Chuckler

As soon as I heard that Dukes was on Moon Muang, I immediately went and tried it. Several times.

Since then, I've read the whole thread and learnt it's a franchise. It all makes sense. It was good, but not as good as Sephan Lek location. I'll go back there.

My solution to this problem is to use a mail forwarding service.

I use myus.com but there's heaps. Shipitto.us is another example. Get your mail delivered to there, and once a month or whenever you want, get it combined into one package and delivered by FedEx or DHL.

When we moved from CM to Australia, it ended up costing far more than it was worth. My only recommendation is to not do it, unless you've got serious furniture here. Like teak tables and stuff.

My experience was that we shipped around 1 cubic metre of personal effects. It cost 14,000 baht. In our case, the weight didn't seem to matter, presumably they use the industry standard of 250kg/m^3. When it arrived in Australia, we started getting charged "dock storage" from the moment it was unloaded, even though it wasn't customs-cleared yet. We hired an Australian customs agent and had it all cleared for around AU$1000.

Then they attempted to deliver the box, but since it's a house we didn't have a forklift. So it was returned to the freight company, and we had to hire a forklift and pay redelivery.

So in a nutshell .... it costs more at every single turn. I don't believe that the Australian customs clearance is the responsibility of the sending freight company. You need a freight/customs agent hired on both sides.

I would think very carefully about whether the gear your transporting can be replaced new for a similar cost, and consider that as the best option.

Anyone have any personal experience with function rooms at hotels around Sukhumvit?

Food should be Thai oriented. I think a function room would be better than a restaurant because we can take our kids and her friends can take their kids. Approx 12-20 guests.

Appreciate any advice.

It's Farang Food night in my household, as the wife has gone to the walking street markets. I rang up Meals on Wheels 4 U and was disappointed to see they were closed tonight. Just letting anyone know in case they also had plans.

they are always friendly to me and smile maybe it is just you , do you speak thai ? that helps.

I do, yeah, and just to prove me wrong I got a smile yesterday. It was a little disconcerting, but I apprecaited it.

I dunno. I see waitresses smiling in other places. And if you take a baby along, even the most surly generally light up. But not here for some reason.

Hey all. I love Amazing Sandwich's breakfast menu, and have been pretty regularly when in CM.

My question is: has anyone ever seen one of the waitresses there smile?

It depends on how long you will be staying in Thailand. As Samran said, you can apply for teh birth certificate through the Thai Foreign Ministry, Consular department. They also issue Thai Passports. But it will take some time.

Until mid-March, but only in Bangkok for a week. Therefore I think we'll just take our next holiday to Canberra and stalk the embassy getting this and other stuff sorted out. Thanks again contributors.

Awesome reply, thanks samran. Sadly we don't have a thai birth certificate or a thai passport for her, so it looks like it might have to wait until next time.

Hello,

My wife is Thai, we normally live in Australia where she has permenent residency. 13 months ago, our daughter was born in Australia. She inherited Australian citizenship by birth, and has an Australian passport.

We are currently in Thailand - can anyone clarify what we need to do it? I'd imagine that since the birth certificate is in english, it'll need to be translated and certified ... does anyone the high-level process? I see a frustrating day of beauracracy in my future unless I know in advance what I'll need.

Thanks!

The North Car place has reliable cars, and has drivers available for hire. Never used the drivers, but used the cars a lot.

You mean like a nanny to stay at your place, or a kindergarten/nursery to take the kids to?

I think the latter (nurseries and kinderkartens) are good options. Often you could arrange something temporary, so not having to pay for a full term.

They really learn a lot in the process too, quite amazing.

kindergartens and nurseries sound awesome. are there any favoured amongst the expat community as "the best"?

Depends on the area of town you are staying. You probably wont want a long drive every day, and when they are young they wont want to be there all day.

Thanks for your reply. We'll be staying around Kad Suan Kaew, but anywhere would be acceptable if it was good enough. The 3yo needs Thai immersion since his mother won't speak it with him for some reason, but that's another thread.

You mean like a nanny to stay at your place, or a kindergarten/nursery to take the kids to?

I think the latter (nurseries and kinderkartens) are good options. Often you could arrange something temporary, so not having to pay for a full term.

They really learn a lot in the process too, quite amazing.

kindergartens and nurseries sound awesome. are there any favoured amongst the expat community as "the best"?

Does anyone have any recommendations for temporary childcare options in Chiang Mai that actually look after the kids?

For a 3 year old, maybe also a 1 year old?

I'm currently in Australia, but need to replace the thai keyboard on an Acer Aspire 4520. I'm unable to find one, and [email protected] has not replied.Anyone got any ideas?

thanks for the tips, will try Phurita for availability.

Hey All,Can anyone recommend any car rental places besides North Wheels? NW are booked solid when I next need a car ... ideally a Toyota Fortuner or open-top utility. Thanks for any recommendations.

Can anyone link me to a page somewhere that clarifies what the different colours of the bars at the top of the license means? My wife has a green bar with "Temporary Car" written in it. Beauracrats in Australia are giving me a hard time to prove that it's an "open" license and not a "provisional" license.

Would really appreciate some help. My googling is apparently too weak.

A two-bedroom house inside the moat (in the north-west corner) is about to become available. Office downstairs, two bedrooms upstairs one of which is airconditioned, two bathrooms (upstairs has no hot water, but downstairs has hot water).

We paid 15,000 B/month, and are about to leave. Our landlord is Khun Suphat, happy to provide his phone by PM for anyone looking at said property. He speaks a little english.

Does anyone know anywhere that will buy second hand furniture? Obviously it could be sold in classifieds and whatnot, but I'm not sure I have the time or patience.

I tried a few of the Arab furniture places on Chiang Moi with no success.

We're packing up and leaving CM, and someone suggested that clothes and what not shrink fantastically in those vacuum shrink bags. Trouble is, we don't have a vacuum.

There's a nice bottle of Australian red I'm willing to part with for a loan ...

We don't seem to have a problem with barking dogs, the only thing annoying me is ... forgive the spelling ... took-gae ... the lizards that warm up with a crescendo and then call "took-gae ... took-gae ... took-gae ..."

They sometimes wake up my 5 month old.

This is not about reverse culture shock, it is just about culture shock.

Yeah yeah. But still, fascinating thread. I'm really curious to see what my wife gets confused about when we finally make it home!

Quite a pickle, and I know this isn't really helpful except maybe for preventing future pickles, but you shouldn't have met her family until you were sure you were serious. Of course, she would've been the one pushing for meeting her folks, but your agreeing probably upped the ante without your realizing.