Meerkat

Brahmburgers: how excellent to see the use of the word "lacksadasical" ! ! I so enjoy to discover the fact that there are still people in this world who actually use the english language properly and to it's fullest extent ! !

I'm sorry - I simply couldn't resist. I think you'll also find there's no apostrophe in "it's" in this usage either...

Count me in! Just quit my job in HK and moving to my other home in NE BKK - just down the road from Krung Kavee course.

As long as you don't mind a 20 handicapper...

If you happen to be a resident in HK, Winterthur is offering free golf insurance at

http://www.winterthur.com.hk/main/golfinsu....asp?sourceid=4

The coverage isn't great, but as the premium is nada, it's a bargain.

HSBC in HK also does a package - it was offered to me when I joined the Macau Golf Club, so they may well offer policies outside of HK.

To those not in the know, golf insurance basically covers:

Extra liability insurance on the course.

Extra personal injury insurance on the course.

Club insurance (eg for clubs in transit).

Hole-in-one cover to pay you back for having to buy everyone a drink in the clubhouse! Hmm...the nearest I've had to an Ace was a vicious slice that almost went into the hole on another green...

Anyway, not much that can't be covered on your main policy.

Another personal view on the old Mac/Wintel battle.

I've been using PCs since the "good old days" of MSDos and 286s and consider myself fairly competent in getting any problems sorted out in Windows (and am the first call any of my friends make if something goes wrong with their PCs). Needed a new PC for my place in HK 2 months ago, and read about the new Intel Macs being able to run XP. So in spite of being a Mac-virgin, I plumped for a shiny new 20" iMac and was blown away with the simplicity. It really just does work. Of course there's a transition period in switching from Windows to OSX, but when it comes down to it, they have more similarities than differences. Still haven't got round to installing XP on it yet - I still have a couple of laptops and another desktop running it so no great need yet.

Anyway, I was so impressed, I've just bought another 20" iMac for my place here in BKK. Where it really shines is for family use; neither the missus nor our 12 year old daughter are computer-savvy, and they find the Mac much less hassle than the PC. After only a couple of weeks they're competent enough to set up a website with pictures and video - something they wouldn't have a hope in hel_l of doing with XP...believe me...they've tried...

I'm generally happy with the Garmin, but it does seem to slip up fairly often.

It seems to have an aversion to elevated highways - even on the "Faster" rather than "Shorter" setting. Driving south along the Don Muang tollway causes all sorts of hilarious situations - go to the outside lane and it suddenly thinks you're driving on the frontage road down below...but on the northern lane! Of course then it yells "Recalculating" at you every few seconds for the next 20 km until you hit the Din Daeng tollbooth. That of course might be the fault of the ESRI data rather than the machine itself. The transliteration is pretty awful as well - absolutely no consistency whatsoever, so searching for place names always requires a bit of guesswork and thinking "outside the box".

All in all though it's certainly a worthwhile toy, and trips into the city no longer fill me with dread. I have also been impressed with its coverage outside of the BKK area.

Reminds me of British Rail back in the '70s "It gets you there. Eventually."

Not a fan of golf in China by and large (although I've only played on courses in the south - Shenzhen and Zhuhai areas). I'm a member of the club in Macau which is great - very friendly.

I love golf in LOS - my local club here is Krung Kavee, but have played Lamlukka a few times too. Will try out Alpine when I find a willing victim.

My fave course in Asia that I've found so far though is Cengkareng, next to Jakarta airport. Good course (they held the Indonesian Open there a year or two ago), dirt cheap, and famous for the club girls wearing skirts just slightly shorter than the average belt! Oh, and the only course I've found yet to serve frozen marguaritas at the on-course drink-stops! The first one did wonders for my game, but the next couple took their toll...

Was in Future Park Rangsit yesterday - saw a phone shop called "Mokia"!

Will keep my eyes peeled for a "Phony-Ericsson" shop too...

Thanks for the feedback! So if i can't have a call center position in Bangkok, well i can used my strong English communication skills to land a job then. Is that possible? even without teaching experience, i know i can teach Thai's how to speak good english.. in the American Accent way.

What is the best time or month to go and look for a job / work in Thailand?

Eek - it's impossible to teach good English in the American accent way! Teach American fine, but not English...

Since yesterday, whenever I try to go to Torrentspy.com I get that now ubiquitous Cyberclean green-screen-of-death.

I am hoping this is because of some naughty photos advertising sex site links and not related to the torrents themselves. If the government or providers start going after torrent sites as well as everything else they have been blocking lately, i don't think there will be much internet content left in Thailand.

..... (sigh)..... Torrentspy was my favorite torrent search engine too.... Guess I'd better find a replacement...

Whilst there are legitimate uses for torrents, surely by far the bulk of users are complicit in the illegal distribution of copyrighted material.

I don't really see a problem with any government doing what it can to stop piracy - blocking such sites is simply a cost-efficient way of doing it.

Here you go - best as I could. Got most of the ones in BKK for you and some of the others. Some of the others might be in the GBP, but I simply couldn't find them; perhaps because of the non-standardization of transliteration between English and Thai.

Anyway, hope it helps - best of luck with your project.

Aekudon International Hospital 555/5 Posri Rd., Amphur Udon Thani - Can't find

Bangkok Christian Hospital 124 Silom Road Bangkok N13 43.697 E100 31.878

Bangkok General Hospital 2 Soi Sonnvijai 7, New Petchburi Road Bangkok N13 44.927 E100 35.004

Bangkok Hatyai Hosptal 75 Soi 15 Pechkasam Rd., Hatyai Songkhla N07 00.935 E100 29.143

Bangkok Hospital Phuket 2/1 Hongyok Utis Rd. Phuket N07 54.251 E098 22.607

Bangkok Pattaya Hospital 301 Moo 6, Sukhumvit Road, Km 143 Chonburi N12 57.229 E100 54.401

Banglamung

BNH Hospital 9/1 Convent Road Bangkok N13 43.493 E100 32.104

Silom

Bumrungrad Hospital 33 Sukhumvit 3 (Soi Nana Nua) Bangkok N13 44.773 E100 33.152

Wattana

Chiangmai Ram Hospital 8 Boonruangrit Road Chiang Mai N18 47.692 E098 58.663

T. Sriphum

A. Muang

Chiangrai Regional Hospital Muang District Chiang Rai - Can't find

King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital 1873 Rama IV Road, Patumwan District Bangkok N13 43.897 E100 32.200

Lanna Hospital 1 Sukkasem Road, Kwang Nakornping Chiang Mai N18 48.778 E098 59.466

Maharaj Nakorn Chiang Mai Hospital 110 Suthep Road Chang Mai - Can't find

Mission Hospital 430 Pitsanuloke Road, Dusit Bangkok Can't find this one - there is the BKK Adventist Hospital on Pitsanuloke Rd, though - N13 45.494 E100 31.144

Mission Hospital Phuket 4/1 Thepkrasattri Road, Rasada Phuket N07 54.398 E098 23.464

Mongkutwattana General Hospital 34/40 Jaengwattana Rd. Bangkok

Tungsonghong, Laksi N13 53.641 E 100 33.668

Nongkhai Wattana General Hospital 1159/2 Moo 2 Prachak Rd. Nongkhai - Can't find

Phuket International Hospital 44 Chalermprakiat Ror 9 Phuket - Can't find

Queen Sawangwattana Hospital 290 Jermjomphol Road Chon Buri

Sriracha Can't find

Ramathibodi 270 Rama VI Road Bangkok N13 45.973 E100 31.600

Samitivej Sriracha Hospital 8 Soi Laemket Chonbury

Choemchompon Rd.

Sriracha - Can't find

Samitivej Sukhumvit Hospital 133 Sukhumvit 49, Klongton Nua, Bangkok N13 44.067 E100 34.615

Wattana

San Paulo Hua-Hin Hospital 222 Phetchakasem Road Prachuap Khiri Khan

Hua Hin N12 33.834 E099 57.567

Siriraj Hospital 2 Prannok Road Bangkok - Can't find

Somdej Prapinklao Hospital 504 Somdejprachaotaksin Rd Bangkok N13 42.625 E100 29.141

Vachira Phuket Hospital 353 Yaowaraj Rd., Taladyai Phuket N07 53.814 E098 23.013

Pop the list up here and I'll run them through the SatNav for you. No beer required...

exactly what i was getting at. trying to use it for internet, and media primarily. video ipod too small of a screen. a PSP sure beats it flat down. imagine on the plane on a journey, watching videos or playing games. it is a multi task machine. and the price (at non licensed distributor) is about 8000 plus baht? not really bad but cant compare to a laptop for sure.

it doesnt handle web browsing well?

Oh don't get me wrong - I think it's a cracking little machine and as long as you buy a suitably big memory stick you can store a movie or two on it. I've got an episode of Top Gear on mine - the one hour version. That takes up about 680MB, but that's at the highest bit rate the PSP can handle (can't remember offhand). You could sacrifice a bit of quality to cram more in.

It handles browsing well - very flexible setup options for WiFi including WEP and WPA TKIP/AES. It even has tabbed browsing! Its only downsides are a small screen, and the lack of a keyboard which makes url entry fiddly. There was a mini-keyboard mooted, connecting to the mini-USB port, but I've heard it was cancelled as Sony refused to release the code needed to interface it to the PSP OS. No doubt Sony will release one themselves at some point.

I haven't used the RSS reader, as I haven't got round to RSS generally!

Anyway, it is a true multifunction machine. I originally bought one for my daughter, but after playing with it for a week or two ended up getting another one for myself as well...sigh...

Cool, some of that sounds really interesting.

Do you think its worth it just to buy as an mp3 / video player primarily and games secondary? .. Or is a Video IPOD better for that?

I'm just a gadget freak...can't resist buying new toys! 20" Intel dual-core iMac gets picked up tomorrow

Actually, I still think the PSP should be thought of as primarily a games machine with all the other stuff as extras. Browsing on any machine without a keyboard is a pain (I've also got a WiFi iPaq something or other, but found that was tedious too).

I also think the video ipod is great for music, but simply has too small a screen for any meaningfull viewing.

My favourite "do anything" is my Dell X1 ultraportable laptop. So light (1.5kg including the power brick!) and has an excellent screen - I just rip DVDs, music and photos to that and sling it in my bag - no need for a notebook case or the external drive. Too slow for good gaming though.

The PSP is a gamer with a couple of diversions in case the Dell runs out of juice...

Well in theory it should speed up play, but it'll only work with lower-handicap (ie will almost always get it on the green from the tee). Of course in practice it's fairly useless.

Don't really think it's that dangerous though - there's usually a tree or a caddie to hide behind!

Hmm...that's coming from me, who once managed to catch an inside edge off my driver on the first tee somewhere in Queensland, that went at some pace between my legs to thwack a playing partner in the chest who was standing 10 paces behind my back...

In my defense, we were all still slightly "long-and-wrong" from the previous evening...

The PSP does multimedia well, but as been mentioned here, it can be fiddle the first time. Thankfully there is better software available free on the net to help than the Sony stuff. I use something called PSP Video 9 which effortlessly (though not quickly) transfers video from the PC to the PSP. You will, of course, need a large memory stick for video. Photos and music are both pretty easy to transfer.

I've never bothered with buying pre-recorded movies - too expensive for such a small screen. If you do, bear in mind that they are region-encoded a la DVDs. Thankfully, games are all region-free.

OK, what else? Connectivity is actually rather good via WiFi. There's a web browser, RSS reader and a rather cool function called LocationFree - Sony's answer to the Slingbox. It's a seperate piece of hardware that connects to your home AV system; telly/DVD etc. It then allows you to watch your AV system from anywhere in the world via the net on your PSP (or PC for that matter). I haven't tried it yet - still umming and ahhing about it or the Slingbox itself.

There are also a couple of "hacks" available to expand the connectivity of the PSP. There's an instant messenger, and also a clever free package called Xlink Kai. Some PSP games can be played with others using an "Ad Hoc" mode connection (ie they have to be within WiFi range of your PSP). Xlink effectively gets round this so that you can play with people anywhere (kind of like Battlenet) via the net ("Infrastructure" mode).

So all in all, not a bad piece of kit!

Yeah, I posted something about this on a thread on another site. i think it's the worst development in air travel for ages.

Hopefully airlines will segregate areas (a la smoking before they all banned it) so that the chattering classes can have a section all to themselves.

Nostalgia is like a grammar lesson: you find the present tense, but the past perfect! ~Owens Lee Pomeroy

Nostalgia is a seductive liar. ~George Wildman Ball

If you're yearning for the good old days, just turn off the air conditioning. ~Griff Niblack

I guess it would be easy to dissect your post bit by bit, but that would be pointless, nor do I believe that the OP is looking to bring Thailand back into the 60's.

You are absolutely correct in your assessment that Thais now can get into debt for their new cars and can pay much higehr prices for their staples.

Your choice of phrase that Thais can now "get into debt" is not exactly fairly balanced. Certainly they can borrow money - who for instance buys a house in the UK or US for cash these days? Same for cars - credit is generally a good thing. Indeed for cars doubly so; Thais borrow money to buy cars which are (predominately) built in Thailand by Thais, thus enriching those same Thais to buy more - a virtuous circle if ever there was one. You make them sound like victims of usury.

OK, well to start with your data are completely wrong.

One does not have to spend 500k/rai minimum. My wife is buying land less that 90mins drive from BKK for under 200k/rai. One can also buy a three-bedroom semi-detached house in the suburbs of BKK for under 700k – NEW, so certainly not in need of refurbishment to make it “acceptable for foreigners” – a phrase I might add, that reeks of a cultural superiority complex. May I hazard a guess that, ceteris paribus, both land and houses are even cheaper the further one gets from major population/tourist centres?

My mother is putting a house in the UK on the market currently for GBP 250k. She bought it in the ‘60s for 2k – a price rise of over 12,000%.. We also sold a house bought in ’73 for GBP40k in ’01 for 850k, so the dramatic price rises in Thailand are hardly unique.

Next, exactly what are the so-called “rule changes” that the government introduced to make it harder for foreigners to buy land recently? I thought (and am happy to be corrected if I’m wrong) that the rules are more relaxed than they were previously – indeed arguably the tightest rule making it difficult for a part-foreign family to own land (the rule forbidding a Thai wife to own land after marrying a farang) has been repealed. Foreigners are now entitled to own certain apartments as well. Whilst we do not enjoy all the freedoms to own land as in many countries, at least it is moving in the right direction – at the timing of the Thais’ own choosing, rather than at the bidding of foreigners. If you are talking about last month’s tightening-up of foreigners buying land through fraudulent “companies”, then I’m sorry, but you can hardly blame the government from enforcing laws quite clearly already existing on the statute books.

Next, you complain that farmers and the like want to get a market rate for any land they might sell. I can’t fathom what you’re after here. You want them to sell at a cheaper rate so that the average Thai citizen can afford to buy it? But you’ve just been complaining about the difficulties a foreigner has in buying land here, so which is it? Allowing us to buy land directly in this country is only going to push prices in one direction, and put such land even further out of reach to many locals.

You claim that Thailand was 100% better throughout the 60s, 70s and 80s than it is now. Better for whom? Surely not for those Thais who now enjoy a considerably better standard of living than they did before. Surely not for the Thais who can now benefit from better medical care than before (and I don’t just mean the 30 baht programme – I mean across the board). Surely not for the Thais who now have a much better education system than 30 years ago. Surely not for the Thais who enjoy a better phone, electricity and transport infrastructure now. Look at the number of Thais driving new cars on the roads and compare it with what you saw even only going back 20 years. Compare that too with what you see in other Developing Countries. Look at the number of Thais who can now afford what only 10 years ago would have been classified as luxury goods.

There are problems associated with such an increase in wealth, such as you point out. Corruption, thievery and greed are rife throughout the world – both in Developed as well as in Developing Countries; Thailand certainly has no monopoly on these and is simply going through the growing pains that all countries go through.

Your point that the “real” people of Thailand are only found in the small villages, rather than in BKK is specious. BKK has enjoyed one of the fastest population growth rates of any capital city in the world. Where has the bulk of this growth come from? From the economic migration of exactly those people coming from the small villages who have come in search of a more prosperous livelihood for themselves and their families.

You seem to want Thailand to remain a bucolic backwater – a place where you can wake up in the morning to a cockerel crow, where the roads are free of cars, where your vistas are not tainted with the signs of a people growing wealthier through industrial development. A country still ruled by a military junta rather than an emerging democracy (albeit one that is still going through those same growing pains).

I do respect your right to have your own opinions, but I do also think they are seriously misguided.

Not specifically about the plastic screen, but another caveat with plasmas.

I was a (fairly) early adopter - bought a 42" Fujitsu for my place in HK about 5 years ago. Was about HKD 45k/THB 225k at the time. Everything was fine for about 3 years, then it refused to turn on.

Called out the Fujitsu engineers who opened it up and told me that the grilles covering the cooling fans had clogged up (household dust/3 years of cigarette smoke!) and the entire innards had cooked.

Would have cost over HKD 25k to replace the bits (including the plasma-screen itself) so was cheaper just to buy a completely new one as prices had obviously dropped in that time. Called out 2 more sets of engineers who told me exactly the same thing. I ended up leaving the screen in that apartment when I left...

The Fujitsu guys said that they saw it all the time, and customers should be told when buying a screen that it is critical to keep the vents clear, but of course the retailers aren't doing it. It's not so important if your screen is simply kept on a stand, as it's easy to access the grilles to dust them from behind, but if it's wall-mounted flat, as mine was, it is almost impossible to get to them.

Fujitsu offer a service in HK (can't remember how much but it wasn't huge) whereby they come once a year, unmount it, open it up and give it a thorough going over. Doesn't void the warranty of course, and so less risky than trying to unmount/fiddle with it yourself. Wish I'd known that at the time...

Hi Evan - welcome to the community!

Agree with HomePro, above - good for not just kitchen appliances, but pretty much everything you need for kitting out a new house.

Also Index - kind of like Ikea - sells western kitchen appliances too.

Branches of both are littered around the various malls like Future Park etc.

Another one in the area! Used to be in Preuksa 13 and still have a house there, but moved a few months ago to Passorn 4, just next to the entrance to Khlong 3 from the Rangsit-Nakon Nayok Rd. We're also looking at buying some land up in Khao Yai.

Are you the farang with the house near the social club/swimming pool ????...if so we spoke once !!

The house in PS13 was a street away from the pool, so could possibly have been me! Er...shocking memory though, and can't remember, sorry...

The house we've kept there isn't that one though, but another one at the end of that soi.

Still wanting for the pool in Passorn 4 to open. Was supposed to have been done by last April...

A lot of the cloned club-heads are now made in the same factory as the real ones (in China). In fact, they are real ones. They...ehem...disappear on the night-shift.

The main difference is the poorer quality shafts that they put them on.

I have a cloned set of X16s for travel, and keep my real X16s at my club in Macau. Now that I'm spending more and more time in BKK rather than HK, I'll upgrade the clones to a real set for use here.

For my standard of golf (around 21 h/cap) it made sod-all difference which set I used! The clones were GBP 80 for a full set of metal woods, irons, putter, brolley, bag and travel bag. And that included delivery from the mainland to my office in HK!

You can certainly get some "prescription" meds OTC here. My mother was in Thailand on holiday a couple of months ago and she managed to find her prescription meds at the local pharmacy inside Tesco Lotus. Indeed my brother and sister-in-law who were also over, and are both pharmacists in the UK, were amazed at what was on offer.

Do also bear in mind that private medical care in the major cities is excellent - easily on a par with more developed nations, and so should you have to get a prescription, you will have no trouble at all (and it won't cost you an arm and a leg).

Putting to one side the 1% issue it seems to me that the tourist rates offered by Banks in Thailand are a lot more competitive than other countries I have changed money in (well Europe and HK in any case).

In England they have a large spread between buying and selling and then have the cheek to charge you 1.5% commision on top!!

Agreed - Travelex for instance shows such ridiculously wide spreads I'm surprised they do any business at all. But, as I pointed out to Topfield above, it's a free market.

HK offers great rates if you bank there. I remember a few years ago a friend from the UK was buying a house in Spain. It was cheaper for him to wire GBP to me in HK, me to switch GBP into ECU (pre EUR days) then ECU into ESP all through my multicurrency account at HSBC, then wire it to the vendor's bank in Spain, rather than him do a straight GBP/ESP switch and wire from his bank in the UK. He saved over GBP 10k!

What with money-laundering regulations being tightened up now, it would be harder to do (but still totally legit of course).