Meerkat

Each time we go up to Khao Yai, we pick up a couple of cases of local wine as our "house pour". The reds are still a bit immature, although the PB Valley Shiraz is not bad at all - certainly better than the Jacob's Creek stuff that seems to be all we can find in Tesco.

The wine that IMO really shows some promise is the Chenin Blanc from the GranMonte vineyard, also in KY. GranMonte was named in the top ten emerging vineyards globally in some Wine magazine last year - can't be bothered to search for the publication it's in, but it's there.

There are two major problems though; tax and storage. Tax on wine in Thailand is the second highest in Asia (Thai wines sell for less abroad than they do domestically - go figure). Storage (or bottling of course) is, from experience, pretty bad too. Usually I'd expect a corked wine every one-and-a-half cases. The stuff I buy here runs at more than one bad bottle a case. I pulled GranMonte up about this the last time we were there - they were gracious enough to chuck in a couple of extra bottles, gratis, with our case.

For those who have driven both the new CRV and the Fortuner, how does the steering weighting compare? I'm thinking of trading in the wife's Jazz for something meatier (she's had a few minor knocks in the Jazz, and I'd prefer her - and the Meerkittens - in something more solid), but she finds the steering in our Fortuner a bit too heavy.

Blue Jazz and Fortuner for us. Monk's choice - as long as he didn't choose electric pink, I couldn't give a hoot what colour the things are.

A survey on Thailand as a tourist destination in the US of A? Interesting perspective. Please can anybody correct this; I though that something around 80% of american do not carry a passport as the world is not safe outside their state or perhaps county.

Sarcasm aside, I am under the impression that most would be tourist, traveller, vacationer, call them what you want; spend a large amount of time on the net weighting the best value for money for their next vacation. Surely with the latest Baht appreciation competitiveness is getting eroded. So what drive the increasing mass of forigners to come to Thailand for vacation?

From a cursory glance at the net, your statistic regarding US passport holders seems about right.

http://www.gyford.com/phil/writing/2003/01...any_america.php

Even with the Baht appreciation, Thailand still offers excellent value for money. Remember that Thailand was a major tourist destination even before the Baht collapsed in the late nineties, and we're still a long way away from the currency at those levels. Using the average spend quoted in the article, a rise in the Baht from 41 to 35 to the dollar would only add USD 15 per day for visitors - less than the price of a few drinks "back home".

i recently emailled them asking specifically about the visa regulation changes and how they would effect their service. Their answer was, it won't. So i guess since i have it in writing it must be true?!?!?

Separate issues really - they're correct in as much as the recent visa changes do not affect the TE visa. The only potential problem though is whether the scheme will be allowed to continue at all!

Well I said I'd post when I heard back from them:

Dear Mr. Meerkat,

Everything will not change both new member and existing member. Our project

has been approved from the new government already. Today we got the bad news

in Post Today newspaper. I would like to confirm you that all the review

process has been done completely.

Should you need further information, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Best regards,

Answers for what she is talking about on a postcard to...

To spare us from all making appointments to talk to an Elite rep, would you care to share what these are with the forum? Or didn't she tell you specifically what changes are coming? Or she did, but she swore you to secrecy??

I've mailed my rep there and will post here if/when she replies.

Golf fees and massages are already low cost in Thailand. I might take an Elite card if it was offered to me for free, but to pay for it?

Depends how you look at it really. My local club charges 650,000 THB for a 10 year membership. Alpine charges 800,000 THB plus another 25,000 per year. Against those fees, a million looks like pretty good value - especially for someone like me who normally plays a minimum of 5 times a week.

By the way, in January 2007 the Elite program will have some changes that will make it less desireable.

Interesting. Any ideas what those changes will be?

I can't be bothered to go through the whole rigmarole on yet another thread (54 is it now SRJ?) on the subject. Do go back through the earlier threads - amongst the dross, there is some good info (I hope I've contributed things worthwhile).

But...

...there were articles in the local press a month or so ago stating that the junta would be specifically reviewing whether to continue or abort the programme over the next two months. I'm still getting my regular emails from TE, and continuing to use their various services without any hassles, but would advise anyone else thinking of joining at this moment to wait until there is some definitive answer from the government.

We got specific riders added to our insurance policies covering me under an IDP. Nothing extra to pay. As others have already posted, I've heard stories that insurance companies may otherwise use the lack of a Thai license as a convenient way of reneging on cover in case of an accident.

Multichoice down as well today via Dynasat. I've had enough; gonna take a punt on the DM-500S.

If you mean the polyurethane thing, we got one thrown in when we bought the car. They wouldn't give us a cash discount, but chucked in the nudge-bar, floor mats, very odd fuzzy dashboard cover (which looks terrible, but actually does a cracking job at dissipating heat) and emergency kit.

I'm generally against nudge-bars, but then again I've seen the parking-scuffs on the front of my wife's Honda Jazz...

Edited to add that they're useful for nudging shopping-trolleys out of the way at Tesco!

Er well I guess this comes under the new press controls so cannot comment directly. Yet.

But all the same, hardly much of a shock.

I've always wanted to do that route on a horse.....

Simon

That'll be your Genghis Complex.

Check out www.driveindochina.com

It's affiliated with the TAT and organises 4x4 runs into Laos, Cambodia and China, and even one all the way to Everest base-camp (which is the one I and a couple of mates would like to do). I'm sure they could help with at least some of the bureaucracy with carnets etc.

Today, however, will still perfectly functional, it is starting to look a little long in the tooth, with Apple’s Mac OS X offering Vista like graphics for several years already.

OSX offering "Vista like graphics". Isn't that a bit backwards? It's more like Vista makes an attempt at being Mac OSX-like.

Agreed, and the system-wide search tool sounds the same as the OSX Spotlight. Come to think of it, the Sidebar would seem to be the same as Mac's Dashboard, and the Media Centre the same as Front Row. I'm no Mac evangelist (I quite happily use both OSX and XP), but Vista seems to be playing catch-up here, and Apple releases Leopard in 07 (IIRC) which looks like another leap forward from the current Tiger.

Ah Toppers, I see you're back again...

The only question is when the pound drops against the dollar as it eventually must, will the baht follow it down or will it stay high thereby reducing consirably the nnumber of baht we get for our pounds.

It is all a gamble.....nothing is certain when it comes to fx.

Well, which is it? Sterling must come down, or it's all a gamble? As if we don't know the answer already...

However professional currency dealers do not use the word pound or even sterling but refer to it as cable. This is because being the world's major currency up to the Second World War it was sent out to the Empire in cable form after the gold standard collapsed...the first 'digital currency

Er...no.

Cable does not refer to Sterling; it refers to the GBP/USD rate. If you buy Cable, it means you buy GBP and sell USD. Not GBP/THB, GBP/EUR or any other currency pair. You are on the right lines lines with your history though; Cable does refer to the underwater cables between London and NY which were used for currency trading. Interestingly (yawn), USD/HKD is known as TT (Telegraphic Transfer) for an obviously similar reason.

Professional currency traders refer to Sterling as, er, Sterling, or GBP in written form. How do I say this? Um...trust me on this one.

If you want to position yourself as TV's FX expert, it looks like you've still got some self-educating to do.

I had two pairs repaired in HK last month and forgot to pick them up before I flew back. A mate Fed-Exed them here for me and I had to pay THB 500 duty when they turned up. Reckon it was just an arbitrary amount.

poms batted magnificently, 2 days for 551 runs that equates to about 91 runs a session

Well with Warney bowling around the wicket and pitching it outside leg-stump all the time to KP, it was no wonder runs were difficult. At least the Aussie commentators on Channel 9 had the decency to recognise that it wasn't England's fault and the umpires should start calling wides.

Aussies 3/65 as I write now...

Reading an article in Wednesday's Post, I was a bit bemused by whichever official was being quoted as saying that the 10pm closing was being stopped as it had proven to be ineffective at reducing consumption, but the large billboards at petrol stations stating the early closing time were being kept up as they had been effective at reducing consumption. Er...perhaps something got lost in translation...

Personally I think it was a daft idea anyway. Encourage more fuel-efficient engines by offering tax concessions, and hike the tax on fuel.

B**ger. I promised myself after reading your excellent earlier thread about the difficulties of lowering the spare that I'd give it a go, and did I get off my backside and try? Did I hel_l...

Oh well, it's due for its second service now, so will get the Toyota bods to try it with me.

Cheers again for keeping us informed. Any other probs? I'm convinced the brakes feel a bit soft now (only 18k kms) but aside from that still very happy with it.

I don't understand. You suggest that GBP has to go down, yet you say that London property is the best investment one could have. Surely it's not much use investing in a sinking currency's asset?

The wife and I help out for a couple of Sundays a month at the local orphanage. Nothing too saint-like; a few gifts and an hour or two playing with the children. It's also an attempt at educating our 12 year-old daughter about the perils of men!

It is heart-breaking that the majority of these kids were born to teenage mothers (and when I say teenage, I'm talking specifically of under-18s). It will be doubly so if the youngsters have been born HIV positive.

I've got the DSL-G604T too. Works fine with both my iMac and Windows PCs. Only slight annoyance is a slight high-pitched hum from the unit. Not a bother during the daytime when it's drowned out by everyday sounds, but noticeable in the quiet of the night.

The airport's been planned for more than three decades. Quite how anybody buys land near a proposed airport then throws their toys out of the pram when it gets noisy staggers me. I read that AOT was to purchase houses for the people that had built them more than a certain amount of years ago.