clevenp

i bought a double door (side by side) Samsung and we are pretty happy with it

it is working fine and has a double cooling circuit (no double compressor I think).

no thrills but no ice, no smell and just sitting there doing its work

the cost was about 28 000 baht

BBC showing APCs and water cannon in action.

Looks like this is the end.

Sorry for the poor dupes who thought they were protesting for democracy (which they already have).

We now know this was all about power and money.

Hats off to Abhisit!

I hope not too many people die today.

Enough is enough. The red have to go home today, hopefully in a bus, and not in a box.

Yes, by all means, take the the red insurgent criminals "home" in a "bus" post haste.

I am ashamed to be a farang after I read the entries .... it seems you all should be housed in a mental institution : people are dying and you all glee ... this is not something that is based on something recent but it has its roots many many years ago ... who are you to side any side without understanding the history ... I now feel more and more how the US and UK is trying to brainwash your little brains and they are successful as the only thing you lot does in Thailand is drink and make noise ... or at the other spectrum you live like a good in a 60K baht condo with one or 2 maids you pay 5000 baht ... colonial ? you all forgot what happened in Prague or in China ... it sets the country back at least 10 years if not more ...

it will not help

just took a flight out of the airport and now they are introducing more rules

you need to take off your watch (be carefull where you put it and make sure it comes out at the other side)

you need to take out your belt (what the f???)

you cannot take out your shoes (strange as that is the norm in the US)

the staff is very unfriendly and if you comment on the stupidity of the new rule they are threating you for harassment ...

this is definitely not the LOS I remember when I first arrived 6 years ago

----

concerning the scams : as long as they allow those loose boundaries of the shops (no markings on the ground), the scams will continue

start with the basics and start marking the shops and allow space between them as a DMZ

my 2 cents

I and many others, stopped using Thai airways when they ruined their frequent flyer program. I will never fly with them again unless they are the cheapest on the market.

I only can concur with this statement above. Additionally I had 2 very bad experiences with the crew on 2 long hauls. The incidents was so bad I asked for a formal complaint form while on the plane and then the chief steward came to me to excuse for the incident and his crew and asked me if it would be possible to drop the complaint...

as they are not the cheapest(op to 30% difference with other regular airlines such as Singapure and emirates) and not the most friendly in the sky and their interpretation of " frequent flyer" customer retention plan stinks ....the result is predictable

som mon na Thai Airlines

don't blame everything on the occupation, neither on the strong baht but first look at how you treat your customers and how your organisation is structured ....

getting a new customer cost 8 times more than retaining a customer but that is logic that is beyond the logical boundaries I guess ... and every customer that makes a decision to walk away and select another airline will be difficult to win back ....

But I think I'm going to end up like a second class citizen

You got the second class part correct, but the citizen part incorrect, you will NEVER be a citizen here of ANY kind!

Based on your post, I say you should consider other more welcoming retirement destinations. Some you can even become a permanent resident over time.

Thailand, especially the new much less smiling Thailand, is NOT for everybody!

I agree with Jingthing's reply

and

when I read between the lines you have enough reservations and implicit reasons to doubt if you will be happy here. The short answer is NO you will not if you come with a farang attitude to live cheap here ... you don't describe other races as "imported" (yes I am offended ... I am happily married to a Thai wife !)

if the only reason is "cheap" then perhaps you should consider another country ... Thailand is Thailand and it has its own culture and ways of doing things. Ifyou cannot adapt to this way/style then don't come

Thailand is very different ... the land of smiles is not always smiles and there are many people here who have to work very very hard to have the minimum of lifestyle. Thais have different standards and rules e.g the richest person in a group will pay for the consumptions .... so mostly it is the farang who will pay ... if you don't understand the reasons why then don't come ...

my 2 pennies after 5 years of Thailand, a country I call home

Interesting that the PM (& Defence minister) seems unable to call for military flights to move himself & the cabinet around

look at the Thai history and try to find parallels .... maybe there will be an AHA effect for those who are questioning the rational behind this ????

It seems to me that there are very few if any role models. Thai TV (as bad as US TV) promotes all of the wrong things... sex, violence, sexism, racism and skin color prejudice.

I don't know if this is really a root cause for the way some (most?) teens are turning out... hmmmm.

I cannot agree more with you

I find it very disturbing to see violence at children prime time periods, women beating, and all the other things in the soaps ... it is certainly showing a roll model for the Thai kids ... even worse ... the whole idea of gigs, multiple girlfriends and this kind of stuff seems to be promoted by the soaps and is getting baked in into these already vulnerable kids/youngsters ...

and about money ... everything in the television is geared to marketing ... BUY ME BUY ME and the more expensive the more face ... no wonder the rate of suicide is going up in Thailand as the roll model cannot be achieved for 95% of the population ... a BMW 4wheel (5 000 000 baht), a house with swimming pool and 5 rai of land in the middle of BKK (30 000 000 baht) ... etc

I really don't know where this is going but for sure the winners will be the ones again with the money accumulating even more money

my 2 cents

this meltdown on the internet is not good ... it seems that all international traffic is going through that one LINK... and now it is halfway down.

services such as skype are not affected immediately as it is a peer to peer connection and does not use any DNS to look up things but when you try to go to international websites it seems to halt ...as it cannot resolve the addresses and then when it does, it needs to share the bandwidth with all the other stuff (including skype ... but skype is intelligent enough to calculate the min bandwidth necessary before it starts the call)

VoiP services will certainly be affected for international calls or when the "providor" is located outside Thailand

I just cannot believe that an organisation such as TrueInternet only has 1 cable ....and this for a country with lots of trading and many international companies...

I only can say this is disrupting normal business in a big way

what is happening in this beautiful country ?

what is this country doing to its people and the many farangs who are supporting their Thai families ...

I only can shake my head and silently hope it will beter over time ?

travelbeast

hallo all readers

I come from a country with a LOT of breweries (about 800 on 10 000 000 people) and I am not an alcoholic neither my friends nor my children ...

the raise of age to 25 is as absurd as the age to handle alcohol in the US (many cashiers in the US cannot touch a bottle of beer and need to call their supervisor) ...

my observation ... in Belgium many youngsters drink beer (moderate with some exceptions) as police has made a good commercial about BOB (one dedicated driver that does not drink etc)... In th US , youngsters stand in dark alleys drinking hard booze ... for the thrill etc ...

I read most of the comments here and it is obvious that it is an educational problem but as education goes in TH ... it is easier to pass a law that will not be observed or will generate some sidemoney ...

it is a pity they are not teaching many of the youngsters (TH future workforce ) to be more responsible, to observer the old rules (respect, moderation etc) but what else can they do if they look at the tv soaps where anything goes ...

teach and educate young people from the start what key values are in the society ... as Farangs we should also respect those values and I do agree that some farangs are certainly not a good role model (drunk, loud, no respect ....) and those TH should use the same rules as anywhere else : disturbance of the neighborhood results in fines and jail ...

my 2 cents ...

I was just wondering what kind of plane that was

it has more than 400 people on board plus the gov people plus the standard crew

is this the level of truth that is spooned into our mouths

and this indicates the level of confidence we need to use ?

just some simple thoughts

Philip

I need to retract my words ... I just googled .... searching on max passengers boeing 747-400 and it came back with the following link and the following info ...

http://www.airliners.net/info/stats.main?id=100

Capacity

747-400 - Flightcrew of two. Typical three class seating for 416 (23 first, 78 business and 315 economy class pax). Cargo hold 170.5m3 (6025cuft) or 151m3 (5332cuft).

747-400 Domestic - Two class seating for 568 (24 first and 544 economy).

The article is reflecting correctly the slowdown of the nightlife in this city and many things are now happening in dark and seedy bars on 1st and 2nd stories with dark curtains (shielding the light to the outside)...

Coming from a country where nightlife is restricted by attendence and not by government rules, it is kind of unsettling that at 1 am you suddenly are on the street and nowhere to go ...

we (my wife and I) start effectively enjoying nightlife on trips to HK and Singapore and we are turning our backs to BKK (reduced to just playing pool for 3 hours per week and a quick dinner ... reducing spending from X/week to about X divided by 3 /week) ... net result ... less income for the different places we frequented and a snowball effect on the economie as I am sure I am not the only one

but at the same time ... it is becoming the sleepy / family environment like many sleeper cities in the world : grey and certainly not exciting and reducing the city to window shopping during daytime ... (a social need for Asian countries as many social contacts are made during those hours by those who have Money to spend on fashion and label items ...)

maybe that is what our grandmaster wants?

yours sincerely :-)

Um lets see, may be he will get a job at the other honest company Ample Rich this will serve as a good reference!!!

He is a criminal and all criminals are the same ... and the sympathy shown in some of the posting is plainly disgusting ... it really shows that some of you are just as bad as that english man... it shows the indifference of you lot when it does not affect you directly and sympathise with "common country men" even when evil

I am a happy farang with a lovely Thai wife living in this beautifu country and I wish those booze drinking, loud and impolite scam artists coming from all over the world (but a lot are anglosaxon though) would go somewhere else (like to your local pub and scam them poeple locally). your lot is not helping this image of cheap scams (alledgedly only committed by Thai people and not by respectful UK or other residents)

i hope i did not offend too many people at Thaivisa.com, but I needed to vent my frustration about these postings

Philip

Happy Birthday

we (Taiy and I ) wish you many more years to come

we also want to thank your for a wise reign allowing this lovely country to develop during the 20st and strongly enter into 21st century

Regards

Philip and Taiy

It sure is a hot topic and many members and guests are reading this

making sure rape and child abuse is getting of the media is correct but the hypocrasy about "beating women" is for me a big problem ... at 5 pm in the prime time for childeren to watch television it is normal to see at least once every 15 min how a man beats a woman ....

maybe as farang we don't understand this culture but it is disgusting to see this happening and to see how boys are taught it is OK to beat women ...

what is the main problem is the ethics and how they want to teach/educate the youngsters what values there are ... this is currently not done and the ones with the money can actually do whatever they want (even in public bars (hotel not named) where once a friendly/helpfull person told me to leave with my girlfriend as one of those richer (!) people was paying a lot of attention to my girlfriend and though he could "buy" any service)

the reactionairy way of the Thai government to control everything is making a lot of investers and businesspeople nervous ... and it will fail at the end as a violent reaction will come from within but then this great country will be at the other end of democratie and freedom and it will be ugly ....

Investors will look at countries like Singapore or even Cambodia that is rebuilding its infrastructure and its image, to poor money in ...

I feel in many ways happy to live in this marvelous country and I am trying from my end to show by example that mutual respect in marriage and towards others is the only correct way ... (as just raving about it will not help anybody )

maybe by taking actions ourselfs will slowly make a better world ... maybe taking baby steps but at least taking them instead of turning away and telling talk about it (politicials are just doing this so are we as bad as them?)

my 2 cents ....

maybe I will get a lot of hatemail now but so be it ...

Philip

with sad eyes I see how this polical country is making sure poor people are getting poorer and the rich richer... thus dividing this wonderfull country in a very status divided region where it is normal to look down at the poor as it is their fault ... gov money is not meant to be spend on roads in ISAAN (washed away by the rain and the overloaded trucks) but to be invested in something that has a lot of face ...

I am sorry to be that dark but I am a poor farang supporting an even poorer family in Isaan ... and it makes me think every day when I see how prices are "manipulated", how much money is drained into wide open pockets and only one group will pay the price ...

foreign investment already sees TH as potentially a liability but the actions taken will not create the stability to attract the high tech industry... and that is a pity as the people I meet coming from the technical universities can easily complete with any graduate from US (excluding the money heavy ones such as MIT and simular).

maybe the gov's PR is not correct and many good things are happening in the background but everything is now geared to show "face" instead of "results" while making sure the big money is safe in the hands of the handfull trusties ...

maybe Mr T should go to watch Belgium with its federal states serving 10M people and supporting 4 governments ... talking about spending $ ... or maybe we should advice the Belgian Prime Minister to talk with Mr T to solve their problem with their local airport and create a new "state"

PVC

talking about tackling the traffic problem from many wrong angles ....

look at major cities in the world --> they have a good metro and (analog to) skytrain system but they also arrange parking spaces for those who use this kind of transport.

they call it in Germany "park and go" . It obviously works for those metropoles (it even works in the US)

but the main issue is here : the size of the transport net and how it is tackled.

while they were constructing the upper highway on bangna tras I see no evidence somebody was thinking about the extensions for skytrain ... but allas ... I forgot the urban planners have probably their own interests in the construction ...

by adding/forcing parking stop/waiting spaces for taxis someone is trying to bring some structure (and probably somebody will get paid for this) in a very unregulated business. and this does not make a lot of sense.

maybe the government should adopt the system as in Singapore : if you want to enter the city you pay for it (using the RFID tags in the cars)

about car pooling : this will never work in thailand: the car is an extention of the "face" value ... I am considered a poor farang because I don't have a car (I save approx 20 000 baht per month by using taxi/skytrain and occassionally renting a car for a few days). They ldon't love their car like the germans but they NEED the car for status and status is not to be shared as it would touch the core of "face" again : it is unimaginable to "ask" a person to share "his/her" ride as it would indicate that the person asking is either poor or even worse "stingy"

my 2 cents

Philip

my experience here in BKK... when I tried to book a package flight with hotel and flight to Pucket for 5000 Baht the travel agency told me it was only for Thai people or when flying together with at least one Thai person in the party... and the normal quote for the same period and time and hotel was suddenly about 15000 baht for Farangs .... not sure what to think about this behavior though. One thing is for sure ... my girlfriend does not want to go to Puhket for the obvious reasons ... too many ghosts around and I am convinced many Thai residents are thinking in the same way, therefor with that special order (for Thai people only) there is only a very marginal group of Thai people that will use this opportunity and for Farangs (even resident here) the price stays at the level before the Tsunami

I agree the law is valid for every province and for all people (i.e. police officers) but early closing times will NOT solve the problems that they want to address ... it will just put people earlier on the street and a lot of dissatisfied people (including tourists) are going to spread the word of being handled as a child and worse...

Countries like Cambodia are going to become new holiday paradises within the next couple of years and Thailand will be for Thai holiday makers again (except for those who live a bit of gambling ofcourse)

net result ... many people are going to be affected on the long/medium term as there will be loss of income for all related industries (including the foodstalls) ...

the problem is complex and there is no "one and direct" solution to the problems addressed (underaged entries, the whole "liberal" industry, the drugs and the alcohol) but I am sure there are better ways to solve them than the closing time.

By the way, the drug problem is not one that is often seen in the "public places" but very visible at many of the "private parties" held by young people ...

my 2 pence ....

Hello All,

coming from a country where bars and cafees stay open all night (Belgium) where it does not seem to have negative impacts on the studying youth population(actually it is the students who are closing most of the cafees in cities like Gent, Brussels and Leuven around 7 am before they go to the courses at university), it is surprising that the nightlife is going to be closed at midnight ... it will not solve the problem I guess for underaged as they simply will disappear earlier in the evening and the tourists will end up early in a hotelroom ... nor will it solve drunk driving... so the big question is : what will it solve? and what are the underlying reasons?

the last group (the normal tourists) will effectively not be happy, even singapore bars stay open till 8 in the morning and they (the tourists) will move to other countries with simular beaches and simular water where they can hang on the bar socialising and drinking and having a good time... a pity for the genuine tourist industry

closing earlier will create an effect as in the UK with the last call ... more beers will be ordered and the same amount of alcohol will be consumed in just a shorter time (how to get drunk faster) or as one of the previous responses ... more will be drunk "at home".

just my 2 pennies for a thought

Hello All,

coming from a country where bars and cafees stay open all night (Belgium) where it does not seem to have negative impacts on the studying youth population(actually it is the students who are closing most of the cafees in cities like Gent, Brussels and Leuven around 7 am before they go to the courses at university), it is surprising that the nightlife is going to be closed at midnight ... it will not solve the problem I guess for underaged as they simply will disappear earlier in the evening and the tourists will end up early in a hotelroom ... nor will it solve drunk driving... so the big question is : what will it solve? and what are the underlying reasons?

the last group (the normal tourists) will effectively not be happy, even singapore bars stay open till 8 in the morning and they (the tourists) will move to other countries with simular beaches and simular water where they can hang on the bar socialising and drinking and having a good time... a pity for the genuine tourist industry

closing earlier will create an effect as in the UK with the last call ... more beers will be ordered and the same amount of alcohol will be consumed in just a shorter time (how to get drunk faster) or as one of the previous responses ... more will be drunk "at home".

just my 2 pennies for a thought