Japhrodisiac

I have had a number of problems with Kasikorn, missing funds on two occasions that were later returned after much prodding and me not giving up, then finally a nightmare of a missing wire transfer where they kept blaming my bank in Singapore for losing the funds, but would not ever provide their internal proof of transfer. I kept at them for 3 weeks, every day on the phone, and in the branch, sometimes 5 times a day on the phone until I managed to get ahold of someone in the BKK head office that let it slip that they forgot to put the beneficiary address on and no one wanted to admit their mistake. Funds were not in my acct but in the purgatory of the "not sent but not returned" pile at the head office account. When this became clear, finally my funds were returned, I drew all funds out of my account and closed it. The attitude of the branch staff was polite yet incompetent, they were relectant to get anyone on the phone and were basically hoping the problem would solve itself. Everyone insisted that I or my Singapore bank (HSBC) must have made the mistake, no way they could do that (even though I kept the copies of the remittance form signed and stamped by the bank, all filled in perfectly by me).

Banks are still staffed by humans, and if the humans are lazy, corrupt, incompetent etc then these things tend to happen.

In the case of the Dutch couple, the bank concludes their own internal investigation, reaffirming that nothing has happened and no further action will take place, when a clear issue is flagged (ie 250,000 baht/day withdrawn from another province when a 20,000 baht card is issued) is an obvious discrepancy that remains unexplained, save for a vague referrence to the husband perhaps having something on the side (which also would be litigable in most countries to say that to a customer)

The duck soup guy in Lamai is related (son I think) to the duck soup guy in Nathon which I believe is still open. Have not heard of the Maenam shop, but will look out for it. Great duck on rice too with the reduced dark soy sauce.

Site says the new owner is Peter drago, and the old owner is Patrick Drago....

The villa names are completely made up, using low res photos of villas that are on others' websites. Looks like it was written in html by crayon, the post releasing themselves of any liability was dated Dec 8th, AFTER the airports were reopened. I like the way it ends, "can't help you, too busy saving lives..."

The name gives it away in the first 2 seconds, no?

Best of luck to all who paid. desperate times now we'll see more of this type of thing to come.

The tone of this is quite scary. The "do as we say, all of it, or else" is indicative of very bad things to come.

I ordered mine from the Mitsu tent that was up here in Samui before we had a Mitsu dealer on-island. They of course had no demo models, could just sit in a 2dr 2.5 and that was it. So, I took the plunge and ordered one, and save for the slightly noisier than I would like engine, I have been very happy with it for almost 2years now. It has, to me, the best interior and control package, is the roomiest in its class and goes up anything that the tires will let it go. I'm keeping mine.

I have noticed something in terms of the noise though, it seems to depend a lot on the fuel used. Ie one tankful at PTT in Chaweng might have it runnning fairly quiet, while the very next tank at another station might have it rattling a lot more. I suspect that the engine runs very lean, and therefore is sensitive to fuel quality. this may be a by-product of keeping the largest engine in its class competitive in terms of consumption. Just a guess. I also suspect that a layer of under-hood insulation would help a lot, as the noise is basically blasting off and being amplified by raw steel inches above the engine.

I have heard that there is a good NY style deli somewhere close to nana, but cannot confirm. I grew up in Montreal, so a nice thick smoked meat on rye with mustard is one of the things I miss most from home!

The perception is, the BOT are buying dollars. They like to maintain a tie to the USD, so by propping up the dollar they policy have having a set value seems to work out. However eventually the war chest wil empty, and the Baht must surely fall. The current policy is not making sense as it is costing jobs, by hurting Thai exports, icluding food stuffs.

your perception is "slightly" flawed if the BoT was buying Dollars the Baht would weaken. what the BoT does is SELLING Dollars (which are still in abundance in their coffers) to maintain a certain USD/THB range respectively an orderly depreciation of THB.

Agreed, but what is your prediction in terms of how long they can last, and how long they should be doing this to give the illusion of a strong economy? The treasury reserve is only 80-100B USD in healthy times, so what is left at the moment after many months of selling? Selling large amounts of an appreciating currency to prop up a currency that is highly likely to be worth less shortly seems like an interesting monetary policy...

There was a study done for bicycle riders, it seems that a fall without a helmet going as slow as 9km/hr could cause serious and permanent injury, even death. Saying that, I wear a helmet only when going for a "ride". Hopping on the bike for a couple of blocks, I guess I'm too lazy. No excuses, it is stupid...

The problem that I have with all of these speed tests shown is that they are showing essentially the connection speed with the provider and country, but not the dynamic real world speed. Try this site and I think you'll be in for a surprise : http://www.broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk/

I use TOT 1.5mb download/512K upload and the best numbers I can get in real world downloads are about 30-40kb/s, which is about 1/15th the speed I get in Canada for a similar price. When my contract runs out they will be getting the heave-ho in favour of a provider that cares at least a modicum about their service or reputation.

Always makes me wonder why, with relatively few homes having a land line, and most having cable-TV (can't miss the soaps...) why there are no cable internet providers here. 10x the speed for the same price, more reliable, clearer VOIP capability, can stream video with ease. Too obvious?

I just returned from a week in Bali, had not been there for many years and it was interesting to compare with Samui, where I have lived for the past 4 years. Bali taxis are cheap when they go on the meter, which they will do if you ask them (their default is to not mention it and try to haggle with you after the ride), and i don't mind topping up with a decent tip for a pleasant ride. Also, you can get your own minibus, with english speaking driver, including fuel, for an 8hr day for equiv of 1000 baht. The roads are mostly very well maintained, The hotels much cheaper than here, and there is almost no visible garbage. They fly 747's and the like in from all over, so it is easy to see Samui taking an ass kicking from this island. Samui will not change until they lose tons of money, and then they won't change because they lack the funds to do so. I still enjoy my life here on the whole, but there certainly are alternatives...

2 guys on two different motorbikes carrying each end of a large pole, maybe 8-10M long, and trying to do a u-turn on the main road in traffic. Really

A very nice little machine that no one has mentioned so far is the relatively new HP 2133 mini-PC. I am running one now, they come in a few versions, Linux and Windows etc. I have the top current model that came pre-loaded with Vista Business and it runs great. The build is much more robust than the little plastic guys that this thread is concerned with, has an 8.9" screen, great keyboard which is 95% full size and a few other great features. 160gb hard drive is nice too and 2gb ram standard. I run it at home with an external 17" widescreen LG monitor and take it with me everywhere else. I bought it the week they launched for 34,000 baht but they are now down to 24,000 due to the stiff competition with the eee and the acer.

Well, she had a bowel movement this morning, so she seems ok now. Actually, she is moving around a lot better today already, and before we could hold her she jumped off the bed this morning, no problem at all. Amazing. How long do you think she needs to be kept under wraps? I think a few weeks at least, no? Thanks for your suggestions -

Hi Monty. She can walk, although we are trying to get her not to move around too much. We put her in a plastic cage/basket for much of the time, and gently take her out to pee, eat etc. She has not defecated yet (in 2 days) since we took her in, so we may have to give her some hairball formula/laxative at some point if she cannot go normally. Other than the misalignment, she is in good spirits, remarkable really. Hasn't complained a stitch, and she seems to trust us a lot to do the best for her. I think she will have to recoup on her own, and maybe over time she will be able to climb and jump, but given her movements so far, walking won't be a problem. Thanks for the note -

Hi. I came by a cat on the weekend in my neighborhood who has a broken back. Apparently one of the locals hit her with a tree brach or bamboo as she was trying to have a closer "look" at his caged birds. I live on Samui, and took her to two vets, and both said that nothing could be done. It looks like her spine is separated from her pelvis, and she can still walk though it is not a pretty sight. The vets both said that if her back was broken higher up, she would likely be paralyzed. So, one option is just to wait for her to recover, and hope for the best while taking care of her, and hope the bones mend in a fashion where she can comfortably move around. The other option is surgery - and that would have to be Bangkok (or Phuket...?). I don't know any vets outside of Samui.

Does anyone with some experience in this area have light to shed or advice to give on how best to handle this situation? I would like to keep that cat and take care of her after she is rehabilitated. Many thanks - J

Most of the 500's brought here are the later retro type with a drum brake front and rear. While looking cool, you need good brakes to ride almost anywhere in TH. I would get a 500 and swap a few bits from the 400 or another model over. I also really like the dirt track styled custom SRs. Lucky if you can find one secondhand.

can somebody clarify why everytime there is a major negative event in thailand, the

thai baht grows stronger.

after the military coup the baht, compared to the euro, went from 50 to 45.

under military rule the baht was the most growing currency in the world!

now there are major protests in bangkok and political unstability, but the baht still strengthens from 52 (1 month ago) to 49.

i cant get it. i am no economist, but i thought that it should go the other way round.

it might sound selfish, but i wouldnt mind having a couple thousand more to spend at the end of the month, before they all kick us out!

the negative event as well as the stronger Dollar weakened the Baht considerably for a few days. now the Bank of Thailand is intervening heavily and the Baht strenghtens. going back to the period of military rule the Baht strengthened because of inflow restrictions which caused a two tier exchange rate. that is over since months.

These factors and...

The Thai treasury reserve is something like only 80 billion dollars (baht equiv) so it is easy for speculators to move the currency in the direction they would like to see it go. That is, if BOT doesn't interfere unduly. Then you have the cycle of stronger baht, people jumping on the bandwagon etc...

A simplification but does seem to happen regularly.

They will let you open an account but not pay you interest because you are a farang? Is this for real?

Depends on what services you need - for opening a simple savings account, Kasikorn is by far the easiest one. I like the Chaweng branch (not too far from the post office) where there are a few english speakers and they take good care of you. If you need a credit card or something more complicated, the Siam Commercial branch in Big C (best opening hours too) has good staff. Good luck -

They have a new one now - a foreigner with a French accent speaking in English. It is probably worse than the older version as he repeats himself more times. I wonder how much fuel is burned by these people in a year, driving slowly all day every day and causing traffic jams etc. ??

they sold cool blue very quickly

but in todays market, 900 units are going to be difficult to push

There have been many projects marketed by these and similar people that have "sold out" very quickly, and I tend to take these claims with a grain of salt. Have a look at the unfinished, decaying Amera project in Baan Makham, up above Shambala. No construction activity in a year or so, only structures up, 90% "sold out" to "happy foreign investors".

Thanks Lil John. It seems you have to be a US citizen to open an account with e trade, but internaxx seems to offer international trading on 6 bourses and open an account from anywhere. Cheers again -

I got the whole paperwork runaround and policy talk BS runaround for months, going from Kasikorn, to Ayuthaya to SCB when finally, I found a new SCB branch, the woman said, "easy, put double the amount of the card limit into a savings account you can't touch, and we'll get you a credit card in 1 week." I did, and in 4 days I received both a Platinum Visa and a Titanium M/C

I am a Canadian, living in Thailand and wish to purchase shares on the London Stock Exchange. Are there any online brokerage firms that will allow me to get an account? All the ones so far - Barclays, Halifax etc all require UK citizenship. If not, any other methods? Cheers -

They are supposed to let you move up to 20,000 USD out per day maximum without supporting documentation. SCB started to hassle me about this as well, so I took cash out and remitted at my Kasikorn branch, writing "Private Funds" on the transfer sheet. No problem now.