bkkjames

Hello

Has anyone got any experiences travelling with either airlines ?

I plan to go to Europe in June (business)

As there is a substancial difference in fares between the two carriers, I wonder whether it is worth spending the extra

I'd appreciate any informations (lounge, delays, connections,service on board, angle or flat bed..)

Thanks

No comparison, but if cheaper is what you want, Gulf Air is for you.

Don't laugh when you read this, but the TOPS at Silom is the best for fresh bakery items. After years of rising frustration, I make a point of stopping here just for the bread.

Much better than le boulange and other restaurant types.

OK. let me put this another way.

Personally I haven't even tried the Thai wines. They aren't any cheaper than imported wines and if I have to pay 500 B for a bottle of anything that is even remotely drinkable, I am not going to buy Thai. The wine market in the world is MOSTLY not consisting of wine snobs who need to drink a rare bordeaux every night. The bulk of the market is people who like some wine with their meal, something at least drinkable. Better is better, but for everyday, it doesn't need to be. Have the Thai wine industry deliver a DRINKABLE bottle of wine in Thailand for 150 B or 100 B and you would see a massive expansion of the market. Signed, a proud NON wine snob and I did work in the Napa Valley California wine industry for a few years as well.

Do you mean to tell me that everyone will throw away their lao cow and leo beer for 100 baht bottles of Thai vinegar?

Try some local wine, then comment mate. It's not in it's infancy, it's been here for years and still sucks. I wouldn't drink it if it were free, and unlike you, I didn't work in Napa Valley. I don't drink 5000 Baht bottles of wine either. I am willing to support local companies and entities but I am not gonna reward crap because the owner's of the estate won't invest in methods, technologies and know how to bring their goods to world standards.

If you ever wonder why their is so much illegal booze in this country, take a drive to the cambodian border. Artificially raising the price of imported wine does not protect the local industry, it only makes people go underground and with it the taxes.

Once the grape (in this case foreign) has been let out of the bottle, it's hard to get it back in.

Thais make many good things, but wine IMO is not one of them, neither is cheese.

no but in the case of wine it might be good in the future,many thai owners are going to australia to learn the trade and many wine growers overseas are apparently coming here to advise.Like anything it takes time and the thai wine growers have to learn but they need encouragement from the thai authorities and thats probably the hardest part.

Perhaps it has something to do with soil and perhaps that little old thing call "the climate"? I am no expert but off the top of my head, I can't think of any really good wine growing countries / regions that are located in the tropics.

Anyone know if there are any Arabic classes offered anywhere in Bangkok? I've googled but couldn't find anything.

Thanks in advance.

Hala! (think about it )

FAO: bkkjames

Mancienne sees future at Chelsea

Michael Mancienne has voiced his determination to one day break into the Chelsea first team.

Mancienne, who is currently on loan at Wolverhampton Wanderers, has been named in Fabio Capello's 23-man England squad to face Germany on Wednesday.

The 20-year-old has made just three Championship starts for Wolves this season and was handed the surprise call-up ahead of a number of Premier League defenders.

Mancienne has yet to feature for his parent club Chelsea but is determined to return to Stamford Bridge in the future and emerge as a regular.

He said in The Sun: "Long-term I would like to go back there, because I have been with the club since I was a kid.

"I am at Wolves until the end of December and I don't know if the loan will be extended."

He added: "I want to make headlines because that shows I'm doing well.

"To go from Chelsea reserves to the top of the Championship with Wolves and to England is a massive thrill.

"I am thriving on the pressure playing first-team football brings and this is only inspiring me to work harder because these are just the first steps."

With news like this, I think we will all sleep better tonight. Keep up the good work Seapok.

Don't feel any urge to meet expatriates. Sometimes have an accidental meeting at some pump on highway NR 1 when I fill my tank and have some drink outside an 7/11. When I see a farang in the supermarket I make an eye contact and have a smile, to be polite. I don't see any reason why expats must start to make acquaintances with any other expat they see, or visit expats clubs. I'm perfectly happy in my own circle of Thai friends and family.

The only expat I see once in wheel is somebody I know from my home town and both our wives have been friends since back home. Only when I make some traveling and I hear some tourist speak my language at the breakfast table I say hello with them and have some conversation about back home, and give some tips about shopping or places of interest if they ask, and even show them around if they like, if I had spare time to do it. But I never visit tourists spots in BKK Pattaya, Phuket and others so this is happens very rarely.

And certainly I stay away from beer bars where I see expats with a big L on their forehead hanging out telling how successful they are, and bragging about their sexual escapades, sitting in their short pants, singlets and slippers, slurping their Singha. Its just not my style.

Wrong wrong wrong!!!! I drink Heineken.

OK. let me put this another way.

Personally I haven't even tried the Thai wines. They aren't any cheaper than imported wines and if I have to pay 500 B for a bottle of anything that is even remotely drinkable, I am not going to buy Thai. The wine market in the world is MOSTLY not consisting of wine snobs who need to drink a rare bordeaux every night. The bulk of the market is people who like some wine with their meal, something at least drinkable. Better is better, but for everyday, it doesn't need to be. Have the Thai wine industry deliver a DRINKABLE bottle of wine in Thailand for 150 B or 100 B and you would see a massive expansion of the market. Signed, a proud NON wine snob and I did work in the Napa Valley California wine industry for a few years as well.

Do you mean to tell me that everyone will throw away their lao cow and leo beer for 100 baht bottles of Thai vinegar?

Try some local wine, then comment mate. It's not in it's infancy, it's been here for years and still sucks. I wouldn't drink it if it were free, and unlike you, I didn't work in Napa Valley. I don't drink 5000 Baht bottles of wine either. I am willing to support local companies and entities but I am not gonna reward crap because the owner's of the estate won't invest in methods, technologies and know how to bring their goods to world standards.

If you ever wonder why their is so much illegal booze in this country, take a drive to the cambodian border. Artificially raising the price of imported wine does not protect the local industry, it only makes people go underground and with it the taxes.

Once the grape (in this case foreign) has been let out of the bottle, it's hard to get it back in.

Thais make many good things, but wine IMO is not one of them, neither is cheese.

bottled

chicken legs

Drogbahhhh

Just asked my staff and they came back with the following.

A person / family that is part of the Royal bloodline.

A person who works very closely with the Royal family

or

Someone who supports Royal Initiatives (ie. big donations).

I am sure there is a proper definition out there somewhere. Can we message Mr. Daniels or Mr. Cleary for clarification?

Sorry. but MR is different from Khunying.

The title M R stands for Mom Rajawong, a royal title granted to direct descendants of former kings. M R Kukrit Pramoj was the great grand nephew of King Rama II.

source --- http://www.tour-bangkok-legacies.com/kukrit-pramoj.html

Sorry JD< must have confused you . I meant Mr. Tod Daniels and Mr. Stephen Cleary, regular posters on TV with knowledge of Thai history.

Gobble

Just asked my staff and they came back with the following.

A person / family that is part of the Royal bloodline.

A person who works very closely with the Royal family

or

Someone who supports Royal Initiatives (ie. big donations).

I am sure there is a proper definition out there somewhere. Can we message Mr. Daniels or Mr. Cleary for clarification?

The Tube... AKA the london underground doesn't run on Christmas day... so no go there... no Busses either.

Thank the lord for Unions!!!

I wasn't suggesting Thailand is a great wine country. However, the government here isn't doing the local wine industry any favors to help them grow, and that's a crying shame.

What about the 1500% duty on imports to protect this so-called industry?

Even the locals won't drink local wine.

That is the point. The local wines are ALSO heavily taxed. If they slashed that tax, more people would have incentive to give the local wines a chance, and if you believe even a little bit in free markets, it would give the local wineries incentive to create better products as the sales potential would be huge if they deliver a good product at a good price.

The problem here is not the price of Thai wine, it's the inability to produce quality. Thai wine is generally 1/3 to 1/4 of the price of an average import. Needless to say, if they could improve the quality to an acceptable level, they could charge 60-70 percent of imports - make a tidy profit in the process. But shi*tty wine at cheap or expensive price will never be successful.

Kinda like the cheese in this country.

Please excuse my ignorance, but we don't have any of them where I come rom. What are the qualifications for a Khunying. And is it hereditary?

No mate, it's all about the hair.

I think both of you do not fully understand that the herbicide that you need to purchase from Monsanto is a very TOXIC chemical.

You should step in your helicopter and try to see the bigger picture of this scam.

All this from the guy that brought us those big TV hits. "My buddy got shot on Thonglor" and "The World will End on September 10th".

When I looked up the meaning of conspiracy in the Thai Dictionary, I expected to see Alex's photo, but instead there was a crop circle that spelled "Alex Was Here"

BTW Alex, that Spirit House you have outside your house in not for the birds. And that noise you hear coming from behind you as you walk .... is only your shadow.

Do you think that the holidays would be different if you did not have something special to eat?

Well whenever I think of holidays - the first thing comes to my mind is….SLEEP and more SLEEP, coz I’m still ratracing that is.

Yea I know what you mean about the holiday foods…..esp the smell of STUFFINGS, and baked hams, during gobble gobble month…..don’t like turkey much tho

Happy turkey month to YOU

Definately a Thai commonality.

May be ….to escape the reality of misery?

Hey, don't blame me the only Turkey your Yankie BF is gonna serve up comes from Applebee's. Nobody forced you to swallow - that 'take you to land of the free' dumb.

Err..like some TURKEY from the land of “The People's Republic of Canuckistan”... is better than the yanks.

Well, at least where I come from, we teach our girl's the proper meaning of Gobble Gobble.

If it was that truly enjoyable, you would have stayed back home then.

The gobble gobble experience, that is

You are a good gobbler then? Now I know what he sees in you.

Back on topic, Thais also use food with their holidays - Songkran its beer, peanuts and whiskey. Then again, that's every last Friday night of the month.

you base this post on a gut feeling???

dont scare the tourists

on second thoughts,carry on with your assumptions as less tourists are good.

One look at the Pattaya News Clipping Section by any prospective tourist would be enough for any sane person to call off a visit to the city.

Then again, there are no sane people in Pattaya.

Well, bugger. It looks like even the peak rate taxi fare is 40 GBP one way, so US$120 round-trip to get into central London and back. Do the drivers expect tips? (In the U.S., taxi drivers usually expect 10% over the fare.)

Is there any way to leave bags at Heathrow any more? Used to be lockboxes in most airports, rentable for a few dollars a day, but I guess post-9/11 those have gone the way of the dodo.

I'm probably only going to have a backpack on the outbound trip; I'll be buying most of my clothes once I get to Bangkok.

Can't you get a day pass on the Tube for only 15 pounds? Terminal 3? Can go into the city for a few hours.

Do you think that the holidays would be different if you did not have something special to eat?

Well whenever I think of holidays - the first thing comes to my mind is….SLEEP and more SLEEP, coz I’m still ratracing that is.

Yea I know what you mean about the holiday foods…..esp the smell of STUFFINGS, and baked hams, during gobble gobble month…..don’t like turkey much tho

Happy turkey month to YOU

Definately a Thai commonality.

May be ….to escape the reality of misery?

Hey, don't blame me the only Turkey your Yankie BF is gonna serve up comes from Applebee's. Nobody forced you to swallow - that 'take you to land of the free' dumb.

Err..like some TURKEY from the land of “The People's Republic of Canuckistan”... is better than the yanks.

Well, at least where I come from, we teach our girl's the proper meaning of Gobble Gobble.

"maybelater"................you are seeing Pattaya through different glasses to me,but good on you!

You should give your glasses a good wipe or get a new pair. He states facts!

1. "Everywhere in Pattaya you can see huge new hotels and condominiums being build and already build (thats done with money, not with air). "TRUE

2. "Everywhere you see lots and lots of new cars, not the old cars." TRUE

3. "Now everywhere you see Russians, Arabs, Chinese, Indians ,Western couples etc.. " TRUE

4. "And while I or you might not like them its childish naieve to actually believe they have nothing to spent (sic) they only don't frequent the bars as often as the tattood male farang does, they spent differently." TRUE

5. "the city is just changing from mainly a sex destination to a more 'normal' holiday destination." TRUE

6. "Over the next ten years the bars will dissapear from the beach road (like most did already in the last 10 years)" TRUE

Maybelater summed it up well.

Don't get rid of the bars, there will be nothing to distract tourists from the garbage in the water and on the so-called beach.

Do you think that the holidays would be different if you did not have something special to eat?

Well whenever I think of holidays - the first thing comes to my mind is….SLEEP and more SLEEP, coz I’m still ratracing that is.

Yea I know what you mean about the holiday foods…..esp the smell of STUFFINGS, and baked hams, during gobble gobble month…..don’t like turkey much tho

Happy turkey month to YOU

Definately a Thai commonality.

May be ….to escape the reality of misery?

Hey, don't blame me the only Turkey your Yankie BF is gonna serve up comes from Applebee's. Nobody forced you to swallow - that 'take you to land of the free' dumb.

I think both of you do not fully understand that the herbicide that you need to purchase from Monsanto is a very TOXIC chemical.

You should step in your helicopter and try to see the bigger picture of this scam.

All this from the guy that brought us those big TV hits. "My buddy got shot on Thonglor" and "The World will End on September 10th".

When I looked up the meaning of conspiracy in the Thai Dictionary, I expected to see Alex's photo, but instead there was a crop circle that spelled "Alex Was Here"

I don't understand why you should acknowledge a fellow farang you have never met ?? You dont know them, do you do this in any other situation/country?

Well said that man.

I've got plenty of farang friends, all of whom I've met in either work or social situations. The numpties who grin at me on the Skytrain or 7-Eleven get ignored.

In fact we were always taught to acknowledge people in gereral when you cross paths as a child in the Uk just as our parents did.

What I find odd here is that people dont just not respond they look act as if you are invisible. Im sure it can not be unique to expats in Thailand, however I have not received such cold responses in other SE Asian countries.

Interestingly or just coincidence (que the Twilight Zone theme), as I was walking down Lung Suan early Sat AM I passed a middle-aged expat who said "Good Morning". Almost startled me.