Paagai

Even more, I think the heavy handed police approach to some guys wanting to play music while on an (extended) stay in Thailand is way over the top and does far more harm than good.

My sadness is mostly for Thailand. The musicians involved I'm sure will manage to resolve any legal proceedings, but the damage to Thailand remains.

Please somene also remind me to point out the irony next time some dude (Thai politician or expatriate TV.com windbag) starts blowing his horn about cleaning up the 'dirty' nightlife in Chiang Mai. Well, here is the emergence of somewhat of a clean, enjoyable nighttime music scene, and it get cracked down upon, while nothing gets done about 16 year old girls in bars, or even younger kids walking the streets being exploited selling trinkets.

I believe the "heavy handed police approach" is not what it seems. It's well know that night life in Chiang Mai exists because of a discreet but well established "system" of payments to those who matter. If we didn't have that system everyone would be headed home to bed at midnight, no discos, no late night Karaoke places and certainly no whores or massage joints. I think it's easy to forget that, and people should be careful what they wish for when talking about enforcement.

I see these couple of incidents with Farangs as being not at all about the police caring what a few Farang musicians do, but about maintaining "the system" and the status quo. In that sense they are not "over the top" at all. I'm sure bars will have no problems having Farangs playing music, if they do so in accordance with "the system". I would imagine these raids will have been followed up by a number of discreet visits to music venues all over town explaining how "the system" works and what contributions are required These raids are just part of the power game that happens before the negotiation of "new rates". Especially right now in the months before the election there has been a clear tendency to "make hay while the sun is still shining".

Get over your sadness for Thailand, I'm sure everyone would really be much sadder if night life was cleaned up and everyone headed home alone before midnight Save your sadness for those Farangs, (and some Thai's) who think they can do what they like in Thailand and ignore "The System".

A word of caution about some cold remedies in this part of the world, where the use of meth-amphetamines (Yaa Baa) is out of control, as is the law enforcement meant to stop it.

One reason why some may be banned, or not stocked here is they can, or could, be used to produce amphetamines, the key ingredient being ephedrine used as a decongestant. I believe most modern EU/US over the counter remedies have now had ephedrine based substances replaced by, e.g. Phenylephrine as in Lemsip (which is supposedly much less effective BTW) but some of dubious origin may contain substances which would give a false positive on the BIB's urine test for Yaabaa! Also, one's motives for carrying it in luggage etc could be questioned and let's say "misinterpreted"

In reality, it's probably not a big issue but best to be aware. TIT

Interesting, whilst I don't know the place, I do know the area and it has some very beautiful scenery around there.

One tip: don't make the print too small or use soft/pale colors like browns and yellows for the text or background. My sight is not bad enough that I would normally carry reading glasses, but sometimes I've been in dimly lit restaurants, where the small print and colours used make menus almost unreadable, especially when the only immediate light comes from a small candle. I notice several of my farang friends suffer the same problem....

Worst offender was the fancy Italian place at Le Meridien, nice design maybe, but having the entire menu on a small rolled up parchment style scroll with medieval style brown writing was totally impractical. The waitress had the cheek to say "many people complain about the menu"; we left! To add insult to injury we were with two Thai's who don't speak English - and they didn't have a menu in Thai either. Not what I'd expect from a five star international hotel!

BTW: if you just need a printer there are many print shops in the two sois off Chang Puek Road on the left immediately opposite and after the whit elephant monument when coming out of town. I don't know how many would offer design services too.

If there's a part of town that really needs cleaning up because of the age of the whores it's further down Loy Kroh. Tucked away down a veritable sleaze alley behind the D2 hotel, off Thapae Soi 1, is a group of gay bars where half the freelancers look like they should be still in school. I can't understand why a premier hotel chain such as Dusit puts up with such venues in their back yard.

Interesting video documentary filmed only a few months ago about what really goes on there in This article.

I just found this little tidbit on the Red Lion website:

On Friday 29th April we will be showing the Royal Wedding Live from about 1pm onwards. Since Thailand is 5 hours ahead of the UK the wedding ceremony will begin at 5pm local time.

Which means I will still be at work, and will miss the ceremony. Ah, well. Will have to wear me hat another time...

I think Thailand is 6 hours ahead.

I concur, GMT +7 with BST now in operation means 6 hours. Not sure I understand the Red Lion though, 1 p.m. BST plus 6 hours would be 7 p.m. Or does it mean Red Lion coverage will start at 1 p.m.(Thai) and the ceremony starts around 5 p.m. Thai? Bit ambiguous.

Anyway, as the Queen mum used to say to her footmen, "will one of you Queens get this old Queen a gin tonic" Oh how we love the Queen, ooooohhh can't wait I've bough my new hat especially Fabulous.

thanks for the map i will be staying at the wiang inn, what is the best time in your opinion to visit the bars?

Probably after 9 p.m., don't leave it too late as Chiang Rai is a sleepy town and not much is open into late night. The bars don't have a show so there's nothing to miss if you don't go at a certain time. Regency had a couple of boys dancing go-go on a podium last time I went.

Personally I'd go to the Night Bazaar about 8.30 p.m. then head to the bars when I'd got bored of flirting with the beer boys in the food court Of course, there are some restaurants to eat at, but the Night Bazaar has so many food stalls you can order just about anything and the boys will bring it to the table

Enjoy - we look forward to the kiss and tell report!

Same old same, was there a couple of weeks back. Two host bars remain, Regency (next to Wang Come Hotel) is now the better with a few boys, though nothing to shout about. Lobos, moved up the Soi a couple of years ago into a single shop house and is now just called Boy Bar or something - Rather dire.

Night Bazaar is always friendly with plenty of fun guys hanging around the food court and beer counter if you speak Thai.

Sperm club (a bit south of the town center) is rumored to be popular club with the local boys, especially at weekends, though I haven't tried.

thanks are those bars near the roandabout with the clock?

is the wang com hotel the same as the wiang inn hotel?

rick

Yes - near the clock.

A google map saves a thousand words: Google map for bar location in Chiang Rai

Wangcome hotel and Wiang Inn are not the same. Wangcome is very Chinese and quite dated now, Wiang Inn is better and more modern IMHO, and probably only slightly more expensive.

Can't help the OP, but noting PeaceBlondie is in action on this forum again has made my day! Greetings PB: Texas or Sankampheang?

Same old same, was there a couple of weeks back. Two host bars remain, Regency (next to Wang Come Hotel) is now the better with a few boys, though nothing to shout about. Lobos, moved up the Soi a couple of years ago into a single shop house and is now just called Boy Bar or something - Rather dire.

Night Bazaar is always friendly with plenty of fun guys hanging around the food court and beer counter if you speak Thai.

Sperm club (a bit south of the town center) is rumored to be popular club with the local boys, especially at weekends, though I haven't tried.

This lady might know

Edit: dunno why the you-tube embed code ain't working....

Neimenhamin rd.(sp) directly across the street from the college bar Warm Up! If you go at night, (which I did first time at 10:30 p.m. on a Friday) you will see many ,many beautiful girls walking down street going to Warm Up.

Why not cut to the chase and go straight to Warm Up and buy the beautiful girls some drinks? Oh, sorry, we just blew our budget on a 129 Bt Burger.........

Now if I am hearing these stories, then the police are too.

The police pay foreign information sources quite well. I am not one of their sources, but someone I know is, he drinks in all these bars and is paid well for the information he provides to the police.

Drugs, who is using, who is selling, working without permits, who they are, who pays them under the counter, etc.

Working for the police is about the only employment that you can safely do as a foreigner without a WP.

Me thinks you've been watching too much TV, or know very little about the way the BIB work

If they want information they can get it for free on

Why would they pay for information when they have so many co-erced informers working for free? Plenty of people out on the streets because "helping the police", was an alternative to jail time, including some Farangs

Or did you mean the tourist Police volunteers?

Of course there is one line of Police business that employs many in CM but we won't go there...........

WETV was down as well. The Thais in my home were panicking that they would miss the soap operas.

As I recall a big complaint at the last coup was many people DID miss the soap operas If the military are smart next time, rather than black outs, or patriotic music, they'll play soap operas on every channel to keep the local indoors

As yet I still have not seen any official or media reports regarding this incident.

I guess whether or not it gets reported depends on how the money was passed over, or under the table

Between the copyright police mafia and immigration it may not be long before the only music in Chiang Mai is that coming from the sound trucks advertising in the streets.... Or is that just noise

I think evil is the root of all evil.

Nope Religion and Testosterone

I'll let my signature speak for me Off to drink beer

Seems the BIB can't win on this forum: damned if they do, damned if they don't. If someone get's burgled, or their motosai or phone stolen there's the posts whingeing about them doing too little. Yet when they do their job, like enforcing the law against a farang who is in flagrant breach of it and flaunting it in their faces that's wrong too. The law about not selling alcohol between 2 and 5 p.m. is well known, whilst sometimes they turn a blind eye, (often with some incentives ) , that's no defence or excuse when they do enforce it, especially when the probability of them doing so has been well known for weeks.

This is songkran.

Indeed, and every year there is a thread on Thai Visa about the bad behaviour of a few Farangs getting everyone else a bad name....... Just like the Rain thread at the start of rainy season, and the polution thread (thankfully avoided this year )at the first sign of smog, the height of the Mae Ping thread in August..... These things come to pass .

Unfortunately, many Farangs come here on holiday and leave their brains at home. Would like to see how long they'd last throwing buckets of water at people travelling to work anywhere lese in the world

Came across a real fun Thai Band in Santitham last night, several young guys playing Reggae and scar/soul type stuff including a great trombone player, a trumpeter, bongo drums and several good singers. Quite a refreshing change from the norm there, and the guys looked like they were thoroughly enjoying themselves (never had such fun since "Arthur Two Stroke and the Chart Comandoes" )

Dunno the name of the band as we were actually drinking in the bar next door The bar is recently opened in Santitham Plaza and called Jaophaya (or something like that) sign is in Thai with a Bob Marley image on it. Will definitely go again!

BTW where exactly is this place? the Plaza referred to? are the bars all in one place or scattered off soi's?

Santitham Plaza is a large, low cost condo development in the center of Santitham. Unusually, the developer has a social conscience and tried to make a nicer place to live than the normal "battery chicken farm" style dormitories around town. They added plenty of parking, a swimming pool, gym, large A/C food court, massage centre, a nice coffee shop with garden and lots of small shops. Real nice . The shops never made it and gradually the bars crept in to occupy the space. Now virtually everything there apart from the swimming pool and gym is wall to wall bars catering to the student trade

If you don't know the area, come from the superhighway and take the road immediately after and alongside the Chiang Mai Grand View hotel. Keep going straight and you'll end up in Santitham Plaza. Or if you come north on Santitham Road from the traffic circle (Haa Yak Santitham) take the first or second left after Lotus Express.

It's shown on this Google Map just ignore the other stuff if not your thing

While it's great to see people falling over themselves to advise Moger how to "game" the visa system,has anyone considered the possibility that he actually works for immigration and will use your well-intentioned advice to clamp down on such fiddles.

But then again it would imply that someone at Immigration gives a dam_n and they have any interest in enforcing the law.

Well, they gave enough of a dam_n to check out who is playing at Guitarman on Facebook

One issue I've hear with ED visas is technically they expire the date the course finishes (might have 7 days grace?), not the date stated on the visa. I've heard of people getting busted at immigration on exit for big overstays due to this. If it's regular school/Uni immigration know term dates etc....

Does anybody seriously think True Vision will continue to sit by happily and watch illegal suppliers charge 400 baht for full service that normally costs 1500?! Of course they will ultimately find a way to block the signal or stop the suppliers.

Although I hate True for their rubbish over priced service, I still wont have any sympathy for bleaters and moaners when your ILLEGAL feed gets blocked.

One has to wonder what True's agenda is; there is a lot more they could be doing to stop the piracy. Both in terms of civil and criminal legal action against the pirates, and technical measures to prevent the piracy methods used by Dreambox from working. For a relatively large corporation they seem quite lax in their policy, which makes you wonder who is really behind the pirates!

There's a double edged sword, if you have weaknesses in the scrambling system, and poor enforcement of the law against pirates it's hard to get access to good content. Result: "rubbish over priced service".

Santitham? am I missing something? there are bar girls there? pray tell more (for research purposes)

Oh Yes!

As I understand it Santitham was the original Red Light District for Thais long before sex-pats and tourists ever showed up here. Some remnants of that business still exist, along with a plethora of short time hotels.

More recently, Santitham has become student party central with new bars springing up everywhere, especially in and around Santitham Plaza. Most are staffed by young girls in skimpy dresses serving drinks, but I'm sure they can be more enterprising when the rent and tution fees are due There are also several Karaoke type places where the business model is fairly obvious. These places are mainly Thai only clientelle and you won't find much English spoken.