bunta71

American coffee where I come from...Seattle area comes in 50-100 varieties from all over the world and is prepared many ways...many. Many things get lost in the translation here i.e. American Fried rice. American fried rice has ham in it not a thin, thin slice of sandwich ham, it has eggs scrambled and cooked in the rice,not a burned fried egg on top. Chicken also is cooked in the rice and not a drumstick on the side. The hotdog? God only knows how they came up with that.

Giving up American citizenship means less options in life. Up to you.

The brakes fail it seems only when it rains. Most unqualified drivers in the world

So I did have to travel down to Chalong. Added three hours to my day. Extremely happy to have moved off the island, but will still have to "experience" the Phuket ambiance every couple months shopping for those things not available anywhere else. Every time I swear I will never be back. Never say never...

I am taking a run over to Phuket tomorrow and curious about the new Villa Market in Cherngtalay/ Laguna. First where would it be coming toward Cherngtalay from the Heroines Monument, and second, do they have a reasonable selection of things as down at Chalong? Hoping to find some molasses and even Jalapeno peppers among other odd things...thanks for any replies

I was at the Earth clinic an hour before the Dept. of Health and the police took Dr. Ted off to jail. Here is what happened....Dr. Ted is a chemist specializing in curing disease through non-pharmaceutical means. He uses many healing techniques including Ancient Chinese, and Indian Aruthvedic and many other natural herbal remedies. I have watched him cure cancer, and many other life threatening diseases. What happened is a son of a doctor, came to the clinic displaying severe symptoms of something similar to mad cow disease. He was told he needed to get to a hospital immediately. Calls to his parents went unanswered and by the time he got to the hospital, he had worsened. The mother immediately freaked out and blamed Dr. Ted for administering something that caused this reaction when in fact he had not treated him at all. Within 24 hours of his release, the truth came out and the mother dropped the charges. He still faces other charges by the government.

I grew up on the west coast of America. California, Washington and Alaska. In Alaska I wore long pants. This seems more of a cultural influence from your upbringing. The stuffed shirts of England come to mind. My English neighbor will not leave his yard without "proper" long pants and button up shirts. I dare say, where I come from, this attitude would be hysterical. Lighten up and enjoy the heat. I wear long pants to immigration and funerals. And I never attend funerals

As a former truck driver I am an expert on restaurants... I have a theory about the pitfalls of the tip jar being evenly divided among the staff. To me, this is an open invitation for mediocrity at it's best. I think of it as a parallel to communism. It takes away the incentive for personal excellence. If the staff understood that by improving their performance, they could make far more money with their own tips when deserved. With a staff driven to improve and do their best, the business thrives. Pay the cooks a little more to make up for their loss of their easy slice of the tip jar. If a cook does an exemplary job they also gain in occasional tips to the cooks. The wait staff are at the forefront of the customers view and has a direct impact on return business. If a waitress/ waiter is very friendly and attentive they can make loads of tips and the business, as I said,... thrives...

So he put his nuts on the line knowing he'd be out very soon? Perhaps not as brave as first speculated.

idiot

Seems it would have perhaps been helpful to post the man's photo in the OP during this manhunt.

Funny Thing Today we Phuket Game Fishing Club took an American visitor out Fishing and he really wanted to catch a Wahoo . We got him one and we got 16+ 1 1/2" Steaks out of it Great eating.DSC00476.JPG

Why didn't you put it back into the water for others to enjoy as well ?

This is called wound and release. Are we "trolling" instead of trawling for fish??

My laughter began at..."crack team of local forensic scientists to speculate"

These guys are obviously in the wrong. What strikes me is the scrutiny we foreigners are all under at all times here as highlighted by this story.

They really are not that bad...I have eaten them several times. They even served them in some of the Alaska Pipeline camps.

As noted by an earlier poster, do not scrimp on the preparation and extra padding if you do decide to ship yours over. I shipped an Eastman MD515 mandolin from California after having it "set-up" by a luthier. Unfortunately a small ornamental piece broke off when shipped though UPS. I re-attached the piece and although has no affect on the playability, it was still a shame on such an expensive mandolin. Photos of the piece and the mando are attached. It will be in Thai Visa classifieds within a week due to severe arthritis. Pad it good!

Not being judgmental, but a couple times a week I will take something written in Thai to whichever Thai person is close at hand for help understanding whatever is written. It is very common for whomever to pass the paper to someone else because a certain segment of Thai society cannot read at all. That has never happened to me in any western country. I have no figures, just observation and personal experience. I am not bashing at the moment but I do bash incompetent people who cannot do simple things no matter what passport they carry.

I cannot speak of the penalties of marijuana use. Let me tell you this, Every month I fly with my wife down to Bangkok (Women's Prison). Her daughter (Thai by previous marriage) is 23 and received 10 years for 3 tablets of yaba (personal use). My wife said she received a cal fst before they sentenced her daughter. The person on the phone (anonymous) said it would cost 1 million baht to avoid prison. At that time (2 years ago) she did not have the money..so guess what? Yep 10 years. 2 Completed...and we are hoping for amnesty in 3 more years. Once sentenced, it was not possible to avoid prison. Do what you can before sentencing.

I used to go to CM women's prison for massages.....they were very well trained on the tail end of their sentences.

So as most of them were in for yaba I heard a lot of stories.

I can tell you....you probably already know.....that 10 years for 3 pills is way out of line.

Sentences are pretty stiff.

Roughly I was told:

a few pills (like 3) maybe 3 years.

low distribution (like 50) maybe 5 years.

I agree with stiff sentencing for yaba.....it can make a real mess of people very quickly, it genuinely is a ruiner of lives.

However as I say 10 years for 3 pills is way out of line.

I know this family personally and what Slipper says is a fact. So...yes way out of line, but factual.

Lots available as has been said. What I would concentrate on is getting a place near to wherever you work or need to be a lot of the time. Traffic is horrendous and getting worse literally day by day. When I lived on Phuket, I lived in Neramit 1 near the Heroines monument. Cheap,8,000 to 12,000Baht per month, quiet and some very good neighbors. What became a problem for myself was the traffic as anything I wanted to do was quite a distance from there...

Any photo to perhaps determine the approximate length? I would never presume to call BS on someone without being there or seeing a photo.

http://www.siam-info.com/english/snakes_boidae.html

The link in the OP shows a photo.

I didn't see the link at first, thanks...after unwinding the head, my guess is about 3.5932 meters

Any photo to perhaps determine the approximate length? I would never presume to call BS on someone without being there or seeing a photo.

http://www.siam-info.com/english/snakes_boidae.html

Though I have done a lot of car mileage in Phuket, I was never stopped there. But lots of times on the highway going to Central Thailand and on to the Isaan. They will say that you were speeding though you were not, or they will say that you have to keep left, but you were overtaking. Guess I could try to play the smart guy and start arguing with them, but I just prefer to give them 100 Baht. Easy does it.To my experience, this is also what Thai people invariably do.

At least this thread made me decide always to keep a copy of my passport and visa in the car.

Oh well, I guess this thread is about to approach its natural end.

This approximates my experiences here through many years. I got fined for imaginary offenses 4 times on a trip from Chiang Mai to BKK and back several years ago, although 100% legal. I have not been stopped for maybe 4 years or so now and my 2 1/2 years living on Phuket I was always waved through the checkpoints. It truly seems to be the luck of the draw...

Spraying a strong solution of bleach and water around does wonders. Only problem is it gets slippery when wet. An old restaurant trick that I use...