17 hours ago, Trujillo said:

Inside they have a sort of cafe/restaurant that has four glass walls where you can see the cook doing his thing. 

I looked at the menu the day they opened and they had a beef burger for 99 baht. Since there are no burger places anywhere near there, I went over yesterday to try one. 

 

Sat down and twiddled my thumbs for about five minutes. The two or three waitresses did not even come to the side of the area where I was, and some woman inside the glass prep/cook area noticed me but did nothing. After a few more minutes I knocked on the glass, got the attention of the woman and shrugged. She said something to one of the waitresses and she came over with a pad and asked what I wanted. 

"How about a menu?"

Uh....off she goes and brings me one, and I tell her I want a beef burger. She turns to the woman inside the prep/cook area and asks in Thai if they have burgers. They do. 

So off she goes with my order. Another five minutes go by and finally I see a burger patty going on the grill. 

So I'm reading some article on the phone and notice that at least another five or 10 minutes have gone by and the burger is off the grill, but I'm still high and dry. 

Then the cook himself comes outside the glass enclosure and has a bag of sliced sandwich bread with all the crusts taken off and says they don't have the right bread and will this do?

Needless to say I said no and walked out. 

 

Time wasted, hunger increased, suffering fools. 

 

I wanted to complain to the manager and heard the customer service person say that they needed to find someone to speak English. No one working in the entire store could. It didn't matter; I told the bewildered manager what I wanted to say and left. 

 

A real professional start to the new store opening...hope things improve. 

I sat at the same counter today and was treated like royalty. Yes, the staff is not up to speed yet, and they do some silly mistakes, but they seem eager to please. All I can recommend is that we Westerners be patient and forgiving as they learn the ropes and also remind ourselves that we're not in Kansas here. After all, this is a great new store for all of us who like farang products. 

By the way, there is a chubby girl who works at the food counter who is surprisingly good in English. I seek her out whenever I have a more complicated question. She also encouraged me to bring my own tupperware to save the 10 B takeout fee, while helping to "save the world" too as she put it.

These yellow and white songthaews are often overcrowded. Take a Grab taxi and save yourself some aggravation.

44 minutes ago, cyberfarang said:

Even some of the old sticklers I know that a year ago swore they would never use agents, are now using agents.

Yup, used a visa agent for the first time today for my retirement extension. In at 3pm, out at 4:15pm with the Visa and Re-Entry, and a few thousand baht lighter. It was worth it, considering the uncomfortable and uncertain conditions I would have had to endure. Life's too short, but I really hope they can get their act together by next year for the sake of everyone.

So anyone can park their car for one hour right in front of the airport entrance? That doesn't reassure me. Why didn't they tow it away immediately?

12 hours ago, evadgib said:

Until drivers, owners and companies are fully held to account and the safety of their fleets brought up to standard inc CCTV and tacho we'll still be talking about this in decades to come.

Decades? Safe, driverless buses are coming sooner than we think, and they'll help put a dent on this carnage.

2 hours ago, worgeordie said:

They really need to employ someone to be sitting behind

the drivers,and everytime they nod off,give them a wack

on the head,with a stick,keep them awake for a few more

miles,but this is not failsafe, as I suspect the headbanger 

will also fall asleep.

Maybe they could rig up some device so when the drivers 

head  falls forward a small electric shock,better still a big

one,attached to his nether regions,would save a few lives.

regards Worgeordie

That's a bit harsh. The drivers don't determine the bus shifts and the maintenance schedules, they just follow orders. Maybe if they weren't being paid slave wages and allowed decent rest periods. they would be better drivers.

Just a quick recap on my driving licence that I renewed today.

Arrived at 1pm today (Wednesday), all done by 2:45pm.  No line-ups. No hassles. Renewed my 5-year licence for another 5-year period (plus 1 year bonus as it had expired a few days earlier, so my licence now valid for 6 years, until Feb 2024). Most of the time was spent watching the educational video. Only had to do a ten-second color test.  A medical certificate was not requested, since I already had a 5-year licence.

The office is closed tomorrow (March 1, 2018) due to a government holiday (Makha Bucha day).

18 hours ago, wavemanwww said:

Clearly you have not been in a line at the airport have you?

Exactly. Last year I was lining up at Don Muang airport for an Air Asia flight from Chiang Mai to Beijing. It was pandemonium. Got pushed and shoved. It felt like I was taking the last flight out before an impending disaster.

Never again!

4 hours ago, idman said:

Mostly Thai Yuppies and not so many tourists?????  What in God's name are you smoking these days???  When was the last time you were even at Maya???  Over 80% of the people passing through there are mostly Chinese and Western tourists.  You are so out of touch with the reality at Maya these days.  Try going back there once more.

Agree. I drop by the Maya now and then. If it wasn't for the Chinese visitors, Maya would be a ghost mall. The food courts on the 4th floor and basement serve as their cafeteria. I avoid going to the Maya Rimping now because the aisles are so often crammed with the visitors that it feels like Walking Street.

11 hours ago, steven100 said:

Wow !   the medics can determine what the cause was just like that. 

A better translation would have been "Medics ruled out foul play."

11 hours ago, elektrified said:

Have you checked to see if that chocolate is on the list of chocolates containing lead and cadmium? The government released the list a week or two ago. http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/18-brands-chocolate-products-sale-markets-tainted-lead-cadmium/

Here's my take: Just about every food we eat is tainted to some degree, more so in Thailand. There's no escape. My hope is that by eating a lot of fresh fruit and keeping fit, we can ward off certain illnesses. Dark chocolate is one of my few indulgences (2 squares per day), and I just can't quit that. 

On 9/4/2017 at 8:54 AM, worgeordie said:

Over the years I have tried bread from lots of bakers,at the moment

i  am buying Whole wheat brown bread at Big C,only 20 THB,its sliced,

and good enough for me,I go every Friday morning and buy 5 loaves,

fresh out the oven, freeze it and it lasts me the week,comes out just

as fresh as it went in.some bread here  is very expensive for what it is.

regards worgeordie

so you're the one emptying the shelf at the Big C bread section on Fridays! Maybe i should buy my whole wheat bread on Thursday instead! I also freeze this bread for toast.  I sometimes make the trip to the Big C  only to find out  that they're out of stock. Same for the imported Casino brand 70% dark chocolate, selling under 100 baht for 100 g.  Someone's stocking up on those too, LOL!

I placed  a 500-baht order with Tesco online last week for the first time, and received all the items requested, which included three packs of drinking water, refrigerated items and frozen items.  I live five km south of Mae Rim and booked a no-delivery-charge time slot. However, on the down side, they couldn't communicate at all in English when they called me on delivery day (probably to confirm the address or check if I was home) AND they showed up at 2 pm instead of the 6-to-8pm time slot I had booked. I'll be using their services again in the future as I want to encourage them to keep this service going.

And I dont give a rat's *ss about Lotus "points." The service is free, and it saves me time and gas money. That's good enough for me.

I also set my a/c to 27 C overnight, with an automatic shut-off at 4 a.m. while keeping one fan active.

Well, it looks like it's not only a Thai thing after all:

Watch 'mob' of motorcyclists take over highways in Ontario, Canada.

1 hour ago, David Walden said:

Have several cards from different banks.  It's the only way to be sure when away from your home country.

This is absolutely the best advice. I had one of my Canadian ATM cards blocked. I never found out why. When I called my bank, they told me that my card was blocked, but could not say why. They told me to go to my bank. I told them I was in Thailand and not coming back soon. They said sorry can't help you. It's a good thing I had other ATM cards.

16 hours ago, junglechef said:

Check out the relatively small Rumchok gym for an example of an over priced gym for what you get (300 bht a day!!).

It's sad indeed to see so many overpriced gyms in Chiang Mai. For 300 baht in Canada, I get a clean, spacious air- conditioned gym equipped with state-of-the-art equipment. All for 300 baht PER MONTH, not per day!

1 hour ago, anotheruser said:

I don't disagree with you on the UBI however I don't see that happening before things get to crisis levels. The peasants will have to revolt first. The Swiss voted on it and rejected it. They give needles to junkies. If anybody would do it the Swiss come to mind. 

 

Thailand is the last country that comes to mind to do something like this.

 

 

Yes, the Swiss rejected UBI in a referendum, but they weren't necessarily against the concept of basic income (about half the population see it as a possible solution). Rather, they feared it would open the floodgates to economic migrants. As one politician put it, if Switzerland was an island in the middle of a vast ocean, they would have voted for it.  As more countries start implementing basic income, they will have less to fear.

On 2017-05-31 at 3:08 AM, rkidlad said:

How are you supposed to earn money when there are literally no jobs available for you to do?

Universal Basic Income. It's coming. It's inevitable. A dozen countries including France, Finland and Canada now have pilot projects underway, and many other countries around the world, rich and poor, are considering it.  It has supporters from both the left (social justice) and the right (less government). Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg just announced last week that he supports the idea of a universal basic income for everyone.

We must not fear machines, we must embrace them. They will liberate us from menial work, so we can do  meaningful work without fear of becoming destitute. The Star Trek future we've all been dreaming about may finally be approaching.

7 hours ago, hobz said:

Bumping this thread to tell you why Thai drivers don't stop to let pedestrians cross...

 

Today I was driving around 8am, morning rush hour,, traffic is moving slowly...

Driving slowly (40km/h)

I approach a pedestrian crossing. (unmonitored, meaning no lights)

I notice pedestrians waiting to cross.

Since traffic is moving slowly i decide to stop and let them walk.

I come to a full stop. (not a hard full stop,, just a normal full stop)

One or two seconds after I stop, there's something hitting the side of my car.

A motorbike behind me crashed into my side, probably because he wasn't expecting to stop and panic'd.

Dent in my brand new car... 

Motorbike driver was ok.. left the scene after picking up his motorbike...

Guess who has to deal with insurance and repair shops and just losing alot of time in general now? ME

Guess if the pedestrians crossed the road? Nope, it was all for nothing.

 

Moral of the story, I will never stop for pedestrians in Thailand again unless something changes here.

 

So now you know why they won't stop.. It's just too dangerous (This is the second time I see an accident now from stopping for pedestrians, and it's been close a couple of other times.)

What's also frustrating is when I stop  for pedestrians at crosswalks, they are often staring at the sky and not paying attention to the traffic ... and then they run along the crosswalk, which is even more dangerous. Many  seem surprised that I actually stop for them and wai thankfully to me as if I'm doing them a big favour when in fact I'm just following the law.

Around 30-40 baht. However, these are usually small portions. Make yourself a sandwich when you get home.

Maybe that's why it took me 1 hour and 45 minutes to drive from ChangPuak gate to the police station along Mae Rim road (from 6:00pm to 7:45pm). It usually takes 15 minutes at off-peak hours. I have never seen it that bad...it was a total parking lot.

Many of the car commercials I see on TV feature reckless driving, and it's depicted as fun and macho.  

Decaf is not in the culture here, whether coffee, tea or soft drinks.  Only some high-end chains are likely to offer fresh decaf, and you'll probably pay about 100B a cup. Try Tom & Toms opposite Maya, and some of the coffee boutiques on the upper floors of the malls. Be prepared to dish out another 100 b for a small portion of banana cake!