Blue Muton

Thanks, very helpful, especially as I have to do a 90 day report in May.

If you pay AA with your Thai Pannich debit card, it is totally free.

It is not totally free (though still the cheapest).

Here are the current fees for each payment method:

Internet banking (Direct debit): 40 THB per booking (max 9 guests)

Credit card / Debit card: 180 THB per guest per booking

Counter payment (7-11): 50 THB per guest per booking

Not correct on the 7/11. The charge is per transaction, not "per guest", if by "per guest" you mean "per passenger". I recently paid for flights for five passengers, one booking and one 7/11 counter transaction card.

the 432 are few and far between...then they jump to 790....and a 170 fee to pay with a CC. Lots of smoke and mirrors with AA, however I haven't seen Nok d any good promos in quite a while. I noticed that AirAsiaGo has a little better access to the lower priced tickets..and I think you save about 10% over buying plane tix and then getting a room on Agoda. I got round trip air, and three nights at a three star hotel (right by the MRT) for 109 usd, recently. No ridiculous flight times, either.

You can avoid the 170 Baht cc fee by paying at 7/11, cost is about 30 Baht.

"Pattaya police investigator Piyapong Ensarn was told that the man went into the condo building and ordered a beer from a shop downstairs then disappeared. No more than ten minutes later someone found the body."

Don't anybody think it is strange to order a beer, then go and top yourself?

RIP

Well I've never done it.

By the way, my mrs has my old phones, and gives hers to her mum or dad, actually i have the Galaxy Edge Plus now, so its in effect my wife's phone 555, she's just hovering over me, waiting for me to get another upgrade....i am doomed.

Quite the opposite here, when I need a new phone Mrs. BM gets a new one and I get her old one, hence why I have a girly white thing. And for those of you about to tell me to grow a pair, I have a pair already, this is a small price to pay for all she does for me.

....'falling asleep'.......in the afternoon.....???

Thais fall asleep anytime.

Take a look at the buses early in the morning, they've just finished a nights sleep and they're all fast asleep again in the busses going to work in the morning. How come??? Normal people after waking up in the morning shower and eat breakfast to get them to lunchtime.

Thais do not eat breakfast until having clocked in at work, that way they're eating breakfast (bowl of rice one of the lowest energy producing) at the Boss' time. Get it??? So they sit in the busses with an empty stomach and of course no energy to keep them awake.

It all has to do with the Thai clock.

A Farang who thinks the whole world is on GMT

When you live in Thailand you have to live on Thai time – 76 million Thais are not going to change to GMT

The Thais split the clock into four periods and start counting from six. 6 am Western time is also 6 Thai time, but 7 am becomes 1, 8 am becomes 2, 9 am becomes 3, 10 am becomes 4, 11 am becomes 5 and 12 is noon, but can also be 12. Similarly, in the evening quarter, 6 pm is 6, but 7 pm becomes 1, 8 pm becomes 2, and so on.

There is an additional word before or after the number to make it clear which part of the day or night is meant, but the word is often omitted in speech if it seems obvious. The Thai system of telling the time does have its own sort of logic, but it takes a while to get used to. It always seems especially odd to me that most Thai clocks have conventional Western­ style numerals, but a Thai asked the time will still look at the clock, on which the hour hand is quite clearly pointing at nine, and say “three”. If you think the girls in you office use Western Clock - you better think again. Lucky for you, they write the time in numbers - Arabic numbers that is, not Thai numbers. No words.

Sorry but never heard anything like it

.....then you don't know how to tell the time in Thai.

If any mail "gets through" in our village it's a monumentous occasion. It's not only that much of our mail isn't delivered but other Thai residents have not received - some very important - mail either. Complaints have been made but.... in Lack of Sanctions (LOS) nothing credible happens insuring the taking of job/personal responsibility. Seems like it's all one big game.

Same, but with the addressing conventions in Thailand it's a miracle any mail makes it around rural Thailand at all!

Getting it sorted down to the Tambon level would be easy enough, even Muban level, but after that the poor mailman is pretty much on his own.

In a regular country, the mailman (or anyone, for that matter) would get to the village, find the street and travel down that street following the logical numerical sequence of houses - knowing that number 16 is going to be between 14 & 18 and pretty much across the road from 15.

In rural Thailand, street names are not used, and there is no logical nor numerical sequence to the houses. Each village is divided into numbered plots - numbered in the order they were originally registered at the Amphur; each of these numbered plots may (or may not) contain multiple houses - with each house, again, numbered in the order they were originally registered at the Amphur. My wife's house in her village is numbered 7/13 Moo3, whereas the house next door is numbered 121/2 Moo3.

I'm sure a regular mailman would soon get to know his run, and for new mailmen Thailand Post has maps available showing the location of each house on each plot in each village - but with the failure rate of Thai mail it would seem they're only used some of the time.

When our house was finished and we went to register it we were given a choice of numbers! Having said that we've never had any problem receiving mail either from within Thailand or from England.

re

Why do some houses have ladders for the spirits?

ive often wondered why as well but ive no idea why

dave2

There are two kind of Spirit Houses, often seen next to each other.

One type has one post that is quite high, and the other has four posts and a ladder.

The one is for House Ghosts, and the other (and I think it's the one with the landder) for the Land Ghosts.

It's important (for believers) to clear all "old" spirits from land and house, and as the spirits need a place to stay, they can inhabit the spirit house. You will need a shaman to clean the land and monks to clean the house. To keep the spirits inside their houses, you need to take good care and feed them, for example with red Fanta; which seem to be the preferred ghost-drink...

I have heard the red Fanta represents blood?

....and the green Fanta represents Martian blood.

If you read the actual report from PWC (which is quite an extensive report from a reputed company), you'll see that it is the emerging economies that use social media for online purchases the most by far. Established economies predominantly use the traditional ebay, paypal, credit cards, company website etc.

Conclusion - There is no established infrastructure in most of these emerging countries for online purchases as we know it in the west. Social media is a recent phenomenon in emerging countries and seems to have leap frogged the traditional online purchasing infrastructure due to a lack thereof. The PWC report infers that purchases through social media in the established economies is increasing, to the detriment of traditional online infrastructural shopping. If the trend continues, social media transactions will increase sharply in established economies in coming years.

The report is well worth a read.

Also, out in the sticks people tend to (have to) shop very locally, with no large supermarkets nearby. Hence when Mrs BM has eggs or fish for sale from the farm she'll sometimes chat on FB with nearby friends, selling stuff at the same time. It's not unusual for one of the local roadside restaurants, shops or the cake baker to order via FB at 10 pm for delivery/collection at 6.00 or 7.00 the next morning. My wife and other family members will also get on their bikes and go door to door selling of various produce, which brings better prices than selling in bulk to wholesalers. Having worked for most of my career in a FTSE 100 sales / distribution company I don't believe I've come across a better salesperson / negotiator than Mrs BM.

Photos of spirit house with Zebras piled high at the side and there are zebras filling all the space underneath the hosue also

Why Zebras?

Wow, pictures paint a thousand words, or in this case 350 zebras.

Sorry, to say this. But I have found that Thai girls who go to Western countries. End up acting like Western girls. The Thai qualities;

that you fell in love with vanish when they come back. I know every girl is different and I'm sure that there are many happy couples.

Hope it works out, and you live a great and happy life.

Not the same in my experience. The only thing Mrs BM wants from England is the weather. Living in the UK for three years certainly broadened her horizons and appetite for travel but she retains the values and qualities that attracted me in the first place.

We had them in the external apex of our roof last year. Mrs BM and family were very pleased as apparently they foretell good fortune.

You said 'had' Does that mean they left of their own accord?

Yes, we think the nest was exposed to very high temperatures from direct sunlight in the mornings.

We had them in the external apex of our roof last year. Mrs BM and family were very pleased as apparently they foretell good fortune.

"one man, described as slim and 165-170 centimetres tall,"

Well, that narrows it down a bit, doesn't it?

Well, it rules me out.

24. Tragic. RIP.

No subservience in our household by any of us - we don't play the iron fist/dominant/manipulation/or have my way games/battles........

Doubt if the bad days would add up to 3 a year....

Just doesn't happen.....

Pretty much the same here - although there are a couple of things where I've put my foot firmly down and she has gone along with them:

When she started driving I insisted that she turns off her phone as soon as she gets in the car (when she's driving) and let her family know that she can't take calls when driving.

That anybody who gets in our car wears a seatbelt no matter how far or near we're travelling, or we simply don't go.

There have been a couple of times where she's not wanted to do something and she's used the excuse that I don't want her to do it, which I guess is a play on subservience. We have the odd minor spat, often joking, which her family find amusing but sometimes afterwards they ask her why she doesn't just do as I say. Little hope of that and I wouldn't want it to be the case other than the above.

Two bad days a week? make that a couple in five years.

I would highly recommend my former driver who now drives a minibus for rent

Good guy speak English, new minibus

Call Papa 0801253708

Thanks for the recommendation.

We called this guy and booked him.

For anyone else looking, we hired them for three days, travelling around the CM district. On the first day we had "Papa" then one of his brothers. Both of them were very pleasant and more importantly both were good drivers, keeping at appropriate speeds and distances and not reacting to any bad driving by others. Cost was 1,800 THB / day plus diesel, which I thought was reasonable. Apparently they have twelve vans driven by two generations of their family. Both of the vans that we traveled in were clean, looked new and seemed well maintained.

Yes I know one I have used a lot and before for years he drove my daughter to and from school.

His name is Prapan, phone number 0813864509.

Great, thanks we'll give him a call.

Thanks again, he was not available when we called and unfortunately we had already booked by the time he called back.

Tragic.......RiP K.Mario.......

And Ditnon Sae-Ngow

Well your Thai (I assume that's what it is) impresses me no end!!

I not only don't know what language it is (but I know that transfering Thai phonetics into Roman letters that sound the same is not easy) but I sure don't know what it means!!

This is an ENGLISH language forum, I can put up with the bad grammar, spelling etc., and it not being a native tongue but if I want to talk Thai I will go out side...thanks

Then try using your English language skills to read the article. Then come back and apologise to Bluespunk unless you feel it will cause you to lose face.

Is there any chance of bringing back Les Fridge for the last game of the season? I'd be in favour of that.

Where do you do your shopping ??

Makro and Tesco usually,

JPM Quality sausages from Makro 750gm (10) for 109bht (as recommended by meatboy)

BMP Bacon from Tesco, 20 rashers for 165bht (but BOGOF at least 2x a month)

eggs 3bht each from local shops

Bread around 30bht for 5 loaves (bread flour is cheap)

Tea from Makro Aro Breakfast 125bht for 100 bags (each bag makes 2 mugs)

So lets price a 'big boy', 2 large sausages 20bht, 4 bacon 6bht, 2 eggs 6bht, tea 1bht, as much bread as I can eat 2bht.

Total 35bht!

Did I miss anything out?

Bread flour is about 30 Baht a kilo. A large loaf is about 600g, plus yeast, butter, salt. I'm with you on the cooking it yourself thing but you're cooking the books too if you think you can bake five loaves for 30 Baht. Five rolls, certainly.

If having reflexes was a requirement then few Thais would ever get a driving licence. They mostly seem to be entirely disconnected from what is happening around them. So in that respect this decrepit old Frenchman should feel right at home.

Clearly you haven't got a Thai driving licence or you would know that you have to pass a reaction test in order to get or renew one.

ImageUploadedByThaivisa Connect1458788347.960488.jpg

We have a few dragon fruit plants in concrete rings at the side of our house. It's too early to see how much fruit we'll get. Of course being cacti they are not afraid of drought but we do water them from our borehole.

There is a concrite bottom insite the ring or the post stay deeper insite?

They are just concrete rings with no base. We generally use matured rice husks as compost as it is free for us.

We have a few dragon fruit plants in concrete rings at the side of our house. It's too early to see how much fruit we'll get. Of course being cacti they are not afraid of drought but we do water them from our borehole.

she would be considered very ugly by most Thais, Issanites as well.

...but nowhere near as ugly as your comment.

I would be willing to bet that you would be considered very ugly by any standards.

Certainly on the inside, judging from the comment.