triffid

Thanks for that guys, very useful/helpful, especially the advice on the trip across the river. We booked the Riverfront last week for this weekend and looking forward to it. Two nights ago stayed in Dusit Khorat (will now always stay there instead of SimaThani). Currently in Sawang Daen Din for brother in law to be a monk. Tomorrowfoff. to Mukdahan

Looks like I may be going through some of the same places BB. Would appreciate any info you pick up on the way. (I've already noted Dusit, Korat - in the town centre, I presume - room rate?). Please comment on accommodation you took at or near Phimai and Phanom Rung. I shall book at the Mukdahan Riverfront too.

I stayed at the Phaiboon Hotel. Good enough. May be back in the area again in the coming days. Was thinking of the resort beside a lake that was mentioned - anyone have a further comment on it, and some directions? Also where to eat fresh fish cooked thai style or simply?

i"d love to acquire a husky pup bred in a loving home - but one between 8 and 12 weeks old. I already have an alsation and I reckon he would have trouble accepting a fully grown dog. I have a walled garden with good space. I live in Chiangmai (where we have a comparatively cool winter) but could drive and pick up a pup anywhere really.

I believe a word of warning, over and above ingredients lists, is necessary for those who are conscious of keeping healthy in their lives...

I went to peuan krua in nong hoi (the big kitcen supplies and ingredients shop) a year or two back. I feel pretty sure this is where most bakeries will get their flours from with which to make their own breads. I asked the staff there where their flour came from because it was not labeled. They went off round the back to find out and the answer was America.

That means to my understanding a strong likelihood the wheat is genetically modified. Labelling of GM ingredients in the US is banned (people might refuse to buy them and then monsanto will go bust), and it is certainly not required by thai law.

I have personally continued to buy the extremely tasty wholewheat brown bread (70 baht loaves) from kasem, but i'm now taking a break from it.

I'm afraid it is a strong likelihood that much bread in thailand is made from GM wheat, but there's no way of knowing for sure.

So please tell us where you do go for your bread after the 'break'.

Butter is Better is one of the few places that I know of in Chiang Mai that has real 100% whole wheat bread and it tastes fine. Even the health food stores mix in some white flour as it is easier to make it taste better. Kasem's will make it, if you specify what you want and order in advance.

This interested me. Do you know if B is B add sugar? Which Kasem shop is best for me to inquire about this?

Nooooooooo not TOTSTER he doesn't drink

Amusing coincidence, because I don't either - or hardly at all. So I'd be sipping a lemon & soda there !!

When will you be passing through Kalasin then Triffid?

totster

Haven't got a firm date yet but it'll be in the first half of July. From comments in this thread, above, I gather that Scott's bar is the farang residents' hub - and I daresay your own haunt?

Thanks everyone; and suradit for taking the time to spell out what's going on with the visa and extensions.

So I get the annual extension in March 2015 (but not the multi re-entry). In september/october I go abroad and return on a non 'o' from their consulate. Upon my return I apply for an annual extension

I want to be out of Chiangmai during February/March when the air is heavily polluted and make that my annual break in Europe - not be forced to be around here for the extension. That's the reason I want the change.

Hi

Am reviving this thread because I will also be on a road trip, stopping at Kalasin (my first time there) and would appreciate advice on accommodation. My only absolute requirements are a partitioned or curtained shower & free wifi. I don't care if it's in the town or a few miles outside. My budget goes to 700 baht a night (needn't include breakfast).

Some names already mentioned sound ok. I hope I can just turn up, look them over and decide - or will they charge a higher rate to 'walk-in' customers like that? If that's the case i'd better choose 'blind' and ring ahead. Maybe feedback here will make it easy to choose.

Thanks a lot.

I can't really help with Hotel Bath / Shower layouuts, because after living here for the past 12 years I haven't been inside of a local hotel in the past 10+ years... But I will comment on whether to just "Walk-In" or try to book in advance... Truthfully most places in Kalasin would have a hard time figuring out how to handle an "Advanced Booking", and I really doubt that they would even consider charging anything more to anyone who just Walked in, even if it's a Farang... Most people in Kalasin just don't think that way unless they have spent years living and working in the Tourist Areas of Thailand...

Pianoman

Thanks for that info on Kalasin hotel rates. I've found that hotels which are listed on booking sites like Agoda will hesitate to give a walk-in the same rate. But I'm glad to know that Kalasin hotels - and maybe others in Isaan - don't do that.

Leave around the time you want to change to. Laos would be a good place to go.

Don't have a re-entry permit. The old extension will be cancelled.

Go to the consulate and get a new single entry Non O.

Re-enter Thailand.

You should be set.

Unfortunately I have a multiple re-entry which expires simultaneously with the visa in March 2015. Since I do travel a few times a year I routinely do a multiple alongside the annual renewal. Does this mean that I have to now wait to do the March 2015 renewal but this time without the multiple re-entry, and then go do the (Laos) trip in October 2015 without the re-entry visa?

I paid 36k for that flight with EVA last month and it was good to fly direct, two points on the downside however:

The food was some of the worst airline food I've ever had, the plane was also extremely cold during both the outbound and and the inbound, odd.

I just had a look at flights on EVA to Paris and they were not direct but via Taipei. Are their non-stop flights to London only?

The only way to do it is to leave without a re-entry permit and start over again by getting a new non-o visa.

I'm not sure how this would work.

My current extension expires in March 2015. Presumably you are not suggesting that I leave just before it expires and stay abroad until October 2015 and apply then at a consulate abroad. Or if I leave this year say in October and apply afresh at a thai consulate in asap wouldn't the consulate say no, on the basis that I already have an extant visa until march 2015? Also do the consulates abroad issue non 'o' retirement visa without a hassle?

Might not a possibility for the OP be to apply for a shorter-than-normal extension next March, through entering, say, 230 (rather than 365) days as the extension period in his completed TM7 - which would then take him through to October/November 2015? I distinctly recall another thread some time ago in which a poster was proposing to do something along similar lines.

In any event, it would definitely be prudent for him to check first with Chiang Mai Immigration whether they would see any difficulties with such a course of action.

This for me would be a good solution and I will make inquiries about it at Chiangmai Immigration. Thanks.

I'm in Chiangmai on a retirement visa that has an annual renewal in March. I'd like to move this to, say October or November. I'd appreciate suggestions on the easiest way to go about doing this. I have no problem travelling briefly abroad if this would be a requisite part of the solution.

Option 3 would result in what we see in the federally administered tribal area of northern Pakistan. Despite the mass slaughter over many years, Thailand has done pretty will to not be enveloped to a much greater degree. There are 2 things which could solve the issue which are the empowerment of women and the education of children. Both of these are bitterly opposed in the south so good luck army.

which is why the insurgents attack teachers and monks in an attempt to slow or check official suppression of their malay language and history in their children.

Don't give up your day job whatever you do!

Even under the British Raj, and thereafter, FATA was entirely independent in all matters except external affairs. As to the violence there today, that is a different subject into which I won't allow myself to be tempted.

Do you know about the evolution of the Basques' ETA from armed rebellion to a peaceful political party? (One could also cite Quebecois who also once planted bombs but today have swapped that for linguistic and cultural supremacy within Quebec and a peaceful political party.)

Federalism has been adopted in many countries and in varying degrees to defuse regional tensions. Autonomy in socio-cultural matters as schools and language would be a manifestation of this. Evidently you are not able to distinguish such autonomy from independence.

As for your puerile final remark, I ignore it rather than waste time in a riposte. In fact I made a mistake wading into this topic in the first place. Too many here have rabid views impervious to rational conversation.

When you have a separatist movement in a part of a country which has its own ethnic, linguistic, religious and historic identity I think there are just three options. 1) Let them go their own way; 2) Use unlimited force in an attempt to break their will; 3) Give them a good measure of autonomy politically and linguistically. The first option will never come voluntarily. Option 2) is not feasible in today's world - and attempts at it will at some point drive the separatists to mount a bombing campaign in the rest of Thailand (à la IRA in London/Birmingham....) Option 3) is the only viable one. It might succeed or it might not but it's sensible to try it. Will the Thai authorities be sensible? Unlikely, but one hopes that in time they will. (This option married to economic uplift has often succeeded in other places, for example the Basques in Spain.)

So far the thais have been trying a diluted option 2); and the contrary of 3) - which is why the insurgents attack teachers and monks in an attempt to slow or check official suppression of their malay language and history in their children.

"Out of touch" - another one of these silly euphemisms. Hypocritical? Politically expedient?

Was this at a thai consulate in Penang?

Hi

Am reviving this thread because I will also be on a road trip, stopping at Kalasin (my first time there) and would appreciate advice on accommodation. My only absolute requirements are a partitioned or curtained shower & free wifi. I don't care if it's in the town or a few miles outside. My budget goes to 700 baht a night (needn't include breakfast).

Some names already mentioned sound ok. I hope I can just turn up, look them over and decide - or will they charge a higher rate to 'walk-in' customers like that? If that's the case i'd better choose 'blind' and ring ahead. Maybe feedback here will make it easy to choose.

Thanks a lot.

Rimping Markets have Tida's PB.. excellent with no additives.

Tida's is good, but the quality is inconsistent. I got a couple of bad batches and went back to Jif. I just ordered the 900g size of creamy that the poster above recommended, and can't wait to try it.

Yes, very inconsistent. Suddenly a bottle turns up of p butter that's so dry that one can only chuck it away.

They never did charge anyone over the bomb detector scandal that cost millions. Wonder if they will try to get to the bottom of it now that Thailand is going to be corruption free. After that they will probably start on the blimp that never flew and the over expensive submarines

Thailand will not, and need, be entirely free of corruption. But what needs to be done is to hit hard at the top, big-ticket corruption - and in whatever political camp or institution - including the armed forces. If that is done it will reduce the losses to the country much more than the petty stuff, and affect the attitude of the population. Of course this will not happen unless the NACC and other 'independent' institutions, including the courts, are staffed with truly independent people. Fat chance.

In snowballs hell chance

Rearrange the above words to see the chances of eradicating or even significantly reducing corruption in Thailand in the lifetime of anyone around now.

To have any minimal chance it must start at the very top and the chances of that are very close to zero.

For the "very top" they are zero, not just "very close".

Even reasonably close to "the very top" but across the power/political spectrum would be impressive. But for that too they are close to zero.

She should be arrested for having an annoying squeaky voice and for calling that nice General Prayuth a monitor lizard in her last video. I happen to like monitor lizards but I understand that is not an appropriate way to address a Thai army chief.

Otherwise she should be ignored as just another uneducated bar girl who married a farang and now has too much time on her hands. The more they mention her as a public enemy the more attention she gets. She cannot be extradited under the Anglo-Siam Treaty of 1913 unless she has committed an offence that is considered a crime in both countries. It doesn't matter what her nationality is in this respect but being British means that she can obviously stay forever in the UK and won't care if her Thai passport is revoked, if she ever has one.

It would be more productive to revive efforts to extradite Thaksin and other convicted criminals on the run, such as Watana and Pracha. They should also automatically revoke Thai passports of any convicted fugitive.

The woman is a british citizen living in London. As such she is free to do anything that is not illegal in UK - and it not illegal to transgress thai LM laws. It is irrelevant that she previously was a thai national.

As to your last para, those people would have little difficulty in persuading any court of a Western country that they are political refugees and hence they would be granted political asylum, under the international treaty to which all civilised countries are signatories. Revoking thai passports therefore would not get them deported much less sent back to Thailand.

Some here seem not to grasp that across all industrialised, advanced countries the goings-on in Thailand (as well as its LM laws) are seen very differently from the way that the current authorities and their supporters present them. More amusingly they persist in the self-delusion that those foreign critics - despite their education, intelligence and experience - fail to 'understand' the thai scenario for what it is.

Unadulterated propaganda is bound to deploy truths, half-truths and lies, be selective, and express it in misleading language. This video is full of all that. Kerry and other countries' foreign ministries and diplomats are far too intelligent and well-informed to be impressed by it. So who is it directed at? However it does show that the junta and its backers are rattled by the international distaste. One hopes the paymasters were taken to the cleaners by the pr firm / ad agency that produced this rubbish.

I assume none of the above are talking about walnuts in their shells.

At the Burmese market there may well be. Have seen them in the past there.

Could you help me out with a bit more detail about this market?

Friday mornings - roughly when to when?

East of night bazaar - roughly which bit of the bazaar and how far east?

Thanks