Theyreallrubbish

Had a similar situation with a new neighbour blocking my access and the other neighbours.

Finally, they left the car blocking my access. I called them and they said they were out of town but would come back in 20 minutes.

I waited 20 minutes, then called them again to hear they'd turned the phone off.

So I started looking at the car and noticed that one window was open a small crack. I used that to get it open a bit more and managed to reach in and open the lock. I then let off the handbrake and rolled the car out of the way.

All the other neighbors were laughing and helping me move the car.

I was out when they came back. Don't know what they thought about their car having been moved, but they haven't parked in anyone else's space since.

The latest research shows that exercise doesn't help you lose weight. What it does is help the body maintain at whatever weight you are at. The body adjusts your metabolism and appetite levels to maintain a certain weight. What weight it sets to maintain at is what its used to and any perturbation the body will act to get back to the previous level.

The kind of things the body can do is very impressive, from changing the metabolic rate and changing body temperature, to changing enzyme levels in the digestive tract and fat cells, all the way to altering macro behaviour such as the amount of clothes you wear.

This is why most diets fail. If you're fighting against your own body, you're usually going to lose. You need to reset the body to want to maintain a lower weight

That is why there are things like carb cycling to fool your body, believe me there are ways to loose the weight most bodybuilders do it a lot. It just cost a lot of effort. Don't believe all the research till it has been proven by counter studies. I can safely say that exercise does help you to loose weight (if all other variables stay the same). Mostly these kind of studies are abused by people who don't want to exercise (im not saying you are one of those)

You might find this interesting

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/18/magazine/18exercise-t.html

The latest research shows that exercise doesn't help you lose weight. What it does is help the body maintain at whatever weight you are at. The body adjusts your metabolism and appetite levels to maintain a certain weight. What weight it sets to maintain at is what its used to and any perturbation the body will act to get back to the previous level.

The kind of things the body can do is very impressive, from changing the metabolic rate and changing body temperature, to changing enzyme levels in the digestive tract and fat cells, all the way to altering macro behaviour such as the amount of clothes you wear.

This is why most diets fail. If you're fighting against your own body, you're usually going to lose. You need to reset the body to want to maintain a lower weight

Very easy drive once you get out of Bangkok. Road was originally built by the Americans to service the airforce base during the Vietnam war so it has lots of long straight sections.

How long it takes depends on how fast you drive, you can pretty much divide the distance by your average speed and add a bit to get out of Bangkok as its possible to keep your average speed.

If you tend to drive over the speed limit there are lots of police stops on the road during the day, though none at night.

Although when I was given a ticket by one, all the others interpreted that as a free pass so I never got another one!

At 12:30 a.m. last night Chiang Mai was almost the same as normal. Bars, food carts, restaurants, market sellers all open and in the Thai areas had their lights on.

Traffic was only slightly lighter than a normal saturday night at that time.

Wonder if they'll bother enforcing it tonight.

Always rent a vigo or honda city......jazz is too low. but worry about scratches ...we live in the jungle.

Last time the guy we used asked us to use a Fortuna (same £) which was great but you need a working BP oil well to run the thing.

Couple of years ago rented a Isuzu p/u which although a bit slow i found solid.chunky,comfy,big wheels (as said live in Jungle) and not bad fuel wise..all personal choice. ...but would buy one day..

I found the Fortuner 3.0 Diesel cost about 25% more in fuel to cover a journey than a Honda Jazz. The Honda Jazz was about 20% more in fuel than the Vios or Yaris, but was much perkier. The Jazz really does have a great engine and despite the shape it hugs the road well. Its fun to drive where the Vios and Yaris aren't

Traffic on Chiang Mai Lamphun road seems normal. Plaza 89 at 7 p.m. was a mix with the Tesco shut and covered in cardboard, and the 7/11 open normally. Miguels shut and other restaurants open.

Can people actually in the town give reports of what they see as open or closed. How traffic is etc.?

Hmm. I guess that means I can whistle at night then!

Major Shareholders

As of April 3rd, 2009

Total Outstanding Shares: 2,178,816,000 Shares

No. Shareholder Number of Shares Holding % of Shares Holding

1 Central Holding Co., Ltd 588,171,980 27.00% (100% Vanchai Chirathivat)

2 Thailand Equity Fund 106,670,600 4.90%

3 Thai NVDR Co.,Ltd 90,751,128 4.17%

4 HSBC (Singapore) Nominees PTE Limited 84,766,597 3.98%

5 The Bank of New York (Nominees) Limited 75,295,910 3.46%

6 Mrs. Arunee Chan 73,617,870 3.38%

7 State Street Bank and Trust Company For London 44,794,960 2.96%

8 Mr. Suthikiat Chirathivat 41,730,200 1.92%

9 Mrs. Suchitra Mongkolkiti 33,198,400 1.52% (daugter of Chirathivat)

10 EFG Bank 33,173,650 1.52%

11 Mr. Prin Chirathivat 30,150,550 1.38%

12 UBS AG SINGAPORE, Brach-PB Securities Client Custody 27,008,000 1.24%

13 Mrs. Ratana Norapallop 26,790,600 1.23%

14 Mr. Kobchai Chirathivat 26,658,500 1.22%

15 Mr. Suthilak Chirathivat 25,215,240 1.16%

16 State Street Bank and Trust Company 25,117,828 1.15%

17 Mr. Suthiporn Chirathivat 24,566,400 1.13%

18 Mr. Niti Osathanugrah 24,386,200 1.12%

19 Mr. Sudhitham Chirathivat 23,295,400 1.07%

20 Mr. Suthichart Chirathivat 23,295,400 1.07%

1 Central Holding Co., Ltd 588,171,980 27.00% == Vanchai Chirathivat

http://www.forbes.com/lists/2007/85/biz_07...amily_JYUR.html

Thailand's Richest

#25 Vanchai Chirathivat & family

07.12.07, 6:00 PM ET

Net Worth $175 million

Age 80

That's out of date. The latest Forbes rich list for Thailand puts the Chiratiwat family as the third richest with a combined fortune of $2.9 billion

http://www.forbes.com/lists/2009/85/thaila...amily_6P6Y.html

A very good friend of mine had electric bills that were too high...

one night after dark he cut his main braker and HALF THE VILLAGE WENT DARK

I was living in a house in a suburb of Bangkok and construction crews moved in to build the rest of development. They were living in tin shacks in the adjacent lots. My electricity bill shot up from 2500 a month to 7000 a month the month after they moved in

How did he get away from motorcycle cops in a car in Bangkok?

I don't care how fast your car is and how slow the motorcycles, there is traffic, then traffic lights, then they could radio in to the cops at each junction to look for his car.

I'm not asking in case I have to do it myself in the future. I'm genuinely puzzled

Doesn't seem possible

I cant believe that people have a bad experience regarding their meals,one 2 years ago .Then say nothing at the time .Only to make statements here that cannot be verifyed either way.

Is it so hard to complain face to face at the time ,i dont think so if the meal is not right you are not kicking up a fuss by mentioning it .

It was late on Christmas day. In the evening actually. It was the first time I'd been in there and simply decided to not go back.

I certainly didn't want to get in to a situation with a group of friends of complaining to a bar owner who was very likely to be drunk at that time of the evening on Christmas Day and may have started a shouting row. I've seen it happen many times before. Some drunken yob of an owner <deleted> and blinding at customers who complained.

In case you hadn't noticed, not every Brit who owns a bar in this country is a professional, civilised person.

And the insinuation that it "can't be verified" as if I'm a rival bar owner trying to slander his business is very unfair considering I've already stated that it was a one off and that the food on subsequent occasions has been excellent.

I was simply trying to show how something done by the Thai staff could cost the owner a lot more than they realise or is immediately evident. Perhaps others in the business and thinking of going in to the business will be helped in training their staff not to cut corners for convenience

No insinuations at all ,cannot be verifyed because it was 2 years ago .You can say it was bad but how can the bar defend themselves with it being so long ago.I would complain at the time before i ate the meal .not on a forum .

The bar DOESN'T NEED TO DEFEND ITSELF. I've already said the food is good now

I've also explained why I didn't complain at the time.

I cant believe that people have a bad experience regarding their meals,one 2 years ago .Then say nothing at the time .Only to make statements here that cannot be verifyed either way.

Is it so hard to complain face to face at the time ,i dont think so if the meal is not right you are not kicking up a fuss by mentioning it .

It was late on Christmas day. In the evening actually. It was the first time I'd been in there and simply decided to not go back.

I certainly didn't want to get in to a situation with a group of friends of complaining to a bar owner who was very likely to be drunk at that time of the evening on Christmas Day and may have started a shouting row. I've seen it happen many times before. Some drunken yob of an owner <deleted> and blinding at customers who complained.

In case you hadn't noticed, not every Brit who owns a bar in this country is a professional, civilised person.

And the insinuation that it "can't be verified" as if I'm a rival bar owner trying to slander his business is very unfair considering I've already stated that it was a one off and that the food on subsequent occasions has been excellent.

I was simply trying to show how something done by the Thai staff could cost the owner a lot more than they realise or is immediately evident. Perhaps others in the business and thinking of going in to the business will be helped in training their staff not to cut corners for convenience

Funny, I don't recall a complaint being made! I take any complaints seriously and we have a complaints book if I'm not there. It's a bit unfair to make comments on Thaivisa before you have made representations to the management (ie me!)

Marco is a good friend of mine and I enjoy his food. Our food is quite different to Chez Marco's and if you are in the mood for the one, it is unlikely that the other will suffice. Marco gets complaints too. Mistakes are sometimes made, chefs have off days etc. and I will always make good on problems such as those you experienced.

I am sending you a PM Mapguy, offering a free voucher for you and a partner/friend to re-try our Roast Beef Sunday lunch as we sell a lot of it and are quite proud of it.

Complaints are important. The first time I went to your place it was for Christmas Dinner. Unfortunately it was late and several of the items that were supposed to be on the plate weren't there as they had obviously run out. I wasn't going to kick up a fuss so I just paid (charged full price despite missing items) and left.

And didn't return for nearly two years as I believed the food to be rubbish based on that one experience.

Then I was looking for somewhere to eat and could park near your place and decided to give it another try and the food was excellent. I've returned several times since and brought other people with me.

But because of that one experience you lost two years of business from myself and the people I would have brought.

Maybe not a make or break for your business, but these things can add up. Several people not going back for several meals and not bringing several other people and so on then starts to add up to a lot of missed business.

Just goes to reinforce how hard it is to run a restaurant here and maintain standards.

This is not meant as a criticism but more of a commiseration and empathy for the difficulty

To be honest it seems a bit of a damp squib so far. Numbers way lower than what was projected

Unless things really pick up tomorrow this could be the end of Taksin. This was hyped up so much, even half a million people will be seen as a failure

I'm guessing that this will mostly affect Bangkok and those of us outside Bangkok will just see a few extra road blocks.

I can only imagine that the police themselves won't be too keen to implement this in pro-Taksin areas such as Chiang Mai and Issan.

I wonder if this will prompt foreign countries to again recommend their citizens to avoid Thailand

This is bad. 6000 weapons (plus ammunition presumably) indicates a well planned and organised theft.

This indicates equally thought out plans for their use.

Somebody is planning for a civil war

True and we can only hope that other poster's theories that the weapons were stolen over many years and this is being used as a way of clearing the books by blaming it on a single big theft while tensions are high.

But even in Thailand a theft like this must be investigated. If there was no theft and that'll be quickly obvious on investigation, then the people who reported it are going to be in worse trouble than if they'd simply continued to cover up the gradual thefts.

And I agree with other posters that this represents a stunning level of incompetence and thus a huge loss of face for those in the army. The Thai tendency is to cover things up that make them look bad, not exaggerate them

My own experience of this was from 17 years ago so I'm sure things have changed and this is merely how it used to be done.

I was working in a Thai hospital and noticed that a couple of days before discharge patients began getting lots of visitors. And I means lots. Dozens. Being naive I commented to the Thai doctors how nice it was that people came to support them. The doctor laughed and told me that it was friends and extended family turning up to help pay the bill.

When a Thai person knew the size of the bill they would reach out to their entire extended social network to get money to pay it. It was considered an obligation to help by giving at least something so there were lots of people turning up and giving at least a little bit of money. On the assumption of course that if they were in the same position everyone would do the same for them.

I asked what happened if they didn't get enough money and the doctor said they let them leave and hoped to get the rest of the money later. Sometimes they did, sometimes they didn't.

It seemed odd to me at the time that the private health care system ran as a business based on relying on a sense of obligation rather than legally enforceable contracts, but it worked for a long time.

As I say, it probably doesn't work like that now, but it was very charming to see it when it did.

This is bad. 6000 weapons (plus ammunition presumably) indicates a well planned and organised theft.

This indicates equally thought out plans for their use.

Somebody is planning for a civil war

A slightly unrelated question, but who gets the bail money if they skip bail?

Does it go the victim or the police?

You need to ask....

I was just wondering legally what's supposed to happen.

Fleeing bail is pretty much an admission of guilt so the victim deserves compensation

Wow big crime doing some drugs.. come on the guy did not harm anyone to pay for his habit.

But ok this is Thailand and drugs are bad.

Yeah this isn't America where it will help his career. A community service order from the court so there's a photo op of picking up litter or helping the homeless and quick vacation in rehab then endlessly selling tear jerking stories to the press and tour of chat shows, all guaranteed to raise your profile.

Here in Thailand he's likely to go to jail, and spend quite a bit of time there

OK! FREE BAR FINE.

yeah, no bar fine......but they'll charge you 400THB (iirc) entrance fee and 150THB a beer.

nana disco used to be a laugh sometimes, eg it was good to see when I was new to thailand - cheesy as <deleted> but funny.

it went seriously downhill as the world economy slumped and the entrance fees/drinks prices soared. eg brits aren't going to pay £8 entrance and £3 a singha for some corny freelance joint on a regular basis.

the place was like a morgue the last time I went in.

Especially when the outside bar opened. So you could have a beer, see the same girls in Nana car park, but under better lighting, and not have to deal with booming music making conversation impossible.

The main raison d'etre for Nana disco disappeared

A slightly unrelated question, but who gets the bail money if they skip bail?

Does it go the victim or the police?

Don't know about Bake and Bite. Butter is Better hours are 8-5 Mondays to Saturdays. Closed Sundays.

Bake and Bite : I'd like to hazard an educated guess and hope not to be proved wildly off the mark ; 6.30am till 3.30pm.

If they have a big garden restaurant, it seems kind of daft to close at 3:30

What are the opening hours for Bake and Bite and Butter is Better?

I had two. One that was found by the side of the road, so young it had to be fed by bottle. The other given to us as a very young puppy by neighbours who thought we had good hearts.

Both grew up to be very attractive, fun and friendly dogs. And both were stolen.

So they went from being abandoned and unwanted to worth stealing just with a bit of regular feeding and care