Japhrodisiac

I saw these girls in FV village yesterday, up close there were a few lovelies, but most were so-so. I have seen many better looking girls in the food court at Paragon, or pretty much anywhere else one tends to find groups of girls. Nothing special, so they must all be geniuses instead?

Samui economics dictate that selling a few drinks at 330 baht is better than selling hundreds at 160thb. When you can't afford to pay the staff anymore, offer them a commission to sell the place on to a customer at an inflated price. Repeat.

Saturday night, my first time in the "new and Improved" Q bar. I walk in, it's completely empty downstairs, order a drink (Jack/coke) and am told that the price is 330 baht. Hmmm. Then they have no change for 1000, I wait ten minutes for someone to run somewhere to make change. Hmmm. I wander upstairs, there seems to a be small (10-15ppl) crowd enjoying the view. By the time that I finish my drink, the power goes out (no backup gen) and everyone gets up and leaves. The staff say simply, "thank you" and that's it. Not surprised (according to friends' reports) that the place is empty all the time .

I trust you didn't leave a tip ! 330 for a JD coke ! buy 3 and you could have bought the bottle.

28-30 shot in a bottle gives them aprox 9000 gross, 8000 net on a bottle.

I was amazed, as this was more than any drink in LA, Miami, Milan, London etc. For typically <deleted> service in Samui it's laughable

Saturday night, my first time in the "new and Improved" Q bar. I walk in, it's completely empty downstairs, order a drink (Jack/coke) and am told that the price is 330 baht. Hmmm. Then they have no change for 1000, I wait ten minutes for someone to run somewhere to make change. Hmmm. I wander upstairs, there seems to a be small (10-15ppl) crowd enjoying the view. By the time that I finish my drink, the power goes out (no backup gen) and everyone gets up and leaves. The staff say simply, "thank you" and that's it. Not surprised (according to friends' reports) that the place is empty all the time .

Promotion can be found bottom of their main page at the right of "A star alliance member" something to do with "Happy.....

Maybe you need to open your eyes and stop drinking

http://www.thaiairways.co.th/happy_th/index_en.html

Yes, I did notice this despite my customary 6-8 litres of pure ethyl alcohol daily consumption...

however, try to book or find the fare during the allowed period. nada. Doesn't exist. Or, the surcharges are bumped up to cover the difference so the prices are same or slightly more than before.

For me, always the best was this place :

This will probably make some Canadians reading here laugh, and feel angry at the same time. Or maybe just get angry, but I hope not.

I live near in a busy city about an hour south of the Canadian border. I have Canadian relatives. I like Wayne Gretsky. Let's get that out of the way.

Ever since I can remember, there have always been spirited Canadians who come down and setup grand projects, business ventures, often dealing with property. I think there is an inherent desire among some to get out of Canada and "make it big". Some of them are successful. There is always, how to put it nicely.... Whenever there is a Canadian out setting up a deal around here, whatever it is, there is always an air of dodgy, semi-illegal, scam undercurrent. I don't know why. But I have never really heard of a completely legitimate Canadian investor, they have always got something up their sleeve. This is not to accuse all Canadians, just those few who venture out into the international scene with a business of some sort.

So reading this story, obviously he did not deserve to get killed but he likely sought out the intrigue and environment that led to his death.

My vote for the most offensive, ridiculously presumptive post of the week. Cheers -

Antica Locanda in Bang Rak has ok pizza, but outstanding Calzone! Really thich and cheesy with lots of filling and the dough just right. I find their pizzas too thin and cardboard like. In Maenam, the Pizza at Cucina right across from Santiburi is really good, lots of choice and nice medium thick crust. The best one on island so far for me is a little Pizza place in lamai, on the beach road only one or two hundred metres before the lady boxing area, same side but can't remember the name. I live in Bophut but go there sometimes for my Pizza fix. Run by a bald headed Italian man and his Thai wife. Anyone know the name?

That house is owned by someone that I know, he is still the owner and lives there full time. I have been there recently and can assure you that he gets a laugh out of all the Beckham publicity surrounding his house. Complete bullshit story, they have no house here.

Flights within and from Thailand are already down. Thai Airways had a meeting on the 20th of January with the government (who are the majority shareholders of Thai Airways) about radically cutting fares to Thailand as part of a wider package to reinvigorate tourism.

Reducing fares out of Thailand is a one-step operation - just cut the fares. Cutting fares into Thailand would more sensibly be done in tandem with tourist-friendly measures such as cheap package deals, lower hotel rates etc. Once they agreed the fares structure, they still have to get the other interested parties on board and coordinate a broader tourism push. I've no doubt it will happen, it'll just take some time.

Sure, but surely they could just put the promotion fares on their website so that anyone at any location could get the new lower fares, or is that too simple somehow?

There is apparently a dealer in Surat, they have to be an authorised kawi big bike dealer and the one in Surat is that. If they don't have in stock they will get one in a week from BKK and at the same price too.

I have searched a few direct flights to Europe and the fares are the same or higher than usual. example 38,555-49,730 THB (before taxes etc) BKK to Milan direct and I paid the same 8 weeks ago. Other carriers are half the price to Europe.

They are sitting on over 100 billion USD by all accounts in reserves, not counting baht reserves as well. The Revenue dept must also have quite a treasure trove collected over the past 2 or more years with unstable govenrnments and little spending on infrastructure or other programs. Seems a better idea to slowly devalue the baht as the above poster mentions...

The amount of tax money taken in over the past decade and not spent on really anything useful or productive for the island is shameful. Now we will have a drawn out low period due to the economic situation, and Samui will continue its cycle of not enough funds to take care of the problems. Compare to Phuket, Krabi, Bali, or any other established island and the situation is quite sad. So many unpaved "government" roads, lots more cars and motorbikes, it is really getting tiring to run the gauntlet every time you go out here.

You may wish to look at page 3 of the classifieds of today's Bangkok Post, where there is a Thai language ad running for a new MD for Thailand Elite (?!?)

Thanks for the name, this is the Bangkok Nursing Home Hospital? Cheers -

I'm looking to get a full heart health checkup done, and was wondering if anyone has any good experiences/recommendations for either a good clinic or good cardiac ward of a hospital or great doctor etc. I live in Samui but can travel as necessary. Cheers

Seems to me that a (relatively) simple solution is to forego phone line based adsl and move over to Cable internet. Just about every home in Thailand has cable tv, so it seems like there should be a relatively easy switchover to this existing technology. ??

I just called to book a ticket at the discounted rate (the discounts don't work online) and they said that a condition for the discount is that the ticket must be issued within 3hrs of booking, meaning you have to get your butt to a Thai Airways office (or travel agent must do) immediately, otherwise promotion fare returns to normal fare. A bit silly, no?

I was referring to this line "I understand what you're saying but one of the Italians hit him with a Paint Pot filled with Concrete..." which I believe in most countries would make it a homocide. Not the same as punching him and the victim falling onto the paint pot full of concrete. Anyway, same sad result for the victim and his family. RIP and I hope the perps get the maximum penalty, a 2 on 1 fight resulting in death is no accident in my books.

So these two Italian gentlemen will be doing time in a Thai prison for manslaughter, or be sent back to the dolce vita?

If you beat someone to death shouldn't that be murder?

I was wondering if there is a deposit limit for THB (in cash) at the banks. In many counties anything over US 10,000 equiv throws up the flag and one has to go to greater lengths in terms of justifying the origin of funds. Is there a similar limit here? Thanks -

I moved house, from a 20,000 baht/month rental to a smaller but just as nice 11,000 baht/month place nearby. the landlord was hurting so i took advantage and locked in a long term at this price. I drive the car less and the motorbike more, we are eating in a bit more but frankly unless you go extravagant it is usually not too much more to eat out than at home. Buying dvds instead of going to the theater, and thats about it.

I'm a beginner also but would be willing to meet and discuss strategy. Pm me if you like -

What is sad about living here is that the island is close to being great, but fails misreably to change itself that last few percent that would make it that much more habitable and enjoyable. Some things will never change. When Chaweng was developed, the beach road was put in the wrong place, cutting off the beach from the public. You have to walk through a resort, reastaurant or find one of the few narrow paths that squeeze between buildings to get to the beach, which is public. This only happens in Samui, as Pattaya, Phuket, Krabi etc all planned their beach strips accordingly. This will never change on Samui. The allocation and planning of land use here benefits only a few locals, that's it.

There are few places on the island where you can walk comfortably without trespassing on private property. Where to picnic or take your dog for a walk? My mother was here last year and proclaimed the island the most pedestrian -unfriendly place in the world, and she has travelled every continent.

What can change here are the roads, drainage, garbage bins and collection etc. tidied up power lines, zoning, building restriction enforced and more. My Thai neighbors have garbage strewn all around their road and lawn, with a public bin and daily pickup 15 meters from their house. They can't seem to ever put garbage in a bag and put it in the bin, ever, even when i buy the bags for them. Therefore there are rats sometimes running around their house and they will spend hours trying to catch them and devise ways to get rid of them. Guhhh. 1+1=I dunno...

Samui seems to be unique in this regard. Go have a look at Krabi, the roads are immaculate, planning is well carried out and the place is spotless. My girlfriend is from a small town with no money in northern thailand, and their town is clean, no garbage left about and things kept in their place. If there is a hole in the road near their house and the tessabaan won't fix it, they pour some leftover concrete in the hole themselves.

Some good, some bad, a lot of potential that may never be reached. Samui in a nutshell.