SamuiRes

Is anyone else experiencing the poor service recently from this Post Office?

We used to receive our mail regularly but over the last 2-3 months it is always late - sometimes 2-3 weeks. We no longer get our phone bills or Credit Card statements before the due dates. The staff seem to have changed and maybe this is the cause. This is a shame as the Thai Post Office in my experience is usually very efficient - it just seems that this one office is letting the side down.

Back on in Plai Laem about 20 minutes ago (ie 21.00)

Have been using Bangkok Bank for some years now. Cannot beat their Internet Banking. User friendly and on the very few occasions I have had a problem, good support staff on the end of the phone. SCB probably has the least user friendly internet banking and I closed all our accounts there because of that.

How could we forget the famous 'Coco' Blues concert?

Jerry Lee Lewis, UB40 and others whose names I forget. They all stayed at Coco properties here in Plai Laem. (Now Tongson Bay Villas or similar.)

Nearly correct. Jerry was at Bophut Spa, UB40 and The Wailers were at Bandara. Do not recall any of them staying in the villas as they all demanded hotel accommodation. Other names at the time - Jools Holland - Blues Brothers Band - Big Brother and the Holding Company - Ike Turner ( who despite what you might have heard was the nicest most accommodating guy you could wish to meet) - and his soon to be wife Audrey Madison - and quite few moree lesser known bands. Still have a programme somewhere.

I was just repeatijng what someone from Coco had said at the time. (I think that it was the restaurant manager?? Not sure though.) they were complaining about tthe number of cases of champagne that they had to keep bringing in for UB40 guys and their entourage. Maybe just the crew stayed there.

Thanks for reminding me about some of the other acts - I had completely forgotten most of them.

No the crew stayed at the Nova opposite the main concert site on the lake as they were there from dawn to late night and needed somewhere very close. I cannot recall any of the acts staying in the villas although there were a few dubious hangers on who did. Other hotels that were used were Had Ngam Resort, Chaba Cabana, what is now the Araya Buri, Eden Rock and Paradise Beach Resort which - as I now recall - is where the Preservation Hall Band stayed - they are the band that have regularly played with HM the King. Jools stayed at Napasai.

How could we forget the famous 'Coco' Blues concert?

Jerry Lee Lewis, UB40 and others whose names I forget. They all stayed at Coco properties here in Plai Laem. (Now Tongson Bay Villas or similar.)

Nearly correct. Jerry was at Bophut Spa, UB40 and The Wailers were at Bandara. Do not recall any of them staying in the villas as they all demanded hotel accommodation. Other names at the time - Jools Holland - Blues Brothers Band - Big Brother and the Holding Company - Ike Turner ( who despite what you might have heard was the nicest most accommodating guy you could wish to meet) - and his soon to be wife Audrey Madison - and quite few moree lesser known bands. Still have a programme somewhere.

According to my source that have the same nationality as the seven that travelled in the Pick-up.

1. The driver punched a police volunteer in the face and

2. When Police came, an officer got punched in the face and

3. They all claimed it was the taxi drivers fault.

Whoa! Don't know where that last statement can have come from. It happened right in front of me and in no way was the taxi driver at fault - absolutely not - and I am no great fan of Samui taxi drivers. I do not know if the Isuzu driver was drunk. Stupid, careless. reckless and 100% to blame for what happened. If he was drunk then he deserves all the time he is going to get in a Thai jail.

The two passengers from the Isuzu that I spoke to were also in no doubt as to whose fault this accident was.

I must have been following right behind SamuiRes. The scene looked very bad. Glad to hear no-one seriously injured.

What struck me was the number of onlookers gathered and gawping as though someone was putting on some sort of entertainment show!

Also the bikes trying to get past the scene weaving in and out past the crash with, as usual, complete disregard for everyone's safety standing around.

As Carmine says, extremely dangerous corner, the very least that needs to be done is erect large lighted chevron signs warning of the corner, unlikely to happen though I suppose.

I was behind two taxis and it was the first one that was hit. I was dialling Samui Rescue as I got out of my car and the Thai family were getting out of the taxi with one very distraught little girl. The Thais were helping them and I went to see who was in the Isuzu. Two men -early to mid 20's I guess - had been thrown clear. One had a couple of nasty puncture wounds in his side and the other a few scratches and bruised shoulder. They were very lucky. The driver was still in the car and clearly dazed by what had happened - then Samui Rescue arrived so left them to it and got my car out of the way. There were a couple of bikes in the road, one had been following the first taxi and was pushed back by the impact. The rider got up and walked away but obviously in shock. As you say - many rubber neckers but that happens all over the world.

Title edited.

Thanks for the edit.

On reflection overnight it really is so scary how near I came to being in the place of that taxi, and I do hope they are all OK. They did all appear to walk away from the car and I did not see anyone left in the taxi. The driver of the Isuzu though was stuck - not badly, just could not open the door to get out. His passengers though were cursing him as they said they had told him to slow down.

And then I realised that my wife had driven round that same corner a few minutes earlier and if the car had hit her on her bike...........

I have seen a few bad accidents over the years but the potential for this one to have been a lot more serious than it seems to have been is frightening. The taxi in front of me was not driving fast or dangerously and it just goes to show that no matter how careful you are on the roads, you cannot account for the stupidity of others. The young man, not Thai, driving that Isuzu has a lot to answer for and a spell in a Thai jail would not be amiss and needs widely publishing in the hope to warn others of the consequences of reckless actions.

Isuzu missed the corner and hit an oncoming taxi about 23.00 tonight - 50 metres further and it would have been me. I do not think anyone was seriously injured although two guys in the back of the Isuzu had some cuts and bruises. Thai family in the taxi were pretty shaken. Road will be difficult to pass for a while.

Samui Rescue on the scene very quickly. No sign of any police when I left.

Sorry about the spelling in the heading - should of course be Big Buddha but cannot edit that apparently

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2313508/Businessman-James-McCormick-50m-selling-fake-bomb-detectors-based-novelty-golf-ball-machine.html

Quoted measurements in Thailand can be very misleading.

We always quote usable internal living area and specify decks and balconies etc separately.

Developers in particular like to quote gross areas which include everything to make their properties sound bigger.

It is standard practice to quote house areas in sqm and land areas in Rai - Ngang - Talung Wah but usually with a sqm conversion.

Watching this on Thai TV this morning the hole that had been excavated seemed to be about 3m deep and they were still digging. To find a body that deep, someone must have disclosed the location especially as it was underneath a house. This was not a chance find.

One experience in a dept store on Sukhumvit. Buying shoes. Come time to pay, if I pay him cash and do not want a receipt he can do a special deal! I can just imagine walking out with shoes in a bag and no receipt! Clunk Click! No thank you.

Then in Home Pro here on Samui. Buying a new water heater for the bathroom. Sales girl pointed at one brand. "Made in England - very good". Pointed at another more expensive brand "Made in Thailand - no good"! The cheap made in the UK heater is fine. So they are not all bad and her English was acceptable - far better than my Thai!

For those interested in this subject, here is a short paper I wrote on Thailand's Survey Stations last year.

Thailand Survey Stations.pdf

"Pongsak Ruktapongpisal said the Fuel Tariff (FT) charge at Bt0.48 per unit will remain unchanged."

Clearly out of touch with his own department.

FT has been 0.5204 for the last two months.

There are some monitors in the Police Box at the Fisherman's Village traffic lights.

According to this she is currently in Singapore and due to leave for Samui at 20.00 S'por time.

http://www.seascanne...ff=Queen Mary 2

Guess we will have to wait and see.

If she does not call here I wonder if the navigation issues relate to the local sharks?

Having just posted that I found this from a passenger on board

"I just received an email from the travel agent to inform me that Cunard has cancelled the stop at Koh Samui for the QM2 2013 world cruise. Koh Samui was the next stop after leaving Singapore.

"Following a detailed review of the navigational aspects of Ko Samui it has become necessary for us to cancel Queen Mary 2's planned call on 11

February.

As a result, we are extending our call to Laem Chabang arriving at 10am on 11 February and staying overnight. Queen Mary 2 will sail as

planned in the evening of 12 February."

So looks as if it may be correct. Shame.

According to this she is currently in Singapore and due to leave for Samui at 20.00 S'por time.

http://www.seascanner.com/schiffsposition.php?schiff=Queen+Mary+2

Guess we will have to wait and see.

If she does not call here I wonder if the navigation issues relate to the local sharks?

We have the same problem. AIS engineer visited, checked the signal, agreed it was bad and left! End of story. They are not interested. Would also like to know if anyone has come across a booster.

We have land lines but it is annoying to have to leave the office to receive an incomig call on my mobile.

Will look into changing service provider.

Thanks to everyone for their advice..

I installed xmbc but could not get it working in time for the game, but I am slowly working my way throught the set up. Looks good so far.

Appreciate the call to go to the Premier Bar where they did indeed have the game live which made me realise once again why watching the game in a bar in Samui is a million times better than sitting in a snow blown stand in Leicester!

Eurosport show the Heineken Cup games, Do you have this on free to air TV

Edit: This is a handy link for satellite TV. It shows that the Heineken cup game is being shown on Eurosport, but doesn't say which one

http://www.astro.com...rtal/tv-guide#8

Put Heineken into the search engine and it brings back that the match you want is being shown

Rugby: Heineken Cup

Rugby: Heineken Cup - Group Stage, Round 6 - Leicester (England) v Stade Toulousain (France).

• Showing Time21 Jan 5:47 am ( 105 minutes )
  
• TV Guide
  

Classification Universal Genre Sports Sub Genre RUGBY Running Time 105 minutes

Thanks - that is the delayed transmission tomorrow very early. That is why I am trying to find a live stream I can watch on my computer tonight.

have you tried xbmc? software is available for osx, windoze, android & linux. install the maxmusterman repo and you'll have sportsdevil as a video add-on. I used to use sites like the ones you mentioned, and although you may need to try several streams till u find a stable one, I've been very happy with xbmc for my EPL, UFC and Rugby needs

just looked on my xbmc, the Leicester-Toulouse game is on LiveTv.Ru and VIPBox.tv and wiziwig. I'm sure more streams will be added closer to KO

Thanks for that. I have installed it but cannot see the add ons you refer to or any streaming tv. What am I missing?

Heineken Cup game tonight Leicester v Toulouse does not appear to be broadcast anywhere. Tried streaming games in the past without success - numerous php sites but none worked. USA Goals Free - Coolsportz - wiziwig etc. most indicate they have the games scheduled but can never connect. Has anyone had better success?

Does anyone know of someone, preferably but not essentially Thai, who can advise on drug counselling? More a question of how a counsellor can help a relative deal with this rather than dealing with the person themselves.