Mark123456

2 minutes ago, Bonobojt said:

glad to be a vegetarian

Given that they found pesticides on a majority of organic vegetable produce in a recent test, I wouldn't be.

I think there are always minibuses hanging around at the border but I've always taken a taxi so I cannot confirm this 100%.

55 minutes ago, MickeyMaow said:

Yes I know.

Well excuse me....I don't understand why you are asking if you can rush back for the 14.00 flight if you already know there is another one 4 hours later? You haven't said what you're doing in Vientiane either so it's a little difficult for anyone to tell you if you can make it to Udon Thani airport by 14.00. Kinda depends on what time you leave Vientiane.

 

If you are going there to get a Thai visa then of course you can't make it back to Udon Thani in time for a 14.00 flight: the consulate doesn't open for people to collect their passports until 13.00

16 minutes ago, MickeyMaow said:

Flying looks like the way to go, though the earliest flight from CNX is at 16:20. What time does the border close?

 

Also coming back from udon Thani the fligh is around 14:00 could you get from Vientiane to udon airport on time?

There's a flight at 18.20

Probably too late to help you but for anybody else, that shop overcharges by anything from 10% to 20% on a great deal of its stock when you compare their prices to Bangkok prices. The one a couple of blocks away has better prices but a far more limited selection unfortunately. Neither shop is very helpful or knowledgeable about guitars from my experience.

I feel the same way about prostitution. I know that many Western men use the services of local prostitutes and it's quite natural, but I see no reason to drag them around in public the morning after or, even worse, to marry them and expect the rest of us to pretend we haven't noticed your wife looks like a cheap hooker. A fat old man walking hand-in-hand with a girl who looks like she belongs on a farm is a far more disgusting sight to me than a breastfeeding woman. Having said that. my partner never made a show of it and, as far as I can recall, seldom breastfed in public unless it was unavoidable.

So you believe that the German, French, Spanish, Italian, and British people, on the whole, share similar opinions on life in general and on the world outside Europe?

I doubt they are going to cut NATO's budget as a result of the vote and culturally, Britain has never really been that close to the Continentals. It looks likely we will remain part of the single market at this point in time, so the fallout may be rather less dramatic than many are predicting. At least, going by noises being made by EU officials that is. I think Francois Hollande is the only one being a dick.

"culturally, Britain has never really been that close to the Continentals"

Not sure how true that is ... for starters, we were part of the Roman Empire, so our language shares common-roots with other European ones, also the Angles & Saxons were only a couple of the many waves of immigrants, who have contributed to the blend which is British ?

We all drink coffee more than tea now, we eat croissants & pizza, lasagna & spaghetti, French-bread-sticks with our fromage, the traditional 'Grand Tour' of European-culture is now the shared-objective of millions of British summer-holiday-makers where we meet the Germans & French & Italians & Greeks ?

We drive Renaults & VWs, we learn French (or German or Spanish) in school, we shop at Lidl and Aldi for salami & edam & rye-bread, I think European-culture has been creeping-up on us ! And we've given them a lot of our own culture back, all those school exchange-visits in both directions, the French enjoy 'le week-end' and the Germans laugh at Mr Bean !

And why ever not, we're European as well as British, all purely in my own humble opinion.

I should probably have been clearer in my post - over the last few hundred years, the British and Continental outlook on life has been markedly different. Our shared genes has little to do with the matter - you could apply the same argument to the USA but their culture differs significantly from that of their British and mainland European forefathers.

Naam, if you don't know what french toast is and you can't tell the difference between spicy gravy and syrup, you should ask the waiter some questions about your order.

And what do you suppose should be done about those people putting jam on scrambled eggs?

I think they should be taken outside and shot.

All of the above and still the French hate us .

We have evidence here on TVF of British animosity towards the French, we can hardly trust the same sources for opinions of the French on the British.

We fought the French for centuries, there's bound to be some residual 'friendly hostility' on both sides. I think you need to be British to understand the lighthearted nature of i claudius's post

I doubt they are going to cut NATO's budget as a result of the vote and culturally, Britain has never really been that close to the Continentals. It looks likely we will remain part of the single market at this point in time, so the fallout may be rather less dramatic than many are predicting. At least, going by noises being made by EU officials that is. I think Francois Hollande is the only one being a dick.

"culturally, Britain has never really been that close to the Continentals"

Not sure how true that is ... for starters, we were part of the Roman Empire, so our language shares common-roots with other European ones, also the Angles & Saxons were only a couple of the many waves of immigrants, who have contributed to the blend which is British ?

We all drink coffee more than tea now, we eat croissants & pizza, lasagna & spaghetti, French-bread-sticks with our fromage, the traditional 'Grand Tour' of European-culture is now the shared-objective of millions of British summer-holiday-makers where we meet the Germans & French & Italians & Greeks ?

We drive Renaults & VWs, we learn French (or German or Spanish) in school, we shop at Lidl and Aldi for salami & edam & rye-bread, I think European-culture has been creeping-up on us ! And we've given them a lot of our own culture back, all those school exchange-visits in both directions, the French enjoy 'le week-end' and the Germans laugh at Mr Bean !

And why ever not, we're European as well as British, all purely in my own humble opinion.

Putting all that to one side for a moment, I think it's clear that we have a slightly different outlook on life to our Continental cousins and always have done. Eating foreign food and driving foreign cars does not make one culturally compatible. If it did, you could argue that we are culturally very similar to Indians, Japanese and Chinese people , but we're not are we?

The point I was trying to make was that we have always had our differences but that hasn't prevented our military alliance post WWII and I doubt very much that it will do now.

Regarding Aldi and Lidl, I've never shopped at either - Don't they cater mainly to shoppers on a tight budget?

It makes sense to have a multicultural police force in a multicultural country.

The question is why are they going to make the initial screening process easier?

As for the UK being a multicultural country, it is now clear that Islam and Western society are not compatible and politicians policy of forced multiculturalism has been a dismal failure.

Islam and Western society are not compatible? Maybe Islamic terrorists and Western society are not compatible but that's about as far as I'd go. We have had people from predominately Islamic countries living in the UK for longer than I've been around, quite successfully.

It makes sense to have a multicultural police force in a multicultural country.

That's not a very good rate, or particularly impressive speed-wise. Goods I have sent from the UK are taking around 6 days to arrive in Chiang Mai at the moment - they are being logged in at Lak Si sorting office within 3 days of being posted in the UK most of the time. Perhaps letters are far less reliable than parcels though? These customs demands for duty on birthday cards hardly seem credible. Anything under 1000 baht in value is exempt from duty isn't it?

Conversations naturally veer off at a tangent, why make a big deal about it - you're not a mod? We are still talking about food in Chiang Mai so at least it's related. Forums would be a dull place if we had to stick rigidly to every topic.

I doubt they are going to cut NATO's budget as a result of the vote and culturally, Britain has never really been that close to the Continentals. It looks likely we will remain part of the single market at this point in time, so the fallout may be rather less dramatic than many are predicting. At least, going by noises being made by EU officials that is. I think Francois Hollande is the only one being a dick.

The Brexit campaign used and still clings to the campaign slogan 'Project Fear' and 'Scaremongering' as derogatory terms to characterise the Remain position.

This deserves some examination.

Did the Remain campaign use projections of negative impacts of Brexit and if so what were they, where they 'Scaremongering', can they be described as instilling 'Fear'?

Yes Remain did use a raft of projected negative impacts for Brexit, these were almost entirely economic parameters, but also included loss of access to markets, loss of political influence on the world stage.

The economic projections were, for the most part, rooted in formal/structured economic forecasts which we can argue about the accuracy of and when/if these economic outcomes have/will come to fruition. Some of the worst projected outcomes where not plausible, but were recognised as such by the organisations producing the studies, some of the forecasts have already been demonstrated to be correct - The drop in the value of sterling, decreasing investment confidence, rise in UK profit warnings &c.,

I don't think even the most ardent Brexit supporter will state there are no negative impacts from Brexit (though again, they may argue the depth and time scale of those impacts).

The middle ground (excluding the extremes of both sides of the Referendum debate) will almost certainly agree its too early yet to judge the outcome.

The lack of access to markets, and loss of political weight is yet to play out. But loss of control over European decisions is an absolute outcome of Brexit, and nobody in the Brexit camp has explained how Brexit's core aims shall be achieved in the face of categorical statements from the EU, Germany, France and others that the UK shall not be given tariff free access to EU markets without accepting EU laws, regulations and the free movement of people.

So once again too early to judge on that one (But no clear way forward in sight).

Is the charge of 'Scaremongering' and the use of 'Fear' (Project Fear) justified?

Well it seems that on the extremes of the Remain support it might be, a few people did cling and still do cling to only the worst case scenarios.

But, if we accept its too early to judge the economic outcomes, then we must accept its too early to dismiss the worst projections - So the jury is still out.

'Fear' and 'Scaremongering' was used in the Referendum campaigns and its impact has been measured and can be seen. This however is not the Remain's 'Project Fear' or Remain's 'Scaremongering', but that of the Brexit campaign which shamelessly used 'Fear' and 'Scaremongering' when they integrated racism and xenophobia into the Brexit campaign.

'Fear', 'Scaremongering' is at the core of the xenophobia and racism employed by the Brexit campaign and is still visible amongst Brexit supporters and the comments they make.

The hypocrisy of such xenophobia and racism coming from British migrants to another country is seemingly lost in the eagerness to express the bigotry to which the Brexit campaign has given a voice and which the Brexit campaign has legitimised.

The irony is that Brexit, predicated to such a large extent on 'Fear', 'Scaremongering', xenophobia and racism characterises the Remain campaign as 'Project Fear'.

It would be laughable if it was not so cynical and, as history tells us, dangerous.

I agree with much of the above - we need much longer time to judge the impact. Many of those factors have not yet been negotiated but any judgement that causes either side to say "I told you so" is as futile as it is pathetic. We are where we are and whether that suits your own position is less important than working together positively for the future of the UK. Neither side should harp back to the pre-vote stage.

Cameron and the 'money men' totally misjudged the mood of the British people. Cynicism of politicians caused many to disbelieve the propaganda campaign and it was easy to see why much was tagged as 'Project Fear'. This belief has been justified when you see the likes of the IMF retracting earlier prediction and the likes of HSBC, Barclays NOT moving staff or HQ's as they threatened to do. Brits don't like being poked with a stick and I think that approach back-fired on Remain. As you suggest, all that is now history and where we go from here is what matters.

I whole-heartedly agree that xenophobia and racism has no place in modern. There is no doubt that extremists (on either side) will latch onto to such situations to justify their own cause and agenda - thankfully the worst of the extremists only represent a small minority.

Personally, I think that If we take away the extremes on either side then the middle ground is not that far from either of our beliefs.

As a Kiwi-born Australian now living in Thailand and watching anxiously from afar, I would like to make the following observations:

(1) Given that the Brits have decided to leave the club, slamming the door behind, rather than continuing to work to improve the club, I think we should not forget the rest of Europe - left in a doldrums of its own making, but which started out as a brave & good idea tracing its origins back to the early 50s, post WW2. The removal of British initiative and energy and pragmatism from the European mix seems to me infinitely sad.

(2) While, if I were a Brit, I would no doubt have voted to remain a member of the club, we should not neglect the real possibility that, after some years of upheaval and difficulty, it could - like, perhaps, Scottish independence - turn out the best thing, full of opportunities, for whatever remains of Britain. But only if the Brits collectively get their act together & stop whining. And not for Europe, alas, unless the Europeans learn some fundamental lessons from all of this. And not for NATO, with a decreasingly engaged USofA increasingly sidelined, and the Russians as trustworthy as ever.

(3) The Western world's ability to defend itself and to sell itself as a model for the rest of the world, is looking depressingly reduced all round. Meantime, the rise of China continues, albeit increasingly wobbly in its economics. The future is less and less predictable.

What's NATO got to do with it?

I prefer my bacon sandwiches untoasted

There are plenty of online stores you can order them from

950 baht an hour seems way over market rates though.

I think the first half of your translation sounds more like 'there certainly isn't anything' than 'there isn't any certainty'

In 12 years, the only mail I have had go missing (excepting several birthday cards over the last couple of years) was a replacement laptop battery sent from a Chinese vendor on eBay, a vintage razor sent from a USA vendor on eBay and a birthday present (clothing) for my daughter. The laptop battery could just as easily have gone missing in China or never been posted in the first place but the clothes and the razor I'm not so sure about. I could imagine a UK or Thai post office worker stealing clothing but I doubt either would be all that interested in a 1960s safety razor...perhaps the vendor never sent that. I've never had any registered mail go missing and I've received every package that's been sent by Royal Mail small parcels (or whatever it's called) unregistered delivery service.

The reason I am just as suspicious of the UK post office workers when it comes to birthday cards is not because I want to believe everything is perfect here but because I don't believe Thai people make a habit of sending cash with cards through the mail as many people still do in the UK. And when you consider that the Royal Mail advises its customers not to send cash with birthday cards, it's safe to conclude they know that a certain percentage of their workforce are not above stealing so I certainly don't find it extremely hard to believe. Up until a couple of years ago, I had never had any mail go missing anywhere, either in the UK or in Thailand. I guess my luck had to run out sooner or later.

it is really annoying that anything at all goes missing because I often order things online and I hate waiting to see if they turn up (even if they nearly all do)

Yes - Birthday cards have gone missing but nothing else. Mine were from the UK as well so I guess it could be a problem there, not necessarily here. It would be interesting to get one sent from another country just as a test.

Don't know, but people buy off people, Like the Farang that sells Thai food in Bangkok. Maybe you could have an American themed stall, T-shirts, American Hotdogs.

There was a stall in Klong Thom that sold used USA T shirts on the weekend , I think 80 baht ,

there was always a crowd

but I think its gone now with the "clean-up"

I know a guy who runs a stall in bkk...

He gets a lot more than 80thb for 2nd hand American or European t-shirts...

I could tell you where he gets them too....

Farangs on holiday should be more careful with minding their laundry is all I'll say about it lol

So he's a thief?

Claims that margarine is the healthy choice were discredited a few years ago I believe. The salient point is that some of us like butter so stating it's not essential is irrelevant. Most things we buy in life are not essential.