fxm88

And, since flights would go through the States, is a transit visa required? How difficult is that to obtain?

Not sure how up to date this page is:

http://wikitravel.org/en/Avoiding_a_transit_of_the_United_States

Has anyone noticed the decrease in the size of cans of soft drinks? Coke, Pepsi and so on, reduced from 330ml to 325ml. Reduced in content, but not in price.

Many makes of 3 in 1 coffee. Bags of 30 sachets reduced to 28 and some 25 sachets.

This practice has been going on for years by these companies that rob and cheat us on a daily basis.

Whoever invented this trick should have gotten a patent on it... they'd be a billionaire by now!

http://consumerist.com/tag/grocery-shrink-ray

Alan Greenspan?

You mean THIS guy:

"The U.S. housing market appears to be emerging from its recent travails and the “worst may well be over,” former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan was quoted as saying on Friday.

“I suspect that we are coming to the end of this downtrend, as applications for new mortgages, the most important series, have flattened out,” Greenspan said at an event in Calgary, Canada, sponsored by BMO Financial Group, according to a transcript BMO made available..."

That was in >>>>20006<<<<<.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15198805/

This article from March 2010 says there's one in Bangkok and one in Pattaya and that they're open again:

"A year ago, the Pyongyang restaurants in Cambodia and Thailand suddenly closed their doors, only to reopen again after a six-month hiatus. Lintner cited an Asian diplomat in Bangkok saying the restaurants, like all "capitalist" enterprises, were hit hard by the global economic crisis, but locals familiar with the establishment in Phnom Penh offered another explanation. One worker at a nearby business said Pyongyang closed after a dispute with a Cambodian customer who tried to take one of its North Korean waitresses out for "drinks" after dinner."

http://www.slate.com/id/2247402/

Does anyone have any blueprints for building a Thai gazebo? (Too expensive to ship one back to my home country.)

The one with the wagon wheel theme would be great, but anything sufficiently Thai-looking would do.

Some examples:

http://img.alibaba.com/photo/10887911/Thai...onal_Gazebo.jpg

http://www.thaigazebo.com/en/gazebo-octagon.html

http://www.thaigardendesign.com/.a/6a01053...a4d8a666970b-pi

Thanks a million (baht)!

Do they still have all those floating restaurants out on the river?

Not near your hotel, but worth a trip!

http://wikimapia.org/9362086/Had-Ku-Dua

http://www.thaipulse.com/blog/thailand-pla...-travel-review/

Does anyone have any blueprints for building a Thai gazebo? (Too expensive to ship one back to my home country.)

The one with the wagon wheel theme would be great, but anything sufficiently Thai-looking would do.

Some examples:

http://img.alibaba.com/photo/10887911/Thai...onal_Gazebo.jpg

http://www.thaigazebo.com/en/gazebo-octagon.html

http://www.thaigardendesign.com/.a/6a01053...a4d8a666970b-pi

Thanks a million (baht)!

We went to eat at an acquaintance's new restaurant. Not really a friend, just someone we know.

The service was awful, we waited over an hour to get any food at all. (I thought maybe they weren't used to having customers, but when passer-bys saw they had customers decided to give it a try, which made the restaurant unexpectedly busy.)

We received a slightly discounted bill at the end of the meal.

Culturally speaking, should we say anything to her? Or just ignore it? What if she asks?

I don't plan on ever back, but what if she invites us again?

Thanks!

Anyone see the 30 to 50 shiny metallic "stars" hovering over Bangkok this afternoon about 5:30pm?

And if so, does anyone know what they were?

If you just want to sing songs, try using the phrase "sing a song" or "rong pleng".

Article from the end of 2004: http://www.bangkokpost.net/ecoreviewye2004/finance.html

Local banks will face another key challenge in 2005, when a new law establishing a deposit insurance agency is expected to be passed... Since 1997, the central bank's Financial Institutions Development Fund has offered a blanket guarantee for all deposits within the banking system... Deposit insurance will be phased in over a four-year period, with coverage of up to 50 million baht given in the first year and falling to just one million by the fourth year.

Did such a law ever get passed? Did such an agency ever get set-up? Does it cover foreigner accounts?

Can they make it so you can only use it for purchases, no ATM withdrawls?

"Dangerous banned liquids given to homeless"

http://www.homelandstupidity.us/2006/08/21...en-to-homeless/

Give him a break... he's new to all this. Give him a few years and he'll be able to AVOID answering a question like a pro.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BklT7Qy07Is

What happens if the usufruct holder's demise is postponed through extraordinary life prolonging means?

These days, a person can be kept on life support almost indefinitely. If you hold your land in a usufruct -- do you really want your wife's family deciding that it's better to keep you "alive" (as a vegetable) just so that they don't have to relocate?

I don't get it -- why did he switch from £'s to $'s?

Tell that one about Millard Fillmore again -- it's a hoot!

Coinstar!

There's heaps of Thai words for "price".

Unfortunately there is no Thai word for "value".

You know what I would do if I had a million dollars? I would invest half of it in low risk mutual funds and then take the other half over to my friend Asadulah who works in securities...

If you wish to avoid hassles with US Customs you basically have two options:

1. Don't leave the United States; or,

2. Don't come back.

Try the Lychee juice -- it's dirt cheap. Avoid apple juice, it's crazy expensive.

Show me where the cheap ones are? When I looked the prices were quite high....the decrease should surely sow in the prices by now?

Those are the average prices the units actually sold for, not the average of the prices offered to prospective buyers. Since you were looking, and not buying, I am not surprised the prices you were quoted were high.

There's also an article at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118548038601879283.html (but you have to be a subscriber to read the whole thing).

Find the video at http://link.brightcove.com/services/player...ctid=1126133172