EL159

Called by yesterday. First visit. Food OK, but the decor of the place is so vulgar.....nothing in there matches.....tiles in conflicting colours and patterns everywhere.....very nice retro American ads on the wall, but surrounded by silly little ornaments of animals etc.....I know its "the food that counts" but the whole place decoratively just bad taste. Maybe the owner did it on purpose? Who knows? Made me feel sea sick !!!!!

On 05/09/2017 at 0:36 AM, CMKiwi said:

The people in Zoe are probably quite happy that you would rather spend 3 hours in the UN IRISH too....

Thanks, Kiwi, I ll take that as a compliment. I would be delighted if the Zoe s...hole and neighbouring bars are happy that I dont go there.

2 hours ago, Cory1848 said:

And you, quite evidently, are one of them! <stupid smiley face>. I've been to most of the establishments along that entire strip and enjoyed myself at each ...

As it happens, I m not, I watch my sport mostly in the comfort of my home HD on Truevisions, but if push comes to shove, I d rather spend three hours in the UNIrish than five minutes in the god forsaken s...hole known as Zoe!

2 hours ago, Cory1848 said:

Oh, be nice! They're young and they look good and they're having the time of their life traveling around Southeast Asia. To be that age again! I was at Zoe's Friday night, the only place in that part of town with any life to it -- certainly more than the Irish Pub a block down the street, with its grumpy old farangs glued to their football ...

 

"The grumpy old farangs glued to their football" are there because its a SPORTS PUB, not a bloody discotheque!

Very strong rumour that the Zoe Bar complex and all the other bars on that plot have been served notice to quit. The whole area sold for redevelopment. The only uncertaity is when, three different versions of when, its either "one month", "Christmas", or "April next year".  Personally, I ve got no problem with the continued existence of Zoe as long as they relocate to the middle of nowhere 15 kilometres from the City and take all their customers with them!

2 hours ago, Sandy Freckle said:

Yeah well, like you had to just go and shout that out also....,  

Sorry, but I just get constantly annoyed by all the people on here who run the following two totally contradictory lines:

1. "Truevisions? Rip off, rubbbish, not worth the money....blah, blah, blah"

2. " I m trying to watch football on this ( illegal) android box thingy and boo hoo, it doesnt work very well..."

You pay your money, you take your choice, but stop whingeing when the cheap option doesnt work very well!!

Well done, idman, advertising that the place in question uses an illegal method to play his sports coverage! Not a great idea. So called android boxes provide illegal coverage!

1 hour ago, WinnieTheKhwai said:

Jesus.. he's looking for a bar, not a retirement home.

Agreed! Mad Dog otherwise known as "Dead Mens Shoes",  youre only entitled to a seat if the previous occupant died recently! They look at you like the locals looked at the American guys in "American Werewolf In London"......oooh, ahhrr....youre not from round here are you?!

The problems simple. Youre all cheapskates trying to get something for next to nothing then ironically whingeing when its not perfect. The reality is, like it or not, and dont have a go at me, the ONLY legitimate provider of Premiership Football, which they pay a fortune for, are the much maligned True Visions. Everything else is surreptitious illegal streaming, so if thats what you want, dont whinge when it doesnt work.

Me?  I pay the price to True and get perfect HD coverage all the time. "You get what you pay for" as the old adage says!

1 hour ago, sharktooth said:

If you'd had to pull out onto the main road wouldn't you have to "give way" anyway? 

Sigh......are you just being provocative or deliberately obtuse?  Let me spell it out ( again). When you come onto the Samoeng Road from my Moo Bahn, you can see about  150 metres in both directions due to bends in the road. If some idiot is driving a big bike at 100 miles an hour he will be on top of you in less than 10 seconds.  OK? Got it now?

Yesterday, Sunday, I witnessed by far the scariest thing I have ever seen on Thai roads, and I ve been here 12 years and I ve seen some stuff. I live at Moo Bahn Sansaran, Nongkwai, the start of the "Samoeng Loop" road.  As you will all know, the Samoeng road is a fairly narrow two way road, with turns on and off the road every few metres, with shops, restaurants, bars, villages, hotels, resorts, etc etc etc. On a daily basis people constantly turning on and off the road at very regular intervals, people just going about their daily business, including me.

At about 2pm I had to pop down to the 7/11 just past the traffic lights as you start up the Samoeng Road, and in the little parking area outside the 7/11, there must have been about 20 or so "big bikes", all youngish Thai riders in their leathers etc. There was obviously some kind of "meeting/ day out" taking place. Suddenly, as I stood in front of the 7/11, I heard a noise I have only heard before when attending motor racing tracks, the huge roar of big bikes going at Formula 1 type speeds, and as I stood there, astonished, four bikes flew past the 7/11 and up the Samoeng Road travelling at, I kid you not, well in excess of 100 MPH. As they went by, you didnt see them as such, they went by in a blur.

Now, bear in mind this is an extremely busy domestic road. My Moo Bahn entrance is about 700 metres past the 7/11. Had I pulled out onto the road at exactly the same time as these people, they would, at those speeds have been on top of me in less than 10 seconds! Before anyone thinks I m exaggerating, I promise you I m not. At the speeds these bikes were travelling, on the road they were using, I simply find it hard to believe that some accident catastrophe wouldnt have taken place soon after what I saw.

I know this "big bike" thing has recently become fashionable for youngish ( affluent?) Thais.....just another way to kill yourself, I guess.....but is it now happening all around Chiang Mai?  This was just mental. And by the way, yes, they could have been part of the "foreigner biker fraternity", but I genuinely dont think they were. I know quite a number of those guys, and simply dont believe that they would take the kind of "death wish risk" that these idiots were taking yesterday. Of course, it goes without saying, no cops anywhere to be seen.

Pim, Have you thought why outfits like Uber are growing in popularity?  Its because they DONT rip you off, like Songtaews do, its because they are in fact air conditioned which songtaews ARENT,  its because their drivers are invariably friendly and helpful, which songtaew drivers mostly ARENT, its because Uber have an app WHICH WORKS which songtaews DONT, its because with Uber the price is agreed in advance and not challenged at destination, like a lot of songtaews DO.

Songtaews are a blight on the landscape of Chiang Mai, they are more trouble than they are worth, they are old, inefficient, polluters of the environment.  THATS the type of article we would all like to read. 

Pim, sorry, you are looking at this only through your eyes, rose coloured presumably,  this guy gets away with almost everything he says, almost without challenge. No questions about pollution. No challenge about the assertion that many songtaews are "air conditioned" , how can they be air conditioned, they are open not closed vehicles, No challenge about the assertion that Uber etc are " illegal".....this gangster mafia bloke gets to make a biased public statement, was your intern paid a fee in exchange for all this free and biased publicity?!!!!!

Looking for someone who can install guttering in a few places where the rain is worst.....its not the whole house as we already have it in quite a few places, just need some extra pieces fitted. Does anyone have any contacts or phone numbers to recommend, please?

Very very strange! Nana Bakery at Nonghoi produces some of the best bakery products, bread, croissants, danish pastries, muffins etc, in Chiang Mai, and all at a very reasonable inexpensive price. The last two times I ve called by there, I ve had to queue behind mostly middle aged Thai customers buying mainly croissants ( 18 baht each) in huge numbers, this morning, the two customers in front of me bought 30 and 25 respectively,  then when you get to the front, apart from loaves of bread, theres hardly anything left at all.

Has Thailand suddenly acquired a great love of croissants in large numbers.....or.......and I suspect this is the answer  ( its what my Thai partner has heard)......people with their own coffee shops/ retail outlets are going there, buying for 18 baht then selling in their own establishments for a tidy profit.

It doesnt seem like very sensible business practice to buy at retail price to then sell in another retail establishment. Its also a bit annoying, having used Nana Bakery for two years to suddenly find theres hardly any product left by 10.30am!

Has anyone else come across this curious phenomenon?

Wouldnt be surprised at all if the Downunder Bar was to fail. They predominantly show Australia in a variety of different sports, and it must be really depressing to go there and mostly see Australian National Teams losing to England !!

Still, Aussies can always fall back on that sport that only Aussies play, the one that nobody outside Australia understands but seems to involve blokes in vests and tight shorts running round mostly in circles !!

Even Scotland who are crap at Rugby and had hardly any Lions selected beat Australia in Australia yesterday !!

Chiang Mai LAWN BOWLS club meets several times a week at the purpose built lawn bowling green very near to the Night Safari. Just google "Chiang Mai Lawn Bowls" for website, directions etc.

A much more subtle and sophisticated game than "whang em down" tenpin!

By the way, this isnt an "either or" type of thread, theres room for both these games in Chiang Mai, but if you like tenpin, you might just also like lawn bowls!

Wow. Sounds really (Not) good....."I was pretty impressed by it however the Monaco Gran Prix was nearly unwatchable" What a recommendation !! Truevisions might be expensive but at least its reliable, whereas the rest are pretty much crap by comparison.

I guess "you get what you pay for", pay cheap cheap, get crap, pay more, get full HD on Rugby, Football, Golf, Tennis, Formula 1.....I like it reliable, not buffering and freezing all the time!

Are we talking about the "historic wall remnant" that was built about twenty years ago?!

Joe,  Dont get all sensitive now, clearly youre a regular, as I am at the "unirish", and I m not commenting on the "good charity work" done by Scott, who I know quite well but still dont rate the pub. I wasnt entirely being too serious here, but wherever I ve travelled on business around the World, be it Africa, Asia or wherever, you always find these generic "Irish Pubs" which in fact simply dip into the "Irish Brand" thats been fashionable now for 25 years.....me and my travelling/ business partner always used to joke that somewhere in the World, there must be a giant Irish product warehouse, who you call up to get your old bikes, sewing machines, Dublin posters and the like!

"Irishness" is now a brand that gets trotted out in March every year, "Paddys Day"......go along to any number of so called Irish Pubs around the World, and ask what it is thats being celebrated, and 75% will have not the first idea!

Suppose I was spoiled by my very regular trips to Dublin, Galway & Cork back in the day, and by famous pubs in Digbeth, Birmingham, like The Spotted Dog, Clearys, The White Swan, The Dubliner, etc etc......all real Irish pubs run by real Irish people, be they first second or third generation. Often, it was like "Peaky Blinders" in real life, haha !!! 

If you ever go there, original poster, the management ( Greg) and owner ( Sandy) go out of their way to dispel the "Irish" myth. Those of us who drink in there, and the staff have been calling it "The unirish pub" ( Not as in "U.N." as it once was) but unirish, as in not irish.  The history of the pub and its original irish owner is on the wall, worth a read, and now a product of history from 20 years ago.

O Malleys never was, never is, and never will be an Irish Pub. Its one of those pubs of which sadly there are thousands around the world, where you get an old bike, an old sewing machine, and a couple of Dublin posters, stick them on the wall and call yourself Irish! O Malleys is there pure and simple for the gullible tourists who are happy to overpay for crap beer and average food!

The "unirish" is by far and away the best place in Chiang Mai if you want to watch Rugby, Cricket, Football, Golf,.....plus a whole load of American sports that some seem to get excited by but leave me cold as I m from UK!

There are many British pensioners in Thailand who boast about using an accommodation address in the UK so that they still claim benefits including pension increases they are not entitled to. The HMRC in UK will happily accept and investigate anonymous letters about such people. I know of several in Chiang Mai who have boasted, but later been left with legal action against them and fines and backpayments. Good luck to the UK authorities, and bad luck to the fraudulent claimants.

Thai Visa? Its now nothing more than a corporate entity!  Used to be independent, now tied to The Nation,  you cant criticise advertisers/ sponsors, and if you have a perfectly jusifiable ad blocker ( anyone in their right mind has one), you cant enter the site until 30 seconds has passed by!

Moderators, so called, seem to be little more than corporate protectionist blockers, and so many people that used to post enjoyable thought provoking stuff on the CM forum have simply given up and gone away!

17 hours ago, Nowisee said:

I agree about Papa Rocks.  Last time I was there the food was just ok, but the smoking killed me.  
Yummy Pizza is my go to place and I like the location, the guy that runs it is quite social and always says hi and food is consistently good.

Yes, I agree about the smoking. Last time I was there, the owner and friends were sitting at virtually the next table, most were smoking illegal substances, and were totally oblivious to actual "customers", eating and drinking at the next table. I understand the owner always has big ideas but doesnt seem to know how to operate professionally.