mgjackson69

How quick the women haters jumped on the fact that a women was interviewed & dared critisise this situation!!! If if had been her husband interviewed I wonder how many of you would have referred to him as a bitch, a gobby one, mention of his lack of confidence around thai men or made pointless references to who was the boss!!!! Pathetic.

If you read the report properly, she never said seedy & they never booked their holiday in Pattaya but were redirected by the airline so spew your hate elsewhere thanks.

Had the husband been so whiny I surely would have called him a bitch as well.

Really, how much of a chore is it to clean up the poop? Not much...between the wife and I, the floors are swept at least twice a day anyway.

I like having the critters in the house.

But...but...but...how can it be a bicycle "rental" if it is free?

What would you call it, free ownership?

Free usage?

Cost-free?

No-charge?

I could certainly work up some sympathy for Ms Clarke's husband. Then again he apparently knew she was the boss before he married her.

I concur...although she might not have been a bitch before she got the wedding ring

I realize that this article is from The Nation...but how could PAD "officially handed it over back"? "Officially" implies some sort of legitimate authority.

I have a theory it'a all about not wanting to have quiet as that leads to self reflection and thought.

The Thais certainly seem to like "noisy", that is for certain.

My favorite is when we go up to Mom's house, and the (large) family all comes over. They put the television up loud enough for "all to hear", then all talk over the television.

When they get in that mode, I usually take a walk about 300 m out into the paddies to the little "house" there. Get out the smart phone and do some web surfing. Nice and quiet.

Tried the buffet breakfast at Nana Hotel (Suk Soi 4) for the first time today... as a non-hotel guest. 200 baht, from 6 - 10 am, I believe.

Food and breakfast in general was OK: bacon, scrambled and fried eggs, pancakes, Thai fried noodles, fried potatoes, cut fruits, etc. But, all in all, I'd say it's not better than the nearby Fortuna Hotel buffet on Soi 5 that runs 140 baht.

Good points of Nana: very cold OJ, nice choice of croissants and some pastries, and they also serve some small sized, but nicely done American-style pancakes, which can be hard to find elsewhere. (Along with, a couple of fairly attractive female wait staff).

Bad points of Nana: the bacon for me was on the overly fatty side, the choice of Thai food items other than the noodles wasn't there, and overall choice of entrees was a bit more limited than you'd find at buffets elsewhere. In part, I'm also reacting to some prior posts/reviews of Nana's breakfast that were pretty glowing. So I had high expectations going in, and was a bit disappointed.

By comparison, apart from the significantly lower price, the Fortuna's buffet includes the basics (though not pancakes) but adds things like Indian-style curry, club finger sandwiches, a selection of Japanese foods, and more.

All in all, for me, Nana is perfectly adequate and a reasonable price compared to the bigger (and more expensive) hotels/breakfast buffets. But the Fortuna makes for a more satisfying breakfast, at a better price.

I had a g/f for a while who always wanted to hit the breakfast buffet at Nana Hotel. It was convenient, since I was staying at JW Marriott at the time.

Not the "best" breakfast I have had, nor the "worst"...but palatable and a decent value, to me anyway.

I concur about the size of the breakfast at the Dubliner. I have never successfully finished it (and I'm not a small guy).

Points against the Dubliner are the two (2) times I have had a small cockroach crawl onto my plate during breakfast. I realize TiT, but it's still gross...

BFD!

Just pass it over to your girlfriend...she will appreciate it

I see two possibilities:

1) The lady in question is jai dee, and now she takes care of him who took care of her before

2) The lady is taking care of him hoping that he will send her some money later

The reality is probably some of both.

Yes i agree, there is no such thing as a free lunch ( or accomadation ) in those circles

But there is plenty of jai dee to be found, even in those circles, if a person looks for it.

But...but...but...how can it be a bicycle "rental" if it is free?

I have been here 4.5 years and would rate my comfort level as "comfortable foreigner" as well.

But, that is about how I feel when I am in USA now.

Yes. What's it to you anyway? I bet you're the kind of guy who hugs the fast lane exactly at the speed limit? Holier than thou!

You read me 100% wrong...I am usually the one overtaking. and I have not been to church in years. But I do believe that a person should pay a fair price for goods and services received.

You think it's ok for companies like Sony to put virus software on their CD to break users' PC when they try to play the music they paid for?

Absolutely not... I consider that practice criminal, same as any other virus or spyware. But that does not entitle one to steal software.

You think it's ok that you had to pay for the music, first on vinyl, then on MC, then on CD and what will be the next? Once you paid for the rights the media shouldn't matter, but you try to get the RIAA to agree with that.

You raise an interesting point here. I can agree that it would be nice to buy a license of sorts for a certain item (let's say a record album), then be able to put it to various media for use in the home, car, etc. Until fairly recently in the timeline, there really was not an efficient distribution mechanism to facilitate such a distribution scheme.

Back when vinyl was the dominant media, I had first an 8-track recorder, then later a cassette recorder, to make that same media usable in my car. As the dominant media switched to CD, I started buy CDs and still recorded them onto cassettes for the car. And more recently, via the computer, made copies of the CDs for use in the car. So other than the cost of the blank media and some time, in most cases I *did* buy the content once. Surely you do not think that the record companies should give us a free upgrade every time the media changes? We are in agreement, the RIAA would find that suggestion laughable.

But, nobody forced you or me to buy any of it. I would hardly call recorded music a necessity, even though I have spent plenty of hard-earned cash on recorded media and the equipment to play it over the years.

Take a look here: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Extension-Visa-t211680.html

...and here: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Non-immigran...Ma-t211165.html

...and here: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Extension-St...at-t202097.html

for some more info. The last link contains a narrative of my two visits to North East Immigration (Korat).

Good luck.

I see two possibilities:

1) The lady in question is jai dee, and now she takes care of him who took care of her before

2) The lady is taking care of him hoping that he will send her some money later

The reality is probably some of both.

Maybe 1, maybe 2, but if the guy is running low I don't suppose he minds either way. I know if I were in that situation I'd consider it a matter of concience to send her some money when I got sorted out.

As would I...pay my expenses + a nice tip.

And I would be sure to look her up on the next trip.

...legit shops (which mostly sell DVDs that can only be played in this country so why would you buy legit when it wont even work anywhere else?)

Not so...most, if not all, DVD players can be reset to Region 0, which allows DVDs encoded with any region number to be played.

I was able to reset an LG player (bought in Thailand) and a Sanyo portable player (bought in USA). Both players required a few keypresses on the remote control to access the encoding value.

The exact model of my LG player was not listed, but I noticed that most LGs used the same procedure, so I just picked one and it worked fine.

Here is the link I used: http://www.dvd-unlock.co.uk/

No guarantees on that link...if it does not work, do a Google search on "DVD encoding" or something similar, you will get some hits.

Edit: I could not get the previous link to work... try this one: http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks

At least you guys seem to have some response. As best as I can tell, the USA embassy and State Department are just saying, to quote the old Mell Brooks movie Blazing Saddles: "Son, you're on your own." So much for our embassy tax dollars. All they have done is post a travel advisory dated November 26, and as of December 1 they say the information is current! Big fffffing help if already here!

And just exactly what do you expect our government (read: your tax dollars and mine) to do for you?

We are not in danger here. Our government will not and should not airlift us out of here.

I think anyone who could demonstrate a true emergency would get some help from the embassy. But really, what can they do? Thailand is not exactly chock-a-block with international airports.

I find it hard to dredge up much sympathy for someone who is here with no money...if a person traveled here with their last dollar, perhaps they should not be taking trips they cannot afford. People need to live within their means...nobody is entitled to an international holiday.

I am fortunate in that I have a place to stay (live here part time), food in the pantry, money in the bank. I need to go to USA, but if it gets delayed a bit, no problem. But if I needed to get out, I would get it done...same as I did from Mexico in the aftermath of September 11, 2001. And the same as many undoubtedly have already done from Thailand.

Hopefully when the whiners get out of here they will not return.

Do you suppose that the paid "protesters" were given a bonus for each child they brought to Suvarnabhumi?

I just a few months ago painted my shop 'royal yellow'

oops.

My housekeeper still has a sense of humour. I now have a dog in a yellow Tshirt and another in a red Tshirt.

Just to be on the safe side the one in yellow is very geriatric and doesn't move more than 30ft from her bed.

We wouldn't want pulverised dog!

That is hilarious

Thaksin does not have a diplomatic passport. It was revoked after the coup.

And returning it was Noppadope's top-priority immediately after the former PPP-led coalition-government took power.

Many posters, who hoped PM-Somchai was as honest as he appeared to be, lost heart when he refused to take back the diplomatic passport from his brother-in-law, even after he had been convicted & sentenced in his first court-case & had broken bail while attending the Olympic-opening in China.

Indeed.

mgjackson69, if you cannot get such basic facts straight you aren't gonna impress a lot of people here, i.e. your views will be discarded as drivel.

Hint: If Thaksin didn't have a diplomatic passport, why all the news articles lately regarding people putting pressure on the [current/former] government to revoke it while they keep saying it was [another person within the administration] that had to do it and keep bouncing it back and forward? Instead of just saying 'he has none'? Because he has one.

Mea culpa...I missed that part. Silly little thing called work outside the country and absence from the forum...

That said, I very much doubt that diplomatic passport vs. "regular" passport had any bearing on Thaksin's treatment at the Hong Kong Consulate. It seems to be the view of several here that the Consulate staff was remiss because they did not take Thaksin and Pojamon into custody..or indeed, because they gave them services that would be available to any Thai citizens who came in there.

If there was any favorable treatment, I would attribute that to who he is (someone "important") rather than to what type of passport he has.

So I don't hear from anybody calling for the firing of the The Hong Kong consulate and their staff.

Wonder why.

What exactly did the Consulate staff do that is illegal?

There are no Thai police on staff at the Consulate. Any military there for security purposes do not have arrest powers.

Simple They had long stay visa BEFORE the convictions. Which after a conviction can rightly be recinded.

The Brits didn't realize she was convicted till AFTER little Mrs Hot Potato was in their fair land.

Not bothering to moniter Thai internal affairs as closely as many other places.

The moment the two moved out ensemble the door slammed shut.

I am sure the Brits felt put upon by the sneaking in bit.

It would seem that Thaksin and Pojamon were not on any "international fugitive watch" list, or they would have been "pinged" when going through Immigration upon entering Great Britain.

...unless Thaksin and Pojamon have the "Great Britain Elite" card, which would fast-track them through Immigration without those pesky checks.

I doubt it is acrimonious. A move against the bullies abusing their power to protect his and his ex-wife assets is the more likely motive.

You're saying you would also divorce to protect your and your wife's assets? What an old-fashioned and noble romantic you are!

Seems that marriage vows mean as little to Thaksin as all the other promises he makes.

How did you make that leap of logic?

mc2 posted an opinion of the reason for the divorce. Nowhere did he/she indicate that he/she agreed with that reason or would do the same.

I see two possibilities:

1) The lady in question is jai dee, and now she takes care of him who took care of her before

2) The lady is taking care of him hoping that he will send her some money later

The reality is probably some of both.

My pension is all in USD, and I would settle for a nice, flat, constant 40.

Yes...for those of us dealing in THB <->USD, 40/1 sure makes the math easy.

Personally I think 50/1 would make the maths even easier !

Being a computer/IT guy, I prefer powers of 2...but I suppose 80/1 (factor of 8 for quick calculations) is a bit optimistic

I could live with 50/1

:

:

PS. Who cares if it's an "illegal copy"? It's as good as the original and circumvent all the "contact M$" &lt;deleted&gt;. Have you had a look at M$ balance sheet lately? Can you say "de facto monopoly" or "predatory marketing strategies".

And therefore it is okay to steal software?

I suspect that you consider it legitimate to steal phone, internet, and cable television service also...