richard_smith237

Sorry Oleg –

That sounds like rubbish –

Your comments are suggesting that as I am not Muslim, It’s reasonable for me to kick the S#$t out of a guy who greets me with ‘Salam wah la coum” because it might offend my religious sensibilities…

There is only one side to this story here so we can only go with that…

But the Op has stated that he made a friendly gesture and offered to buy the guy a beer… is that worth a beating? no religion or culture can use that as an excuse…

Regardless of the time, this seems like an unprovoked attack and mugging.

It doesn’t seem so organized… But as the Op has said.. some areas of Bangkok maybe becoming a little more dangerous than we are used to particularly after the witching hour.

We can’t go around making excuses for an unprovoked kicking.

Unless….Pauliepaul, (Op).. is there anything more to this?

We used to go to the Sukhothai all the time.

We used to stay there all day and be the last out, a group of us would sit there with our friends and girlfriends, sometimes on a table of 10 and just eat and drink all afternoon….until the food was cleared away, then continue drinking until one of use would realize that they were cleaning up around us. We’d move up to the bar area to finish our drinks, they’d often top us up while we were in the bar area. Absolutely wonderful service.

However, one time (with a booking) we turned up and were told with an apology that the policy has changed and we don’t get free flowing wine. We apologized and left, politely letting them know that the free flow wine was one of the reasons we were there. We called up and booked the Marriot and went directly there. We just didn’t rate it as much, the staff were also just that little bit surly, and we were kicked out at closing time of the buffet on the dot. We were also told, 15 mins before the buffet closed that there was no more wine, when I one of us spoke to the head waitress and suggested that ‘this is the Marriot hotel you don’t run out of wine, sorry but we don’t believe that excuse’… we were told OK, but this is the last one, no more after this (we certainly didn’t over do it)… We didn’t go back

After a couple of months, one of our group got a call from the head waitress / maitre d' of Sukhothai asking us ‘we miss your group’ why don’t we go there anymore..

They gave us a solution – we could take our own wine and not have to pay corkage. Last time we were there we left at 6pm after a great afternoon.

The Four Seasons and Marriot are good – but it feels like more of a conveyor belt buffet – get in, eat, get out…

We used to get great service at the Banyan tree, but the food was not up to the standard of the above three mentioned places.

One thing I have noticed is that service can make the difference between a good afternoon and a great afternoon. Its just nice to feel welcomed.

I’d also be very interested to learn of more good places (and A’la Carte) as the Op has requested, somewhere a ‘little’ different would be great….

I’m planning a quick romantic getaway with my girlfriend next week. As Pattaya is a quick 2hrs drive away it’s the most convenient (also has some watersports that we are interested in) so we decided to stay the Zign hotel which appears very well designed, it’s a little isolated while at the same time being close enough to town to head out for a beer etc in the evenings.

I e-mailed with the booking form and got a response to my reservation request from Reservations hotels.thaivisa.com that the hotel is fully booked on the days we want to stay.

However, my girlfriend had also made an enquiry direct with the hotel to see if they had any promotions etc… And they do – and they are not fully booked, In fact they had availability for any room and villa type except for the poolside villas.

Hotels.thaivisa.com suggested an alternative which is 2,600 B per night more… and stretches our price bracket. Needles to say we’ll go with the direct promotion which undercuts the agents internet based price.

Now, something doesn’t seem right that they’d respond that a hotel with vacancies is fully booked and then suggest an alternative that is quite a lot more.

I rarely use agencies over the internet, is this the norm? this just seems rather odd to me.

snorkels past the swimming backpackers

where the lesser spotted spondooly

i've got a very vivid

ly shaped spondooly, its so

Dacca, Bangla Desh

ps: IMHO a sport stadium is hardly a 'landmark' but again, IMHO...

Also, this is a very small stadium and as far as I can see, limited to cricket...?

LaoPo

Yes LaoPo. It is Bangladesh's national cricket stadium.... It's probably the only landmark in Dhaka…

(With 186 pages to this game already, I was trying to choose a city that I didn't think had already been done. On the same rationale, Would Wembley stadium, Old Trafford etc be considered a landmark? Airports ?)..

No.... For the City, think very recently… Very bad weather…

Sorry... Not Colombo...

Galle in Sri Lanka

Good try...No Cigar this time...

This one is a Sporting landmark.. in a City of very few landmarks….

Ohrid - Macedonia

Devils Dyke ? (I think Old Croc Just beat me to it)

My girlfriend has told me that the iPhone she has got me has serial #47, I gather this can’t be cracked and that there is lacking confidence that it can be cracked in the near future.

As per one of Damian’s posts, I suggested to her that she went into MBK and try and do a swap for an older model (She also had another one for sale and made a tiny profit which made it not worth the effort of carrying it back !). I had suggested to her that she might be able to make the swap and have to pay B4000. B1000 lower than Damian mentioned in his post…. I based this on the fact that she might get Thai price… Instead she was offered ‘Girl knows nothing about technology’ price and was told they would swap it for B7000. So no swap.

She still has my iPhone (Serial #47 !)… I’ll head back to MBK next week when I have time and try again.

I don’t think she walked around looking for the best swap price….Either that or confidence in the potential crack of numbers 46 upwards has faded.

Which shop did you swap your phone at Damian ?

Has anyone else swapped their iPhone for an already cracked version? And if so, where and how much?

Thanks for your recommendations…

Long Mynd, Shropshire, UK ?

I am interested in getting Insurance for my watches etc.

• 5 expensive watches.

• Cameras.

• Laptops.

• Golf Clubs plus other sporting equipment.

• Wine collection.

• TV

I’d be interested for cover for the above against accidental damage, theft, fire etc.

I only am interested in contents insurance, not house insurance etc. The quote form on Thai Visa does not suit my questions.

Does anyone have any idea who provides insurance for these items, and a rough idea of how much coverage is…

Thanks for the answers Damian....

I gather you use AIS ? is that with GPRS to roam the internet ? what is the contract like ? (i.e. Cost / hours online / speed etc)

Can anyone tell me - I have Itunes on my computer twinned with my IPod... is it simple to load the same music on an IPhone ?

I am realising how out of date with technology I am...

I’ve just found out that my girlfriend has bought me an iPhone for Christmas (she bought it Hawaii) I am assuming its one of the later ones (post 44 serial number) with the currently software that can’t be hacked (I’m away at the moment and cant check myself).

I know nothing about cracking them or any software. DamainMavis’ comments have made me think about this. When someone finds a shop in MBK, Pan Thip or Fortune that can crack the later version can they post it here?

Any idea how much the guys charge to crack the phone ?

What does bricked mean ? (crashed / locked ?)

Also, how good is the touch screen for sending sms etc?

I looked at the dopod HTC but as I’m so used to buttons I decided against it, my girl friend has an LG chocolate and I hated the feel of the (touch sensitive) buttons. What is the predictive text capacity like?

I’ve heard that the cracked phones still have problems and need re-cracking at MBK etc… this could be too much hassle for a phone. For those who have one in Thailand, any hassles ?

Ok - So I crossed a Politically un-correct line. But all the PC stuff is sometimes a little overbearing and makes me claustrophobic and I snap…

My girlie and I have discussions regarding such trivial matters as ‘Why are LV (Louis Vuitton) handbags so important ?’ , ‘Angelina Jolies adoption of baby Zahara’, ‘human trafficking’, ‘levels of human consciousness and self awareness’ and back to ‘food’ and ‘did you shower’…..

She gets very sensitive about the handbag issue !

When today we were talking and for what ever reason the topic of ‘babies’ came up, I suggested that why have a child when there are so many, wouldn’t it be a wonderful kind thing to do, to give a child who has no parents a chance… and on…

To make my point clearer, I used the Angelina Jolie example…

I even suggested it could be fashionable to adopt an African child (I know I know, I was starting to snap and get silly !)…

I then suggested what a wonderful idea it would be, to adopt and African child, we could paint the LV symbol on him/her in gold to make and even more fashionable look…

Now, of course I was never serious and understand the implications and potential cause of racial slur and harm it can cause. I know it was wrong to suggest such a thing, I was never serious and although very ‘un-PC’ it’s just part of the ‘shock’ effect in some types of humor (i.e. the episode of The Office where they have the fire alarm and can’t get the lady in the wheelchair down the fire exit steps so the leave her there – excruciatingly painful and so funny at the same time because we know its not real)

Anyway, onward and upward….

I’ve seen girls with the LV pattern on their finger nails. And, Real or otherwise LV handbags appear to be on every other 20-40 y/o woman in any shopping mall in Bangkok. It seems that there is an obsession with expensive handbags that I can only akin to guys and watches and their cars. If someone accuses me of having expensive watches and cars, that its materialism and a form of showing off, after the quality arguments etc I’d have to agree. However, surely a handbag is just a handbag ? it seems a little obvious almost like walking around with a 30,000 B wad of cash on their hand just to show they’ve got it. These hideous brown bags with LV plastered all over them can’t be that attractive can they?

So… Now she is not speaking to me because I’ve offended her and her liking of LV !

I thought the LV part of what I said would have been the least of my troubles !

The real joke is on me now though. She bought me a shockingly brown LV wallet for my Birthday and I have to use it now.

I have my ideas for answers to this question, which is that in such a recently developed westernized society money speaks and establishes a quick hierarchy… However I am still wondering… what is it with those damned handbags? And what is it with the way so many women thrust them around as if the quality of the bag is somehow indicative of the quality of the person?

(Rant over, apologies – comments welcomed !)

(Edit: LV is Louis Vuitton)

Of the last 3 weeks I’ve had to send many bills back (approx 10), four of which for corrections of over 1000 baht. Two of those places were night clubs, the other two places were restaurants.

In one of the restaurants I’d taken 2 bottles of wine, only opened one but was charged corkage for both - Understandable mistake on the bill. In the same restaurant, after making our orders I was told that mine was not available, so I reordered but my original order remained on the bill along with the new order - Again understandable. I had to send the bill back twice for these corrections.

In a club I was charged for 1 bottle of whiskey, 15 sodas, 7 cokes, 3 Ice. This seemed excessive so I asked for a list of the ‘Chits’ I’d signed… the real tally was 1 whiskey, 7 soda’s 4 cokes and 2 ice. This bill was corrected immediately without question but also needed two corrections before I was satisfied.

Where as I think these could have been genuine mistakes and give the benefit of doubt to the staff, my girlfriend points out that it’s a common attempt at fleecing someone. It’s not specifically aimed at westerners or foreigners, many of my Thai friends also have very similar comments and are careful when paying bills or handling money.

Its common, the sad thing is that it’s also accepted as the norm. Watch Thai’s in the restaurants, they’re all double checking their bills and in the clubs the bill seems to automatically be passed onto the most sober or organized one for checking and correcting…

The thing to do is to just try to make a habit of checking the bills and not be embarrassed that you may be being un-polite by doing so.

I thought this kind of stuff never happened to me and I’d kind of switched off to it until I was advised to get into the habit of checking every bill. It’s quite amazing how many ‘mistakes’ are made that add an extra 30 B, 50 B, 100 B to the bill. These mistakes are never less than the true bill… uncanny that ! This is no big deal financially, but in principle it’s irritating, 30 B, 50 B, 100 B is the thin end of the wedge, I can attest that attempts to overcharge 1000 B are not uncommon - its just another thing to watch out for.

keep on your bashing and brand my point as "silly", still two wrongs don't make one right - overreacted!

Two shot, one in serious condition, one dead!

Very sorry for them!

Can't believe it, even it was "self defense", we got one dead!

Very amazing that a big part of the "audience" condones this, it's lynch-justice!

I agree with you. I can't believe there are so many barbarians here.

That guy should have went for the second and fourth finger on his left hand with his own left hand. Uses his right hand and try to grab hold of the guys hair, about 300 to 500 hundred pieces. Then uses his right foot to kick at the right knee from the inner side of the legs. This is going to cause a full grown man to fall. But make sure if it is a 250 lbs man, you have to use 88.5 lbs of force. Whilst a thai man most probably only weigh 150 lbs, using that amount of force is going to hurt his knee or even worse cause permanent damage. So 68.72 lbs of force is what I reckon.

Now once he is on the ground, uses his body weight to control him. Again a french guy I guess would weigh more than 180 lbs so DO NOT lie all over him! HE MIGHT SUFFOCATE! WARNING!

Now this guy is under control, it is time you think how you are going to get your cell phone and call the police. Try to negotiate to the thai guy using all the skills you have as you did asking the wife to marry you.

Nowadays people are so brutal!

Meemaithai..

You forgot to mention that in advance of this happening the vicitm should have seen the local fortune teller who would have foreseen this tragedy... Then he could have gone to a class run by law enforcement officers to lean such skills. Both he and his wife should have also gone to bullet dodging classes…

While samuian is busy preaching to the masses about right, wrong & versus from scripture dreamed up thousands of years ago, I would dearly love to know what he (?) would do in a life or death, me or the other guy situation or what he would do if his wife & child were (visually appparent) murdered in front of him.

Please enlighten the board...

The world as we know it might appear to fall within a certain framework, however, when that framework falls to pieces, whether it be on a personal, micro or macro level - you can't just stand there winging - "Ohh its so wrong, it is just not fair." A person has to get up and do something. Run, fight, protect, revenge, whimp out, whatever - however, do not complain that it shouldn't happen. It does & frequently. Protect yourselves & those with meaning to your life.

Soundman.

Soundman - Not sure how well you can protect yourself, looks like your little girl can get the better of you.. Took one in the groin? (Your avatar photo).

I like the framework speech and agree that its ‘bang on’…

I too would be interested to learn of what course of action would be taken by our preacher Samuian?

Two wrongs don’t make a right…. Please get real..… If the law told you to jump off the bridge.. would you ?....

Ok I know the law doesn’t or wouldn’t say that – But I hope my point gets across, coming out with the sayings our parents may have used for generations while stopping us from petting fighting with our siblings is hardly applicable in this case….

Murder and attempted murder is wrong. Reacting to it is understandable. Agreeing with someone in principle; who has lost self control and drowned someone in a fight for their life after their wife has just been shot in the head, twice… doesn’t seem such an evil thing to me.

The brutality of this attack is simply shocking. I have difficulty understanding how any person could do such a thing. I have always understood Thailand to be rife with crime, but very rarely in the manner of a physical Threat. I think this was a case of returning home and surprising the robber / attacker… Or was he there waiting ?

With all the wars and violence around I feel proud that one of the good guys reacted so strongly in such a situation. I hope this story spreads like wild fire and acts as food for thought for potential robbers and attackers.

I imagine that such desperation does not occur in times of logical thought.

I have no sympathy for the attacker, he was removed from the human race before he has the opportunity or faces the desperation to do the same again.

Before this event my sympathies may have been with a poor guy desperately in dept, but that is only out of hindsight with the knowledge of what happened. But it’s too late now. Who knows what each of us may do in times of such desperation. However, taking that big step is something I’m sure most would never consider.

I sincerely hope the victim, and his wife make a full recovery and live a happy future bringing up their new born child.

Some laws exist and you hope you never have to cross them. Some moral lines exist and you hope you never have to step over the boundary. But those boundaries are not fixed in stone. We do not live in a world of absolute right and absolute wrong. Rather we live in a grey area where the normal goodness of people rarely forces us to push those laws and boundaries. This is an example of one of those boundaries not just being pushed but stepped over so convincingly and righteously that it’s the understandable thing to do. Being an understandable thing to do, doesn’t make it right, but the victim was not the one making the choices, he was protecting his life. I think everyone would agree, the Victim did no wrong.

As far as some of the more stupid ‘righteous’ comments go on this thread. Are they the people who would watch their loved one being beaten up, raped or harmed in anyway and not react because they believe ‘”Thou shalt not kill” – Or am I misinterpreting some point here? This has to be sarcastic right ? Or a troll comment as someone’s post suggested. I can’t believe that someone could be so blind to reality that they could expect someone to have logical calm thought when something such as this is happening. Yes its an open forum, and opinions should be welcomed from all sources.. I’ve never insulted other TV members… BUT… Some people lack such a concept of reality the word moron truly applies to them.. you know who you are…

(Edit for typo)

Addition – I don’t think anyone is saying the murder is correct. Its never the right thing to do. But IMHO in this case it wasn’t so wrong !

Well Said.

I’ve been driving here for approximately 6 years.

Police do pull me over, only when I have broken a traffic law. I pay small tea money (which I am happy to simply out of convenience). Or, they just let me go after attempting to explain what I did wrong as its often not so clear cut due to the rules being different at different junctions and from area to area. I’ve never felt unjustly treated.

I’ve had a crash, which I claimed it was the other drivers fault. He claimed it was my fault. I only had a UK license at the time and was not required to show an international permit. Insurance dealt with the costs without issue. After discussion at the police station it was agreed that we were responsible for our own vehicles. Although I still maintain it was the other driver who was at fault, it wasn’t clear cut. The Police were very fair, polite and daftly I still value the experience as it has given me confidence in the fairness of the system. It turned out that the other driver had no insurance and that I went against the normal flow of normal behavior by refusing to accept blame, the police agreed that I was well within my rights. They even chastised the other driver for changing his story to much and trying to manipulate the situation to his advantage (which is primarily why I was so determined not to accept fault after learning that normally when a driver has no insurance the one with insurance will accept blame).

In my experience and those of my friends, westerners driving around Thailand (Bangkok anyway) are dealt with as any other driver would be.

I have no experience either first or second hand of unfair treatment and as such can only assume that comments suggesting otherwise on this thread are incorrect fears of those who enjoy harboring negative views. It would be interesting to read of first hand accounts identifying otherwise.

As I understand it, if in the event of a crash.

Call the insurance and wait for the police, be polite. Both turn up quite quickly. The police spray the road with white paint. If possible, take photo’s to assist with any discussion of blame.

In the event of injury, there are bigger worries than financial. Although this does become a grey area when the greater good of someone’s health; regardless of who is at fault, becomes compromised by their capacity to cover the costs of medical treatment. Theoretically 1st class insurance covers the medical treatment of all occupants of the Vehicle however I’m not sure how this relates to third parties say on a motorbike for example.

My worry is (as has nearly happened on many occasions) that if a motorbike driver completely at fault drives into me. To keep this question black and white, say for example I was stationary at traffic lights. If the motorbike driver was injured and if his bike was damaged, would I be expected to cover his medical and repair costs ? I believe this is where things become quite ‘grey’…

Do feel for you oenophiles out there. I have a friend who likes a decent glass of wine every once and a while so on the way back from my last visa run to Penang, I bought a bottle of Aussie Penfolds cabernet savignon at airport duty free (Penang that is) and it came out to about US$ 35. I was in Villa Pattaya recently and checked out the price of the SAME bottle of wine...price...B4000+ !! My calculation had it at US$ 123.00!!! Ouch

Yep – the tax on wine here is outrageous. Its rather frustrating that (as I assume it is) the high tax on imported items is to aid with the sales of local items. But this in no way encourages to the local items to compete on a level playing field. And with products such as wine the geography (soil) and climate make it quite impossible to compete at a high level.

I come and go regularly and pick up a bottle at duty free whenever returning. My girlfriend travels a lot and does the same thing.

The Penfolds at duty free: Bin 407 at Bkk duty free is B1000 (in Villa its B4800 / In Auz its about B700). Bin 389 at Bkk duty free is B1500 (in Villa its B4200 / in Auz its about B800). The duty free even sells Bin 707 and Grange which are expensive but if you really wanted one its offers a huge saving (the Grange I believe is about B11,000ish at duty free, I saw it in the wine shop in Paragon for B49,000, although I’m not sure of vintage. I can only assume that it will acquire dust at that price !)

I have e-mailed wine merchants around Bangkok, and using the Penfolds as an example enquired how much it would cost if I ordered in volume, i.e. 24 and 48 bottles. However, I was told uniformly that they will not import to order, we can only buy what they already import. This seemed to me to be a bit of a lazy ‘don’t want to deal with it’ kind of reply.

In short, I have reasoned with myself that attempting to buy half decent wine in Thailand is just not possible, and I’ll be sticking to duty free wine and the B300-500 corkage charge at the restraints. Another point here is the price of wine in the restraints also, using the same examples; I’ve seen Penfolds Bin 407 in restaurant menus from B7000 up…. ouch !

Possible good news (if there is any and if I am correct with my understanding) is that with trade agreements, the taxation on Australian wine (I don’t think this will happen yet with wines from other regions) will be taxed less over the coming years, further information on this can be found on the internet.

Chon geaw…