SamT

11 hours ago, Brislocal said:

I still want to know how the Australian government gave him refugee status when his wanted in another country.

Is it because he plays soccer or his muslim.

 

Because there was clear evidence that he was innocent? Off to the Tommy Robinson support pages you go...

6 minutes ago, xylophone said:

Well said spidermike007 and mirrors my thoughts almost exactly....good post.

I agree with spidermike as well. My original comment, which Some have taken exception to was certainly not aimed at people who point one or two things out, more at the people who only ever see the negative in Thailand and act as if Thailand is continually doing them a disservice. 

Every country has it's pros and cons, Thailand is certainly no different 

33 minutes ago, oldhippy said:

When a government official asks me for a bribe, I comment.

When 100 other government officials do not extort me, I do not comment.

Does that make me a ranter, a whiner, a negativist?

 

PS. Carefull with your answer, do not tempt me.

I just might start posting everytime that an official does not extort me, everytime the sun shines, everytime I am not charged a double price, to prove I am such a positivo.

 

What? You get charged 100b to get in somewhere as opposed to 50b? How will you survive without the extra $2. Is there somewhere i can donate to your plight? Outrageous. New Zealand has the exact same pricing schemes for tourist destinations, working on the premise that locals shouldn't pay as much to see their own tourist attractions that their taxes fund. 

Absolutely worth commenting about corruption, but if you've been round these boards a while, you'll see that people continually complain about things a whole lot more trivial than that. Don't be so precious that I call people out on that. There are some ridiculously negative people on some of the expat fb pages and I suspect you know it, but you choose to take offence and presume I'm talking about you only. 

I find Thai peiple far more friendly and selfless as a whole than any western culture I've ever lived in. Yes, the violent taxi driver that makes the news spoils that, or the corrupt cop  (I've had dealings with them too), but I find they're the exception rather than the norm. 

Guess it just depends on whether you choose to let the one percent spoil the other 99 percent. That's entirely your choice.

Good article. I absolutely agree with the right to criticise, but in some of the online expat forums there are some people who are just not happy with anything about Thailand. 

Some posters see it as their role as "superior" westerners to exercise their God given right to criticise all aspects of Thai people, culture and society and apparently can't see any good points about Thailand. In that respect, I think it's completely fair to question why they are still living in Thailand If they apparently hate it so much. If their home country is so much better then surely that's the place for them? 

I'm from NZ, and yes there are some things about Thai society that are frustrating but the pros far outweigh the cons so I generally look on the brightside. Some ex pats don't seem to see the brightside and just want to complain or make snide comments about Thais  (despite still being happy to be in relationships with them). This is half the reason I don't bother with many of the online forums, as they are generally negative, snide and sarcastic. 

All 7-11 nation wide only sell alcohol between 11 am to 2 pm and 5 pm to midnight. By the timing of you post it looks like your may have have been in a 7-11 before 11 am.

I was in about twenty past 11. Possible that the store staff just hadn't taken the covers down I suppose. Cheers for the help!

That's great that you don't care, but it doesn't actually answer my question as to whether or not I can buy alcohol during Songkran. Nor was I asking for the cheapest place to buy alcohol, the 7-11 was used as an example for the off-licence place that I visited...

>>but it doesn't actually answer my question as to whether or not I can buy alcohol during Songkran.<<..........So you have no independent groceries (Mom and Pop shops ) in your area ? Where do you live exactly ?

Mahidol Road area nearish to airport plaza. I possibly do, just thought I'd see if there was a ban before I went out looking for it.

I'm new to the area, been here about a week so I don't have a huge clue what is or isn't in my area. I apologise for asking a (apparently) stupid question...

That's great that you don't care, but it doesn't actually answer my question as to whether or not I can buy alcohol during Songkran. Nor was I asking for the cheapest place to buy alcohol, the 7-11 was used as an example for the off-licence place that I visited...

Got nailed by about five buckets of water on the way home yesterday on Hang Dong road by some local teenagers. I could see how it leads to accidents when being done on the main road vs scooter travelling at 50-60kmh, but all in good spirits. Thankfully I was warned by a mate to waterproof my stuff when I left.

A couple of mates were in town yesterday arvo and some teens went to throw water at them. He told them his laptop was in his bag (they'd just arrived in CM on holiday) and one of the guys said "bye bye laptop then" and doused them with a couple of buckets of water. Fair to say they weren't overly impressed...

I just went down to my local 7-11 and saw that their alcohol fridges are covered over. Is there a blanket ban on sale of off-licence alcohol for the duration of Songkran or is it just different hours that you can buy it?

OP, don't worry. The 'Cheap Charlie' connotation is nothing more than saying that your careful with your money.

A phrase normally heard uttered by gutter mouthed bar girls (to foreigners they have zero respect for) or business owning foreigners that want you to overpay or bring you down to their misery of their past LDOP practices.

Ha, thanks for clearing that up! I'm certainly happy to pay a good price for things here, but I don't think that not paying for the most expensive thing is 'taking advantage' of Chiang Mai!

Thanks to everyone else for their selections too.

looks like its Hobsons choice then.

you say the 2499 is the most expensive.....compared to what and where?

Often you know, you pay for what you get. I only spotted this new muay Thai gym the other week down Changklan and close to the Ratilanna.

Roadside it looks streets ahead of the rest, they have obviously spent a fair amount setting it up; give it a go, support a new business.

if it costs you a little bit more(than a stihhole) each week then so what,

just hope you're not going to be another cheap charlie coming to try and take advantage of Chiang Mai.

Woah! Settle down. I was just asking for some comparisons and some advice.

One of the other ones I looked at was 9000b for 3 months unlimited. By the same token 2499 was 8000b for a month.

I absolutely agree that you get what you pay for, but I've spent the last 15 years of my life using various gyms and have found that the most expensive ones often aren't even close to the best, they're just the trendiest.

I'm not by any means 'coming to take advantage of Chiang Mai'. Whatever that means...

Most expats are experts in kickboxing with a keyboard.

Online forums seems to be great training gyms for those sorts...

Hi all,

Brand new here, I apologise if this topic has been covered already a million times.

I've just moved to Chiang Mai, planning on being here for a few years so thought it might be wise to sign up to a gym to offset all the good food and beer that I intend on eating and drinking. I'm probably not intending on fighting in any fight nights, just want to do some high intensity training more than anything.

Can anyone recommend a good kickboxing gym in the Chiang Mai area? They don't seem to be that well represented in terms of websites etc, so I figure that word of mouth is probably the best way to go about it.

I'm just off Mahidol Road, so something local would be ideal, but the most local one (2499) seems to be the most expensive I've seen.

Thanks in advance

Sam