The Big Mango

Nice to see Urban Myths Alive And Well

Whats in the bag

Anyone else caught in this mayhem this afternoon ?

Does a Mcdees double sausage and egg muffin count ?

When I was there it was swarming with the chinese , I saw only a handfull of white faces , but looking at the counters seemed as if they were buying ,

Its full of only high end stores , rolex , mont blanc , Bvgaria , etc etc and some of the prices , well run into the hundreds of thousands per item , clothing again all high end , make up too .

Someone must be spending and spending big.

Had a good look around last week with mrs bm.

They have two colour stickers on the items for sale , that range from a bag of candy , cigerettes ( interestingly Benson and Hedges were on sale ) to high end watches etc ( the most expensive one I noticed was close to a million baht ).

White and blue ,

All items with the white stickers are for export only and once brought only delivered to bkk airports.

The blue ones can be brought and taken from the store ( tax paid ).

Quite amused that even a bag of candy skittles are only availiable for export .

The pricing from what I noticed with a few exceptions are what most of us would guess anyways , definately not duty free as there more expensive than you can buy from stores selling the equvilant duty paid.

No surprise there then

Edit , removed my own responce ,

Tis the season to be jolly and all.

Rawa beach hotel is a good venue for accommodation, in particular the bottom floor rooms, which have a " plung pool" type of arrangement connected to the main pool, where the pool bar is located, as are other tourists to talk to, thus getting their opinion on the various activities available ( rawai is at the southern most end of the island, sand there is also local Thai markets, which should be visited at least once) , and I believe it's relatively cheap for a holiday.

Of course, there is no beach, other than a manicured sand patch leading into the pool from the shallow end, which is great for the young uns.

But you must remember that Thailand has no laws governing pool fences, you don't need them here, and yes, people do occasionally drown

The Rawai area is popular with expats, and you will find more bars without the customary hookers competing for your business ( although thery are definitely there, and a part of the local color) and there are a multitude of restaurants serving both cheap Thai food, all the way thru to expensive fare.

Thai massage parlors, both happy and conventional, are easy to find, (even massages by the blind, which are cheaper than the norm and a community welfare actt to boot) as are tourist information centers ( the hotel can arrange tours, but these are usually more expensive than taking the information to a private tour company)

Rawai is also connected to the Kata/ Karon tourist center ( for the south east of Phuket) where there is nice beach sand plenty of shopping and restaurants, by a beautiful and scenic road that winds around the hills on that side of the coast.... I often ride that road, just for the ride ( but do try to avoid kata hill, and the hill leading into patong

However, because of its isolation,, which some like ( very very low probability of terrorists) you will need to hire a Scooter ( which most tourists do... Don't ever relinquish your passport ) to maintain independence.....

Alternatively, you can rent a large variety of villas or houses, which a lot of returnees utilize.

Of course,, this is only my opinion ( and I have recommended it to a lot of friend who always speak positly of the Venue ). So others from different areas may well have better advise

Note well Ride bikes very defensively, as it takes some time to get a grip on the craziness that happens on most roads, and don't be afraid to barter, remembering also that Thailand runs on the tipping system, as local wages are generally very low

If you have already booked a venue ( hopefully not in the center of patong) then this recommendation is redundant, although some of the advise is critical to your safety

Well youv'e sorted where he can go for his christmas dinner with that post ???

Did you even read the OP ???

Christmas dinner on the beach somewhere maybe ?

Did think they were only 10k a year though Simon so maybe a little extra "tax" was indeed collected by the OBT.

The sign itself and metal support pole cost about 20,000 baht to manufacture and install - the annual tax to the OrBorTor for a sign of that size was about 2,000 baht. My OP didn't say that I paid 20,000 baht to the OrBorTor

Apolagies

^^ agree , but their target isnt Thailand more the nationalties of the people in the areas they would attack I guess

These are official legal roadsigns which are leased/purchased from the OrBortTor

Agree totally here with you Peter ,

They are classed the same as normal directional road signs , the same as Patong beach xx km and so on even though they are for private enterprises.

Did think they were only 10k a year though Simon so maybe a little extra "tax" was indeed collected by the OBT.

It's a duty free shop. Why on earth would any of us local expats ever want to go there ????

Lol , duty free it is not i can assure you , I went because of curiosity.

Your not missing anything , so yeah your right , why bother.

So as most of the expats here will know its opened up for buisiness in the last day or two ( chalong , not Kathu ) .

Coconuts are availiable at the bargain price of 135thb , which of course will go down well after your 320thb tom yam in what could be best described as a small central/tesco type food hall section.

Anyone else noticed any other duty free bargains availiable there ? :-)

Strikers soi 4.

Dynasty Grande seems to fit your bill , nit to be confused with its older counterpart Dynasty Inn

I thought Ikea was meant to be a furniture store ?

Seems they should also enter the expat skandinavian food buisiness :-)

Makro ?

Carefull of the guys with torches looking into bags though , theyv'e really got it sorted.

555

On the bypass road heading south , this is going to be an ikea ?

How daft the rest of the world doesn't know ???.

But hey happy birthday to the US Marines then I guess.

???

It amazes me how reliant Thai people are of "superstition" e.g. spending stacks on "lucky number" sim cards, changing car number plates because the numbers aren't lucky. This is just another expamle of a worm convincing Thais that he can foretell the further and supposedly bring luck and good fortune.

I guess not unlike "faring" around the globe heaping money on dating sites only to find their "love is lost" along with their savings.

Dump him in the sewer I say.

He scammed Russians not Thais

There is German Painting company , M.N painting.

Not sure if they have a website but have seen them on facebook

None of the higher end hotels offering anything ?