DrPhibes

Bring ear plugs.  Saw it in IMAX at Central and it was about 30-50% too loud (as in organs liquifying).  Did love the movie, BR fan since it first came out.  Damn I'm old.

Just came back from A.J.'s with the kids.  We all loved the food.  It reminded us of road trips across the US West and hitting the roadside food joints in AZ, UT, and NM.  Chili cheese fries, good hamburger, shake, meatloaf plate with some of the best mashed potatoes I've had in CM.  Brought back lots of memories over fully tummies.  All I heard going home was "I miss American food".   If anyone can recommend a joint with a true American style steak, I would be appreciative (have had at Duke's, just OK in my opinion).

54 minutes ago, NancyL said:

You could try looking on Lazada -- realize that "pushchair" is a name that much of the English-speaking world uses for "stroller".  There are many examples on Amazon and Ebay and that may be the way you have to go.  Be sure to find a vendor who will ship via the postal service so you don't have to pay import duty if they ship via DHL/FedEx/UPS from overseas.  Somehow goods that are shipped in via the postal system don't seem to pay customs duty.

Thanks Nancy, I'll check it out.  Probably Thailand or in China.  The companies in the US and UK want to sell you child transport systems that consist of several specialized units designed help your child survive a nuclear war.  I'm looking for very basic backpack carrier that has a couple of wheels on it to pull like luggage when racing through an airport.  The Expedition Backpack pictured was exactly the unit we had years ago and seems to be no longer available in the US.

We brought laptops, desktop, game consols, hand held game units, 20in display, about 100 Xbox games, Lego robotics kit, all in our check-in luggage in '16. All showed up and no duty charges.  Worth a trip back home?

Looking for something very similar to the attached photo.  Raised 2 kids in one motorbiking around Thailand about 10-12 yrs ago and am having another late in life child and trying to find one.  It was light weight and totally functional!

Yup, Lamprigera. Caught a big one out in the bush in Mae Rim outside of Chiang Mai about a year ago.

I won't mind shutting things down a bit while I go pay homage to the king for Oct.

There goes Halloween.  As long as the US and Thailand get an agreement on turkey imports by middle of next month...

Did I miss something?  Last TV topic on this said there was a purchase commitment of 60,000 tons, coal at about $96USD/tn gives a purchase cost of about $5.7 million USD. 

Oh, God, Please, let there be Butterball turkeys coming to LOS!

Tried to make American Thanksgiving last year with the biggest chicken I could find.  It's my one time of the year to show off cooking.  All the fix'ns down to cranberry sauce.  All the fix'ns were great, the chicken was the normal slow cooked golden color basted with wine/butter/etc...  But the taste was just, well, just sad...  Miss $0.39/lb sale turkeys back in the US.

Big deal, Ha!  He offers a pittance, to buy about 5.76 million USD of coal with a US trade deficit of 11.451 billion USD just January through July '17!  Lot's of carrots dangling but who knows if any of these deals will come to closing. This meeting was all about perceived legitimacy of the current government back home, nothing else.

On 9/30/2017 at 9:49 PM, DrPhibes said:

What about Beer Lab?  Ya, lived in Fort Collins CO (one of the craft brew meccas in the US) prior to moving to CM a bit over a year ago.  Now I only drink the beers here for the effect.

Oops Sorry, not Bars.

On 9/27/2017 at 8:13 AM, gk10002000 said:

I have taken some extended visits of just over two months, and have been in country 14 times. On the long visits I definitely get bored.  I am an engineer by trade and there just isn't anything to do.  Sure I like some night life, love to swim in a pool, Thai foot and body massages, find a decent lady friend.  I like taking week long visits to other areas.  Phuket, Sukhothai, Korat, with obviously many other places to explore.  Not a bad way to spend time.  There certainly are worse alternatives.  I have the cash and the cash flow now at 60, but am still holding off permanently retiring.  If my current company lets me go, than I semi-retire.  I would want to get out of the USA for medical costs anyways at that point.  One never knows how much money one may need so I don't mind banking a bit more.  I plan to take 30 days vacation every year so that isn't bad while the job is still OK.  As far as imagination, there are lots of ways to get busy.  Start a family and have some kids or absorb some kids via a marriage? 

There is no such thing as an ex-marine, or an ex-engineer.  Believe me I know...  So the fact is you need something fulfilling/challenging to do here in LOS.  You will never meet a more challenging situation than to marry a Thai woman as an engineer.  Generally, your skills of logic and organization will run up against "Bird poop on me, very lucky, go buy lottery ticket" and household items that never make it back to the logical place you created for them (my kids school supplies are back behind the large pots in the cupboard) or the same place twice.  After 15 yrs marriage, 10 years in the US with English classes, 1/2 the time the college educated wife still can't put an English sentence together where it makes any sense to the kids and I when she is in Thailand.  Ends up being  game of 20 questions to make sure what she said is what she meant and even then it is your fault you did not understand her.  Oh,   so,   very,  grinding...  My suggestion is to find someone who is well versed in English and has some kind of organizational job to keep your sanity. I find in my situation, about 4 large Changs a day is about right for my sanity.  Same problem with my friends back in the US with Thai wives (ex-diplomats, software company owners, other engineers).  When the wives get together for more than 2-3 hrs, it seems the IQ level drops 20 points, but we still lov'm and they eventually recover :-) 

There are a few jobs here that you might qualify for (don't pay much but you stay busy) but then you have immigration issues since you can't work while on a vacation, visiting your relatives/wife, or retirement visas.  You need a work visa.  You can't even volunteer, according to the law, without the proper volunteer visa.  Lord help you if your wife has a business and you get caught hanging drapes in her business.  That is "working" since you could have paid a Thai person to do it.  Has nothing to do about you being paid.  There is a previous TV post on this.

It's tough when you are used to being busy and productive.  I basically went into a schedule of workouts, golfing, educating myself on the internet.  Taking Thai language/reading/writing classes will keep you busy for a while.

I wish you the best of luck.  All in all, it is still better than the US!

1 hour ago, greenchair said:

Why do we never see these land officials being prosecuted in the courts. 

They no full well about the fake documents and the land scams, but never seem to get prosecuted. 

Because they never make it out of jail alive while waiting for court...

What about Beer Lab?  Ya, lived in Fort Collins CO (one of the craft brew meccas in the US) prior to moving to CM a bit over a year ago.  Now I only drink the beers here for the effect.

2 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

It is well known that lots of Thai men have mia nois. This includes lots of prominent men, i.e. politicians, and I am sure these Thai men are not married with ex-bar-girls. I am sure many of the wives of these men with mia nois know about them and, for whatever reason, accept the situation. As far as I know mia nois are not acceptable in "the west" so there is a clear difference between here and somewhere else.

So if lots of Thai men get away with mia nois why should this not somehow work with farangs?

France and Italy have their mistresses and in Muslimland you can have multiple wives.  Each culture and each relationship has their view of what is allowable about co-mingling with others.  Some are up front about it, some take the view that as long as it does not interfere with home life it is tolerable to preferable, and some it is verboten.  I have dated girls in long term relationships where once in a while we went on date nights, as in we go to a club and find a girl we both find attractive and see if she is up to coming home with us.  Made some real quality friends and had some good times that way.  My current Thai wife (ex-wife Singaporean but still my business partner) with 3 kids and 15yrs together, if we find ourselves in BKK, we will go hang at some of the red light places, have some drinks, talk to the girls, but no bringing home.  Some people look at sex as the ultimate symbol of commitment to the relationship, some people place more emphasis on commitment to building a life together through thick and thin where a stray hookup is just something to get out of your system and get back on with the life building (no real need to tell about it), and some people have an open marriage from a sex point of view.  As a male of the species, my base biological drive is to mate with as many females as possible.  That's just basic life as the wife says.  Only social pressure, the law, economic resources, religious conditioning, and a persons preference of what makes him or her happy make it otherwise.  So as far as telling her about your dalliances, you really have to know your partner.  If your doing it to relieve yourself of guilt, you might want to ask yourself why you do it then.

2 hours ago, dieseldave1951 said:

so does this effect the red bull heir and the flying saucer monk ???

 

It's more like "get out", let her leave and "Stay out!", pass the law saying you have to be in the country to appeal.  This law only applies to government officials.  Basically tailored to this specific situation.

"Meanwhile, the new law on criminal procedures against political office holders was promulgated on Thursday and put into immediate effect. A convicted person would now have to launch an appeal in person before the court rather than designate a lawyer to do so. "

And stay out...

5 hours ago, superglue said:

The quantity consumed is irrelevant - it is the effect upon you & others.

 

Yup, have friends that run major aerospace companies/ex-space shuttle pilots/serious materials researchers, can drink like fish and still do their best and still be pretty damn good (funny) people.  It is the effect on you and how you relate to others while under the influence that matters.  If a single drink causes depression or makes you take things out on people, it is one drink too many.

We were not able to get to BKK to pay our respects to the King, hopefully this will be physically available as a focal point for our prayers.

Big C in Chiang Mai was restricting sales to 3 bottles at a time.  I'd call that restrictive hoarding.

Yup,

Had my wild days and glad I did.  Will be sending my kids out with a backpack for a year after college.  Only want to hear 10% of what they did...

Sorry to hear, the downside to efficiency.  Hey!  There's a Ruby's at the end of that pier!

Well put Nation.  The Junta is trying to get as much as they can on their side at the moment.  The general population is in mourning and paying their respects to their beloved King.  The King's cremation is coming.    After that, the gloves come off. 

2 hours ago, Gandtee said:

Albums of staff members?

Ya but they are all George Michaels songs.

They waited until he could get his legal ducks lined up as to where he can sit out the rest of the statute time on the last charge and then submitted the Red Notice on a charge that no civilized country would give him bail.  I gotta do better with my investments.