Awk

Seen people recommend North Wheels, and have rented from them a couple of times myself over the years (both scooters and cars), without any special issues, good or bad. If facing Spicy, they are about 30m to the left.

This guy was working here as a teacher at the time. Aren't teachers here covered by insurance and/or social security?

That is a good point.

I'm sure there are some exceptions (e.g., perhaps it needs to be a full-time job), but the employer is supposed to pay a small

amount into the social security fond for each employee. The employee is then entitled to free medical care (presumably there are some restrictions regarding what hospitals he can go to, but not sure about that), which from what I've heard, has quite extensive coverage.

Of course, we all know there are many teachers working for employers who can not be bothered setting things up properly, so no idea if the above applies to this unlucky gentleman or not.

I honestly can't think of any other reason he has stayed in Chiang Mai other than a civil suit and the hopes of some cash. Am i missing something? You can go home and get free health care and welfare to help you out in your time of need. Why is he still in Thailand?

It takes at least three months to have your health insurance reinstated - I had to pay out of pocket when I went home for a short time. Maybe they will make exceptions, or maybe he can be reimbursed once he gets medical coverage again... We don't really know the details though. Also, he may have better employment opportunities here...?

If it's anything like my own country, where we are (supposedly) "afforded the luxury of a wonderful healthcare system and amazing social assistance", there would certainly be no reimbursement for costs prior to the period where coverage was reinstated. I would assume treatment after coverage was reinstated would be covered, though I would have to read up on it to be certain; could be treatment for injuries sustained while without coverage would not be covered, similar to the conditions in most insurance policies.

But I am sure such things are only one of the many possible reasons for why the man has found it best for him to remain where he is at the time being. Some TV-members of course know better, seeing all the details and facts in their magic beer glass.

Canadians are afforded the luxury of a wonderful healthcare system and amazing social assistance ... at home.

As a Canadian, if this were to happen to me, I'd probably suck it up and go back home (as unpalatable as that may be.)

No sympathy for the e-beggar. There's people out there that really need help.

The man does not give the impression of being an idiot, so one can assume there are things that make going back to Canada not the best choice for him right now, whatever those things may be. Do you know different, or are you just posting out of ignorance ... from home?

Rather than waste time on another useless post, you could perhaps do something useful by going to "http://www.gofundme.com/66ajwg".

I like Street Pizza off Tha Phae Rd and By Hand Pizza off Moon Muang, esp the latter. Both use rustic, wood-fired ovens.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Street-Pizza/173072176066467

https://www.facebook.com/byhandcafe?ref=hl

Have tried them both once now, and agree they both serve decent pizza, with my preference being By Hand Pizza, though it does not seem to open before 17:00. In particular the dough at By Hand Pizza is nice.

So thanks for the recommendation, I would never have considered to trying to eat at By Hand Pizza without it, considering the appearance of the shop and its staff. Reminded me too much of a recent experience in Hua Hin, where I accidently noticed a restaurant with a "Italian Pizza" sign outside. More appropriately it should have said something like "Isaan Pizza - same same Italian but different". One slice of the pizza was enough for me, though my daughter was hungry and had a couple. Pizza By Hand was fine though, staff too.

Good to have some decent alternatives to the long drive out on Hang Dong road to Pizza and Pasta, which in my opinion is still number one.

wish to refer to posts #3 and 4

your contribition to the opening post is appalling and thats putting it nicely

why make such derogative remarks to the handicapped accredited massuers???

suggest that a large bottle of listerine is needed in both cases

and from me to both of yous .... shame...fullstop

No problems with #4 as far as I am concerned, but I suspect the problem with #3 might be that when the member is so small

it can not be felt, visual aid is necessary.

For us others, I suspect a blind masseuse would do fine, and all other things being equal, i.e., training and experience, perhaps even be better. Have been curious to try for a long time, but never done it yet.

There is no import duty for laptops in Thiland, just the standard 7% sales tax.

I ordered a laptop from USA a couple of years ago, clearly marked as laptop, and had no problems receiving it here in Chiang Mai after paying the 7% tax.

Fishy fishy story, If sitting in your car, why would you lower the widow far enough for the guy to punch you and why hand over you valuables if you are safely in your car - just closed the window and drive off. Also, were the "valuable" found on the motor cyclist.

A bullsh1t story if there was ever one.

Have you ever driven a car? On most modern cars, when you press the "open window switch", the default action is to roll it down all the way. Since people are normally not overly paranoid or careful, that is usually not considered a problem.

I'm sure the robber did not stand waving his knife outside the rolled down window at a safe distance. Since he was close enough to punch the guy in the car, he was obviously close enough to push his knife into the car also. With a knife an inch or two from your head or neck, pushing the "close window switch" and waiting a second or two for the window to close is something I suspect you will be alone in trying. But good luck with that.

I sent him the link this morning... Got an email back just saying '555'.

Same from the message I sent his son Heinrich.

I guess his daughter, Eva, would respond likewise?

It is however of some comfort to know, if what you say is true, that this is just some idiot with nothing better to do than amuse himself by flashing obnoxious pictures. If he had half a set of balls, he'd swap that cover for something the locals know the meaning of. That would be more interesting, albeit short-lived I expect.

How much is more than you want to pay? You could probably get one made at Baan Tawai for 8,000 or less, perhaps even down to 5-6,000.

E.g., my partly teakwood bed (headrest of teak, rest hardwood) cost 10,000 for queen size after some light bartering.

For a less fancy headrest, and hardwood all the way, I suspect 8,000 would have been accepted without much said. And from there on, you could make the rest of the bed more plain too of course. Not that my bed is particularly extravagant, but it is a league (rather than just a notch) above what you see in the average studio, so there is room to make it plainer and cheaper. Quoted delivery time was around three weeks, but took closer to six weeks if I recall correctly. I paid 25% up front.

I'm Jewish and had many relatives killed in the holocaust and think anybody who says basically it's ok because they are not also a Jew must be either a racist, ignorant or both!

More than happy to answer, I am neither ignorant nor a racist.

But then again, you all say that, don't you.

I finished my 4 for 210, Leo Yai promo at 9:15 last night, and there were about 100 customers at the Dayli, and the whole Nimman area was rockin'. Market with tables only had Leos that were more than two months old; so I gave that a miss, but did do a very good 6" ham at Subway for 49 thb on my way home. Nothing extra notable, but a French guy at the beer cooler had BO so bad it would have knocked the buzzards off a manure cart.

Could you see if mamborobert might give you some hints on how to make a story slightly entertaining before you try again? Thanks.

Am going to say something controversial in nature here.

Had I been on one the boats or on shore near by I may've also been reluctant or hesitant to help. As a foreigner I would be worried that whichever one I saved, he might turnaround and accuse me of killing his friend or trying to kill him. I stress this though as a foreigner and not as one those old boat runners pictured in the film. Imagine jumping in (not knowing that it was being filmed) and swimming out to the boy. Then people who'd not noticed the boys until now saw this big white man clutching a boy or both of them, and then makes it back to the shore and saves one.

Later, the family saying how well their children can swim having lived on the river all their lives but this sick foreigner tried to harm or assault the young boy and his brother tried to save him but the evil foreigner pushed his head under water. The child goes along with his parents story and there's out rage amongst the community and the police call the foreigner in for questioning. Such out rage in the national news later that day ensures the arrest and trial of the foreigner who without an enormous amount of money is sentenced to 30 years in a Thai jail. NO THANK YOU.

If you must live by the river teach your children to swim.

I think a great career in writing fantasy novels awaits you.

Think he will first have to understand the difference between "controversial" and "very, very, retarded". Hope nobody else is stupid enough to believe the above rubbish. On the other hand, cowards will make all sorts of excuses to themselves for why they did not help somebody who needed it. Not that I would advocate jumping into a river to help somebody unless you are a strong swimmer or have some rope or similar to throw to the people drowning, but the above nonsense from Zodaka is not the reason to not help.

Thailand and its Thai people, as selfish a group of people I have ever met ... me me me

Not saying you are incorrect but remembering a legit story about a tourist in China who found a new-born baby girl laying on the side of a street. She took the child and gave it to a police officer who then threw it into a trash box. Then of course there are the American bankers..... seems to me they are quite a selfish lot also.

There are so many reasons for people to be selfish.

Frankly though I cannot fault the two in the boats, to me it looked as though neither saw any distress and likely saw a few kids having fun in the water.

A tragic lesson here: There should have been only one victim. It appears that the second who went to rescue the first was not experienced and possibly not a strong swimmer. I remember being told never to attempt to rescue a drowning victim because their instinct is to grab you around the neck--and hold on fiercely, dragging you under. I'm not an experienced swimmer but seem to remember that to rescue someone you must manage to come up behind them to prevent just that.

As far as the person taking the video I doubt that there was a rope or flotation device, had there been one, it would have long since been removed.

What I learned, 20 years ago, was that you should never have direct contact with the drowning person. Neither from the front or the back, as he will, as you say, almost certainly panic and hold on to your neck, dragging you down. What you must do instead is to extend something for him to hold on to. A battery-powered flotation device that automatically pulls to the nearest shore would be best of course, but lacking that, anything else, be it a stick, a belt, or even just your shirt. Throw it to the person and ask him to hold on to it, and then try to pull him with you to the shore.

Should he still manage to grab you directly and try to drag you down, you are in serious trouble. Do not waste your power resisting, but instead try to push yourself even further down in the water until he lets go of you, as at that point you are the one dragging him down. Even when panicking he will, hopefully, let go of you then.

I think the local lifeguard test at that time involved having to hold onto a person (directly, even though we were learned never to do that. Hmm.) and pull him with you, head above the water, for 50m or something like that. Not sure how far it was, but quite certain it was not more than 50m. Even though we were all quite fit young people, and fairly good swimmers too, and this was in a swimmingpool without any waves or other complicating matters, it was quite tiresome. 50 metres does not sound like much, but more than one of us needed to do the test again, and again, as they ran out of power before completing the 50m. Either running out of time or out of power.

After that, all those stories about people jumping out into the river to help somebody drowning, and ending up drowning themselves also, made a lot more sense to me.

Lifeguards also need to learn how to spot somebody who is in trouble, rather than just playing in the water. Contrary to what many of the somewhat retarded bashers here seem to believe, that is far from obvious in many cases.

Ignoring the barstool-warriors always so happy to bash the citizens of the country the live in or are visiting, presumably due to some inferiority complex on their own part, it seems much more likely that the boatmen had no idea there was a problem. Just some kids, a few metres from the shore, playing in the water. Probably the boatmen see this countless of times every week, and had little reason to think they should study the scene in detail. I suspect they feel terrible about it now though. :-/

There is a benefit for Nic at the North Gate Jazz Club, Saturday evening.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/lite/breakingnews/405689/injured-samaritan-suffers-wait-for-justice

Nice to see this still getting some coverage in at least one major news paper, and hopefully others too.

What time is the Saturday event, if you know? I'd like to drop by with a small contribution. Hopefully others here will too, as this by all accounts looks like a very decent person.

An interview with him was also posted before:

they must have seen you coming because i've just returned from a long weekend in CM and found the song taew drivers to be refreshingly straight forward and i was never over charged - or at least i paid what the thai passengers were paying!

maybe your attitude or attire marks you out as a target for over charging?

Just curious, what attire makes you a target for over-charging, and better still how should we dress to get the best price?

Looking like you: over-charge. Looking like amexpat: good price. Free if sitting in front.

I don't think @letic has any AC, at least none that I have noticed.

Sorry, checked again today and it does indeed have some ACs.

The new one on 102 has A/C but I think you have to request that it be turned on (this according to the owner). I was in Letic last week paying for the car wash next door and it certainly did not seem to be A/Cd at that time. Needing a really cool (cold!) place to work out, I bought my own equipment and use a third bedroom in my home as a gym so I can keep the A/C at 22c (72f) when I exercise. Even businesses here that have A/C set the thermostat to 25 or higher because to the cost of electricity. I sweat while shopping in Tesco!

I don't think @letic has any AC, at least none that I have noticed. They have some sort of cooling machine (one only I think), but apart from that seem to get by using fans in the ceiling. Wouldn't mind if if was a little cooler, but good enough for me (has the required squat rack and standard 20kg barbell, which as anyone will tell you, is all you really need).

The gym at Sport Villa is nonsense, though I admire whoever they used to take the gym photos they publish on their website. He did an excellent job at making it look like a half-decent gym.

Didn't bother checking out the other gyms this time as I'm only visiting for a few weeks. I read later somewhere (another forum?) that @letic has a farang surcharge, making the cost 2200B per month for farang instead of 1700B as it is for Thai. Not sure if that is true or not. Anyone know? If so, I'll definitely try one of the other gyms next time, but as-is, I do not know, so please do not assume this is the case unless someone else can confirm it.

Makro has a very good deal on Salmon, 160 Bht a Kg., tail cuts,its in the frozen

food section,same Salmon, middle cuts are 450 bht a Kg.

regards worgeordie

http://www.farmedanddangerous.org/salmon-farming-problems/

and people are worried about genetically modified corn?

It may not be farm-raised salmon The cheapest salmon is pink salmon which isn't farmed. Low in fat, not a lot of flavor. I go to Makro frequently and will give it a check.

That would certainly be interesting. Norway is one of the worlds biggest exporters of salmon, and a lot of the salmon I've seen in Thailand originates from Norway. This is all farmed salmon of course.

Last year I was working in Norway for several months, and I at that time read in the local papers that after a lot of pressure from various people and organizations, the official, government-sanctioned recommendation, was changed to "max two servings a week" for young women and children. This was based on the large amount of very unhealthy crap the farmed norwegian salmon is fed, including special things to make the meat change colour to red (a marine biologist who did her Ph.d thesis on something salmon-related told me that without this special food additive, the meat of the farmed salmon would look sickly grey).

Considering the enormous amount of time and money Norway has invested into its salmon farming business, exporting around the world, one can only imagine how much pressure and how serious the health consequences must be for its government to come out with such a recommendation. Having until then been enjoying tasteful and relatively cheap norwegian salmon several times a week, and big portions at that (can not buy small farmed salmon), I stopped eating norwegian salmon there and then. Non-farmed salmon was available, but only in special shops, very expensive, and not at the time I was there.

I'd be very surprised if non-farmed salmon was available here, but it is not impossible I guess. Please do follow-up after checking.

Just 50m south of Market Village, on the same side of the road and just past the Vietnamese restaurant, but before the row of massage shops, there is a fairly plain and simple, but big, Thai restaurant. Serves not remarkable, but good and reasonably priced food. I'm in particular fond of the Tom Yum Talee (tom yum seafood soup), but they also have more exotic dishes. Menu has English text also. Have eaten there a dozens times or so over the years when visiting Hua Hin, and don't think I've had any complaints.

Thanks for the replies. I was busy for a few days but finally had time to check out some shops. AIS seems to be the only option. The device costs about 1500 baht and the 3G packages are, if I remember correctly, 299 baht for 300MB, 399 baht for 1GB, and 699 baht for 4GB. After reaching these limits the speed slows down, I assume a lot. If anyone know of a better deal please let me know.

I'm now debating whether to use this service or finally break down and buy the cheapest smartphone I can find that will function as a hotspot.

I have a reasonably new smartphone (Samsung S4 mini) and have been using its hotspot feature the last few weeks.

I only use it 3-4 hours every day, but often at some point during that time, the Internet-part of the phone stops working and I am unable to get it to work again without restarting the phone. I suspect "the cheapest smartphone you can find "will work even less well, so next time I will buy a dedicated device for this, hoping it will work more reliable.

A thing to note regarding the various packages is that at least DTAC has two reduced speeds. Depending on what package you buy, the speed gets reduced to either 384 kbps or 64 kbps, which is quite a difference. I would guess other providers have a similar scheme.

Another excellent new restaurant called Baan Steak is located in the row of shop houses on Soi 102. Just drive across the railroad tracks and its the third or forth shop house on the right just two or three businesses past the pharmacy. It is a Thai fusion sort of restaurant owned and operated by a very nice Thai couple. The man is the chef and I say chef instead of cook because he is a professional chef with 32 years experience in 5 star hotels around Thailand resort communities, most recently the Dusit here in Hua Hin.

I wish I had taken photos of the meals he served as they were works of art in themselves. The name is deceiving as they do have steak, but they also offer a variety of seafood options as well as chicken, pork and others. The food is excellent and well priced and service, quality, and cleanliness are well above the usual for a small shop house restaurant like this. The only negative of the whole experience is that if you sit outside, especially at the outermost tables you may get some noise and odors coming from the motorcycle repair shop next door as they seem to work until 8 or 9 p.m.

We had New Zealand Mussels baked with garlic and cheese, fillet steak with pepper sauce served with some vegetables and french fries, the best (pork) cordon bleu I've seen here also with veggies and fries and 5 beers for 925 baht. Large portions and excellent food for that price including the beers (which were approximately a third of the bill).

Open evenings for dinner only.

Was looking forward to visiting it, but unfortunately it has, according to a women at a neighbouring restaurant/bar, been closed for about two months now.

Anyone know where I can find a car accessories shop? I am looking for a small refrigerator that runs of the 12V cigarette lighter socket in the car.

betcha they could deny a warranty claim for using certain third party filters.

I also suspect so. And in fairness, it would not necessarily be in bad form of them to do it. They design and build the system for a certain type of filter, and if somebody installs a filter with a much higher air resistance and that forces the motor to work that much harder, it would not be unfair for the company to not want to warrant everything in the same way.

I am sure there are some exceptions, but in general I think no AC do a specially good job at filtering out small particles, but even old ACs will filter out some, both small and larger particles.

I suspect the best is to research what thirdparty AC filters (filters you will use to replace the stock filters that come with the AC unit, not the disposable 3M material) are available for what locally sold ACs. Then buy one of the ACs for which you can get a good thirdparty filter for. Unlike the stock AC filters, these thirdparty filters are designed to do a good job at filtering out stuff, and hopefully there are some reviews of them available.

Why do stock AC filters not do a better job? I suspect it is simply that virtually nobody who buys an AC cares or even gives it a single thought. Certainly I did not until very recently.

What exactly is wrong with the 3M filter material? It certainly collects more paticulate than the stock filters and in Thailand is readily available. I doubt you can find a ready source for the filters you speak of.

Yes, indeed it does. I did not mean to imply there was anything wrong with them, though upon re-reading I see how one could think it, so sorry about that.

It is a bit of a hassle imo to replace them as it takes some time to do properly, making sure it seals the whole area properly and does not detach after some days of use. I would prefer a long-lasting thirdparty filter with a similar filter rating which I could clean myself every now and then. Perhaps it will also be cheaper in the long run. Even if the filter is not available locally, it is not something you would need to replace often. So if I could find an AC and a long-lasting filter with a similar rating to buy, even if I had to order from abroad, I would do that.

E.g. the 3M filtrete sold at HomePro has a MERV rating of 11 I believe, according to http://iheatcool.com/buying-ac/air-conditioning-heating-system-accessories/filters/air-conditioner-filter-ratings/ , which also shows the rating for other types of 3M filtrete.