fire2rescue99

Way back at the beginning of the stoppage, I remember something mentioned about the EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment or something like that) was a rush job and being challenged as improperly done.

 

I also remember some hub bub about the set-back from the shoreline was improper. And that depended upon which shoreline the authorities were using. That is, the original natural coastline or the coastline made further out by artificial fill.

 

 Does anyone remember these two objections and if they were ever cleared up?

First, thank you to mum2 for your post. A firsthand insight into the machinations of a system that even natives most likely do not have a clear grasp. I get that your experience was your family’s reality, regardless of how things are supposed to be.

 

In 1993, my first visit, I stayed at a little bungalow on Samui. The Aussies in the shack next to me were getting weed from the front desk clerk. I thought, well, that’s great until you get caught. I had no desire to partake both for personal and penalty reasons. Anyways, when this couple checked out a day before me, they showed me their hand written receipt. On it was a small charge for the bong that the Hotel had supplied them. It seemed daring and funny at the same time. 

 

Lastly, it’s great that celebrities post here under pen names. Who would have guessed that Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory was a fan of Thai Visa?

Don Muang is the perfect airport for an undisturbed snooze! I was an expert back in the day. I was never hassled. Have him pack a plastic pool float in his carry on. One of those long ones with the built in pillows. They're very inexpensive. I even packed a small hand pump to speed things along.

 

Simply walk back to an unused part of the terminal. There are plenty of huge structural columns to partially hid behind. They even have the lights turned down for you in some terminals. Just check around, the places are there.  Good luck to him!  

My adolescent kids have spent have their lives in Thailand. I showed them this. They reminded me of the time an Emergency caravan consisting of several ambulances and pick-ups running red lights and sirens on the Route 7. They were running ‘hot’. The caravan pushed through traffic and it seemed that everyone yielded and gave way. I jokingly at the time said they were late for Happy Hour. Several miles down the road the Caravan of vehicles were at a rest stop, picnicking and having a great time. The kids saw this and were gobsmacked at the abuse of authority. They are very familiar with the sense of unfairness and entitlement projected by some.

3 minutes ago, fire2rescue99 said:

“ with experts in a boat looking into the matter”......

Does that mean The Cousteau Society or Earth Island Institute?

Or the usual cast of characters?

 

 

 

Oops, sorry, misquoted. Should read “experts in a speed boat”.

“ with experts in a boat looking into the matter”......

Does that mean The Cousteau Society or Earth Island Institute?

Or the usual cast of characters?

 

 

 

Not just this market. Pat Pong night market would be a true conflagration if things went bad there. Same with the Krabi Town night market. No emergency vehicle way or access. 

 

Pay at attention to your surroundings. Have a plan if things go south. 

 

Wow, look at the Malay numbers. Do they have a burgeoning middle class starting to take out of country holidays?

 

I have stayed at a hotel that seems to package in Vietnamese 3 and 4 day long weekend stays. As a group, they are well behaved and polite. They mostly stay to themselves. I will say, they don't know lift etiquette. They try to bum rush the door, not allowing people on the lift a chance to exit first. I've made it a game of bum rushing them first on the way out.  Ha ha. Maybe they think I am the one that is out of touch and now I do it exactly right.

That's a great ruse. Congrats Thai Visa! Well written and gave me a good laugh. You suckered in quite a lot of indigent reprobates that would frequent those places! 

Whether you have a car or not, get a cheap, collapsing umbrella stroller. Tesco has them for 400-600 THB. This is the one with the curved handles similar to an umbrella, with a cotton or canvas sling for the child to sit upon. It is super lightweight. When needed simply scoop the child up, collapse the stroller with one hand and hop on the bus, escalator, hump the stairs over the pedestrian bridge. I wore two of these out with 2 kids. One of them had a sling for the shoulder, but can live without it. They are so cheap, you don't have to worry about damaging or leaving one behind. But, it is the lightweight that makes it the ticket. Some of those have a canopy, but I found that just added weight. I always carried a clean handkerchief to cover the child with or tied it off at an angle to block sun. Do use the snap seatbelt to prevent the child from being launched when you hit the hole or hard spot that you eventually will. Central sells high end brand name fancy versions that your wife will probably want. Resist. They weigh 3 to 5 times as much as the cheap one and are more involved to collapse on a moments notice.

   Whenever I rode the cheap green bus or BTS and had the child and stroller, most Thai folks would offer a seat. Yes, you need a car to get out of the city, but mostly it is a pain in the arse to travel in town with one. Good luck Papa!

On November 15, 2016 at 11:15 PM, reenatinnakor said:

Interesting.....a thread about coffee shops but absolutely no information on the costs or ins and outs of opening one! Just people bitching about where to park the gf and american express cards 5555. Am thinking of opening a small coffee shop for the wife here in Pattaya. Has anyone done the same and know of the costs? Including the machine I searched on the internet and I guess you need about 500k to start. PM me....I won't open one next to you!

 

We already have a cell phone case and accessories booth in the countryside in a Big C which the sister is looking after. Revenue on average about 120k a month, delete the rent, salary and cost of stock, petrol to go and buy the stock in bkk twice a month I guess we have about 50 to 60k in our pocket. We started with 400k for the 3 months rent and the stock and accessories...so within a year we should actually be making a profit and recovered all the costs. We did think about opening a phone case shop here but with Tuk Com and now Harbor Mall it seems pointless to fight with people that have already had a booth for years.

There is a coffee shop inside Big C Express on Klang that displays and sells espresso machines. It is on the ground floor towards the carpark, opposite Mr. Donut.

the machine prices are slightly less,  it is almost comparable to what one pays for an imported Italian machine in the states. so, for a two head espresso machine about $100k THB. That outfit also has a list of supplies needed to open a kiosk or shop.

"...has helped a number of these children be returned to their families." Sadly, just to be sold in slavery again, most likely.

Amoral, immoral, you just can't fix stupid.

Just incidentally, while on the subject of tap vs. bottled: while Bangkok's water supply has been deemed safe to drink, that certification takes place at the source. It is not an end line test, such as out of a bubbler at a park or a residential or hotel tap. The water system has a chance to be compromised due to breaks, leaks, unregulated connections and contaminated back flow associated with these.

Many modern hotels have their own water filtration systems and it may be safe to drink from their taps, but I would not count on it. If you have not lived here for quite awhile, I would not chance it. Why is it you see so many Thais using bottled water? Because they get sick too!

Once while waiting for my number to be drawn at an Immigration Office queue, I was about to get a drink from the provided bottled water from the dispenser using a paper cup. The woman sitting next to me said something like "sir, that water is contaminated, you shouldn't drink it." I thought she was just being a busybody and was prepared to ignore her. She insisted and told me in English with a German accent, " I am a Micro-biologist and I have always suspected this bottle to be contaminated. On my last trip I took a sample back with me to Germany and confirmed that it has several unwanted micro organisms that will make you sick."

Well, that stopped me and makes one wonder about any bottled water. I don't know if they were filling it from the tap, or if the government went with the low bid and crappy water company.

Just water for thought.

Matt,

One of the difficulties of learning Thai from English is that comparing the respective grammars may be misleading. In English the word "learning" can be either a present participle ("I am learning Thai") or a gerund (Learning Thai is difficult.) The Thais, as you might expect, have a different construction for each of these uses.

The phrase you quote "การเรียนรู้" ('gaan riian ruu') is a gerund and is not what you want for what you are trying to express. You want to say, "ผมกำลังเรียนภาษาไทยอยู่" (pŏm gam-lang rian paa-săa tai yòo ). The Thai word "kam-lang" is equivalent to the "-ing" form in English.

Best of luck in your studies.

Thank you for the easy to understand and complete response. Your transliteration is in the form(ear) that makes sense to me. So often, I see someone's interpretation and say "What?"

Yep, drugged as already been mentioned. As far as I know it's all very well organised, with the gang operators taking a large cut.

Is the Soi 7 Slider still around?

I think the guy you refer to is the same one that slides along the ground in Pratunaam Market. Those spots are a few kilometers away from one another. He must have someone moving him around. I admit, he is a pitiful sight. Would not want the cards he has been dealt.

Chlorine is nothing to be near. It is one one the most deadly chemicals that has most common usage as well. I would not recommend the football pitch. You want to be clear of the area entirely. Go to relatives or spring for a hotel until all clear is given.

Don't let a few baht stand between you and/or your familiy's health.

Not the first and not the last fire in SC.

Imagine a fire in the Nana Plaza trap.

True, Nana would be a fire trap. But, I have always thought that Pat Pong would be a conflagration, should any building or vendor tent go up.

 I know, but we skyped every day for 2 months for like 2 hours a day so I didn't just fall in love over 2 weeks.  You learn a lot about each other when you video call each other this much so I already had feelings for her before I went to Thailand.            I don't believe she would Skype with me this much if she wasn't really interested me as she was always asking in email "you Skype tonight mai".                    Its to much time to just try and scam someone, a scammer or some one who just wanted a gik payment wouldn't invest that much time.
 
 I appreciate all replies, cynicism included as I need to look from different view points as I feel quite confused at the moment.   Mrjlh I appreciate your post mak.

 
Tell you what, after you have had a few dozen Thai ladies, all of whom will laugh with you and provide great sex (they are in every bar BTW) you will be able to reevaluate your situation.
 
Did it occur to you to find out how and why she knows English? Only bar girls and international business executives speak English in Thailand.
 
If you are smart, you will call the husband and tell him for US$ 15,000 you will disappear and let him have his family back. Be careful about the collection arrangements. Do not accept the cash in person have it wired. Over and out.

I would like to include lots of government officials/managers and some cops in the English speaking category.

Someone get a hold of Kramer! They need a Bro

An episode of the TV sitcom Seinfeld, titled "The Doorman", had the character Kramer invent a male bra, which he called a "bro," for Frank Costanza, who had very large breasts. Frank initially decided to market the invention, but disagreed on the name, instead wanting to call it a "Manssiere," a play on the term "brassiere".

There are several small towns south of Chiang Mai in the Ping River valley that seem immaculate when compared to the rest of Thailand. The industry there is agriculture, of course, and lots of cotton fabric mills. I went to a two story restaurant overlooking long gan fields. I have never seen any region so well kept in Thailand.

Bangkok has a surfeit of glossy, cookie cutter malls that all sell the same goods. What makes Pantip; Pantip are the individual little shops on the upper floors who sell unique lines of products and yes...a lot of older stock that can not be found anywhere else...the kind of stuff you don't ever think about until you need it. How many times on this forum have people asked where they can find a memory stick or power supply or mother board for a five year old computer? You won't find such things in Power Buy or IT City.

These shops survive because the rents are low and because there are so many under one roof, customers come to Pantip because they know they have a decent chance of finding what they need. Renovation means higher rents and many of those small shops will not be able to remain...that will be our loss.

"Creepy"?? A "slum"?? What are you on? If you only want to walk on polished marble floors then stick with Paragon, Gaysorn, Emporium and all the other temples to homogenized retail excess.

Pantip is like an old style market bazaar and of one thing we all can be sure...after it is gone, the lamentations for its loss will flow more loudly than the protest of it's imminent change.

Well said. Above the second floor is where unusual hard to find items live. Above the third floor are the hacker fix it shops that can repair anything for a reasonable price.

There used to be a kiosk bar on ground level at the bottom of the down escalator. I miss that. There was also, for many years, a small beer garden on the flat top of the entrance steps, just in front of KFC. That was a wonderful people watching space. (Read into it what you like) sit there, having an extremely chilled beer, kids were happy with a battery operated train or other trinket, wife goes shopping and brings back street food for all. I miss that!

Reduce the problem to a size maybe we all are more familiar with. Let's say your young child goes missing in your neighborhood.

The entire city is helping to look for the missing child. All the emergency services and hundreds of volunteers are dedicating time and resources with no leads. Days pass. Folks are at wits end. Then, the neighbor from across the street offers up information that should have been disclosed when all the commotion started. They tell you, "I saw your child heading up the street to the north at 3:30. This as 7 days ago."

Wouldn't it have been helpful if this person came forward when the information was fresh and resources could have been applied in a focused and timely manner?

I remember 15years ago or so... Two backpackers were arrested in Malaysia and were charged as spies for having fake ID's that they had made on Khao San Rd. I think it wahed out as lesser charges. But, I certainly never considered such severe consequences. I remember watching the guys make the cards out on the street there. Quite an art.

Thank you, three times.