Groongthep

I agree with you Jingthing. I too love real Thai food and feel ripped off when I get a dumbed down farang version of a dish I know the restaurant can (and does) prepare correctly for asians but not for me. This of course, happens much more frequently at Thai restaurants in the west than it does in Thailand, but it does happen here sometimes too. Suda's on Suk 14 is a great example. I have learned to reduce the chances of this happening however by simply asking ขอทำแบบไทยหน่อยครับ ไม่เอวแบบฝรั่งนะ (kaw tham baeb thai noy krap - mai aw baeb farang na) after ordering in a place where I suspect this might happen. .....as for it being racist if they give me the bland version versus the real deal..I don't really think it's so much racist as just ignorance. Nothing to get upset about unless they continue to do it after being asked not to on more than one occasion.

But surely influential people in the Buddhist hierarchy should consider this absolute waste of food and money and suggest it's diversion elsewhere.

Actually, the late Buddhadasa, who was a very prominent and influential monk, was quite critical of animist and superstitious practices such as wearing protective amulets and making offerings at spirit houses. His teachings tend to be more popular among the more educated however.

well if you're in Thailand I would suggest you visit one of the Thai bookstores that sell student textbooks, as they will have a range of books for schoolchildren, for their Thai language classes. Prae Pittaya at Central Ladprao (near Jatujak) comes to mind; they have several readers for the different grades. You can browse through them to see which one is most suited for your level.

If you go to the used book section at Jatujak on the weekends and ask the sellers, you can usually find some old Manee Manaa textbooks at different levels and at very reasonable prices. What they have in stock is hit and miss from week to week though, so keep checking back.

Tokyo Joe's blues music on Sukhumvit Soi 26... Saxophone Pub for jazz near Victory Monument...

These are my favorite 2 places also. Brown Sugar on Sarasin across from Suan Lum used to be good too, but I haven't been there in a long time so I don't know how it is now.

I've seen a few advertisments here for Thai students to study English abroad, or to study at degree level in Western universities. I was just wondering whether many do?

I imagine it would be very expensive for local students to study at prestigious schools / universities overseas... but presumably if the schools are advertising there must be a fair few who can afford it.

Over the years I have met literally dozens of Thai students studying in the Seattle area alone, mostly at the University of Washington but at other colleges and universities as well. And that's just in the Seattle area. It would be my guess that there are probably a few thousand Thai students studying at US colleges and universities throughout the country at any given time. I don't have any official figures to back this up but I believe its probably a fairly reasonable guess. Keep in mind that most (but not all) of these students are from wealthy families and as such attended expensive private preparatory schools here in Thailand and are therefore not overly visible to western teachers working anywhere but in the top schools.

What is this?, Bird

In some areas I have been this bird might also be referred to as "dinner".

Table manners where did they go to.

Do you do this and more

3. Eating with a giant spoon.

Eating rice dishes with a tablespoon and fork (i.e. pushing the rice into the spoon with the fork) is not only practicle it is considered good manners in Thailand.

As has been discussed and argued about many times before in this forum there really is no correct or incorrect way to transliterate Thai into English. If you are trying to send a letter a package to this address, I would suggest that instead of using any transliteration you cut and paste the address written in Thai onto a blank label then affix that to your package or letter. Don't forget to add the post code if you have one and if you are mailing/shipping the item from overseas write THAILAND in the native language of the country it is being sent from below the address.

บ้านคุ้มแสนชะนี

ต.พรสวรรค์

อ.นาจะหลวย

จ.อุบลราชธานี (POST CODE)

THAILAND

The writing on the awning says Thetsabaan Tambon Kham Dtak La เทสบาลตำบลคำตากล้า which means (roughly) The (local) Government Administration of Tambon Kham Dtak La. So it probably has something to do with an official government function of some sort.

Got to agree with jonniebkk. Eating Grape Nuts is like trying to eat a bowl of gravel. You could substitute blasting grit or kitty litter and not know the difference.

Avoid like the plague!

I've never heard this 'Pai dor?' to mean 'Pai nai?' Are you sure it's not 'Pai tor?'

I've already asked them what it means and they say its the same as bpai nai.

I have also heard on more than one occasion "Bpai nai dtor?" ไปไหนต่อ Which I have always taken to mean "Where are you going next?" For example, I not too long ago stopped into the German restaurant on Sukhumvit Soi 11 just to have one quick drink then leave as I had things to do. I struck up a short conversation with the young woman behind the bar while I quickly finished my drink. Upon asking for the bill she replied ไปไหนต่อ as if to be asking 'Where's your next stop?" Which I guess, has pretty much the same meaning as ไปไหน but not quite so general. Remember ไปไหน can also be used as a general term for "hello" or สวัสคี. Whereas ไปไหนต่อ would be asking more specifically "(Exactly) Where are you going?"

Taking a bus from Mo Chit bus station would probably be your cheapest option. There are air conditioned 1st class buses (rot tua or rot ae) that are reasonably comfortable but the trip will take a long time. You could also take a train to Khon Kaen (368 baht 1st class one way) then a van or taxi from there to Mahasarakham. The train is also slow but a lot more comfortable than a bus. A second class train ticket is about half the price of first class and still pretty comfortable. State Railway of Thailand website click here. If you can afford it, you could also fly PB Air to Roi Et then take a van or taxi or rent a car and go to Mahasarakham. Mahasarakham City is only about 25 miles Northwest of Roi Et on Highway 23. The round trip flight will cost you about 5,340 baht, but its fast and efficient. PB Air website click here.

I can hardly call myself a gourmet but on the rare occasions I do go to a "high class" Thai restaurant I really enjoy Baan Khanitha on Sukhumvit 23. website here It was one of the first thai restaurants in the big old house venue tradition; the food is great, the service polished and the atmosphere peaceful and dignified. It's definitely one of those special night type of places. Personally, I much prefer eating thai food at the lower-middle end of the sprectrum places. Not too far away from Baan Kanitha is my favorite outdoor local joint. Its on Sukhumvit Soi 33/1 and has no sign in english only สวนอาหารป่าเลิศรส (Suan ahaan bpa loet rot); great food, dirt cheap prices and a quiet (relatively speaking for Suk 33/1) and relaxing atmosphere. It's outside and blocked by buildings on 3 sides from any kind of breeze so you'll want to grab one of the few standing electric fans they have around the place and point it at your table, but all in all its a great place to eat. Suda's on Sukhumvit Soi 14 is a typical open air shop house type thai restaurant that has a large expat and thai clientele which I used to like, but IMHO the food has gone downhill considerably in recent years and I can not recommend it anymore. Sorry if I got a little off topic from high end places, but I feel the best Thai food is found at the more "everyday" places.

I am in pattaya at present and i need a viagra tab sometimes to get it up.

I took one the other day,one tab was 450 baht,it worked within an hour.

ok ,i went to a different pharmacy tonight,400 baht one tablet,i told her 4 times that i want it to work,she saidyes yes ok ,not copy.

she said copy is a green tablet?I kept telling her i dont want a copy.

I took it tonight,its not working,there even isnt a headache like usual.

Could it have been a copy? it was in a viagra tablet packet silver packet?

im not sure why its not working tonight,why theres no blood headache as usual.

i specifically told her several times i dont a copy,i kept telling her over and over again.

however i cant go back and accuse her because it could of been real except its not working and i have no headache or any feeling at all.

However i pretty sure the first ones i got had pfizer written on them,this one on the silver packet had viagra on it.anyway im not sure why she would do that considering i would keep going back there as a repeat customer?

The best way to make sure you get an legitimate authentic drug of any kind is to go to a reputable doctor at a reputable clinic or hospital, get a prescription for said drug and then have it filled at the hospital pharmacy. It is only common sense, and will work nearly 100% of the time. More expensive perhaps than taking a chance with the Mom and Pop chemist down the Soi but well worth spending the extra money in terms of safety and reliability.

level 6: (Basic Thai level): one can hold conversations as long as the topic is general. When not knowing a certain word, the speaker can explain the word in a different way. When listening, non understood words meaning is made up from the context.

level 7: (TVnewsThai level): the level where you can actually understand 80% of the Thai tv news. a major benchmark

level 8: (More advance Thai level): here you can also discuss specific topics (politics, although maybe not a good idea), you can explain the doctor how your allergy affects your sleep pattern etc, and the dentist you need root canal treatment of your molar tooth

I think this scale gets rather out of whack in the 6 to 8 range. For one thing I think there is a huge jump in fluency in going from 6 to 7. The ability to understand 80% of a Thai News broadcast takes far more comprehension than that needed to simply hold a conversation on a general topic. And why would conversing on a general topic (such as the weather for example) be any more difficult than talking on a specific topic (such as politics) as long as one knows the necessary vocabulary for either subject? Besides, I couldn't imagine myself going in and telling my dentist I needed a root canal. The dentist is the one who should be telling ME that. But I digress. I first came to Thailand in 1988 and I have been trying to learn Thai on my own ever since using only courses intended for self study and by practicing with Thai people in everyday life. I am a merchant seaman and have had the good fortune to be able to travel to Thailand 2 or 3 times a year for the last 20 years. I eventually got to where I can speak well on most any subject (providing I know anything about it of course ) and can read and write on an elementary level. I can read things such as public notices, advertisements, and children's books, but am lucky to understand anything more than the general subject of newspaper articles. I routinely use the Thai text messaging function on my mobile phone for both sending and receiving messages in Thai. Still, I wouldn't consider myself to be on much more than an intermediate level in Thai particularly because I have a hard time comprehending rapidly spoken idiomatic Thai. Two years ago I started going to AUA on Rachadmri Rd. in Bangkok. When I went into the office the first time I only spoke thai with them so they could get an idea of what level I should start out in. They put me in AT5 which is the highest level. If you are at all familiar with AUA you will know that they use what they call the "natural" method. It has been praised by few and maligned by many, but I have found it helpful. I wouldn't recommend it to someone starting out from scratch though. Basically each class is simply two native speaking Thais (the teachers) talking or roll playing on a particular subject and all the students do is sit there and absorb as much as they can. Asking questions is discouraged but once in a while the teachers will ask questions of the students. I'm not sure if this is to try to determine how much the student is comprehending or if it's just to keep them awake. Anyway, I usually understand the big majority of what is being discussed in class and often become quite encouraged that I am improving in comprehension only to turn on the television later that night and get really depressed because I have no f#*k#*g idea what they're saying. So where this puts me on the above scale I don't know but I do know that without formal study in a reputable school or with a good tutor the road to becoming truly "fluent" is a long one. I may never fully get there but have have thoroughly enjoyed trying.

The average price around the country, according to the reports on TV and in the papers, is around $ 1.75 a gallon.

I've enjoyed your post and you make some good points but Geezus Jonnie what TV reports and papers are reporting that the average price of gasoline is $1.75?! (must be that dam_n Chronicle) According to the Department of Energy website and my personal experience ( I travel throughout the US quite often) the average price of gasoline today is about $3.78 or roughly the same as you pay in Pattaya. Not trying to nit pick, just want to get the record straight.

I quit drinking alcohol in all forms 11 years ago when I was 42. I had been drinking heavily since I was in my late teens but finally came to grips with the fact that I either had to quit it completly or die. That having been said, I still love the taste of beer and so non alcohol beer is my only alternative. When back in my home country I drink it all the time. Unfortunately, it has been extremely difficult for me to find in Thailand. This is particularly disappointing as beer goes so well with thai food. In recent years the non-alcohol beers have gotten much better than they used to be, especially the German products. I have found Clausthaler at Bei Otto's in Bangkok but that's about the only place that I have been to in Thailand where the staff has any idea of what I'm talking about when I ask for a non alcoholic brew. I have pretty much given up on even asking outside of the more expensive restaurants because I have grown weary of the puzzled looks and insulting questions I get when I do elsewhere. Good luck in trying to find it in Samui. If you or anyone knows where I can buy it in any quantity other than individual bottles please PM me and let me know where. I would greatly appreciate it.

Monday, May 12, 2008 - Page updated at 09:32 PM

Thailand museum chief arrested on fraud charge in Seattle

By GREG RISLING

The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — The director of a Thailand museum was arrested in Seattle and indicted on a wire-fraud charge in connection with a federal investigation into looted Southeast Asian antiquities.

Roxanna Brown, a 62-year-old U.S. citizen, was arrested late Friday while visiting relatives in Seattle and scheduled to speak the next day at the University of Washington.

She was charged with one count of wire fraud. If convicted, she faces up to 20 years in prison. Health problems prevented her from appearing in federal court in Seattle today, and it was unclear when the hearing might be rescheduled, prosecutors there said.

Brown, the director of the Southeast Asian Ceramics Museum at Bangkok University in Thailand, is accused of allowing her electronic signature to be used on appraisal forms that were donated at inflated prices to several Southern California museums so collectors could claim fraudulent tax deductions.

The U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles said it didn't know whether Brown had an attorney.

Michael Filipovic, a public defender appointed to represent her temporarily in Seattle, said he did not know whether Brown had hired an attorney to fight the federal charges in California. He declined to comment on the allegations in the indictment.

She is the first person to be arrested in an ongoing probe into looted artifacts. Federal agents raided several Southern California museums and a Los Angeles gallery in January, searching for artifacts allegedly taken from Thailand's Ban Chiang archaeological site, one of the most important prehistoric settlements ever discovered in Southeast Asia.

An affidavit filed in the case said the gallery's owners, Jonathan and Cari Markell, used Brown's electronic signature several times to falsify appraisal forms. In one case, an appraisal for items to be donated to the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena claims Brown had inspected the items. The couple have not been charged. They have previously declined to comment about the investigation to The Associated Press.

The raids followed an undercover investigation by a National Park Service special agent who posed as a collector interested in various artifacts. The agent learned that some of the artifacts managed to pass through U.S. customs because "Made in Thailand" labels were affixed to them, making it appear they were replicas.

Court documents said the Markells and the agent met more than a dozen times and regularly e-mailed and called one another about antiquities from Southeast Asia.

Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company

One of my favorites.

Does anyone have the new email address of the Honey Hotel on Sukhumvit Soi 19? The old one [email protected] no longer works. My emails to them at that address come back "undeliverable". I know they must have one. Any help appreciated.

[email protected]

+66 2530646-9

Thanks, I appreciated it.

Does anyone have the new email address of the Honey Hotel on Sukhumvit Soi 19? The old one [email protected] no longer works. My emails to them at that address come back "undeliverable". I know they must have one. Any help appreciated.

there are some people who put the down payments and after a few months they sell the property making decent profit.

As quiksilva has said this is the very thing that causes property price bubbles. Invest with caution. Besides, as anyone who has been to Dubai can tell you it is not just hot there it is unbelievably hot. In spite of the economic boom, I can't understand why anyone would choose to live in that oven.

Don't be so hard on the old Square fellas. Sure, it's run down but a few of us still get a kick out of stopping into the Silver Dollar or the Texas Lone Star or Denny's Corner from time to time just for a hoot. Granted, the joints on the far end near Bourbon Street are really nasty dives and the staff in pretty much all of them are, shall we say, rather unrefined, but I still can't help liking something about the area. Probably because it hasn't changed all that much in the 20 years I've been walking by the place. Yes, the Washington Theatre hasn't shown a movie in almost 2 decades since they figured the katoey show brings in much more money from the busloads of Chinese and Japanese tourists and The Dubliner with it's whole over done fake Irish Pub thing is so phony it just plain su<ks. What Washington Square needs is refurbishment not replacement. Sadly, neighbourhood refurbishment, while a huge succes in places like Singapore is still a foreign concept in Thailand. I for one will be sad to see Washington Square go.

I have been using the Thai Consulate in Portland for 15 or more years now. While I have only applied for 60 day mulitple entry tour visas (I still haven't gotten around to getting the retirement visa like I should have when I turned 50) I have always been treated very courteously at that office. The farang woman who runs the place (if she's still there) is named Mary and is very helpful and polite. You can access the website directly at Royal Thai Consulate Portland Oregon

The site: http://www.thaibuddhism.net/aspects.htm has been around for quite some time, but I thought I might post it here in hopes that it may be a helpful tool to those newly interested in Thai Buddhism. It pretty much encompasses everything someone new to the subject might want to know about Thai Buddism. It was prepared by Prof. Grant Olsen who was once affiliated with the Center for SouthEast Asia Studies at Northern Illinois University. Please note that the very first sublink entitled: PATH I - your basic introduction (revisited) is broken but can be accessed directly at http://www.thaibuddhism.net/ .