, no. Also, If it's been reconstituted, it must by Australian law state that, it is either butter or a spread. There's no room for dodgy claims and games. Also by law ingredients must be listed in percentage order, if the highest 'ingredient' that's not butter oil is just 2% I think that qualifies as butter in most food legislation. Anything done by hand nowadays is 'artisanal' and the scale alone 'tiny' is what makes the price high, or luxury taxes, not freight.

What nonsense is this? Allowrie ( http://www.kimchuagroup.com/products/butter-spreads ), available is regular salted or unsalted; as well as DOZENS of spread varieties, is butter. Butter. And only Butter.

Sure the company says so on its website so it must be true.

I just looked at the Allowrie Pure Butter in the fridge and it's far from pure - 80% butter oil and the other 20% is "not butter" - 2% salt, 2% milk solids and I'm guessing the rest is water.

Hope you can find some pure butter before anyone dies there jaideeguy...

I would suggest that 2% salt and 2% milk solids and water, are all 'legitimate' additives. Australian food regulations actually Trump UK particularly with chocolate products. UK Cadbury has less cocoa butter, and can't be sold in Oz! Don't even get me started on the branded rubbish they fake, sorry make, in Indonesia. But I digress. Allowrie butter is butter, not some unholy mess With palm oil. My high school Science would indicate that butter without water would be butter dust. If you want farm churned in 2016, you'd pay a fortune back home too.

Things must have changed in 3/4 years. Then i was just a 30 day tourist living in a cheap hotel but had no trouble opening a BB account on NimmanHaeman Road. But, since i was able to produce a USA passport, all went well for me.

Yes, I think things have changed and a USA passport just means more work for Bangkok Bank with the FBAR requirements. Why would they want to open an account for an American likely to keep a small balance because he's on a short-term visa?

With my experience yesterday, watching the older, very grumpy guy and poorly dressed guy walk briskly from our condo and into Bangkok Bank asking to open an account with a tourist visa, I think they probably would have accommodated him when they asked me if I knew him. I've brought newbies into that bank to open accounts with tourist visas, explaining they needed the account to bring in 800,000 baht to get a retirement visa. Then, they're happy to open an account for someone with a short-term visa and those plans. I think yesterday the customer service gal was looking for me to say something similar about that guy.

Time and again, we are told, this is Thailand, be nice, and don't dress like a kee-nok farang. Time and again, people through ignorance or arrogance think these 'appearances' are not applicable to them. Then they wonder why all the Thais they meet in positions of officialdom don't want to know...

thanks john,

I am hoping not to need an in-country bank account as it seems more trouble than its worth.

The exception is that I may need local bank account for rent payments and, in that case, I'll do what I have to do and fund it with wire transfer from US.

My intent is to use a low fee credit card for all travel expenses but that can be figured out when the time arises.

Bangkok Bank branch on the nimman main drag gave me an account and atm card on the spot, using a hotel address and just THB 30k when I first arrived.

You'll definitely need one for a retirement O application.

Also, please do avoid motorised bike hire at all costs. About 71 people die here every day, 82% on bikes. You'll have heard about that poor lass who needs A neg. blood, it happens all the time, just rarely goes viral. Keep your thrills blood Free!

@Jasmine try DK David's kitchen, it's on TripAdvisor as are many other worthwhile places that offer many cuisines. You will tire of Pad Thai if you stay long Enough! Also try the local Lanna specialties, all over google. Bon Appetit!