Theyreallrubbish

Questions for the group:

My (Thai) wife and I will visit Chang Mai in October, because I wanted to see something more of Thailand than the beaches we normally go to. We are a bit older than the 'club' crowd (58,45), so I'm looking for a place where we can sit and talk, but still hear decent music (jazz, blues). My wife is a Thai school teacher, and doesn't drink much, but a friendly place with decent food and a good atmosphere for couples would be a nice way to spend an evening.

I've read the messages posted here, and some of the wine bars sound decent. My question is, knowing the above, if you were in Chang Mai for a short time and wanted a romantic night out with the wife, where would you go?

Any suggestions are appreciated.

The House on Moon Muang has a nice outside cocktail area that is quiet and has comfortable sofas

The Tiger Farm at Mae Rim is about the same price. Although a better deal is the restaurant which is free to enter and over looks some of the tiger cages, and the food is regular priced.

Interestingly there is a gradation of prices to enter the cages with the youngest tigers the most expensive. As they get older and more dangerous it gets cheaper to get in the cage with them!

There its explicitly a breeding program to feed tigers to zoos, which I have no problem with, as the more tigers in the world the better the world is for having more of these amazing animals.

There are young foreigners working there as well, although I didn't ask if they were paid or paid to be there

Or could have been a lad taking liberties when he shouldn't have.

Or it could be that he's totally innocent and like OP's GF said - that she was feeling rejected because the lad wasn't interested. So in a moment of hasty desperation, she falsely accused him groping knowing that if big money is mentioned, the police will surely be on her side confident that there will a share for them. Even more sinister is the prospect that this gal works directly with the police and this a regular scam they pull off.

Of course, since the OP didn't hang around, which is understandable, we'll never know for sure. Hopefully, the alleged perp was deemed innocent until proven guilty (but I doubt it).

Due to the apparent rise in the number of scams, the severity of payment when suckered into one, and the uncertainty of what the police might do, I've completely lost interest in Thai nightlife - haven't gone to a bar in ages and no plans to go anywhere near one in the future. I'm afraid that things are so far out of control in Thailand with the police involvement in scams against foreigners that the situation is incurable. How long before Thailand is a virtual tourist ghost town?

I feel the same way. I used to enjoy the Thai nightlife, precisely because it was fun and safe. Now it feels dangerous and you can't relax as you have to be constantly on your guard.

I used to take regular trips to Pattaya, but will now probably never go again despite my love of many of the restaurants there.

Even in other places such as Bangkok and Chiang Mai, the "sanook" factor is disappearing to be replaced by wariness and defensiveness

What is the future of investing in real estate business without being active partner in any company? I am looking to earn around 2-3% return per month.

2-3% return per month is only possible in the last stages of a bubble. We've just had a bubble pop so there probably won't be one around again for another 10 years or so. Or you need a successful development, but those are tough right now as getting the development loan necessary to boost returns on equity is very difficult, even if the development is a success and sells out.

To earn those kinds of returns you aren't looking at capital asset appreciation, but at some kind of service company that doesn't require much capital. That's the only way to get such a return on capital right now, but anyone good enough to make a startup service business in the real estate sector succeed in this environment probably doesn't need you.

I answered real as I have a laptop running a real version of Windows XP Pro, a desktop running an evaluation copy of Windows 7 Ultimate (which is good until June next year I think) and another desktop I bought second hand that came with Windows XP that I can not be 100% sure is genuine, but it is an HP Pavilion computer, so I presume it is.

Did they give you the original drivers with your HP Pavilion? Personally, I would not buy secondhand unless they gave me the drivers to go with it. That way I can easily reload the OS incase I need to. Otherwise, you're sorta out of luck.

No disks, but there's nothing specific on it that I think would need specific drivers that were only available from HP and weren't on the website. Having more than one computer makes it easy to DL and burn to a disk if one computer stops working

I usually format the HD on a new computer anyway and reinstall a clean version of the OS to get rid of all the crap the makers put on it, so no biggie if I have to do that again, although with no Windows disk, it would mean putting a pirate version on there or shelling out for an XP license.

What's the price of a genuine windows license here? I only paid 7500 Baht for the whole computer including monitor, speakers, keyboard and mouse, so I'd be loath to spend 3500 Baht on just a new OS

Vientiane will not issue multiple entry visas (valid for one year) of any type. Only kL will issue multiple entry B visas unless company has 8 million in registered capital then Penang will also.

I can confirm this as I just got back from applying for a 1 year multi B and they gave me a single entry with a stamp saying I should have the work permit for the next application.

Numbers of people there seemed lower than the last couple of times.

Just got membership for Calif. wow at 9,600 baht a year, then after that only 100 baht renewl fee every year plus they threw in a gym bag. I am happy with that.

http://www.set.or.th/set/companyhighlight....&country=US

Net profit in Q2 2009 -175 million Baht.

They've lost 385 million in the last nine months. And the rate of losses is accelerating

If I was going to sign up for anything with this company, the longest would be a month to month contract!

I answered real as I have a laptop running a real version of Windows XP Pro, a desktop running an evaluation copy of Windows 7 Ultimate (which is good until June next year I think) and another desktop I bought second hand that came with Windows XP that I can not be 100% sure is genuine, but it is an HP Pavilion computer, so I presume it is.

http://www.jobnorththailand.com/site/index.asp

Thanks!

Do you have any experience using this site?

What are the best places to advertise for staff in Chiang Mai?

Any good webboards? Best classified sections etc?

Need sales staff, ideally with used car experience and english language skills

Who can help me to get a safety box inside any bank around Pattaya or Sattahip or Chonburi. Every bank we ask for it dont have empty ones, we offer to give a reasonable bank deposit but no chance, we are also willing to pay for the succesful recommendation.

I had to call 6 banks to find one with a vacant box. The prices were reasonable though at 1500 Baht a year.

You just need to keep calling each branch in the phone book, or better, have a Thai do it as if you call in English they'll just answer "No have" no matter if they do or not.

Seems weird that something that is permanently sold out at every bank branch hasn't had its price raised or more supply put in by the banks, or even an entrepreneur offering the service.

Bought the Nokia N97 yesterday. Initially was pretty unimpressed and was mentally preparing myself to take the loss and sell it in a couple of months when the Omnia HD comes out.

However, its starting to grow on me. Its not nearly as flashy graphics wise as the Omnia or HTC phones and really it seems to be a Nokia N95 with a bigger screen that is also touch, but although the Nokia N95 floored me with its huge list of features and then floored me again when you quickly realise that you can't use any of the features without keeping the phone permanently attached to the charger, the N97 allows you to use all these features.

Plus, the huge 32GB of onboard memory means storing music, movies, pictures etc is no longer a set of decisions, but just slap it all on.

So far today I used the phone to listen to my music through the car radio using the music player and FM transmitter for about an hour over a few trips, watched an hour long TV program that I'd downloaded to my PC and transfered, having the phone on the table with the angled screen while eating dinner at an outdoor restaurant during the day, the screen was bright and sharp and I could even hear the sound through the speakers over the traffic going by. Also used it to check the internet a few times, taken about 2 dozen photos with flash and, of course, since its new, randomly played around with it quite a bit. Oh, I also made and received about 20 phone calls and received a few text messages.

That used up less than half of the battery and I'd taken it off the charger the previous night. So battery problems seem to be solved, so it'll be great to fire up Nokia Maps and have the GPS lock on *before* the low battery warble comes from the phone. (Anyone who's owned a Nokia N95 will know what I mean!)

I do think the HTC Touch Pro 2 and Omnia HD are probably better phones in terms of graphical sparkle and the operating systems, but they are also 10,000 Baht more expensive and lack certain features that the Nokia has (flash for the camera being one big example that its important to me)

Also, there was only one left in the whole of Central Airport Plaza, so it must be quite popular.

Had the phone a bit longer now and its growing on me even more. I recently undertook a 5 day road trip and I'd loaded 500 songs, 6 movies and 25 TV episodes on the phone before leaving and its still had 15 GBs of memory free. I used the FM transmitter to play my songs through the car radio for most of the trip, used the satnav most of the time and the battery was still fine after 10 hours! (Lucky as I forgot the car charger)

In my hotel I'd surf the internet and check email without even bothering to get out my laptop, which I've never done with another phone as before I'd whip out the laptop at the slightest sniff of wireless rather than use a phone.

It was also great to be able to lie on the bed and watch movies and the TV shows on the phone as the hotel TV movie channels all seemed to be showing straight to video schlock whenever I checked. The speakers gave excellent sound meaning I didn't have to wear earphones, but could just lie on the bed with the phone next to me watching the screen until I dozed off.

Don't think I'll even bother lugging my laptop around on the next trip unless I think I'll need it to do spreadsheets.

The one at the top of Pantip Plaza charges 150 Baht per disk. All they do is DL and burn ones that are on the torrents, so if you have an internet connection you can save a lot of money by doing it yourself. Installation issues with the torrents are still on the disk they sell, so even if you can't wait to DL yourself, at least check the comments on the torrents to make sure installation works properly. The originals are much cheaper than the west but still in the region of 800-2000 Baht. Still, some disks come in at 4-5 disks these days so buying the original may be only a couple of hundred baht more

Obviously no one agrees with piracy, but many games are simply not released at all in Thailand, so in that regard, its not that immoral.

If you feel happy DLing games from STEAM or Direct2Drive, you pay full western retail price, although they sometimes have some very good sales.

BTW if this breaks any rules on discussing piracy feel free to delete, or maybe just delete the bit concerning the price etc of pirated disks

Just watched this. The Royal Marines Military Police Captain was about as useful as a chocolate teapot! All that bluster about his lads being ripped off and knowing it was corrupt and shouting its all old damage and all that confrontation and they pay pretty much what was asked for! Good to hear that JJ, the gangster wannabe, has been arrested though.

Be interesting to see what happens with the teenage girl, as I would have thought its unusual, even in Thailand, for a jail sentence for possession of cannabis. Prisons are just too expensive to lock people up for this kind of crime. Probably just ramping the drama up.

The Australian drunk guy was a plonker, but he may have been suffering from the consequences of a head injury and it may not all have been the alcohol. And why was there no interest in the people who actually injured him!

One of the issues is language. Many don't understand Thai and thus rely on a staff member/GF/wife to handle many things and so how well that gets done is obviously dependant on the quality of the person helping. If its a GF/wife then she probably wasn't chosen initially for her business/management skills.

The other is human resources in general and getting good people. I've seen inside the top of many large Thai companies and they're still essentially family companies. Those outside the family aren't trusted, and often for very good reason. A foreigner arriving here doesn't have the family members of long term relationships to get good, honest, high quality staff.

The most common cause of failure I see in small businesses set up by foreigners is that they splash out too much cash at the beginning and maintain too high overheads so the business can never be profitable, so it only lasts as long as its subsidised. If they're bringing over the proceeds of a house sale in the west, then it doesn't seem like that much money, but when the business is operating at a monthly loss, its astonishing how quickly money can run out. If the partner is a Thai woman then she will be encouraging this and telling him all kinds of things the business "needs" partly because she loves shopping, partly for her face in having a business that looks good and partly as she probably has no real business skills and doesn't understand how a business cash flow works, or even where the foreign money came from or that it might run out. Those that take a leaf from the local's book and keep costs and overheads as low as possible until the business has been operating a while and real revenues and margins are discovered.

The last couple of years I have enjoyed eating at the California Grill located in the Hang Dong branch of Tescos.

Served nice meals, including fish and Chips, burgers, steaks all at low prices.

Yesterday a friend emailed informing me that it had appeared to be closed down because the premises had been cleared and was empty.

Seems like many such establishments are biting the dust lately.

So is Chiang Mai now Thailand’s biggest village rather than its second largest city?

Its hardly a surprise . We did eat there occasionaly and 69 baht for grilled fish ,fries,bread and a free salad hardly leaves much profit. At prices like that it was an attempt to get bums on seats. A pity , great site but the rent could have ben a killer. 20 metres away is a KFC which is also feeling the pinch but they i would suggest have a bit more financial clout. Upstairs at the food court its business as usual.

I've eaten a few times at the Japanese restaurant on the other side and only ever once seen another customer in there. Shame as they made a bit of an effort with the decor and the staff are friendly.

The KFC there deserves to close. Last 4 times I've tried to order food in there they've never had Original fried chicken, only spicy and asking for a Zinger burger every time gets the response, "20 minutes" Oh well, good for my health I suppose that they're unable to sell me their food.

I go to that Tesco frequently and the parking lot is as full as its ever been. Not sure why the restaurants would be doing so badly. And yes, food court seems to be busier, so maybe people are still going out, but downgrading from restaurants to the food court?

Central has plans to build something fancy and high-end, on the 8 rai or so of land that they own at the intersection of the Outer Ring and the Hang Dong road.

You heard it here first.

Odd choice as it would cut in to their airport Plaza custom.

Central are very good at studying demographics and traffic patterns before developing so if its correct there must be a lot of traffic in that area

This has happened to me on numerous occasions.

Apparently you can only get fined once per day for the same traffic violation, irrespective of how many times you do it after your initial ticket.

Since this appears to be the status quo, I would love to find out whether this is actual law or not.

..........................

One of those situations where paying the official fine, rather than the cheaper "cash" payment, could work in your favour, not that I am advocating breaking any road laws.

If it is the law, I'd love to know as I often do long distance drives. Not that I'd ever speed of course, except by accident, but it would nice to know that i could only be fined once a day for accidentally breaking the speed limit

Maybe it just depends on the officer or their mood that day. I got stopped on my motorbike a couple of weeks ago for not wearing a helmet. I spoke to him in Thai (against some other foreigners advice, I know) showed him my Thai licence and said I was sorry, and he let me go without a fine, just said don't do it again!

I've found that if you're friendly they let you go without a fine about half the time.

I speak English and say thank you when they tell me what the speed limit is!

I do find that Bangkok police are worse than upcountry.

I was stopped near Lampang a few months ago and about 9 police officers all started joking with me about why someone as handsome as me doesn't have a girlfriend. They still wrote out the ticket though!

I've posted this a few times and I still hold the view that foreigners are not being targeted, but that its equal opportunity with the Thais.

As a counter example, I was stopped recently for speeding. legitimate stop, I was doing 140 on a main highway. I was stopped, paid by the side of the road and had a ticket issued. Everything polite and professional and easy going and the Thais they stopped were getting exactly the same fines and tickets.

About ten minutes later I was stopped again. Again legitimately as I had been speeding again.

The policeman told me I was speeding and I told him I'd just paid ten minutes ago. I gave him the ticket and he read through it and then he said, "OK, never mind. Thank you." and he let me go on!

I told this to a Thai friend later and she replied, "He was probably surprised you weren't scared of the police."

So again, I don't think we are targeted by the police, but in fact are better treated than the Thai people by the police.

I'd advise pre-booking as I have been stung with MUCH higher prices at the airport when I've turned up needing a flight.

Let's face it - Patters needs one maybe two malls at best - the rest is overkill anyone with a brain cell could tell you they would be failures. Currently have 3 within a few blocks of each other.

Central fully expect to be able to outlast the others and kill them off. They've done it before. Most notably with Imperial Mall group, where they killed the entire chain

I noticed that the Avenue Mall was near dead when I visited in July.

It is a typical example of a bad development.

It doesn't have the critical size, and there is nothing to attract people inside.

Maybe it can find a use as fancy offices for a company, or, with some rebuilding, as a hotel.

But a Nana Plaza of sorts would of course fit perfectly, especially with Tim Boutique, the Pattaya Bay Resort and the Mercure very nearby.

Not to mention all the hotels on Soi 13, Dynasty, Lek, Sandy SPrings, AAA, Whitehouse Condotel, etc

Making it into that kind of thing would be a great idea. The cinema and bowling is there already for customer's to pretend they're on a date with their hooker and its not purely business. Keep some of the restaurants for the same reason and to allow the customers the feeling that they're white knights feeding the poor starving third world by taking their hooker for food, "You eat McDonalds before? In America we like much much. Very aroy mak."

They'd have to fill in the shallow pool on the ground floor or there'd be a drunken idiot managing to drown in its 3 inches of water every night

The layout is actually well suited to it with lots of shop spaces in the dark at the back and invisible from the street where some of the more risque shows could be done. Its so well suited, you might be suspicious that the developer had that as a back up plan from the get go

The food is probably OK, but the photos don’t give me any inspirations to visit these cafes. As with the new Piggy`s fish and Chip cafe, why do all these places look like lock up garages?

Because renting a shop house is WAY cheaper than renting any other kind of building and all shophouses have the same layout. With business tight you need to save money where you can and rent is a pretty big hit every month.

Even in the city you can find shophouses for under 10k a month. There's no way you can find a stand alone building for that price, or anywhere near.

Its like a serial killer protesting the death penalty