fiddlehead

I'm not aware of this CentralWorld. (if that is the same as the "Central" mall near Big C, then they must have some new music stores that i haven't seen yet)

But, if i were you, i'd go to one of the small shops that cater to the professional musicians around the island.

My favorite is Music Zone on the Choafa East road near where the road from Cape Panwa meets Choafa.

There is another in Old Phuket town called Harmonic that is also pretty good as well as the oldest one: "Do Re Mi" near the clock in old town (near CAT and TOT) The last one is slightly more expensive.

I find that when you go to the malls here and see a guitar, it is usually a Chinese piece of junk.

Stick to known brands like Yamaha, Takemine, Fender, etc. and you'll get what you pay for.

It's getting more obvious with every newly passed visa/immigration law: The Thai government simply doesn't want farangs living here.

They continue to make it tougher and tougher for us to stay.

I would love to sit in on their think-tank meetings and see what are some of the options discussed.

I am not from Bankok although i've driven through it a few times.

Once to Pantip Plaza.

Traffic can be very tough, especially morning and afternoon rush hours.

The last few times, i had a GPS and it was much easier.

If you don't, and are really not wanting to deal with the traffic and directions (no GPS)

I would suggest parking your car somewhere where you can find a parking spot and have someone right down the location so that a cab driver can find it coming back, and get a cab.

That's my 2 cents on your problem anyway.

saw a friend yesterday who seems to have it.

Fever, very achy muscles, fever goes up and down.

Lives in Nai Harn

I fish there.

No restrooms though ( i don't know of any at nai harn either)

Bang Wad sounds like what you want although they are doing construction over there now and the walkable part may be in their construction site.

But there is an island on the east side about 3/4 of the way up that might work too.

Oh, no food up near the island.

The main area for parking (near the breast) only has food on weekends when it gets crowded.

Yesterday some kids came with a pickup truck full of speakers and cranked them up so loud, they chased about 40 people away.

I really wanted to say something to them but my wife said "no way"

you could tell everyone was upset about it but not one person went over to talk to them. So, they left instead.

I agree that Ao Sane has probably the best for the cheapest price.

The bungalows are a bit rustic, but they are only 400-500 baht a night.

Ya Nuy beach has some rooms although the snorkeling isn't quite as good as over at Ao Sane (2 spots over there)

I believe All Seasons is only around 900 right now but don't know of any snorkeling very close except for the two mentioned above and they are both 1-2 kms away.

Ao Sane is fairly remote for other action though of course.

It's a 3 year old thread for one thing.

Not much has changed and i have serious doubts that they could change it.

There are sex bars all over this country. Not just in the tourist areas.

My last one i bought in the states.

Bought it online when it was on sale at Best Buy and had it sent to my brother who brought it over to me.

Paid $600 for a Toshiba model that was 28k baht here.

I would do the same again if i needed one.

If i didn't have that choice, i see the new shop at Home Pro Chalong called Banana has some pretty nice deals.

I'm checking out those netbooks myself. (but would still probably get it cheaper on sale in the states, or a similar model)

I'm partial to Toshiba and wouldn't buy an Acer. (cheap components IMO)

Yeah, there's lots of places around that do this.

I don't know your area either but look for an aluminum shop.

There are 3 of them within 2 kms of me here in Rawai that i know of.

Two places come to my mind.

The football field up near the windmill between Nai Harn and Laem PromThep has an oval track around a (looks like) standard sized football field.

You would have to walk it off to make sure of the distance i imagine.

The other is a straight shot: The dam breast at Bang Wad dam in Kathu.

I estimate the straight away (between the closed gates) at 500 meters.

Again, you'd have to walk it off and in that choice, you couldn't run it out and would have to stop in the remaining 100 meters (or whatever) as the gates are almost always closed.

Also, I have never been inside the football field stadium at Sapan Hin in Phuket Town, but that's probably a standard 400 meter track.

I had a much different experience at International Hospital than your friend.

They treated me great. I only had one complaint and that was that the guy steering the gurney on my way to the operating room kept bumping into things and i was in pain at the time. (and i remember the ladies in the OR where all watching TV when i was getting ready to go under)

But the nurses were friendly, always there when i needed them, my room was cleaned daily, the doctor was great. ( have a very small scar now)

I remember when i checked out, a nurse said goodbye to me and she could tell i didn't remember her, then she asked and i said no. She said, "on your first night here, you were in a lot of pain and i sat up with you all night" I hadn't remembered. Wish i had.

I could tell you some horror stories about hospitals in the US also that might shock you.

Or Bangkok Phuket Hospital. They all have their days i guess.

Yes, i noticed that the water table is still down. Even though we've had a decent amount of rain.

If this island ever has a drought, we're in big trouble.

To the OP, i suggest you get some tanks that you can fill via your rain gutters.

At least you will have some water when it rains. (don't know about pressure in your area)

Troll all the way!

Not even very original.

And why not?

Look at their choices.

I was at a construction site the other day watching things going on.

They had 6 men and about 20 women pouring concrete into a hole in the deep ground making a solid foundation.

The men would take the ingredients from the ladies and dump it into the mixer and turn it on (electric) and watch it and then dump it into a big container.

The women would then line up and about 15 of them would carry the cement about 100 meters to the hole where they passed it down a line to 3 men at the bottom who would then dump it into where it was needed.

Now, to me, they easily could have moved the mixer closer to the hole (it was a huge hole and probably worked it for days)

But, i honestly think that whoever was in charge simply said, no worries, we'll just have the women carry it over there.

ALL the women were working very hard and the men were just standing around waiting for them and doing a lot of laughing.

It's this or the rice paddies (or a farang man) for their choices.

What would you choose?

To the Original question: I think it is a product of social life where you come from.

I come from a very small town where people walking on the street usually always say hello to each other.

People from cities have learned that making even eye contact can be dangerous (IMO)

Interesting story: I built a house for my mother in law up in Issan.

We go to visit there aprox. once a year.

There is a farang who is retired there and is the only farang living in a town of aprox 200 Thai people.

When i see him at the market or anywhere for that matter, i am prepared to greet him and find out more about him and his life there. (must be tough)

He ignores me. Looks the other way! I can't believe it.

My wife says it's because his wife is a higher social status than my wife and she tells him not to talk to me.

Hope he enjoys that life. I certainly would be ready to babble for an hour or two if i saw another farang once a year.

She also said she heard he's a retired policeman from England. Go figure!

If i was going to try to generalize nationalities on who behaves the best, I would think the Ozzies would be in the same pigeonhole with the younger rowdie Brits, Irish, Americans as perhaps a little louder than most.

Then in the next box (a little more well behaved, but not the best) would be Scandinavians, Germans, French and Dutch

I think the best behaved that I've seen would be the Swiss with possibly the Canadians being second.

Not sure where i'd put the Italians, Spanish, Russians, Finnish, etc. as i have not seen so many of them out partying like this VP apparently has.

That is, if I were to be the judge from some of the ones that i've seen.

But, who has any right to judge these things? Certainly not me.

A bar owner perhaps.

A VP of Phuket dept of tourism? Perhaps not.

Another vote for Kasikorn.

They all have their quirks. Especially if you compare them to western banks.

For example, yesterday I went in to my local Kasikorn bank because someone bought a bicycle from me and paid by a check from Bangkok bank.

1st they said: you need an account to deposit that into and must wait 7 days.

I said, no problem, i have 4 accounts here (one savings, 2 fixed accounts, one being for my son, but in my name, and one in US dollars only account)

They said: No, none of those accounts will work because the savings account is the only one we can use for this and you opened that account 8 years ago in Patong, so must go there to deposit it.

I said: Oh c'mon, i've been coming here for 5 years and do everything else here.

They said: You'll have to open another account then So i did. No i have 5

I had to deposit 500 baht and didn't bother getting an ATM card which would've cost another 300 baht. (the 500 is only a deposit but the 300 baht ATM fee goes to them)

So, now i'll wait 7 days till the money gets in there, and then cancel the account.

Someone then told me afterwards that they get 100 baht for opening new accounts so that's why they will easily open one for you.

Just need your passport and the 500 baht minimum deposit for the savings account.

Good luck.

>>for a start i would not be in their circumstances

Does that mean that you would never rent a house in Thailand, or that you would rent a house with no electricity? Or would you have renters insurance and after the fire was declared an electrical accident, you would double up your renters insurance in case you came back to Thailand and were no found to have started the fire by a new arson investigator that was in the landlord's pocket?

Added:  Personally I don't like the whinging or begging either, but that's besides the point.

Yes, i think the point is that this happened to them because they were farang. Pure and simple IMO.

A Thai person would've fought it and probably won.

The crooks here (most likely) assumed the farangs didn't have time to fight it and the landlord could recoup some easy money.

I didn't know that they were begging for money. I remember a fund raiser was held by some of their close friends and the word never went public (to Logan and Urica's wishes) I think it is more about moral support between good friends. Perhaps in Australia they are crying poverty but they certainly didn't do that here.

INterestin observation about Makro.

I like the place as they make you buy huge quantities of most things. (which means you don't have to go shopping so often)

But my (Thai) wife hates it. She says they make you buy more than you need.

She prefers to go to the farmers market every day and buy what she needs that day.

I'm ok with that as long as she doesn't mind going and i don't have to go along.

But, i think it shows one of the differences between farangs and Thais in the way that they think.

Farangs tend to plan ahead a bit and Thai people like to "live for today" of course.

Lots of opinions on what happened. Only a few know.

BUT, there is supposedly a video.

They are probably trying to decide right now how best to cash in on the video.

It should be quite the youtube sensation when it does get released.

I say she knew it was in there. (just a guess of course, that's all we can do at this point)

It is my guess that they couldn't make a big splash while they here because they were afraid of getting detained again.

So, they waited until they went back home just a week or so ago.

I saw Logan while he was here visiting and was also appalled at this story.

Once again, corruption is going to keep tourists away.

Obviously the powers that be here in Phuket are more into their own self interests than justice.

I haven't ridden that way at night since last year when the attacks were going on. (and 2 years ago)

My first thought is, it's a good thing and i can use that road again.

But, i always fear that those bleath-elizer machines are bogus and they will decide when you are drunk or not by talking to you. (i don't drink but that doesn't mean i don't think about testing positive and going to jail)

Sure is enough bad news lately, I am going to consider this as good news.

Not too long after i first moved here, I had a cop stop me for some meaningless offence and i got mad.

Luckily my wife was with me and grabbed me hard and said very forcibly to me: Don't you raise your voice to a policman here in Thailand, You are not at home. THEY WILL put you in jail for it.

I learned then and there to be respectful even when (often enough) they are in the wrong.

Western rules don't always apply here in Thailand. We are guests and even though we find so much wrong with the country (mainly the police and the tuk tuk drivers for me), we still are guests and choose to be. We have to act our part too.

I don't see how you can blame the bar owner in this case except if you want to charge him for having undercover security watching his bar mats or whatever they are in the first place.

There may be some Thai people who can do this service for you, I'd ask an insurance place first.

BUT, when i bought mine, both buyer and seller go to the big Dept. of Transportation in Phuket town (not far from Immigration)

and have the bike book, passports, all necessary paperwork with you and it can be done in a few hours.

Well, i misread the OP and went there yesterday around 11 AM. Got the 75 baht menu and had an excellent breakfast.

Went back today for more and was told it is finished at 8:30AM

Now, i'm an early riser and will check this out as usually no one is open at that time so i don't even try anymore.

I would not be happy if i drive all the way over there and no one is around though.