Digger

I like Ticino as well - very nice venue and good food. I have often tried to go to The Inn on the lake but everytime I go past its closed - nice location but might help if they were open every now and again. Delibean is still good for me and I understand they are about to open somewhere in Naklua as well.

OK guys I was busy today, and due to time constraints went to PIH. My main concern was that they talk to ME about what was going on, as even my clever g/f does not really understand medical issues. I had to interrupt the doctor about 10 times, and tell him to speak to ME. He said a few words and then went back to yak yakking with my g/f. Again and again, speak to ME please.

Long and short of it is that he does not know. He has referred her for an endoscopy, and after insisting on a price up-front, and quoting beginner, they said 10k, which I have in writing, and are doing on Sunday.

They seemed very keen to sell the gastroctopy package at 25k, but after explaining about 20 times that she does not have a bowel problem they eventually reneged.

Have learnt many things from you guys, and I thank you very much. I don't think I would have been so forceful and demanding without this thread, and would probably have paid alot more than necessary.

She's not fixed yet, I still think it's an ulcer or two, but we will hopefully find out once and for all on Sunday.

I will post the results if anyone's remotely interested, or may be seeking further advice.

Thanks again.

Swing low........

Maybe it has something to do with patient confidentiality - If I were a doctor, I would think twice about discussing things with somebody else whom the patient may not be comfotable with knowing all the details about their own health condition. Dont tell me - you were actually in the room with the doctor when this discussion was taking place?????

1500 baht at Shenanigans is a total rip off and I dont really care about how expensive a meal is, providing it gives good value - but they feature Roast Turkey 52 weekends a year for the price of 395 baht, so what exactly is different other than a total blatent rip off - blimey I sound like a right whinger here but really, what a total con.

Anyway, no worries for me - I get my maid to cook a perfect Butterball and after 5 years, she is getting really good at it and best of all I get to eat loads of great turkey sandwiches in the evening and the next day with red cabbage, pickled onions and the odd baked potato with sour cream and plenty of mayo - hmmmm

You might want to also consider the Mazda 3 equivalent model - same car in most respects and built on same production line but the biggest difference would be when you come to sell it - the Mazda will be worth heaps more than the Ford, simply because its considered 'Japanese' and also because the Thai market prefers the looks of the Mazda 3 to how Ford have done the Focus.

I have driven the 1.8 Ford Focus in Thailand a couple of times as a friend has one and it indeed is very nice car and seems to do everything well. He has also had no issues in the 2 years he has had it.

Pattaya Garage on Sukhumvit between Nua and the Naklua turning on left hand side is the best bodyshop in Pattaya. They could put it right in no time, however the down side is that they are always packed to the brim with cars. I took one of my cars in there (after Insurance company said they are the best), and actually paid for the repair myself so as not to lose my 40% no claims bonus. The job was excellent - no sign of any mismatch on paint (and I have a metalic colour, not common vehicle in Thailand) - the downside was is took them 7 days to do it. Probably for a key scratch might be less time, but I had them doing loads of stuff that always needing doing after 100,000kms of driving in and around Bangkok.

By the way, if you go, its extremely easy to miss it - if your at the Siam Commercial Bank , you have gone way too far - its about 400m before SCB and that traffic light set and down what looks like a driveway - once you look down, you see an bodyshop with about 40 cars inside at anytime.

By the way, thats also where Mercedes authorise repair bodywork repairs in Chonburi in that place.

Thats why most hotels change room fittings every five years - ends up being a no-cost option to the business once they depreciate it. Of course, bed linens and stuff are not treated as depreciation items - they are generally shown as maintenance expenses.

What is the depreciation situation. I feel 20 years far too long for resort building and certainly not for furnishings and fitting which should be far far more agressively depreciated.

Standard accounting practice in Thailand is buildings are deprec. over 20 years and fixtures/fittings over 5 years. You can change that depending upon how you want to set the depreciation within reason, but most from what I have seen tend to follow the normal practice.

As I recall typical multiple is 2.5 times earnings + asset value. You need to determine if the asset value is realistic or not. Its all subjective though - I would pay a lot of attention at the company running and presumably owning the complex - do they have a lot of depreciation still on the balance sheet (maybe a lot got wiped out after 5 years of 20% deductions), thus the itme becomes virtually no asset value on the balance sheet. Buildings would be done over 20 years in all probability. Land has no depreciation in Thailand. It might be that the true asset figure is much lower as they have already depreciated them for the most part. Then again, you may not be wanting to acquire the company itself, just buying the asset & goodwill. if your in that kind of price range, I would have thought some decent professional advice would be a major plus on your side.

I would have thought its pretty academic whichever way YOU look at it - its the seller that determines the price he will accept and if he is Thai, then where do all the fancy figures take you if he say's NOPE NOT INTERESTED. I would look on it slightly different. To me its what I think/assess I could make out of it versus the cost of buying it. Maybe you could do the same thing for a lower price (accepting your starting from scratch) - perhaps thats where you should be focusing your efforts. I know a few guys who have lots of property investments - they are earning an income from them, but they are mostly interested in the long term appreciation of the land value - the buildings and day to day business are not the big win in their mind however it often makes for a nice income while the land asset matures.

Incidentally I have never seen a deal where I believed I as a farang could make more nett profit than a Thai in Thailand on anything to do with land/resorts etc and I have looked at a lot of them and invested in many. I accept my earnings would be lower for the simple reason VAT comes into play, work permits, etc etc.

I think you will find that the checks are done for the benefit of the Marriott Hotel - remember the target in Jakarta a few years ago????? Either way its a total waste of time, as you say you can drive into the foyer of the Marriott area without being checked.

Presumably Mercedes has already certified all their vehicles can run on Gasahol, hence the powers that be dont care about the guy who drives the motorbike.

The Focus here is the new model - I believe it came out here same time as in Europe. Certainly when I was last in UK and hired one from Hertz, it was the previous model to the one thats being sold in Thailand now. OK that was 2 years ago, but Hertz only keep their cars for like 3-6 months before shifting them on. No idea about the engines though.

Friend of mine has a Chevrolet Lumina which is basically a rebaged Holden Commodore out of Australia - 3.6L engine and very spacious and smooth car. Bit like a 5 series BMW without the price tag - I think they are about 1.9m baht.

Also what about Ford Territory - again imported from Australia under FTA - 4l engine, 6 speed auto box, 4 wheel drive,all the toys in Ghia form and priced about 2.9m baht - details on the Ford Thailand website. I saw this as at a Ford showroom in BKK - very nice car, reminded me of Volvo XC90.

Why dont you consider a Nissan Murano? the 2.5l engine model is about 2.95m baht fully imported from Japan and available through Nissan dealers. Certainly looks the part and the reviews I have read have always been great. The 4x4 with bigger engine though is nearly 4,000,000b.

For a business owner to be interviewed it simply means he paid for it, directly or indirectly. Now, he had spent his money and had to say something else than just come to my place and spent money. So the smart man tried to brand his place as upscale and already of the future that is to be. He spoke about his hopes of getting a bit a larger cut out of the market than he does now. Having antagonized enough people, I figure his interview was not money well spent. He branded his place not as upscale but up the....

I suspect the owner is doing good enough to make a lot of money. I was in there at the weekend and the tables were full. Probably 80-120 people mostly eating. Nice business if you can get it and I dont begrudge spending my 395 for the carvery - best value for money with quality product in my eyes.

And the funny thing is, that there were zero cheapskates in there moaning about prices.

Yes, confirmed: TG Business Class to London is old seats, not lie-flat. They appear to have only upgraded their seating on North American routes.

How up to date is your info? last 4 times I have flown Business class on TG to & from London-BKK its been the new product with lie flat seats. My understanding is they only have a couple of 747's left not converted to new product and they are mostly used on Copenhagen (no idea why) and regional routes.

Personally I fly TG a lot and have no issue with the quality of the flight or the airline. Probably helps that I rarely fly on anything less than 777 or 747, which would mean a more experienced pilot than say a 737 aircraft (i.e larger aircraft = larger salary, more experience).

Robinson in Suk Soi 19 (and presume other stores) has a bedding range called the "Hallmark Hotel Collection" - thread count is about 400 I think but its not cheap (think 5,000b for a King duvet cover) but it felt very nice even before it had been washed. I did not buy it as I did not have my car with me and could not be bothered lugging it back on the skytrain. The Jaspal Interior store next to the overpriced Ethan Allen furniture shop (walking down towards soi 15) also has a very good selction of Jaspal bed linen of similar quality.

The Marks and spencer branch in Central Chidlom also sells mens shoes. ALDO is good but they are a more mordern younger styling for mens shoes. There is also a branch of NEXT on the 3rd floor of Central World including mens gear but its expensive.

I once contemplated starting a thread about my experiences with international shipments and they reflect exactly the sentiment of other posters.

The WORST are people like Fedex and UPS. Not only do they apply the duty to the goods, they charge it on the postal element as well. A recent example I had was a delivery of clothing for my girlfriend from Victoria Secrets.com - they sent it UPS or Fed ex I forget now and the clothing order was about US$130 + about $40 to ship it. Total rip off bill from the shipper was for about 4,500baht which included a ludicrously high service charge and an import duty on the $40 to ship the goods.

I have had loads of goods shipped US Postal service who link to Thai postal service and if they are stopped (which is not common), the bill normally ends up at approx: 10% of the value - I think they just assume, the bigger the box = more duty and then guess something.

Interestingly enough, I have 2 addresses in Thailand, 1 in Bangkok and 1 in Chonburi. In Bangkok, nothing gets stopped (and I have had some pretty big boxes) and EVeRYTHING gets stopped and duty applied in Chonburi.

Most recent example, was a $500 goods sent to me via the regular airmail post service from the UK - about size of a shoe box and it arrived 4 days later with NO duty applied.

So just to reconfirm, NEVER use International couriers, they seem to focus on this as another BIG income stream on shipments. I actually emailed Victoria Secrets and par for the course, they could not care less - shame really as my Girlfriend loves looking through the sale brochures I seem to get delivered every other month and would have ordered loads more if only they shipped US Postal Service, but they dont care and just refer you back to "your responsible for any import taxes"

This makes me remember the time I was in some restaurant in Pattaya owned by a Brit who clearly had no idea what he was doing in the kitchen and I overheard him boasting to some guy they "use real Bisto gravy - not that homemade rubbish" - I decided not to order any food on that occasion. Cant for the life of me remember which place it was as it was clearly such a memorable experience.

For what its worth my mum used to make Gravy as partly described above but she added some bisto instead of the flour and it always tasted delicous - the secret is using the meat stock to get the flavour into the gravy I guess (speaking as someone who cant cook), vegetable water and then simmering it up to near boiling on the stove.

A quick google produce these results:

1. http://www.airmist.com/

2. http://www.123steam.com/

and many more........................

Thats a great answer - wonder how much a US based company would charge to install a steam unit in Thailand?????

I suspect the OP already knew Google existed but was looking rather for Thai distributors .

Reality tonight (as I have jusy gotten back from having a meal at the carvery) was the place was packed - not a free table in the place (of course some of that was due to rugby), but that was one seriously busy pub. Every other bar I drove past on the way home was totally empty. Kinda speaks for itself. Premium products will always do well so long as they deliver on quality and the average customer of that bar is not going to be too bothered if his preferred drink is a bit more expensive - if your concerned, dont go there.

Considering the BBC have the rights to heaps of stuff, I am really surprised they seem to be at a loss for the choice of what they programme. If they are aiming at the channel at an "international" audience, with subtitles, how would they expect anyone to understand the humour of many of the comedies they show. Lets face it, if you could get the humour as a spoken word, you would not need subtitles.

Having said all that, I really want it to be good as some of the drama they show is excellent - its just that the programming dept really dont understand who or what they are appealing to and so they just chuck it together without a strategy to appeal to anyone, let alone everyone. One good thing though is that at least I have had the chance of seeing the episode of Red cap featuring the guy overdosing on LSD in the water bottle, 5 times already. Funny enough though - have never seen another espisode - always just seems to be that one they keep showing.

BMW have either just done it or are about to upgrade the 3 series - new engines are coming and the 325 is likely to get a stronger, way better engine. They are also about to commence using the excellent diesels in the 3 series - might be worth asking at the local dealer exactly whats coming up and when.

Popped in today for some bread as usual and noticed they have started doing cooked breakfasts. I went for the large breakfast and its pretty filling - could not even finish all of it. From memory it was two sausages, 2 or 3 rashers bacon, hash brown, 2 eggs, beans and tomato. Then they brought a load of toast and a nice glass of decent orange juice and a pot of English tea. As I recall the price was 175baht and all the meat is from Yorkies - which they now also sell if you want chilled bacon or frozen sausages. I was very impressed with the whole thing - still dont know how it makes any money though - never seems to have a continual trade, although every once in a while, there are a few people in there.

When paying I also noticed a picture of a ploughmans lunch that looked pretty good as well - pork pie, ham, cheese, branston, pickled onion and salad. Must put that on the list to try tomorrow. I actually like this place - service is good and polite - newspapers to read and internet for anyone without a phone line or adsl at their place.